Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In Vivo Experiments Reveal the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Faces of sFlt-1 in Pregnancy

Objective Soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase (sFlt)-1-e15a, a primate-specific sFlt-1-isoform most abundant in the human placenta in preeclampsia, can induce preeclampsia in mice. This study compared the effects of full-length human (h)sFlt-1-e15a with those of truncated mouse (m)sFlt-1(1-3) used in previous preeclampsia studies on pregnancy outcome and clinical symptoms in preeclampsia. Methods Mice were injected with adenoviruses or fiber-mutant adenoviruses overexpressing hsFlt-1-e15a, msFlt-1(1-3) or control GFP under the CMV or CYP19A1 promoters on gestational day 8 (GD8) and GD11. Placentas and pups were delivered by cesarean section, and dams were monitored postpartum. Blood pressure was telemetrically recorded. Urine samples were collected with cystocentesis and examined for albumin/creatinine ratios. Tissue specimens were evaluated for transgene as well as endogenous mFlt-1 and msFlt-1-i13 expression. H&E-, Jones- and PAS-stained kidney sections were histopathologically examined. Placental GFP expression and aortic ring assays were investigated with confocal microscopy. Results Mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) was elevated before delivery in hsFlt-1-e15a-treated mice compared to controls (GD18: ΔMAP = 7.8 mmHg, p = 0.009), while ΔMAP was 12.8 mmHg (GD18, p = 0.005) in msFlt-1(1-3)-treated mice. Urine albumin/creatinine ratio was higher in hsFlt-1-e15a-treated mice than in controls (GD18, p = 0.04; PPD8, p = 0.03), and msFlt-1(1-3)-treated mice had marked proteinuria postpartum (PPD8, p = 4×10−5). Focal glomerular changes were detected in hsFlt-1-e15a and msFlt-1(1-3)-treated mice. Aortic ring microvessel outgrowth was decreased in hsFlt-1-e15a (p = 0.007) and msFlt-1(1-3)-treated (p = 0.02) mice. Full-length msFlt-1-i13 expression was unique for the placenta. In hsFlt-1-e15a-treated mice, the number of pups (p = 0.046), total weight of living pups (p = 0.04) and maternal weights (p = 0.04) were higher than in controls. These differences were not observed in truncated msFlt-1(1-3)-treated mice. Conclusions Truncated msFlt-1(1-3) simulated the preeclampsia-promoting effects of full-length hsFlt-1. MsFlt-1(1-3) had strong effect on maternal endothelium but not on placentas and embryos. In contrast, hsFlt-1-e15a induced preeclampsia-like symptoms; however, it also increased litter size. In accord with the predominant placental expression of hsFlt-1-e15a and msFlt-1-i13, full-length sFlt-1 may have a role in the regulation of embryonic development. These observations point to the difference in the biological effects of full-length and truncated sFlt-1 and the changes in the effect of full-length sFlt-1 during pregnancy, and may have important implications in the management of preeclampsia.
Nutrition in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Position Paper on Behalf of the Porto Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

Background and Aims: A growing body of evidence supports the need for detailed attention to nutrition and diet in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aimed to define the steps in instituting dietary or nutritional management in light of the current evidence and to offer a useful and practical guide to physicians and dieticians involved in the care of pediatric IBD patients. Methods: A group of 20 experts in pediatric IBD participated in an iterative consensus process including 2 face-to-face meetings, following an open call to Nutrition Committee of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition Porto, IBD Interest, and Nutrition Committee. A list of 41 predefined questions was addressed by working subgroups based on a systematic review of the literature. Results: A total of 53 formal recommendations and 47 practice points were endorsed with a consensus rate of at least 80% on the following topics: nutritional assessment; macronutrients needs; trace elements, minerals, and vitamins; nutrition as a primary therapy of pediatric IBD; probiotics and prebiotics; specific dietary restrictions; and dietary compounds and the risk of IBD. Conclusions: This position paper represents a useful guide to help the clinicians in the management of nutrition issues in children with IBD.
Expressions for Solubility Products of Fe3Nb3C carbide and Fe2Nb Laves Phase in Niobium Alloyed Ferritic Stainless Steels

Precipitation behaviors in niobium alloyed ferritic stainless steels, which are widely used as heat resistant materials in automotive exhausts, were investigated. The solubility products of Fe 3 Nb 3 C and Fe 2 Nb, both of which are prominent precipitates in such steels, were experimentally obtained. The expressions of the solubility products with mass% are given by: Fe 3 Nb 3 C; log 10 {(Nb] 3 [C]}=-11 613/T+5.2178 Fe 2 Nb; log 10 [Nb]=-3 780.3/T+2.4646 These were verified with some published experimental data. An attempt was also made to get thermodynamic parameters using the solubility products. The free energy changes for the precipitation reactions from niobium-supersaturated ferrite have been obtained. The expressions with mole fractions in ferrite matrix, e.g. x αβ Nb, are given by: Fe 3 Nb 3 C (β); ΔG β =-222 509- RT{6.423+ln(x αβ Nb) 3 (x αβ c)} Fe 2 Nb (ω); ΔG ω = -72 334- RT{0.5469+ln N αω Nb}.
ABrox—A user-friendly Python module for approximate Bayesian computation with a focus on model comparison

We give an overview of the basic principles of approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), a class of stochastic methods that enable flexible and likelihood-free model comparison and parameter estimation. Our new open-source software called ABrox is used to illustrate ABC for model comparison on two prominent statistical tests, the two-sample t-test and the Levene-Test. We further highlight the flexibility of ABC compared to classical Bayesian hypothesis testing by computing an approximate Bayes factor for two multinomial processing tree models. Last but not least, throughout the paper, we introduce ABrox using the accompanied graphical user interface.
Use of Cenosphere for Making Metal-Microspheres Syntactic Foam through Powder Metallurgy Route

Cenospheres are very cheap, and are reasonably strong and thermally stable upto 1200°C. In view of this attempt has been made to use these cenosphere for making Titanium syntactic foams with varying relative densities. Precautions were taken for selecting cold compaction pressure to minimize cenosphere crushing. The sintered samples were then characterized in terms of microstructures primarily to see the extent of cenosphere crushing, distribution of cenosphere, and extent of sintering. The foams made using optimized pressure and sintering parameters, exhibits uniform distribution of cenosphere without any significant crushing. The plateau stress, energy absorption and modulus of these foams are varying with the cenosphere content or the relative density, and these parameters can be engineered by varying cenosphere content in the foam. These foams exhibit considerably higher strength and stiffness than the conventional foam and show the possibility of using them for biomedical and engineering applications.
The moderating effects of aging and cognitive abilities on the association between work stress and negative affect

ABSTRACT Objectives: Given that the association between work stress and negative affect can exacerbate negative health and workplace outcomes, it is important to identify the protective and risk factors that moderate this association. Socioemotional aging and cognitive abilities might influence how people utilize emotion regulation skills and engage in practical problem solving to manage their work stress. The aim of this study is to examine whether age and cognitive abilities independently and interactively moderate the association between work-related stress and negative affect. Method: A diverse working adult sample (N = 139, age 25–65, 69% of females) completed a cross-sectional survey that assessed chronic work stress, negative affect, and fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities. Results: Results from regression analyses suggested that both fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities, but not age, moderated the association between work stress and negative affect. Further, we found that crystallized cognition had a stronger attenuating effect on the work stress—negative affect association for older compared to younger workers. The moderating effect of fluid cognition was invariant across age. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that cognitive abilities are an important personal resource that might protect individuals against the negative impacts of work stress and negative affect. Although the role that fluid cognition plays in work stress—negative affect association is comparably important for both younger and older workers, crystallized cognition might play a more valuable role for older than younger workers.
A REVIEW OF GAIT CYCLE AND ITS PARAMETERS

Biometrics refers to as scientific and technological measurements of either physiological or behavioral human characteristics. e.g. fingerprints, face, iris, hand geometry, voice and gait etc. Gait is a behavioral biometric and is defined as the manner of walking. It includes both the body appearance and dynamics of human walking motion. When it is not feasible to take facial snapshots, finger prints, to record voice or to read hand geometry then gait may be proved as an effective tool to recognize a person. This paper describes a brief of gait, gait cycle and its phases.
Characteristics and Costs of Disability Pensions in Finnish Agriculture Based on 5-Year Insurance Records

ABSTRACT The characteristics and costs of disability pensions in Finnish farmers were investigated. The data included a total of 4,088 permanent or temporary disability pensions of the self-employed Finnish farming population over a 5-year period (2008–2012), an annual rate of 1.04 new cases per 100 person-years (males 0.94/100 and females 1.24/100). These cases resulted in the loss of almost 6,800 person-years and 60.2 million Euros in pension costs in the 5-year period. Almost half of the outcomes (44.6%) were primarily related to diseases of the musculoskeletal system (MSDs). Other common outcomes were mental and behavioral disorders (17.5%), injuries (9.8%), diseases of the circulatory system (7.8%), and diseases of the nervous system (6.6%). Relative proportions of these outcomes and their costs were similar with few exceptions. Although farmers have high risk of acute traumatic injuries, they also have a high risk of chronic conditions that affect their work ability. Particularly MSDs were common primary reasons for disability pension among farmers in general and among female farmers in particular. In addition to healthy lifestyle choices, improvements in the working environment and methods to reduce heavy or repetitive manual labor should be emphasized in vocational and extension education of farmers. Modern working conditions with meaningful and varied work tasks could enhance both physical and mental well-being of farmers and thus reinforce and extend their careers.
Implementing CMMI using a Combination of Agile Methods

This paper explores the possibility for software companies of getting a CMMI certification of their processes by applying agile practices. For this purpose, starting with CMMI maturity level 2 generic goals and practices, we analyze the applicability of a series of agile methods, identifying their individual or combined contribution in the fulfillment of each process area. The main result of this research is the definition of a “fulfillment delta” required for a small or medium size company to reach CMMI level 2 using agile methods. We present an application case where a small company applied a combination of XP and Scrum for implementing the requirement management area. We compare the theoretical fulfillment delta with this company’s results.
Evaluation of individual low‐dose dexamethasone suppression test patterns in naturally occurring hyperadrenocorticism in dogs

Background Dogs with hyperadrenocorticism (HAC) may be more mildly affected at the time of diagnosis today, which could influence the prevalence of associated clinical and clinicopathological abnormalities and diagnostic test performance. Different low‐dose dexamethasone suppression test (LDDST) result patterns have not been evaluated individually. Objectives To assess the current features of HAC and evaluate if the diagnostic test performance of individual LDDST result patterns differ. Animals One hundred and twenty‐three dogs undergoing investigation for HAC. Methods Retrospective evaluation of dogs in which a LDDST was performed and HAC confirmed or excluded by alternative means. Cases with basal cortisol concentrations (t 0) < 1 μg/dL were excluded. Each LDDST result was classified as (a) complete suppression (t 3 and t 8 < 1 μg/dL), (b) lack of suppression (t 3 and t 8 > 1 μg/dL and both > 50% t 0), (c) partial suppression (t 3 and t 8 > 1 μg/dL but either < 50% t 0), (d) escape (t 8 > 1 μg/dL and t 3 < 1 μg/dL) or (e) inverse (t 3 > 1 μg/dL and t 8 < 1 μg/dL) pattern. Results Fifty‐nine (48%) dogs were diagnosed with HAC and 64 (52%) with non‐adrenal illness. Hyperadrenocorticism cases had similar clinicopathological abnormalities compared to previous reports. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) (95% confidence interval [CI]) of the LDDST for diagnosing HAC were 96.6 (91.9‐100)%, 67.2 (55.7‐78.7)%, 73.1 (63.2‐82.9)%, and 95.6 (89.5‐100)%, respectively. Lack of suppression pattern had the highest PPV (93.9 [85.8‐100]%) followed by the partial suppression pattern (67.9 [50.6–85.2]%) and escape or inverse pattern (36.8 [15.1–58.5]%). Conclusions and Clinical Importance A lack of suppression LDDST pattern has the highest PPV for diagnosing HAC followed by a partial suppression pattern. By contrast, the escape or inverse pattern provided limited support of HAC.
Phylogeography and Population Genetic Analyses in the Iberian Toothcarp (Aphanius iberus Valenciennes, 1846) at Different Time Scales

Secondary freshwater fish species inhabiting fluctuating and extreme environments are susceptible to changes in dispersion, effective population size, and genetic structure. The Iberian toothcarp Aphanius iberus is an endemic cyprinodontid of the Iberian Peninsula restricted to brackish water of salt marshes and coastal lagoons on the eastern Spanish Mediterranean coast. In this study, we analyzed mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) DNA and microsatellite variation to evaluate ways in which the processes of extinction, dispersal, and colonization of A. iberus across its geographic distribution have affected its population genetic structure over time and space. The A. iberus network reconstruction indicated subtle levels of phylogeographic structuring. This, combined with substantial mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetic diversity, suggests that Pleistocene glaciations had a lesser effect on the demographic structure of its populations than was the case for Iberian freshwater species with a similar distribution. Haplotype network, hierarchical analysis of molecular variance, and pairwise ΦST comparisons involving some Levantine samples showed a relatively high degree of mtDNA differentiation, which could be explained by historical isolation of the Villena Lagoon population. Conversely, significant genetic differentiation that follows an isolation-by-distance pattern, and a reduction in Ne though time was detected with microsatellites, suggesting extensive habitat fragmentation on the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula over the past hundreds of years. At a smaller geographical scale (Mar Menor Lagoon), habitat fragmentation, probably due to human activity, appears to have resulted in substantially reduced migration and increased genetic drift, as shown by expanded genetic differentiation of populations.
Further observations on the scaled Chrysophycean and Synurophycean flora of the Ocala National Forest, Florida, U.S.A.

The distributions of silica-scaled chrysophytes in 30 freshwater ponds located in the Ocala National Forest, Florida, U.S.A. , relative to chemical gradients are described. Phytoplankton, periphyton, and surface sediments from each of the 30 sites were collected in March of 2000 and later analyzed extensively with both scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy (LM) for scaled chrysophytes. In addition, water samples were used to measure a suite of chemical characteristics, including specific conductance, pH, alkalinity, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, chlorophyll-a, chloride, sulfate and base cation concentrations. Overall, waterbodies included in this study are oligotrophic, dilute, poorly buffered and low in pH. Including six previously described species which are largely known only from the Ocala National Forest, we have identified forty-nine taxa of silica-scaled Chry-sophyceae and Synurophyceae, 23 of which were present in 5 or more waterbodies, indicating that lakes in this region are quite diverse and abundant in scaled chrysophytes. The most important species included Synura petersenii, S. echinulata and one recently reported new species from this region, Mallomonas wujekii, which was found in 73% of the lakes in this survey. The number of taxa found per lake ranged from 2 to 23 and observations include new records of several rarely reported species. Although the flora includes species commonly found in more northern regions, it also includes a group of taxa that appear to be endemic to the region and others commonly found in more tropical regions. Lastly, a new form found in ten ponds, Mallomonas transsylvanica f. curvata, is described.
A General Framework for Priority Arguments

The degrees of unsolvability were introduced in the ground-breaking papers of Post [20] and Kleene and Post [7] as an attempt to measure the information content of sets of natural numbers. Kleene and Post were interested in the relative complexity of decision problems arising naturally in mathematics; in particular, they wished to know when a solution to one decision problem contained the information necessary to solve a second decision problem. As decision problems can be coded by sets of natural numbers, this question is equivalent to: Given a computer with access to an oracle which will answer membership questions about a set A, can a program (allowing questions to the oracle) be written which will correctly compute the answers to all membership questions about a set B? If the answer is yes, then we say that B is Turing reducible to A and write B ≤ T A. We say that B ≡ T A if B ≤ T A and A ≤ T B. ≡ T is an equivalence relation, and ≤ T induces a partial ordering on the corresponding equivalence classes; the poset obtained in this way is called the degrees of unsolvability, and elements of this poset are called degrees. Post was particularly interested in computability from sets which are partially generated by a computer, namely, those for which the elements of the set can be enumerated by a computer.
Tensile Strength of Teak Wood Saw Dust - Cashew nut shell liquid resin composites

over the last few decades there has been a considerable development in the field of composites and has been extensively used in various applications. Because of the fact that composite materials possess high stiffness, high strength and less weight. In the past few years natural fibers are being used in the field of composites. The reason is that natural fibers are environment ecofriendly, low cost of raw materials. In this present experiment, composite materials prepared using Cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) resin as matrix and Teak Wood Saw Dust as reinforcing agents were tested for their tensile strength.
Handling L2 Input in Phonological STM : The Effect of Non-L1 Phonetic Segments and Non-L1 Phonotactics on Nonword Repetition

This article reports on an experiment comparing the effects of three discrete types of deviance from native language (L1) phonetics and phonology on verbal short-term memory performance. A nonword repetition task was used to measure the recall of four stimulus types: (a) high-probability L1-sounding nonwords, (b) low-probability L1-sounding nonwords, (c) nonwords containing illegal L1 phoneme sequences, and (d) nonwords containing non-L1 sound segments. Special response assessment criteria were used in order to control for potential production effects such as an accent. Results reveal a major detrimental effect caused by the presence of unfamiliar sound segments in the input. The decrement produced by phonological deviances was only significant in the case of long (six-syllable) stimuli. A model of LTM-STM interaction is proposed in which the supporting effect of phonetic knowledge is restricted to perceptual analysis and the role of phonological/phonotactic knowledge is confined to reconstructive processes.
Novel algal symbiont (Symbiodinium spp.) diversity in reef corals of Western Australia

The identity and diversity of algal symbionts (Symbiodinium spp.) in reef corals is thought to influence to the resilience of reef ecosystems to climate change, and varies depending on coral species, environmental conditions, and biogeography. We examined these factors by surveying corals along a latitudinal gradient in Western Australia on reefs connected north to south by the warm-water Leeuwin Current. We used the internal transcribed spacer-2 (ITS-2) region of ribosomal DNA to characterize Symbiodinium communities in 19 species of reef coral (in 16 genera) from trop- ical Dampier (20.5° S) to temperate Dunsborough (33.5° S). We documented a high number of novel ITS-2 types in Symbiodinium clades B (1 type) and C (14 types) as well as 7 previously reported ITS- 2 types in clades B, C, and D. In addition, we compared symbiont distributions with Giovanni's OBIG MODIS-Aqua satellite temperature data set and found that the putatively thermotolerant Symbiodi- nium ITS-2 type D1a was more frequently detected in 'chronically warm' tropical sites than at 'chron- ically cool' temperate sites, while clade B symbiont types showed the reverse pattern, being found in certain corals at the southernmost sites. Symbiodinium type D1a was generally most abundant at Dampier, where bleaching had occurred 1 mo prior to sampling, although some variation by host taxa was observed. The diverse and novel Symbiodinium communities documented here may be a result of (1) the variable environmental histories of the study sites, (2) the apparent genetic divergence within this genus resulting from the relative isolation of Western Australian reefs, and/or (3) the fre- quent transport of symbionts (in hospite or free-living) from Indo-Malay reefs to Western Australia via the Leeuwin Current. These results indicate that understudied reefs in remote and isolated areas may contain Symbiodinium diversity that has not been reported previously.