Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biodiversity conservation and agricultural sustainability: towards a new paradigm of ‘ecoagriculture’ landscapes

The dominant late twentieth century model of land use segregated agricultural production from areas managed for biodiversity conservation. This module is no longer adequate in much of the world. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment confirmed that agriculture has dramatically increased its ecological footprint. Rural communities depend on key components of biodiversity and ecosystem services that are found in non-domestic habitats. Fortunately, agricultural landscapes can be designed and managed to host wild biodiversity of many types, with neutral or even positive effects on agricultural production and livelihoods. Innovative practitioners, scientists and indigenous land managers are adapting, designing and managing diverse types of ‘ecoagriculture’ landscapes to generate positive co-benefits for production, biodiversity and local people. We assess the potentials and limitations for successful conservation of biodiversity in productive agricultural landscapes, the feasibility of making such approaches financially viable, and the organizational, governance and policy frameworks needed to enable ecoagriculture planning and implementation at a globally significant scale. We conclude that effectively conserving wild biodiversity in agricultural landscapes will require increased research, policy coordination and strategic support to agricultural communities and conservationists.
Lung transplant reperfusion injury involves pulmonary macrophages and circulating leukocytes in a biphasic response.

OBJECTIVE Both donor pulmonary macrophages and recipient circulating leukocytes may be involved in reperfusion injury after lung transplantation. By using the macrophage inhibitor gadolinium chloride and leukocyte filters, we attempted to identify the roles of these two populations of cells in lung transplant reperfusion injury. METHODS With our isolated, ventilated, blood-perfused rabbit lung model, all groups underwent lung harvest followed by 18-hour cold storage and 2-hour blood reperfusion. Measurements of pulmonary artery pressure, lung compliance, and arterial oxygenation were obtained. Group I (n = 8) served as a control. Group II (n = 8) received gadolinium chloride at 14 mg/kg 24 hours before lung harvest. Group III (n = 8) received leukocyte-depleted blood reperfusion by means of a leukocyte filter. RESULTS The gadolinium chloride group had significantly improved arterial oxygenation and pulmonary artery pressure measurements compared with control subjects and an improved arterial oxygenation compared with the filter group after 30 minutes of reperfusion. After 120 minutes of reperfusion, however, the filter group had significantly improved arterial oxygenation and pulmonary artery pressure measurements compared with the control group and an improved arterial oxygenation compared with the gadolinium chloride group. CONCLUSIONS Lung transplant reperfusion injury occurs in two phases. The early phase is mediated by donor pulmonary macrophages and is followed by a late injury induced by recipient circulating leukocytes.
Neurotensin receptor-1 and -3 complex modulates the cellular signaling of neurotensin in the HT29 cell line.

BACKGROUND & AIMS The neuropeptide neurotensin (NT) exerts its intracellular effect by interacting with 3 different receptors. Two of these receptors (NTR1 and NTR2) belong to the G protein-coupled receptor family, whereas the third one (NTR3) is a type I receptor with a single transmembrane domain. We recently showed that the 2 structurally different receptors NTR1 and NTR3 were coexpressed in several human cancer cells on which NT exerts proliferative effects. METHODS Here, by an immunoprecipitation approach, we provide biochemical evidence for an endogenous heterodimerization of the G protein-coupled receptor NTR1 with the NTR3 in the human adenocarcinoma cell line HT29. RESULTS We show that both receptors are expressed and colocalized within the cell surface of HT29 cells where they already interact to form a heterodimer. The NTR1-NTR3 complex is then internalized on NT stimulation. CONCLUSIONS The complex formed between these 2 structurally unrelated NT receptors modulates both the NT-induced phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases and the phosphoinositide (PI) turnover mediated by the NTR1.
Interside Latency Differences in Brainstem Auditory and Somatosensory Evoked Potentials. Defining Upper Limits to Determine Asymmetry

Purpose: Limits of the interside differences are invaluable when interpreting asymmetry in brainstem auditory evoked potentials and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) recordings. The aim of this study was to analyze the normal upper limits of interside latency differences of brainstem auditory evoked potentials and SEP from the posterior tibial nerve and median nerve to determine asymmetry. Methods: The authors performed a prospective study in 56 healthy subjects aged 15 to 64 years with no neurological or hearing disorders. They analyzed (1) the latencies of I, III, and V waves and I-III, III-V, and I-V intervals and the amplitude ratios V/I and IV/I for brainstem auditory evoked potentials bilaterally; (2) the latencies of N8, N22, N28, and P37 waves and the interval N22-P37 and the amplitude P37 for posterior tibial nerve SEP bilaterally; and (3) the latencies and amplitudes of N9, N13, and N20 waves and N9-N13 and N13-N20 intervals for median nerve SEP bilaterally. The interside differences for these parameters were calculated and analyzed. Results: The authors obtained an upper limit for the interside latency differences from brainstem auditory evoked potentials that was significantly lower than the previously published data. However, the upper limits of interside latency differences for SEP were similar to those previously reported. Conclusions: The findings of this study should be considered when laboratories analyze asymmetry using the normative data published by another center, however temporarily, in organizing new laboratories.
Wi-Fi-based indoor positioning: Basic techniques, hybrid algorithms and open software platform

In urbanized and indoor environments, outdoor positioning systems, such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs), are often inaccurate and adaptations of such systems to those contexts are expensive and hard to deploy. Nowadays, a lot of indoor positioning techniques have been studied, but it it quite difficult to objectively evaluate and compare their accuracies in the same environment.
Fertility in high-producing dairy cows: reasons for decline and corrective strategies for sustainable improvement

The fertility of dairy cows has declined worldwide and this change is surprising given the importance of good fertility to the dairy industry. The decline in fertility can be explained by management changes within the dairy industry and also negative genetic correlations between milk production and reproduction. Four primary mechanisms that depress fertility in lactating cows are anovulatory and behavioral anestrus (failure to cycle and display estrus), suboptimal and irregular estrous cyclicity (this category includes ovarian disease and subnormal luteal function after breeding), abnormal preimplantation embryo development (may be secondary to poor oocyte quality), and uterine/placental incompetence. The solution for improving fertility in high-producing dairy cows will include both short-term and long-terms components. For the immediate short-term, using high fertility sires and implementing controlled breeding programs will help. Controlled breeding programs improve reproductive efficiency in confinement-style dairy herds and can be combined with post-insemination treatments to enhance fertility. An additional immediate short-term solution involves changing the diet so that dietary ingredients invoke hormonal responses that benefit the reproduction of the cow. The short-term solutions described above do not address the fundamental need for correcting the underlying genetics for reproduction in high-producing dairy cows. Crossbreeding will improve reproductive performance perhaps because it alleviates inbreeding and also lowers production in cows with an extreme high milk production phenotype. The current crisis in dairy reproduction will be permanently solved, however, when the genetics for dairy reproduction are improved through a balanced genetic selection strategy.
Tiludronate infusion in the treatment of bone spavin: a double blind placebo-controlled trial.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Tiludronate regulates bone remodelling through a decrease of the resorptive process and should therefore ameliorate the remodelling processes active in osteoarthritis of the distal tarsal joints ('bone spavin') and alleviate pain associated with abnormal bone lysis. OBJECTIVE To confirm the efficacy of tiludronate, administered as a single infusion at a dose of 1 mg/kg bwt, in the treatment of bone spavin in the horse. METHODS A double blind placebo controlled trial on 108 clinical cases of bone spavin was undertaken. The lameness score of the lamest limb was assessed following distal tarsal analgesia of the contralateral limb and followed-up using the same procedure throughout the study. Bone spavin in the lamest limb was confirmed by distal tarsal analgesia and radiography. Horses were treated at Day 0 and reassessed 60 days later after controlled exercise. A second nonblinded treatment was given to unresponsive horses and all horses were re-examined at Day 120. Exercise levels were recorded at each examination. RESULTS Eighty-seven horses completed the trial as per the protocol. The tiludronate horses were significantly less lame than the placebo horses (P = 0.0318). Horses treated at Day 60 with tiludronate showed further improvement in lameness at Day 120 (P = 0.0096 and P = 0.0034 for horses treated with tiludronate and placebo at Day 0, respectively). The only significant difference in radiographic findings between tiludronate and placebo was for presence of periarticular osteophytes (P = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS Tiludronate treatment is proven to be effective in bone spavin in horses in association with a controlled exercise programme. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Tiludronate in combination with controlled exercise offers an alternate medical treatment for bone spavin.
Injury burden during an insurgency: the untold trauma of infrastructure breakdown in Baghdad, Iraq.

BACKGROUND Injuries as a result of the ongoing violence in Iraq have been a topic of both lay and academic interest. However, to date, attempts to quantify injuries in the country have focused primarily on direct mortality, which represents only a small portion of overall injury burden and ignores those injuries indirectly resulting from the conflict-induced breakdown of Iraqi infrastructure. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional household survey from October to November, 2009, within the Baghdad Governorate of central Iraq. Using two-stage cluster-sampling with a proportional-to-size methodology, we randomized a total of 60 clusters to Baghdad's five governmental districts. Within each cluster, we interviewed heads of households regarding all injuries during the last 3 months. RESULTS We surveyed 1,172 households, gathering information regarding 7,396 individuals. Only 8.4% of injuries were intentional, and fatalities represented only a small fraction (1.7%) of overall injury burden. The well-publicized intentional explosions in Baghdad, although accounting for close to half (44%) of all intentional injuries, made up only 4% of the total. Other injuries at least partially attributable to the conflict-induced breakdown of Iraqi infrastructure proved a much larger burden, for example, those from electric shock, unintentional explosions, unintentional gunshot wounds, and falls. CONCLUSIONS Past and current fighting in Baghdad continues to adversely affect the Iraqi populace, where the indirect effects of infrastructure breakdown are likely the primary source of injury. When measuring the burden of large-scale violence, health researchers should account for the full injury burden, including both injury morbidity and indirect injuries.
Biodiversity conservation and drug discovery: Can they be combined? The Suriname and Madagascar experiences

The approach to new drugs through natural products has proved to be the single most successful strategy for the discovery of new drugs, but in recent years its use has been deemphasized by many pharmaceutical companies in favor of approaches based on combinatorial chemistry and genomics, among others. Drug discovery from natural sources requires continued access to plant, marine, and microbial biomass, and so the preservation of tropical rainforests is an important part of our drug discovery program. Sadly, many of the tropical forests of the world are under severe environmental pressure, and deforestation is a serious problem in most tropical countries. One way to combat this loss is to demonstrate their value as potential sources of new pharmaceutical or agrochemical products. As part of an effort to integrate biodiversity conservation and drug discovery with economic development, we initiated an International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) to discover potential pharmaceuticals from the plant biodiversity of Suriname and Madagascar. The Group, established with funding from agencies of the United States government, involved participants from the USA, Suriname, and Madagascar. The basic approach was to search for bioactive plants in the Suriname and Malagasy flora, and to isolate their bioactive constituents by the best available methods, but the work included capacity building as well as research. Progress on this project is reported, drawing on results obtained from the isolation of bioactive natural products from Suriname and Madagascar. The benefits of this general approach to biodiversity and drug discovery are also discussed.
Cell lines containing varicella-zoster virus open reading frame 62 and expressing the "IE" 175 protein complement ICP4 mutants of herpes simplex virus type 1

Vero cells were cotransfected with pSV2neo and a recombinant plasmid containing the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) open reading frame 62 (ORF62). Three neomycin-resistant cell lines were isolated and shown to complement two different ICP4 mutants (tsB21 and d120) of herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 (HSV-1). VZV-specific RNA could not be detected in these cell lines, but following infection with tsB21, a 4.3-kilobase VZV transcript was detected. This RNA increased in quantity when cells were infected in the presence of cycloheximide. A VZV-specific protein of 175 kilodaltons was detected in extracts of all three cell lines following infection with wild-type HSV-1 but not in uninfected cells. That VZV RNA and protein were detected only in HSV-1 infected cells suggests that a component of the HSV virion activates the expression of VZV ORF62. The increase in RNA expression seen in the presence of cycloheximide indicates that the protein encoded by VZV ORF62, "IE"175, may be autoregulatory. These data provide further evidence that VZV "IE"175 is the functional analog of the HSV ICP4.
Wilms tumor and the WT1 gene.

Wilms tumor or nephroblastoma is a pediatric kidney cancer arising from pluripotent embryonic renal precursors. Multiple genetic loci have been linked to Wilms tumorigenesis; positional cloning strategies have led to the identification of the WT1 tumor suppressor gene at chromosome 11p13. WT1 encodes a zinc finger transcription factor that is inactivated in the germline of children with genetic predisposition to Wilms tumor and in a subset of sporadic cancers. When present in the germline, specific heterozygous dominant-negative mutations are associated with severe abnormalities of renal and sexual differentiation, pointing to the essential role of WT1 for normal genitourinary development. The role of this tumor suppressor in normal organ-specific differentiation is also supported by the highly restricted temporal and spatial expression of WT1 in glomerular precursors of the developing kidney and by the failure of kidney development in wt1-null mice. Of two major alternative splicing products encoded by WT1, the (-KTS) isoform appears to mediate transcriptional activation of genes implicated in cellular differentiation, possibly also repressing proliferation-associated genes. The (+KTS) isoform, whose DNA-binding domain is disrupted by the insertion of three amino acids, may be involved in some aspect of mRNA processing. In addition to its function in genitourinary development, a role for WT1 in hematopoiesis is suggested by its aberrant expression and/or mutation in a subset of acute human leukemias. WT1 is also expressed in mesothelial cells; a specific oncogenic chromosomal translocation fusing the N-terminal domain of the Ewing sarcoma gene EWS to the three C-terminal zinc fingers of WT1 underlies desmoplastic small round cell tumor, an abdominal tumor thought to arise from the peritoneal lining. Understanding the distinct functional properties of WT1 isoforms and tumor-associated variants will provide unique insight into the link between normal organ-specific differentiation and malignancy.
Network Structure of the Social Entrepreneur: An Analysis Based on Social Organization Features and Entrepreneurs’ Demographic Characteristics and Organizational Status

Abstract Networks have been widely recognized as important to social entrepreneurship. This investigation aims to analyse how the structure of networks is influenced by the social organizations’ features and the entrepreneurs’ characteristics. After a review of pertinent literature on the topic, exploratory research is performed based on a quantitative approach. The primary data were collected through an online survey sent to Portuguese social organizations. The results confirm that networks have a substantial density in social entrepreneurship and that social organizations are surrounded either by strong or by weak ties. The investigation also reveals that networks’ formation is highly context-dependent, since its structure is influenced by the features of the social organization and the demographic and organizational status of its leaders.
The perception of head and neck angular displacement in normal and labyrinthine-defective subjects. A quantitative study using a 'remembered saccade' technique.

The detection of horizontal angular displacement of the head or trunk was assessed in 13 normal subjects and three labyrinthine defective patients. Discrete rotational displacements to the whole body (vestibular stimulus, VS), the trunk whilst keeping the head earth-stationary (cervical stimulus, CS) or the head upon the stationary trunk (combined VS+CS in passive and active mode) were delivered. Amplitudes ranged from 10 degrees to 40 degrees with peak velocities from 5 degrees to 40 degrees/s. Response was quantified as saccadic gain (final position of the eye/amplitude of the rotational stimulus) in a 'remembered saccade' task. it was found that normal subjects show different accuracy according to the sensory channel investigated. If stimulus amplitude was limited (20-30 degrees), gain dropped as rotational velocity decreased during VS but not in conditions including cervical stimulation (CS or VS+CS). Responses combining cervical and vestibular stimuli (VS+CS) were closer to unity gain and showed less scatter than isolated VS and CS. In the labyrinthine-defective patients, VS yielded no structured response but all responses involving cervical stimulation were identical to those of normal subjects when analysed both as a function of stimulus amplitude and velocity. Neither in normal nor in labyrinthine-defective subjects were there significant differences in the ability to detect head angular displacement between passive or active head turns (passive or active VS+CS). The following conclusions can be made. (i) 'Remembered saccade' techniques can be used to investigate cervico-vestibular perception. (ii) The 'high pass' characteristic of the response during VS agrees with the dynamic sensitivity of the vestibular nerve signals. Cervical experiments confirmed that neck responses are position-driven (i.e. 'tonic'). (iii) The detection of head turns is only slightly more accurate when vestibular and cervical signals are combined, but the main input controlling this perception is provided by neck afferents. No specific function for 'efference copy' was apparent in these experiments. (iv) There is no significant change for detecting head turns (on the trunk) in labyrinthine-defective patients. (v) The lack of detectable changes in cervical tasks in labyrinthine-defective patients does not support the view that the potentiation of the cervico-ocular reflex (COR) observed in these patients is due to enhanced sensitivity of the neck afferent system.
Profit Equalisation Reserve and Income Smoothing Practices in Malaysian Islamic
 Banks: Robust Statistical Analysis

The objective of this study is to ascertain the use of profit equalisation reserve (PER) to mitigate displaced commercial risk (DCR). This study proposes that the use of PER will be linked to smoothing practices, i.e., the earnings management (EM), capital management (CM), profit distribution management (PDM), and investment structures (IS). Using Pool and Panel OLS models, the results show that there are significant relationships between PER and CM, PDM, and long-term investment structure (LTIS). Thus, the results suggest the use of PER by banks with bigger capital to cushion for future DCR, to smooth profit pay-outs as well as its use to manage the possible DCR in LTIS. The results of this study however have failed to reject PER’s use in EM by the banks.
Astrocyte lipoproteins, effects of apoE on neuronal function, and role of apoE in amyloid‐β deposition in vivo

The genetic association between the E4 isoform of apolipoprotein E (apoE) and increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has prompted interest in the neurobiology of apoE and the possible relationship between lipoprotein metabolism in the brain and neurodegenerative disease. ApoE, a product of astrocytes, is abundant in brain and in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) where it is found in lipoproteins the size of large plasma high‐density lipoproteins (HDL). Cultured astrocytes also secrete apoE/HDL, although the lipid and apoprotein composition of these nascent particles differs from that found in CSF, suggesting possible functional differences. In vitro studies have demonstrated isoform‐specific effects of apoE on neurite outgrowth, neuronal plasticity, neurotoxicity, lipid peroxidation, oxidative injury, binding to cytoskeletal proteins, and interactions with amyloid‐β (Aβ), a primary component of senile plaques in AD. A number of these proposed functions have also been assessed in apoE −/− mice and transgenic mice expressing human apoE3 or apoE4. Importantly, analysis of transgenic mice overexpressing a mutant form of the human amyloid precursor protein (APPV717F) in the presence of mouse apoE, no apoE, or human apoE3 or E4 has demonstrated a critical and isoform‐specific role for apoE in neuritic plaque formation, a pathologic hallmark of AD. Together, these data have provided important clues as to possible mechanism(s) by which apoE genotype modifies AD risk. Microsc. Res. Tech. 50:297–304, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.