Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Big Response to a “Small” Problem: Identifying the Oxidative Potential of Nanomaterials and the Physicochemical Characteristics That Play a Role

A Big Response to a “Small” Problem: Identifying the Oxidative Potential of Nanoparticles and the Physicochemical Characteristics That Play a Role. (December 2011) James Michael Berg, B.S., Baylor University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Christie M. Sayes Nanotechnology as a science is emerging rapidly. As materials are synthesized and utilized at the nanometer size scale, concerns of potential health and safety effects are arising. In this work, an effort to elucidate the physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles influential in toxicological studies, surface properties of metal oxide and carbonaceous nanoparticles are measured. These properties include zeta potential, dissolution and surface-bound chemical components. Subsequently, the role of these properties in oxidative stress is examined in vitro. This work identifies the influence that pH has on the zeta potential of nanoparticles. The zeta potential has the ability to alter colloidal stability, as the largest nanoparticle agglomerate is seen at or near the isoelectric point for each of the particles tested. Furthermore, it is observed that metal oxide nanoparticles, which exhibit a charged surface at physiological pH, lead to decreased in vitro cellular viability as compared to those that were neutral. Thus, nanoparticle zeta potential may be an important factor to consider when attempting to predict nanoparticle toxicity.
Monitoring T-Cell Responses in Translational Studies: Optimization of Dye-Based Proliferation Assay for Evaluation of Antigen-Specific Responses

Adoptive therapy with regulatory T cells or tolerance-inducing antigen (Ag)-presenting cells is innovative and promising therapeutic approach to control undesired and harmful activation of the immune system, as observed in autoimmune diseases, solid organ and bone marrow transplantation. One of the critical issues to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for success or failure of these therapies and define the specificity of the therapy is the evaluation of the Ag-specific T-cell responses. Several efforts have been made to develop suitable and reproducible assays. Here, we focus on dye-based proliferation assays. We highlight with practical examples the fundamental issues to take into consideration for implementation of an effective and sensitive dye-based proliferation assay to monitor Ag-specific responses in patients. The most critical points were used to design a road map to set up and analyze the optimal assay to assess Ag-specific T-cell responses in patients undergoing different treatments. This is the first step to optimize monitoring of tolerance induction, allowing comparison of outcomes of different clinical studies. The road map can also be applied to other therapeutic interventions, not limited to tolerance induction therapies, in which Ag-specific T-cell responses are relevant such as vaccination approaches and cancer immunotherapy.
Sodium bisulfite pyrosequencing revealed that developmental exposure to environmental contaminant mixtures does not affect DNA methylation of DNA repeats in Sprague-Dawley rats

ABSTRACT Hypomethylation of DNA repeats has been linked to diseases and cancer predisposition. Human studies suggest that higher blood concentrations of environmental contaminants (EC) correlate with levels of hypomethylation of DNA repeats in blood. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of in utero and/or lactational exposure to EC on the methylation of DNA repeats (LINE-1 and identifier element) in Sprague-Dawley rat pups at birth, at postnatal day (PND) 21, and in adulthood (PND78–86). From gestation day 0 to PND20, dams were exposed to a mixture “M” of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), pesticides, and methylmercury (MeHg), at 0.5 or 1 mg/kg/d (0.5M and M). At birth, some control (C) and M litters were cross-fostered to create the following in utero/postnatal exposure groups: C/C, M/C, C/M, M/M. Additional dams received 1.8 ng/kg/d of a mixture of aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonists (non-ortho-PCB, PC-dibenzodioxins, and PC-dibenzofurans) without or with 0.5M (0.5MAhR). Measurements of EC residue levels confirmed differences in their accumulation across treatments, age, and tissues. Although induction of hepatic detoxification enzyme activities (cytochrome P-450) demonstrated biological effects of treatments, the assessment of methylation in DNA repeats by sodium bisulfite pyrosequencing of liver, spleen, and thymus samples revealed no marked treatment-related effects but significant tissue- and age-related methylation differences. Further studies are required to determine whether absence of significant observable treatment effects on methylation of DNA repeats in the rat relate to tissue, strain, or species differences.
Drying Affects the Fiber Network in Low Molecular Weight Hydrogels

Low molecular weight gels are formed by the self-assembly of a suitable small molecule gelator into a three-dimensional network of fibrous structures. The gel properties are determined by the fiber structures, the number and type of cross-links and the distribution of the fibers and cross-links in space. Probing these structures and cross-links is difficult. Many reports rely on microscopy of dried gels (xerogels), where the solvent is removed prior to imaging. The assumption is made that this has little effect on the structures, but it is not clear that this assumption is always (or ever) valid. Here, we use small angle neutron scattering (SANS) to probe low molecular weight hydrogels formed by the self-assembly of dipeptides. We compare scattering data for wet and dried gels, as well as following the drying process. We show that the assumption that drying does not affect the network is not always correct.
Ordered Mesoporous Silica Materials in Liquid Chromatography: Synthesis and Application

This research work describes the synthesis and application of ordered mesoporous silica materials in liquid chromatography. For this purpose spherical particles and thick layers were developed. In a first part the synthesis and the particle properties were investigated. Spray drying was used as a fast technique to produce sufficient quantities of spherical ordered mesoporous particles. After the proces was optimized adequate amounts of both an organosilica and a pure silica material were packed and chromatographically evaluated. The ordered porosity as it seems has a profound influence on the retention of analytes as it more than triples. The second and final part describes the synthesis of a thick layer on the inner lining of a fused silica capillary. This open tubular column was evaluated in capillary electro chromatography where various mixtures were succesfully base separated.
Impact of the addition of different plant residues on nitrogen mineralization-immobilization turnover and carbon content of a soil incubated under laboratory conditions

Abstract. Application of plant residues as soil amendment may represent a valuable recycling strategy that affects carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in soil–plant systems. The amount and rate of nutrient release from plant residues depend on their quality characteristics and biochemical composition. A laboratory incubation experiment was conducted for 120 days under controlled conditions (25 °C and 58% water-filled pore space) to quantify initial biochemical composition and N mineralization of leguminous and non-leguminous plant residues, i.e., the roots, shoots and leaves of Glycine max, Trifolium repens, Zea mays, Populus euramericana, Robinia pseudoacacia and Elaeagnus umbellata, incorporated into the soil at the rate of 200 mg residue N kg−1 soil. The diverse plant residues showed a wide variation in total N, C, lignin, polyphenols and C / N ratio with higher polyphenol content in the leaves and higher lignin content in the roots. The shoot of Glycine max and the shoot and root of Trifolium repens displayed continuous mineralization by releasing a maximum of 109.8, 74.8 and 72.5 mg N kg−1 and representing a 55, 37 and 36% recovery of N that had been released from these added resources. The roots of Glycine max and Zea mays and the shoot of Zea mays showed continuous negative values throughout the incubation. After an initial immobilization, leaves of Populus euramericana, Robinia pseudoacacia and Elaeagnus umbellata exhibited net mineralization by releasing a maximum of 31.8, 63.1 and 65.1 mg N kg−1, respectively, and representing a 16, 32 and 33% N recovery, respectively. Nitrogen mineralization from all the treatments was positively correlated with the initial residue N contents (r = 0.89; p l 0.01) and negatively correlated with lignin content (r = −0.84; p ≤ 0.01), C / N ratio (r = −0.69; p ≤ 0.05), lignin / N ratio (r = −0.68; p ≤ 0.05), polyphenol / N ratio (r = −0.73; p ≤ 0.05) and (lignin + polyphenol) : N ratio (r = −0.70; p ≤ 0.05) indicating a significant role of residue chemical composition and quality in regulating N transformations and cycling in soil. The present study indicates that incorporation of plant residues strongly modifies the mineralization–immobilization turnover (MIT) of soil that can be taken into account to develop synchronization between net N mineralization and crop demand in order to maximize N delivery and minimize N losses.
Development of nutritional iron deficiency in growing male rats: haematological parameters, iron bioavailability and oxidative defence

Despite Fe deficiency having been widely studied, the sequence of events in its development still remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the effects of nutritional Fe-deficiency development on haematological parameters, Fe bioavailability and the enzymes involved in oxidative defence in recently weaned male Wistar albino rats. Control (C) and Fe-deficient (ID) groups were fed the AIN-93 G diet with a normal Fe level (45 mg/kg diet) or with a low Fe level (5 mg/kg diet), respectively, for 20, 30 or 40 d. At day 20 serum Fe, serum ferritin and the saturation of transferrin decreased drastically, decreasing further in the course of Fe-deficiency development for the saturation of transferrin. The development of Fe deficiency did not affect plasma thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance production, or catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities in erythrocyte cytosol. Fe deficiency diminished hepatic Fe content and CAT and GPx activities in hepatic cytosol only at day the 20. However, in spite of the minor Fe deposits in the brain of ID rats, the CAT and GPx activities in the brain cytosolic fraction did not differ in any of the studied periods v. control rats. These results show that brain is a tissue that does not seem to depend on Fe levels for the maintenance of antioxidant defence mechanisms in the course of nutritional Fe deficiency.
Automatic reference point assignment technique for voice morphing

In this study, a method for determining the reference points in the time and frequency domains for voice morphing is proposed. Many studies have considered voice morphing out of which many methods require manual determination of the reference points. In this study, we automatically determine the reference points via modified restricted temporal decomposition and a line spectral frequency. The evaluation results show that the proposed method is effective for assigning reference points. This method also works well for voice morphing between two speakers.
Effects of microRNA‐133b on retinal vascular endothelial cell proliferation and apoptosis through angiotensinogen‐mediated angiotensin II‐ extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1/2 signalling pathway in rats with diabetic retinopathy

This study aimed to explore the effects of microRNA‐133b (miR‐133b) on diabetic retinopathy (DR) by targeting angiotensinogen (AGT) through the angiotensin‐II (AngII) extracellular signal‐regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) signalling pathway in rats.
A 0.7 V, 2.7 μW, 12.9 ppm/° C over 180° C CMOS subthreshold voltage reference

An all‐CMOS, low‐power, wide‐temperature‐range, curvature‐compensated voltage reference is presented. The proposed topology achieves a measured temperature coefficient of 12.9 ppm/°C for a wide temperature range of 180°C ( − 60 to 120°C) at a bias voltage of 0.7 V while consuming a mere 2.7 μW. The high‐order curvature compensation, which leads to a low‐temperature sensitivity of the reference voltage, is performed using a new, simple, but efficient methodology. The non‐linearities of an N‐type metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (NMOS) device operated in subthreshold are combined with the non‐linearities of two different kinds of polysilicon resistors, leading to the improved performance. The extended temperature range of this voltage reference gives it an important competitive advantage, especially at lower temperatures, where prior art designs' performance deteriorate abruptly. In addition, it utilizes an innovative trimming methodology whereby two trimmable resistors enable the tuning of both the overall slope and non‐linearities of the temperature sensitivity. The design was fabricated using TowerJazz Semiconductor's CMOS 0.18 μm technology, without using diodes or any external components such as compensating capacitors. It has an area of 0.023 mm2 and is suitable for high‐performance power‐aware applications as well as applications operating in extreme temperatures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Verification of FPGA-augmented trusted computing mechanisms based on Applied Pi Calculus

Trusted computing technologies may play a key role for cloud security as they enable users to relax the trustworthiness assumptions about the provider that operates the physical cloud infrastructure. This work focuses on the possibility of embodying Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices in cloud-based infrastructures, where they can bene t computeintensive workloads like data compression, machine learning, data encoding, etc. The focus is on the implications for cloud applications with security requirements. We introduce a general architecture model of a CPU+FPGA platform pinpointing key roles and speci c assumptions that are relevant for the trusted computing mechanisms and the associated security properties. In addition, we formally veri ed the proposed solution based on Applied Pi Calculus, a descendant of Pi Calculus, that introduces constructs allowing the symbolic description of cryptographic primitives. The veri cation phase was automated by means of ProVerif, a tool taking as input a model expressed in Applied Pi Calculus along with some queries and annotations that de ne security properties to be proved or denied. The results of the analysis con rmed that the properties de ned in our work hold under the Dolev Yao attacker model.
Ownership control and debt maturity structure: evidence from China

Purpose - – The authors examine the debt maturity structure of Chinese listed companies during the period when bond market was under-developed and the majority of commercial banks were owned by the state. The purpose of this paper is to answer why and how the different ownership control types impact the firms’ preference and accessibility to either long- or short-term debts. Design/methodology/approach - – The univariate analysis was used to test the differences of debt maturity choices for firms grouped by ownership control types, profitability and institutional development. Then, logit regression and ordinary least squares regression were applied to examine the determinants of ownership control types in debt maturity structures. Findings - – Compared to privately controlled firms, state-owned enterprises had greater access to long-term debt and used less short-term debt during the sample period. Evidences also indicate that the on-going financial reform has increased the motivation of banks to consider company profitability in their lending decisions. However, state-owned banks still discriminate private firms in allocation of financial resources, particular in less-developed regions. Research limitations/implications - – Due to the research scope and data limitations, the authors cannot take some factors into consideration, such as collateral, guarantee, credit ranking, financing agreement and leasing obligation. Originality/value - – This study extends the existing literature in three ways. First, the authors investigate the bank discrimination problem into the loan term structure. Second, the authors recognise the effect of financial reform on alleviation in bank discrimination problem. Finally, the authors take the consideration of institutional development of firms’ location areas in their analyses.
Hydro-Mechanical Coupling in Damaged Porous Media Containing Isolated Cracks or/and Vugs: Model and Computations

In this paper we present the development of the macroscopic model describing the hydro-mechanical coupling of damaged porous media containing cracks or/and vugs, by using the asymptotic expansion method. The analysis starts at the mesoscopic scale at which we assume a generic microstructure and the validity of the Biot model in the micro-porous domain saturated by a fluid. In the crack/vug domain the Stokes equation is assumed. After estimation of orders of magnitude of different terms, the description is rendered non-dimensional and the homogenization process is carried out. It leads to an extended Biot model that possesses the same mathematical structure as the initial Biot model. However, the macroscopic poro-elasticity and the macroscopic Darcy conductivity are modified. In order to illustrate the performance of the model, numerical computations of a macroscopic boundary value problem were performed. The results show practical importance of modifications introduced in the Biot model.
Does Online Word of Mouth Increase Demand? (And How?) Evidence from a Natural Experiment

We leverage a temporary block of the Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo due to political events, to estimate the causal effect of online word-of-mouth content on product demand in the context of TV show viewership. Based on this source of exogenous variation, we estimate an elasticity of TV show ratings (market share in terms of viewership) with respect to the number of relevant comments (comments were disabled during the block) of 0.016. In terms of the behavioral mechanism, we find more post-show microblogging activity increases demand, whereas comments posted prior to the show airing do not affect viewership. These patterns are inconsistent with informative or persuasive advertising effects and suggest a complementarity between TV consumption and anticipated post-show microblogging activity.
Experiences of Public Doctors on Managing Work Difficulties and Maintaining Professional Enthusiasm in Acute General Hospitals: A Qualitative Study

Background Overseas studies suggest that 10–20% of doctors are depressed, 30–45% have burnout, and many report dissatisfaction with work-life balance. A local study on public doctors showed that 31.4% of the respondents satisfied the criteria for high burnout. Young, but moderately experienced doctors who need to work shifts appeared most vulnerable. This study aims to explore the experiences of those public doctors who have managed their work difficulties and maintained professional enthusiasm for references in medical education and continuing professional training. Method Ten public doctors with reputation were invited respectively from three acute general hospitals for an in-depth interview. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Content analysis was carried out to identify major themes in relation to the research questions. Results Three themes emerging from difficulties encountered were (1) managing people, mostly are patients, followed by colleagues and then patients’ relatives; (2) constraints at work, include time and resources; and (3) managing self with decision-making within a short time. Three themes generating from managing work difficulties included (1) self-adjustment with practicing problem solving and learning good communication appeared more frequently, followed by maintaining a professional attitude and accumulating clinical experiences; (2) seeking help from others; and (3) organizational support is also a theme though it is the least mentioned. Four themes emerging from maintaining work enthusiasm were (1) personal conviction and discipline: believing that they are helping the needy, having the sense of vocation and support from religion; disciplining oneself by continuing education, maintaining harmonious family relationship and volunteer work. (2) Challenging work: different challenging natures of their job. (3) Positive feedback from patients: positive encounters with patients keep a connectedness with their clients. (4) Organization support: working with good colleagues and opportunity for continuous training. Conclusion Some implications for medical education include, developing good communication skill for medical students and junior doctors, preparing senior doctors to be mentors, and exploring the motivating force of spirituality/religion.
p62 filaments capture and present ubiquitinated cargos for autophagy

The removal of misfolded, ubiquitinated proteins is an essential part of the protein quality control. The ubiquitin‐proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy are two interconnected pathways that mediate the degradation of such proteins. During autophagy, ubiquitinated proteins are clustered in a p62‐dependent manner and are subsequently engulfed by autophagosomes. However, the nature of the protein substrates targeted for autophagy is unclear. Here, we developed a reconstituted system using purified components and show that p62 and ubiquitinated proteins spontaneously coalesce into larger clusters. Efficient cluster formation requires substrates modified with at least two ubiquitin chains longer than three moieties and is based on p62 filaments cross‐linked by the substrates. The reaction is inhibited by free ubiquitin, K48‐, and K63‐linked ubiquitin chains, as well as by the autophagosomal marker LC3B, suggesting a tight cross talk with general proteostasis and autophagosome formation. Our study provides mechanistic insights on how substrates are channeled into autophagy.