Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intramembrane charge movement and calcium release in frog skeletal muscle.

Intramembrane charge movement and myoplasmic free calcium transients (delta[Ca2+]) were monitored in voltage‐clamped segments of isolated frog muscle fibres cut at both ends and mounted in a double Vaseline‐gap chamber. The fibres were stretched to sarcomere lengths of 3.5‐4.6 micron to minimize mechanical movement and the related optical artifacts. The over‐all calcium removal capability of each fibre was characterized by analysing the decay of delta[Ca2+] following pulses of several different amplitudes and durations. The rate of sarcoplasmic reticulum (s.r.) calcium release was then calculated for each delta[Ca2+] using the calcium removal properties determined for that fibre. The calculated calcium release wave form reached a relatively early peak and then declined appreciably during a 100‐150 ms depolarizing pulse. The voltage dependence of the peak rate of calcium release was steeper and was centred at more positive membrane potentials than the steady‐state voltage dependence of charge movement in the same fibres. A considerable fraction of the total intramembrane charge was moved at potentials at which delta[Ca2+] and calcium release were only a few per cent of maximum. This 'subthreshold' charge may correspond to charge moved in preliminary transitions that precede a final charge transition that activates release. A 'stepped on' pulse protocol was used to experimentally separate the subthreshold charge movement from the charge movement of the final transitions that may control calcium release. The stepped on pulse consisted of a set 50 ms pre‐pulse to a potential just at or below the potential for detectable delta[Ca2+] followed immediately by a test pulse of varying amplitude and duration. For a wide range of test pulse amplitudes and durations in the stepped on protocol the peak rate of calcium release was linearly related to the charge movement during the test pulse. This result points to a tight control of activation of s.r. calcium release by intramembrane charge movement. The voltage dependence of both charge movement and of the rate of calcium release could be fitted simultaneously with a three‐state, two‐transition sequential model in which charge moves in both transitions but only the final transition activates s.r. calcium release. A model with three identical and independent charged gating particles per channel gave an equally good fit to the data. Both models closely fit the charge movement and release data except within about 10 mV of the voltage at which release became detectable, where release varied more steeply with membrane potential than predicted by either model. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Ending child poverty: "thinking 2020": a report and think-pieces from the Child Poverty Unit conference

In June 2008, the Child Poverty Unit held an event entitled ’Ending Child Poverty: “Thinking 2020”’ at which around 100 stakeholders from across lobby organisations, academic institutions, devolved administrations and local and central Government attended. The event was designed to begin a discussion with stakeholders on the vision for a UK free of child poverty by 2020, and the route by which that could be achieved. To facilitate discussion and debate, four think-pieces were commissioned from academics and think-tanks which were then presented and discussed at the event. This report contains the write-up of the event, plus the authors’ four think-pieces on financial support, employment, communities and children’s life chances.
GABA Receptor Agonist Promotes Reformation of the Striatonigral Pathway by Transplant Derived from Fetal Striatal Primordia in the Lesioned Striatum

Striatal lesions are known to cause the anterograde transneuronal degeneration of the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) neurons in consequence to loss of GABAergic inhibitory striatonigral efferents. The present study was undertaken to examine whether long-term intraventricular administration of the GABA agonist muscimol could promote reformation of the striatonigral pathway arising from transplants by rescuing host SNr neurons from transneuronal death in rats with striatal ischemic lesions. Compared to nongrafted rats with striatal lesions, (i) a prominent axonal projection from the transplants to the ipsilateral substantia nigra, (ii) a significant increase in number of survived neurons in the ipsilateral SNr, and (iii) a significant reduction in number of apomorphine-induced turning behaviors were found in grafted animals with muscimol infusion, but not in those without muscimol administration. These findings suggest that preservation of the host target neurons for grafted cells may increase an efficacy of cerebral implants in establishment of the host-graft fiber connections, possibly, leading to functional restoration.
Antiarrhythmic and Arrhythmogenic Actions of Varying Levels of Extracellular Magnesium: Possible Cellular Basis for the Differences in the Efficacy of Magnesium and Lidocaine in Torsade de Pointes

Background: In recent years, there has been an increasing use of antiarrhythmic drugs that act predominantly by prolonging myocardial repolarization. An inevitable electrophysiologic con sequence of these drugs is the development of torsade de pointes as a proarrhythmic reaction. Both intravenous lidocaine and magnesium sulphate have been used in the acute control of such a proarrhythmia. Their electrophysiologic mechanisms in this setting are not well defined. Methods and Results: Using the standard microelectrode techniques, the effects of magne sium (Mg) and lidocaine on action potential duration (APD), and on barium-induced sponta neous action potentials, were studied in canine Purkinje fiber preparations. The objective was to clarify the direct and indirect effects of magnesium on triggered activities due to early afterdepolarizations. Superfusion in media with 0.1 mM Mg and 2.5 mM K produced more pronounced increases in APD measured at -20mV repolarization time [APD20] than those in a solution with 5 mM K. This effect was further enhanced at lower stimulation frequencies. The striking prolongation of APD20 by solutions with low potassium concentrations dimin ished as the Mg concentration was increased. In solutions with 2.5 mM K, Mg produced con centration-dependent decreases in APD20. This effect was greater at lower stimulation fre quencies. Lidocaine at 4.0 × 10-5 M produced a marked shortening of the APD in the entire voltage range. On barium-induced automaticity, Mg markedly suppressed the spontaneous firing frequency of the abnormal automaticity in a concentration-dependent manner. With 10 mM Mg, such action potentials appeared only sporadically. Magnesium also decreased the amplitude and the maximum upstroke velocity of these action potentials. In contrast, lido caine at 4.0 × 10-5 M exhibited no significant effects on action potentials due to barium- induced abnormal automaticity, or on additional depolarizations developing from the repolar ization phase of these action potentials. Conclusions: The data indicate that (i) hypomagnesemia may be arrhythmogenic when com bined with hypokalemia and bradycardia leading to a prolongation of the plateau phase of the action potential, (ii) magnesium administration may suppress triggered activities mainly by a direct inhibition of the development of triggered potentials, and (iii) lidocaine may suppress triggered potentials only indirectly by preventing the development of early afterdepolariza tions due to the shortening effect on the APD. These findings are consistent with the clinical observation of a high incidence of torsade de pointes in the setting of hypokalemia and hypo magnesemia induced by a chronic diuretic therapy. They are also consistent with the marked effectiveness of intravenous Mg relative to the inconsistent clinical effects of lidocaine in controlling torsade de pointes.
Complications of systemic corticosteroid therapy for problematic hemangioma.

Systemic corticosteroid therapy has been used to treat hemangiomas for 30 years; yet, there are no studies of possible complications. We reviewed the database of the Vascular Anomalies Center at the Boston Children's Hospital and gathered information on short- and long-term side effects in children who were given systemic corticosteroids for problematic hemangiomas. In addition, a questionnaire regarding early and late consequences was sent to the families of children who were treated with corticosteroids from 1983 to 1997. Of 300 patients with hemangiomas, 80 children were identified as having received a full course of systemic corticosteroids for problematic tumors. Complete data were collected on 62 of these children. The response rate to the questionnaire was 78 percent (n = 62 of 80). The initial dose of corticosteroid varied from 2 to 3 mg/kg/ day. Duration of therapy ranged from 2 to 21 months (mean, 7.9 months; median, 6.5 months). The follow-up interval from the cessation of therapy ranged from 6 months to 15 years (mean, 4 years; median, 3 years). Short-term complications included cushingoid facies (n = 44; 71 percent), personality changes (n = 18; 29 percent), gastric irritation (n = 13; 21 percent), fungal (oral or perineal) infection (n = 4; 6 percent), and diminished gain of height (n = 22; 35 percent) and weight (n = 26; 42 percent). A total of 91 percent of children who had diminished gain of height (n = 20) returned to their pretreatment growth curve for height by 24 months of age. One child, who was treated at another institution with a dose of 20 mg/kg/day for 6.5 months that was slowly tapered over 18 months, was petite 6 years after ending therapy. Another child treated with an initial dose of 2 mg/kg/day for 5 months was smaller than predicted at the age of 6 years, but she was born prematurely and was on ventilatory support for respiratory distress. Three children treated with the standard dose and duration were at a low percentile for weight 4, 5, and 10 years after the cessation of therapy. Statistical analysis showed a correlation between diminished gain of height with duration of therapy and age at initiation of treatment. One child had corticosteroid myopathy that resolved with cessation of therapy. We found no evidence for immunologic suppression, i.e., there was no increase in the number of bacterial infections during corticosteroid administration. In conclusion, systemic corticosteroids can be safely given to treat endangering hemangiomas in infants at doses of 2 to 3 mg/kg/day, which are slowly tapered and stopped before the age of 1 year. Short-term side effects were minor and transient, and no serious long-term complications occurred.
Antiretroviral drugs and liver injury.

Antiretroviral drug-related liver injury (ARLI) is a common cause of morbidity, mortality and treatment discontinuation in HIV-infected patients [1]. Prevention and management of ARLI have emerged as major issues among HIV-infected patients in the era of HAART [2]. Virtually every licensed antiretroviral medication has been associated with liver enzyme elevations, although certain drugs may cause liver injury more frequently than others. In addition, certain comorbidities, such as chronic hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C (HCV) infection, may predispose patients to ARLI [3]. Several major mechanisms of ARLI have been described, including metabolic host-mediated injury, hypersensitivity reactions, mitochondrial toxicity, and immune reconstitution phenomena. The management of ARLI should be based on its clinical severity and underlying pathogenic mechanism. Herein, we propose use of a universal standard for defining liver injury to enable comparisons between future studies. Novel mechanisms for hepatotoxicity are also discussed along with preventive measures to avoid the onset of ARLI.
TNF-α Suppression and Osteoprotegerin Overexpression Inhibits wear Debris-Induced Inflammation and Osteoclastogenesis in vitro

Purpose Periprosthetic osteolysis, involving RANK/RANKL/osteoprotegerin (OPG) and TNF-α/NFκB signaling, contributes to bone resorption and inflammation. We constructed lentivirus vectors to inhibit TNF-α and enhance OPG expression and assessed their impacts on wear debris-induced inflammation and osteoclastogenesis in an osteoclast/osteoblast coculture system. Methods We transduced mouse osteoblastic MC3T3-E1 cells with Lenti-negative control (Lenti-NC), Lenti-OPG or Lenti-siTNFα-OPG, and murine macrophage/monocyte RAW264.7 cells with Lenti-NC, Lenti-TNF-α siRNA or Lenti-siTNFα-OPG. Then, TNF-α and OPG protein levels were evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We cocultured transduced MC3T3-E1 and RAW264.7 cells in transwell chambers in the presence of 0.1 mg/mL Ti particles to investigate the capacity of TNF-α inhibition to reduce wear debris-induced inflammation. We also assessed mRNA levels TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and OPG by RT-PCR as well as osteoclastogenesis by tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase. Results Lenti-siTNFα-OPG ameliorated Ti-particle-induced expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 in MC3T3-E1/RAW264.7 cocultures, while enhancing mRNA and protein levels of OPG, and reducing the fraction of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)+ cells. Conclusions Lenti-siTNFα-OPG can inhibit the wear debris-induced inflammatory responses and osteoclastogenesis in vitro, and may represent a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment or prevention of wear particle-induced osteolysis.
Design centering of a GaN photonic crystal nanobeam

It is well known that structures containing photonic crystal cavities produce cavity modes with extremely large Q-factors. This type of structure can be hyper sensitive to both design and manufacturing processes. Each parameter, be it structural or material will have a tolerance associated with it and the purpose of design centering is to obtain a final design that will achieve the highest yield while maintaining, not the maximum cavity Q factor available, but a value close to it. In this paper, we show how the cavity Q-factor of a photonic crystal nanobeam varies with some structural parameters using both two and three dimensional Lumerical FDTD s1.
Clonal variation of the immunogenotype in relapsed ETV6/RUNX1‐positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia indicates subclone formation during early stages of leukemia development

Recent data suggest that late relapses evolve from an ancestral ETV6/RUNX1‐positive (also designated TEL/AML1‐positive) clone resulting from secondary changes (ETV6 deletion) that differ from those of the initial leukemia and, as a consequence, may also deviate in their clonotypic immunoglobulin/T‐cell receptor (IG/TCR) gene rearrangements. The aim of our study was to compare the immunogenotype and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) patterns of the unrearranged ETV6 allele of matched diagnosis/relapse samples from 12 children with an early or late relapse. We identified varying degrees of differences in the IG/TCR in six of them. A clonal change or evolution of the unrearranged ETV6 allele was also observed in six children but remained unchanged in three. However, these two parameters were not in concordance, nor did the immunogenotype pattern correlate with the duration of the first remission. We therefore propose that the potential of the immunogenotype to diversify depends primarily on the stage of IG/TCR gene configuration of the cell in which the ETV6/RUNX1 gene fusion takes place. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Improving the learning of parallel programming using software refactoring

Parallel programming has become increasingly popular in the computer educational field over the past few years. Although parallel programs obtain the short execution time and the high throughput, learning how to write a well‐structured and high‐performance parallel program is still one of the challenges for most of students. How to let students learn parallel programming well is one of the important tasks that educators should resolve. This paper presents the learning of parallel programming using software refactoring methodologies and tools. Manual and automated refactoring are introduced to show how the learning is improved respectively. With manual refactoring, students learn how to perform the data or task decomposition and how to write a well‐structured parallel software via customized programs and some benchmarks in JGF benchmark suite; with automated refactoring, students can transform the parallel parts quickly, and then evaluate the performance of a parallel software. Two automated refactoring tools are developed for educational purposes. Some of the experiences are also shared during conducting the course. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 25:112–119, 2017; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cae; DOI 10.1002/cae.21784
Updated secondary implant stability data of two dental implant systems. A retrospective cohort study

Background At present, updated secondary implant stability data generated by actual versions of resonance frequency analysis (RFA) and mobility measurement (MM) electronic devices of 2 different implant systems with actual manufactured surfaces seem to lack and/or are incomplete. Material and Methods Secondary implant stability data based on both RFA and MM measurements were collected and analyzed from 44 formerly treated patients (24 f, 20 m) that received either Ankylos Cellplus (Ø3.5mm) (A) (n=36) or Straumann regular neck SLA tissue level (Ø4.1mm) (S) (n=37) implants in posterior positions of both jawbones (total number= 72). These results were interpretated in view of formerly published data. Results Estimated RFA outcomes (mean±SD) for A implants were of 81.23 (±0.65) (LP) - 76.15 (±1.57) (UP) isq; for S implants 76.15 (±1.48) (LP) - 73.88 (±2.34) (UP) isq. Estimated MM outcomes for A implants were (-4.0) (±0.23) (LP) - (-3.2) (±0.33) (UP) ptv; for S implants (-5.15) (±0.39) (LP) - (-4.4) (±0.84) (UP) ptv. According to GEE statistical modelling, implant type and – position seems to influence the outcome variables (p<0.05), gender and implant length did not (p >0.05). Conclusions Secondary implant stability values, recorded with current RFA and MM devices, of A Cellplus implants are provided for the first time. A difference of 14.7-9.7 isq values was noted for CellPlus versus TPS S implants recorded with a cabled RFA device. This study supports the assumption that RFA outcomes generated with first generation RFA devices are different from those obtained with current RFA devices, meaning that its use in reviews need caution and correction. Key words:Secondary implant stability, resonance frequency analysis, Periotest, Osstell Mentor, Straumann, Ankylos, CellPlus, SLA.
Demographic, political, institutional and financial determinants of regional social expenditure: the case of Spain

ABSTRACT Demographic, political, institutional and financial determinants of regional social expenditure: the case of Spain. Regional Studies. This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of regional social spending using a dataset of the 17 regional governments in Spain. With both a fixed-effects static and a dynamic model, results suggest that demography, inputs, institutional design and resources are critical in determining the size of regional social budgets. Empirical evidence was found about the existence of economies of scale, but social services do not seem to follow a luxury-goods pattern. Left-wing governments seem to spend more, while federal regulations work as constraints of regional autonomy. Finally, strong evidence that the ‘foral’ system of regional financing is creating horizontal inequalities in the access to essential public services was found, while the common regime seems to be working well enough.
Abductive Agents for Human Activity Monitoring

We propose in this paper a novel architecture for human activity monitoring, following conceptual, technical and experimental claims. From a conceptual viewpoint, we propose to approach the interpretation of sensor data as embedded into a multidimensional frame involving functional and non-functional requirements. Functional requirements involve considering the monitored person's specicities as well as the task to be performed. Non-functional requirements qualify the system activity. This frame of interpretation is continuously rened, to cope with evolving situations or expectations from the Observer. From a technical viewpoint, we propose to develop a multi-Agent architecture as a means for dependable, exible monitoring. This paradigm allows to handle multiple, heterogeneous entities in a unied way. The Agents process incoming data with a dynamic population of hypotheses on several abstraction levels. This reasoning is abductive and fuzzy in nature. From the experimental viewpoint, we propose a dedicated evaluation approach to estimate the interpretative process unfolding. Functional and non-functional properties are presented to discuss the system's effectiveness, informativeness, sensitivity, eficiency and robustness, some of which are supported by qualitative, analytical discussions, others by quantitative measures.
A Novel Function of the Human Chaperonin CCT Epsilon Subunit in Yeast

A malfunction in the yeast HAC1 causes the unfolding-protein response in the endoplasmic reticulum, resulting in stress-sensitive and inositol auxotrophic phenotypes. Chaperonin-containing TCP1 (CCT) is necessary for the folding of actin and tubulin in the cytosol. The introduction of the truncated human CCT epsilon subunit into yeast cells of which hac1 was disrupted clearly suppressed not only its inositol auxotrophic phenotype but also its stress-sensitive phenotype.
New Media and Public Opinion During Hard Times: A Case Study of Turkey

This paper presents preliminary results of a project which explores the socio-political consequences of social network sites (SNS). More specifically, the study looks into how a significant segment of Turkish youth utilizes Facebook to form, maintain and manage networks; the nature of the conversation they carry on in the networked space and the implications of such activity for their political socialization process - given the highly polarized, crisis-ridden everyday political culture of the country.