Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative analysis of tests used to assess sperm chromatin integrity and DNA fragmentation

Male infertility has a complex etiology, and many times, the cause is unknown. While routine semen analysis provides an overview of basic semen parameters, such as sperm concentration, motility, viability and morphology, a significant overlap of these parameters has been reported in fertile and infertile men. Moreover, conventional semen parameters do not reveal the cellular or molecular mechanisms of sperm dysfunctions leading to infertility. Therefore, sperm functional parameters, including sperm chromatin integrity, are evaluated to provide information on subtle sperm defects that are not routinely identified. Incomplete or defective sperm chromatin condensation increases the susceptibility of the sperm DNA to oxidative damage or other factors. To evaluate sperm chromatin integrity, different methods with varying degrees of diagnostic and prognostic capabilities are available. Among these assays, SCSA, TUNEL and SCD assays are most commonly used. While these assays rather evaluate the DNA directly for damages, the aniline blue and chromomycin A3 stains test for the quality of chromatin condensation. Thus, this review discusses and compares different methods used to evaluate sperm chromatin integrity and condensation, and their inclusion in the routine evaluation of the male infertility.
Skin Burns from Monochloroacetic Acid Leak in a Chemical Plant: a Case Report

Abstract The patient, a 45-year-old male chemical factory worker, was burned by monochloroacetic acid discharged from a ruptured pipe. The patient was merely flushed with water and did not leave the workplace immediately. As a result, he suffered local burn symptoms, which gradually worsened. Two and a half hours after the accident, he developed symptoms of systemic poisoning, such as lethargy and dyspnoea. After a thorough debridement of the wound surface and subsequent skin grafting combined with early glucocorticoid therapy and haemofiltration, a satisfactory result was achieved, and the patient eventually recovered. With the widespread use of monochloroacetic acid in China, incidents of poisoning with this chemical are becoming increasingly common, with more than 100 cases reported in the past ten years in China alone.
Paranoia

Both psychology and psychiatry are dominated by individualistic accounts of paranoia (and, indeed, other forms of distress). As a corrective to these, this paper provides a social account of paranoia grounded in a minimal notion of embodied subjectivity constituted from the interpenetration of feelings, perception and discourse. Paranoia is conceptualized as a mode or tendency within embodied subjectivity, co-constituted in the dialectical associations between subjectivity and relational, social and material influences. Relevant psychiatric and psychological literature is briefly reviewed; relational, social structural and material influences upon paranoia are described; and some implications of this account for research and intervention are highlighted.
The Varied Work of Challenger Movements: Identifying Challenger Roles in the US Environmental Movement

Organizations within challenger movements often exhibit differences in what they do, with whom they interact, and how they understand or present themselves. This article attempts to understand what underlies such heterogeneity in challenger movements. Adopting a mixed method approach, we explore the heterogeneous nature of the work undertaken by institutional challengers in the US environmental movement. Drawing on the tools of social network analysis, we develop a method to identify a set of distinct social positions. Next, drawing upon qualitative data on identity and work from websites and interviews with senior managers in environmental non-governmental organizations, we identify configurations of social position, identity, and work that result in a distinct set of challenger roles. Our analysis reveals how identity and social position can both enable and constrain individual organizations within a challenger movement in terms of their ability to undertake different types of institutional work. We also identify a form of work thus far not explicitly identified in prior studies of institutional work–indirect work, which we theorize may be an important potential moderator to the effectiveness of direct forms of institutional work.
Validation of gyroscope sensors for snow sports performance monitoring

Abstract Wearable sensors that can be used to measure human performance outcomes are becoming increasingly popular within sport science research. Validation of these sensors is vital to ensure accuracy of extracted data. The aim of this study was to establish the validity and reliability of gyroscope sensors contained within three different inertial measurement units (IMU). Three IMUs (OptimEye, I Measure U and Logger A) were fixed to a mechanical calibration device that rotates through known angular velocities and positions. RMS scores for angular displacement, which were calculated from the integrated angular velocity vectors, were 3.85° ± 2.21° and 4.34° ± 2.57° for the OptimEye and IMesU devices, respectively. The RMS error score for the Logger A was 22.76° ± 23.22°, which was attributed to a large baseline shift of the angular velocity vector. After a baseline correction of all three devices, RMS error scores were all below 3.90°. Test re-test reliability of the three gyroscope sensors were high with coefficient of variation (CV%) scores below 2.5%. Overall, the three tested IMUs are suitable for measuring angular displacement of snow sports manoeuvres after baseline corrections have been made. Future studies should investigate the accuracy and reliability of accelerometer and magnetometer sensors contained in each of the IMUs to be used to identify take-off and landing events and the orientation of the athlete at those events.
Probabilistic reduction in relation to social message predictability

Abstract Language is a system of message transmission, which conveys a variety of messages including both lexical messages and social messages. It has been demonstrated that lexical messages are realized with phonetically reduced signals, when they are contextually predictable. For example, a word may be produced with shorter duration, when it is more predictable given a context such as a preceding word and a following word. This message-oriented reduction can be encapsulated by positing that a speaker is required to balance two biases: a bias for maximizing the accuracy of message transmission and a bias for maximizing the efficiency of message transmission. This raises a question: Does a speaker balance the two biases in relation to social messages? The aim of this study is to address this question, and advance our understanding of the message-oriented probabilistic reduction. We will explore the social-message-predictability effects by examining the phonetic redundancy in a variant in New Zealand English loanword phonology, a tap sound [ɾ]. It is demonstrated that the duration of this rhotic variant is affected by the social message predictability given a loanword.
DEVELOPMENT, TAXONOMY, AND PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF SPECIES OF PARACLIMACOGRAPTUS (GRAPTOLOIDEA) FROM THE CANADIAN ARCTIC AND THE SOUTHERN URALS OF RUSSIA

Abstract An investigation of the morphology and astogenetic pattern of isolated specimens of two species of Paraclimacograptus permits an assessment of the phylogenetic relationships of this genus. Forty-two specimens previously assigned to Paraclimacograptus innotatus ssp. isolated from turbiditic limestone from the Southern Urals of Russia (Cystograptus vesiculous Zone) and limestone concretions from the Canadian Arctic (Coronograptus cyphus Zone) were examined using the method of infrared video microscopy. Paraclimacograptus has a Pattern H astogeny and is therefore a member of the family Normalograptidae. At least three species can be distinguished using biometric criteria, P. innotatus, P. exquisitus, and P. obesus. Rhabdosomal characteristics of Paraclimacograptus indicate that it is phylogenetically related to early species of the genus Neodiplograptus. The point of divergence of the proximal thecae is defined by the interfingering of fuselli of markedly different widths. This suggests that fuselli were not necessarily secreted at a constant rate. In addition, this pattern of fusellar interfingering is here regarded as more consistent with a pterobranch mode of secretion than with a model of growth under an enveloping extrathecal mantle.
Genomic regions affecting fitness of the sweet corn mutant sugary1

SUMMARY Mutants often reduce fitness when incorporated into some genotypes, as is the case of the mutant gene sugary1 (su1) in maize (Zea mays L.). Understanding the genetic factors affecting variation in the fitness of a mutant is of major interest from a theoretical point of view and also from a breeder's perspective. The genetic regulation of su1 behaviour was examined in two independent materials. First, populations of two recombinant inbred lines (RIL) were used, belonging to the Nested Association Mapping (NAM) design produced from crosses between the maize inbred B73 and two sweet corn lines (P39 and Il14h) that were genotyped with 1106 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). These RILs had a group of lines with the su1 allele and another group with the wild allele. At each marker, the allele frequencies of both groups of RILs were compared. Second, an F2 population derived from the cross between A619 (a field maize inbred line) and P39 (a sweet corn inbred line) was characterized with 295 simple sequence repeats (SSRs). In addition, the population was phenotyped for several traits related to viability. A large linkage block was detected around su1 in the RILs belonging to the NAM. Furthermore, significant genomic regions associated with su1 fitness were detected along the 10 maize chromosomes, although the detected effects were small. Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with effects in multiple traits related to su1 fitness were detected in the F2 population, for example at bin 5·04. Therefore, the present results suggest that the su1 fitness depends on many genes of small effect distributed along the genome, with pleiotropic effects on multiple traits.
Mechanical Properties of Water/Hydrate‐Former Phase Boundaries and Phase‐Separating Hydrate Films

The objective of this study is to measure two kinds of mechanical properties relevant to the formation and dissociation of clathrate hydrate films at the phase boundary between water and a hydrate former both in the liquid state. The properties of interest are the liquid–liquid interfacial tension before the formation and after the dissociation of each hydrate film, and the membrane force working in the hydrate film during its complete covering of the phase boundary. Based on continual observations of single sessile drop of a hydrate former immersed in a pool of liquid water, we have evaluated these properties during the course of prescribed temperature variations about the three-phase (liquid/liquid/hydrate) equilibrium temperature under constant pressure. The motivations for measuring these properties are, however, independent of each other and are described below. A few recent attempts were made to obtain experimental evidence of the waterclustering hypothesis conceived to explain the so-called memory effect for hydrate formation. Sloan et al . 1 measured the time for a stainless-steel ball to travel one inch in an oscillating sapphire tube filled with liquid water and methane or natural gas. The ball-travel time was found to be longer after hydrate dissociation than before hydrate formation, indicating an increase in the effective viscosity of the liquid-water phase due to its experience of hydrate formation. Kato et al . 2 performed simultaneous measurements of the surface tension and kinematic viscosity of water exposed to xenon gas, using a surface laser-light scattering method. They observed an unusual elevation of these two properties just after hydrate dissociation on the water surface, followed by a relaxation process apparently lasting for several hours. In contrast to the above two studies that suggest a change in the nature of liquid water due to hydrate formation/dissociation, Bylov and Rasmussen 3 reported no detectable difference in the refractive index of liquid water between the time before hydrate formation and that just after hydrate dissociation at a water surface in contact with methane or natural gas. Stimulated by these pioneering studies to detect traces of hydrate formation/dissociation experience in liquid-water properties, we devised an experiment to successively measure the interfacial tension at the surface of each sessile drop of a dense hydrate-forming liquid immersed in a liquid-water pool by the drop-profile-
A meta-analysis comparing cognitive function across the mood/psychosis diagnostic spectrum

Abstract Background The nature and degree of cognitive impairments in schizoaffective disorder is not well established. The aim of this meta-analysis was to characterise cognitive functioning in schizoaffective disorder and compare it with cognition in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizoaffective disorder was considered both as a single category and as its two diagnostic subtypes, bipolar and depressive disorder. Methods Following a thorough literature search (468 records identified), we included 31 studies with a total of 1685 participants with schizoaffective disorder, 3357 with schizophrenia and 1095 with bipolar disorder. Meta-analyses were conducted for seven cognitive variables comparing performance between participants with schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia, and between schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder. Results Participants with schizoaffective disorder performed worse than those with bipolar disorder (g = −0.30) and better than those with schizophrenia (g = 0.17). Meta-analyses of the subtypes of schizoaffective disorder showed cognitive impairments in participants with the depressive subtype are closer in severity to those seen in participants with schizophrenia (g = 0.08), whereas those with the bipolar subtype were more impaired than those with bipolar disorder (g = −0.23) and less impaired than those with schizophrenia (g = 0.29). Participants with the depressive subtype had worse performance than those with the bipolar subtype but this was not significant (g = 0.25, p = 0.05). Conclusion Cognitive impairments increase in severity from bipolar disorder to schizoaffective disorder to schizophrenia. Differences between the subtypes of schizoaffective disorder suggest combining the subtypes of schizoaffective disorder may obscure a study's results and hamper efforts to understand the relationship between this disorder and schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Chemosystematics and evolution of beetle chemical defenses

Though mechanically well protected by an exoskeleton, Coleoptera, which comprise the largest group of organisms at the order level, have evolved a variety of defense mechanisms (21 , 39, 1 56). At each developmental stage beetles are protected by various structural modifications, types of behavior, mimetic, cryptic, or aposematic appearances, and, in particular, chemically based defenses (2 1 , 39). As a rule these defensive substances are multifunctional. As repellents, toxicants, insecticides, or antimicrobics they are directed against a large array of potential target organisms; they may also function as surfactants ( 10, 38). Although these allomones contribute to the fitness of the producers, it is often experimentally difficult or impossible to determine their adaptive value (9, 38). Usually Coleoptera biosynthesize and store their defensive compounds either in complex glands or in the hemolymph ( 10, 156) . In the latter case, toxicants are liberated by reflex bleeding; species that employ this defense often exhibit warning colorations or produce warning odors and may be models for mimicry (l0, 21) . Some beetles profit from exogenous plantand animal-derived toxicants, which are tolerated and sequestered (10). Since the last review on comparative aspects of beetle chemical defense in 1 978 ( 1 56), in which 330 species from 161 genera were considered, a wealth of information has emerged. To date, approximately 900 species from 380
Evaluation of the shoot regeneration response in tissue culture of pigeonpea ( Cajanus cajan [L.] Millsp .) varieties adapted to eastern and southern Africa

Seven varieties of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan [L.] Millsp.) of varying growth durations and adapted to a wide range of environments across eastern and southern Africa were evaluated for their shoot regeneration response in tissue culture. On a standardized shoot regeneration medium, the short duration varieties (ICPV 88091 and ICPV 86012) generally responded faster and better than the medium duration (ICEAP 00554 and ICEAP 00557) and long duration (ICEAP 00020, ICEAP 00040 and ICEAP 00053) varieties. However, all the tested varieties produced healthy rooted plants in vitro that could be transferred to the greenhouse where they exhibited normal growth, flowering and viable seed set. This study established the basis for genetic engineering of African pigeonpea varieties.
Isozyme Evidence for Natural Hybridization in Phlomis (Lamiaceae): Hybrid Origin of the RareP.×margaritae

Phlomis‹margaritae is a rare and sterile hybrid taxon found in a single endangered population in southern Spain. It was previously described as a morphologically intermediate hybrid, putatively between Phlomis purpurea and P. composita. The present study used allozymes as molecular markers to assess the hybrid identity of P.‹margaritae. Ten putative loci from seven enzyme systems were resolved: five were monomorphic and fixed across all taxa studied and the rest (Aat-1, Aat-2, 6-Pgdh-2, Pgi and Pgm) were polymorphic in at least one taxon. The two parental taxa are fixed for dierent alleles at 6-Pgdh-2 and show distinct allelic frequency dierences for four other loci. Phlomis‹margaritae displays fixed heterozygous phenotypes for four of the five polymorphic loci, these being composed of combinations of the alleles found in the parental taxa. No unique alleles were detected in P.‹margaritae. We conclude that this taxon is of hybrid origin and confirm the identity of the parental taxa involved. It is further suggested that this population is composed of individuals that are recent F " hybrids that have not undergone backcrossing or introgression. Global conservation measures are necessary for the whole hybrid system in this location since further continuous assessment could reveal the evolutionary input of hybridization in Phlomis. # 2000 Annals of Botany Company
Too old to app? A cross-sectional study on intention to use medical applications among elderly in The Netherlands.

BACKGROUND The increasing health service demand driven by the aging of the global population calls for the development of modes of health service delivery which are less human resource intensive. eHealth in general, and medical apps in particular, are expected to play an important role in this development. While evidence shows mobile medical applications might be effective in improving elderly care, self-management, self-efficacy, health-related behavior and medication adherence, little is known about the elderly's intention to use these technologies when needed, or the factors influencing this intention. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship of technology acceptance factors and intention to use mobile medical applications among community dwelling elderly. METHODS Data have been collected using questionnaires. The factors selected from literature have been validated using Cronbach Alpha and tested for significance using logistic regressions. RESULTS Almost half (49.7%) of the included elderly reported no intention to use medical apps. Adjusted logistic regression analysis per factor showed that the factors Attitude Towards Use (OR 8.50), Perceived Usefulness (OR 5.25), Perceived Ease of Use (OR 4.22), Service Availability (OR 3.46), Sense of Control (OR 3.40), Self-Perceived Effectiveness (OR 2.69), Facilities (OR 2.45), Personal Innovativeness (OR 2.08), Social Relationships (OR 1.79), Subjective Norm (OR 1.48) and Feelings of Anxiety (OR 0.62) significantly influence the intention to use mobile medical applications in the elderly, whereas the factor Finance (OR 0.98) did not. When considered together, a controlled multivariate logistic regression yielded high explained variances of 0.542 (Cox & Snell R2) and 0.728 (Nagelkerke R2). CONCLUSIONS The high odds ratios and explained variance indicate that the factors associated with intention to use medical applications are largely understood and the most important factors are identified. Experimental controlled further research to advance evidence of causality of the relationship between the factors, intention to use, and ultimately actual use, form an important next step to advance the evidence base. For this purpose - and for the meantime - our evidence suggests policies designed at improving Attitude Towards Use appear most effective, followed by policies addressing Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Service Availability and Sense of Control. CLINICALTRIAL
Conversion to soy on the Amazonian agricultural frontier increases streamflow without affecting stormflow dynamics

Large‐scale soy agriculture in the southern Brazilian Amazon now rivals deforestation for pasture as the region's predominant form of land use change. Such landscape‐level change can have substantial consequences for local and regional hydrology, but these effects remain relatively unstudied in this ecologically and economically important region. We examined how the conversion to soy agriculture influences water balances and stormflows using stream discharge (water yields) and the timing of discharge (stream hydrographs) in small (2.5–13.5 km2) forested and soy headwater watersheds in the Upper Xingu Watershed in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. We monitored water yield for 1 year in three forested and four soy watersheds. Mean daily water yields were approximately four times higher in soy than forested watersheds, and soy watersheds showed greater seasonal variability in discharge. The contribution of stormflows to annual streamflow in all streams was low (<13% of annual streamflow), and the contribution of stormflow to streamflow did not differ between land uses. If the increases in water yield observed in this study are typical, landscape‐scale conversion to soy substantially alters water‐balance, potentially altering the regional hydrology over large areas of the southern Amazon.
Performance of juvenile brown trout exposed to fluctuating water level and temperature

Individual daily food intake, mass-specific growth rate and growth efficiency in groups of juvenile brown trout Salmo trutta were compared in tank experiments with three water level regimes (fluctuating, stable high and low water levels) and two temperature regimes (fluctuating between 10 and 14° C and constant 14° C) to simulate events during hydropeaking in regulated rivers. Fish exposed to high stable water level showed higher food intake and growth rate, and higher or similar growth efficiency than fish exposed to fluctuating or stable low water level. Both groups of slow-growing and fast-growing individuals fed less and grew slower at stable low and fluctuating water level than at stable high water level. Furthermore, growth and growth efficiency were lower in brown trout exposed to stable low water level and fluctuating temperature, particularly for groups of fish with slow growth. Temperature did not have any effect at high water level. For groups of fast-growing fish, there was no difference in growth efficiency between treatments. It is concluded that fluctuating water level and temperature have a potentially detrimental effect on growth in juvenile brown trout and effects are more severe in slow- than fast-growing fish.