Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The nanny in the United States : a search for professional recognition.

THE NANNY IN THE UNITED STATES: A SEARCH FOR PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION PATRICK J. KEARNEY, B. A. , UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS M.A., AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE Ed.D. , UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Professor William C. Wolf, Jr. The study investigated the perceptions and practices of nanny training school officials, employed nannies and nanny employers in New England, New York, and New Jersey. It was specifically focused on whether the training received is sufficient for the jobs the nannies perform and the responsibilities they are given. Additionally, it examined the issue of "professionalism” within the nanny industry. The study was based upon an ex post facto research methodology and involved both quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry. Data collection was accomplished through mailed questionnaires and in-person interviews. As a result of the research, it was discovered that: 1. While most nanny schools are affiliated with community colleges, no degrees nor college credits are awarded. 2. There was a major discrepancy between the number of classroom hours said to be "required" for graduation and those which could be accounted for by nanny school officials.
Environmental decomposition of olefinic cuticular hydrocarbons of Periplaneta americana generates a volatile pheromone that guides social behaviour

Once emitted, semiochemicals are exposed to reactive environmental factors that may alter them, thus disrupting chemical communication. Some species, however, might have adapted to detect environmentally mediated breakdown products of their natural chemicals as semiochemicals. We demonstrate that air, water vapour and ultraviolet (UV) radiation break down unsaturated cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) of Periplaneta americana (American cockroach), resulting in the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In behavioural assays, nymphs strongly avoided aggregating in shelters exposed to the breakdown VOCs from cuticular alkenes. The three treatments (air, water vapour, UV) produced the same VOCs, but at different time-courses and ratios. Fourteen VOCs from UV-exposed CHCs elicited electrophysiological responses in nymph antennae; 10 were identified as 2-nonanone, 1-pentanol, 1-octanol, 1-nonanol, tetradecanal, acetic acid, propanoic acid, butanoic acid, pentanoic acid and hexanoic acid. When short-chain fatty acids were tested as a mix and a blend of the alcohols and aldehyde was tested as a second mix, nymphs exhibited no preference for control or treated shelters. However, nymphs avoided shelters that were exposed to VOCs from the complete 10-compound mix. Conditioned shelters (occupied by cockroaches with faeces and CHCs deposited on the shelters), which are normally highly attractive to nymphs, were also avoided after UV exposure, confirming that breakdown products from deposited metabolites, including CHCs, mediate this behaviour. Our results demonstrate that common environmental agents degrade CHCs into behaviourally active volatile compounds that potentially may serve as necromones or epideictic pheromones, mediating group dissolution.
Utilization of metakaolin-based geopolymer as a mud-cake solidification agent to enhance the bonding strength of oil well cement–formation interface

This research work designed a novel mud-cake solidification method to improve the zonal isolation of oil and gas wells. The calculation methodology of mud-cake compressive strength was proposed. The optimal formula of activator and solid precursors, the proper activating time and the best activator concentration were determined by the compressive strength test. The effects of solid precursors on the properties of drilling fluid were evaluated. Test results show that the respective percentage of bentonite, metakaolin, slag and activator is 1 : 1 : 0.3 : 0.8, as well as the optimum ratio of Na2SiO3/NaOH is 40 : 1. The optimum concentration of activator is 0.21 and the activating time should be more than 10 min. The solid precursors did not show any bad influence on the rheological property of drilling fluids. Even though the compressive strength decreased when the solid precursors blended with barite, the strength values can still achieve 8 MPa. The reaction of metakaolin and activator formed cross-link structure in the mud-cake matrix, which enhanced the connection of the loose bentonite particles, lead to the significant enhancement of shear bonding strength and hydraulic bonding strength. This mud-cake solidification method provides a new approach to improve the quality of zonal isolation.
Adapted dandelions trade dispersal for germination upon root herbivore attack

A plant's offspring may escape unfavourable local conditions through seed dispersal. Whether plants use this strategy to escape insect herbivores is not well understood. Here, we explore how different dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg.) populations, including diploid outcrossers and triploid apomicts, modify seed dispersal in response to root herbivore attack by their main root-feeding natural enemy, the larvae of the common cockchafer Melolontha melolontha. In a manipulative field experiment, root herbivore attack increased seed dispersal potential through a reduction in seed weight in populations that evolved under high root herbivore pressure, but not in populations that evolved under low pressure. This increase in dispersal potential was independent of plant cytotype, but associated with a reduction in germination rate, suggesting that adapted dandelions trade dispersal for establishment upon attack by root herbivores. Analysis of vegetative growth parameters suggested that the increased dispersal capacity was not the result of stress flowering. In summary, these results suggest that root herbivory selects for an induced increase in dispersal ability in response to herbivore attack. Induced seed dispersal may be a strategy that allows adapted plants to escape from herbivores.
O3-Induced Priming Defense Associated With the Abscisic Acid Signaling Pathway Enhances Plant Resistance to Bemisia tabaci

Elevated ozone (O3) modulates phytohormone signals, which subsequently alters the interaction between plants and herbivorous insects. It has been reported that elevated O3 activates the plant abscisic acid (ABA) signaling pathway, but its cascading effect on the performance of herbivorous insects remains unclear. Here, we used the ABA-deficient tomato mutant notabilis (not) and its wild type, Ailsa Craig (AC), to determine the role of ABA signaling in mediating the effects of elevated O3 on Bemisia tabaci in field open-top chambers (OTCs). Our results showed that the population abundance and the total phloem-feeding duration of B. tabaci were decreased by O3 exposure in AC plants compared with not plants. Moreover, elevated O3 and B. tabaci infestation activated the ABA signaling pathway and enhanced callose deposition in AC plants but had little effect on those in not plants. The exogenous application of a callose synthesis inhibitor (2-DDG) neutralized O3-induced resistance to B. tabaci, and the application of ABA enhanced callose deposition and exacerbated the negative effects of elevated O3 on B. tabaci. However, the application of 2-DDG counteracted the negative effects of O3 exposure on B. tabaci in ABA-treated AC plants. Collectively, this study revealed that callose deposition, which relied on the ABA signaling pathway, was an effective O3-induced priming defense of tomato plants against B. tabaci infestation.
Deep Learning Over Reduced Intrinsic Domains for Efficient Mechanics of the Left Ventricle

Cardiac mechanics tools can be used to enhance medical diagnosis and treatment, and assessment of risk of cardiovascular diseases. Still, the computational cost to solve cardiac models restricts their use for online applications and routine clinical practice. This work presents a surrogate model obtained by training a set of Siamese networks over a physiological representation of the left ventricle. Our model allows us to modify the geometry, loading conditions, and material properties without needing of retraining. Additionally, we propose the novel concept of intrinsic domain that improves the accuracy of the network predictions by one order of magnitude. The neural networks were trained and tested with numerical predictions from a previously published finite element model of the left ventricle. Different loading conditions, material properties and geometrical definitions of the domain were simulated by the model leading to a dataset of 5, 670 cases. In terms of accuracy and performance, the surrogate model approximates the displacement field of the finite element model with an error of 4.4 ± 2.9% (with respect to the L2-norm of the true displacement field) across all cases while performing computations 62 times faster. Hence, the trained model is capable of computing a passive cardiac filling of the chamber at 10 different time points in just ~0.7 s. These outcomes prove usability of training surrogate models for efficient simulations to facilitate the use of complex mechanical models in clinical practice for therapeutic planning and online diagnosis.
Impaired Airway Epithelial Barrier Integrity in Response to Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Proteases, Novel Insights Using Cystic Fibrosis Bronchial Epithelial Cell Secretomics

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that can chronically colonize the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis (CF) and is associated with lethal pulmonary hemorrhage in immunocompromised patients. Its secreted virulence factors include the extracellular serine proteases StmPR1, StmPR2, and StmPR3. To explore the impact of secreted virulence determinants on pulmonary mucosal defenses in CF, we examined the secretome of human CFBE41o- bronchial epithelial cells in response to treatment with S. maltophilia K279a cell culture supernatant (CS) using a liquid-chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) based label-free quantitative (LFQ) shotgun proteomics approach for global profiling of the cell secretome. Secretome analysis identified upregulated pathways mainly relating to biological adhesion and epithelial cell signaling in infection, whereas no specific pathways relating to the immune response were enriched. Further exploration of the potentially harmful effects of K279a CS on CF bronchial epithelial cells, demonstrated that K279a CS caused CFBE41o- cell condensation and detachment, reversible by the serine protease inhibitor PMSF. K279a CS also decreased trans-epithelial electrical resistance in CFBE41o- cell monolayers suggestive of disruption of tight junction complexes (TJC). This finding was corroborated by an observed increase in fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) dextran permeability and by demonstrating PMSF-sensitive degradation of the tight junction proteins ZO-1 and occludin, but not JAM-A or claudin-1. These observations demonstrating destruction of the CFBE41o- TJC provide a novel insight regarding the virulence of S. maltophilia and may explain the possible injurious effects of this bacterium on the CF bronchial epithelium and the pathogenic mechanism leading to lethal pulmonary hemorrhage.
Glial Cells: Role of the Immune Response in Ischemic Stroke

Ischemic stroke, which accounts for 75–80% of all strokes, is the predominant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The post-stroke immune response has recently emerged as a new breakthrough target in the treatment strategy for ischemic stroke. Glial cells, including microglia, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes, are the primary components of the peri-infarct environment in the central nervous system (CNS) and have been implicated in post-stroke immune regulation. However, increasing evidence suggests that glial cells exert beneficial and detrimental effects during ischemic stroke. Microglia, which survey CNS homeostasis and regulate innate immune responses, are rapidly activated after ischemic stroke. Activated microglia release inflammatory cytokines that induce neuronal tissue injury. By contrast, anti-inflammatory cytokines and neurotrophic factors secreted by alternatively activated microglia are beneficial for recovery after ischemic stroke. Astrocyte activation and reactive gliosis in ischemic stroke contribute to limiting brain injury and re-establishing CNS homeostasis. However, glial scarring hinders neuronal reconnection and extension. Neuroinflammation affects the demyelination and remyelination of oligodendrocytes. Myelin-associated antigens released from oligodendrocytes activate peripheral T cells, thereby resulting in the autoimmune response. Oligodendrocyte precursor cells, which can differentiate into oligodendrocytes, follow an ischemic stroke and may result in functional recovery. Herein, we discuss the mechanisms of post-stroke immune regulation mediated by glial cells and the interaction between glial cells and neurons. In addition, we describe the potential roles of various glial cells at different stages of ischemic stroke and discuss future intervention targets.
Small-Sized Reconfigurable Quadruped Robot With Multiple Sensory Feedback for Studying Adaptive and Versatile Behaviors

Self-organization of locomotion characterizes the feature of automatically spontaneous gait generation without preprogrammed limb movement coordination. To study this feature in quadruped locomotion, we propose here a new open-source, small-sized reconfigurable quadruped robot, called Lilibot, with multiple sensory feedback and its physical simulation. Lilibot was designed as a friendly quadrupedal platform with unique characteristics, including light weight, easy handling, modular components, and multiple real-time sensory feedback. Its modular components can be flexibly reconfigured to obtain features, such as different leg orientations for testing the effectiveness and generalization of self-organized locomotion control. Its multiple sensory feedback (i.e., joint angles, joint velocities, joint currents, joint voltages, and body inclination) can support vestibular reflexes and compliant control mechanisms for body posture stabilization and compliant behavior, respectively. To evaluate the performance of Lilibot, we implemented our developed adaptive neural controller on it. The experimental results demonstrated that Lilibot can autonomously and rapidly exhibit adaptive and versatile behaviors, including spontaneous self-organized locomotion (i.e., adaptive locomotion) under different leg orientations, body posture stabilization on a tiltable plane, and leg compliance for unexpected external load compensation. To this end, we successfully developed an open-source, friendly, small-sized, and lightweight quadruped robot with reconfigurable legs and multiple sensory feedback that can serve as a generic quadrupedal platform for research and education in the fields of locomotion, vestibular reflex-based, and compliant control.
Shenfu Injection Promotes Vasodilation by Enhancing eNOS Activity Through the PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathway In Vitro

Vasomotor dysfunction is one of the key pathological aspects of shock and heart failure (HF). Shenfu injection (SFI) has been widely used for the treatment of shock and HF in China. Pharmacological studies have suggested that SFI can reduce peripheral circulation resistance and improve microcirculation. However, whether it has a regulatory effect on macrovascular has not been elucidated. In this study, we used thoracic aorta rings isolated from Wistar rats and the human umbilical vein cell line (EA.hy926) to explore the vasodilative activity of SFI and its potential mechanisms. The relaxation due to SFI was measured after pre-treatment with selective soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) inhibitor or cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor and compared with the vasodilation effect of SFI only treated with norepinephrine (NE). The contents of NO, endothelin-1 (ET-1), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), COX-1, 6-K-PGF1α, and caveolin-1 were evaluated respectively. Additionally, the level of eNOS mRNA and total eNOS and its phosphorylation were studied to investigate the potential mechanisms involved. Experimental results showed that SFI markedly attenuated NE-induced vasoconstriction but that this effect was significantly eliminated after pre-incubation with the selective sGC inhibitor 1-H-[1, 2, 4] oxadiazolo [4, 3-α] quinoxaline-1-one (ODQ), instead of the COX inhibitor indomethacin (INDO). SFI significantly increased the eNOS content and up-regulated the eNOS mRNA expression, while it did not affect the content of COX-1 and 6-K-PGF1α. SFI also markedly increased NO content but significantly reduced the content of ET-1 and caveolin-1 in the cell supernatant. Furthermore, it promoted the expression of total eNOS and the phosphorylation of eNOS at serine (Ser) 1177 but inhibited the phosphorylation at threonine (Thr) 495, which was significantly reversed by PI3K-specific inhibitor LY294002. In conclusion, our study showed the vasodilation effect of SFI in thoracic aorta is mediated entirely by enhancing eNOS activity through the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, providing novel knowledge on the effect of SFI on shock and HF for future clinical applications.
A Porphyrin-DNA Chiroptical Molecular Ruler With Base Pair Resolution

DNA-based molecular rulers enable scientists to determine important parameters across biology, from the measurement of protein binding interactions, to the study of membrane dynamics in cells. However, existing rulers can suffer from poor nanometre resolution due to the flexible nature of linkers used to tether to the DNA framework. We aimed to overcome this problem using zinc and free-base porphyrin chromophores attached via short and rigid acetylene linkers. This connectivity enables the distance and angle between the porphyrins to be fine-tuned along the DNA scaffold. The porphyrins undergo favorable energy transfer and chiral exciton coupling interactions to act as highly sensitive molecular ruler probes. To validate the system, we monitored the detection of small changes in DNA structure upon intercalation of ethidium bromide. CD spectroscopy showed the porphyrins undergo highly sensitive changes in excitation coupling to facilitate base pair resolution of the novel system.
Reward Modulates Affective Priming Effect in Cognitive Conflict Processing: Electrophysiological Evidence

Previous research demonstrated that cognitive conflict could induce an affective priming effect, and the stage (detection/resolution) of conflict processing led to different directions (positive/negative) of the affective priming effect. We suggested that rewards play a critical role in the affective priming effect on conflict resolution. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs), using the arrow flanker task as primes and choosing specific affective words as targets to investigate the affective priming effect induced by cognitive conflict during the resolution stage. Our question was whether rewards created a modulating effect. Participants were asked to judge the congruency of the prime stimuli and then evaluate the valence of the target words. For behavioral results, the conflict effect was significant, and the reward promoted the behavioral performance of participants. For ERP results, enhanced N2 amplitudes for incongruent primes indicated a significant conflict effect. More importantly, as expected, in the rewarded condition, the enhanced N400 amplitudes for positive targets following incongruent primes were found, indicating a positive priming effect. However, in the unrewarded condition, the reduced N400 amplitudes for positive targets following incongruent primes were found, indicating conflict resolution hindered the processing of positive stimuli. These findings suggested that cognitive conflict-induced the positive priming effect during the resolution stage and that rewards had a moderating effect on the positive priming effect.
Editorial: Back to the Future: On the Road Towards Precision Psychiatry

1 IMPACT Strategic Research Centre (Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Treatment), School of Medicine, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia, 2 Department of Psychiatry, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany, 4 Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto and Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto, ON, Canada, 5 Department of Psychiatry, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany
Comparison of Long Non-Coding RNA Expression Profiles of Cattle and Buffalo Differing in Muscle Characteristics

Buffalo meat consist good qualitative characteristics as it contains “thined tender” which is favorable for cardavascular system. However, the regulatory mechanisms of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), differences in meat quality are not well known. The chemical-physical parameters revealed the muscle quality of buffalo that can be equivalent of cattle, but there are significant differences in shearing force and muscle fiber structure. Then, we examined lncRNA expression profiles of buffalo and cattle skeletal muscle that provide first insights into their potential roles in buffalo myogenesis. Here, we profiled the expression of lncRNA in cattle and buffalo skeletal muscle tissues, and 16,236 lncRNA candidates were detected with 865 up-regulated lncRNAs and 1,296 down-regulated lncRNAs when comparing buffalo to cattle muscle tissue. We constructed coexpression and ceRNA networks, and found lncRNA MSTRG.48330. 7, MSTRG.30030. 4, and MSTRG.203788. 46 could be as competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) containing potential binding sites for miR-1/206 and miR-133a. Tissue expression analysis showed that MSTRG.48330. 7, MSTRG.30030. 4, and MSTRG.203788. 46 were highly and specifically expressed in muscle tissue. Present study may be used as a reference tool for starting point investigations into the roles played by several of those lncRNAs during buffalo myogenesis.