Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneity Among Alveolar Macrophages in Humoral and Cell‐Mediated Immune Responses: Separation of Functional Subpopulations by Density Gradient Centrifugation on Percoll

Rabbit alveolar macrophages (AM) were separated into four subpopulations by centrifugation on discontinuous density gradients of Percoll. The subpopulations were compared to unseparated AM populations for their ability to provide accessory function to adherent cell‐depleted splenocytes for antigen‐stimulated lymphoproliferation and for the production of lymphokine. They were also tested for their ability to modulate in vitro plaque‐forming (PFC) responses. AM subpopulations that provided accessory function for the production of migration inhibitory factor (MIF)‐containing culture supernantants were recovered from the least dense fractions of the Percoll gradients. These cells were cytochemically characterized as mature cells. AM that suppressed the in vitro PFC response and augmented the antigen‐stimulated lymphoproliferative response to the greatest degree were recovered from the most dense fractions of the Percoll gradients and were characterized as immature cells. These results suggest that there are distinct subpopulatins of AM, the function of which may represent different stages of maturation (or differentiation).
Comparison of procedural sequences in same‐day bidirectional endoscopy without benzodiazepine and propofol sedation: starting at the bottom or the top

Background and Study Aims: Same‐day bidirectional endoscopy including esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and colonoscopy is routinely performed to evaluate anemia and gastrointestinal bleeding, as well as to conduct cancer surveillance. Numerous questions have been raised regarding the most appropriate procedural sequence and the resulting potential procedure interactions. We compared the quality and feasibility of performing EGD and colonoscopy without sedation in patients subjected to EGD‐colonoscopy (Group I) or colonoscopy‐EGD (Group II) sequences.
A new nested neutral point clamped (NNPC) converter for medium-voltage (MV) power conversion

In this paper, a new Voltage Source Converter (VSC) for Medium Voltage (MV) applications is presented which can operate over a wide range of voltages (2.4kV-7.2KV) without the need for connecting power semiconductor in series. The operation of the proposed converter is studied and analysed. In order to control the proposed converter, a Space Vector Modulation (SVM) strategy which benefits from the switching state redundancy has been used. This strategy helps to control the output voltage and stabilize voltages of the flying capacitors in the proposed converter. Performance of the converter under different operating conditions is investigated in the MATLAB/Simulink environment.
Biochemical fingerprints of prion diseases: scrapie prion protein in human prion diseases that share prion genotype and type

The phenotype of human prion diseases is influenced by the prion protein (PrP) genotype as determined by the methionine (M)/valine (V) polymorphism at codon 129, the scrapie PrP (PrPSc) type and the etiology. To gain further insight into the mechanisms of phenotype determination, we compared two‐dimensional immunoblot profiles of detergent insoluble and proteinase K‐resistant PrP species in a type of sporadic Creutzfeldt‐Jakob disease (sCJDMM2), variant CJD (vCJD) and sporadic fatal insomnia (sFI). Full‐length and truncated PrP forms present in the insoluble fractions were also separately analyzed. These three diseases were selected because they have the same M/M PrP genotype at codon 129 and the same type 2 PrPSc, but different etiologies, also sCJDMM2 and sFI are sporadic, whereas vCJD is acquired by infection. We observed minor differences in the PrP detergent‐insoluble fractions between sCJDMM2 and vCJD, although both differ in the corresponding fractions from sFI. We detected more substantial heterogeneity between sCJDMM2 and vCJD in the two‐dimensional blots of the proteinase K‐resistant PrP fraction suggesting that different PrP species are selected for conversion to proteinase K‐resistant PrP in sCJDMM2 and vCJD. These differences are mostly, but not exclusively, due to variations in the type of the N‐linked glycans. We also show that the over‐representation of the highly glycosylated forms distinctive of the proteinase K‐resistant PrPSc of vCJD in one‐dimensional blots is due to differences in both the amount and the natures of the glycans. Overall, these findings underline the complexity of phenotypic determination in human prion diseases.
Recurrent falls and mortality in Parkinson’s disease: a prospective two‐year follow‐up study

Matinolli M, Korpelainen JT, Sotaniemi KA, Myllylä VV, Korpelainen R. Recurrent falls and mortality in Parkinson’s disease: a prospective two‐year follow‐up study. Acta Neurol Scand: 2011: 123: 193–200. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Structural elucidation of disinfection by-products in treated drinking water.

Two unusual disinfection by-products have been detected periodically in the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) characterization analyses of semi-volatile organics in treated drinking water. The electron ionization (EI) mass spectra contained mono-chlorinated and mono-brominated ions at m/z 107/109 and 151/153, respectively. Library searching techniques suggested mono-halogenated butanol structures but no matches could be found. Positive ion chemical ionization (CI) spectra contained mono-chlorinated and mono-brominated ions at m/z 105/107 and 149/151, respectively. No [M + H]+ ions were initially observed. Accurate mass measurements confirmed the empirical formulae for the significant ions in the EI spectra and the mono-halogenated butanol structures. Further CI experiments with other reagent gases and instruments revealed possible molecular weights of 139 and 183 Da, respectively. Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) experiments in EI and CI were used to elucidate the fragmentation schemes. The two compounds have been tentatively identified as 1-aminoxy-1-chlorobutan-2-ol and 1-aminoxy-1-bromobutan-2-ol, respectively.
Dynamics of the reading process of a quantum memory

The mechanism of extraction of information stored in a quantum memory is studied here in detail. We consider memories containing a single excitation of a collective atomic state, which is mapped into a single photon during the reading process. A theory is developed for the wavepacket of the extracted photon, leading to a simple analytical expression depending on the key parameters of the problem, like detuning and the intensity of the read field and the number of atoms in the atomic ensemble. This theory is then compared to a large set of experimental situations and a satisfactory quantitative agreement is obtained. In this way, we are able to systematically study the saturation and spectrum of the reading process, as well as clarifying the role of superradiance in the system.
Building Collaboration Between Library and Information Science Educators and Practitioners in Thailand : Transcending Barriers, Creating Opportunities

213 — Building collaboration between LIS educators and practitioners in developing countries: transcending barriers, creating opportunities — LIS Education in Developing Countries Special Interest Group Abstract: Collaboration between library and information science educators and practitioners, specifically faculty and librarians, has been seen as a strategic activity in the management of library and information science education programs and library and information services. This paper reviews the needs for collaboration through collaborative partnership in offering library and information science educational programs and in providing library and information services as well as practices and barriers in these areas. Collaborative partnerships between LIS faculty and academic librarians in Thailand are discussed in light of the experience of Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU). Strategies for successful collaboration in library and information science are proposed, looking forward on creating opportunities to build successful collaboration to furthur professional development and new ways of collaborative work for both LIS faculty and librarians.
Effects of binge ethanol exposure during first-trimester equivalent on corticothalamic neurons in Swiss Webster outbred mice

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders range in severity depending on the amount, timing, and frequency of alcohol exposure. Regardless of severity, sensorimotor defects are commonly reported. Sensorimotor information travels through three tracts of the internal capsule: thalamocortical axons, corticothalamic axons, and corticospinal axons. Here we describe the effects of binge ethanol exposure during the first-trimester equivalent on corticothalamic neurons using Swiss Webster mice. We injected pregnant mice with ethanol (2.9 g/kg, intraperitoneal, followed by 1.45 g/kg, intraperitoneal, 2 h later) on embryonic days (E) 11.5, 12.5, and 13.5. Our paradigm resulted in a mean maternal blood ethanol content of 294.8±15.4 mg/dl on E12.5 and 258.3±22.2 mg/dl on E13.5. Control dams were injected with an equivalent volume of PBS. Bromodeoxyuridine birthdating was carried out on E11.5 to label S-phase neurons. The days of injection were chosen because they are at the onset of neurogenesis and axon extension for corticothalamic, thalamocortical, and corticospinal neurons. Ethanol-exposed pups exhibited no differences compared with controls on day of birth in litter size, body weight, or brain weight. Corticothalamic neurons labeled with bromodeoxyuridine and T-box brain 1 were located in the deep layers of the cortex and did not differ in number in both groups. These results contrast several studies demonstrating alcohol-related differences in these parameters using chronic ethanol exposure paradigms and inbred mouse strains. Therefore, our findings highlight the importance of expanding the mouse strains used to model fetal alcohol spectrum disorder to enhance our understanding of its complex etiology.
Experiences of orphan care in Amach, Uganda: assessing policy implications

Uganda is estimated to have around two million orphans constituting approximately 19% of all the children in the country. This paper presents findings from a study on the experiences of orphan care among Langi people of Amach sub-county in Lira District, northern Uganda, and discusses their policy implications. The study utilised the following methods in data collection: eight months of ethnographic fieldwork; 21 in-depth interviews with community leaders; 45 with heads of households caring for orphans; 35 with orphans; and five focus group discussions. The findings revealed that the Langi people have an inherently problematic orphan concept, which contribute toward discriminatory attitudes and practices against orphans. The clan based decision-making to care for orphans, the category of kin a particular orphan ends up living with, the sex and age of the orphan, as well as the cessation of the ‘widow-inheritance’ custom emerged as prominent factors which impact on orphan care. Thus there is the need to draw upon such local knowledge in policy making and intervention planning for orphans. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential approaches to alleviating the current orphan challenges among the Langi people.
QPF: efficient quadratic placement for FPGAs

In this paper we present QPF, a quadratic placement tool for FPGAs. Quadratic placement algorithms try to minimize total squared wire length by solving linear equations. The resulting placement tends to locate all cells near the center of the chip with a large amount of overlap. Also, since squared wire length is only an indirect measure of linear wire length, the resulting total wire length may not be minimized. We propose methods to alleviate the above two problems that give high quality results while minimizing the total run time. We incorporate multiple iterations of equation solving process together with a technique for pulling nodes out of the dense area while minimizing linear wire length. Experimental results using twenty MCNC benchmark circuits show that, on average, QPF is 5.8 times faster compared to a well known FPGA placement tool VPR, while providing almost comparable estimated total wire length.
Site‐specific insertion of gene cassettes into integrons

Site‐specific insertion of gene cassettes into the insert region of integrons has been demonstrated. Insertion was only observed if the integron DNA integrase was expressed in the recipient cell and if the cassette DNA was ligated prior to transformation. The essential ligation products were resistant to treatment with exonuclease III, indicating that they were closed circular molecules. Insertion of cassettes into integron fragments containing either no insert (one recombination site), or one gene cassette (two recombination sites), was demonstrated. In the latter case, insertion occurred predominantly at the core site located 5′ to the resident cassette, which corresponds to the only site available when no insert is present in the recipient. When DNA molecules including two gene cassettes were used, insertion of only one of the gene cassettes was generally observed, suggesting that resolution of the circular molecule to generate two independent circular cassettes occurred more rapidly than insertion into the recipient integron.
Stimulating people with dementia to reminisce using personal and generic photographs

Reminiscing is a positive pastime for people with dementia but little is known about selecting materials to prompt reminiscing, particularly whether personal items are more useful than generic ones. This paper reports two small studies, the first using personal stimuli (family photographs) and the second generic photographs of annual events to examine their relative effectiveness as reminiscence prompts for people with dementia. Story telling and the types of information people with dementia produced in response to the photographs are examined. In response to family photographs, people with dementia told very few stories and produced quite limited information. When shown generic photographs, people with dementia produced quite detailed and emotional stories of personal significance. The findings suggest that personal items perform as a memory test for labels and descriptions of family events whereas generic items spark off different recollections in different people, thereby encouraging the sharing of stories and social reminiscing.
The experiences of family carers in the delivery of invasive clinical interventions for young people with complex intellectual disabilities: policy disconnect or policy opportunity?

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To explore the experiences of family carers in the delivery of invasive clinical interventions within community settings. BACKGROUND Many young people with intellectual disabilities present with complex health needs and require clinical interventions to sustain life. As the population lives into older age there is growing demand for the delivery of these interventions within the community setting. DESIGN An interpretivist qualitative design. METHODS Ten family carers of children with intellectual disabilities and complex care needs requiring invasive clinical interventions participated in semi-structured interviews. RESULTS There are barriers identified regarding the delivery of invasive clinical interventions in the home setting by social care support workers. These include a reluctance to carry out invasive clinical interventions both for family carers and staff, anxiety, a lack of knowledge and training and difficulties in recruiting appropriate staff. CONCLUSIONS There needs to be strategic policy developments focusing on this population who are cared for in the community and require invasive clinical interventions. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Registered Nurses have a key role in educating and preparing families and social care support workers to safely deliver invasive clinical interventions in community settings for both children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
Localized vascular regression during limb morphogenesis in the chicken embryo. I. Spatial and temporal changes in the vascular pattern

Morphogenesis of the vertebrate limb bud depends upon reciprocal interactions between epithelial and mesenchymal tissues. A characteristic limb vascular pattern is essential for normal limb outgrowth. The vascular pattern in the distal portion of the wing bud was examined by ink injection and compared to the sites of cartilage differentiation, as indicated by [35S]‐incorporation.
A Practical Study on Geographic Semantic Web Services Based on OWL-S

With the development of Semantic Web technology, the Geographic service based on OWL-S is an effective way for sharing and interoperation of heterogeneous information resources in the distributed network environment. This paper focuses on how to dynamic find, bind and invoke Geographic web services by Ontology Web Language for Services (OWL-S). The development of an OWL-S based web service is time consuming and error prone. The main reason is the lack of a integrated development environment. So, we build an integrated developing environment of Geographic semantic web services by using existing tools. This IDE can assist developers to develop Geographic semantic web services. In order to realize the applications of Geographic semantic web services in OWL-S IDE, an experimental system has been developed. In the system we generate Geographic Ontology and develop, publish, bind, find and invoke web services in distributed network.
In vitro and in silico analysis of the Aspergillus nidulans DNA–CreA repressor interactions

The CreA protein mediates carbon catabolite repression in the fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Its DNA-binding domain belongs to the Cys2-His2 class, binding specifically to a 5′ SYGGRG 3′ nucleotide sequence. EMSA experiments showed that the CreA(G27D) mutation resulted in a 30-fold increase of the Kdiss, and footprinting revealed a altered pattern of protein/DNA contacts. We modeled the CreA and the CreA(G27D) complexes in silico. A 15 ns molecular dynamics simulation of the solvated CreA(G27D) and CreA models was carried out using the MOE 2007.09 suite and the Amber99 force field. We have focused our analysis in residues Arg14, Glu16, His17, and Arg20 and Arg44, Asp46, and Arg50, previously, shown to be responsible for the specific contacts of the two Zn fingers. The electrostatic and the total potential energies showed the CreA(G27D) mutation to decrease the affinity of the complex, in agreement with the Kdiss′s values. The in silico approach highlighted the role of the inter-finger linker. We identified several differential structural characteristics of the CreA and CreA(G27D)/DNA complexes and observed that the latter resulted in a lower dynamic flexibility of the complex.
Bampouras, Theodoros and Dewhurst, Susan (2016) Carrying shopping bags does not alter static postural stability and gait parameters in healthy older females. Gait

Food shopping is an important aspect of maintaining independence and social interaction in older age. Carriage of shopping bags alters the body’s weight distribution which, depending on load distribution, could potentially increase instability during standing and walking. The study examined the effect of carrying UK style shopping bags on static postural stability and gait in healthy older and young females. Nine older (71.0±6.0 years) and 10 young (26.7±5.2 years) females were assessed in five conditions carrying no bags, one 1.5kg bag in each hand, one 3kg bag in each hand, one 1.5kg bag in preferred hand, one 3kg bag in preferred hand. Antero-posterior and medio-lateral displacement, and 95% ellipse area from a 30s quiet standing were used for postural stability assessment. Stride length and its coefficient of variation, total double support time, step asymmetry and gait stability ratio were calculated from one minute treadmill walking at self-selected speed for gait assessment. Carrying shopping bags did not negatively affect postural stability or gait variables, in either group. Further, in older individuals, a decrease in sway velocity was found when holding bags during the postural stability assessment ( p <0.05), suggesting that carriage of bags, irrespective of the load distribution, may have a stabilising effect during quiet standing. These results should help to alleviate concerns regarding safety of carrying shopping bags and help encourage shopping, both as a social and as a physical activity.
The use of graphs as decision aids in relation to information overload and managerial decision quality

Nowadays, people with limited information processing capability are unable to cope with an exponentially increasing amount of information, leading to a phenomenon called information overload. This phenomenon has widely been recognized to have adverse effects on decision quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using graphs as decision aids to reduce the adverse effects of information overload on decision quality. The results obtained from an experiment simulating a real business prediction task with a sample of business managers indicated that prediction accuracy deteriorated under information overload. However, the mode of presentation format alone did not have any significant impact on prediction accuracy; nor did the interactions of information load and the mode of presentation format. The implications of these results are discussed.
Molecular Profiles of Contrasting Shade Response Strategies in Wild Plants: Differential Control of Immunity and Shoot Elongation[OPEN]

Geranium species from different habitats show contrasting molecular patterns and physiological responses to phytochome-mediated detection of neighbor cues. Plants growing at high densities elongate their shoots to reach for light, a response known as the shade avoidance syndrome (SAS). Phytochrome-mediated detection of far-red light reflection from neighboring plants activates growth-promoting molecular pathways leading to SAS. However, it is unknown how plants that complete their life cycle in the forest understory and are shade tolerant prevent SAS when exposed to shade. Here, we show how two wild Geranium species from different native light environments regulate contrasting responses to light quality cues. A comparative RNA sequencing approach unveiled the molecular underpinnings of their contrasting growth responses to far-red light enrichment. It also identified differential phytochrome control of plant immunity genes and confirmed that far-red enrichment indeed contrastingly affects resistance against Botrytis cinerea between the two species. Furthermore, we identify a number of candidate regulators of differential shade avoidance. Three of these, the receptor-like kinases FERONIA and THESEUS1 and the non-DNA binding bHLH protein KIDARI, are functionally validated in Arabidopsis thaliana through gene knockout and/or overexpression studies. We propose that these components may be associated with either showing or not showing shade avoidance responses.