Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SOME STAINING PROPERTIES OF THE GLOMERULAR CONSTITUENTS IN NORMAL RABBITS.

The fine structure of the mammalian glomerulus has for long been a subject of discussion, particularly with regard to the existence of a so-called mesangial tissue additional to the basic components of epithelial cells (podocytes), endothelial cells and basement membrane. Evidence for a mesangium consisting of fibres, a third type of cell or both and based principally on electron microscopical studies, has been presented by Yamada (1955), Pak Poy (1958), Fernandez-Tornini (1961), Vernier & Anderson (1962), Farquhar & Palade (1962) and Jones, Mueller & Menefree (1962). The present short report stems from observations made, incidentally, in another context, namely, the presence in the glomeruli of rabbits of: (1) cells with abundant cytoplasmic RNA, and (2) cells reacting positively with PAS.
The High-k Solution

The Intel's Core 2 microprocessors, based on the latest 45-nanometer CMOS process technology have more transistors and run faster and cooler than microprocessors fabricated with the previous, 65-nm process generation. For compute-intensive music, video, and gaming applications, users will see a hefty performance increase.
Two distinct tumor phenotypes isolated from glioblastomas show different MRS characteristics

We have developed a human brain tumor model in immunodeficient rats that gradually changes its phenotype by serial passages in vivo, from a highly infiltrative, non‐angiogenic one with numerous stem cell markers [low‐generation (LG) tumor] to a more typical glioblastoma one with extensive angiogenesis and necrosis [high‐generation (HG) tumor]. In this study we determined the metabolic properties of these two phenotypes, using 1H MRS. The LG tumors showed an intact blood–brain barrier and normal vascular morphology, as shown by MRI and Hoechst staining. In contrast, the HG tumors exhibited vascular leakage and necrosis. The animals with HG tumor had raised concentrations of choline and myo‐inositol, and decreased concentrations of glutamate and N‐acetylaspartate. In the LG tumor group, similar changes in metabolic concentrations were detected, although the alterations were more pronounced. The LG tumors also had higher concentrations of choline, taurine, and lactate. Subdividing the LG and HG tumors into large and small tumors revealed a significant increase in choline and decrease in glutamate as the LG tumors increased in size. Our results show that metabolic profiles produced by 1H MRS can be used to distinguish between two distinct glioblastoma phenotypes. More pronounced anaerobic metabolism was present in the LG stem‐cell‐like tumors, suggesting a more malignant phenotype. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Patients' experiences of continuity in the care of type 2 diabetes: a focus group study in primary care.

BACKGROUND Continuity of care is fundamental to general practice and type 2 diabetes is a common chronic disease with major health and social impacts. Nevertheless continuity, as experienced by patients with type 2 diabetes, remains a neglected area. AIM To explore perceptions and experiences of continuity of care in general practice from the perspectives of patients with type 2 diabetes, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of different types of continuity. DESIGN OF STUDY Focus groups with patients. SETTING Seven practices with different organisational structures in Leeds, UK. METHOD Seventy-nine patients with type 2 diabetes were recruited. Focus group interviews were conducted with 79 patients with type 2 diabetes from seven practices in Leeds, UK. RESULTS Patients experienced three different types of continuity: relational (or longitudinal) continuity, cross-boundary (or team) continuity, and continuity of information. Patients' perceptions of continuity were influenced by several factors including a personal relationship between themselves and their healthcare professional, their own beliefs and behaviours, presence of diabetes, and the systems and structures of general practices. Patients identified the advantages and disadvantages of two types of continuity. Relational or longitudinal continuity was important in providing psychosocial care, but with a risk of misdiagnosis. The advantages of cross-boundary or team continuity were to provide physical care, whereas the main disadvantages were the absence of personal care and patient confusion. CONCLUSION Perceptions of continuity by patients with type 2 diabetes were influenced by several factors; they perceived several advantages and disadvantages associated with different types of continuity. Patients might expect certain healthcare benefits by following certain types of continuity.
Making Rorschach Interpretation as Good as It Can Be

This article delineates six guidelines for enhancing the quality and utility of interpretations derived from the Rorschach inkblot method. These include (a) using all of the available structural, thematic, and behavioral data in arriving at interpretations; (b) focusing interpretive statements primarily on personality processes and drawing clinical conclusions and recommendations secondarily on the basis of identified personality processes; (c) addressing interpretations to both personality strengths and personality weaknesses to attend equally to adaptive capacities and maladaptive tendencies; (d) formulating and conveying interpretations at appropriate levels of certainty to distinguish clearly between probable fact and possible conjecture; (e) pursuing and expressing both nomothetic and idiographic implications of interpretations to the fullest possible extent, recognizing that personality is best described by considering both how people resemble and how they differ from each other; and (f) grounding the implications of interpretations in each respondent's cultural context to take adequate account of the mediation of cultural relativism between personality characteristics and their adaptive consequences.
Circulating Cytokine/Inhibitor Profiles Reshape the Understanding of the SIRS/CARS Continuum in Sepsis and Predict Mortality1

Mortality in sepsis remains unacceptably high and attempts to modulate the inflammatory response failed to improve survival. Previous reports postulated that the sepsis-triggered immunological cascade is multimodal: initial systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS; excessive pro-, but no/low anti-inflammatory plasma mediators), intermediate homeostasis with a mixed anti-inflammatory response syndrome (MARS; both pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators) and final compensatory anti-inflammatory response syndrome (CARS; excessive anti-, but no/low proinflammatory mediators). To verify this, we examined the evolution of the inflammatory response during the early phase of murine sepsis by repetitive blood sampling of septic animals. Increased plasma concentrations of proinflammatory (IL-6, TNF, IL-1β, KC, MIP-2, MCP-1, and eotaxin) and anti-inflammatory (TNF soluble receptors, IL-10, IL-1 receptor antagonist) cytokines were observed in early deaths (days 1–5). These elevations occurred simultaneously for both the pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators. Plasma levels of IL-6 (26 ng/ml), TNF-α (12 ng/ml), KC (33 ng/ml), MIP-2 (14 ng/ml), IL-1 receptor antagonist (65 ng/ml), TNF soluble receptor I (3 ng/ml), and TNF soluble receptor II (14 ng/ml) accurately predicted mortality within 24 h. In contrast, these parameters were not elevated in either the late-deaths (day 6–28) or survivors. Surprisingly, either pro- or anti-inflammatory cytokines were also reliable in predicting mortality up to 48 h before outcome. These data demonstrate that the initial inflammatory response directly correlates to early but not late sepsis mortality. This multifaceted response questions the use of a simple proinflammatory cytokine measurement for classifying the inflammatory status during sepsis.
The effects of motion and stereopsis on three-dimensional visualization

Previous studies have demonstrated that motion cues combined with stereoscopic viewing can enhance the perception of three-dimensional objects displayed on a two-dimensional computer screen. Using a variant of the mental rotation paradigm, subjects view pairs of object images presented on a computer terminal and judge whether the objects are the same or different. The effects of four variables on the accuracy and speed of decision performances are assessed: stereo vs. mono viewing, controlled vs. uncontrolled object motion, cube vs. sphere construction and wire frame vs. solid surface characteristic. Viewing the objects as three-dimensional images results in more accurate and faster decision performances. Furthermore, accuracy improves although response time increases when subjects control the object motion. Subjects are equally accurate comparing wire frame and solid images, although they take longer comparing wire frame images. The cube-based or sphere-based object construction has no impact on decision accuracy nor response time.
Socioeconomic Differences in Social Information Processing and Cardiovascular Reactivity

Low socioeconomic status (SES) has a profound influence on children’s physical health. As SES decreases, all-cause mortality rates increase linearly, 1 and rates of injury, pneumonia, and cancer mortality increase. 2 One potential explanation for the SES and health relationship may involve social information processing. Lower SES children, because of their more frequent exposure to unpredictable and stressful situations, may develop a schema about the world being a threatening place that requires constant vigilance. This schema may predispose children to interpreting a wide range of situations, including those that are ambiguous in outcome, as threatening. Children who display a bias toward interpreting ambiguous situations as threatening may also be prone to heightened cardiovascular reactivity during such situations. Over time, more frequent episodes of reactivity may place these children at risk for negative health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease (See F IG . 1). Research has demonstrated that lower SES is associated with heightened reactivity to laboratory stressors 3 and higher resting levels of blood pressure 4 among children. Trait variables such as hostility mediate this relationship among AfricanAmerican children. 3 In addition, adults in lower status occupations who also have hostile attributional styles have higher blood pressure elevations at work. 5 However, the role of situationally based variables such as social information-processing biases has not been investigated in children. We tested the mediational role of social information processing in a sample of 198 children (ages 8–17), half Caucasian and half African-American (Time 1: T1). Ninety of these children were retested an average of three years later (Time 2: T2). At both times, children were probed about perceptions of hostile intent and anger in response to scenarios with negative or ambiguous outcomes (Social Cognition Interview). At both times, cardiovascular reactivity was averaged across three laboratory stress tasks (mirror tracing, reaction time, cold forehead). SES was measured by family and paternal Hollingshead scores (based on parent education and occupation). At T1, among Caucasians, low-SES children responded with more hostile intent perceptions and anger than high-SES children during ambiguous, but not negative, scenarios (see T ABLE 1). In addition, analyses of the reactivity data revealed that among Caucasians, lower SES was associated with greater vascular reactivity
A Comprehensive Review of Our Current Understanding of Red Blood Cell (RBC) Glycoproteins

Human red blood cells (RBC), which are the cells most commonly used in the study of biological membranes, have some glycoproteins in their cell membrane. These membrane proteins are band 3 and glycophorins A–D, and some substoichiometric glycoproteins (e.g., CD44, CD47, Lu, Kell, Duffy). The oligosaccharide that band 3 contains has one N-linked oligosaccharide, and glycophorins possess mostly O-linked oligosaccharides. The end of the O-linked oligosaccharide is linked to sialic acid. In humans, this sialic acid is N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuAc). Another sialic acid, N-glycolylneuraminic acid (NeuGc) is present in red blood cells of non-human origin. While the biological function of band 3 is well known as an anion exchanger, it has been suggested that the oligosaccharide of band 3 does not affect the anion transport function. Although band 3 has been studied in detail, the physiological functions of glycophorins remain unclear. This review mainly describes the sialo-oligosaccharide structures of band 3 and glycophorins, followed by a discussion of the physiological functions that have been reported in the literature to date. Moreover, other glycoproteins in red blood cell membranes of non-human origin are described, and the physiological function of glycophorin in carp red blood cell membranes is discussed with respect to its bacteriostatic activity.
The Magic Bullet: A Tool for Assessing and Evaluating Learning Potential in Games

This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used to evaluate and design educational digital games. It also facilitates the formulation of strategies for using existing games in learning contexts. The model categorizes game goals and learning objectives into one or more of four possible categories. An overview of the model is provided and the four categories are defined. The model is used to analyze several games. The implications that this model has for the design and use of games as instructional technologies are then described.
Mechanical properties of sensitized airway smooth muscle. Shortening capacity.

Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of Voigt's model. SEC::: series elastic component; CE ::: contractile element; PEC ::: parallel elastic component. Importance of Maximal Shortening Capacity of Airway Smooth Muscle Because of the nonspecificity of the increased contractile response of antigen-sensitized airway smooth muscle (SASM), the idea has developed that the primary cause of allergic bronchospasm resides in the contractile apparatus of the SASM (1). In 1979 we studied this possibility and reported (2) that in the ovalbumin-sensitized SASM, both the capacity to shorten (~lmax) and the maximal velocity of shortening (V0) were significantly greater than in the control airway smooth muscle. Interestingly, maximal isometric tetanic tension (Po) remained normal in the SASMs that had been obtained from 2-month-old pups. We concluded that Po is a poor and tardy index of altered contractility. The important finding emerging from this study was the increased ~lmax because it represented the important in vitro analogue to in vivo bronchospasm. It indicated that elucidation of bronchospasm must necessarily focus on mechanisms controlling extent of shortening. Although V0 also increased, suggesting that changes had occurred in the myosin molecule and its enzymatic properties, these did not relate directly to allergic bronchospasm. Recently, we conducted studies (3) on tracheal smooth muscle (TSM) from rats with congenitally hyperreactive airways and obtained similar results. We now describe the results of studies we have reported in the past (4) that deal with
Presynaptic Ca2+ stores contribute to odor-induced responses in Drosophila olfactory receptor neurons

SUMMARY In both vertebrates and invertebrates, olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) respond to several odors. They also adapt to stimulus variations, and this is considered to be a simple form of non-associative learning and neuronal plasticity. Different mechanisms have been described to support neuronal and/or synaptic plasticity. For example in vertebrates, presynaptic Ca2+ stores relying on either the ryanodine receptor (RyR) or the inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate receptor (InsP3R) have been reported to participate in synaptic transmission, in hippocampal pyramidal neurons, and in basket cell–Purkinje cell synapses. However, in invertebrates, especially in sensory neurons such as ORNs, similar mechanisms have not yet been detected. In this study, using Drosophila and taking advantage of an in vivo bioluminescence Ca2+-imaging technique in combination with genetic and pharmacological tools, first we show that the GFP–aequorin Ca2+ sensor is sensitive enough to detect odor-induced responses of various durations. Second, we show that for a relatively long (5 s) odor application, odor-induced Ca2+ responses occurring in the axon terminals of ORNs involve intracellular Ca2+ stores. This response is decreased by specifically targeting InsP3R or RyR by RNAi, or application of the specific blockers thapsigargin or ryanodine, suggesting that Ca2+ stores serve to amplify the presynaptic signal. Furthermore, we show that disrupting the intracellular Ca2+ stores in the ORNs has functional consequences since InsP3R- or RyR-RNAi expressing flies were defective in olfactory behavior. Altogether, our results indicate that for long odor applications in Drosophila, the olfactory response depends on intracellular Ca2+ stores within the axon terminals of the ORNs.
Overweight and asthma in pre‐school children

Editor, In the latest issue of this journal, Emmanouil and colleagues reported their interesting findings on the association between nutrient intake and wheeze or asthma in a Greek pre-school population (1). In this paper, they also presented observations on the association between body mass index (BMI) and wheeze or asthma. In the discussion, the authors state that BMI was significantly different in children reporting asthma or asthma symptoms compared to children who reported no such symptoms. This conclusion is based on the findings presented in Table 2 that shows a significantly higher mean BMI in boys who reported asthma or asthma symptoms compared to boys without asthma or asthma symptoms (p = 0.042). The authors’ statement about the association they observed between BMI and wheeze or asthma is difficult to interpret for a number of reasons. During childhood, BMI changes considerably with age. After birth, there is a steep increase in BMI until about 9 months of age, followed by a decrease until about 6 yr of age. After the age of 6, BMI starts to increase again (2, 3). The children in this study were between 24 and 72 months of age. Between these ages, the median BMI changes from 15.7 to 15.3 kg/m in girls and from 16.0 to 15.3 kg/m in boys (3). Because of this change in BMI during childhood, a mean BMI, as presented by the authors in Table 2, is not an appropriate measure in a study population of children aged 2–6 years. The difference in mean BMI between children with and without asthma symptoms cannot be interpreted if age at the time of BMI measurement is not taken into account. The boys with asthma symptoms were on average younger than the boys without asthma symptoms (p = 0.042) and were therefore likely to have a higher BMI. In addition, the authors’ statement that BMI was significantly higher in children reporting asthma symptoms compared to children who do not does not seem to correspond with the results presented in Table 4. In Table 4, the percentage of children with asthma symptoms is lower among the children who are overweight or obese (39%, 346/ 895) than among the children who have a normal weight (44%, 417/943). Because the authors do not describe how overweight or obesity was defined, Table 4 is difficult to interpret. A prevalence of overweight or obesity of almost 50%, which is very high for this age group, makes clarity about the definition all the more important. Although associations between BMI and childhood asthma have been observed in a number of studies (4, 5), including our own (6), the analyses presented in this paper have not convinced us that an association is present in this study population.
Functional Characterization of Cinnamyl Alcohol Dehydrogenase during Developmental Stages and under Various Stress Conditions in Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.)

In this study, the entire gene encoding cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase in kenaf (HcCAD2) was cloned and characterized. CAD is a key enzyme in the last step of lignin biosynthesis. The full-length HcCAD ortholog is composed of a 1,074-bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding 357 amino acids (KM044582). BlastP and a phylogenetic study revealed that the deduced amino acid sequences share the highest similarity with Gossypium hirsutum (ABZ01817) (89%). Upon real-time PCR analysis, HcCAD1 (HM151380) and HcCAD2 were highly up-regulated in 4-week-old stem and mature flower tissues, which was matched with histochemical staining and lignin component analysis. The expression patterns of the two genes differed in response to wound, cold, NaCl, SA, H2O2, ABA, MeJA, and drought. CAD enzyme activity was measured with various aldehydes as substrates to form corresponding alcohols. The results indicated that the preferred substrates were coniferyl and sinapyl aldehydes with high catalytic efficiency.
Impact of Oxide Thickness on Gate Capacitance—A Comprehensive Analysis on MOSFET, Nanowire FET, and CNTFET Devices

Carbon nanotube-based FET devices are getting more and more importance today because of their high channel mobility and improved gate capacitance against gate voltage. This paper compares and analyzes the effect of variation of oxide thickness on gate capacitance for single gate MOSFET, double gate MOSFET, silicon nanowire FET, and CNTFET devices through an exhaustive simulation. It is seen that in nanometer regime quantum capacitance is the deciding factor in calculating the gate capacitance of a FET device. CNTFET and silicon nanowire FET have a favorable characteristics of decreasing gate capacitance with the decrease in oxide thickness in deep nanometer regime, which is not possible to get in a single gate or a double gate MOSFET. This decrease in gate capacitance is observed at a gate voltage of 0.5 V and above which leads to reduced propagation delay and lower leakage compared to MOSFET devices.
Change in intraocular pressure in myopic eyes measured with contact and non-contact tonometers after laser in situ keratomileusis.

PURPOSE To study the change in the intraocular pressure (IOP) after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) for correction of myopia. METHODS One hundred twenty consecutive myopic eyes (60 patients) were included in a prospective study. All eyes received LASIK with the Nidek EC-5000 excimer laser and the Chiron Automated Corneal Shaper. Baseline refraction, keratometry, pachymetry, ablation depth, and IOP measured by Goldmann applanation tonometry and non-contact air puff tonometry were correlated with the IOP change after surgery. Sixty healthy eyes of 30 subjects served as controls. RESULTS At 6 months, 108 eyes (90%) were examined. Compared to preoperative values, IOP decreased in 103 eyes (95.4%) when measured with applanation tonometry; it decreased in all eyes when measured with air puff tonometry. Mean change in IOP was -4.3 +/- 2.1 mmHg (range, -10.0 to +1.0 mmHg) with the applanation and -6.1 +/- 2.3 mmHg (range, -12.0 to -1.0 mmHg) with air puff tonometry. The IOP change measured with either instrument correlated significantly with the baseline IOP (P < .001) and the ablation depth (air puff, P < .001, applanation; P = .006). CONCLUSION Intraocular pressure decreased significantly after LASIK when measured with either Goldmann (mean 4.3 mmHg) or air puff (mean 6.1 mmHg) tonometers. This decrease may delay the diagnosis or affect the management of future glaucoma that may develop in a myopic eye that received LASIK.