Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 the Unnatural History of K¯ Ane'ohe Bay: Coral Reef Resilience in the Face of Centuries of Anthropogenic Impacts

K¯ ane ' ohe Bay, which is located on the on the NE coast of O ' ahu, Hawai ' i, represents one of the most intensively studied estuarine coral reef ecosystems in the world. Despite a long history of anthropogenic disturbance, from early settlement to post European contact, the coral reef ecosystem of K¯ ane ' ohe Bay appears to be in better condition in comparison to other reefs around the world. The island of Moku o Lo ' e (Coconut Island) in the southern region of the bay became home to the Hawai ' i Institute of Marine Biology in 1947, where researchers have since documented the various aspects of the unique physical, chemical, and biological features of this coral reef ecosystem. The first human contact by voyaging Polynesians occurred at least 700 years ago. By A.D. 1250 Polynesians voyagers had settled inhabitable islands in the region which led to development of an intensive agricultural, fish pond and ocean resource system that supported a large human population. Anthropogenic disturbance initially involved clearing of land for agriculture, intentional or accidental introduction of alien species, modification of streams to supply water for taro culture, and construction of massive shoreline fish pond enclosures and extensive terraces in the valleys that were used for taro culture. The arrival by the first Europeans in 1778 led to further introductions of plants and animals that radically changed the landscape. Subsequent development of a plantation agricultural system led to increased human immigration, population growth and an end to traditional land and water management practices. The reefs were devastated by extensive dredge and fill operations as well as rapid growth of human population, which led to extensive urbanization of the watershed. By the 1960's the bay was severely impacted by increased sewage discharge along with increased sedimentation due to improper grading practices and stream channelization, resulting in extensive loss of coral cover. The reefs of K¯ ane ' ohe Bay developed under estuarine conditions and thus have been subjected to multiple natural stresses. These include storm floods, a more extreme temperature range than more oceanic reefs, high rates of sedimentation, and exposure at extreme low tides. Deposition and degradation of organic materials carried into the bay from the watershed results in low pH conditions such that according to some ocean acidification projections the rich coral reefs in the bay should not exist. Increased global temperature due …
Ground truth from the Opportunity Rover for Mars thermal inertia data

The temperature of the Martian surface has been measured by a number of spacecraft and numerical models of the surface thermal response constrain the near‐surface physical properties. The results allow inferences regarding the surface layer and help determine potential hazards for landed spacecraft. However, thermal models generally do not incorporate the degree of surface complexity that is seen from landers. Here we examine potential contributions to the thermal response along the Opportunity Rover's traverse by using ground truth in conjunction with orbiter data from the THEMIS instrument on Mars Odyssey. We show that the size distribution of the ubiquitous hematite spherules varies in a way that is consistent with expectations from orbiter data. Secondly, exposures of bedrock along Opportunity's traverse have no observable effect on the bulk thermal response seen from orbit. These field observations are an important step toward improving understanding of the physical composition of the Martian surface.
Ethanol directly modulates gating of a dihydropyridine-sensitive Ca2+ channel in neurohypophysial terminals

Ingestion of ethanol results in a decreased level of plasma vasopressin, which appears to be caused by inhibition of arginine vasopressin (AVP) release from the neurohypophysis. Activation of membrane voltage-gated Ca2+ channels plays an important role in triggering this neurohormone release. In this article, single-channel recordings are used to demonstrate that ethanol, at concentrations constituting legal intoxication, inhibits dihydropyridine-sensitive “L- type” Ca2+ channels in isolated nerve terminals of the rat neurohypophysis. Ethanol reduced the channel open probability in a concentration-dependent manner. To allow finer resolution of channel openings and to better characterize the mechanisms of ethanol action, Bay K 8644 was used to prolong the openings of L-type Ca2+ channels. In the presence of this dihydropyridine (DHP), the reduction of the channel open probability by concentrations of ethanol of 25 mM or higher could be determined to be due primarily, although not completely, to a shortening of the open duration of this L-channel. Channel conductance was unaffected by ethanol, even at high concentrations. These results are consistent with previous macroscopic data indicating that calcium channels in these peptidergic terminals are targets for ethanol action, and indicate that ethanol acts directly on the gating characteristics of the L-type channel. Furthermore, examination of open and closed state transitions, as well as Hill plot analysis, suggests that ethanol's effects on gating are consistent with the interaction of a single drug molecule with a single target site, possibly the L-channel itself.
The Use of Renewable Energy Sources for Energy in Turkey and Potential Trends

The aim of this paper is to investigate to use of renewable sources in Turkey. Turkey is rapidly growing in terms of both its economy and its population. In parallel, its demand for energy, particularly for electricity, is increasing fast. Energy is one of Turkey's most important development priorities. Turkey also has a large potential for renewable energies. The most important renewable sources for Turkey's energy sector are solar in its various forms, wind, biomass, hydro and geothermal. Turkey's geographic location has several advantages for extensive use of most of the renewable energy sources. The amount of annual biomass potential of Turkey is approximately 32 mtoe. Turkey has a gross annual hydro potential of 433,000 GWh, which is almost 1% of world total potential. Currently, wind power capacity in Turkey is around 19 MW, with units located all over the country. Turkey's solar energy potential has estimated to be 26.4 million toes as thermal and 8.8 million toes as electricity and geothermal potential is about 38,000 MW.
Social integration and pulmonary function in the elderly.

OBJECTIVE This study sought to determine whether social integration, defined as number of social roles, is associated with better pulmonary function in the elderly and which roles are associated with greatest benefit. It also examined pathways that connect social integration to better lung health. METHODS High functioning men (n = 518) and women (n = 629) ages 70-79 were recruited as part of the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging, and data were collected on social roles as well as pulmonary function as assessed by peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR). Multiple regressions predicting PEFR from the number of social roles controlled for age, sex, race, education, weight, and height. Physiological, behavioral, social, and psychological factors were tested as mediators of the association between the number of social roles and PEFR. RESULTS More social roles were associated with better PEFR. Analysis of specific roles indicated that marriage was the strongest positive correlate of PEFR. However, greater numbers of roles were also associated with better PEFR independent of marriage. Being a relative or friend were each also individually associated with better PEFR. Even so, greater numbers of social roles were associated with better PEFR independent of relative and friend. The data were consistent with greater happiness, not smoking, and more physical activity acting as pathways linking the number of roles to PEFR. CONCLUSIONS Number of social roles is an important correlate of healthy lung function in the elderly. This association may be driven by healthier behaviors and greater feelings of well-being.
Phages recognizing the Indium Nitride semiconductor surface via their peptides

Considerable advances in materials science are expected via the use of selected or designed peptides to recognize material, control their growth, or to assemble them into elaborate novel devices. Identifying specific peptides for a number of technologically useful materials has been the challenge of many research groups in recent years. This can be accomplished by using affinity‐based bio‐panning methods such as phage display technologies. In this work, a combinatorial library including billions of clones of genetically engineered M13 bacteriophage was used to select peptides that could recognize improved indium nitride (InN) semiconductor (SC) material. Several rounds of biopanning were necessary to select the phage with the higher affinity from the low variant library. The DNA of this specific phage was extracted and sequenced to set up the related specific adherent peptide. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to demonstrate the real affinity of a selected phage for the InN surface. Due to the possibility of its functionalization with biomolecules and its important physical properties, InN is a promising candidate for developing affinity‐based optical and electrical biosensors and/or for biomimetic applications. Copyright © 2010 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A global inventory of the soil CH4 sink

Methane uptake by soils is a small but important flux in the global budget of atmospheric methane, and could be susceptible to changes in land use and climate. Estimates of this sink vary between 20 and 45 Tg yr−1. We propose to develop a better constrained estimate using a mechanistic understanding of the biogeochemical controls of soil CH4 uptake. We reviewed over 120 published papers reporting field measurements of CH4 uptake and made over 318 annual estimates of CH4 uptake for various types of ecosystems. We collected data from these papers for a number of parameters that are known to influence the magnitude of the sink including climatic zone, ecosystem, latitude, annual mean rainfall, annual mean temperature, and the soil texture. Regression analyses with the continuous variables (latitude, rainfall, and temperature) yielded results with poor predictive ability and no significant relationship. Stratification by class variables such as climatic zone, ecosystem type and soil texture provided better predictive ability (R2 = 0.29, P < 0.0001). The mean largest uptake rates were observed in temperate forests with coarse soil texture, but the variance within this stratum was also large. Without any stratification, we estimate that the global soil CH4 sink is 36 ± 23 Tg yr−1. With stratification, the best current estimate of the global soil uptake of CH4 is 22 ± 12 Tg yr−1. The ecosystem type accounted for the largest part of the variation in the global data set. This inventory showed that ecosystem type, geographic zone, and soil texture strongly control CH4 uptake. Inventory methods that take into account underlying factors that control the process provide better estimates of sink strength.
The efficacy of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty treatment for the patients with arteriovenous fistula dysfunction.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and outcomes of three different percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) approaches in the treatment of patients with arteriovenous fistula (AVF) dysfunction. METHODS A retrospective review was performed in a total of 183 patients with AVF dysfunction treated with 3 different PTA approaches (transarterial, transvenous and combination) in our hospital from October 2006 to October 2012. Technical and clinical success rate, complications and vessel patency were assessed. RESULTS The mean length of pretreatment stenosis segment was 2.0±1.4 cm (range 0.5-6.8 cm), and the mean length of stenosis segment was shortest in transvenous group. The technical success rates using transarterial and transvenous approach were 80.4% (P<0.01) and 87.8% (P<0.01), respectively, compared to 32.4% of combination approach. Moreover, the clinical success rates using transarterial and transvenous approach were 92.8% and 95.9% (P<0.01), respectively, comparing to 54.1% of combination approach. Moreover, significant difference was found on the presence of vasospasm among the three groups (P<0.01). In addition, a higher primary patency rate was also achieved by using transarterial (P<0.01) and transvenous approach (P<0.01) compared to combination approach. CONCLUSIONS Transarterial and transvenous PTA is more efficient than combination PTA for the patients with dysfunctional AVF. A high technical and clinical success rate could be achieved by using both approaches. Limited number of complications and high rate of primary patency were found in the patients.
Protein flexibility and intrinsic disorder

Comparisons were made among four categories of protein flexibility: (1) low‐B‐factor ordered regions, (2) high‐B‐factor ordered regions, (3) short disordered regions, and (4) long disordered regions. Amino acid compositions of the four categories were found to be significantly different from each other, with high‐B‐factor ordered and short disordered regions being the most similar pair. The high‐B‐factor (flexible) ordered regions are characterized by a higher average flexibility index, higher average hydrophilicity, higher average absolute net charge, and higher total charge than disordered regions. The low‐B‐factor regions are significantly enriched in hydrophobic residues and depleted in the total number of charged residues compared to the other three categories. We examined the predictability of the high‐B‐factor regions and developed a predictor that discriminates between regions of low and high B‐factors. This predictor achieved an accuracy of 70% and a correlation of 0.43 with experimental data, outperforming the 64% accuracy and 0.32 correlation of predictors based solely on flexibility indices. To further clarify the differences between short disordered regions and ordered regions, a predictor of short disordered regions was developed. Its relatively high accuracy of 81% indicates considerable differences between ordered and disordered regions. The distinctive amino acid biases of high‐B‐factor ordered regions, short disordered regions, and long disordered regions indicate that the sequence determinants for these flexibility categories differ from one another, whereas the significantly‐greater‐than‐chance predictability of these categories from sequence suggest that flexible ordered regions, short disorder, and long disorder are, to a significant degree, encoded at the primary structure level.
The Structure and Function of Claudins, Cell Adhesion Molecules at Tight Junctions

Abstract: Tight junctions (TJs) play a pivotal role in compartmentalization in multicellular organisms by sealing the paracellular pathway in epithelial and endothelial cell sheets. Recently, novel integral membrane proteins, claudins, have been identified as major cell adhesion molecules working at TJs. Claudins comprise a multigene family, and each member of ~23 kDa bears four transmembrane domains. To date, 15 members of this gene family have been identified. When expression vectors of each species of claudins were transfected into fibroblasts lacking endogenous claudins or TJs, well‐developed TJs were observed between adjacent transfectants. Furthermore, claudins were shown to be directly involved in the barrier function of TJs by experiments using Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin. Now that claudins have been identified, the structure and functions of TJs should be determined in detail in molecular terms.
Controlled-release formulation of antihistamine based on cetirizine zinc-layered hydroxide nanocomposites and its effect on histamine release from basophilic leukemia (RBL-2H3) cells

A controlled-release formulation of an antihistamine, cetirizine, was synthesized using zinc-layered hydroxide as the host and cetirizine as the guest. The resulting well-ordered nanolayered structure, a cetirizine nanocomposite “CETN,” had a basal spacing of 33.9 Å, averaged from six harmonics observed from X-ray diffraction. The guest, cetirizine, was arranged in a horizontal bilayer between the zinc-layered hydroxide (ZLH) inorganic interlayers. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies indicated that the intercalation takes place without major change in the structure of the guest and that the thermal stability of the guest in the nanocomposites is markedly enhanced. The loading of the guest in the nanocomposites was estimated to be about 49.4% (w/w). The release study showed that about 96% of the guest could be released in 80 hours by phosphate buffer solution at pH 7.4 compared with about 97% in 73 hours at pH 4.8. It was found that release was governed by pseudo-second order kinetics. Release of histamine from rat basophilic leukemia cells was found to be more sensitive to the intercalated cetirizine in the CETN compared with its free counterpart, with inhibition of 56% and 29%, respectively, at 62.5 ng/mL. The cytotoxicity assay toward Chang liver cells line show the IC50 for CETN and ZLH are 617 and 670 μg/mL, respectively.
Iterative Inverse Modeling and Direct Sensitivity Analysis of a Photochemical Air Quality Model

A four-dimensional data assimilation approach that combines emission-based modeling and inverse modeling techniques has been developed to provide a method to help identify emissions inventory improvements. The method is based on linking formal direct sensitivity analysis of three-dimensional air quality models with an inverse modeling technique such that observational data of multiple species can be used to suggest improvements in emission strengths, patterns, and compositions of various source categories simultaneously. Information regarding the characteristics of the data and the emissions is incorporated into the model by means of weighting factors. A penalty function allows determining if the method is fully observation-driven, emission-driven, or mixed. The assimilation of the data requires an iterative process since the sensitivity coefficients change as emissions are adjusted, though results suggest that only three or four iterations are necessary. The method has been applied to the Atlanta Metro A.
Functional Programming of the Autonomic Nervous System by Early Life Immune Exposure: Implications for Anxiety

Neonatal exposure of rodents to an immune challenge alters a variety of behavioural and physiological parameters in adulthood. In particular, neonatal lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 0.05 mg/kg, i.p.) exposure produces robust increases in anxiety-like behaviour, accompanied by persistent changes in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. Altered autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity is an important physiological contributor to the generation of anxiety. Here we examined the long term effects of neonatal LPS exposure on ANS function and the associated changes in neuroendocrine and behavioural indices. ANS function in Wistar rats, neonatally treated with LPS, was assessed via analysis of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the adrenal glands on postnatal days (PNDs) 50 and 85, and via plethysmographic assessment of adult respiratory rate in response to mild stress (acoustic and light stimuli). Expression of genes implicated in regulation of autonomic and endocrine activity in the relevant brain areas was also examined. Neonatal LPS exposure produced an increase in TH phosphorylation and activity at both PNDs 50 and 85. In adulthood, LPS-treated rats responded with increased respiratory rates to the lower intensities of stimuli, indicative of increased autonomic arousal. These changes were associated with increases in anxiety-like behaviours and HPA axis activity, alongside altered expression of the GABA-A receptor α2 subunit, CRH receptor type 1, CRH binding protein, and glucocorticoid receptor mRNA levels in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus. The current findings suggest that in addition to the commonly reported alterations in HPA axis functioning, neonatal LPS challenge is associated with a persistent change in ANS activity, associated with, and potentially contributing to, the anxiety-like phenotype. The findings of this study reflect the importance of changes in the perinatal microbial environment on the ontogeny of physiological processes.
Estudo de inclusões fluidas em veio de quartzo aurífero do prospecto Patinhas, Província Aurífera do Tapajós, Cráton Amazônico

The Patinhas prospect, in southeastern Tapajos province, consists of a gold-bearing quartz vein, averaging 70 cm in thickness, hosted by a subvertical, NE-SW-trending, brittle-ductile, strike-slip shear zone, cutting a granodioritic gneiss of the Cuiu-Cuiu complex (~2.0 Ga). The quartz is milky massive and sulfide-rich in its central portion, and foliated at the contact with the host rock. This contact is also outlined by a narrow hydrothermal alteration halo, containing sulfide dissemination, and by the ductile deformation superimposed to the host rock during shearing. The structural evidence suggests emplacement of the vein at a moderate depth, in an active structure, whose activity outlasted the vein formation. Gold occurs in microscopic particles that fill microfractures in pyrite crystals. Under the microscope, large quartz crystals are surrounded by a mosaic of recrystallized small grains. Weak to strong effects of ductile deformation are observable. Fluid inclusions (FI) occur as intraand transgranular trails, in the boundaries of recrystallized grains, or in the cores of less deformed and/or preserved relic quartz, where they are isolated or form small clusters of randomly-distributed inclusions. FI containing CO 2 , mixed CO 2 -H 2 O, and H 2 O have been recognized. Among the aqueous inclusions two subgroups have been identified: a group of late FI, and a group of inclusions that are spatially associated with the CO 2 -bearing FI. The CO 2 melting temperature of the CO 2 -bearing FI clustered close to the temperature of the triple point of the CO 2 (-56.6oC). Based on structural, petrographic and microthermometric evidence, the fluid inclusions are interpreted as formed by a combination of phase separation and re-equilibration of an aqueous-carbonic fluid during and after their entrapment. Physico-chemical parameters estimated from the microthermometric results indicate that mineralization occurred between 307o and 389oC, at variable pressure (average of 2.1 kb, corresponding to a depth of ca. 7 km). The aqueous-carbonic fluid has bulk densities between 0.73 e 0.97 g/cm 3 , mean salinity of 6.6 wt. % NaCl equiv. , and XCO 2 of 6-16 moles %. These characteristics are compatible with those of structurally-controlled, mesothermal / mesozonal gold deposits.