Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of vitamin C in iron absorption.

Iron requirements remain the same despite the current lower energy requirement. This means that more iron must be absorbed per unit energy. A higher bioavailability of the dietary iron can be achieved by increasing the content of food components enhancing iron absorption (ascorbic acid, meat/fish) or by decreasing the content of inhibitors (e.g., phytates, tannins). The latter is not feasible considering the recent and reasonable trend toward increasing the intake of dietary fibre. The key role of ascorbic acid for the absorption of dietary nonheme iron is generally accepted. The reasons for its action are twofold: (1) the prevention of the formation of insoluble and unabsorbable iron compounds and (2) the reduction of ferric to ferrous iron, which seems to be a requirement for the uptake of iron into the mucosal cells.
Targeted disruption of Col11a2 produces a mild cartilage phenotype in transgenic mice: Comparison with the human disorder otospondylomegaepiphyseal dysplasia (OSMED)

Transgenic mice were prepared by homologous recombination with a Col11a2 targeting gene in which an inverted neomycin‐resistant gene was inserted between restriction sites in exons 27 and 28. The targeted allele was transcribed in shortened mRNAs, which could be detected by Northern blotting. However, translation of the full‐length Col11a2 chain was unable to occur because of the presence of premature termination codons within the inverted neomycin‐resistant gene. Analysis of pepsin‐resistant collagen chains from rib cartilage of homozygous mice demonstrated the lack of synthesis of intact α2(XI) chains. However, pepsin‐resistant collagen chains of either α1(XI) or α1(V) were still detected on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Therefore, α2(XI) chains are not essential for the assembly of some molecular forms of triple‐helical type V/XI collagen. The phenotype was milder than in the cho/cho mouse in which, as the result of mutation, translation of the full‐length α1(XI) chain fails to occur and the mice die at birth (Li et al., 1995 ). Homozygous mice without expression of an α2(XI) chain had a smaller body size, receding snouts, and deafness. Nasal bones in the homozygous transgenic mice were specifically shorter and dimpled on their external surfaces. Chondrocytes in growth plates of all long bones were markedly disorganized and failed to align in columns. Analysis of growth plates from transgenic mice by in situ hybridization showed expression of α1(II) and α1(XI) but not of α1(I) or α1(V) which, in contrast, were expressed in the developing bone and in the bone collar. Expression of α1(X) specifically in the hypertrophic cartilage was observed in normal and transgenic mice. No obvious osteoarthritis was observed throughout the life of homozygous mice up to 1 year of age, although minor morphologic anomalies in the articular cartilages were discernible. The mild phenotype is consistent with similar mutations in the COL11A2 gene seen in patients with nonocular Stickler syndrome and some patients with otospondylomegaepiphyseal dysplasia (OSMED), as well as in patients with a nonsyndromic form of deafness called DFNA13. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Prevalence of diabetes in New Zealand general practice: the influence of ethnicity and social deprivation

Background: The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among different ethnic groups and the influence of deprivation on the prevalence of diabetes among Māori and New Zealand Europeans was investigated. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey on all patients registered with 10 practices in the Rotorua General Practice Group on 1 July 2007. Patients diagnosed with diabetes were identified though diagnostic codes for diabetes, prescriptions for diabetes medications and laboratory tests for glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Prevalence of diabetes by ethnicity, age group, gender and NZDep2001 quintiles was calculated. Adjusted ORs for the risk of diabetes were obtained from logistic regression analysis. Results: Of the 45 500 patients registered, 1819 had been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. In the 40+ age groups, the prevalence of diabetes in Māori and Pacific people was around three times that in Europeans. With increasing deprivation, the age-standardised prevalence of diagnosed diabetes increased among European males (2.7–5.0%) and females (2.1–3.1%). However, the prevalence of diabetes was highest among the least deprived Māori (males 9.7%, females 6.2%). The adjusted risk of diabetes for the most deprived Māori is not significantly different from that for the least deprived Māori. The most deprived Europeans had nearly twice the risk of having diabetes than the least deprived Europeans. Conclusions: Although the rising prevalence of diabetes with increasing deprivation among Europeans shows a similar trend to results from national and international studies, the trend among Māori seems to be different because the least deprived are equally at risk of diabetes. Diabetes interventions aimed at Māori should be tailor-made to include the least deprived groups.
Media Device Orchestration for Immersive Spatial Audio Reproduction

Whilst it is possible to create exciting, immersive listening experiences with current spatial audio technology, the required systems are generally difficult to install in a standard living room. However, in any living room there is likely to already be a range of loudspeakers (such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and so on). "Media device orchestration" (MDO) is the concept of utilising all available devices to augment the reproduction of a media experience. In this demonstration, MDO is used to augment low channel count renderings of various programme material, delivering immersive three-dimensional audio experiences.
Environmental and technical evaluation of the use of alternative fuels through multi-criteria analysis model

The current way in which the fossil natural resources are consumed as energy resources does not reflect the concept of sustainability and therefore raises new priorities for the existing energy system and sets the challenge to find alternative energy sources that enhance the quality of life without jeopardising the environmental and human health. This study investigated the consequences of the use of alternative fuels (hydrogen, natural gas, bio-ethanol and bio-gas) by focusing on several factors that can be expected to influence the environmental, economic and social sector, in order to verify the feasibility of increasing their share compared to conventional fuels. The results indicated that economy criteria of alternative fuels is consider to be significant advantage over traditional fuels, while the comparative evaluation that resulted from the combination of properties with the optimal values, highlights and drives the exploration of hydrogen as the 'best' alternative fuel source.
Oral antiplatelet therapy: impact for transfusion medicine

Patients on antiplatelet therapy, be it aspirin only, or aspirin in combination with oral adenosine diphosphate (ADP) receptor inhibitors like clopidogrel, prasugrel and ticagrelor, or the protease‐activated receptor‐1 inhibitor vorapaxar, may develop bleeding or need transient reversal of platelet blockade for acute interventions. In this review, we summarize reports on patients with antiplatelet therapy receiving platelet concentrates due to bleeding, and in vitro experiments estimating the feasibility to restore platelet function by spiking blood from healthy individuals or patients on antiplatelet treatment with noninhibited platelets. So far, all clinical data were gained from patients on aspirin with or without ADP P2Y12 receptor inhibitors. Platelet inhibition due to clopidogrel, and to some extent also prasugrel may be overcome by platelet transfusion, but clinical data on massive platelet transfusion in these patients are lacking. Platelet transfusion may even be associated with worse outcomes. Ticagrelor‐mediated platelet inhibition remains a challenge, as case reports show that platelet transfusion did not restore haemostasis. Prescription of the latter therefore demands a particular stringent indication.
Impact of Substratum Surface on Microbial Community Structure and Treatment Performance in Biological Aerated Filters

ABSTRACT The impact of substratum surface property change on biofilm community structure was investigated using laboratory biological aerated filter (BAF) reactors and molecular microbial community analysis. Two substratum surfaces that differed in surface properties were created via surface coating and used to develop biofilms in test (modified surface) and control (original surface) BAF reactors. Microbial community analysis by 16S rRNA gene-based PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) showed that the surface property change consistently resulted in distinct profiles of microbial populations during replicate reactor start-ups. Pyrosequencing of the bar-coded 16S rRNA gene amplicons surveyed more than 90% of the microbial diversity in the microbial communities and identified 72 unique bacterial species within 19 bacterial orders. Among the 19 orders of bacteria detected, Burkholderiales and Rhodocyclales of the Betaproteobacteria class were numerically dominant and accounted for 90.5 to 97.4% of the sequence reads, and their relative abundances in the test and control BAF reactors were different in consistent patterns during the two reactor start-ups. Three of the five dominant bacterial species also showed consistent relative abundance changes between the test and control BAF reactors. The different biofilm microbial communities led to different treatment efficiencies, with consistently higher total organic carbon (TOC) removal in the test reactor than in the control reactor. Further understanding of how surface properties affect biofilm microbial communities and functional performance would enable the rational design of new generations of substrata for the improvement of biofilm-based biological treatment processes.
Nonlinear cascaded control of a small unmanned helicopter and stability analysis

This is the paper style requirement for the Chinese Control Conference. The writers of papers should and must provide normalized electronic documents in order for readers to search and read papers conveniently. Considering the structural features of unmanned helicopters, the present paper designs a nonlinear cascaded controller based on inner-outer loop structure. The outer loop controls the translational trajectory of the helicopter, while the inner loop stabilizes the attitude. The intermediate control signals related to the attitude dynamics exploit the structural properties of the transform matrix. The controller for each loop is designed separately so that the design problem is simplified and the control system can be implemented easily in practice. Then the global stability of the connected system is proven. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to show the applicability and the effectiveness of the proposed design.
Transmission studies of Hendra virus (equine morbillivirus) in fruit bats, horses and cats.

OBJECTIVE To determine the infectivity and transmissibility of Hendra virus (HeV). DESIGN A disease transmission study using fruit bats, horses and cats. PROCEDURE Eight grey-headed fruit bats (Pteropus poliocephalus) were inoculated and housed in contact with three uninfected bats and two uninfected horses. In a second experiment, four horses were inoculated by subcutaneous injection and intranasal inoculation and housed in contact with three uninfected horses and six uninfected cats. In a third experiment, 12 cats were inoculated and housed in contact with three uninfected horses. Two surviving horses were inoculated at the conclusion of the third experiment: the first orally and the second by nasal swabbing. All animals were necropsied and examined by gross and microscopic pathological methods, immunoperoxidase to detect viral antigen in formalin-fixed tissues, virus isolation was attempted on tissues and SNT and ELISA methods were used to detect HeV-specific antibody. RESULTS Clinical disease was not observed in the fruit bats, although six of eight inoculated bats developed antibody against HeV, and two of six developed vascular lesions which contained viral antigen. The in-contact bats and horses did not seroconvert. Three of four horses that were inoculated developed acute disease, but in-contact horses and cats were not infected. In the third experiment, one of three in-contact horses contracted disease. At the time of necropsy, high titres of HeV were detected in the kidneys of six acutely infected horses, in the urine of four horses and the mouth of two, but not in the nasal cavities or tracheas. CONCLUSIONS Grey-headed fruit bats seroconvert and develop subclinical disease when inoculated with HeV. Horses can be infected by oronasal routes and can excrete HeV in urine and saliva. It is possible to transmit HeV from cats to horses. Transmission from P poliocephalus to horses could not be proven and neither could transmission from horses to horses or horses to cats. Under the experimental conditions of the study the virus is not highly contagious.
Image restoration based on phase conjugation in second-order nonlinear medium

A phase conjugate replica of the complex incident signal electric field can be generated by through optical phase conjugation (OPC) based on one of the nonlinear optical processes. One of the important applications for OPC is the full recovery of an image after it transmits through a phase distorting medium. Such distortion makes the image have a poor contrast, reduces the spatial resolution, and generates additional noises. In the past, OPC was demonstrated based on photorefractive effect [1] and degenerate four wave mixing [2], which can be used to in principle to correct the blurred images due to phase distortion. However, since temporal response utilizing photorefractive effect is limited by electro-optic effect due to space-charge field, the image restoration has response times on the orders of 100 μs-1 s. For atmospheric turbulence, recovery of an image based on such a scheme is too slow to recover distorted signals and blurred images due to the dynamic turbulence. Since four wave mixing is based on third-order nonlinearity, high peak powers produced by Q-switched lasers are required. In contrast, OPC using difference frequency generation (DFG) in a second-order nonlinear crystal requires much lower powers [3]. Moreover, since such a scheme has instantaneous response time, it is perhaps the only scheme which can be used to fully recover distorted signals and blurred images after transmitting through atmosphere. In this presentation, we summary the progress made on the recovery of the blurred image caused by atmospheric turbulence to the original quality by the phase-conjugated beam generated by DFG in a second-order nonlinear KTP crystal and composite. Based on our results we conclude that the phase distortion caused by the dynamic atmospheric turbulence can be completely suppressed by imaging the phase-conjugated beam.
Investigating the tradeoffs between spatial resolution and diffusion sampling for brain mapping with diffusion tractography: Time well spent?

Interest in mapping white matter pathways in the brain has peaked with the recognition that altered brain connectivity may contribute to a variety of neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Diffusion tractography has emerged as a popular method for postmortem brain mapping initiatives, including the ex‐vivo component of the human connectome project, yet it remains unclear to what extent computer‐generated tracks fully reflect the actual underlying anatomy. Of particular concern is the fact that diffusion tractography results vary widely depending on the choice of acquisition protocol. The two major acquisition variables that consume scan time, spatial resolution, and diffusion sampling, can each have profound effects on the resulting tractography. In this analysis, we determined the effects of the temporal tradeoff between spatial resolution and diffusion sampling on tractography in the ex‐vivo rhesus macaque brain, a close primate model for the human brain. We used the wealth of autoradiography‐based connectivity data available for the rhesus macaque brain to assess the anatomic accuracy of six time‐matched diffusion acquisition protocols with varying balance between spatial and diffusion sampling. We show that tractography results vary greatly, even when the subject and the total acquisition time are held constant. Further, we found that focusing on either spatial resolution or diffusion sampling at the expense of the other is counterproductive. A balanced consideration of both sampling domains produces the most anatomically accurate and consistent results. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5667–5685, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A New Weighted Hyper-Sphere Support Vector Machine

Since hyper-sphere SVM treat all samples equally, its performance is lower when distribution of the training examples is uneven. How to eliminate the influence of the uneven class sizes is important for the resulting classifier. To solve this problem, we present a new weighted hyper-sphere SVM based on the analysis of performance influence caused by the class size. Experimental results show that our method can control the misclassification rate efficiently and improve the generalization of the classifier.
Fibroblast extracellular matrix gene expression in response to keratinocyte‐releasable stratifin

Termination of wound‐healing process requires a fine balance between connective tissue deposition and its hydrolysis. Previously, we have demonstrated that keratinocyte‐releasable stratifin, also known as 14‐3‐3 σ protein, stimulates collagenase (MMP‐1) expression in dermal fibroblasts. However, role of extracellular stratifin in regulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) factors and other matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in dermal fibroblast remains unexplored. To address this question, large‐scale ECM gene expression profile were analyzed in human dermal fibroblasts co‐cultured with keratinocytes or treated with recombinant stratifin. Superarray pathway‐specific microarrays were utilized to identify upregulation or downregulation of 96 human ECM and adhesion molecule genes. RT‐PCR and Western blot were used to validate microarray expression profiles of selected genes. Comparison of gene profiles with the appropriate controls showed a significant (more than twofold) increase in expression of collagenase‐1, stromelysin‐1 and ‐2, neutrophil collagenase, and membrane type 5 MMP in dermal fibroblasts treated with stratifin or co‐cultured with keratinocytes. Expression of type I collagen and fibronectin genes decreased in the same fibroblasts. The results of a dose–response experiment showed that stratifin stimulates the expression of stromelysin‐1 (MMP‐3) mRNA by dermal fibroblasts in a concentration‐dependent fashion. Furthermore, Western blot analysis of fibroblast‐conditioned medium showed a peak in MMP‐3 protein levels 48 h following treatment with recombinant stratifin. In a lasting‐effect study, MMP‐3 protein was detected in fibroblast‐condition medium for up to 72 h post removal of stratifin. In conclusion, our results suggest that keratinocyte‐releasable stratifin plays a major role in induction of ECM degradation by dermal fibroblasts through stimulation of key MMPs, such as MMP‐1 and MMP‐3. Therefore, stratifin protein may prove to be a useful target for clinical intervention in controlling excessive wound healing in fibrotic conditions. J. Cell. Biochem. 98: 383–393, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
T lymphocyte adhesion to the fibronectin and laminin components of the extracellular matrix is regulated by the CD4 molecule

The adhesion of T cells to components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) is mediated by the β1 subfamily of integrin receptors, designated VLA. It has been recently demonstrated that the binding of VLA receptors to protein components of the ECM is rapidly augmented by the activation of the T cells without, however, any actual change in the level of expression of the VLA receptors for fibronectin (FN) or laminin (LN). Thus, it is likely that activation of existing VLA receptors is required for binding. The activation must be regulated by T cell surface molecules capable of transducing signals into the cell. We studied the role of the CD4 molecule in the binding of rat CD4+ T cells to the FN and LN components of the ECM. We now report that the CD4 molecule appears to play a major role in regulating T cell interactions with ECM. This conclusion is based on the following observations: (a) monoclonal antibodies directed against the CD4 molecule inhibited T cell adhesion to both FN and LN; (b) down‐regulation of the CD4 molecule resulted in partial loss of the ability of CD4+ T cells to adhere to FN and LN; (c) a CD4+ T cell clone adhered to both FN and LN while a CD4−CD8− clone expressing an identical T cell receptor bound weakly to both proteins and (d) treatment of the CD4+ T cells with an inhibitor of the CD4‐associated tyrosine protein kinase activity inhibited T cell adhesion to both ECM proteins.
Odontoid upward migration in rheumatoid arthritis. An analysis of 45 patients with "cranial settling".

Lack of correlation between the severity of rheumatoid subluxation of the upper cervical vertebrae and supposed absence of neurological damage has led to the erroneous supposition that this finding is innocuous. Incomplete autopsy studies in rheumatoid arthritis have failed to recognize the cause of death, despite previously proven dramatic occipito-atlanto-axial dislocations. The most feared entity of rheumatoid basilar invagination, namely "cranial settling," is poorly understood. Between 1978 and 1984, the authors treated 45 rheumatoid arthritis patients who were symptomatic with "cranial settling. " This consisted of vertical odontoid penetration through the foramen magnum (9 to 33 mm), occipito-atlanto-axial dislocation, lateral atlantal mass erosion, downward telescoping of the anterior arch of C-1 on the axis, and rostral rotation of the posterior arch of C-1 producing ventral and dorsal cervicomedullary junction compromise. Cervicomedullary junction dysfunction has mistakenly been called "entrapment neuropathy," "progression of disease," or "vasculitis. " Occipital pain occurred in all 45 patients, myelopathy in 36, blackout spells in 24, brain-stem signs in 17, and lower cranial nerve palsies in 10. Four patients had prior tracheostomies. Four previously asymptomatic patients with "cranial settling" presented acutely quadriplegic. The factors governing treatment were reducibility and direction of encroachment determined by skeletal traction and myelotomography. Transoral odontoidectomy was performed in seven patients with irreducible pathology. All patients underwent occipitocervical bone fusion (with C-1 decompression if needed) and acrylic fixation. Improvement occurred during traction, implying that compression might be the etiology for the neurological signs. There were no complications. Thus, "cranial settling" is a frequent complication of rheumatoid arthritis; although it is poorly recognized, it has serious implications and is treatable.