Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enzymatic and chemical demethylenation of (methylenedioxy)amphetamine and (methylenedioxy)methamphetamine by rat brain microsomes.

The metabolism of (methylenedioxy)amphetamine (MDA) and (methylenedioxy)methamphetamine (MDMA) was examined in microsomal preparations from rat brains. The products generated from MDA and MDMA were identified as dihydroxyamphetamine (DHA) and dihydroxymethamphetamine (DHMA), respectively. The demethylenation reaction required NADPH and was strongly inhibited by CO/O2 (4:1 v/v), suggesting that the formation of DHA and DHMA is mediated by cytochrome P450. The conversion was inhibited by desipramine, imipramine, and methimazole, whereas SKF-525A and alpha-naphthoflavone had little effect. Lineweaver-Burk plots of MDA and MDMA demethylenation were biphasic in both cases, indicating that multiple isozymes may participate in the oxidation. The microsomal preparation showed no significant stereoselectivity in the demethylenation of either MDA or MDMA. Catechol formation differed with the incubation buffer and was 2.6 times greater when phosphate rather than HEPES buffer was used. This difference disappeared, however, when desferrioxamine B methanesulfonate (desferal) and hydroxyl radical (.OH) scavenging agents were added to either buffer. The demethylenation was also sensitive to catalase and was stimulated by the addition of ferric ion and EDTA to the microsomal incubation mixture. These results indicate that the demethylenation of MDA and MDMA by rat brain microsomes has a cytochrome P450-mediated component as well as a chemical component involving . OH.
A Typology for Union Discrimination: A Public Sector Perspective

This paper presents a framework for union discrimination against women and minorities in the public sector. Based on this framework, alternative ways that public policy might try to reduce union discrimination are discussed. It is suggested that the success of these efforts depends on whether the policy actions “fit” the fundamental sources of discrimination presented in the framework. A clearer understanding of why unions discriminate can help policymakers and lawmakers address this problem in an effective fashion, one that is at least partially acceptable to all concerned parties.
Geminin is essential for the development of preimplantation mouse embryos

Replication of DNA is strictly controlled to ensure that it occurs only once per cell cycle. Geminin has been thought to serve as a central mediator of this licensing mechanism by binding to and antagonizing the function of Cdt1 and thereby preventing re‐replication during S and G2 phases. We have now generated mice deficient in geminin to elucidate the physiologic role of this protein during development. Lack of geminin was shown to result in preimplantation mortality. A delay in the development of homozygous mutant embryos was first apparent at the transition from the four‐ to eight‐cell stages, concomitant with the disappearance of maternal geminin protein, and development was arrested at the eight‐cell stage. The mutant embryos manifest morphological abnormalities such as dispersed blastomeres with nuclei that are irregular both in size and shape as well as impaired cell–cell adhesion. DNA replication occurs but mitosis was not detected in the mutant embryos. The abnormal blastomeres contain damaged DNA and undergo apoptosis, likely as a consequence of the deregulation of DNA replication. Our results suggest that geminin is essential for cooperative progression of the cell cycle through S phase to M phase during the preimplantation stage of mouse development.
A method of Semiotic engineering for the online help systems construction

Online help systems are typically used (if at all) as a last resource in interactive breakdown situations. In this paper, we present a semiotic engineering method for building online help that uses fairly known design models. We discuss the benefits of having designers explicitly communicate their design vision to users and the need or opportunity to foster new cultural attitudes towards online help. We show how, as a direct communication channel from designers to users, it opens new possibilities for interaction that can be skillfully used by designers. By exploring such possibilities, designers and users may bring about more positive attitudes towards online help and counter the feeling of technological exclusion which many users express.
Using Extended R-Impact to Assess Journal Influence

The objective of this study is to evaluate the importance or contributions of a journal to the development of disciplines. We introduce generalized impact factor, which involves the historical citation observed, and potential future citation of a journal. It can be used to assess the journal influence dynamically. Gamma distributions are used to fit the distribution of the citation frequency. Variations of impact factor are used to rank the relative influence of several journals in biology.
Comparative effects of intravenous ketorolac and pethidine on perioperative analgesia and postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) for paediatric strabismus surgery

Background: Corrective strabismus surgery is associated with moderate pain and a very high incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). Ketorolac tromethamine, a non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drug, is a popular analgesic in adults. There are only limited published data on the use of intravenous ketorolac for paediatric analgesia perioperatively. This study evaluated and compared the emetic and analgesic effect of ketorolac with pethidine and its suitability for this kind of surgery.
Heat-Shock Response in Heat-Tolerant and Nontolerant Variants of Agrostis palustris Huds

The heat-shock response in heat-tolerant variants (SB) and non-tolerant variants (NSB) of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis palustris Huds.) was investigated. Both variants were derived from callus initiated from a single seed of the cultivar Penncross. SB and NSB synthesized heat-shock proteins (HSPs) of 97, 83, 70, 40, 25, and 18 kD. There were no major differences between SB and NSB in the time or temperature required to induce the heat-shock response. When the HSPs synthesized by SB and NSB were analyzed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, it was apparent that SB synthesized two to three additional members of the HSP27 family, which were smaller (25 kD) and more basic than those synthesized by NSB. Analysis of F1 progeny of NSB x SB indicated that 7 of the 20 progeny did not synthesize the additional HSP25 polypeptides. These progeny were significantly less heat tolerant than progeny that did synthesize the additional HSP25 polypeptides. The X2 test of independence (X2 = 22.45, P < 0.001) indicated that heat tolerance and the presence of the additional HSP25 polypeptides are linked traits.
Social Protection in the Developing World

How are social protections evolving in the developing world, particularly as those nations confront the challenges of globalization? Scholars in this special issue examine the challenges, continuity, and changes in social protections across the developing world over the last few decades. The common theme that emerges from this informative group of papers is that developing nations are confronting unique politico-economic difficulties as well as opportunities for the development of their welfare programs. This is a vastly understudied topic. The studies in this issue tackle some of the unanswered questions of the globalization–social protection debate in developing economies, with a particular focus on how politics plays into the relationship. These articles hope to initiate a dialogue and offer suggestions for further research in this critical area of study.
T-2307 Shows Efficacy in a Murine Model of Candida glabrata Infection despite In Vitro Trailing Growth Phenomena

ABSTRACT T-2307, a novel arylamidine, has been shown to exhibit broad-spectrum in vitro and in vivo antifungal activities against clinically significant pathogens. In our preliminary studies, Candida glabrata exhibited significant trailing growth (partial inhibition of growth over an extended range of antifungal concentrations) in the presence of T-2307 when it was tested using the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines with 0.2% glucose and 48 h of incubation, making reading of the MIC difficult. In the present study, we attempted to attenuate trailing growth to avoid misreading of the MIC. On the basis of the hypothesis that T-2307 may inhibit the mitochondrial functions of cells, the carbon source or the glucose concentration in the medium was changed. The trailing growth of C. glabrata ATCC 90030 in the presence of T-2307 was attenuated as the concentration of glucose in the medium decreased to 0.1% or lower, and trailing growth was completely inhibited when glycerol was used. A susceptibility test using Alamar blue was performed to facilitate reading of the MIC without changing the composition of the medium and provided a clear MIC endpoint at 24 h. To investigate if T-2307 shows efficacy against trailing isolates in vivo, we evaluated the efficacy of T-2307 in a murine model of disseminated candidiasis caused by C. glabrata. T-2307 at 0.05 mg/kg of body weight/day significantly decreased the viable count in the kidneys compared to that for the control group (P < 0.05). It would be better to test the susceptibility of C. glabrata to T-2307 using modified media or Alamar blue to avoid misreading of the MIC due to the significant trailing growth.
Avian Reoviruses Cause Apoptosis in Cultured Cells: Viral Uncoating, but Not Viral Gene Expression, Is Required for Apoptosis Induction

ABSTRACT The cytopathic effect evidenced by cells infected with avian reovirus S1133 suggests that this virus may induce apoptosis in primary cultures of chicken embryo fibroblasts. In this report we present evidence that avian reovirus infection of cultured cells causes activation of the intracellular apoptotic program and that this activation takes place during an early stage of the viral life cycle. The ability of avian reoviruses to induce apoptosis is not restricted to a particular virus strain or to a specific cell type, since different avian reovirus isolates were able to induce apoptosis in several avian and mammalian cell lines. Apoptosis was also provoked in ribavirin-treated avian reovirus-infected cells and in cells infected with UV-irradiated reovirions, indicating that viral mRNA synthesis and subsequent steps in viral replication are not needed for apoptosis induction in avian reovirus-infected cells and that the number of inoculated virus particles, not their infectivity, is the critical factor for apoptosis induction by avian reovirus. Our finding that apoptosis is no longer induced when intracellular viral uncoating is blocked indicates that intraendosomal virion disassembly is required for apoptosis induction and that attachment and uptake of parental reovirions are not sufficient to cause apoptosis. Taken together, our results suggest that apoptosis is triggered from within the infected cell by viral products generated after intraendosomal uncoating of parental reovirions.
A Novel Hybrid Model for Information Processing Basing on Rough Sets and Fuzzy SVM

Rough set theory (RST) is a new effective tool in dealing with vagueness and uncertainty information from a large number of data. Fuzzy support vector machine (FSVM) has become the focus of research in machine learning. And it greatly improves the capabilities of fault-tolerance and generalization of standard support vector machine. The hybrid model of RS-FSVM inherits the merits of RS and FSVM, and is applied into fused image quality evaluation in this paper. RST is used as preprocessing step to improve the performances of FSVM. A large number of experimental results show that when the number training samples are enough RS-SVM can achieve higher precision of classification than methods of FSVM and SVM.
A Profile of HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the African-American Community: Implications for a Culturally-Sensitive and Ethnic-Specific Health Promotion and Education Programme for African-Americans

L'education favorisant le changement des comportements et des attitudes a ete a maintes reprises recommandee comme strategie efficace pour la prevention et le controle communautaires des infections liees au VIH. Pendant les dix dernieres annees, il semblerait que les programmes de controle de ces maladies dans les communautes Afro-Americaines n'aient observe aucun changement significatif, car le VIH/SIDA, d'autres maladies sexuellement transmissibles et certaines maladies degeneratives continuent d'etre les principales causes de mortalite et d'incapacite parmi la population. Des statistiques recentes indiquent que les Afro-Americains, qui representent 13 % de la population americaine, ont constamment porte le poids le plus lourd des problemes lies au VIH/SIDA. On compte dans cette communaute 52 % de tous les seropositifs, 37 % de tous les cas de SIDA diagnostiques et 63 % de tous les cas de SIDA pediatriques de la nation. Si l'on va encore plus loin, alors que les femmes Afro-Americaines ne representent que 13,6 % de la population feminine des Etats-Unis, on a recense parmi elles 67.4 % de tous les cas de femmes seropositives, et plus de 57 % des femmes atteintes de SIDA declare aux Etats-Unis. Cet article qui analyse l'ampleur des problemes lies au VIH/SIDA parmi les Afro-Americains en termes d'incidence, de prevalence et de taux d'infection par ethnie et par race, aborde aussi des facteurs importants qui ont influence cette prevalence du SIDA chez les Afro-Americains : des programmes de promotion de la sante et d'education pour la sante inadaptes a la communaute, des fosses de communication enormes entre les professionnels de sante et les Afro-Americains, une sous-culture de la drogue et de la pauvrete, une meconnaissance de la sante et des problemes sociaux et le manque de fonds alloues a differents programmes de prevention du VIH/SIDA pour des minorites ethniques. L'article etudie et recommande des strategies de promotion de la sante et d'education pour la sante specifiques sur le plan ethnique et sensibles culturellement, pour la prevention et le controle du VIH/SIDA parmi les Afro-Americains.
CD4+ T Cell Depletion in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection: Role of Apoptosis

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is principally a mucosal disease and the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the major site of HIV replication. Loss of CD4+ T cells and systemic immune hyperactivation are the hallmarks of HIV infection. The end of acute infection is associated with the emergence of specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses and the establishment of a chronic phase of infection. Abnormal levels of immune activation and inflammation persist despite a low steady state level of viremia. Although the causes of persistent immune hyperactivation remain incompletely characterized, physiological alterations of gastrointestinal tract probably play a major role. Failure to restore Th17 cells in gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT) might impair the recovery of the gut mucosal barrier. This review discusses recent advances on understanding the contribution of CD4+ T cell depletion to HIV pathogenesis.
Acrylamide exposure and incidence of breast cancer among postmenopausal women in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health Study

Acrylamide, a probable human carcinogen, is formed in several foods during high‐temperature processing. So far, epidemiological studies have not shown any association between human cancer risk and dietary exposure to acrylamide. The purpose of this study was to conduct a nested case control study within a prospective cohort study on the association between breast cancer and exposure to acrylamide using biomarkers. N‐terminal hemoglobin adduct levels of acrylamide and its genotoxic metabolite, glycidamide in red blood cells were analyzed (by LC/MS/MS) as biomarkers of exposure on 374 breast cancer cases and 374 controls from a cohort of postmenopausal women. The adduct levels of acrylamide and glycidamide were similar in cases and controls, with smokers having much higher levels (∼3 times) than nonsmokers. No association was seen between acrylamide‐hemoglobin levels and breast cancer risk neither unadjusted nor adjusted for the potential confounders HRT duration, parity, BMI, alcohol intake and education. After adjustment for smoking behavior, however, a positive association was seen between acrylamide‐hemoglobin levels and estrogen receptor positive breast cancer with an estimated incidence rate ratio (95% CI) of 2.7 (1.1–6.6) per 10‐fold increase in acrylamide‐hemoglobin level. A weak association between glycidamide hemoglobin levels and incidence of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer was also found, this association, however, entirely disappeared when acrylamide and glycidamide hemoglobin levels were mutually adjusted. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Acceleration effects on manual performance with isometric and displacement joysticks.

BACKGROUND We have shown before that novice human subjects produce exaggerated isometric forces when exposed to three times normal terrestrial acceleration (+3 Gz), and that this deficit is compensated by intensive training in +3 Gz. We now investigate whether training in normal terrestrial gravity (normal G) is also effective. We further examine whether subjects in +3 Gz produce not only exaggerated forces, but also exaggerated hand displacements. METHODS Experiments were conducted in the stationary (normal G) or rotating (+3 Gz) gondola of a man-rated centrifuge. With their dominant hand, subjects produced either forces using an isometric joystick, or hand displacements using a regular joystick. Response directions and magnitudes were prescribed visually. In practice trials, subjects received continuous visual feedback about their performance, while in test trials they did not. RESULTS Subjects produced exaggerated forces in +3 Gz, whether or not they previously practiced the task in normal G. In contrast, subjects did not produce exaggerated hand displacements in +3 Gz. DISCUSSION Exaggerated force production in +3 Gz is not overcome by task practice in normal G, as opposed to task practice in +3 Gz. This might be an indication that pilot training should contain extended practice of force production during phases of increased gravity (+Gz) to avoid motor deficits during flight maneuvers inducing +Gz. Furthermore, the control of isometric and regular joysticks seems to be based on partly distinct neural mechanisms, with different +Gz dependence. Thus, against the background of motor performance during +Gz, regular sticks might be favorably compared to isometric sticks in high-performance aircrafts.
Detection of fungemia obscured by concomitant bacteremia: in vitro and in vivo studies

Our recent clinical experience suggested that bacteremia may interfere with the detection of concomitant fungemia when standard blood culture methods are used. To determine the extent to which bacteria may interfere with fungal isolation from blood cultures, an in vitro model simulating blood cultures taken during concomitant fungemia and bacteremia was created. Each of six bacteria (Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) was combined with each of three pathogenic yeasts (Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, and Torulopsis glabrata) in vented blood culture bottles containing enriched brain heart infusion broth and fresh normal human blood. Blood culture bottles were analyzed at 1, 2, and 7 days of incubation. Gram strains and subcultures onto chocolate and MacConkey agars failed to detect fungi in 37.0, 66.7, and 100% of samples, respectively. However, subcultures onto Sabouraud dextrose agar failed in only 13% of the samples (occurring only with P. aeruginosa). In a rabbit model of concomitant fungemia with C. albicans and bacteremia with P. aeruginosa, no yeasts were recovered from blood cultures despite 100% detection of P. aeruginosa. Therefore, the usual microbiological techniques may be inadequate to detect fungemia when concomitant bacteremia is present.
Clinical characteristics and outcomes of Takayasu's arteritis: analysis of 108 patients using standardized criteria for diagnosis, activity assessment, and angiographic classification

Objectives: To investigate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of Takayasu's arteritis (TA) using standardized criteria for diagnosis, disease activity, and angiographic classification, and to identify the predictive factors for remission, angiographic progression, and mortality in patients with TA. Methods: One hundred and eight patients who fulfilled the 1990 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) classification criteria for TA were studied. Their clinical features, laboratory findings, angiographic findings, and clinical outcomes were evaluated retrospectively. The disease activities were assessed using the National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria for active disease, and the angiographic types were classified using the International TA Conference in Tokyo 1994 angiographic classification. Results: Angiographic classification showed that type I was the most common, followed by types V and IV. Ninety‐one patients had active disease at diagnosis, and remission was achieved in 81.3% of them. Among those who experienced remission and those who had stable disease at diagnosis, 28.6% experienced a relapse. A low erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) at diagnosis and treatment with glucocorticoid were found to be independent predictors for remission, and the stable disease activity at diagnosis was an independent predictor for the quiescence of vascular lesions on follow‐up angiography. Survival rates were 92.9% at the fifth year and 87.2% at the tenth year, and the presence of two or more complications was a risk factor for mortality. Conclusions: These findings could provide useful information on the clinical features, angiographic findings, and outcomes in TA, particularly on the assessment of patients at risk of a poor outcome.
Competency-based Pay 1 Competency-based Pay

According to Brown (1998), competency frameworks have a role in main HR functions in as many as 70 per cent of organisations. However, competencies are used mainly in performance management, recruitment and selection, and training and development, according to the Competency and Emotional Intelligence Benchmarking Survey (2002). Only a minority of organisations have decided to make a link between pay and competency.