Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short- and Long-Term Behavior of Depleted Uranium In the Environment of Southern Region of Iraq

The Iraqi environment had been extensively exposed to depleted uranium (DU) contamination in the course of military operation in 1991 and 2003. Burning of tanks and armored vehicles led to the formation of large quantities of fine aerosol containing predominantly poorly soluble uranium oxides. The DU aerosol is deposited on soil surface, transported far from the vicinity of the target, or resuspended in the air by the wind action. Therefore, data from within the country on the behavior of DU in the environment are essential and would offer first-hand basis on many topics of the impact of DU contamination on the environment and health. In the 1st part of the study nearly ten years after military operation, transport of DU from contaminated soil of the southern region of Iraq had been investigated in undisturbed soil columns taken from four locations of battlefield at Basra Governorate. In the 2nd part of the study, uptake of DU was assessed in a field experiment utilizing tomatoes. The plots were mixed with a contaminated soil and the recommended agricultural practices were used during the growing season. At the end of season, samples of the aboveground and belowground were digested and analyzed for their content of DU. Samples of soil, effluent, and plant were analyzed for DU using Solid Scintillation and Liquid Scintillation Counters. Results indicated that no DU had been detected in the eluted samples even after heavy leaching with a variety of displacing solutions. At the same time, no DU had been migrated from soil to above- and below-ground parts of the tomatoe plants. These data suggest that the DU occurred in soil as metal or oxides remains as insoluble forms even after ten years of weathering under desert conditions. It is expected therefore, that the wind action is the main mechanism dominated the transport of DU in the environment of southern region of Iraq.
Anesthesia for in vitro fertilization: the addition of fentanyl to 1.5% lidocaine.

UNLABELLED Ultrasonically guided transvaginal oocyte retrieval is relatively short procedure that is performed on an out-patient basis. The optimal anesthetic technique should allow good surgical anesthesia with minimal side effects, a short recovery time, and, if possible, a high rate of successful pregnancy. Spinal anesthesia is often used in this institution, as well as many others, for this procedure. The addition of fentanyl may be effective for both intraoperative and postoperative pain relief. We assessed the effect of adding fentanyl to 1.5% lidocaine in women undergoing ultrasonically guided oocyte retrieval. Seventy-eight women were randomized to receive 45 mg of hyperbaric 1.5% lidocaine with or without 10 microg of fentanyl. Visual analog scale (VAS) pain scores were lower in the operating room (OR) (P < 0.05) and postanesthesia care unit (PACU) (P < 0.0005) for the group that received fentanyl. In addition, the amount of narcotic required in the PACU was less in the fentanyl group (P < 0.005). There was no difference in VAS scores the evening of or 24 h after the procedure. The amount of analgesics and narcotics required after discharge was the same for both groups. Timed variables, such as time to urination, ambulation, and discharge, were the same for both groups of women. The addition of fentanyl to lidocaine for transvaginal oocyte retrieval results in a more comfortable patient in the OR and PACU. IMPLICATIONS This study demonstrates that when fentanyl is added to a local anesthetic, lidocaine, with spinal anesthesia for egg retrieval procedures, patients are more comfortable during the procedure compared with those who receive lidocaine alone. In addition, the narcotic requirements of patients are less in the postanesthesia care unit.
MRI hyperintensities of the temporal lobe and external capsule in patients with CADASIL

Background: Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is an inherited, autosomal dominant condition caused by mutations of the Notch3 gene. Affected individuals have migraine, mood disturbance, and recurrent strokes, often progressing to subcortical dementia and premature death. MRI findings include focal lacunar infarcts and diffuse T2-weighted hyperintensity, or leukoaraiosis. However, such findings are seen much more commonly in patients with cardiovascular risk factors, particularly hypertension, where they are believed to represent cerebral small vessel disease. No previous study has sought to identify specific radiologic markers of CADASIL. Methods: MRI scans from 20 consecutive patients with CADASIL and 20 patients with sporadic leukoaraiosis due to presumed small-vessel disease were compared using the previously validated semiquantitative MRI rating scale devised by Scheltens et al. Analysis was blinded to clinical category. Results: Scores for hyperintensities of the temporal white matter and external capsule–insula region were significantly higher in patients with CADASIL. Hyperintensity confined to the pole of the temporal lobe was a characteristic finding in CADASIL, occurring in 19 patients with CADASIL but no patients with ischemic leukoaraiosis. Involvement of the external capsule, though less specific, was seen early in the disease course. In a few patients with CADASIL, involvement of the corpus callosum was observed. Conclusions: Temporal pole hyperintensity is a radiologic marker of CADASIL. Involvement of the external capsule and corpus callosum are also characteristic findings that may help to distinguish the disease.
Naturheilkunde und Komplementärmedizin bei chronisch entzündlichen Darmerkrankungen

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Objective: We performed a review for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) as defined by the National Institutes of Health and the Cochrane Collaboration in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), i.e. Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcera tive colitis (UC). Dietary, nutritional supplements and manipulative therapies were not included. Methods: A search of databases (Cochrane Library, Pubmed/Medline, PsychINFO, and Scopus) through March 2014 was performed. We screened the reference sections of original studies and systematic reviews in English and German language for CAM in IBD, CD and UC. Randomized controlled trials (RCT) and controlled trials (CT) were assessed. Results: A variety of studies were found in the field of herbal medicine, including aloe-vera gel, andrographis paniculata, artemisia absinthium, barley foodstuff, boswellia serrata, cannabis, curcumin, a combination of myrrh, chamomile flowers and coffee charcoal, plantago ovata, tormentil, wheatgrass-juice and wormwood, for mind-body interventions such as lifestyle modification, hypnotherapy, relaxation training and mindfulness, and in acupuncture. Conclusion: A variety of studies show first evidence for the effectiveness of complementary and alternative therapies in the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases. Given the low amount of trials, the limited number of patients included and the heterogeneous methodological quality of trials further in depth research is necessary. J Gastroenterol Hepatol Erkr 2016; 14 (9–16).
Spontaneous electrodermal activity during waking and sleeping.

Spontaneous electrodermal activity (EDA) (galvanic skin response [GSR] and skin potential response [SPR]) was recorded during daytime sleep and nighttime sleep. During all sleep, spontaneous EDA occurred most frequently during stages 3 and 4 (slow wave sleep) and least frequently during stage 1 (rapid eye movement [REM] and non-REM). This pattern was consistent over 3 nights of sleep. There was no relation between waking and sleeping spontaneous EDA. The spontaneous EDA during slow wave sleep significantly exceeded that during waking. During sleep, spontaneous SPRs often occurred without spontaneous GSRs.
The Risk of Psychopathology in Children with Craniosynostosis

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of behavioral and emotional problems in patients with craniosynostosis and to determine the prospective association of a beaten-copper pattern before 18 months of age with behavioral and emotional problems in patients with craniosynostosis. Methods: The authors performed a follow-up study of 115 craniosynostosis patients at the Erasmus Children’s University Hospital in Rotterdam. Behavioral and emotional problems were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist at a mean age of 8 years. The presence of beaten-copper pattern before the age of 18 months was assessed on presurgical radiographs. Analyses were adjusted for intelligence quotient. Results: Whereas craniosynostosis patients with intelligence quotients of 85 or greater did not differ from children in the normal group, craniosynostosis patients with intelligence quotients less than 85 had a higher risk of behavioral and emotional problems. However, these results were comparable to the findings of other studies assessing psychopathology in children with lower intelligence levels. Type of craniosynostosis (single suture versus complex) and a beaten-copper pattern before the age of 18 months did not affect the risk for behavioral and emotional problems in children with craniosynostosis. Conclusion: When intelligence is taken into account, craniosynostosis is not associated with an increased risk of behavioral and emotional problems, nor is type of craniosynostosis or a beaten-copper pattern before the age of 18 months.
ROLE OF BRAIN SEROTONIN IN RESERPINE ACTION

The discovery that serotonin occurs in the brain'' has stimulated considerable thought concerning its role in the central nervous system.3* Speculation in this direction received dramatic impetus when Gaddum6 found lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to be a potent antagonist of serotonin on smooth muscle in viiro. This observation led to the hypothesis that the hallucinogenic agent produces its aberrant mental effects by interfering with a normal function of serotonin in the brain. Evidence in favor of the concept that serotonin is involved in certain aspects of brain function has stemmed from findings summarized in this paper that indicate that the central actions of reserpine are mediated through free serotonin in the brain. Serotonin in brain tissue is normally present largely in a bound form, and is thus protected from the action of the enzyme monoamine oxidase. The amine has an asymmetric distribution: the higher concentrations are found in the brainstem, especially the hypothalamus; a lower concentration in the cortex, with virtually none in the cerebellum? I t is in the regions of the brain, where serotonin levels are highest, that reserpine is said to exert its central actions.6, The central actions of administered serotonin are difficult to evaluate because it passes into the brain with difficulty, and large doses of the compound usually exert potent effects on the cardiovascular system. Fortunately, serotonin is relatively innocuous to mice, and it is possible to observe central effects in these animals after the parenteral administration of large doses of the amine. Small but measurable amounts of serotonin enter the brain. Thus 1.5 minutes after the intraperitoneal injection of serotonin (100 mg. per kg.) the brain level had risen from the normal value of 0.9 pg. per gm. to a value of 1.2 pg. per gm. , an increase of about 35 per cent. The increase in brain serotonin was far greater than could be accounted for by the presence of blood in the brain. Even when completely freed of blood by perfusion with saline, brain tissue still had a level of serotonin about 25 per cent greater than the normal value. Mice given 20 mg. per kg. of serotonin intraperitoneally showed central effects similar to those induced by reserpine, including a general depression of motor activity, sedation, and potentiation of the hypnotic action of barbiturates and alcohol? The action of alcohol was particularly enhanced, the usual hypnotic dose being almost invariably lethal to mice pretreated with serotonin. If the mice were first given 10 mg. per kg. of lysergic acid diethylamide, however, the sedation and the potentiation of hypnotics were markedly diminished. These experiments demonstrated for the first time that LSD could antagonize a central action of serotonin i An objection might be he intact animal.
Design for a high-resolution small-animal SPECT system using pixellated Si(Li) detectors for in vivo /sup 125/I imaging

We propose a design for a high-resolution single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system for in vivo /sup 125/I imaging in small animal using pixellated lithium-drifted silicon [Si(Li)] detectors. The proposed detectors are expected to have high interaction probability (>90%), good energy resolution [<15% full-width at half-maximum (FWHM)], and good intrinsic spatial resolution (/spl sim/1 mm FWHM). The SPECT system will consist of a dual head detector geometry with the distance between the detectors ranging 30-50 mm to minimize the imaging distance between the mouse and the detectors. The detectors, each with an active area of 64 /spl times/ 40 mm [64 /spl times/ 40 array of 1 mm/sup 2/ pixels and a 6 mm thick Si(Li) detector], will be mounted on a rotating gantry with an axial field-of-view of 64 mm. The detector signals will be read out by custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Using a high-resolution parallel-hole collimator, the expected spatial resolution is 1.6 mm FWHM at an imaging distance of 20 mm, and sensitivity is 6.7 cps//spl mu/Ci. /sup 125/I is a readily available radioisotope with a long half-life of 59.4 days and it is commonly used to label biological compounds in molecular biology. Conventional gamma cameras are not optimized to detect the low emission energies (27 to 35 keV) of /sup 125/I. However, Si(Li) detector provides an ideal solution for detecting the low-energy emissions of /sup 125/I. In addition to presenting the design of the system, this paper presents a feasibility study of using Si(Li) detectors to detect the emissions of /sup 125/I.
The Human Hyaluronan Synthase 2 (HAS2) Gene and Its Natural Antisense RNA Exhibit Coordinated Expression in the Renal Proximal Tubular Epithelial Cell♦

Aberrant expression of the human hyaluronan synthase 2 (HAS2) gene has been implicated in the pathology of malignancy, pulmonary arterial hypertension, osteoarthritis, asthma, thyroid dysfunction, and large organ fibrosis. Renal fibrosis is associated with increased cortical synthesis of hyaluronan (HA), an extracellular matrix glycosaminoglycan, and we have shown that HA is a correlate of interstitial fibrosis in vivo. Our previous in vitro data have suggested that both HAS2 transcriptional induction and subsequent HAS2-driven HA synthesis may contribute to kidney fibrosis via phenotypic modulation of the renal proximal tubular epithelial cell (PTC). Post-transcriptional regulation of HAS2 mRNA synthesis by the natural antisense RNA HAS2-AS1 has recently been described in osteosarcoma cells, but the antisense transcript was not detected in kidney. In this study, PTC stimulation with IL-1β or TGF-β1 induced coordinated temporal profiles of HAS2-AS1 and HAS2 transcription. Constitutive activity of the putative HAS2-AS1 promoter was demonstrated, and transcription factor-binding sequence motifs were identified. Knockdown of Sp1/Sp3 expression by siRNA blunted IL-1β induction of both HAS2-AS1 and HAS2, and Smad2/Smad3 knockdown similarly attenuated TGF-β1 stimulation. Inhibition of IL-1β-stimulated HAS2-AS1 RNA induction using HAS2-AS1-specific siRNAs also suppressed up-regulation of HAS2 mRNA transcription. The thermodynamic feasibility of HAS2-AS1/HAS2 heterodimer formation was demonstrated in silico, and locus-specific cytoplasmic double-stranded RNA was detected in vitro. In summary, our data show that transcriptional induction of HAS2-AS1 and HAS2 occurs simultaneously in PTCs and suggest that transcription of the antisense RNA stabilizes or augments HAS2 mRNA expression in these cells via RNA/mRNA heteroduplex formation.
Molecular characterization of the testis specific c‐abl mRNA in mouse.

The c‐abl gene encodes a protein tyrosine kinase and is transcribed from at least two promoters giving rise to transcripts of two size classes of approximately 5 and 6 kb in length. These mRNAs only differ in their most 5′ exon and encode proteins of similar size but with different N‐termini. In the mouse testis an additional abundant c‐abl mRNA of 4 kb is detected. This mRNA was shown to be expressed in the haploid male germ cells of the adult mouse. Here we describe the cloning and molecular characterization of a cDNA representing the testis specific c‐abl transcript. We show that the 4 kb c‐abl mRNA arises from alternative polyadenylation of an RNA transcribed from the same promoter as the 5 kb mRNA. The site of polyadenylation is unusual in this shorter transcript as it is not preceded by the highly conserved hexanucleotide AAUAAA. The use of this polyadenylation site removes 1.2 kb of 3′ sequences present in the somatic c‐abl mRNAs, but does not affect the main open reading frame of the transcript. Using in situ hybridization on whole testis sections it is shown that the 4 kb c‐abl mRNA is most abundant in the elongating spermatids.
Roles and regulation of the mucus barrier in the gut

The gastrointestinal tract is coated by a thick layer of mucus that forms the front line of innate host defense. Mucus consists of high molecular weight glycoproteins called mucins that are synthesized and secreted by goblet cells and functions primarily to lubricate the epithelium and protect it from damage by noxious substances. Recent studies have also suggested the involvement of goblet cells and mucins in complex immune functions such as antigen presentation and tolerance. Under normal physiological conditions, goblet cells continually produce mucins to replenish and maintain the mucus barrier; however, goblet cell function can be disrupted by various factors that can affect the integrity of the mucus barrier. Some of these factors such as microbes, microbial toxins and cytokines can stimulate or inhibit mucin production and secretion, alter the chemical composition of mucins or degrade the mucus layer. This can lead to a compromised mucus barrier and subsequently to various pathological conditions like chronic inflammatory diseases. Insight into how these factors modulate the mucus barrier in the gut is necessary in order to develop strategies to combat these disorders.
Early Nodule Development in Myrica gale

Seedlings of Myrica gale were grown aeroponically and inoculated with suspensions prepared from mature nodules of M gale plants or with a homogenized preparation of a pure culture of the actinomycete isolated from Comptonia nodules. Morphological, anatomical, and cytological studies were made of early nodule development in these plants, and comparisons were made with similar stages in Comptonia and Casuarina Root hair infection was followed by prenodule formation in a manner similar to that in Comptonia In M. gale, most nodules originated with one or two primary nodule lobes. Thereafter, secondary nodule lobes formed sparsely and in a precisely ordered sequence. In 3-mo-old seedlings, nodules with up to five nodule lobes were observed, but the majority of nodules at this age were still one-to-three lobed In Comptonia the number of primary nodule lobes is much higher than in M. gale. In M. gale nodule roots developed from many but not all nodule lobes, usually in an ordered sequence.
Developing Online Privacy Education Tools with Inputs from the Crowd

In this talk, we introduce an ongoing NSF-funded research project that is also related to IS education. Online social networking communities have undergone an explosion in recent years, as both the kinds and numbers of sites have grown and their memberships have increased. This has led to the proliferation of personal data revealed by users of online communities, which presents a variety of privacy risks. Although these risks apply to individuals of all ages and backgrounds, younger users have been the primary focus of most academic research regarding online privacy and safety. This focus is justified as many young users still know little about online privacy even though their awareness of online privacy has increased. Due to the fact that most existing cybersecurity education tools are either too technical or impractical for young users, there is a need for new, effective online privacy education tools. To develop such education tools with high level of usability and effectiveness, we tap into the ideas of online crowds. We believe inputs from online crowds are useful because they can very well be the users of the tools. Specifically, we designed a prototype of an educational game. In the game, players are presented with social media posts, each one having some privacy issue. Then the game will show multiple choice questions related to the posts such as what privacy issues the posts have and how to fix the problems. We used inputs from crowd workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) in two ways. First, we collected problematic social media posts from AMT workers and used these posts in the game. Second, we collected ideas on reward strategies, i.e., how to give players points after they answer the questions and how to motivate people in the game. To enhance the creativity of ideas, we further let some AMT workers evaluate the ideas and accordingly identified the most original ideas and the most useful ideas. These two groups of ideas were given to another crowd to be combined. Our research shows that this idea combination method led to some ideas that are both highly original and highly useful, judged by the crowd. In the next step, our researchers will evaluate these crowd ideas and implement the best ones in the game. Therefore, the final version of the game will be the results of crowd-expert collaboration. Then the finalized game will be evaluated by online crowds and college students. We want to seek feedback and suggestions for related topics, including gamification of education tools, approaches for evaluating educational games, and increasing the impact of this research.
Searches for ultimate chemical carcinogens and their reactions with cellular macromolecules

Studies on a variety of chemical carcinogens have demonstrated that their ultimate reactive and carcinogenic forms are strong electrophiles. Some carcinogens, such as alkylating agents, are in their ultimate forms as administered, but most require metabolism to these active derivatives. The ultimate carcinogens react, usually non‐enzymatically, with nucleophilic constituents in vivo. Of particular interest in regard to their possible importance in carcinogenesis have been the covalent interactions of these electrophilic reactants with cellular informational macromolecules, the DNAs, RNAs, and proteins. Current data are consistent with the idea that the initiation step of chemical carcinogenesis is a mutagenic event and is caused by alteration of DNA by the ultimate carcinogens. The nature of the carcinogen metabolite(s) involved in the promotion phase has not been determined, but there appears to be no requirement that they be electrophilic. The development of the concept of ultimate chemical carcinogens as strong electrophilic reactants is reviewed, especially with respect to the studies carried out in the authors' laboratory.