Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capillary function in connective tissue.

SummaryHigh-resolution vital microscopy of capillary function in perichondral connective tissue in rabbits call attention to a structural complex consisting of endothelial plasma layer, nuclear endothelial cell region and periendothelial granulated cell which probably serves as a local regulating mechanism for the nutritive capillary flow. The change in shape of the blood corpuscles when they pass the capillary is pointed out. The connective tissue capillaries constitute a dynamic, active component of the vascular pathway rather than rigid, passive tubes as previously believed.
A QSPR Study of the Solubility of Gases and Vapors in Water

QSPR correlation equations were developed for the prediction of the solubilities of organic gases and vapors in water. A two-parameter correlation with the squared correlation coefficient R2 = 0.977 gives excellent predictions for 95 alkanes, cycloalkanes, alkenes, alkylarenes, and alkynes. A satisfactory description (R2 = 0.941) of the gas solubilities of 406 organic compounds with a large structural variablity was obtained using a five-parameter QSPR equation. Notably, all the parameters involved in these equations can be derived solely from the chemical structure of the compounds which makes them very useful for the prediction of the solubilities of unknown or unavailable compounds.
Energy-driven distribution of signal processing applications across wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor network (WSN) applications have been studied extensively in recent years. Such applications involve resource-limited embedded sensor nodes that have small size and low power requirements. Based on the need for extended network lifetimes in WSNs in terms of energy use, the energy efficiency of computation and communication operations in the sensor nodes becomes critical. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) applications typically require intensive data processing operations and as a result are difficult to implement directly in resource-limited WSNs. In this article, we present a novel design methodology for modeling and implementing computationally intensive DSP applications applied to wireless sensor networks. This methodology explores efficient modeling techniques for DSP applications, including data sensing and processing; derives formulations of Energy-Driven Partitioning (EDP) for distributing such applications across wireless sensor networks; and develops efficient heuristic algorithms for finding partitioning results that maximize the network lifetime. To address such an energy-driven partitioning problem, this article provides a new way of aggregating data and reducing communication traffic among nodes based on application analysis. By considering low data token delivery points and the distribution of computation in the application, our approach finds energy-efficient trade-offs between data communication and computation.
Enhancing the Quality of e-Learning in Virtual Learning Communities by Finding Quality Learning Content and Trustworthy Collaborators

Virtual learning communities encourage members to learn and contribute knowledge. However, knowledge sharing requires mutual-trust collaboration between learners and the contribution of quality knowledge. This task cannot be accomplished by simply storing learning content in repositories. It requires a mechanism to help learners find relevant learning content as well as knowledgeable collaborators to work with. In this paper, we present a peer-to-peer based social network to enhance the quality of e-learning regarding knowledge sharing in virtual learning communities. From a technical viewpoint, we will present advanced semantic search mechanisms for finding quality content and trustworthy collaborators. From the social viewpoint, we will address how to support a trustworthy social network that encourages learners to share. Results of this research demonstrate that applying such mechanisms to knowledge sharing can improve the quality of e-learning in virtual learning communities.
The invisibility of men in South African violence prevention policy: national prioritization, male vulnerability, and framing prevention

Background South Africa has a significant violence problem. The exposure of girls and women to interpersonal violence is widespread, and the victimization of men, especially to severe and homicidal forms of aggression, is of considerable concern, with male homicide eight times the global rate. In the last two decades, there have been a plethora of South African policies to promote safety. However, indications suggest that the policy response to violence is not coherently formulated, comprehensive, or evenly implemented. Objective This study examines selected South African national legislative instruments in terms of their framing and definition of violence and its typology, vulnerable populations, and prevention. Design This study comprises a directed content analysis of selected legislative documents from South African ministries mandated to prevent violence and its consequences or tasked with the prevention of key contributors to violence. Documents were selected using an electronic keyword search method and analyzed independently by two researchers. Results The legislative documents recognized the high levels of violence, confirmed the prioritization of selected vulnerable groups, especially women, children, disabled persons, and rural populations, and above all drew on criminological perspectives to emphasize tertiary prevention interventions. There is a policy focus on the protection and support of victims and the prosecution of perpetrators, but near absent recognition of men as victims. Conclusions There is a need to broaden the policy framework from primarily criminological and prosecutorial perspectives to include public health contributions. It is likewise important to enlarge the conceptions of vulnerability to include men alongside other vulnerable groups. These measures are important for shaping and resourcing prevention decisions and strengthening primary prevention approaches to violence.
Unique genetic loci identified for emotional behavior in control and chronic stress conditions

An individual's genetic background affects their emotional behavior and response to stress. Although studies have been conducted to identify genetic predictors for emotional behavior or stress response, it remains unknown how prior stress history alters the interaction between an individual's genome and their emotional behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify chromosomal regions that affect emotional behavior and are sensitive to stress exposure. We utilized the BXD behavioral genetics mouse model to identify chromosomal regions that predict fear learning and emotional behavior following exposure to a control or chronic stress environment. 62 BXD recombinant inbred strains and C57BL/6 and DBA/2 parental strains underwent behavioral testing including a classical fear conditioning paradigm and the elevated plus maze. Distinct quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were identified for emotional learning, anxiety and locomotion in control and chronic stress populations. Candidate genes, including those with already known functions in learning and stress were found to reside within the identified QTLs. Our data suggest that chronic stress history reveals novel genetic predictors of emotional behavior.
Multicenter phase II trial of combination therapy with meloxicam, a cox-2 inhibitor, and natural interferon-alpha for metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE We conducted a Phase II trial to investigate the efficacy of combined therapy with meloxicam, a cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor and natural interferon (IFN)-alpha in renal cell carcinoma patients with distant metastasis. METHODS The subjects of this study were patients with untreated renal cell carcinoma who were diagnosed from the results of imaging or pathological studies and who had measurable lesions according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). Patients could be enrolled in the study irrespective of whether nephrectomy had been performed. Treatment involved the subcutaneous injection of natural IFN-alpha at 3 x 10(6) or 5 x 10(6) U three times weekly plus oral administration of meloxicam at 10 mg once daily. RESULTS A total of 43 patients were enrolled in the present study, included 11 patients without nephrectomy, 23 patients with a high C-reactive protein (CRP) level and 23 patients with extrapulmonary metastasis. Four patients of complete response and 12 patients of partial response were confirmed, given an overall response rate of 37.2% (95% confidence interval, 23.0-53.3%). Stable disease for 6 months or longer was also obtained in 14 patients. The median time to progression was 14 months. Adverse events (AEs) observed were mainly flu-like symptoms due to cytokine. Although the Grade 3 or 4 AEs were fatigue, hepatic dysfunction, arthritis and gastric ulcer, all but one (gastric ulcer) were immediately improved by discontinuation of this combined therapy. CONCLUSIONS The combination of meloxicam and natural IFN-alpha is considered to be an active regimen with tolerable toxicities as a first-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
Fluoride toothpastes for preventing dental caries in children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND Fluoride toothpastes have been widely used for over three decades and remain a benchmark intervention for the prevention of dental caries. OBJECTIVES To determine the effectiveness and safety of fluoride toothpastes in the prevention of caries in children and to examine factors potentially modifying their effect. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Oral Health Group's Trials Register (May 2000), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2000), MEDLINE (1966 to January 2000), plus several other databases. We handsearched journals, reference lists of articles and contacted selected authors and manufacturers. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials with blind outcome assessment, comparing fluoride toothpaste with placebo in children up to 16 years during at least one year. The main outcome was caries increment measured by the change in decayed, missing and filled tooth surfaces (D(M)FS). DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Inclusion decisions, quality assessment and data extraction were duplicated in a random sample of one third of studies, and consensus achieved by discussion or a third party. Authors were contacted for missing data. The primary measure of effect was the prevented fraction (PF) that is the difference in caries increments between the treatment and control groups expressed as a percentage of the increment in the control group. Random effects meta-analyses were performed where data could be pooled. Potential sources of heterogeneity were examined in random effects meta-regression analyses. MAIN RESULTS Seventy-four studies were included. For the 70 that contributed data for meta-analysis (involving 42,300 children) the D(M)FS pooled PF was 24% (95% confidence interval (CI), 21 to 28%; p<0.0001). This means that 1.6 children need to brush with a fluoride toothpaste (rather than a non-fluoride toothpaste) over three years to prevent one D(M)FS in populations with caries increment of 2.6 D(M)FS per year. In populations with caries increment of 1.1 D(M)FS per year, 3.7 children will need to use a fluoride toothpaste for three years to avoid one D(M)FS. There was clear heterogeneity, confirmed statistically (p<0.0001). The effect of fluoride toothpaste increased with higher baseline levels of D(M)FS, higher fluoride concentration, higher frequency of use, and supervised brushing, but was not influenced by exposure to water fluoridation. There is little information concerning the deciduous dentition or adverse effects (fluorosis). REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS Supported by more than half a century of research, the benefits of fluoride toothpastes are firmly established. Taken together, the trials are of relatively high quality, and provide clear evidence that fluoride toothpastes are efficacious in preventing caries.
Conditioning Heat Stress Reduces Excitotoxic and Apoptotic Components of Oxygen‐Glucose Deprivation‐Induced Neuronal Death In Vitro

Abstract: We investigated the effects of sublethal heat stress in murine cortical cell cultures exposed to combined oxygen and glucose deprivation. Pretreatment with sublethal heat stress mildly attenuated the widespread neuronal death induced a day later by 30–60 min of oxygen‐glucose deprivation. Heat stress also blunted the increase in extracellular glutamate concentrations induced by the oxygen‐glucose deprivation, as well as the neuronal death and 45Ca2+ uptake induced by exogenous addition of NMDA, although no reduction was seen in neuronal death caused by exogenous kainate or in NMDA‐induced whole‐cell currents. However, arguing against the idea that the neuroprotective effect of heat stress against neuronal death was exclusively due to reduction of excitotoxicity was the finding that heat stress also reduced the neuronal apoptosis induced by oxygen‐glucose deprivation in the presence of glutamate antagonists. This antiapoptotic effect was specific in that heat stress did not reduce neuronal vulnerability to staurosporine‐induced apoptosis. Whereas heat stress transiently suppressed protein synthesis, achieving comparable protein synthesis inhibition with cycloheximide did not reproduce the neuroprotective effects of heat stress. These studies suggest that a conditioning heat stress is able to attenuate both the excitotoxic and the apoptotic components of oxygen‐glucose deprivation‐induced neuronal death in vitro, by mechanisms independent of protein synthesis reduction.
Beyond Standards: The Rest of the Agenda

Across the country, schools are involved in setting new high standards of curriculum content and student performance. The standards-based education reform movement has been championed by big business, by the nation's governors, by the president and the Congress, and by many in the field of education. This article argues that new high standards are necessary and desirable, but that alone they are not enough. Throughout our history the schools have sought to make students wise and just, as well as competent. If these traditional aspirations are to be realized, we must move beyond standards to support teachers, provide the necessary resources, deal straight with the problems of race, nurture community, and ennoble the purpose of education.
The Life Cycle of L. pneumophila: Cellular Differentiation Is Linked to Virulence and Metabolism

Legionella pneumophila is a gram-negative bacterium that inhabits freshwater ecosystems, where it is present in biofilm or as planktonic form. L. pneumophila is mainly found associated with protozoa, which serve as protection from hostile environments and as replication niche. If inhaled within aerosols, L. pneumophila is also able to infect and replicate in human alveolar macrophages, eventually causing the Legionnaires' disease. The transition between intracellular and extracellular environments triggers a differentiation program in which metabolic as well as morphogenetic changes occur. We here describe the current knowledge on how the different developmental states of this bacterium are regulated, with a particular emphasis on the stringent response activated during the transition from the replicative phase to the infectious phase and the metabolic features going in hand. We propose that the cellular differentiation of this intracellular pathogen is closely associated to key metabolic changes in the bacterium and the host cell, which together have a crucial role in the regulation of L. pneumophila virulence.
Effect of temperature, water content and aging on the dielectric response of oil-impregnated paper

In this contribution, Fourier transform of dielectric responses from Polarization and Depolarization Current measurements were investigated to evaluate temperature and aging effects on dielectric response of oil paper insulation system. Measurements of the dielectric response were performed at three temperatures and two aging conditions. To provide quantitative analysis from measurements, the current curves were decomposed into basic exponential functions. Attempts have been performed to correlate the physical condition of the insulation and the equivalent model parameters. The obtained results indicate the feasibility of using the relaxation time constants and coefficients to depict the temperature, water content and aging effects.
Comparison of methods for the determination of antimicrobial resistance in Campylobacter spp. human and the food chain isolates

With a microdilution, disk diffusion and agar dilution method, resistance to six antimicrobial agents were examined in a reference strain Campylobacter jejuni ATCC 33560 and 73 thermo-tolerant isolates of Campylobacter spp. For the microdilution method our determined values of microbiological breakpoints of resistant strains were suggested as the minimum inhibitxory concentration. Comparison of the results of the resistance examination showed that all compared methods yielded identical results with the exception of the resistance determination in erythromycin and nalidixic acid.
Regional Differences in Myocardial Performance in the Left Ventricle of the Dog

To determine whether significant regional differences in shortening exist in the canine left ventricle, the shortening characteristics of small segments of the circumferentially oriented hoop axis fibers and the more longitudinally oriented fibers near the epicardium were examined using pairs of ultrasound crystals placed at three levels of the left ventricular free wall in the open-chest dog. Mean control shortening of the hoop axis fibers near the apex of the left ventricle averaged 20% of the end-diastolic length, significantly greater than shortening at the midventricular (13%) or basal (14%) levels. During transient periods of aortic constriction, end-diastolic length increased significantly and the extent of shortening was maintained for the hoop axis fibers at the apical and midventricular levels; end-diastolic length did not change and shortening decreased at the basal level. The epicardial fibers shortened an average of 5.6% of their end-diastolic length during control conditions at all three sites and showed small, parallel changes in shortening and end-diastolic length during aortic constriction. We conclude that significantly greater hoop axis shortening occurs near the apex of the left ventricle and that at this level a uniformly contracting model is inappropriate. In addition, the response of the hoop axis fibers to increased aortic impedance is not homogeneous, with a significant reduction in shortening occurring only at the base of the left ventricle where end-diastolic length does not increase.
Genome-Wide Transcriptional Analysis of Aerobic and Anaerobic Chemostat Cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is unique among eukaryotes in exhibiting fast growth in both the presence and the complete absence of oxygen. Genome-wide transcriptional adaptation to aerobiosis and anaerobiosis was studied in assays using DNA microarrays. This technique was combined with chemostat cultivation, which allows controlled variation of a single growth parameter under defined conditions and at a fixed specific growth rate. Of the 6,171 open reading frames investigated, 5,738 (93%) yielded detectable transcript levels under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions; 140 genes showed a >3-fold-higher transcription level under anaerobic conditions. Under aerobic conditions, transcript levels of 219 genes were >3-fold higher than under anaerobic conditions.
Sequential Frame Synchronization Based on Hypothesis Testing With Unknown Channel State Information

In this paper, we propose a hypothesis testing based sequential frame synchronization technique that is robust against fluctuations and imperfect estimation of channel gain at the receiver. The proposed detector uses division in the decision rule to cancel the effect of channel gain, and therefore is called division based hypothesis testing (DHT). We show that the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of DHT is close to the optimal likelihood ratio test (LRT), while the optimal LRT requires perfect knowledge of noise and channel gain at the receiver. Further, we use three performance metrics, namely, the probability of false synchronization Pfs, average reception duration lrx, and probability of missed synchronization Pms, to compare the performance of hypothesis testing against that of point estimation. We analytically show that hypothesis testing can have better reliability and lower energy consumption than point estimation if the probability of false alarm of the hypothesis testing is lower than the minimum of two thresholds. The cost of hypothesis testing is an arbitrarily small Pms while point estimation can have zero Pms. A modified implementation of hypothesis testing is also introduced to further reduce the energy consumption.
The Toxoplasma gondii rhoptry protein ROP18 is an Irga6‐specific kinase and regulated by the dense granule protein GRA7

In mice, avirulent strains (e.g. types II and III) of the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii are restricted by the immunity‐related GTPase (IRG) resistance system. Loading of IRG proteins onto the parasitophorous vacuolar membrane (PVM) is required for vacuolar rupture resulting in parasite clearance. In virulent strain (e.g. type I) infections, polymorphic effector proteins ROP5 and ROP18 cooperate to phosphorylate and thereby inactivate mouse IRG proteins to preserve PVM integrity. In this study, we confirmed the dense granule protein GRA7 as an additional component of the ROP5/ROP18 kinase complex and identified GRA7 association with the PVM by direct binding to ROP5. The absence of GRA7 results in reduced phosphorylation of Irga6 correlated with increased vacuolar IRG protein amounts and attenuated virulence. Earlier work identified additional IRG proteins as targets of T. gondii ROP18 kinase. We show that the only specific target of ROP18 among IRG proteins is in fact Irga6. Similarly, we demonstrate that GRA7 is strictly an Irga6‐specific virulence effector. This identifies T. gondii GRA7 as a regulator for ROP18‐specific inactivation of Irga6. The structural diversity of the IRG proteins implies that certain family members constitute additional specific targets for other yet unknown T. gondii virulence effectors.
The Near-Infrared Spectrum of the Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B

A medium-resolution 1.0-2.5 μm spectrum of the brown dwarf Gliese 229B has been obtained using the facility spectrometer CGS4 on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope. In addition to the broad spectral structure seen in earlier low-resolution observations, the new spectrum reveals a large number of absorption lines, many of which can be identified with water vapor. Water and methane are both shown to be strong absorbers in the near-infrared spectrum of the object. Several spectral features in Gl 229B that are attributable to methane match ones seen in reflection in the giant outer planets and, in particular, Titan.