Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comment on: Bilateral lateral rectus myotoxicity after retrobulbar anesthesia

An observation made is that lateral rectus alone is affected in both the eyes. Due to similarity, though asymmetry, of affection, a question, whether the muscle and the individual are susceptible to myotoxicity, is raised. Direct injection into the muscle is another possibility which can be ruled out if the extraocular movements were tested after inserting the needle and before injecting the anesthetic.
An electron microscopic study of TGN38/41 dynamics

SUMMARY We have used electron microscopy to further characterize details of the dynamics of TGN38/41, a protein found to cycle between the trans-Golgi network and the plasma membrane. Immunogold-labeling of NRK cells under steady-state conditions shows the majority of TGN38/41 is localized to the trans-most Golgi cisternae and the trans-Golgi network. Small amounts of this molecule can be detected in early endosomes. Capture of cycling TGN38/41 molecules at the cell surface altered the steady state distribution. This was accomplished by binding TGN38/41 luminal domain antibodies to solid supports (beads), which were introduced to the culture media of cells. As increasing numbers of antigen-antibody complexes formed, the beads were internalized by the ‘zippering mechanism’ of phagocytosis. This provides a system that can address many questions related to the function of TGN38/41 and the trans-Golgi network itself.
Visual field defects and retinal ganglion cell losses in patients with glaucoma.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether the structure-function relationships for glaucoma in humans and experimental glaucoma in monkeys are similar. METHODS The study was based on retinal ganglion cell density and visual thresholds in patients with documented glaucoma. Data were analyzed with a model that predicted ganglion cell density from standard clinical perimetry, which was then compared with histologic cell counts. RESULTS The model, without free parameters, produced accurate and relatively precise quantification of ganglion cell density associated with visual field defects. For 437 sets of data, the unity correlation for predicted vs measured cell density had a coefficient of determination of 0.39. The mean absolute deviation of the predicted vs measured values was 2.59 decibels (dB), and the mean +/- SD of the distribution of residual errors of prediction was -0.26 +/- 3.22 dB. CONCLUSIONS Visual field defects based on standard clinical perimetry are proportional to neural losses caused by glaucoma. CLINICAL RELEVANCE The evidence for quantitative structure-function relationships provides a scientific basis for interpreting glaucomatous neuropathy from visual thresholds and supports the application of standard perimetry to establish the stage of the disease.
Human cathepsin S, but not cathepsin L, degrades efficiently MHC class II-associated invariant chain in nonprofessional APCs

MHC class II-restricted antigen presentation plays a central role in the immune response against exogenous antigens. The association of invariant (Ii) chain with MHC class II dimers is required for proper antigen presentation to CD4+ T cells by antigen-presenting cells. MHC class II complexes first traffic through the endocytic pathway to allow Ii chain degradation and antigenic peptide loading before their arrival at the cell surface. In recent years, a considerable effort has been directed toward the identification of proteases responsible for Ii chain degradation. Targeted gene deletion in mice has allowed a precise description of the cysteine proteases involved in the last step of Ii chain degradation. By using nonspecialized cellular models expressing MHC II molecules, we are now exploring the contribution of known cysteine proteases to human Ii chain processing. Surprisingly and contrary to the situation in mouse, cathepsin S was found to be the only human cysteine protease able to efficiently degrade the Ii-p10 fragment in epithelial cells. This selectivity has implications for thymic selection and indicates that differences between man and mice are probably more profound at this level than expected.
Role of non-invasive imaging in the management of coronary artery disease: an assessment of likely change over the next 10 years. A report from the British Cardiovascular Society Working Group

Coronary angiography has been the gold standard for determining the severity, extent and prognosis of coronary atheromatous disease for the past 15–20 years. However, established non-invasive testing (such as myocardial perfusion scintigraphy and stress echocardiography) and newer imaging modalities (multi-detector x ray computed tomography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance) now need to be considered increasingly as a challenge to coronary angiography in contemporary practice. An important consideration is the degree to which appropriate use of such techniques impacts on the need for coronary angiography over the next 10–15 years. This review aims to determine the role of the various investigation techniques in the management of coronary artery disease and their resource implications, and should help determine future service provision, accepting that we are in a period of significant technological change.
The state in industrial relations: A cross–national analysis of developments and socioeconomic effects

This is a comparative study of the three main roles of the state in industrial relations: the state as employer in the public sector, state intervention in private-sector-wage bargaining, and the procedural role of defining a legal framework for industrial relations. Based on data from 20 OECD countries, the article's analytical focus is twofold. For each of these roles, the paper examines whether there is a convergence towards neoliberal regulation in response to the shift from demand-side to supply-side policies, and whether neoliberalism is superior to alternative regulation forms in terms of performance. No evidence of such dominance of neoliberalism can be found. The upshot is that developments of state regulation are as much path-dependent as its socioeconomic effects are contingent on a country's context.
Targeting the synovial angiogenesis as a novel treatment approach to osteoarthritis

Synovitis is a key feature in osteoarthritis and is associated with symptom severity. Synovial membrane inflammation is secondary to cartilage degradation which occurs in the early stage and is located adjacent to cartilage damage. This inflammation is characterized by the invasion and activation of macrophages and lymphocytes, the release in the joint cavity of large amounts of pro-inflammatory and procatabolic mediators, and by a local increase of synovial membrane vascularity. This latter process plays an important role in the chronicity of the inflammatory reaction by facilitating the invasion of the synovium by immune cells. Therefore, synovial membrane angiogenesis represents a key target for the treatment of osteoarthritis. This paper is a narrative review of the literature referenced in PubMed during the past 5 years. It addresses in particular three questions. What are the mechanisms involved in synovium blood vessels invasion? Are current medications effective in controlling blood vessels formation and invasion? What are the perspectives of research in this area?
Measuring performance in the third sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set the scene for this special issue by synthesising the vast array of literature on performance measurement to examine what constitutes performance measurement, and why it is important for the third sector. It also analyses key issues of performance measurement and introduces the papers that comprise this special issue of Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management. Design/methodology/approach – This paper takes the form of a literature review. The authors draw on extensive research on performance measurement from a diverse range of disciplines to identify and explore key definitions, opportunities and challenges with performance measurement in the third sector. Findings – Economic/financial efficiency approaches, programme theories, strategic and participatory approaches all present opportunities and challenges when measuring performance in the third sector. The papers in this special issue demonstrate the manner in which different organisations have dealt w.
Social service decline and convergence: How does healthcare fare?

In this paper the hypotheses on differences among welfare state sectors with regard to decline and convergence are subject to comparative empirical tests focusing on healthcare. A diachronical cross-national analysis of healthcare services is performed, comparing developments with that of cash benefits. Contrary to previous claims we find that European healthcare systems are not particularly hit by retrenchment and that convergence is absent in key healthcare dimensions, namely coverage and provision. Convergence appears mainly in terms of the increased reliance on private healthcare financing. Our examination is based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Health Data and institutional data on entitlement levels of major cash benefit programmes, providing both a descriptive analysis and multi-level regressions.
Necessary and sufficient conditions for controllability and observability of switched impulsive control systems

Many practical systems in physics, biology, engineering, and information science exhibit impulsive dynamical behaviors due to abrupt changes at certain instants during the dynamical processes. This note first introduces the impulsive behavior into switched linear systems and studies the controllability and observability of such systems. Necessary and sufficient criteria for reachability and controllability are established. It is proved that reachability is equivalent to controllability for such systems. Then, necessary and sufficient criteria for observability and determinability of such systems are established by duality. It is also proved that observability is equivalent to determinability. Our criteria are of geometric type, they can be transformed into algebraic form conveniently. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the utility of our criteria.
The effects of age on the spontaneous low-frequency oscillations in cerebral and systemic cardiovascular dynamics

Although the effects of ageing on cardiovascular control and particularly the response to orthostatic stress have been the subject of many studies, the interaction between the cardiovascular and cerebral regulation mechanisms is still not fully understood. Wavelet cross-correlation is used here to assess the coupling and synchronization between low-frequency oscillations (LFOs) observed in cerebral hemodynamics, as measured using cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) and cerebral oxygenation (O2Hb), and systemic cardiovascular dynamics, as measured using heart rate (HR) and arterial blood pressure (ABP), in both old and young healthy subjects undergoing head-up tilt table testing. Statistically significant increases in correlation values are found in the interaction of cerebral and cardiovascular LFOs for young subjects (P < 0.01 for HR–ABP, P < 0.001 for HR–O2Hb and ABP–O2Hb), but not in old subjects under orthostatic stress. The coupling between the cerebrovascular and wider cardiovascular systems in response to orthostatic stress thus appears to be impaired with ageing.
Book Review: Investing in Democracy: Engaging Citizens in Collaborative Governance

Collaborative governance is taking center stage in public administration practice and research. Today’s interconnected world demands collective action across organizational, jurisdictional, and sectoral boundaries. As a consequence, we have seen a steep rise in various forms of boundarycrossing activity in public administration, the variety of which we now put under the banner of collaborative governance, which is alternatively known as collaborative public management. Many related practices (and corresponding literatures) fall under this banner, but they can be grouped into two broad categories: (a) interorganizational collaboration (e.g., networked government, intergovernmental management, and public–private partnerships) and (b) civic engagement (e.g., public participation, stakeholder collaboration, and consensus building). Unlocking the Power of Networks by Goldsmith and Kettl (2009) and The New Public Governance? by Osborne (2010) are but two of many recent examples of collaborative governance scholarship from the interorganizational thread. Sirianni’s book, however, is a strong addition to the collaborative governance literature that comes from more of the civic engagement thread. His principal argument is that government can and should make deliberate “investments” in “civic capacity building that enables it to solve public problems effectively and to enlist diverse citizens and stakeholders to collaborate in doing so” (p. 21). Whereas other works (such as those noted above) focus on public agencies crossing boundaries, the focus of Investing is more directly on citizens and groups of citizens and how they are engaged in the process of collaborative governance. Investing can thus be seen as complementary to other collaborative governance scholarship that emphasizes interorganizational collaboration because, in practice, organizational boundary crossing and engaging citizen stakeholders are two sides of the same coin. In both cases, it is about public agencies engaging “nonstate stakeholders” as collaborators in the governance process (Ansell & Gash, 2008, pp. 544-545). However, it is important to note that acknowledging Investing is more from the civic engagement thread is not to say that it ignores the interorganizational dimension of collaborative governance. Rather, one of the primary contributions of the book is an extensive literature review of collaborative governance that incorporates and integrates the different dimensions. The book begins with Sirianni masterfully integrating several related threads of literature into eight “core principles of collaborative governance and policy design” (p. 42). The eight principles (detailed in the book’s second chapter and used as an interpretive framework throughout) are that policy should
Selenium in the Treatment of Head and Neck Lymphedema

Objective: To investigate the impact of selenium in the treatment of lymphedema of the head and neck region after radiotherapy alone or in combination with surgery. Subjects and Materials: Between June 1996 and June 2001 a total of 36 cancer patients (29 male, 7 female; median age 61 years) were treated with selenium for persistent, extensive or progressive lymphedema of the head and neck region. Twenty had interstitial endolaryngeal edema associated with stridor and dyspnea. All patients received 350 µg/m2 body surface sodium selenite medication p.o. daily (total dose 50 µg per day) for a period of 4–6 weeks after radiotherapy. The optimal effect of the selenium treatment was assessed after 4 weeks of therapy using the Miller score system. A visual analogue scale on a scale of 0–10 was used to assess the patient’s quality of life prior to and after selenium. Results: 75% of the patients had an improvement of the Miller score of one stage or more. The self-assessment of quality of life using the visual analogue scale improved significantly after selenium treatment with a reduction of 4.4 points (p < 0.05). Of the 20 patients with endolaryngeal edema tracheostomy was not necessary in 13 patients (65%), but 5 and 2 received a temporary or permanent tracheostomy, respectively. No episode of erysipelas was observed in all study patients. Conclusion: Our results suggest a short positive effect of sodium selenite on secondary head and neck lymphedema caused by radiotherapy alone or in combination with surgery.
Sequence Arrangement in Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 DNA: Identification of Terminal Fragments in Restriction Endonuclease Digests and Evidence for Inversions in Redundant and Unique Sequences

It has been proposed by Sheldrick and Berthelot (1974) that the terminal sequences of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) DNA are repeated in an internal inverted form and that the inverted redundant sequences delimit and separate two unique sequences, S and L. In this study the sequence arrangement in HSV-1 DNA has been investigated with restriction endonuclease cleavage, end-labeling studies, and molecular hybridization experiments. The terminal fragments in digests with restriction endonucleases Hind III, Hpa-1, EcoRI and Bum were identified and shown to be consistent with the Sheldrick and Berthelot model. Inverted fragments which contain unique sequences as well as redundant sequences, and which the model predicts, were identified by DNA-DNA hybridization studies. Further cleavage of Bum fragments with Hpa-1 also revealed inversions of the terminal sequences that contained unique sequences. The results obtained showed that the unique sequences S and L are relatively inverted in different DNA molecules in the population, resulting in the presence of four related genomes with rearranged sequences in apparently equal amounts. The redundant sequences bounding S do not share complete sequence homology with those bounding L, but hybridization studies are presented which show that the terminal 0.3% of the genome is repeated in every redundant sequence.
Discrimination of Sleep-Apnea-Related Decreases in the Amplitude Fluctuations of PPG Signal in Children by HRV Analysis

In this paper, an analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) during decreases in the amplitude fluctuations of photopletysmography (PPG) [decreases in the amplitude fluctuations of photopletysmography (DAP)] events for obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) screening is presented. Two hundred and sixty-eight selected signal segments around the DAP event were extracted and classified in five groups depending on SaO2 and respiratory behavior. Four windows around each DAP are defined and temporal evolution of time-frequency HRV parameters was analyzed for OSAS screening. Results show a significant increase in sympathetic activity during DAP events, which is higher in cases associated with apnea. DAP events were classified as apneic or nonapneic using a linear discriminant analysis from the HRV indexes. The ratio of DAP events per hour r DAP and the ratio of apneic DAP events per hour r alpha DAP were computed. Results show an accuracy of 79% for r alpha DAP (12% increase with respect to r DAP), a sensitivity of 87.5%, and a specificity of 71.4% when classifying 1-h polysomnographic excerpts. As for clinical subject classification, an accuracy of 80% (improvement of 6.7% ), a sensitivity of 87.5%, and a specificity of 71.4% are reached. These results suggest that the combination of DAP and HRV could be an improved alternative for sleep apnea screening from PPG with the added benefit of its low cost and simplicity.
Surface expression of the invariant chain (CD74) is independent of concomitant expression of major histocompatibility complex class II antigens.

Whether or not intracellular transport and surface expression of the invariant chain (Ii; CD74) occurs independent of the presence of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules was examined by comparing the class II-negative mutant lymphoblastoid cell line 174 x CEM.T2 (T2) and its class II-positive parental cell line 174 x CEM.T1 (T1). We found a similar proportion of Ii being transported to the Golgi complex in T1 and T2, as monitored by the degree of sialic acid addition to glycan side chains of Ii. In agreement with this result, T1 and T2 expressed comparable amounts of Ii at the cell surface, as measured by flow cytometry. This indicates that, although not associated with class II molecules, a proportion of Ii is transported to the plasma membrane. Both in T1 and T2, surface Ii (sIi) was rapidly internalized with a half-life of 3-4 min, suggesting that some Ii enters the endocytic route via the cell surface after being internalized. Our data demonstrate transport of Ii on a route alternative to the endocytic pathway. This alternative route could also account for delivery of newly synthesized class II-Ii complexes to processing compartments in antigen-presenting cells.
Visual search for oriented lines: the role of angular relations between targets and distractors.

Subjects can perform parallel visual search for an item of unique orientation when it is presented on a background texture composed of lines of two other orientations. A number of cues can be used to speed this search. It helps if the target has a unique categorical status (e.g., it is the only 'steep' item) (Wolfe et al., J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perf. 18, 34-49 1992). It helps if the two background orientations are symmetrical about a vertical axis (Wolfe and Friedman-Hill, Psychol. Sci. 3, 194-198, 1992). The experiments presented here show that it helps if the angles formed by the target with one of the distractor types are smaller than the angles formed by the two distractor orientations. These results illustrate that stimulus similarity is a complex concept even for a simple feature like orientation.
Protein Interaction Hotspot Identification Using Sequence-Based Frequency-Derived Features

Finding good descriptors, capable of discriminating hotspot residues from others, is still a challenge in many attempts to understand protein interaction. In this paper, descriptors issued from the analysis of amino acid sequences using digital signal processing (DSP) techniques are shown to be as good as those derived from protein tertiary structure and/or information on the complex. The simulation results show that our descriptors can be used separately to predict hotspots, via a random forest classifier, with an accuracy of 79% and a precision of 75%. They can also be used jointly with features derived from tertiary structures to boost the performance up to an accuracy of 82% and a precision of 80%.
Nível de Divulgação Eletrônica da Contabilidade Pública dos Municípios do Paraná no Ambiente da Internet

O objetivo e identificar o nivel de transparencia eletronica dos demonstrativos contabeis nos municipios paranaenses, dispostos no ambiente da internet. A pesquisa apresenta abordagem descritiva, ex post facto, transversal, realizada no mes de outubro do ano de 2011. O estudo e fundamentado na legislacao e em literatura da Ciencia Contabil e da Administracao Publica. Dentre aspectos relevantes, detectou-se que 81,25% dos municipios com 50.000 ou mais habitantes disponibilizam os relatorios da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal em suas paginas eletronicas e este indice cai para 29,43% nos municipios com menos de 50.000 habitantes. E expressivo o numero de municipios que nao faz uso eletronico para dar publicidade a seus atos, correspondendo a 70,57%, ou seja, 259 municipios dentre o total pesquisado. Ressalta-se que a transparencia das contas publicas reveste-se de limitacoes do ponto de vista de disponibilidade de informacoes, logo, necessita-se de aprimoramento e viabilizacao em beneficio dos resultados.