Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of nitrox II during a single decompression dive on endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression and flow-mediated dilation among trained male divers

Background: Nitrox II, associated with higher oxygen partial pressure, induces an increase in reactive oxygen species, which can interfere with endothelial nitric oxide synthases (eNOSs), causing endothelial dysfunction and lower flow-mediated dilation (FMD). This study aimed to determine the influence of nitrox II on eNOS expression and FMD as markers of endothelial function. Materials and Methods: A double-blind approach was used with 39 trained male divers who were divided using randomized block design into a control group (the air group) that used compressed air or an intervention group that used nitrox II (the nitrox II group). Both the groups underwent a single decompression dive to 28 m sea water (msw) with a bottom time of 50 min in a hyperbaric chamber. Pre- and postdive eNOS expression was measured by quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and FMD by laser Doppler flowmetry on the regio brachii. Results: eNOS (P = 0.029) and FMD (P = 0.001) decreased in the air group, whereas eNOS (P = 0.018) and FMD (P = 0,023) increased in the nitrox II group. The average difference in eNOS and FMD in the nitrox II group was greater compared with the air group (P < 0.05). There was no significant correlation between eNOS and FMD. Conclusion: Nitrox II prevents endothelial dysfunction during a single decompression dive to 28 msw with a bottom time of 50 min, as indicated by divers' increased FMD from increased eNOS expression.
Methods of extraction and thin-layer chromatography determination of phospholipids in biological samples

Abstract Phospholipids (PLs) are a class of compounds essential for living organisms, including human beings. This paper presents a brief review concerning the extraction as well as thin-layer chromatographic separation and determination of phospholipids. After a short introduction regarding phospholipids and their specific characteristics, the extraction techniques will be discussed. Then, phospholipid separation and system detection for thin-layer chromatography (TLC) will be presented. The focus will be on phospholipids that are most abundant in biological systems; that is why chosen examples of PLs determination in biological samples will be revealed as well as general PL determination schemes. In the Summary section, there will also be a short discussion about advantages and disadvantages of PL determination with the use of TLC.
The political economy of the resource curse : a literature survey

This paper presents a critical survey of the literature on the ‘resource curse’, focusing on three main questions: (i) are natural resources bad for development? ; (ii) what causes the resource curse? ; and, (iii) how can the resource curse be overcome? In respect of these questions, three observations are made. First, while the literature provides considerable evidence that natural resource abundance is associated with various negative development outcomes, this evidence is by no means conclusive. Second, existing explanations for the resource curse do not adequately account for the role of social forces or external political and economic environments in shaping development outcomes in resource abundant countries, nor for the fact that, while most resource abundant countries have performed poorly in developmental terms, a few have done quite well. Finally, recommendations for overcoming the resource curse have not generally taken into account the issue of political feasibility. More generally, it is argued that the basic problem with the literature is that researchers have been too reductionist – they have tended to explain development performance solely in terms of the size and nature of countries’ natural resource endowments. A consensus is emerging that various political and social variables mediate the relationship between natural resource wealth and development outcomes. But rather than acknowledge that these variables are shaped by a range of historical and other factors in each case, scholars have tended to see them as determined by the natural resource base. Put differently, scholars have been asking the wrong question: rather than asking why natural resource wealth has fostered various political pathologies and in turn promoted poor development performance, they should have been asking what political and social factors enable some resource abundant countries to utilise their natural resources to promote development and prevent other resource abundant countries from doing the same.
Convergence of stranger ratings of personality and intelligence with self-ratings, partner ratings, and measured intelligence.

Several studies have shown above-chance agreement of self-reports on extraversion and conscientiousness with ratings by strangers, indicating that ratings by strangers might be quite accurate. Because self-reports are a less-than-ideal criterion to evaluate the accuracy of stranger ratings, however, the present study compared them also with ratings by acquaintances and with targets' performance on an intelligence test. Ratings of extraversion, conscientiousness, and intelligence by strangers having been exposed to a videotape of targets were significantly related to self-reports of these traits as well as to ratings by acquaintances. Moreover, ratings of intelligence by strangers were related to targets' measured intelligence, provided that judges had been exposed to a sound film of the targets
Design and network characterization of low friction hydrophilic polyether-urethane coatings

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is a hydrophilic polymer which is widely used for its biocompatibility, non-toxic and physicochemical properties. Although it is known that PEG is prone to thermal oxidative degradation, the speed of this degradation at moderate temperatures is generally not recognized. A particular problem is the degradation of the PEG hydroxyl end-groups when these groups need to be available for (cross-)linking reactions. Especially, when a well-defined and controlled final structure is required. The work presented in this chapter was initiated by problems encountered in our laboratory associated with the use of PEG as a network precursor for the preparation of thermally cross-linked hydrophilic polyurethane coatings. ATR-FTIR, TGA, SEC and H NMR were used to study the oxidative degradation of PEG and poly(propylene glycol)(PPG) at temperatures between 65 °C and 125 °C. Next to the expected higher stability against oxidative degradation of the PEG backbone compared to the backbone of PPG, surprisingly fast degradation of the PEG end-groups was observed. The end-group oxidation of PEG was detected within 10 to 30 minutes at 125 °C in the presence of oxygen and after 10 h at the rather mild temperature of 65°C. Therefore, it is highly recommended to completely eliminate oxygen from the reaction set-up and reaction medium when using PEG in reactions at temperatures above 65 °C.
of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction

� With an increasing prevalence of hypertension, obesity, atrial fibrillation, and diabetes, and the growing elderly segment of the general population, the prevalence of HFPEF is projected to increase in the future. � HFPEF presents a diagnostic challenge and studies differ widely in the reported incidence and mortality associated with this condition. � There is agreement that between a third and one-half of patients with heart failure have HFPEF. � Prognosis is overall poor. Patients with HFPEF have substantial comorbidity, high rates of repeated hospitalizations, and a high mortality.
Measuring interactional quality in pre-school settings: introduction and validation of the Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) scale

ABSTRACT Research increasingly acknowledges the importance of high quality interactions that support and extend children’s thinking. Few measurement tools currently exist, however, to capture this specific aspect of process quality. The Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Wellbeing (SSTEW) scale was developed to assess interactional quality in early childhood education and care, and it includes dimensions of process quality based on developmental theories and practice in effective settings. This study compared ratings on the SSTEW and Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Extension (ECERS-E) to consider the impact of varying levels of curricular and interactional quality on child development in 45 Australian pre-school centres; namely the language, numeracy and socio-behavioural development of 669 children at the end of their pre-school year. Results indicated a level of predictive validity for interactional quality ratings as measured by SSTEW which, while related to curricular quality ratings on ECERS-E, differed in associations across domains of child development.
Os jogos olímpicos, a cooperação descentralizada e a aplicação de políticas públicas: o modelo de Barcelona 92 para o Rio de Janeiro 2016

Este artigo, elaborado a partir de um estudo de caso baseado na experiencia da cidade de Barcelona, em 1992, busca revelar a problematizacao do caso da capital catala para se ter elementos que mostrem como o Rio de Janeiro e o Brasil, em certa medida, podem se beneficiar de um grande evento como as Olimpiadas, considerando as diferencas sociais, politicas, economicas e culturais entre as cidades analisadas. Trata-se tambem de um breve estudo da cooperacao descentralizada e seus efeitos para Barcelona e para a Espanha, atentando a coordenacao entre o poder local e o poder central na aplicacao de politicas publicas. Finalmente, serao apresentadas conclusoes e possiveis alternativas de bons resultados em varios âmbitos quanto a organizacao do Rio 2016. A cooperacao descentralizada, protagonizada por atores subnacionais, no âmbito da preparacao e da realizacao dos Jogos Olimpicos e no que diz respeito a aplicacao de politicas publicas, pode ser fonte de uma serie de beneficios a cidade-sede do megaevento esportivo.
Structural programming: balancing external stress with internal structure in shape-responsive emulsions

Responsive materials, such as shear-thickening fluids, change their properties when acted upon by an external stress or trigger. When these materials are incorporated into composites, it is possible to design new responses that are absent in their component parts. These composites are known as programmable materials and are unique in their ability to significantly change properties in situ. In this dissertation, we study a programmable materials platform called endoskeletal droplets. These are emulsion droplets with an internal structure that allows them to hold non-spherical shapes. Critically, this internal structure is responsive, allowing it to resist the surface tension acting on the droplet interface, but allowing surface tension to dominate when triggered by an external stimulus. As a result, droplets change shape on command, reconfiguring from high surface area shapes to spheres when prompted by increased temperature or decreased surfactant concentration. These droplets are programmed by shaping their internal structure to a geometry with a predictable shape-change response. We present a microfluidic approach to generating these programmable emulsions continuously and implement a new technique for the optical measurement of crystallinity. Once generated, droplets are either released or coalesced into larger, three-dimensional superstructures. These structures are bicontinuous fluids similar to bijels and allow the programmability of endoskeletal droplets to extend to larger structures. We also demonstrate that endoskeletal droplets can respond to additional stimuli—magnetic fields—by introducing magnetite nanoparticles. The suitability of programmable emulsions in a deposition application is also studied, where shape change allows control over droplet deposition and retention to surfaces. The result is a multiple order of magnitude change in droplet binding affinity to a substrate, which suggests
Heat stress during flowering in cereals - effects and adaptation strategies.

Heat stress during flowering has differential impact on male and female reproductive organs viability leading to yield losses in field crops. Unlike flooded rice, dryland cereals such as sorghum, pearl millet and wheat have optimized their flower opening during cooler early morning or late evening hours to lower heat stress damage during flowering. Although previous studies have concluded that pollen viability determines seed-set under heat stress, recent findings reveal pearl millet and sorghum pistils to be equally sensitive to heat stress. Integrating flower opening time during cooler hours with increased pollen and pistil viability will overcome heat stress induced damage during flowering under current and future hotter climatic conditions.
Recent Advances of 2D Nanomaterials for electrochemical capacitors.

Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have drawn a wide range of research interests because of their unique ultrathin layered structures and attractive properties. Especially, the electrochemical properties and great variety of 2D nanomaterials make they are highly attractive candidates for electrochemical capacitors (ECs), such as supercapacitors, lithium ion capacitors and sodium ion capacitors. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review on recent progress towards the applications of 2D nanomaterials for electrochemical capacitors. Several typical types of 2D nanomaterials were first briefly introduced, followed with the detailed descriptions on their electrochemical capacitors applications. Finally, the research perspectives and the future research directions of these interesting areas are also provided.
Hospital-acquired pneumonia in children: the role of respiratory viruses.

The most frequent agents of pneumonia acquired by children in the hospital are viruses. The characteristics of these nosocomial viral agents differ appreciably from the more classical bacterial nosocomial infections. The viral agents tend to be more contagious, with normal children being as susceptible as the predisposed, high-risk child. The epidemiology of these hospital-acquired infections tends to mimic the patterns of activity of the respiratory viruses in the community. The major causes of nosocomial pneumonia in children are, therefore, the epidemic respiratory viruses--respiratory syncytial virus, the influenza viruses, and the parainfluenza viruses. Respiratory syncytial virus is the most important and frequent of these, causing nosocomial infection in up to 45% of the contact children on infant-toddler wards during community outbreaks. About half of the nosocomial infections involve the lower respiratory tract in these young children. Severe and fatal disease is most likely to occur in neonates and children with underlying cardiac, pulmonary, and immunodeficiency disease. The frequency of lower respiratory tract involvement and nosocomial influenza and parainfluenza viral infections is less, but may pose a serious threat in nurseries and to certain groups of compromised children. The potential hazard of these viral agents on pediatric wards is heightened by the fact that they are frequently not recognized, the incentive and facilities for their diagnosis are often limited, and clinically they may mimic bacterial disease. The source of the nosocomial infections, which may be trivial illnesses in personnel or other patients, may not be suspected, and limiting the spread is difficult. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Binding interface and impact on protease cleavage for an RNA aptamer to HIV-1 reverse transcriptase

Abstract RNA aptamers that bind HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibit RT in enzymatic and viral replication assays. Some aptamers inhibit RT from only a few viral clades, while others show broad-spectrum inhibition. Biophysical determinants of recognition specificity are poorly understood. We investigated the interface between HIV-1 RT and a broad–spectrum UCAA-family aptamer. SAR and hydroxyl radical probing identified aptamer structural elements critical for inhibition and established the role of signature UCAA bulge motif in RT-aptamer interaction. HDX footprinting on RT ± aptamer shows strong contacts with both subunits, especially near the C-terminus of p51. Alanine scanning revealed decreased inhibition by the aptamer for mutants P420A, L422A and K424A. 2D proton nuclear magnetic resonance and SAXS data provided constraints on the solution structure of the aptamer and enable computational modeling of the docked complex with RT. Surprisingly, the aptamer enhanced proteolytic cleavage of precursor p66/p66 by HIV-1 protease, suggesting that it stabilizes the productive conformation to allow maturation. These results illuminate features at the RT-aptamer interface that govern recognition specificity by a broad-spectrum antiviral aptamer, and they open new possibilities for accelerating RT maturation and interfering with viral replication.
Nasal Nitric Oxide in Chronic Rhinosinusitis with or without Nasal Polyps: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Background and Aims: There has been a recent growing interest in the role of nasal nitric oxide (nNO) as a biomarker for osteomeatal complex obstruction in paranasal sinus diseases. By using meta-analysis, we systematically reviewed the literature to establish the possible link between nNO concentration and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) or without (CRSsNP). Methods: We systematically searched the EMBASE, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases for related studies. Differences between controls and cases were reported as standardized mean difference (SMD), with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), using the random-effects method. Results: We selected 23 articles for the final analysis: 15 with data on 461 CRSwNP patients and 384 healthy controls, 10 with data on 183 CRSsNP patients and 260 controls, and 14 studies on 372 CRSwNP and 297 CRSsNP patients. CRSwNP patients showed significantly lower nNO values when compared to both healthy controls (SMD: −1.495; 95% CI: −2.135, −0.854; p < 0.0001) and CRSsNP patients (SMD: −1.448; 95% CI: −2.046, −0.850; p < 0.0001). Sensitivity and subgroup analyses confirmed the results, which were further refined by regression models. They showed that an increasing aspiration flow is related to a greater difference in nNO levels between cases and control subjects. We also documented lower nNO levels in CRSsNP patients with respect to controls (SMD: −0.696; 95% CI: −1.189, −0.202; p = 0.006), being this result no longer significant when excluding patients in therapy with intranasal corticosteroids. As shown by regression models, the increased Lund–Mackay score indicates a high effect size. Conclusions: nNO levels are significantly lower in CRSwNP, especially when using higher aspiration flows. Additional studies are needed to define one single standardized method and normal reference values for nNO.
Constructing a Consciousness Meter Based on the Combination of Non-Linear Measurements and Genetic Algorithm-Based Support Vector Machine

Objective: Constructing a framework to evaluate consciousness is an important issue in neuroscience research and clinical practice. However, there is still no systematic framework for quantifying altered consciousness along the dimensions of both level and content. This study builds a framework to differentiate the following states: coma, general anesthesia, minimally conscious state (MCS), and normal wakefulness. Methods: This study analyzed electroencephalography (EEG) recorded from frontal channels in patients with disorders of consciousness (either coma or MCS), patients under general anesthesia, and healthy participants in normal waking consciousness (NWC). Four non-linear methods—permutation entropy (PE), sample entropy (SampEn), permutation Lempel-Ziv complexity (PLZC), and detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA)—as well as relative power (RP), extracted features from the EEG recordings. A genetic algorithm-based support vector machine (GA-SVM) classified the states of consciousness based on the extracted features. A multivariable linear regression model then built EEG indices for level and content of consciousness. Results: The PE differentiated all four states of consciousness (p<0.001). Altered contents of consciousness for NWC, MCS, coma, and general anesthesia were best differentiated by the SampEn, and PLZC. In contrast, the levels of consciousness for these four states were best differentiated by RP of Gamma and PE. A multi-dimensional index, combined with the GA-SVM, showed that the integration of PE, PLZC, SampEn, and DFA had the highest classification accuracy (92.3%). The GA-SVM was better than random forest and neural networks at differentiating these four states. The ‘coordinate value’ in the dimensions of level and content were constructed by the multivariable linear regression model and the non-linear measures PE, PLZC, SampEn, and DFA. Conclusions: Multi-dimensional measurements, especially the PE, SampEn, PLZC, and DFA, when combined with GA-SVM, are promising methods for constructing a framework to quantify consciousness.
Effect of Vitamin E on Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective To explore the effect of vitamin E(VE) on subclinical atherosclerosis (AS) in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus.Met hodsEighty-five newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patient s without AS were divided into two groups \[VE group(n=43) and control group(n=42)\] according to the random numeration table. All the patients received comprehensive intervention including the control of bl ood glucose, blood pressure, blood lipid and body weight and anti-platelet drug s. VE capsule (200 mg/d) was added to VE group (n=41) to evalua te its effects on the incidence of subclinical AS after one year intervention. ResultsThree patients withdrew during one y ear follow up. No significant differences of age, sex, baseline body mass index, waist to hip ratio, blood lipid, blood pressure, 24 h urinary albuminuria, insu lin resistance index, high sensitive C-reactive protein level, intima-medial t hickness(IMT) of common carotid artery, femoral artery and common iliac artery w ere found between VE group and control group(P0.05). The decr ease of IMT of common carotid artery in VE group after one year intervention was more significant than that in control group (P0.05), whereas the other metabolic parameters mentioned above showed no significant differences between the two groups (P0.05). The incidence of subclinical AS was significantly higher in VE group(26.8%,11/41) than that in control gro up(7.3%, 3/41) (P0.05). Conclusions One year VE supplementation with multifactorial intervention has no beneficial effect on subclinical AS in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients .
Cytokine Directed Chondroblast Trans-Differentiation: JAK Inhibition Facilitates Direct Reprogramming of Fibroblasts to Chondroblasts

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease of the hyaline articular cartilage. This disease is progressive and may lead to disability. Researchers proposed many regenerative approaches to treat osteoarthritis, including stem cells. Trans-differentiation of a fully differentiated cell state directly into another different differentiated cell state avoids the disadvantages of fully reprogramming cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in terms of faster reprogramming of the needed cells. Trans-differentiation also reduces the risk of tumor formation by avoiding the iPSC state. OSKM factors (Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and cMyc) accompanied by the JAK-STAT pathway inhibition, followed by the introduction of specific differentiation factors, directly reprogrammed mouse embryonic fibroblasts to chondroblasts. Our results showed the absence of intermediate induced pluripotent stem cell formation. The resulting aggregates showed clear hyaline and hypertrophic cartilage. Tumor formation was absent in sub-cutaneous capsules transplanted in SCID mice.