Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coordination of Fc receptor signaling regulates cellular commitment to phagocytosis

During Fcγ receptor (FcR)-mediated phagocytosis by macrophages, cytoplasm advances over IgG-coated particles by the sequential ligation of FcR in plasma membranes. If FcR signaling was strictly autonomous, then the signals generated during phagocytosis should be proportional to the number of ligated receptors. By measuring FcR-dependent responses to beads coated with various densities of IgG, this study identified nonlinear signaling that organizes an all or none response during particle ingestion. Phagocytosis of beads with IgG at low density either stalled after making small, actin-rich cups or proceeded to completion at the same rate as phagocytosis of high-density IgG beads. Signals were measured by quantifying the recruitment of YFP-labeled probes to phagocytic cup membranes. Although the magnitude of early signals correlated with IgG density, later signals showed an all or none response, which was regulated by the concentrations of 3′ phosphoinositides in phagocytic cup membranes. Thus, 3′ phosphoinositides, shown previously to be required for phagocytosis, function in a feedback regulatory mechanism affecting late but not early signals. This indicates a mechanism for the coordination of cell movements initiated by receptor signaling.
The differential diagnosis and treatment of tremor.

BACKGROUND Essential tremor is the most common type of tremor, with a prevalence of 0.4% in the overall population and 4-7% in persons over age 65. In general, tremor is so common that patients with tremor are frequently treated not only by neurologists, but also by physicians from other specialties. METHOD This review is based on publications retrieved by a selective PubMed search and on guidelines from Germany and abroad. RESULTS Particular tremor syndromes are usually diagnosed on the basis of their typical clinical presentation and whatever accompanying manifestations may be present. Ancillary tests are usually unnecessary. Unilateral rest tremor accompanied by rigidity and bradykinesia is typical of Parkinson's disease. Essential tremor is a bilateral postural tremor. The most common cause of intention tremor is multiple sclerosis. Mild tremor syndromes can often be treated satisfactorily with drugs. In case of severe tremor, which is rarer, a stereotactic operation can be considered. The usual outcome of such procedures is the complete suppression of tremor. CONCLUSION Most patients with tremor can be given a precise diagnosis and offered specific treatment. It is important for the physician to inform the patient about the expected course of tremor over time, its possible genetic causes, and the various available treatments.
Investigating the performance of star-tree and ring-bus fibre-radio networks incorporated with cascaded WDM optical interfaces

The performance of wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) optical interfaces that support 37.5 GHz-band 25 GHz-separated wavelength-interleaved dense-WDM (WI-DWDM) signals is investigated for networks in both star-tree and ring/bus architectures. The interface offers consolidated base station (BS) architecture by enabling a wavelength reuse technique with transparent optical-add-drop-multiplexing (OADM) to the BS. The results show that the proposed interface can be a suitable candidate in future WI-DWDM mm-wave fibre-radio networks, configured in either star-tree or ring/bus architecture.
GLRT Approach for Robust Burst Packet Acquisition in Wireless Communications

Rapid detection of the arrival of a packet is challenging in burst wireless communications, where many parameters are unknown, such as signal power, noise power and carrier phase offset. Due to the unknown noise power, it is hard to set appropriate thresholds for the existing common detectors under the Neyman-Pearson criterion, which results in vulnerable acquisition and poor performance. In order to solve this problem, we propose the generalized likelihood-ratio test (GLRT) approach for sequence-aided packet acquisition in this paper. GLRT detection is formulated under multipath channel. Moreover, false alarm probability and detection probability of GLRT are derived and confirmed via simulations. Comparisons are conducted between GLRT and the common detectors, as well as GLRT under different channels. Results show that GLRT basically reveals more competitive and robust performance than the common detectors in practice, with only a little extra hardware cost by using the provided recursive computation structure. Additionally, it is shown that fading results in significant deterioration for GLRT; whereas GLRT has ability to exploit multipath diversity to reduce fading effect and improve acquisition performance.
Reproductive-Tactic-Specific Variation in Sperm Swimming Speeds in a Shell-Brooding Cichlid1

Abstract Theory predicts that males experiencing elevated levels of sperm competition will invest more in gonads and produce faster-swimming sperm. Although there is ample evidence in support of the first prediction, few studies have examined sperm swimming speed in relation to sperm competition. In this study, we tested these predictions from sperm competition theory by examining sperm characteristics in Telmatochromis vittatus, a small shell-brooding cichlid fish endemic to Lake Tanganyika. Males exhibit four different reproductive tactics: pirate, territorial, satellite, and sneaker. Pirate males temporarily displace all other competing males from a shell nest, whereas sneaker males always release sperm in the presence of territorial and satellite males. Due to the fact that sneakers spawn in the presence of another male, sneakers face the highest levels of sperm competition and pirates the lowest, whereas satellites and territorials experience intermediate levels. In accordance with predictions, sperm from sneakers swam faster than sperm from males adopting the other reproductive tactics, whereas sperm from pirates was slowest. Interestingly, we were unable to detect any variation in sperm tail length among these reproductive tactics. Thus, sperm competition appears to have influenced sperm energetics in this species without having any influence on sperm size.
Portal Vein Thrombosis and High Factor VIII in Turner Syndrome

Backgrounds/Aims: Turner syndrome is not usually associated with thrombotic events. The aim of this study is to report 3 Turner syndrome patients with portal vein thrombosis and, in 2 of them, high factor VIII. These findings are compared to values in Turner syndrome patients without thrombosis and controls. Methods: In different years, 3 patients with Turner syndrome were initially seen at the Gastroenterology Clinic of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Brazil, for portal vein thrombosis. After the most common causes of portal vein thrombosis and thrombophilias had been excluded, the 2 surviving patients were studied for clotting factors VIII, IX and von Willebrand factor. The same factors were also assessed in 25 Turner syndrome patients without thrombosis and 25 normal girls. Results: One of the patients with portal vein thrombosis died before the study. In the 2 surviving patients, factors VIII and von Willebrand levels were >150 IU/dl, which is considered to be high. In Turner syndrome patients without thrombosis, the mean factor VIII level was 127.2 ± 41.1 IU/dl and for von Willebrand factor 101.2 ± 26.9 IU/dl, while in control girls these were 116.0 ± 27.6 and 94.28 ± 27.5 IU/dl, respectively. Factor VIII and von Willebrand factor were not different between these 2 groups. When non-O blood group Turner syndrome patients and normal girls were compared, the former had significantly higher levels of factor VIII. Conclusions: This is the first report on the unusual finding of portal thrombosis in patients with Turner syndrome in whom high levels of factor VIII and von Willebrand factor were found. Factor VIII is higher in the non-O blood group Turner syndrome patients without thrombosis when compared to normal girls.
Human Resources in Initial Public Offering Firms: Do Venture Capitalists Make a Difference?

Venture capitalists’ preference for complete, well-balanced founding teams is well established. In addition, the strategic human resource management literature posits that superior performance might accrue to firms that have a member of the top management team responsible for human resources. In this paper, we test whether or not venture capitalist backing affects the likelihood that initial public offering firms will report having a vice president of human resources. We also examine the combined effect on performance as a result of being venture capital-backed and having a vice president of human resources.
Biomechanical Effects of Various Bone-Implant Interfaces on the Stability of Orthodontic Miniscrews: A Finite Element Study

Introduction Osseointegration is required for prosthetic implant, but the various bone-implant interfaces of orthodontic miniscrews would be a great interest for the orthodontist. There is no clear consensus regarding the minimum amount of bone-implant osseointegration required for a stable miniscrew. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of different bone-implant interfaces on the miniscrew and its surrounding tissue. Methods Using finite element analysis, an advanced approach representing the bone-implant interface is adopted herein, and different degrees of bone-implant osseointegration were implemented in the FE models. A total of 26 different FE analyses were performed. The stress/strain patterns were calculated and compared, and the displacement of miniscrews was also evaluated. Results The stress/strain distributions are changing with the various bone-implant interfaces. In the scenario of 0% osseointegration, a rather homogeneous distribution was predicted. After 15% osseointegration, the stress/strains were gradually concentrated on the cortical bone region. The miniscrew experienced the largest displacement under the no osseointegra condition. The maximum displacement decreases sharply from 0% to 3% and tends to become stable. Conclusion From a biomechanical perspective, it can be suggested that orthodontic loading could be applied on miniscrews after about 15% osseointegration without any loss of stability.
Topical Voriconazole as a Novel Treatment for Fungal Keratitis

ABSTRACT Paecilomyces lilacinus is a fungal pathogen which is generally resistant to amphotericin B and certain other antifungals and is an uncommon cause of devastating fungal keratitis. In the present studies, we evaluated topical voriconazole as therapy for P. lilacinus keratitis in rabbits. Thirty eyes of 15 rabbits were studied. In five animals, the uninfected left eye was treated twice daily with voriconazole (drug control, uninfected eye). In these same animals, the right eye was infected with P. lilacinus but not treated with voriconazole (infection control eye). By day 5, the infection controls had lesions of >2.4 mm in diameter, with conjunctivitis and severe hypopyon, and were sacrificed. In the other 10 rabbits (voriconazole treatment), the right eyes were infected with P. lilacinus and treated with voriconazole beginning on day 3 after infection. Voriconazole therapy caused lesions to decrease during 8 days of therapy, after which rabbits were sacrificed (11 days postinfection). Hyphal masses were present in the control infected eyes and absent in treated infected eyes. Voriconazole was detected in all tissues of treated eyes. Topical voriconazole is effective treatment for P. lilacinus experimental keratitis, and it penetrates more deeply than the corneal tissue.
An ImageJ plugin for the sizing and counting of microbubbles

Accumulating evidence demonstrates a strong correlation between ultrasound contrast image enhancement and the size distribution of the microbubble ultrasound contrast agent used. Accurate determination of the size and concentration of microbubble ultrasound contrast agents is therefore important, not only for the experimental verification of theories on nonlinear bubble oscillations but also for the routine assessment of their quality control. In the present work, we have assembled an open-source ImageJ plugin designed to identify and determine the diameter, size distribution and concentration of microbubbles using bright field microscopy images of dispersed microbubbles. The plug-in named “BubblesizerJ” uses image segmentation combined with existing algorithms for particle size determination and spheroid distance transform to identify, count and size microbubbles. BubblesizerJ was validated using digital synthetic images of black circles on a white background and bright field microscopy images of nominally monodispersed microspheres of known modal diameter and concentration. Demonstrating the utility of the plugin, was achieved by repeatedly determining the size and concentration of SonoVue®, a commercial ultrasound contrast agent. We have applied the plugin to the analyses of microscopic images with differing resolution and quality and it consistently returned diameters and concentrations not statistically different from known values. We demonstrated that the plugin enables users to rapidly and thoroughly determine the concentration and diameter of microbubbles.
Spironolactone prevents early renal injury in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

BACKGROUND Glomerular and tubulointerstitial injury leads to chronic impairment of renal function, and thus, reversal of the injury may improve renal function and survival. The present study investigated whether and how mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist spironolactone ameliorates early renal injury in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. METHODS Streptozotocin (65 mg/kg, single intraperitoneal injection)- or vehicle-administered rats were used as diabetic or control rats, respectively. The streptozotocin-administered rats were treated with spironolactone (50 mg/kg/day sc) for 3 weeks. Among the 3 groups of rats, we compared renal fibrosis and renal hypertrophy, using picro-sirius red staining and immunohistochemistry of ED-1 macrophage marker, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1. RESULTS Three weeks after administration of streptozotocin, rats exhibited increased collagen deposition in glomerular, tubulointerstitial, and perivascular areas in the kidney, which was completely attenuated by spironolactone treatment. In rats given streptozotocin alone, there were increases in ED-1-positive cell, PAI-1 expression, and TGF-beta1 expression in glomeruli and tubulointerstitiums, which were also suppressed by spironolactone treatment. Maximal glomerular and proximal tubular areas were not significantly different among the 3 groups. Rats given streptozotocin alone revealed an increase in proximal tubule wall-to-lumen ratio that was not influenced by treatment with spironolactone. CONCLUSION Streptozotocin-induced renal fibrosis, PAI-1 expression, TGF-beta1 expression, and macrophage infiltration occur via mineralocorticoid receptor, and spironolactone ameliorates renal fibrosis presumably via the inhibition of macrophage infiltration, PAI-1 expression, and TGF-beta1 expression in streptozotocin-induced early diabetic injury.
Osteoporosis, genetics and hormones.

Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue. At a given age, bone mass results from the amount of bone acquired during growth, i.e. the peak bone mass (Bonjour et al., 1991, Theintz et al. 1992) minus the age-related bone loss which particularly accelerates after menopause. The rate and magnitude of bone mass gain during the pubertal years and of bone loss in later life may markedly differ from one skeletal site to another, as well as from one individual to another. Bone mass gain is mainly related to increases in bone size, that is in bone external dimensions, with minimal changes in bone microarchitecture. In contrast, postmenopausal and age-related decreases in bone mass result from thinning of both cortices and trabeculae, from perforation and eventually disappearance of the latter, leading to significant alterations of the bone microarchitecture (Fig. 1).
“Because we are all people”: outcomes and reflections from young people's participation in the planning and design of child-friendly public spaces

ABSTRACT Child-Friendly Cities were conceived as a means to integrate children's rights into city decision-making and governance. Participatory research about child-friendly cities consistently finds overarching themes across ages and regions: children desire access to services, nature, and play; freedom from physical danger; and opportunities for inclusion within the city. This article explores a two-year visioning and participatory design process that engaged approximately 225 young people, aged 4–16, in the planning and design of a prominent public space in the City of Boulder. While participatory research with children has received much attention in the academic literature, much less attention has been given to what can be achieved through sustained integration of children into municipal planning processes, particularly in the USA. This paper thus moves children's participation beyond rhetoric and into the challenging reality of planning a city with children as a valued constituent.
Effect of a Combined Therapeutic Approach of Intensive Lipid Management, Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation, and Increased Serum 25 (OH) Vitamin D on Coronary Calcium Scores in Asymptomatic Adults

The impact of intensive lipid management, omega-3 fatty acid, and vitamin D3 supplementation on atherosclerotic plaque was assessed through serial computed tomography coronary calcium scoring (CCS). Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction with statin therapy has not been shown to reduce or slow progression of serial CCS in several recent studies, casting doubt on the usefulness of this approach for tracking atherosclerotic progression. In an open-label study, 45 male and female subjects with CCS of ≥ 50 without symptoms of heart disease were treated with statin therapy, niacin, and omega-3 fatty acid supplementation to achieve low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides ≤60 mg/dL; high-density lipoprotein ≥60 mg/dL; and vitamin D3 supplementation to achieve serum levels of ≥50 ng/mL 25(OH) vitamin D, in addition to diet advice. Lipid profiles of subjects were significantly changed as follows: total cholesterol −24%, low-density lipoprotein −41%; triglycerides −42%, high-density lipoprotein +19%, and mean serum 25(OH) vitamin D levels +83%. After a mean of 18 months, 20 subjects experienced decrease in CCS with mean change of −14.5% (range 0% to −64%); 22 subjects experienced no change or slow annual rate of CCS increase of +12% (range 1%-29%). Only 3 subjects experienced annual CCS progression exceeding 29% (44%-71%). Despite wide variation in response, substantial reduction of CCS was achieved in 44% of subjects and slowed plaque growth in 49% of the subjects applying a broad treatment program.
An Efficient Fast Switching Procedure for Stepwise Capacitor Chargers

A new low-power switching procedure for stepwise capacitor chargers is presented. In this procedure, a novel displacement method is utilized to improve the speed by a factor of two while preserving energy efficiency. Moreover, the load capacitor retains its charge after the charging process finishes and permits the circuit charge another predischarged load capacitor without an efficiency degradation problem (instability). Also, the control circuit of the switching procedure is implemented using only flip-flops with no combinational logic, therefore, it systematically prevents glitch power dissipation and improves the efficiency. Analytical derivations are proposed to model the switching procedure and they are verified using MATLAB simulations. Postlayout simulations in 0.18 $\mu \text{m}$ technology and a fabricated PCB using off-the-shelf components prove the analytical derivations and the benefits of the proposed switching procedure.
Early Indicators of Learning Problems in High-Risk Children

The study examined the association between transient neurologic abnormalities and later learning problems in children who experienced perinatal difficulties. Follow-up assessments at school age were made of children from a Perinatal Follow-up Program who had birth weights <1500 g, or required assisted ventilation, or experienced seizures in the neonatal period. Eighteen children who had shown abnormalities on Amiel-Tison Neurologic Exam between 4 and 18 months of age, but assessed as developing normally on neuromotor and cognitive assessments by 24-48 months, were identified as cases. These cases were compared with 29 controls who had been assessed as normally developing throughout. No significant group differences were found on school-age cognitive, language, visual-motor, school performance, or behavior measures. Significant correlations between perinatal and demographic variables and school-age measures were found. A sizable number of these high-risk children were shown to have signs of school-related problems. J Dev Behav Pediatr 11:1-6, 1990.
Investigating the role of secA2 in secretion and glycosylation of a fimbrial adhesin in Streptococcus parasanguis FW213

Adhesion of Streptococcus parasanguis FW213, a primary colonizer, to the tooth surface is mediated mainly by peritrichous long fimbriae. The fimbrial structural unit, Fap1, is indispensable for fimbriae biogenesis, adhesion to an in vitro tooth model and biofilm formation. Mature Fap1 is a glycoprotein with an apparent molecular mass of 200 kDa. Glycosylated Fap1 is not present in some mutants screened from a transposon mutant library. Localization of the transposition sites revealed a gene determined to be secA2, which is distinct from the canonical secA gene. In FW213, glycosylated Fap1 was present in all the subcellular fractions including the cytoplasm. In VT1574, a non‐polar mutant of secA2 generated by in frame deletion, Fap1 was not secreted. Glycosylated Fap1 was present in the membrane and cytoplasm of the mutant, although in greatly reduced amounts. Fap1 secretion and abundance were restored when VT1574 was complemented by a plasmid‐borne secA2. The secretion defect of the secA2 mutation appears to be limited to a small group of proteins such as Fap1 and FimA. These data suggested that Fap1 secretion rather than glycosylation was the major effect of the deletion of secA2; however, this deletion also had an impact on Fap1 abundance. Two more secA2 mutants with different regions deleted were tested for their ability to secrete Fap1. One mutant was completely unable to secrete Fap1 while the other was able to secrete, but in a decreased amount. These data suggest that the region deleted in the latter mutant (nucleotides 2032–2337) is dispensable for Fap1 secretion.