Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nucleotide sequence of IS904 from Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis strain NIZO R5.

We have determined the nucleotide sequence of an IS-like element (Fig. 1) from the nisin producing Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis cheese starter strain NIZO R5 (1). This IS-like element is located at or near the left end of a conjugative transposon, encoding nisin production, nisin immunity, and sucrose fermentation (TnS2 76; P. J.G. R. et al., unpublished results). The element is 1245 base pairs (bp) long. Its termini are 39-bp imperfect inverted repeats. A 4-bp direct target repeat (TTAT) was found. The element contains an open reading frame encoding a putative transposase of 253 amino acids. The NIZO R5 IS-like element is almost identical to IS904 that has very recently been found in L. lactis subsp. lactis strain NCFB894 (2). Therefore, we also used the designation IS904 for the NIZO R5 IS-like element. The copy of IS904 described here is 4 bp longer than that from strain NCFB894 and its nucleotide sequence shows eight differences to that of the NCFB894 copy (Fig. 1). These differences result in two amino acid differences in the putative transposase (S77A, Y142C). The inverted repeats of the two copies are identical, as are the 4-bp direct target repeats. The 128 C-terminal amino acids of the putative transposase of IS904 have been described previously (3). The latter sequence was derived from L. lactis subsp. lactis strain ATCC1 1454 and differs from that described here in one amino acid (T202S).
Infection strategies of enteric pathogenic Escherichia coli

Enteric Escherichia coli (E. coli) are both natural flora of humans and important pathogens causing significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Traditionally enteric E. coli have been divided into 6 pathotypes, with further pathotypes often proposed. In this review we suggest expansion of the enteric E. coli into 8 pathotypes to include the emerging pathotypes of adherent invasive E. coli (AIEC) and Shiga-toxin producing enteroaggregative E. coli (STEAEC). The molecular mechanisms that allow enteric E. coli to colonize and cause disease in the human host are examined and for two of the pathotypes that express a type 3 secretion system (T3SS) we discuss the complex interplay between translocated effectors and manipulation of host cell signaling pathways that occurs during infection.
The Determinants of Exercising the Executive Stock Option and the Incentive Effect of the Executive Stock Option on the Firm’s Financial Risk: Evidence from Chinese Listed Market

This paper studies all the Chinese domestic listed companies that have issued executive stock options (ESO) from 2006-2012 and finds factors affecting their ESO exercising, like the ratio of exercising price relative to market price, financial performance (ROE), managerial ownership, and years to maturity (early exercising). This results explains why most of the Chinese ESOs have not been exercised in recent years of the economy recession. Furthermore, we examine the incentive effect of the ESO schemes on the listed companies’ financial risk and obtain an empirical evidence of “risk-taking” in the group of Chinese listed companies whose ESO have been exercised. The results suggest that the ESO schemes provide effective incentive for executives to take more risk if their stock options have been exercises, while the incentive effect is not significant before the options are exercised. Therefore, the volatile Chinese bear stock market makes the ESO schemes more fragile and less effective; and on the other hand, induces listed companies to take more risk against the market recession. To have an appropriate design of the ESO for the Chinese listed companies becomes challenging at present.
Prenatal development of neurons in the human prefrontal cortex: I. A qualitative Golgi study

Golgi‐Stensaas and rapid‐Golgi staining techniques are used to study neuronal differentiation in the developing human prefrontal cortex in fetuses, premature infants, and full‐term newborns from 10.5 to 40 weeks of gestation. Horizontal neurons (Cajal‐Retzius neurons) above the cortical plate (in the marginal zone) and randomly oriented neurons below the cortical plate (in the primordial subplate) are more differentiated than the immature bipolar cortical plate neurons in the 10.5‐week fetus. During 13.5–15 weeks of gestation the fetal subplate zone can be clearly distinguished‐between the cortical plate and the intermediate zone. This subplate zone contains more mature neurons than the cortical plate, especially polymorphous neurons. The basic features of the apical and basal dendrites of pyramidal neurons develop between 17 and 25 weeks of gestation, before the thalamocortical fibres invade the cortical plate. Intensive differentiation of the subplate neurons occurs in this period, when various types of afferent fibres reside in the subplate zone. At least five neuronal types can be distinguished in the subplate, i.e., polymorphous, fusiform, multipolar, normal, and inverted pyramidal neurons. The ingrowth of afferent fibres into the cortical plate between 26 and 34 weeks of gestation coincides with intensive dendritic differentiation and the appearance of spines on dendrites of the prospective layer III and V pyramidal neurons as well as with the differentiation of the double bouquet interneurons in the prospective supragranular layers and layer IV. Multipolar nonpyramidal neurons with the dendritic features of basket neurons are observed between 32 and 34 weeks of gestation in future layer V. They are less differentiated than the double bouquet neurons. The neurons of the subplate zone continue their dendritic differentiation after 26/27 weeks of gestation and are still observed in the full‐term newborn. The axonal pattern of the subplate neurons suggests a possible functional role for them as either interneurons or projection neurons.
Intestinal absorption and permeability in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.

BACKGROUND Impaired intestinal function could account for diarrhoea and weight loss, which are common features of advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. METHODS We assessed intestinal permeability to lactulose and mannitol and absorption of D-xylose in 96 HIV-infected patients (group I: asymptomatic subjects (CDC-A); group II: symptomatic subjects (CDC-B or C) without body weight loss and/or diarrhoea; group III: 25 acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients (CDC-C) with severe body weight loss and/or diarrhoea) and 10 healthy subjects as controls. RESULTS An incremental decrease in urinary D-xylose recoveries was observed, with all groups statistically different from each other. Impaired intestinal permeability was only found in patients of group III (statistically different from all other groups). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest a loss of intestinal functional absorptive surface as HIV disease progresses. This process may be present at the early stage of infection. Impaired intestinal permeability is observed later in AIDS patients when digestive signs are present, particularly diarrhoea.
Análisis de costos y competitividad en la producción de aguacate en Michoacán, México

The process of globalization has forced avocado producers in Michoacan to improve their competitiveness, be more efficient and control their production costs to adapt to market demands. Cost accounting provides data to monitor the activities of a company, provides tools for making corrective decisions and achieve goals, to maintain or increase profits production costs, profitability and competitiveness of three representative production units (URP) avocado, two of export and for domestic market in Michoacan, in 2013. The USDA’s proposed methodology was used were estimated adjusted to analyze the agricultural profitability in Mexico. To recover the direct information of the technical coefficients, yields, prices of inputs and products, the technique of producer panels was used. The results indicate that the URP smaller scale, which allocates 100% of its production to the domestic market, presented the costs of higher production and a return of $51 655.10 ha-1, compared to the URP larger scale, which spend between 80 and 90% of its production export, with yields of $243 779.10 and $217 570.80 ha-1. In addition, the costs of private resources confirmed the high proportion saved by variable costs, mainly pesticides and fertilizers. Avocado production in Michoacan was a profitable activity in 2013; however, only the URPs that export are guaranteed their economic viability and long-term permanence.
Randomized trial of pulsed corticosteroid therapy for primary treatment of Kawasaki disease.

BACKGROUND Treatment of acute Kawasaki disease with intravenous immune globulin and aspirin reduces the risk of coronary-artery abnormalities and systemic inflammation, but despite intravenous immune globulin therapy, coronary-artery abnormalities develop in some children. Studies have suggested that primary corticosteroid therapy might be beneficial and that adverse events are infrequent with short-term use. METHODS We conducted a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to determine whether the addition of intravenous methylprednisolone to conventional primary therapy for Kawasaki disease reduces the risk of coronary-artery abnormalities. Patients with 10 or fewer days of fever were randomly assigned to receive intravenous methylprednisolone, 30 mg per kilogram of body weight (101 patients), or placebo (98 patients). All patients then received conventional therapy with intravenous immune globulin, 2 g per kilogram, as well as aspirin, 80 to 100 mg per kilogram per day until they were afebrile for 48 hours and 3 to 5 mg per kilogram per day thereafter. RESULTS At week 1 and week 5 after randomization, patients in the two study groups had similar coronary dimensions, expressed as z scores adjusted for body-surface area, absolute dimensions, and changes in dimensions. As compared with patients receiving placebo, patients receiving intravenous methylprednisolone had a somewhat shorter initial period of hospitalization (P=0.05) and, at week 1, a lower erythrocyte sedimentation rate (P=0.02) and a tendency toward a lower C-reactive protein level (P=0.07). However, the two groups had similar numbers of days spent in the hospital, numbers of days of fever, rates of retreatment with intravenous immune globulin, and numbers of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS Our data do not provide support for the addition of a single pulsed dose of intravenous methylprednisolone to conventional intravenous immune globulin therapy for the routine primary treatment of children with Kawasaki disease. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00132080 [ClinicalTrials.gov].)
The social and economic consequences of childhood asthma across the lifecourse: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND Asthma prevalence rates are high, and may be increasing in the Western world, particularly among children. The aim of this study was to evaluate the longer-term social and economic consequences of having asthma as a child and to determine whether adverse consequences are more severe for poorer children. METHODS Results from published and unpublished, quantitative and qualitative studies were synthesized narratively to examine the impact of childhood-onset asthma on school attendance, academic achievement and employment in adulthood. The question of whether the impact differed for different social groups was also examined. FINDINGS Twenty-nine good quality studies were identified, including in total 12 183 children with asthma or wheeze. Compared with asymptomatic children, those with asthma missed more days of school (additional absence as a result of asthma ranged from 2.1 to 14.8 days). Studies of academic achievement found that children with asthma performed as well as their healthy peers. The existing evidence on labour market performance is sparse, but there is an indication that people with asthma during childhood experience disadvantage in later employment. In an examination of consequences by social position, children with asthma from deprived areas were more likely to miss school than their more affluent peers, and minority ethnic children were also more likely to have poor school attendance. The only qualitative study suggested that children with asthma strove to participate fully in every aspect of their daily lives. INTERPRETATION Although asthma limits children's daily activities and affects their social activities, this research synthesis found little evidence of major, adverse long-term social and economic consequences in studies reviewed. Further longitudinal research using comparison groups is needed to fill key gaps in the existing evidence base.
Improved SOIFO-based rotor flux observer for PMSM sensorless control

A second-order integral flux observer (SOIFO-FLL) with dc component and harmonics attenuation capability is proposed for PMSM sensorless control in this paper. Due to the nonzero integral initial value, parameter mismatch, converter nonlinearities and detection errors, the estimated rotor flux by the conventional methods, pure integrator and low-pass filter (LPF) suffer the dc component and harmonics. And a novel rotor flux estimation method, SOIFO-FLL is proposed on basis of the second-order generalized integrator (SOGI) structure. Combined with the frequency-locked loop (FLL), the dc and high-order harmonics of the estimated rotor flux can be removed by the SOIFO. Lastly, the rotor position are exacted accurately by a quadrature normalized phase locked loop (Q-PLL). Simulations and experimental results verify the excellent performance of the proposed SOIFO-FLL based rotor flux observation and sensorless control strategy.
Equity, Access, and the Costs of Health Services

Access to health care services for the poor and elderly have improved dramatically over the last 15 years, largely as a result of Medicare, Medicaid, and other Federal initiatives. The poor now consume roughly the same volume of health services as the nonpoor. Yet there are still substantial access barriers for many of the chronically ill, minorities, and residents of inner cities and rural areas. Of broader concern, the improvements in access are now threatened by the response to rising health care costs. Those cost increases are themselves partly—but only partly—attributable to Medicare and Medicaid themselves. True cost containment, as opposed to program cost containment, can restrain cost increases without damaging access, but is politically more difficult to accomplish than measures to reduce access.
Therapeutic time window for YAG laser-induced reperfusion of thrombotic stroke in hypertensive rats

We examined the novel YAG laser-induced reperfusion method in the photothrombotic middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion model in spontaneously hypertensive rats. In the 1 h ischemia group, infarct volume was significantly reduced to 41.1 ± 15.6 mm3 compared with 81.6 ± 18.3 mm3 in the no-reperfusion group. There were no significant differences in infarct volume among 2 h or 3 h ischemia and no-reperfusion groups. Three of six rats in the 3 h ischemia group showed hemorrhagic infarction. Our present results showed that recirculation must be instituted within 2 h of MCA occlusion to get beneficial effects in our model, supporting the concept of a narrow therapeutic time window for intervention in ischemic stroke.
Quality Improvement Spillovers: Evidence From the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program

Financial incentives are commonly used to encourage improvements in quality. However, the presence of spillovers can make managing these incentives difficult. Using a large, national dataset, we study the spillover effects of a national healthcare quality improvement policy, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), on patients and metrics not targeted by the policy. Whereas prior work has shown limited spillover of quality improvement initiatives in manufacturing settings, we find that in the healthcare setting HRRP led to improvements of 3% to 6% in 30-day readmissions (the target metric) for those targeted by the policy as well as for those with non-targeted insurance types or clinical conditions. We also find significant improvements in non-targeted measures such as 31-60-day readmissions and hospitalization cost. These findings provide insight into how hospitals operationalized quality improvements, as the legislation had beneficial spillover effects beyond the narrow focus of the policy.
EEG Correlates of Virtual Reality Hypnosis

Abstract The study investigated hypnosis-related electroencephalographic (EEG) coherence and power spectra changes in high and low hypnotizables (Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale) induced by a virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) induction system. In this study, the EEG from 17 participants (Mean age = 21.35, SD = 1.58) were compared based on their hypnotizability score. The EEG recording associated with a 2-minute, eyes-closed baseline state was compared to the EEG during a hypnosis-related state. This novel induction system was able to produce EEG findings consistent with previous hypnosis literature. Interactions of significance were found with EEG beta coherence. The high susceptibility group (n = 7) showed decreased coherence, while the low susceptibility group (n = 10) demonstrated an increase in coherence between medial frontal and lateral left prefrontal sites. Methodological and efficacy issues are discussed.
Two-dimensional Zn(II) and one-dimensional Co(II) coordination polymers based on benzene-1,4-dicarboxylate and pyridine ligands.

Coordination polymers constructed from metal ions and organic ligands have attracted considerable attention owing to their diverse structural topologies and potential applications. Ligands containing carboxylate groups are among the most extensively studied because of their versatile coordination modes. Reactions of benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid (H2BDC) and pyridine (py) with Zn(II) or Co(II) yielded two new coordination polymers, namely, poly[(μ4-benzene-1,4-dicarboxylato-κ(4)O:O':O'':O''')(pyridine-κN)zinc(II)], [Zn(C8H4O2)(C5H5N)]n, (I), and catena-poly[aqua(μ3-benzene-1,4-dicarboxylato-κ(3)O:O':O'')bis(pyridine-κN)cobalt(II)], [Co(C8H4O2)(C5H5N)2(H2O)]n, (II). In compound (I), the Zn(II) cation is five-coordinated by four carboxylate O atoms from four BDC(2-) ligands and one pyridine N atom in a distorted square-pyramidal coordination geometry. Four carboxylate groups bridge two Zn(II) ions to form centrosymmetric paddle-wheel-like Zn2(μ2-COO)4 units, which are linked by the benzene rings of the BDC(2-) ligands to generate a two-dimensional layered structure. The two-dimensional layer is extended into a three-dimensional supramolecular structure with the help of π-π stacking interactions between the aromatic rings. Compound (II) has a one-dimensional double-chain structure based on Co2(μ2-COO)2 units. The Co(II) cations are bridged by BDC(2-) ligands and are octahedrally coordinated by three carboxylate O atoms from three BDC(2-) ligands, one water O atom and two pyridine N atoms. Interchain O-H.O hydrogen-bonding interactions link these chains to form a three-dimensional supramolecular architecture.
Addiction to Propofol: A Study of 22 Treatment Cases

Objective:To review and report the history and clinical presentation of a cohort of health care professionals (HCPs) who have abused the drug propofol. Methods:The authors queried a clinical database (the HCP Database) that contained information about HCPs treated at a large addiction center between 1990 and 2010. Patients who reported propofol use were removed from the HCP Database and placed in a second database referred to herein as the Propofol Database. The medical records of each of the cases in the Propofol Database were pulled and carefully reviewed; a clinical case history of each case was prepared. The Propofol Database was expanded by this chart review, adding demographics, drugs used, course of substance use, other clinical history, presenting signs, diagnoses, and comorbid conditions. At this point, the case histories and databases and were anonymized. When variables were present in both data sets, significance was tested between the HCP Database and the Propofol Database. When comparable data were not present in the HCP Database, the authors reported simple percentages within the Propofol Database. This study focused on gender, medical education and specialty, drugs used, course of illness, and comorbid conditions. Results:Compared with the composite treatment population of HCPs during the same time, records showed that the propofol group was more likely to work in the operating theater, be female, and have training as an anesthesiologist or certified registered nurse anesthetist. Presentation into treatment from the propofol cohort more commonly occurred soon after beginning propofol use, often presenting in a dramatic fashion such as motor vehicle accidents or other physical injuries. When such injuries occurred, it was a direct result of acute propofol intoxication. The number of cases arriving in treatment increased over the duration of the study. The propofol group frequently suffered with a depressive illness and had a history of earlier life trauma. They had a high frequency of biological relatives with substance dependence. The most common subjective response as to why they began using propofol was to induce sleep. Most of these patients identified propofol as one of their preferred drugs of abuse. Conclusions:This study suggests the incidence and/or detection rate of propofol abuse in HCPs is increasing. Women and anesthesia personnel were overrepresented in the propofol cohort. Propofol-dependent patients commonly have a history of depression and earlier life trauma. A rapid downhill course and physical injury are common adverse effects of propofol abuse. The time from initial use to treatment entry is often contracted when compared with other drugs of abuse making the diagnosis of a true dependence disorder and disposition after treatment more difficult.