Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CHEMICAL AND CLIMATE STRESSORS: A ROLE FOR MECHANISTIC TOXICOLOGY IN ASSESSING CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS

Incorporation of global climate change (GCC) effects into assessments of chemical risk and injury requires integrated examinations of chemical and nonchemical stressors. Environmental variables altered by GCC (temperature, precipitation, salinity, pH) can influence the toxicokinetics of chemical absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion as well as toxicodynamic interactions between chemicals and target molecules. In addition, GCC challenges processes critical for coping with the external environment (water balance, thermoregulation, nutrition, and the immune, endocrine, and neurological systems), leaving organisms sensitive to even slight perturbations by chemicals when pushed to the limits of their physiological tolerance range. In simplest terms, GCC can make organisms more sensitive to chemical stressors, while alternatively, exposure to chemicals can make organisms more sensitive to GCC stressors. One challenge is to identify potential interactions between nonchemical and chemical stressors affecting key physiological processes in an organism. We employed adverse outcome pathways, constructs depicting linkages between mechanism‐based molecular initiating events and impacts on individuals or populations, to assess how chemical‐ and climate‐specific variables interact to lead to adverse outcomes. Case examples are presented for prospective scenarios, hypothesizing potential chemical–GCC interactions, and retrospective scenarios, proposing mechanisms for demonstrated chemical–climate interactions in natural populations. Understanding GCC interactions along adverse outcome pathways facilitates extrapolation between species or other levels of organization, development of hypotheses and focal areas for further research, and improved inputs for risk and resource injury assessments. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2013;32:32–48. © 2012 SETAC
Histological study of the extratympanic portion of the discomallear ligament in adult humans: a functional hypothesis

This study was carried out on histological aspects of the extratympanic portion of the discomallear ligament (DL) in adult humans. The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) was dissected bilaterally in 20 cadavers; in 15 cases the articular disc (AD) and the retroarticular tissue were extirpated. The extratympanic portion of the DL had the shape of a base‐down triangle, in relation to the AD, and an upper vertex, in relation to the petrotympanic fissure. In five cases, the base, measured bilaterally, had an average length of 6.4 mm, while the distance from the base to the upper vertex averaged 9.3 mm in length. The extratypanic portion of the DL is an intrinsic ligament of the TMJ, composed of collagen fibres and abundant elastic fibres. We propose that this ligament could act as a tensor of the synovial membrane in movements of the TMJ.
Equilibrium wind hedge contract structure through Nash bargaining and stochastic programming

With the continued maturing of electricity markets, merchant wind project developers are increasingly looking to longterm hedge contracts to control their exposure to market risks as well as to secure project financing. Such contracts are usually negotiated with load serving entities looking to hedge against spot price volatility or financial firms who repackage the electricity through structured deals that create value. We model the negotiation process using the Nash bargaining framework. The equilibrium price and quantity come out as the optimal solutions of a stochastic program wherein the objective is to maximize the product of the utility differentials for the two parties, with and without the contract. We use conditional cash flow at risk, a risk based profitability measure, to capture the risk attitudes of the bargaining parties. After incorporating the risk measure into the utility functions, we solve the resulting stochastic program using the sample average approximation method. We present numerical results as well as sensitivity analysis for the equilibrium contract structure with respect to volatility and correlation between a wind plant’s outputs and spot electricity prices. We also study how the risk attitudes of the two parties affect the equilibrium structure.
Effects of modality, urgency and situation on responses to multimodal warnings for drivers

Signifying road-related events with warnings can be highly beneficial, especially when imminent attention is needed. This thesis describes how modality, urgency and situation can influence driver responses to multimodal displays used as warnings. These displays utilise all combinations of audio, visual and tactile modalities, reflecting different urgency levels. In this way, a new rich set of cues is designed, conveying information multimodally, to enhance reactions during driving, which is a highly visual task. The importance of the signified events to driving is reflected in the warnings, and safety-critical or non-critical situations are communicated through the cues. Novel warning designs are considered, using both abstract displays, with no semantic association to the signified event, and language-based ones, using speech. These two cue designs are compared, to discover their strengths and weaknesses as car alerts. The situations in which the new cues are delivered are varied, by simulating both critical and non-critical events and both manual and autonomous car scenarios. A novel set of guidelines for using multimodal driver displays is finally provided, considering the modalities utilised, the urgency signified, and the situation simulated.
Bouma2 - A Quasi-Stateless, Tunable Multiple String-Match Algorithm

The Bouma2 algorithm attempts to challenge the prevalent "stateful" exact string-match paradigms by suggesting a "quasi-stateless" approach. We claim that using state-machines to solve the multiple exact string-match problem introduces a hidden artificial constraint, namely the Consume-Order Dependency, which results in unnecessary overhead. Bouma2 is not restricted in this sense; we postulate that this allows memory-efficiency and improved performance versus its state-machine equivalents. The heart of the Bouma2 preprocessing problem is formulated as a weighted Integer Linear Programming problem, that can be tuned for memory footprint and performance optimization. Specifically, this allows Bouma2 to be input-sensitive, as tuning can be based on input characteristics. Evaluating Bouma2 against the Aho-Corasick variant of the popular Snort Intrusion Prevention System, we demonstrate double the throughput while using about 10% of the memory.
A < 1 pJ sub-VT cardiac event detector in 65 nm LL-HVT CMOS

This paper presents the hardware implementation of a wavelet based event detector for cardiac pacemakers. A high level energy estimation flow was applied to evaluate energy efficiency of standard-cell based designs, over several CMOS technology generations, from 180 to 65 nm, operated in the sub-threshold domain. The simulation results indicate a 65 nm low-leakage high-threshold (LL-HVT) CMOS technology as the favourable choice. Accordingly, the design was fabricated in 65nm LL-HVT CMOS. Measurements validate the simulation results and prove that the circuit is fully functional down to a supply voltage of 250mV. At the energy minimum voltage of 320mV the circuit dissipates 0.88 pJ per sample at a clock rate of 20 kHz.
Glutathione S-Transferases Interact with AMP-Activated Protein Kinase: Evidence for S-Glutathionylation and Activation In Vitro

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a cellular and whole body energy sensor with manifold functions in regulating energy homeostasis, cell morphology and proliferation in health and disease. Here we apply multiple, complementary in vitro and in vivo interaction assays to identify several isoforms of glutathione S-transferase (GST) as direct AMPK binding partners: Pi-family member rat GSTP1 and Mu-family members rat GSTM1, as well as Schistosoma japonicum GST. GST/AMPK interaction is direct and involves the N-terminal domain of the AMPK β-subunit. Complex formation of the mammalian GSTP1 and -M1 with AMPK leads to their enzymatic activation and in turn facilitates glutathionylation and activation of AMPK in vitro. GST-facilitated S-glutathionylation of AMPK may be involved in rapid, full activation of the kinase under mildly oxidative physiological conditions.
Low-Complexity List-Based Frame Synchronization for LDPC Coded Transmission

In this paper, we propose a simple and efficient two-stage list synchronizer for frame synchronization of Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) coded data transmitted over the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel. The proposed method uses both synchronization sequence and code constraints for frame synchronization. In the first stage, a list of the most likely frame starting positions is made using synchro-sequence, while in the second stage the code constraints are used to select the most likely position from the list. We analytically relate the synchro-sequence length, the frame length and the list length in order to keep the synchronization frame error rate (FER) lower than the error-correcting FER of the LDPC code, and we investigate the trade-off between the sequence length and the list length. We demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms both the frame synchronization methods based on synchro-sequence only and the recently proposed blind synchronization methods based on LDPC code constraints, the former in terms of the synchronization FER for the same sequence lengths and the latter in terms of complexity.
Glottalization in inventory construction: a cross-language study

In this paper we present the study of glottalization in three languages: Mandarin Chinese, English and German. The motivation for this study originally comes from the selection of inventory speaker for Mandarin Chinese, and the design of phoneset for English and German synthesis. Because glottalization is characterized with a discontinuity in fundamental frequency, which can degrade the quality of synthesis during pitch manipulation of a concatenative synthesis, we thus investigated the common phenomenon of glottalization in these languages, with the focus on Mandarin Chinese. We illustrated the contexts where it often occurs and propose the implication to deal with glottalization in inventory building for concatenative speech synthesis.
Characterization and Physical Modeling of Turn-On Voltage, Saturation Voltage and Transition Slope in Graphene Barristors

In this paper, we present theoretical definitions and physical backgrounds of turn-on voltage, saturation voltage and transition slope in graphene-based variable-barrier transistors (barristors). We show that they are three main characteristics parameters of the device and are of the key factors in determining whether barristor is applicable for the future nanoelectronics. Furthermore, because of the importance of physical modeling of semiconductor devices, we address this issue and develop physical expressions, in closed form, for these characteristics. We also investigate the conformity of the functional dependence of our models and their results variations regarding to the device parameters with the reports of the previous works. Finally, we physically discuss how the variation of the device parameters, such as bias condition and doping density, can influence the aforesaid main characteristics of barristor.
A fragment liberated from the Escherichia coli CheA kinase that blocks stimulatory, but not inhibitory, chemoreceptor signaling

CheA, a cytoplasmic histidine autokinase, in conjunction with the CheW coupling protein, forms stable ternary complexes with the cytoplasmic signaling domains of transmembrane chemoreceptors. These signaling complexes induce chemotactic movements by stimulating or inhibiting CheA autophosphorylation activity in response to chemoeffector stimuli. To explore the mechanisms of CheA control by chemoreceptor signaling complexes, we examined the ability of various CheA fragments to interfere with receptor coupling control of CheA. CheA[250-654], a fragment carrying the catalytic domain and an adjacent C-terminal segment previously implicated in stimulatory control of CheA activity, interfered with the production of clockwise flagellar rotation and with chemotactic ability in wild-type cells. Epistasis tests indicated that CheA[250-654] blocked clockwise rotation by disrupting stimulatory coupling of CheA to receptors. In vitro coupling assays confirmed that a stoichiometric excess of CheA[250-654] fragments could exclude CheA from stimulatory receptor complexes, most likely by competing for CheW binding. However, CheA[250-654] fragments, even in vast excess, did not block receptor-mediated inhibition of CheA, suggesting that CheA[250-654] lacks an inhibitory contact site present in native CheA. This inhibitory target is most likely in the N-terminal P1 domain, which contains His-48, the site of autophosphorylation. These findings suggest a simple allosteric model of CheA control by ternary signaling complexes in which the receptor signaling domain conformationally regulates the interaction between the substrate and catalytic domains of CheA.
Ribeye is required for presynaptic CaV1.3a channel localization and afferent innervation of sensory hair cells

Ribbon synapses of the ear, eye and pineal gland contain a unique protein component: Ribeye. Ribeye consists of a novel aggregation domain spliced to the transcription factor CtBP2 and is one of the most abundant proteins in synaptic ribbon bodies. Although the importance of Ribeye for the function and physical integrity of ribbon synapses has been shown, a specific role in synaptogenesis has not been described. Here, we have modulated Ribeye expression in zebrafish hair cells and have examined the role of Ribeye in synapse development. Knockdown of ribeye resulted in fewer stimulus-evoked action potentials from afferent neurons and loss of presynaptic CaV1.3a calcium channel clusters in hair cells. Additionally, afferent innervation of hair cells was reduced in ribeye morphants, and the reduction was correlated with depletion of Ribeye punctae. By contrast, transgenic overexpression of Ribeye resulted in CaV1.3a channels colocalized with ectopic aggregates of Ribeye protein. Overexpression of Ribeye, however, was not sufficient to create ectopic synapses. These findings reveal two distinct functions of Ribeye in ribbon synapse formation – clustering CaV1.3a channels at the presynapse and stabilizing contacts with afferent neurons – and suggest that Ribeye plays an organizing role in synaptogenesis.
The Relationship between Parent's Comparisons of Nouns and Children's Noun Learning.

III TABLE OF CONTENTS V LIST OF TABLES IX LIST OF FIGURES XII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 The Relationship between Parental Input and Language Acquisition 1 Language Input 2 Acquisition of Word Knowledge via Input 5 Goals of the Study 6 Overview 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12 How Parents Label Objects 14 How Children Learn New Words 16 Flexible Attentional Mechanisms 18 Associative Mechanism 19 Memory 20 Inference-making 21 Task Factors used to Measure Word Learning Ability 23 Learning Type 23 Object Familiarity 24 Word Type 25 Word Learning Biases 26
Recommendations and Reports 1 Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis Evaluation of Benefits and Risks and Recommendations for State Newborn Screening Programs

depar depar depar depar department of health and human ser tment of health and human ser tment of health and human ser tment of health and human ser tment of health and human services vices vices vices vices MMWR SUGGESTED CITATION Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Newborn screening for cystic fibrosis: evaluation of benefits and risks and recommendations for state newborn screening programs. MMWR 2004;53(No. RR-13):[inclusive page numbers]. Disclosure of Relationship CDC, our planners, and our content specialists wish to disclose they have no financial interests or other relationships with the manufacturers of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services, or commercial supporters with the exception of Anne Marie Comeau, Ph.D. She wishes to disclose that she is employed by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, which operates a newborn screening program. This report does not include any discussion of the unlabeled use of a product or a product under investigational use. Summary In November 2003, CDC and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation cosponsored a workshop to review the benefits and risks associated with newborn screening for cystic fibrosis (CF). This report describes new research findings and outlines the recommendations of the workshop. The peer-reviewed evidence presented at the workshop supports the clinical utility of newborn screening for CF. Demonstrated long-term benefits from early nutritional treatment as a result of newborn screening for CF include improved growth and, in one study, cognitive development. Other benefits might include reduced hospitalizations and improved survival. Mixed evidence has been reported for pulmonary outcomes. Newborn screening in the United States is associated with diagnosis of CF a median of 1 year earlier than symptomatic detection, which might reduce the expense and anxiety associated with work-up for failure to thrive or other symptoms. Certain psychosocial risks for carrier children and their families (e.g., anxiety and misunderstanding) are associated with newborn screening. Exposure of young children to infectious agents through person-to-person transmission in clinical settings, although not an inherent risk of newborn screening, is a potential cause of harm from early detection. Involving specialists in CF care and infection control, genetic counseling, and communication can minimize these potential harms. Although screening decisions depend on a state's individual resources and priorities, on the basis of evidence of moderate benefits and low risk of harm, CDC believes that newborn screening for CF is justified. States should consider the magnitude of benefits and costs and the need to minimize risks …
Diversity of Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases Involved in the Biosynthesis of Lipopeptide Biosurfactants

Lipopeptide biosurfactants (LPBSs) consist of a hydrophobic fatty acid portion linked to a hydrophilic peptide chain in the molecule. With their complex and diverse structures, LPBSs exhibit various biological activities including surface activity as well as anti-cellular and anti-enzymatic activities. LPBSs are also involved in multi-cellular behaviors such as swarming motility and biofilm formation. Among the bacterial genera, Bacillus (Gram-positive) and Pseudomonas (Gram-negative) have received the most attention because they produce a wide range of effective LPBSs that are potentially useful for agricultural, chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries. The biosynthetic mechanisms and gene regulation systems of LPBSs have been extensively analyzed over the last decade. LPBSs are generally synthesized in a ribosome-independent manner with megaenzymes called nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs). Production of active-form NRPSs requires not only transcriptional induction and translation but also post-translational modification and assemblage. The accumulated knowledge reveals the versatility and evolutionary lineage of the NRPSs system. This review provides an overview of the structural and functional diversity of LPBSs and their different biosynthetic mechanisms in Bacillus and Pseudomonas, including both typical and unique systems. Finally, successful genetic engineering of NRPSs for creating novel lipopeptides is also discussed.
A New Approach to Design Microstrip Wideband Balun Bandpass Filter

A new design method of microstrip wideband balun bandpass filter (BPF) is presented in this letter. By utilizing the standing-wave property of voltage distribution along an open-circuited half-wavelength (λ/2) microstrip transmission line, the out-of-phase signals can be obtained at two output ports of a balun. Meanwhile, proper coupling topologies between the open-circuited λ/2 microstrip transmission line and the multi-mode resonators are selected to achieve a balun BPF with both characteristics of balance performance and wideband filtering properties. To validate our proposal, a balun BPF operating at 1 GHz with a 3 dB FBW of 30% is designed, fabricated, and measured. Both the simulation and measurement results of the designed balun BPF are provided with a good agreement. Results indicate that this balun BPF exhibits not only a high selectivity filtering performance with two common transmission zeros (Tzs) of S21 and S31 outside the passbands, but also a good balance performance with 0.5 dB amplitude imbalance and 5° phase imbalance.
Elevated levels of shed membrane microparticles with procoagulant potential in the peripheral circulating blood of patients with acute coronary syndromes.

BACKGROUND Apoptotic microparticles are responsible for almost all tissue factor activity of the plaque lipid core. We hypothesized that elevated levels of procoagulant microparticles could also circulate in the peripheral blood of patients with recent clinical signs of plaque disruption and thrombosis. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 39 patients with coronary heart disease, including 12 patients with stable angina and 27 patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), and 12 patients with noncoronary heart disease. We isolated the circulating microparticles by capture with annexin V and determined their procoagulant potential with a prothrombinase assay. The cell origins of microparticles were determined in an additional 22 patients by antigenic capture with specific antibodies. The level of procoagulant microparticles did not differ between stable angina patients and noncoronary patients (10.1+/-1.6 nmol/L phosphatidylserine [PS] equivalent versus 9.9+/-1.6 nmol/L PS equivalent, respectively). However, procoagulant microparticles were significantly elevated in patients with ACS (22.2+/-2.7 nmol/L PS equivalent) compared with other coronary (P<0.01) or noncoronary (P<0.01) patients. Microparticles of endothelial origin were significantly elevated in patients with ACS (P<0.01), which suggests an important role for endothelial injury in inducing the procoagulant potential. CONCLUSIONS High levels of procoagulant endothelial microparticles are present in the circulating blood of patients with ACS and may contribute to the generation and perpetuation of intracoronary thrombi.
Methazolamide-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles modified with low-molecular weight chitosan for the treatment of glaucoma: vitro and vivo study

Abstract The aims of this study were to design and characterize methazolamide (MTZ)-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) with and without modification of low molecular weight chitosan (CS) and compare their potentials for ocular drug delivery. Low molecular weight CS was obtained via a modified chemical oxidative degradation method. SLN with CS (CS-SLN-MTZ) and without CS (SLN-MTZ) were prepared according to a modified emulsion-solvent evaporation method. SLN-MTZ and CS-SLN-MTZ were 199.4 ± 2.8 nm and 252.8 ± 4.0 nm in particle size, −21.3 ± 1.9 mV and +31.3 ± 1.7 mV in zeta potential, respectively. Physical stability studies demonstrated that CS-SLN-MTZ remained stable for at least 4 months at 4 °C, while SLN-MTZ no more than 2 months. A prolonged in vitro release profile of MTZ from CS-SLN-MTZ was obtained compared with SLN-MTZ. Furthermore, CS-SLN-MTZ presented a better permeation property in excised rabbit cornea. In vivo studies indicated that the intraocular pressure lowering effect of CS-SLN-MTZ (245.75 ± 18.31 mmHg × h) was significantly better than both SLN-MTZ (126.74 ± 17.73 mmHg × h) and commercial product Brinzolamide Eye Drops AZOPT® (171.17 ± 16.45 mmHg × h). The maximum percentage decrease in IOP of CS-SLN-MTZ (42.78 ± 7.71%) was higher than SLN-MTZ (27.82 ± 4.15%) and was comparable to AZOPT (38.06 ± 1.25%). CS-SLN-MTZ showed no sign of ocular irritancy according to the Draize method and the histological examination.