Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
pH-Responsive Mercaptoundecanoic Acid Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles and Applications in Catalysis

Mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNP-MUA) were synthesized and demonstrated to possess pH-triggered aggregation and re-dispersion, as well as the capability of phase transfer between aqueous and organic phases in response to changes in pH. The pH of aggregation for AuNP-MUA is consistent with the pKa of MUA (pH ~4) in solution, while AuNP-MUA phase transition between aqueous and organic phases occurs at pH ~9. The ion pair formation between the amine group in octadecylamine (ODA), the carboxylate group in MUA, and the hydrophobic alkyl chain of ODA facilitates the phase transfer of AuNP-MUA into an organic medium. The AuNP-MUA were investigated as a reusable catalyst in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol by borohydride—a model reaction for AuNPs. It was determined that 100% MUA surface coverage completely inhibits the catalytic activity of AuNPs. Decreasing the surface coverage was shown to increase catalytic activity, but this decrease also leads to decreased colloidal stability, recoverability, and reusability in subsequent reactions. At 60% MUA surface coverage, colloidal stability and catalytic activity were achieved, but the surface coverage was insufficient to enable redispersion following pH-induced recovery. A balance between AuNP colloidal stability, recoverability, and catalytic activity with reusability was achieved at 90% MUA surface coverage. The AuNP-MUA catalyst can also be recovered at different pH ranges depending on the recovery method employed. At pH ~4, protonation of the MUA results in reduced surface charge and aggregation. At pH ~9, ODA will form an ion-pair with the MUA and induce phase transfer into an immiscible organic phase. Both the pH-triggered aggregation/re-dispersion and aqueous/organic phase transfer methods were employed for catalyst recovery and reuse in subsequent reactions. The ability to recover and reuse the AuNP-MUA catalyst by two different methods and different pH regimes is significant, based on the fact that nanoparticle-catalyzed reactions may occur under different pH conditions.
Diffraction-managed superlensing using metallodielectric heterostructures

We show that subwavelength diffracted wave fields may be managed inside multilayered plasmonic devices to achieve ultra-resolving lensing. For that purpose we first transform both homogeneous waves and a broad band of evanescent waves into propagating Bloch modes by means of a metal/dielectric (MD) superlattice. Beam spreading is subsequently compensated by means of negative refraction in a plasmon-induced anisotropic effective-medium that is cemented behind. A precise design of the superlens doublet may lead to nearly aberration-free images with subwavelength resolution in spite of using optical paths longer than a wavelength.
An extended ECC‐based anonymity‐preserving 3‐factor remote authentication scheme usable in TMIS

A telecare medicine information system (TMIS) helps in providing an efficient communication platform to patients from home to consult doctors at a clinical center. In TMIS, the patient's confidentiality, security, and mutual authentication are very crucial; so remote authentication plays a vital role for verifying the legitimacy of patients. Recently, Amin and Biswas have devised a remote authentication protocol for TMIS, claiming it to be secured from various malicious vulnerabilities. We examine this protocol and find that it is not able to withstand many attacks that include off‐line and online password‐guessing, identity‐guessing, user impersonation, privileged insider, and known session key temporary information attacks. We propose a 3‐factor–based authentication protocol for TMIS by overcoming these security shortcomings. We present its security verification in formal and informal ways, which assert its resistivity against various security threats. We use the Burrows‐Abadi‐Needham logic for validating it, and with the Automated Validation of Internet Security Protocols and Applications tool, it is simulated. Further, the performance evaluation and the security functionalities justify high degree of security with efficient complexity.
Brain Phospholipid Precursors Administered Post-Injury Reduce Tissue Damage and Improve Neurological Outcome in Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to cellular loss, destabilization of membranes, disruption of synapses and altered brain connectivity, and increased risk of neurodegenerative disease. A significant and long-lasting decrease in phospholipids (PLs), essential membrane constituents, has recently been reported in plasma and brain tissue, in human and experimental TBI. We hypothesized that supporting PL synthesis post-injury could improve outcome post-TBI. We tested this hypothesis using a multi-nutrient combination designed to support the biosynthesis of PLs and available for clinical use. The multi-nutrient, Fortasyn® Connect (FC), contains polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, choline, uridine, vitamins, cofactors required for PL biosynthesis, and has been shown to have significant beneficial effects in early Alzheimer's disease. Male C57BL/6 mice received a controlled cortical impact injury and then were fed a control diet or a diet enriched with FC for 70 days. FC led to a significantly improved sensorimotor outcome and cognition, reduced lesion size and oligodendrocyte loss, and it restored myelin. It reversed the loss of the synaptic protein synaptophysin and decreased levels of the axon growth inhibitor, Nogo-A, thus creating a permissive environment. It decreased microglia activation and the rise in ß-amyloid precursor protein and restored the depressed neurogenesis. The effects of this medical multi-nutrient suggest that support of PL biosynthesis post-TBI, a new treatment paradigm, has significant therapeutic potential in this neurological condition for which there is no satisfactory treatment. The multi-nutrient tested has been used in dementia patients and is safe and well tolerated, which would enable rapid clinical exploration in TBI.
Eating well, living well and weight management: A co-produced semi-qualitative study of barriers and facilitators experienced by adults with intellectual disabilities

Adults with intellectual disabilities in England experience health inequalities. They are more likely than their non-disabled peers to be obese and at risk of serious medical conditions such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. This semi-qualitative study engaged adults with intellectual disabilities in a co-production process to explore their perceived barriers and facilitators to eating well, living well and weight management. Nineteen participants with intellectual disabilities took part in four focus groups and one wider group discussion. They were supported by eight of their carers or support workers. Several barriers were identified including personal income restrictions, carers’ and support workers’ unmet training needs, a lack of accessible information, inaccessible services and societal barriers such as the widespread advertising of less healthy foodstuffs. A key theme of frustration with barriers emerged from analysis of participants’ responses. Practical solutions suggested by participants included provision of clear and accessible healthy lifestyle information, reasonable adjustments to services, training, ‘buddying’ support systems or schemes and collaborative working to improve policy and practice.
Perceptions of Cyberbullying from Secondary School Administrators in Texas

Perceptions of Cyberbullying from Secondary School Administrators in Texas. (December 2011) Kris Doreen Mitzner, B.S., M.Ed., Texas A & M University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Virginia Collier Dr. James Scheurich This mixed method study examined perceptions and experiences of secondary school administrators in Texas regarding cyberbullying. It was designed to gather quantitative information related to cyberbullying in secondary school campuses in Texas as well as descriptive details from the qualitative portion of the survey and follow up interviews. Data were collected from an electronic survey and follow up interviews. The results were analyzed statistically and for emerging themes. Six themes emerged from the qualitative survey questions and interviews. These themes were: 1) common definitions and descriptions, 2) target on individuals, 3) effect on school climate, 4) speed of replication and permanence of information, 5) difference between public and private information, and 6) need for education. The perception from secondary school administrators was that cyberbullying incidents are appearing in the majority of secondary schools in Texas and it is important for administrators to understand and respond to cyberbullying.
Dispersion and Confinement Loss Analysis of Nonlinear Square Lattice Photonic Crystal Fibers Employing Air Holes in the Cladding Region

The three main properties of PCF, namely confinement loss, dispersion, and effective area are numerically investigated using the finite element method for the four patterns of square lattice fiber. The fibers have identical structures with five air hole rings, yet the dimension and shape of the air holes of the first ring (ring near the core) differ in their structures. Circular and elliptical air holes have been used in these patterns. It is found that the low chromatic dispersion, low loss and small effective area can be obtained in the wavelength range of 1340 to 1680 nm. The nonlinear coefficient is approximately 1115Wkmat 1550nm wavelength.
1 31 0 . 74 99 v 2 [ gr-q c ] 2 F eb 2 01 4 Extracting blackhole rotational energy : The generalized Penrose process

J.-P. Lasota, 2, 3, ∗ E. Gourgoulhon, M. Abramowicz, 2, 6 A. Tchekhovskoy, 9, † and R. Narayan Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095 CNRS, UPMC Univ Paris 06, 98bis Bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, ulica Bartycka 18, PL-00-716 Warszawa, Poland Astronomical Observatory, Jagiellonian University, ulica Orla 171, 30-244 Kraków, Poland LUTH, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, SE-412-96 Göteborg, Sweden Institute of Physics, Silesian University in Opava, Bezručovo nám. 13, CZ-746-01 Opava, Czech Republic Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-3411 Center for Theoretical Science, Jadwin Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA Institute for Theory and Computation, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA (Dated: 31 January 2014)
The policy–practice divide and SME-friendly public procurement

Policies aimed at supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now standard in public procurement. Interest in these policies has yet to be matched by evidence on their implementation. Using an institutional perspective, we examine public buyers compliance with SME-friendly policy recommendations. The results, which are based on the self-reported behaviours of 436 respondents, show that public buyers are complying with some but not all policy measures. Compliance is high on measures including open tendering, provision of feedback and self-declaring financial capacity, but low on measures that impose higher transaction costs, such as dividing contracts into lots and encouraging consortium bidding. Further analysis reveals that involvement in procurement, policy familiarity and perceived importance of SME access act as positive predictors of compliance; being part of a semi-state/utility company, local authority or education institution has the opposite effect. Possibilities to increase compliance and bring about a more SME-friendly tendering system are discussed.
Tidal recruitment assessed by electrical impedance tomography and computed tomography in a porcine model of lung injury*

Objectives:To determine the validity of electrical impedance tomography to detect and quantify the amount of tidal recruitment caused by different positive end-expiratory pressure levels in a porcine acute lung injury model. Design:Randomized, controlled, prospective experimental study. Setting:Academic research laboratory. Subjects:Twelve anesthetized and mechanically ventilated pigs. Interventions:Acute lung injury was induced by central venous oleic acid injection and abdominal hypertension in seven animals. Five healthy pigs served as control group. Animals were ventilated with positive end-expiratory pressure of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 cm H2O, respectively, in a randomized order. Measurements and Main Results:At any positive end-expiratory pressure level, electrical impedance tomography was obtained during a slow inflation of 12 mL/kg of body weight. Regional-ventilation-delay indices quantifying the time until a lung region reaches a certain amount of impedance change were calculated for lung quadrants and for every single electrical impedance tomography pixel, respectively. Pixel-wise calculated regional-ventilation-delay indices were plotted in a color-coded regional-ventilation-delay map. Regional-ventilation-delay inhomogeneity that quantifies heterogeneity of ventilation time courses was evaluated by calculating the scatter of all pixel-wise calculated regional-ventilation-delay indices. End-expiratory and end-inspiratory computed tomography scans were performed at each positive end-expiratory pressure level to quantify tidal recruitment of the lung. Tidal recruitment showed a moderate inter-individual (r = .54; p < .05) and intra-individual linear correlation (r = .46 up to r = .73 and p < .05, respectively) with regional-ventilation-delay obtained from lung quadrants. Regional-ventilation-delay inhomogeneity was excellently correlated with tidal recruitment intra- (r = .90 up to r = .99 and p < .05, respectively) and inter-individually (r = .90; p < .001). Conclusions:Regional-ventilation-delay can be noninvasively measured by electrical impedance tomography during a slow inflation of 12 mL/kg of body weight and visualized using ventilation delay maps. Our experimental data suggest that the impedance tomography-based analysis of regional-ventilation-delay inhomogeneity provides a good estimate of the amount of tidal recruitment and may be useful to individualize ventilatory settings.
Is There an Association between Bacterial Vaginosis Infection and HIV-1 Infection Acquisition among Women Aged 18 - 35 Years in Soweto?

Background: Studies suggest that there is association between Bacterial Vaginosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection but its temporal effect has not been sufficiently investigated. Methods: It is a secondary data analysis following a cohort study. It was carried out to describe Bacterial Vaginosis infection association to Human Immunodeficiency Virus acquisition. The primary cohort study registered 750 study participants. A gram stain slide prepared from a vaginal swab was used to measure Bacterial Vaginosis as the primary exposure. A score of 7 or above was considered positive for Bacterial Vaginosis. The determination of the dependent variable Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection was achieved through dual rapid tests which were confirmed by using a third generation ELISA. Incident Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection rate was calculated. To test significance, Kaplan Meier survival time analysis and log rank test were carried out. The association of Bacterial Vaginosis with Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection was investigated using Cox regression. Results: The baseline prevalence of Bacterial Vaginosis was 52%, 95% CI; 45 - 59. There were 21 Human Immunodeficiency Virus seroconversions in total of which 7 had no Bacterial Vaginosis results and were left out in the analysis. The analysis only involved 14 seroconversions and these were followed for a mean time of 0.40 of a year and total time at risk of 286 person years. This shows incident rate of Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection of 4.9 per 100 person years of follow up, 95 % CI: 2.9 - 8.27. Kaplan Meier curves revealed a higher risk of incident infection among women who were Bacterial Vaginosis positive than the women who were Bacterial Vaginosis negative. A log rank test showed that the probability of incident infection differed among the women depending on Bacterial Vaginosis status, X2 value 3.8, p value 0.05. Adjusting for the other variables, incident Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection was high among Bacterial Vaginosis positive women, adjusted hazard ratio 3.21; 95% CI; 0.85 - 12.12, p value 0.08, though significance was not attained. Conclusion: The study showed an association between Bacterial Vaginosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus seroconversion risk though statistical significance was not achieved. Education on vaginal cleansing, screening and treating women with Bacterial Vaginosis could maintain normal vaginal flora and reduce their vulnerability to Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
Zinc: An important cofactor in haemostasis and thrombosis

Summary There is mounting evidence that zinc, the second most abundant transition metal in blood, is an important mediator of haemostasis and thrombosis. Prompted by the observation that zinc deficiency is associated with bleeding and clotting abnormalities, there now is evidence that zinc serves as an effector of coagulation, anticoagulation and fibrinolysis. Zinc binds numerous plasma proteins and modulates their structure and function. Because activated platelets secrete zinc into the local microenvironment, the concentration of zinc increases in the vicinity of a thrombus. Consequently, the role of zinc varies depending on the microenvironment; a feature that endows zinc with the capacity to spatially and temporally regulate haemostasis and thrombosis. This paper reviews the mechanisms by which zinc regulates coagulation, platelet aggregation, anticoagulation and fibrinolysis and outlines how zinc serves as a ubiquitous modulator of haemostasis and thrombosis.
Blockade of janus kinase 2 signaling ameliorates mouse liver damage due to ischemia and reperfusion

We read with great interest the article by Freitas and colleagues, who reported the important role of Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 signaling in the pathophysiology of hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI). However, there are some methodological concerns about the study that do not allow firm conclusions to be drawn about the data. Using a standard model of warm hepatic IRI, the authors demonstrated that C57BL mice, treated with the selective JAK2 inhibitor AG490, showed reduced hepatocellular injury and decreased macrophage and neutrophil infiltration. The authors used mouse hepatoma cells in some of their in vitro experiments. They showed that AG490 decreased lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-mediated mouse hepatoma cell apoptosis. However, previous studies have shown that human hepatoma cells do not accurately reflect the biological responses of primary human hepatocytes. This presents 2 problems for the interpretation of the study. First, there are no data within the study showing that mouse hepatoma cells respond to LPS in a way similar to that of primary mouse hepatocytes. Previous studies have also shown that mouse hepatoma cells differ phenotypically from primary mouse hepatocytes. Moreover, hepatoma cells differ functionally from primary hepatocyte cell cultures. Second, the authors did not use a suitable in vitro model of warm IRI to adequately demonstrate the effects of AG490. This is surprising because of the number of previously published studies that have used such models. Indeed, previous work has illustrated the different responses of the human hepatocyte cell line HL-7702 to the tumor necrosis factor superfamily ligand and tumor necrosis factor–related apoptosis-inducing ligand, during hypoxia and with hypoxia/reoxygenation. Therefore, the effects of JAK2 inhibition should be investigated during hypoxia and hypoxia/reoxygenation because cells will be exposed to oxygen tensions akin to those experienced in vivo. Experiments conducted with this type of in vitro model are more relevant to hepatic IRI than investigations of the effects of LPS during normoxia. This model would generate the accumulation of intracellular reactive oxygen species, which are crucial to part of hepatic IRI. Certainly, if JAK2 were to inhibit cellular apoptosis in this in vitro model of warm hepatic IRI, a stronger, more convincing argument could be made about the potential therapeutic benefit of AG490. We believe that the in vivo data of this study by Freitas et al. do show some clinical promise with respect to the amelioration of hepatic IRI by JAK2 inhibition. However, the in vitro data do not provide a clear explanation of the effects of JAK2 inhibition on hepatocyte cell death. We encourage the use of primary mouse hepatocytes in a suitable in vitro model of warm IRI to further delineate the effects of JAK2 on hepatocyte function. At present, no clear conclusion can be drawn about the benefits of JAK2 inhibition during hepatic IRI.
Vergence and Strabismus in Neurodegenerative Disorders

Maintaining proper eye alignment is necessary to generate a cohesive visual image. This involves the coordination of complex neural networks, which can become impaired by various neurodegenerative diseases. When the vergence system is affected, this can result in strabismus and disorienting diplopia. While previous studies have detailed the effect of these disorders on other eye movements, such as saccades, relatively little is known about strabismus. Here, we focus on the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and treatment of strabismus and disorders of vergence in Parkinson’s disease, spinocerebellar ataxia, Huntington disease, and multiple system atrophy. We find that vergence abnormalities may be more common in these disorders than previously thought. In Parkinson’s disease, the evidence suggests that strabismus is related to convergence insufficiency; however, it is responsive to dopamine replacement therapy and can, therefore, fluctuate with medication “on” and “off” periods throughout the day. Diplopia is also established as a side effect of deep brain stimulation and is thought to be related to stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus and extraocular motor nucleus among other structures. In regards to the spinocerebellar ataxias, oculomotor symptoms are common in many subtypes, but diplopia is most common in SCA3 also known as Machado–Joseph disease. Ophthalmoplegia and vergence insufficiency have both been implicated in strabismus in these patients, but cannot fully explain the properties of the strabismus, suggesting the involvement of other structures as well. Strabismus has not been reported as a common finding in Huntington disease or atypical parkinsonian syndromes and more studies are needed to determine how these disorders affect binocular alignment.