Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Light-microscopical analysis of focal adhesions of retinal pigmented epithelial cells.

Retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells from eyes of chick embryos form colonies in vitro in which cells at the periphery of the colony are unpigmented, undifferentiated, and well spread, while those in center of the colony are cuboidal, polygonal, and pigmented, and resemble RPE cells in vivo. The differentiated RPE cells in the center of the colony display predominantly cell-cell adhesiveness, and their microfilaments are organized in compact, circumferential rings. Undifferentiated RPE cells from the edge of the colony, in contrast, display predominantly cell-substratum adhesiveness and have numerous stress fibers spanning their cytoplasm. The well-spread RPE cells adhere to the substratum with focal contacts and unusually large focal adhesions. The focal adhesions which are typical of the spread chick RPE cells in vitro consist of several closely apposed focal contacts, arranged in a parallel fashion, which are often coalesced with each other along their sides. They occur at the termini of prominent microfilament bundles which contain F-actin and tropomyosin along their entire length. Myosin, which is also present in these bundles, however, is less abundant than actin and tropomyosin in the terminal, focal adhesion-associated parts of these bundles. On the other hand, myosin is more abundant than actin and tropomyosin outside the microfilament bundles in the bulk of the cytoplasm. Both focal adhesions and termini of microfilament bundles coincide with the restricted regions where high concentrations of vinculin, an adhesion-specific protein, are found. In contrast, an actin binding protein, spectrin, is distributed fairly uniformly throughout the entire cortex of RPE cells, and, unlike vinculin, does not seem to participate in the binding of microfilament bundles to the plasma membrane. Although extracellular matrix components laminin, fibronectin, and heparin sulfate proteoglycan are produced and deposited by the more differentiated RPE cells in the center of the colony, heparan sulfate proteoglycan has not been detected along the surface of the flat, undifferentiated RPE cells near the edge of the colony, while both laminin and fibronectin are present in very low amounts, the former along their ventral, and the latter along their dorsal cell surfaces. These data are discussed from a point of view that the formation of highly adhesive membrane-cytoskeleton complexes of the focal type in the spread, undifferentiated RPE cells is brought about by exposure of the cells to the rigid, unyielding substrata, such as glass or plastic. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Comparative Biochemical and Genetic Analysis of Naphthalene Degradation among Pseudomonas stutzeri Strains

Of a 49-strain collection of Pseudomonas stutzeri species, 11 isolates were able to degrade naphthalene and 1 isolate was able to use mand p-toluate as sole carbon and energy sources. Of these 12 strains, 10 shared a highly homologous set of naphthalene catabolic genes, even though they belong to four different genomovars. These genes differed from those present in plasmid NAH7. In only one of these degraders could a plasmid-encoded pathway be demonstrated, and a chromosome-encoded pathway is proposed for the remaining strains. meta cleavage of catechol was only observed in those strains able to metabolize alkyl derivatives of catechol.
DNA polymerases required for repair of UV-induced damage in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The ability of yeast DNA polymerase mutant strains to carry out repair synthesis after UV irradiation was studied by analysis of postirradiation molecular weight changes in cellular DNA. Neither DNA polymerase alpha, delta, epsilon, nor Rev3 single mutants evidenced a defect in repair. A mutant defective in all four of these DNA polymerases, however, showed accumulation of single-strand breaks, indicating defective repair. Pairwise combination of polymerase mutations revealed a repair defect only in DNA polymerase delta and epsilon double mutants. The extent of repair in the double mutant was no greater than that in the quadruple mutant, suggesting that DNA polymerases alpha and Rev3p play very minor, if any, roles. Taken together, the data suggest that DNA polymerases delta and epsilon are both potentially able to perform repair synthesis and that in the absence of one, the other can efficiently substitute. Thus, two of the DNA polymerases involved in DNA replication are also involved in DNA repair, adding to the accumulating evidence that the two processes are coupled.
Multiple-dose pharmacokinetics of sparfloxacin and its influence on fecal flora

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiple-dose pharmacokinetic study, the safety and effect on intestinal flora of sparfloxacin (SPX) were determined in 12 healthy male volunteers (8 received SPX and 4 received a placebo). Following fasting and oral administration of 400 mg on day 1 and 200 mg on days 2 to 8, concentrations of the free drug in serum, urine, and feces were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography; serum and urine were also evaluated by a microbiological assay. All results, except those for renal excretion, exclude the glucuroconjugate metabolite. A mean peak concentration in serum (400-mg dose) of 0.56 +/- 0.13 mg/liter was measured 3.52 +/- 0.98 h after administration. Pharmacokinetic parameters (measured by high-performance liquid chromatography) were based on an open, one-compartment model and resulted in the following day 1 (calculated for the 200-mg dose), day 4 (recalculated for a single dose), and day 8 values (mean +/- standard deviation): area under the curve, 16.4 +/- 2.3 (day 1) and 18.3 +/- 5.1 (day 4) mg.h/liter; elimination half-life, 18.3 +/- 3.9 h; steady-state volume of distribution, 4.7 +/- 1.4 (day 1) and 4.3 +/- 1.2 (day 8) liters/kg; apparent total clearance, 201 +/- 31 (day 1) and 190 +/- 51 (day 4) ml/min; renal clearance, 19.1 +/- 5.8 (day 1) and 23.2 +/- 19.4 (day 4) ml/min. Recovery in urine on day 1 was 5.89% +/- 1.4% of the dose in 24 h for the parent compound and 18.4% +/- 6.8% for the SPX glucuronide. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Secondary prevention of childhood firesetting.

OBJECTIVE The Juvenile Fire Awareness and Intervention Program was established to develop and evaluate an intervention to be offered by fire fighters for children who set fires. METHOD One hundred thirty-eight children, aged 5 to 16 years, with a history of firesetting participated in a randomized, controlled trial. The intervention involved education about fire safety and a behavior modification program designed to extinguish the desire to set fires through satiation. The frequency and severity of firesetting were recorded for 12 months after the intervention to measure outcome. RESULTS There was a significant decrease in the frequency and severity of firesetting across all groups, with no additional improvement resulting from participation in the fire fighters' intervention. CONCLUSIONS There is no evidence to suggest that the multicomponent program offered by trained fire fighters is effective in reducing firesetting. The marked reduction in firesetting across all groups suggests that fire safety education by the fire fighters is the most appropriate approach to this serious community problem.
Variaciones en la producción de agua después de un ataque de Gonipterus scutellatus en una cuenca de E. globulus Labill de Galicia

Aunque la defoliacion parcial o total de E. globulus Labill. por G. scutellatus Gill. es frecuente en Galicia y en otras partes del mundo, su efecto en la produccion de agua no ha sido evaluado hasta ahora. Una cuenca experimental cubierta por esa especie en los montes de Castrove (Pontevedra) empezo a sufrir un ataque por ese insecto en el ano hidrologico 1999-2000 y permitio estimar su impacto en el regimen hidrologico. La defoliacion producida dio lugar a un incremento medio relativo de la produccion de agua en los siete anos siguientes de alrededor del 23% sobre el valor esperado. El valor maximo se midio en 2000-2001 con un incremento anual absoluto de 641 mm. No se observo una disminucion aparente del impacto del ataque en la produccion de agua a lo largo del tiempo. Ningun cambio en la generacion del flujo de tormenta o de los caudales punta parecio producirse como consecuencia de la defoliacion de G. scutellatus. El sistema radical de lo arboles defoliados y el desarrollo de la vegetacion acompanante pudieron ayudar a ese resultado.
The ORCCAD Architecture

The ORCCAD programming environment for robotic systems allows users to address automatic control laws in continuous time at the lower levels, and aspects of discrete-time logic at the higher lev els. ORCCAD provides tools of specification, formal verification, simulation, and real-time code generation integrated within a set of dedicated graphical interfaces. Basic robot actions, which are in trinsically hybrid entities, are handled by the ROBOT-TASK struc ture, which smartly interfaces aspects of continuous and discrete time. ROBOT-TASKS are further logically composed into more complex actions, ROBOT-PROCEDURES, through a dedicated lan guage. While system performance can be checked using simula tions, crucial properties such as deadlock avoidance, safety, and liveness can be formally verified at both levels. The approach is illustrated with an underwater inspection mission.
Design and Implementation of Spatial Operators and Energy-Efficient Query Processing Strategy in Wireless Sensor Network Database System

Database applications in wireless sensor networks very often demand data collection from sensor nodes of specific target regions. Design and development of spatial query expressions and energy-efficient query processing strategy are important issues for sensor network database systems. The existing sensor network database systems lack the needed sophistication for the space calculation of the target sensor nodes; hence, unnecessary query/data transmissions are required between the sensor nodes and the server. This paper describes our spatial operations and energy-efficient query processing methods that are designed and implemented in our sensor network database system called SNQL + s . With a set of spatial operators based on geometric parameters, such as Envelope, NearBy, Distance, Direction, and set theoretic operators, SNQL + s allows sensor network applications to easily specify the target space of interest. Our energy-efficient query processing strategy implements an in-network query management based on the lowest common ancestor (LCA) algorithm, so that the query processing cost for calculating the target spaces is greatly reduced by avoiding the need of heavy query/data transmissions between the base-station and target nodes. Performance evaluation shows that our proposed design and implementation of spatial query expressions and processing strategy achieve improved energy efficiency for database operations in the wireless sensor network.
Adaptive averaging applied to dynamic imaging of the soft palate

Achieving sufficient temporal and spatial resolution with adequate signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) in dynamic soft palate imaging is challenging. Triggered acquisitions require repeated reproducible speech samples, and while real‐time imaging is more reliable, it may lack SNR. Adaptive averaging was implemented to improve SNR in nongated imaging during repetition of a speech task. Similar images were identified using localized cross‐correlation before averaging. Adaptive averaging was applied to the soft palate region of images from six volunteers and one patient acquired with various sequences. In volunteers, soft palate SNR increased by 53 ± 17% with four averages. The additional SNR was used to enable reduced slice thickness in two example subjects. Adaptive averaging was also compared to pseudotriggered images in one example and, in another, it was applied to an unrepeated speech task. In a patient with a repaired cleft palate, the technique was used to demonstrate residual velopharyngeal insufficiency. This initial work demonstrates that increased temporal or spatial resolution may be traded for reduced SNR, which can be recovered using adaptive averaging. This will be a valuable tool in assessing velopharyngeal function, particularly in pediatric patients where cooperation may make gated studies difficult or when their head sizes require increased spatial resolution while maintaining temporal resolution. Magn Reson Med 70:865–874, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Primary prevention of dental erosion by calcium and fluoride: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND Overviews of the current literature only provide summaries of existing relevant preventive strategies for dental erosion. OBJECTIVES To perform a systematic review according to the quantitative meta-analysis method of the scientific literature on prevention of dental erosion. The focused question will address primary prevention of dental erosion by calcium and fluoride. MATERIALS AND METHODS Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) regarding dental erosion prevention. The search included five databases: Embase, Cochrane database of systematic reviews, PubMed (MEDLINE), FDA publication and Berman medical library of the Hebrew University. The search included data in the English language, with effect on preventing dental erosion always presented as mean enamel loss and measured by profilometer. Statistical meta-analysis was performed by StatsDirect program and PEPI statistical software. Fixed- and random-effect models were used to analyse the data. Heterogeneity tests were employed to validate the fixed-effect model assumption. RESULTS A total of 475 articles on dental erosion prevention were located. A four-stage selection process was employed, and 10 RCT articles were found to be suitable for meta-analysis. CONCLUSIONS The number of studies on prevention of dental erosion maintaining standards of evidence-based dentistry remains insufficient to reach any definite conclusions. The focused questions of this review cannot be addressed according to the existing literature.
Gill monogeneans of the chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus from Madeiran waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal

Abstract Five species of monogeneans were recovered from the gill filaments of 181 chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus, from the Madeiran waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal, during 2004/2005. The monogenean Pseudokuhnia minor showed the highest prevalence (98.68%) and a mean intensity of 28.23, followed by Kuhnia scombri (prevalence of 43.71% and mean intensity of 2.69) and K. scombercolias (prevalence of 39.1% and a mean intensity of 1.81). Kuhnia sprostonae and Grubea cochlear were rare, occurring in only one and five fish hosts respectively. No correlation between fish host length and mean intensity of infection with the three most abundant monogeneans was found. However, significant differences in prevalence and abundance were found in relation to date of sampling for P. minor, and all parasites were aggregated in their distribution.
FirmLeak: A Framework for Efficient and Accurate Runtime Estimation of Leakage Power by Firmware

Separating the dynamic power and leakage power components from total microprocessor power can enable new optimizations for cloud computing. To this end, we introduce FirmLeak, a new framework that enables accurate, real-time estimation of microprocessor leakage power by system software. FirmLeak accounts for power-gating regions, per-core voltage domains, and manufacturing variation. We present an experimental evaluation of FirmLeak on a POWER7+ microprocessor for a range of hardware parts, voltages and temperatures. We discuss how this can be used in two applications to manage power by 1) improving billing of energy for cloud computing and 2) optimizing fan power consumption.
Prevalence and Risk Factors for Nosocomial Infections in Four University Hospitals in Switzerland

Abstract Objective: To determine the prevalence and risk factors for nosocomial infections (NIs) in four Swiss university hospitals. Design and Setting: A 1-week period-prevalence survey conducted in May 1996 in medical, surgical, and intensive-care wards of four Swiss university hospitals (900-1,500 beds). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definitions were used, except that asymptomatic bacteriuria was not categorized as NI. Study variables included patient demographics, primary diagnosis, comorbidities, exposure to medical and surgical risk factors, and use of antimicrobials. Risk factors for NIs were determined using logistic regression with adjustment for length of hospital stay, study center, device use, and patients' comorbidities. Results: 176 NI were recorded in 156 of 1,349 screened patients (11.6%; interhospital range, 9.8%-13.5%). The most frequent NI was surgical-site infection (53; 30%), followed by urinary tract infection (39; 22%), lower respiratory tract infection (27; 15%), and bloodstream infection (23; 13%). Prevalence of NI was higher in critical-care units (25%) than in medical (9%) and surgical wards (12%). Overall, 65% of NIs were culture-proven; the leading pathogens were Enterobacteriaceae (44; 28%), Staphylococcus aureus (20; 13%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17; 11%), and Candida species (16; 10%). Independent risk factors for NI were central venous catheter (CVC) use (odds ratio [OR], 3.35; 95% confidence interval [CI95], 2.91-3.80), admission to intensive care (OR, 1.75; CI95, 1.30-2.21), emergency admission (OR, 1.57; CI95, 1.15-2.00), impaired functional status (Karnofsky index 1-4: OR, 2.56; CI95, 1.95-3.17), and McCabe classification of ultimately fatal (OR, 2.50; CI95, 2.04-2.96) or rapidly fatal (OR 2.25; CI95,1.52-2.98) underlying condition. Conclusions: According to the results of this survey, NIs are frequent in Swiss university hospitals. This investigation confirms the importance of CVCs as a major risk factor for NI. Patient comorbidities must be taken into account to adjust for case mix in any study comparing interhospital or intrahospital infection rates.
Association between Cellular Immune Activation, Target Cell Frequency, and Risk of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Superinfection

ABSTRACT We performed a case-control study of women at risk of HIV-1 superinfection to understand the relationship between immune activation and HIV-1 acquisition. An increase in the frequency of HIV-1 target cells, but not in other markers of T cell activation, was associated with a 1.7-fold increase in the odds of superinfection. This suggests that HIV-1 acquisition risk is influenced more by the frequency of target cells than by the generalized level of immune activation.
Simulation study of an enhancement-mode n-type InGaAs MOSFETs with a low zero bias off-current

InGaAs channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) with thin channels and wide-bandgap InP vertical field spacers in the S/D have been simulated and investigated. I-V characteristics and leakage current are carefully studied. Good performance can be achieved by controlling indium concentration of InGaAs channel, delta doping concentration and InP caplayer thickness. Simulation results show that an enhancement-mode n-type InGaAs MOSFETs with a low zero bias off-current La can be achieved. An InGaAs MOSFET with Lg=450nm has been made and the measured data fit well with the simulated results.
Family Functioning Assessed by Self-Reported and Observer-Reported Ratings of Depressed Patients and Their Partners

Abstract This study explored subjectively perceived and objectively rated family dysfunction using the self-report Family Assessment Device (FAD) and observer-rated McMaster Clinical Rating Scale (MCRS), respectively. Perceived differences in family functioning ratings between 86 depressed patients and their partners and the degree of agreement between the subjective and objective rating scales were analyzed. There were significant correlations for perceived family functioning between the patients and their partners. There were moderate to significant correlations between patients’ perceptions on five of the seven dimensions of the FAD (excluding problem solving and roles) and those dimensions of the MCRS. Findings showed moderate to significant correlations between six dimensions of the FAD and MCRS, excluding problem solving. Results on the FAD and MCRS were significantly correlated and considered equivalent. This suggests that these two instruments can be used individually or in combination to provide a comprehensive understanding of family functioning of couples with a depressed partner.
A Novel Mechanism for Desulfation of Mucin: Identification and Cloning of a Mucin-Desulfating Glycosidase (Sulfoglycosidase) from Prevotella Strain RS2

ABSTRACT A novel enzyme which may be important in mucin degradation has been discovered in the mucin-utilizing anaerobe Prevotella strain RS2. This enzyme cleaves terminal 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-d-glucopyranoside 6-sulfate (6-SO3-GlcNAc) residues from sulfomucin and from the model substrate 4-nitrophenyl 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-d-glucopyranoside 6-sodium sulfate. The existence of this mucin-desulfating glycosidase (sulfoglycosidase) suggests an alternative mechanism by which this bacterium may desulfate sulfomucins, by glycosidic removal of a sulfated sugar from mucin oligosaccharide chains. Previously, mucin desulfation was thought to take place by the action of a specific desulfating enzyme, which then allowed glycosidases to remove desulfated sugar. Sulfate removal from sulfomucins is thought to be a rate-limiting step in mucin degradation by bacteria in the regions of the digestive tract with a significant bacterial flora. The sulfoglycosidase was induced by growth of the Prevotella strain on mucin and was purified 284-fold from periplasmic extracts. Tryptic digestion and sequencing of peptides from the 100-kDa protein enabled the sulfoglycosidase gene to be cloned and sequenced. Active recombinant enzyme was made in an Escherichia coli expression system. The sulfoglycosidase shows sequence similarity to hexosaminidases. The only other enzyme that has been shown to remove 6-SO3-GlcNAc from glycoside substrates is the human lysosomal enzyme β-N-acetylhexosaminidase A, point mutations in which cause the inheritable, lysosomal storage disorder Tay-Sachs disease. The human enzyme removes GlcNAc from glycoside substrates also, in contrast to the Prevotella enzyme, which acts on a nonsulfated substrate at a rate that is only 1% of the rate observed with a sulfated substrate.
Systemic Risk in Financial Networks

We consider default by firms that are part of a single clearing mechanism. The obligations of all firms within the system are determined simultaneously in a fashion consistent with the priority of debt claims and the limited liability of equity. We first show, via a fixed-point argument, that there always exists a "clearing payment vector" that clears the obligations of the members of the clearing system; under mild regularity conditions, this clearing vector is unique. Next, we develop an algorithm that both clears the financial network in a computationally efficient fashion and provides information on the systemic risk faced by individual system firms. Finally, we produce qualitative comparative statics for financial networks. These comparative statics imply that, in contrast to single-firm results, unsystematic, nondissipative shocks to the system will lower the total value of the network and may lower the value of the equity of some of the individual network firms.