Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Paraspinal Muscle Cross-sectional Area After Lumbar Decompression: Minimally Invasive Versus Open Approaches.

STUDY DESIGN A retrospective, blinded analysis of imaging studies. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA To evaluate changes in paraspinal muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) after surgical treatment for lumbar stenosis and to compare these changes between minimally invasive and standard open approaches. The open approach to lumbar stenosis is effective, but it involves retraction and resection of muscle from the spinous process, which can result in ischemia and denervation of paraspinal musculature and may lead to muscle atrophy and pain. OBJECTIVE It is hypothesized that the microendoscopic decompression of stenosis (MEDS) technique will better preserve the paraspinal muscles compared with the open procedure. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 18 patients underwent a 1-level posterior decompression for lumbar stenosis, (9 open, 9 MEDS). Lumbar magnetic resonance imaging was obtained before surgery and after surgery (open approach average 16.3 mo; MEDS average 16.6 mo). CSA of paraspinal muscles were averaged over the distance of the surgical site. RESULTS The mean age of patients treated with the open and MEDS approaches were 55.2 and 66.4 years, respectively (P=0.07). Paraspinal muscle CSA decreased by an average of 5.4% (SD=10.6%; range, -24.5% to +7.7%) in patients treated with the open approach and increased by an average of 9.9% (SD=14.4%; range, -9.8% to +33.1%) in patients treated with MEDS (P=0.02). For the open approach, changes in CSA did not differ significantly between the left and right sides for erector spinae (P=0.35) or multifidus muscles (P=0.90). After the MEDS approach there were no significant differences between the dilated and contralateral sides with regard to change in CSA for erector spinae (P=0.85) or multifidus muscles (P=0.95). CONCLUSIONS Compared with the open approach for lumbar stenosis, MEDS had significantly less negative impact on the paraspinal muscle CSA. Previous reports have documented negative effects of paraspinal muscle injury, including weakness, disability, and pain. Collectively, these data suggest that the MEDS approach for lumbar decompression is less destructive to the paraspinous muscles than the open approach and may facilitate better clinical outcomes.
Creating a virtual source inside a medium from reflection data with internal multiples: a stationary-phase analysis

SUMMARY Seismic interferometry allows one to create a virtual source inside a medium, assuming a receiver is present at the position of the virtual source. We discuss a method that creates a virtual source inside a medium from reflection data measured at the surface, without needing a receiver inside the medium and, hence, going beyond seismic interferometry. In addition to the reflection data, an estimate of the direct arrivals is required. However, no information about the medium is needed. We analyze the proposed method for a simple configuration using physical arguments based on the stationary-phase method and show that the retrieved virtual-source response correctly contains the multiples due to the inhomogeneous medium. The proposed method can serve as a basis for data-driven suppression of internal multiples in seismic imaging.
Induction of Cell Death in Human Macrophages by a Highly Virulent Korean Isolate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Virulent Strain H37Rv

Recent studies have suggested that virulent strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis induce apoptosis in macrophages less often than do attenuated strains. K‐strain, which belongs to the Beijing family, is the most frequently isolated clinical strain of M. tuberculosis in Korea. In this study, we investigated the differential induction of cell death in human monocytic THP‐1 cells by K‐strain and H37Rv, a virulent but laboratory‐adapted strain of M. tuberculosis. Although no significant difference in growth rate was observed between the cells exposed to K‐strain and those exposed to H37Rv, the levels of protective cytokines such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, interleukin (IL)‐6 and IL‐12p40 were lower in K‐strain‐infected cells than in H37Rv‐infected cells. Cell viability assays showed that both K‐strain and H37Rv, but not heat‐ or streptomycin‐killed bacteria, induced THP‐1 cell death in a TNF‐independent manner. In contrast, double staining with fluorochrome‐labelled inhibitors of caspase and propidium iodide and lactate dehydrogenase release assays revealed that K‐strain induced significantly higher levels of necrotic cell death, rather than apoptosis, in THP‐1 cells than did H37Rv. Anti‐apoptotic Bcl‐2, Mcl‐1, Bfl‐1 and Bcl‐xL in the cells were significantly upregulated following infection with K‐strain compared with H37Rv, whereas Bax was slightly upregulated in response to infection with both H37Rv and K‐strain. These results suggest that the highly virulent K‐strain keeps cellular apoptosis as a host defense mechanism to a minimum and induces necrosis in macrophages.
Time Evolution of Galaxy Formation and Bias in Cosmological Simulations

The clustering of galaxies relative to the underlying mass distribution declines with cosmic time for three reasons. First, nonlinear peaks become less rare events as the density field evolves. Second, the densest regions stop forming new galaxies because their gas becomes too hot to cool and collapse. Third, after galaxies form, they are subject to the same gravitational forces as the dark matter, and thus they tend to trace the dark matter distribution more closely with time; in this sense, they are gravitationally "debiased. " In order to illustrate these effects, we perform a large-scale hydrodynamic cosmological simulation of a Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model with Ω0 = 0.37 and examine the statistics of δ*(,z), the density field of recently formed galaxies at position and redshift z. We find that the bias of recently formed galaxies b* ≡ ⟨δ⟩1/2/⟨δ2⟩1/2, where δ is the mass overdensity, evolves from b* ~ 4.5 at z = 3 to b* ~ 1 at z = 0, on 8 h-1 Mpc comoving scales. The correlation coefficient r* ≡ ⟨δδ*⟩/⟨δ2⟩1/2⟨δ⟩1/2 evolves from r* ~ 0.9 at z = 3 to r* ~ 0.3 at z = 0. That is, as gas in the universe heats up and prevents star formation, the star-forming galaxies become poorer tracers of the mass density field. We show that the linear continuity equation is a good approximation for describing the gravitational debiasing, even on nonlinear scales. The most interesting observational consequence of the simulations is that the linear regression of the galaxy formation density field on the galaxy density field, b*gr*g = ⟨δ*δg⟩/⟨δ⟩, evolves from about 0.9 at z = 1 to 0.35 at z = 0. Measuring this evolution, which should be possible using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, would place constraints on models for galaxy formation. In addition, we evaluate the effects of the evolution of galaxy formation on estimates of Ω from cluster mass-to-light ratios, finding that while Ω(z) increases with z, the estimate Ωest(z) actually decreases. This effect is due to the combination of galaxy bias and the relative fading of cluster galaxies with respect to field galaxies. Finally, these effects provide a possible explanation for the Butcher-Oemler effect, the excess of blue galaxies in clusters at redshift z ~ 0.5.
Learners and Learning in Environmental Education: A critical review of the evidence

Recent analyses of the field of environmental education research have highlighted its rapidly expanding size and increasingly diverse nature (e.g. Hart & Nolan, 1999). This article reports on a review of a particular part of this field - namely, recent empirical studies of learners and learning in primary or secondary school environmental education. The review focuses specifically on the nature and quality of the evidence generated by the work in this area. The concern with evidence is motivated by the tendency of previous reviews to focus on methodological trends more than research findings. Claims have also been made that environmental education theory and research have overlooked 'the children who are the subjects of environmental education' (Payne, 1998a, p. 20). This review contends that efforts to address such shortcomings need to be informed by a thorough and grounded understanding of what studies have, and have not, been undertaken on students and learning, and what is known, and not known, from the evidence that these studies have generated. In its methods, the review seeks to be systematic, comprehensive and analytical. Its findings are based on careful scrutiny of over 100 journal articles, books and reports, published between 1993 and 1999. It proposes that the current evidence base on learners and learning can be understood in terms of six concentrations or nodes of evidence. Three of these are well established (students' (i) environmental knowledge (ii) environmental attitudes and behaviours, and (iii) environmental learning outcomes), while three can be regarded as emerging (students' (i) perceptions of nature, (ii) experiences of learning, and (iii) influences on adults). The recent research evidence and key messages associated with each of these nodes are discussed in successive sections of the review. Overall, the review suggests that the evidence base on learners and learning, while considerable in size, is less diverse in terms of methodological and theoretical approaches than the wider environmental education research field within which it is situated. The evidence base also provides more information about students' environmental knowledge and attitudes than about their educational experiences and preferences, and more about learning outcomes than about learning processes . These characteristics, however, are not static. The research and evidence base on learners and learning is developing and changing as new foci emerge, bringing with them different methodological and conceptual approaches. The review identifies issues and challenges arising from the recent evidence on learners and learning for research users, researchers and future reviews of the field. As well as highlighting possible practical implications of the research, it makes a case for studies focused more explicitly on learning and the role learners play within this process. It also suggests a need for user reviews as well as academic reviews in the field of environmental education.
The rhetorical limits of the “plastic body”

This essay analyzes the “plastic body” as it is produced in the discourse of plastic surgery. The contemporary industry has constructed a popular image of plastic surgery as a readily available and personally empowering means to resolve body image issues, on the presumption that any body can become a “better” body. The ideology underlying the industry emerges out of analysis of the rhetoric of surgeons and patients. The rhetorical efforts of amputee “wannabes,” who seek elective amputation and who use arguments similar to those of mainstream plastic surgery applicants, reveal the paradoxes and contradictions in decision‐making about who has access to these procedures. The essay concludes that the concept of the plastic body is based less on medical technology and skill than on rhetorical power and suggests that this body of discourse has important implications for medical and technological advances that have enlarged the possibilities for body alteration practices.
The Unstructured N-terminal Tail of ParG Modulates Assembly of a Quaternary Nucleoprotein Complex in Transcription Repression*

ParG is the prototype of a group of small (<10 kDa) proteins involved in accurate plasmid segregation. The protein is a dimeric DNA binding factor, which consists of symmetric paired C-terminal domains that interleave into a ribbon-helix-helix fold that is crucial for the interaction with DNA, and unstructured N-terminal domains of previously unknown function. Here the ParG protein is shown to be a transcriptional repressor of the parFG genes. The protein assembles on its operator site initially as a tetramer (dimer of dimers) and, at elevated protein concentrations, as a pair of tetramers. Progressive deletion of the mobile N-terminal tails concomitantly decreased transcriptional repression by ParG and perturbed the DNA binding kinetics of the protein. The flexible tails are not necessary for ParG dimerization but instead modulate the organization of a higher order nucleoprotein complex that is crucial for proper transcriptional repression. This is achieved by transient associations between the flexible and folded domains in complex with the target DNA. Numerous ParG homologs encoded by plasmids of Gram-negative bacteria similarly are predicted to possess N-terminal disordered tails, suggesting that this is a common feature of partition operon autoregulation. The results provide new insights into the role of natively unfolded domains in protein function, the molecular mechanisms of transcription regulation, and the control of plasmid segregation.
Associations of self-reported and objectively measured sleep disturbances with depression among primary caregivers of children with disabilities

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the association between sleep and depression using both self-reported (subjective) and actigraphic (objective) sleep traits. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 175 female primary caregivers of children with disabilities receiving care at a rehabilitation center in Punta Arenas, Chile. The eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire was used to ascertain participants’ depression status. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to define subjective, or perceived, sleep quality. Wrist-worn actigraph monitors, worn for seven consecutive nights, were used to characterize objective sleep quality and disturbances. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect information on sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. Linear regression models were fit using continuous sleep parameters as the dependent variables and depression status as the independent variable. Multivariable models were adjusted for body mass index, marital status, smoking status, education level, and children’s disabilities. Results Using an eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire score ≥10, 26.3% of participants presented with depression. Depressed women were more likely to self-report overall poorer (subjective) sleep compared to non-depressed women; however, differences in sleep were not consistently noted using actigraphic (objective) sleep traits. Among the depressed, both sleep duration and total time in bed were significantly underestimated. In multivariable models, depression was negatively associated with sleep duration using both subjective (β=−0.71, standard error [SE] =0.25; P=0.006) and objective sleep (β=−0.42, SE =0.19; P=0.026). Conclusion The association between sleep and depression differed comparing subjective and objective methods of assessment. Research strategies allowing for the integration of both perceived and objective measures of sleep traits are encouraged.
Characteristics of mixed‐phase clouds. I: Lidar, radar and aircraft observations from CLARE'98

Results are presented from two case‐studies during the 1998 Cloud Lidar And Radar Experiment (CLARE'98) in which mixed‐phase clouds were observed by a multitude of ground‐based and airborne instruments. In both cases supercooled liquid water was present in the form of highly reflective layers in lidar imagery, while the radar echo was dominated by the contribution from the much larger ice particles. In the first case‐study, four individual liquid‐water layers were observed by an airborne nadir‐pointing polarimetric lidar at temperatures between −7°C and −15°C, embedded within a warm‐frontal ice cloud. Their phase was confirmed by the in situ measurements and by their very low depolarization of the lidar signal. The effective droplet radius ranged from 2 to 5 µm. Simultaneous temperature and vertical‐wind measurements by the aircraft demonstrated that they were generated by a gravity wave with a wavelength of around 15 km. Thin sector plates grew rapidly in the high‐supersaturation conditions and were responsible for the high values of differential reflectivity measured by the ground‐based radar in the vicinity of the layers. In the second case‐study a liquid‐water altocumulus layer was observed at −23°C, which was slowly glaciating. Profiles of liquid and ice extinction coefficient, water content and effective radius were derived from the remote measurements taken in both cases, using radar–lidar and dual‐wavelength radar techniques to size the ice particles; where in situ validation was available, agreement was good. Radiative‐transfer calculations were then performed on these profiles to ascertain the radiative effect of the supercooled water. It was found that, despite their low liquid‐water path (generally less than 10 – 20 g m−2), these clouds caused a significant increase in the reflection of solar radiation to space, even when cirrus was present, above which the long‐wave signal dominated. In the cases considered, their capacity to decrease the net absorbed radiation was at least twice as large as that of the ice. The layers were typically 100–200 m thick, suggesting that they are unlikely to be adequately represented by the resolutions of current forecast and climate models. These results suggest that a spaceborne lidar and radar would be ideally suited to characterizing the occurrence and climatological importance of mixed‐phase clouds on a global scale. © Royal Meteorological Society, 2003. P. N. Francis's contribution is Crown copyright.
PREDICTION OF HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER OF LACCASE GENE ; A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF 30 PROKARYOTIC GENOMES

Laccases are benzene diol: oxygen oxidoreductase, (EC 1.10.3.2) found in higher plants and microorganisms. They are copper containing enzymes that carry out one electron oxidation of phenolic compounds and reduce oxygen to water [ Couto et al., 2006; Gianfreda et al.,. 1999], this reaction generates free radicals which may further cause hydration, disproportionation, and polymerization of substrate [ Faccelo et al., 2008]. Laccases are commonly used in food, paper, pulp, textile and cosmetics industries. It also plays an important role in soil bioremediation and biodegradation of environmental phenolic pollutants thus allowing microorganisms to expand their habitat and proliferate in the presence of hazardous substances. [Gianfreda et al., 1999 ] Extra chromosomal genetic elements, such as plasmids and transposons which are transferred from one bacterium to another through transformation, conjugation, and transduction play an important role in HGT. Acquiring new genes, in the course of evolution develops the adaptability of bacteria to survive in new environment. An evolutionary force has been suggested to enhance bacterial adaptation to environment contaminated with heavy metals and toxic compounds [Top, 2003; Walsh, 2006]. Bacteria can also acquire resistance to antibiotics by HGT [Walsh, 2006] It has been shown by genomic studied that a considerable proportion of genes in prokaryotic genomes have been subjected to horizontal gene transfer. [Koonin, 2001] A detailed study is required to study HGT which plays a crucial role in microbial evolution. Over 3000 (bacterial and archaeal) genomes have been made publically available today, providing an unprecedented opportunity to examine evolutionary genomic trends and offering valuable reference data for a variety of other studies such as metagenomics. The utility of these genome sequences is greatly enhanced when we have an understanding of how they are phylogenetically related to each other. [Lang et al., 2013] In the present study genomes of 30 prokaryotic organisms from different taxonomic groups are chosen to study HGT of Laccase gene and an in depth bioinformatics analysis is performed by using various parametric and phylogenetic methods to assist evolutionary biology. Available DNA data and computional methods like building trees are used to evaluate the evolutionary changes and for predicting gene transfer events of Laccase gene amongst different prokaryotic organisms.
Mechanisms of Silver Nanoparticle Release, Transformation and Toxicity: A Critical Review of Current Knowledge and Recommendations for Future Studies and Applications

Nanosilver, due to its small particle size and enormous specific surface area, facilitates more rapid dissolution of ions than the equivalent bulk material; potentially leading to increased toxicity of nanosilver. This, coupled with their capacity to adsorb biomolecules and interact with biological receptors can mean that nanoparticles can reach sub-cellular locations leading to potentially higher localized concentrations of ions once those particles start to dissolve or degrade in situ. Further complicating the story is the capacity for nanoparticles to generate reactive oxygen species, and to interact with, and potentially disturb the functioning of biomolecules such as proteins, enzymes and DNA. The fact that the nanoparticle size, shape, surface coating and a host of other factors contribute to these interactions, and that the particles themselves are evolving or ageing leads to further complications in terms of elucidating mechanisms of interaction and modes of action for silver nanoparticles, in contrast to dissolved silver species. This review aims to provide a critical assessment of the current understanding of silver nanoparticle toxicity, as well as to provide a set of pointers and guidelines for experimental design of future studies to assess the environmental and biological impacts of silver nanoparticles. In particular; in future we require a detailed description of the nanoparticles; their synthesis route and stabilisation mechanisms; their coating; and evolution and ageing under the exposure conditions of the assay. This would allow for comparison of data from different particles; different environmental or biological systems; and structure-activity or structure-property relationships to emerge as the basis for predictive toxicology. On the basis of currently available data; such comparisons or predictions are difficult; as the characterisation and time-resolved data is not available; and a full understanding of silver nanoparticle dissolution and ageing under different conditions is observed. Clear concerns are emerging regarding the overuse of nanosilver and the potential for bacterial resistance to develop. A significant conclusion includes the need for a risk—benefit analysis for all applications and eventually restrictions of the uses where a clear benefit cannot be demonstrated.
Design of Neural Predictive Controller for Nonholonomic Mobile Robot based on Posture Identifier

This paper proposes an adaptive neural predictive controller to guide a nonholonomic mobile robot during trajectory tracking. The structure of the controller consists of two models that describe the kinematics and dynamics of the mobile robot system and a feedforward neural controller. The models are modified Elman neural network and feedforward multi-layer perceptron respectively. The modified Elman neural network model is trained off-line and on-line stages to guarantee the outputs of the model accurately represent the actual outputs of the mobile robot system. The trained neural model acts as the position and orientation identifier. The feedforward neural controller is trained off-line and adaptive weights are adapted on-line to find the reference torques, which controls the steady-state outputs of the mobile robot system. The feedback neural controller is based on the posture neural identifier and quadratic performance index optimization algorithm to find the optimal torque action in the transient state for N-stepahead prediction. General back propagation algorithm is used to learn the feedforward neural controller and the posture neural identifier. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive neural predictive control algorithm; this is demonstrated by the minimized tracking error and the smoothness of the torque control signal obtained with bounded external disturbances.