Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
IMPROVING STUDENT'S NATURALIST INTELLIGENCE THROUGH OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES ON PLANT MORPHOLOGY LEARNING

The purpose of this research is to analyze the improvement of students' naturalist intelligence through outdoor activities on plant morphology learning, to analyze the difference of result between pre test and post test on plant morphology learning, and to reveal students� response to the application of plant morphology learning. The research method used is a weak experimental research design with the one-group pretest-posttest design. This study used only one experimental class given treatment to assess the effect of the treatment, without comparison with the control class. The instrument used is questions of naturalist intelligence. The results of this research are: 1) There is a difference of result between pre test and post test on student's naturalist intelligence before and after plant morphology learning using outdor activities; 2) There is improvement of students' naturalist intelligence through outdoor activities learning; 3) Positive response came from students on the application of outdoor activites learning.Keywords: naturalist intelligence; outdoor activities; plant morphology.
Nearly Identical Paralogs: Implications for Maize (Zea mays L.) Genome Evolution

As an ancient segmental tetraploid, the maize (Zea mays L.) genome contains large numbers of paralogs that are expected to have diverged by a minimum of 10% over time. Nearly identical paralogs (NIPs) are defined as paralogous genes that exhibit ≥98% identity. Sequence analyses of the “gene space” of the maize inbred line B73 genome, coupled with wet lab validation, have revealed that, conservatively, at least ∼1% of maize genes have a NIP, a rate substantially higher than that in Arabidopsis. In most instances, both members of maize NIP pairs are expressed and are therefore at least potentially functional. Of evolutionary significance, members of many NIP families also exhibit differential expression. The finding that some families of maize NIPs are closely linked genetically while others are genetically unlinked is consistent with multiple modes of origin. NIPs provide a mechanism for the maize genome to circumvent the inherent limitation that diploid genomes can carry at most two “alleles” per “locus. ” As such, NIPs may have played important roles during the evolution and domestication of maize and may contribute to the success of long-term selection experiments in this important crop species.
Nosocomial bloodstream infections. Secular trends in rates, mortality, and contribution to total hospital deaths.

BACKGROUND Nosocomial bloodstream infections occur at a rate of 1.3 to 14.5 per 1000 hospital admissions and are believed to lead directly to 62,500 deaths per year in the United States. Measures of the incidence and the proportion of all hospital deaths related to deaths from these infections provide estimates of their impact. The objectives of the study were to characterize the secular trends in nosocomial bloodstream infection at a single institution and to estimate the population-attributable risk for death among patients experiencing the infection. METHODS A 12-year retrospective study using prospectively collected data from a hospital-wide surveillance system for nosocomial infections in a 900-bed tertiary care institution. All patients (N = 260,834) admitted to the institution between 1980 and 1992 were included in the study. Bloodstream infection rates were calculated for the 10 leading groups of pathogens, and trends were analyzed using simple linear regression. In-hospital mortality rates from patients who did or did not develop nosocomial blood stream infections were compared. RESULTS Between 1980 and 1992, a total of 3077 patients developed 3464 episodes of nosocomial bloodstream infection. The crude infection rates increased linearly from 6.7 to 18.4 per 1000 discharges (0.83 to 1.72 episodes per 1000 patient-days) during the 12-year study period (r = .87). Increases in the infection rates were due to gram-positive cocci (r = .96) and yeasts (r = .95) and essentially explained by infections caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci, Staphylococcus aureus, enterococci, and Candida species, respectively. Although the crude mortality in patients with nosocomial bloodstream infections decreased from 51% in 1981 to 29% in 1992, the in-hospital population-attributable mortality among infected patients increased from 3.55 deaths per 1000 discharges in 1981 to 6.22 per 1000 discharges in 1992 (r = .67). The etiologic fraction or the proportion of deaths in patients with bloodstream infection to all deaths occurring in the hospital increased from 11.4% in 1981 to 20.4% in 1992 (r = .59). CONCLUSIONS The incidence, the etiologic fraction, and the population-attributable risk for death among patients experiencing nosocomial bloodstream infections increased progressively during the last decade.
Transcriptional Profiles of Valvular and Vascular Endothelial Cells Reveal Phenotypic Differences: Influence of Shear Stress

Objective—The similarities between valvular and vascular lesions suggest pathological initiation mediated through endothelium, but the role of hemodynamics in valvular endothelial biology is poorly understood. Methods and Results—Monolayers of porcine aortic endothelial cells (PAECs) or porcine aortic valve endothelial cells (PAVECs) were exposed to 20 dyne/cm2 steady laminar shear stress for 48 hours, with static cultures serving as controls. Multiple microarray comparisons were made using RNA from sheared and control batches of both cell types. More than 400 genes were significantly differentially expressed in each comparison group. The resulting profiles were validated at the transcription and protein level and expression patterns confirmed in vivo by immunohistochemistry. PAVECs were found to be less intrinsically inflammatory than PAECs, but both cell types expressed similar antioxidant and antiinflammatory genes in response to shear stress. PAVECs expressed more genes associated with chondrogenesis, whereas PAECs expressed osteogenic genes, and shear stress had a protective effect against calcification. Conclusions—Transcriptional differences between PAVECs and PAECs highlight the valvular endothelial cell as a distinct organ system and suggest more attention needs to be given to valvular cells to further our understanding of similarities and differences between valvular and vascular pathology.
A New Eimeria Species Parasitic In Isoodon obesulus (Marsupialia: Peramelidae) In Western Australia

Abstract Feces from southern brown bandicoots, Isoodon obesulus, inhabiting the Perth metropolitan area were examined using fecal flotation and light microscopy, and were frequently found to contain oocysts (10/24; 42%). To enable formal description of the proposed new Eimeria species, i.e., Eimeria quenda n. sp. , fecal oocysts from 1 juvenile male I. obesulus were allowed to sporulate in 2% potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) at room temperature. Sporulated oocysts are spheroidal to subspheroidal 24.5 × 23.6 (22.5–26.0 × 22.5–24.8) µm, with L/W ratio of 1.04 (1.00–1.13), lack a micropyle and oocyst residuum, and are contained within a smooth trilaminate oocyst wall 1.8 (1.6–2.0) µm thick. Sporocysts are ovoid, 12.6 × 9.2 (12.0–13.8 × 8.5–10.0) µm, with L/W ratio of 1.37 (1.20–1.53), have a sporocyst residuum, and 2 comma-shaped sporozoites, each containing 2 spheroidal refractile bodies. Sporulation takes 1–3 days at room temperature. This is the second formal description of an Eimeria species parasitic in the order Peramelemorphia.
Simulation-based Evaluation of Iterative Reconstructions in Dynamic [18F]MPPF PET studies

The reconstruction of dynamic PET data is usually performed using filtered backprojection algorithms (FBP). This method is fast, robust, linear and therefore yields reliable quantitative results. However, the use of FBP for data with low statistics, such as dynamic PET data, generally results in poor visual image quality, exhibiting high noise, streak artifacts and low contrast. These signal to noise ratio and contrast in the reconstructed images may alter the quantification of physiological parameters, such as the regional Binding Potential (BP) obtained from kinetic modeling. Iterative reconstruction methods such as UW-OSEM, ANW-OSEM or OP-OSEM are often presented a viable alternatives to FBP reconstruction. In this study, we investigate the characteristics of the UW-OSEM and the ANW-OSEM iterative reconstruction methods in the context of ligand-receptor PET studies exhibiting low data counts. The assessment was conducted using replicates of simulated [18F]MPPF data. The results show that the positivity constraint in the MLEM algorithm leads to overestimations of the activity in regions with low activity concentration, typically the cerebellum. This overestimation results in significant bias in the BP quantification with iterative reconstruction methods.
Toward Real-Time Image Guided Neurosurgery Using Distributed and Grid Computing

Neurosurgical resection is a therapeutic intervention in the treatment of brain tumors. Precision of the resection can be improved by utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as an aid in decision making during image guided neurosurgery (IGNS). Image registration adjusts pre-operative data according to intra-operative tissue deformation. Some of the approaches increase the registration accuracy by tracking image landmarks through the whole brain volume. High computational cost used to render these techniques inappropriate for clinical applications. In this paper we present a parallel implementation of a state of the art registration method, and a number of needed incremental improvements. Overall, we reduced the response time for registration of an average dataset from about an hour and for some cases more than an hour to less than seven minutes, which is within the time constraints imposed by neurosurgeons. For the first time in clinical practice we demonstrated, that with the help of distributed computing non-rigid MRI registration based on volume tracking can be computed intra-operatively
Effect of the mucolytic erdosteine on the success rate of PPI-based first-line triple therapy for Helicobacter pylori eradication: a prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study

Abstract Objective. Because Helicobacter pylori creates a well-sheltered microenvironment within the gastric mucus layer, it has been speculated that the disruption of this space by a mucolytic agent may enhance the eradication rate. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of erdosteine, a strong mucolytic agent, on the effectiveness of PPI-based, first-line triple therapy in the eradication of H. pylori. Material and methods. Initially, 196 patients were enrolled to the study. Of these, 79 H. pylori-positive patients were randomized to the erdosteine group (triple therapy consisting of pantoprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin plus erdosteine; n = 40) or the placebo group (triple therapy plus placebo; n = 39) for 14 days. Endoscopic biopsies and 13C-urea breath tests were performed at entry and at 4–6 weeks after the completion of the treatment. Additionally, rapid urease tests were performed at entry. Results. The eradication of H. pylori was achieved in 30 (75%) of the 40 patients in the erdosteine group and in 20 (51.3%) of the 39 patients in the placebo group, according to the ITT analysis (p = 0.028). When the PP analysis was performed as well, H. pylori eradication was achieved in 30 (78.9%) of the 38 patients in the erdosteine group and in 20 (52.6%) of the 38 patients in the placebo group (p = 0.016). Conclusions. Erdosteine is an efficient adjuvant therapy that could be used in conjunction with first-line triple therapy in the treatment of H. pylori.
Targeting the Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor Inhibits Ovarian Cancer Metastasis

Purpose: To understand the functional and preclinical efficacy of targeting the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (u-PAR) in ovarian cancer. Experimental Design: Expression of u-PAR was studied in 162 epithelial ovarian cancers, including 77 pairs of corresponding primary and metastatic tumors. The effect of an antibody against u-PAR (ATN-658) on proliferation, adhesion, invasion, apoptosis, and migration was assessed in 3 (SKOV3ip1, HeyA8, and CaOV3) ovarian cancer cell lines. The impact of the u-PAR antibody on tumor weight, number, and survival was examined in corresponding ovarian cancer xenograft models and the mechanism by which ATN-658 blocks metastasis was explored. Results: Only 8% of all ovarian tumors were negative for u-PAR expression. Treatment of SKOV3ip1, HeyA8, and CaOV3 ovarian cancer cell lines with the u-PAR antibody inhibited cell invasion, migration, and adhesion. In vivo, anti-u-PAR treatment reduced the number of tumors and tumor weight in CaOV3 and SKOV3ip1 xenografts and reduced tumor weight and increased survival in HeyA8 xenografts. Immunostaining of CaOV3 xenograft tumors and ovarian cancer cell lines showed an increase in active-caspase 3 and TUNEL staining. Treatment with u-PAR antibody inhibited α5-integrin and u-PAR colocalization on primary human omental extracellular matrix. Anti-u-PAR treatment also decreased the expression of urokinase, u-PAR, β3-integrin, and fibroblast growth factor receptor-1 both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions: This study shows that an antibody against u-PAR reduces metastasis, induces apoptosis, and reduces the interaction between u-PAR and α5-integrin. This provides a rationale for targeting the u-PAR pathway in patients with ovarian cancer and for further testing of ATN-658 in this indication. Clin Cancer Res; 17(3); 459–71. ©2010 AACR.
Performance evaluation of robotic knowledge representation (PERK)

In this paper, we explore some ways in which symbolic knowledge representations have been evaluated in the past and provide some thoughts on what should be considered when applying and evaluating these types of knowledge representations for real-time robotics applications. The emphasis of this paper is that the robotic applications require real-time access to information, which has not been one of the aspects measured in traditional symbolic representation evaluation approaches.
First observations of fog and low ceiling environments at the FAA northeast ceiling and visibility field site

An instrumented site has recently been set up in the northeastern United States to serve as the main facility for the study of ceiling and visibility (C&V) conditions. This initiative is taking place through a partnership among the National Ceiling and Visibility, Terminal Ceiling and Visibility and Winter Weather programs of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP) (Kulesa et al., 2003). Data from the instrumented site serves many purposes. The main objectives are documenting and gaining an improved understanding of the structure and evolution of low visibility (fog) and low ceilings affecting the NE region. The occurrence of such events lead to important disruptions in operations at the major air terminals in the New York City area (Allan et al., 2001) as well as leading to hazardous conditions for the overall general aviation, marine and road transportation activities in the region. Results from this field program will serve to support the further development and evaluation of various tools such as C&V expert systems as well as improved parameterizations and translation algorithms used by numerical forecast models (Herzegh et al., 2003).
Essential role of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 A 3 ( ALDH 1 A 3 ) for the maintenance of non-small cell lung cancer stem cells is associated with the STAT 3 pathway

Chunli Shao1,2, James P. Sullivan3, Luc Girard1,2, Alexander Augustyn1,2, Paul Yenerall1,2, Jaime Rodriguez4, Hui Liu4, Carmen Behrens4, Jerry W. Shay5, Ignacio I. Wistuba4, John D. Minna 1,2,6,7 Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research, Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, 02114, Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, 77054, Department of Cell Biology, Department of Pharmacology, Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, 75390, USA.
Why Forage?: Hunters and Gatherers in the Twenty-First Century

Foraging persists as a viable economic strategy both in remote regions and within the bounds of developed nation-states. Given the economic alternatives available, why do some groups choose to maintain their hunting and gathering lifeways? Through a series of detailed case studies, the contributors to this volume examine the decisions made by modern-day foragers to sustain a predominantly hunting and gathering way of life. What becomes clear is that hunter-gatherers continue to forage because the economic benefits of doing so are high relative to the local alternatives and, perhaps more importantly, because the social costs of not foraging are prohibitive; in other words, hunter-gatherers value the social networks built through foraging and sharing more than the potential marginal gains of a new means of subsistence. Why Forage? shows that hunting and gathering continues to be a viable and vibrant way of life even in the twenty-first century.
Binocular Onset Rivalry at the Time of Saccades and Stimulus Jumps

Recent studies suggest that binocular rivalry at stimulus onset, so called onset rivalry, differs from rivalry during sustained viewing. These observations raise the interesting question whether there is a relation between onset rivalry and rivalry in the presence of eye movements. We therefore studied binocular rivalry when stimuli jumped from one visual hemifield to the other, either through a saccade or through a passive stimulus displacement, and we compared rivalry after such displacements with onset and sustained rivalry. We presented opponent motion, orthogonal gratings and face/house stimuli through a stereoscope. For all three stimulus types we found that subjects showed a strong preference for stimuli in one eye or one hemifield (Experiment 1), and that these subject-specific biases did not persist during sustained viewing (Experiment 2). These results confirm and extend previous findings obtained with gratings. The results from the main experiment (Experiment 3) showed that after a passive stimulus jump, switching probability was low when the preferred eye was dominant before a stimulus jump, but when the non-preferred eye was dominant beforehand, switching probability was comparatively high. The results thus showed that dominance after a stimulus jump was tightly related to eye dominance at stimulus onset. In the saccade condition, however, these subject-specific biases were systematically reduced, indicating that the influence of saccades can be understood from a systematic attenuation of the subjects' onset rivalry biases. Taken together, our findings demonstrate a relation between onset rivalry and rivalry after retinal shifts and involvement of extra-retinal signals in binocular rivalry.
Predictive Value of Brachial Flow-Mediated Dilation for Incident Cardiovascular Events in a Population-Based Study: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Background— Although brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) predicts recurrent cardiovascular events, its predictive value for incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in adults free of CVD is not well established. We assessed the predictive value of FMD for incident CVD events in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Methods and Results— Brachial artery FMD was measured in a nested case-cohort sample of 3026 of 6814 subjects (mean±SD age, 61.2±9.9 years) in MESA, a population-based cohort study of adults free of clinical CVD at baseline recruited at 6 clinic sites in the United States. The sample included 50.2% female, 34.3% white, 19.7% Chinese, 20.8% black, and 25.1% Hispanic subjects. Probability-weighted Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to examine the association between FMD and 5 years of adjudicated incident CVD events, including incident myocardial infarction, definite angina, coronary revascularization (coronary artery bypass grafting, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, or other revascularization), stroke, resuscitated cardiac arrest, and CVD death. Mean (SD) FMD of the cohort was 4.4% (2.8). In probability-weighted Cox models, FMD/unit SD was significantly associated with incident cardiovascular events in the univariate model (adjusted for age and sex) (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.65 to 0.97; P=0.01), after adjustment for the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.62 to 0.97; P=0.025), and in the multivariable model (hazard ratio, 0.84; 95% confidence interval, 0.71 to 0.99; P=0.04) after adjustment for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, cigarette smoking status, systolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, heart rate, statin use, and blood pressure medication use. The c statistic (area under the curve) values of FMD, FRS, and FRS+FMD were 0.65, 0.74, and 0.74, respectively. Compared with the FRS alone, the addition of FMD to the FRS net correctly reclassifies 52% of subjects with no incident CVD event but net incorrectly reclassifies 23% of subjects with an incident CVD event, an overall net correct reclassification of 29% (P<0.001). Conclusions— Brachial FMD is a predictor of incident cardiovascular events in population-based adults. Even though the addition of FMD to the FRS did not improve discrimination of subjects at risk of CVD events in receiver operating characteristic analysis, it improved the classification of subjects as low, intermediate, and high CVD risk compared with the FRS.
A Miniature Integrated Multimodal Sensor for Measuring pH, EC and Temperature for Precision Agriculture

Making several simultaneous measurements with different kinds of sensors at the same location in a solution is difficult because of crosstalk between the sensors. In addition, because the conditions at different locations in plant beds differ, in situ measurements in agriculture need to be done in small localized areas. We have fabricated a multimodal sensor on a small Si chip in which a pH sensor was integrated with electrical conductivity (EC) and temperature sensors. An ISFET with a Si3N4 membrane was used for the pH sensor. For the EC sensor, the electrical conductivity between platinum electrodes was measured, and the temperature sensor was a p-n junction diode. These are some of the most important measurements required for controlling the conditions in plant beds. The multimodal sensor can be inserted into a plant bed for in situ monitoring. To confirm the absence of crosstalk between the sensors, we made simultaneous measurements of pH, EC, and temperature of a pH buffer solution in a plant bed. When the solution was diluted with hot or cold water, the real time measurements showed changes to the EC and temperature, but no change in pH. We also demonstrated that our sensor was capable of simultaneous in situ measurements in rock wool without being affected by crosstalk.
Antitumor activity and hydrogen peroxide release by macrophages elicited by trehalose diesters.

Trehalose diesters (natural 6,6'-trehalose dimycolate from Mycobacterium tuberculosis or synthetic (a 76 carbon atom analogue)), when suspended in water, give stable and well-defined emulsions. These emulsions, injected i.p. in mice significantly limit the growth of P815 syngeneic mastocytoma cells. They elicit macrophages with a cytostatic activity against P815 cells in vitro, strong enough to be expressed at low effector to target ratios (E/T = 1.4) or after a short coincubation period (2 hr). The antitumor potential of these macrophages seems to coincide with their ability to release H2O2 upon pharmacologic triggering. Depressed levels of alkaline phosphodiesterase and beta-galactosidase are proposed as other biochemical markers of cytostatic macrophages.