Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
General practice research: does gender affect the decision to participate?

Background: Recruitment of general practitioners for research in Australia is problematic. We aimed to explore general practice demographics and recent research experience for effects on research attitudes and enablers and inhibitors of research participation. Methods: A survey was developed and distributed to GPs via two divisions of general practice in Melbourne, Victoria. Results: Seven hundred and fifty-six questionnaires were mailed and 215 (28%) returned; 50% of respondents were women and 51% of all GPs had previously participated in general practice research. Gender differences were found in factors affecting the decision to participate. Women were significantly more concerned about out-of-hours commitment (p<0.001), paperwork volume (p<0.001), recruitment criteria (p=0.009) and research methodology complexity (p=0.016). They were more likely to want to work as a general practice group (p=0.007) and to be inhibited by having to present results to peers (OR 2.4, 95% CI: 1.5-3.8). Conclusion: Research challenges, reduced interest in research participation and feminisation of the workforce have major implications for the future of research in general practice. Systemic changes are needed to address these issues.
When Blood Is Not an Option: Factors Affecting Survival After the Use of a Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carrier in 54 Patients with Life-Threatening Anemia

BACKGROUND: In consenting Jehovah's Witness patients and others for whom blood is contraindicated or not available, hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC)-201 may enable survival in acutely anemic patients while underlying conditions are treated. METHODS: Survival factors were identified in a multicenter, unblinded series of severely anemic “compassionate use” patients receiving available standard treatment plus consultant-supported HBOC-201 administration by novice users. Predictors of outcome were sought and compared between survivors and nonsurvivors. A compound variable, hemoglobin-duration deficit product was used to describe the interactive clinical effects of severity and duration of anemia. Mortality, correlations between patient characteristics, and survival to hospital discharge were determined from patient records. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients (median age 50 years) with life-threatening anemia (median hemoglobin concentration at time of request = 4 g/dL) received 60 to 300 g HBOC-201. Twenty-three patients (41.8%) were discharged. Intraoperative blood loss (45%), malignancy (18%), and acute hemolysis (13%) were the prevailing reasons for anemia. Time from onset of anemia (≤8 g/dL) to HBOC-201 infusion was shorter for survivors than nonsurvivors (3.2 vs 4.4 days, P = 0.027). Mean hemoglobin levels before HBOC-201 infusion in survivors and nonsurvivors were 4.5 and 3.8 g/dL, respectively (P = 0.120). No serious adverse event was attributed to HBOC-201. The hemoglobin-duration deficit product separated survivors from nonsurvivors. Cancer and renal disease were associated with nonsurvival. CONCLUSION: Earlier, compared with later, administration by inexperienced users of HBOC-201 to patients with anemia was associated with improved chances of survival of acutely bleeding and hemolyzing patients. Survival was more likely if the duration and magnitude of low hemoglobin was minimized before treatment with HBOC-201.
Mammals as prey: Estimating ingestible size

Most mammals have deformable bodies, making it difficult to measure the size of living or freshly killed ones accurately. Because small rodents are common prey of many snakes, and because nearly all snakes swallow their prey whole, we explored four methods for determining the ingestible size (the smallest cross‐sectional area that the largest part of the rodent can be made into without breaking bones or dislocating joints) of 100 intact rodents, including 50 Musmusculus and 50 Rattus norvegicus. Cross‐sectional areas derived from maximal height and width of specimens at rest or the same specimens wrapped snout to pelvic girdle are roughly 1.5× higher than areas calculated either by the height and width of the same specimens rolled into cylinders or by volumetric displacement. Rolling rodents into cylinders reduces cross‐sectional area by straightening the vertebral column, lengthening the abdominal cavity, elevating the sternum, compressing the thoracic cavity, and protracting the shoulder joint, that is, changes similar to those seen in rodents eaten by snakes. Reduced major axis regression of the smallest attainable cross‐sectional area, y, on mass, x, shows that y (in log mm2) approximates 1.53x (in log grams)0.69 for rats and 1.63x0. 64 for mice. Our results suggest that visual cues provided by live rodents might lead most predators, like snakes, to overestimate ingestible size and hence rarely attack prey too large to ingest. J. Morphol. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
EEG Power Spectra at Early Stages of Depressive Disorders

In previous quantitative EEG studies of depression, mostly patients with a lifetime history of depressive disorders were reported. This study examined quantitative EEG parameters obtained in the early stages of depression in comparison with age-matched healthy controls. EEG was recorded using two different montages in eyes closed and eyes open resting states. A significant increase in spectrum power in theta (4–7.5 Hz), alpha (7.5–14 Hz), and beta (14–20 Hz) frequency bands was found in depressed patients at parietal and occipital sites, both in eyes closed and eyes open conditions. These results suggest that an increase in slow (theta and alpha) activity in the EEG pattern may reflect a decreased cortical activation in these brain regions. Enhancement of beta power may correlate with anxiety symptoms that most likely play an important role on the onset of depressive disorder.
Epitope-Specific Evolution of Human B Cell Responses to Borrelia burgdorferi VlsE Protein from Early to Late Stages of Lyme Disease

Most immunogenic proteins of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, are known or expected to contain multiple B cell epitopes. However, the kinetics of the development of human B cell responses toward the various epitopes of individual proteins during the course of Lyme disease has not been examined. Using the highly immunogenic VlsE as a model Ag, we investigated the evolution of humoral immune responses toward its immunodominant sequences in 90 patients with a range of early to late manifestations of Lyme disease. The results demonstrate the existence of asynchronous, independently developing, Ab responses against the two major immunogenic regions of the VlsE molecule in the human host. Despite their strong immunogenicity, the target epitopes were inaccessible to Abs on intact spirochetes, suggesting a lack of direct immunoprotective effect. These observations document the association of immune reactivity toward specific VlsE sequences with different phases of Lyme disease, demonstrating the potential use of detailed epitope mapping of Ags for staging of the infection, and offer insights regarding the pathogen’s possible immune evasion mechanisms.
Integrin Expression in Developing Smooth Muscle Cells

We studied the specific expression patterns and distributions of α1 and β1 integrin subunits, the major cell adhesion receptors in smooth muscle, in developing smooth muscle cells from 16-, 18-, and 20-day embryonic gizzards and from 1- and 7-day post hatch chick gizzards by SDS-PAGE, immunoblotting, and immunoelectron microscopy. Antibodies raised against α1 and β1 integrins isolated from avian gizzards were used as probes. Gels and blots showed that the amount of α1 and β1 integrins increased as age increased, with major increases at 1 and 7 days post hatch. Image analysis of immunoelectron micrographs demonstrated that statistically significant labeling increases occurred between embryonic Days 16 and 18, between embryonic Day 20 and 1 day post hatch, and between 1 day and 7 days post hatch. Immunolabeling with both anti-α1 and anti-β1 integrin was prominent at membrane-associated dense plaques (MADPs) and at filament anchoring regions at cell ends. This indicates that α1 and β1 integrin expression coincides temporally with the intracellular proliferation and reorientation of myofilaments. The similarity in distribution patterns of α1 and β1 integrins during development suggests that the two integrin subunits are synchronously expressed during development and do not appear sequentially.
Purification and Characterization of Three Thermostable Endochitinases of a Noble Bacillus Strain, MH-1, Isolated from Chitin-Containing Compost

ABSTRACT A thermophilic and actinic bacterium strain, MH-1, which produced three different endochitinases in its culture fluid was isolated from chitin-containing compost. The microorganism did not grow in any of the usual media for actinomyces but only in colloidal chitin supplemented with yeast extract and (2,6-O-dimethyl)-β-cyclodextrin. Compost extract enhanced its growth. In spite of the formation of branched mycelia, other properties of the strain, such as the formation of endospores, the presence of meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall, the percent G+C of DNA (55%), and the partial 16S ribosomal DNA sequence, indicated that strain MH-1 should belong to the genusBacillus. Three isoforms of endochitinase (L, M, and S) were purified to homogeneity and characterized fromBacillus sp. strain MH-1. They had different molecular masses (71, 62, and 53 kDa), pIs (5.3, 4.8, and 4.7), and N-terminal amino acid sequences. Chitinases L, M, and S showed relatively high temperature optima (75, 65, and 75°C) and stabilities and showed pH optima in an acidic range (pH 6.5, 5.5, and 5.5, respectively). When reacted with acetylchitohexaose [(GlcNAc)6], chitinases L and S produced (GlcNAc)2 at the highest rate while chitinase M produced (GlcNAc)3 at the highest rate. None of the three chitinases hydrolyzed (GlcNAc)2. Chitinase L produced (GlcNAc)2 and (GlcNAc)3 in most abundance from 66 and 11% partially acetylated chitosan. Thep-nitrophenol (pNP)-releasing activity of chitinase L was highest toward pNP-(GlcNAc)2, and those of chitinases M and S were highest toward pNP-(GlcNAc)3. All three enzymes were inert to pNP-GlcNAc. AgCl, HgCl2, and (GlcNAc)2inhibited the activities of all three enzymes, while MnCl2and CaCl2 slightly activated all of the enzymes.
The Development of European Standards on Political Parties and their Regulation

Over the last decade many European countries have increased both the scope and content of national party regulation. This trend is mirrored by an ever-increasing interest within European governmental and non-governmental organizations to guide this process and to determine the direction as regards its content. Little systematic scholarly attention has been paid to this supranational dimension, however. First of all, this working paper focuses on the identification of European normative conceptions of the role of political parties in modern democracies through an analysis of the rise of European standards regarding political party legislation. Secondly, it analyzes the (direct or indirect) impact on the national parties and party systems of the legislation adopted at the European level to determine whether these new norms matter. Towards these ends, this paper analyzes the regulation of political parties by supranational European organizations, concentrating in particular on the regulations, guidelines and recommendations adopted by the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights.
Stress-Induced Inflammatory Responses in Women: Effects of Race and Pregnancy

Objective African Americans experience preterm birth at nearly twice the rate of whites. Chronic stress associated with minority status is implicated in this disparity. Inflammation is a key biological pathway by which stress may affect birth outcomes. This study examined the effects of race and pregnancy on stress-induced inflammatory responses. Methods Thirty-nine women in the second trimester of pregnancy (19 African American, 20 white) and 39 demographically similar nonpregnant women completed an acute stressor (Trier Social Stress Test). Psychosocial characteristics, health behaviors, and affective responses were assessed. Serum interleukin (IL)-6 was measured at baseline, 45 minutes, and 120 minutes poststressor. Results IL-6 responses at 120 minutes poststressor were 46% higher in African Americans versus whites (95% confidence interval = 8%–81%, t(72) = 3.51, p = . 001). This effect was present in pregnancy and nonpregnancy. IL-6 responses at 120 minutes poststressor tended to be lower (15%) in pregnant versus nonpregnant women (95% confidence interval = −5%–32%, p = .14). Racial differences in inflammatory responses were not accounted for by demographics, psychological characteristics, health behaviors, or differences in salivary cortisol. Pregnant whites showed lower negative affective responses than did nonpregnant women of either race (p values ⩽ .007). Conclusions This study provides novel evidence that stress-induced inflammatory responses are more robust among African American women versus whites during pregnancy and nonpregnancy. The ultimate impact of stress on health is a function of stressor exposure and physiological responses. Individual differences in stress-induced inflammatory responses represent a clear target for continued research efforts in racial disparities in health during pregnancy and nonpregnancy.
Surface-Micromachined Rectangular Micro-Coaxial Lines for Sub-Millimeter-Wave Applications

This letter describes the design, fabrication and characterization of surface micro-machined micro-coaxial transmission lines. The fabrication process relies on successive deposition of sacrificial polymer layers and metal electroplating. Transmission lines with a cross-section of 88 μm × 42 μm have been fabricated on a fused silica substrate, with various shapes. These lines are very well suited for applications above 50 GHz, where propagation in air minimizes both loss and dispersion. The measured lines have good performances with measured insertion losses of -0.33 dB/mm @ 127 GHz and return loss better than -15 dB.
Early Environmental Events as a Cause of IDDM: Evidence and Implications

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is caused by destruction of the insulin-secreting β-cells of the islets of Langerhans. It is proposed that the disease is caused by nongenetic, probably environmental, factors operating in a genetically susceptible host to initiate a destructive immune process. These environmental factors may operate over a limited period in early childhood to induce the immune process that destroys the islet β-cell. Thereafter, there is a long prodrome before the onset of clinical diabetes, during which clinical, immune, and metabolic changes can be detected. If these proposals are correct, epidemiological studies should focus on environmental events in early childhood that might induce, or accelerate, the disease process. Moreover, it should be possible to identify, from an early age, changes in the prediabetic period that persist to diagnosis and have predictive value. The variable age of presentation of IDDM may, therefore, reflect different rates of disease progression rather than different ages of exposure to the critical environmental events. Those patients in whom the disease process is slow could present with IDDM as adults, develop diabetes that does not require insulin treatment, or even fail to develop diabetes altogether. These proposed features, if confirmed, would have important implications for the prediction of IDDM and raise the possibility that modulation of the destructive immune process could prevent progression to clinical diabetes.
Wheat germ agglutinin-induced paraptosis-like cell death and protective autophagy is mediated by autophagy-linked FYVE inhibition

Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) is a lectin that specifically binds cell surface glycoproteins and disrupts nuclear pore complex function through its interaction with POM121. Our data indicate WGA induces paraptosis-like cell death without caspase activation. We observed the main features of paraptosis, including cytoplasmic vacuolation, endoplasmic reticulum dilation and increased ER stress, and the unfolded protein response in WGA-treated cervical carcinoma cells. Conversion of microtubule-associated protein I light chain 3 (LC3-I) into LC3-II and punctuate formation suggestive of autophagy were observed in WGA-treated cells. WGA-induced autophagy antagonized paraptosis in HeLa and CaSKi cells, which expressed autophagy-linked FYVE (Alfy) protein, but not in SiHa cells that did not express Alfy. Alfy knockdown in HeLa cells induced paraptosis-like cell death. These data indicate that WGA-induced cell death occurs through paraptosis and that autophagy may exert a protective effect. WGA treatment and Alfy inhibition could be an effective therapeutic strategy for apoptosis-resistant cervical cancer cells.
Rural Livelihoods in Mon State: Evidence from a Representative Household Survey

The purpose of this report is to provide information and analysis to government, civil society, and donors interested in improving the well-being of the rural population of Mon State, Myanmar. Specifically, the report analyzes the different sources of income for rural households, as well as their socioeconomic characteristics, with a view to helping identify constraints on growth and potential pathways to improving incomes. The overall picture that emerges is one of a struggling agricultural sector and an economy heavily dependent on services for local employment and on international migration for income. The analysis is based on a sample of 1,632 rural households, designed to be representative of rural households in Mon State as a whole. The survey included a household questionnaire and a community survey, and gathered information on demographics, all economic aspects of the household, and access to infrastructure and services at the community level.
Managing Systemic Risks in the Croatian Economy

The recent world financial and economic crisis revealed the need for a macroprudential approach to financial system analysis, since it has become obvious that a significant share of risks arises from the system itself, independently of the risks related to individual financial institutions. The previous regulatory framework has shown to be pro-cyclical, which, combined with liberalised financial systems and technological advancement, increased the speed and the intensity of shock propagation. Real output costs of extreme financial crises amount from 3% to 5% of world GDP (Kapp and Vega (2012)), while the social costs considerably exceed those amounts. All of this emphasises the necessity of identifying and monitoring systemic risks in order to better understand the processes of their accumulation and enable the preventive reaction of policy makers, which was partly missing in the “standard” supervision framework.Full publication: Macroprudential Policy
Surface effects in the Ni 2p x-ray photoemission spectra of NiO

We report experimental and theoretical evidence of surface effects in the Ni $2p$ x-ray photoemission spectra (XPS) of NiO. The Ni $2{p}_{3∕2}$ surface-enhanced XPS of a NiO sample show a relative enhancement of the intensity of the known satellite at $1.5\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$ higher binding energy from the main line, indicating a considerable surface contribution of this satellite. The results are discussed in terms of bulk-octahedral and surface-pyramidal Ni symmetries. Other contributions, like nonlocal screening effects, cannot be neglected.
ID3 and k-means Based Methodology for Internet of Things Device Classification

The Internet of Things (IoT) brings the issue of connecting an immense amount of diverse devices. This vast diversity will present a challenge for communications, since it is not expected that all devices will follow the same rules and standards to communicate back and forth, due to the difficulty and inefficiency of developing a unique set rules and standards for each device. A classification of devices is needed, so rules and protocols of communications could be established among the different device categories, to deal with the diversity of the things to be interconnected. In this paper, a classification methodology using a clustering algorithm like k-means is proposed; as well as, a way to establish rules of classification using a decision tree implemented with the ID3 algorithm.
Approximate indifference pricing in exponential Lévy models

ABSTRACT Financial markets based on Lévy processes are typically incomplete and option prices depend on risk attitudes of individual agents. In this context, the notion of utility indifference price has gained popularity in the academic circles. Although theoretically very appealing, this pricing method remains difficult to apply in practice, due to the high computational cost of solving the non-linear partial integro-differential equation associated to the indifference price. In this work, we develop closed-form approximations to exponential utility indifference prices in exponential Lévy models. To this end, we first establish a new non-asymptotic approximation of the indifference price which extends earlier results on small risk aversion asymptotics of this quantity. Next, we use this formula to derive a closed-form approximation of the indifference price by treating the Lévy model as a perturbation of the Black–Scholes model. This extends the methodology introduced in a recent paper for smooth linear functionals of Lévy processes (Černý et al. 2013) to non-linear and non-smooth functionals. Our formula represents the indifference price as the linear combination of the Black–Scholes price and correction terms which depend on the variance, skewness and kurtosis of the underlying Lévy process, and the derivatives of the Black–Scholes price. As a by-product, we obtain a simple approximation for the spread between the buyer’s and the seller’s indifference price. This formula allows to quantify, in a model-independent fashion, how sensitive a given product is to jump risk when jump size is small.
Structure, dynamics, and mechanism of the lead-dependent ribozyme

Abstract Leadzyme is a small catalytic RNA that was identified by in vitro selection for Pb2+-dependent cleavage from a tRNA library. Leadzyme employs a unique two-step Pb2+-specific mechanism to cleave within its active site. NMR and crystal structures of the active site revealed different folding patterns, but neither features the in-line alignment for attack by the 2′-OH nucleophilic group. These experimentally determined structures most likely represent ground states and are catalytically inactive. There are significant dynamics of the active site and the motif samples multiple conformations at the ground states. Various metal ion binding sites have been identified, including one that may be occupied by a catalytic Pb2+. Based on functional group analysis, a computational model of the transition state has been proposed. This model features a unique base triple that is consistent with sequence and functional group requirements for catalysis. This structure is likely only populated transiently, but imposing appropriate conformational constraints may significantly stabilize this state thereby promoting catalysis. Other ions may inhibit the cleavage by competing for the Pb2+ binding site, or by stabilizing the ground state thereby suppressing its transition to the catalytically active conformation. Some rare earth ions can enhance the reaction via an unknown mechanism. Because of its unique chemistry and dynamic behavior, leadzyme can continue to serve as an excellent model system for teaching us RNA biology and chemistry.