Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Photosynthetic Fractionation of the Stable Isotopes of Oxygen and Carbon

Isotope discrimination during photosynthetic exchange of O2 and CO2 was measured using enzyme, thylakoid, and whole cell preparations. Evolved oxygen from isolated spinach thylakoids was isotopically identical (within analytical error) to its source water. Similar results were obtained with Anacystis nidulans Richter and Phaeodactylum tricornutum Bohlin cultures purged with helium. For consumptive reactions, discrimination ([delta], where 1 + [delta]/1000 equals the isotope effect, k16/k18 or k12/k13) was determined by analysis of residual substrate (O2 or CO2). The [delta] for the Mehler reaction, mediated by ferredoxin or methylviologen, was 15.3[per mille (thousand) sign]. Oxygen isotope discrimination during oxygenation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) catalyzed by RuBP carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) was 21.3[per mille (thousand) sign] and independent of enzyme source, unlike carbon isotope discrimination: 30.3[per mille (thousand) sign] for spinach enzyme and 19.6 to 23[per mille (thousand) sign] for Rhodospirillum rubrum and A. nidulans enzymes, depending on reaction conditions. The [delta] for O2 consumption catalyzed by glycolate oxidase was 22.7[per mille (thousand) sign]. The expected overall [delta] for photorespiration is about 21.7[per mille (thousand) sign]. Consistent with this, when Asparagus sprengeri Regel mesophyll cells approached the compensation point within a sealed vessel, the [delta]18O of dissolved O2 came to a steady-state value of about 21.5[per mille (thousand) sign] relative to the source water. The results provide improved estimates of discrimination factors in several reactions prominent in the global O cycle and indicate that photorespiration plays a significant part in determining the isotopic composition of atmospheric oxygen.
An emerging consensus for telomerase RNA structure

elomerase maintains telomere length by adding G-rich telo-meric repeats to the ends of lin- ear eukaryotic chromosomes. The core telomerase enzyme consists of two components: an essential RNA component and a catalytic protein component. The catalytic component, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), contains se- quence motifs homologous to those in the catalytic domain of reverse transcriptase enzymes. Although the TERT component of telomerase is fairly conserved among eukaryotes, the RNA component varies dramatically in sequence composition and in size. The structure of the telomerase RNA ciliates vertebrates structural to
Dynamic stability enhancement of a single-machine infinite-bus system using a series vectorial compensator

This paper presents the stability improvement results of a single-machine infinite-bus (SMIB) system using a series vectorial compensator (SVeC). A PID damping controller is designed by using modal control theory for the proposed SVeC to render adequate damping characteristics to the dominant modes of the studied SMIB system. To clearly compare the damping contributed by the proposed control scheme, both frequency-domain approach based on eigenvalue analysis and time-domain approach based on nonlinear-model simulations are systematically performed. It can be concluded from the simulation results that the proposed SVeC joined with the designed PID damping controller can offer better damping characteristics to both mechanical mode and exciter mode of the studied SMIB system under various operating conditions.
Dolphin foraging sounds suppress calling and elevate stress hormone levels in a prey species, the Gulf toadfish

SUMMARY The passive listening hypothesis proposes that dolphins and whales detect acoustic signals emitted by prey, including sound-producing (soniferous) fishes. Previous work showed that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) behaviorally orient toward the sounds of prey, including the advertisement calls of male Gulf toadfish (Opsanus beta). In addition, soniferous fishes constitute over 80% of Tursiops diet, and toadfishes alone account for approximately 13% of the stomach contents of adult bottlenose dolphins. Here, we used both behavioral (vocalizations) and physiological (plasma cortisol levels) parameters to determine if male Gulf toadfish can, in turn, detect the acoustic signals of bottlenose dolphins. Using underwater playbacks to toadfish in their natural environment, we found that low-frequency dolphin sounds (`pops') within the toadfish's range of hearing dramatically reduce toadfish calling rates by 50%. Highfrequency dolphin sounds (whistles) and low-frequency snapping shrimp pops (ambient control sounds) each had no effect on toadfish calling rates. Predator sound playbacks also had consequences for circulating stress hormones, as cortisol levels were significantly elevated in male toadfish exposed to dolphin pops compared with snapping shrimp pops. These findings lend strong support to the hypothesis that individuals of a prey species modulate communication behavior in the presence of a predator, and also suggest that short-term glucocorticoid elevation is associated with anti-predator behavior.
High vapor pressure deficit drives salt‐stress‐induced rice yield losses in India

Flooded rice is grown across wide geographic boundaries from as far north as Manchuria and as far south as Uruguay and New South Wales, primarily because of its adaptability across diverse agronomic and climatic conditions. Salt‐stress damage, a common occurrence in delta and coastal rice production zones, could be heightened by the interactions between high temperature and relative humidity (vapor pressure deficit – VPD). Using temporal and spatial observations spanning 107 seasons and 19 rice‐growing locations throughout India with varying electrical conductivity (EC), including coastal saline, inland saline, and alkaline soils, we quantified the proportion of VPD inducing salinity damage in rice. While controlling for time‐invariant factors such as trial locations, rice cultivars, and soil types, our regression analysis indicates that EC has a nonlinear detrimental effect on paddy rice yield. Our estimates suggest these yield reductions become larger at higher VPD. A one standard deviation (SD) increase in EC from its mean value is associated with 1.68% and 4.13% yield reductions at median and maximum observed VPD levels, respectively. Yield reductions increase roughly sixfold when the one SD increase is taken from the 75th percentile of EC. In combination, high EC and VPD generate near catastrophic crop loss as predicted yield approaches zero. If higher VPD levels driven by global warming materialize in conjunction with rising sea levels or salinity incursion in groundwater, this interaction becomes an important and necessary predictor of expected yield losses and global food security.
Electric field depolarization in high aperture focusing with emphasis on annular apertures

Electromagnetic focusing theory of light predicts that at high apertures field components arise that are polarized perpendicular to the initial polarization. Although vectorial depolarization has received considerable attention in focusing theory, no evidence has been presented as to its relevance in experiments. We measure the intensity of the perpendicularly orientated field in the focal region by utilizing monomolecular, fluorescent polydiacetylene layers whose transition dipoles are orientated in a single direction. For a 1.4 numerical aperture oil objective lens illuminated with linearly x‐polarized light, we find that the integral of the modulus squared of the y‐polarized focal field amounts to 1.5% of its x‐polarized counterpart. In particular, we show here that the depolarization increases when using annular apertures. Annuli formed by a central obstruction with a diameter of 89% of that of the entrance pupil raise the integral to 5.5%. This compares well with the value of 5.8% predicted by electromagnetic focusing theory; however, the depolarization is also due to imperfections connected with focusing by refraction. Besides fluorescence microscopy and single molecule spectroscopy, the measured intensity of the depolarized component in the focal plane is relevant to all forms of light spectroscopy combining strong focusing with polarization analysis.
Ca2+‐activated Cl− current in rabbit sinoatrial node cells

The Ca2+‐activated Cl− current (ICl(Ca)) has been identified in atrial, Purkinje and ventricular cells, where it plays a substantial role in phase‐1 repolarization and delayed after‐depolarizations. In sinoatrial (SA) node cells, however, the presence and functional role of ICl(Ca) is unknown. In the present study we address this issue using perforated patch‐clamp methodology and computer simulations. Single SA node cells were enzymatically isolated from rabbit hearts. ICl(Ca) was measured, using the perforated patch‐clamp technique, as the current sensitive to the anion blocker 4,4′‐diisothiocyanostilbene‐2,2′‐disulphonic acid (DIDS). Voltage clamp experiments demonstrate the presence of ICl(Ca) in one third of the spontaneously active SA node cells. The current was transient outward with a bell‐shaped current‐voltage relationship. Adrenoceptor stimulation with 1 μm noradrenaline doubled the ICl(Ca) density. Action potential clamp measurements demonstrate that ICl(Ca) is activate late during the action potential upstroke. Current clamp experiments show, both in the absence and presence of 1 μm noradrenaline, that blockade of ICl(Ca) increases the action potential overshoot and duration, measured at 20 % repolarization. However, intrinsic interbeat interval, upstroke velocity, diastolic depolarization rate and the action potential duration measured at 50 and 90 % repolarization were not affected. Our experimental data are supported by computer simulations, which additionally demonstrate that ICl(Ca) has a limited role in pacemaker synchronization or action potential conduction. In conclusion, ICl(Ca) is present in one third of SA node cells and is activated during the pacemaker cycle. However, ICl(Ca) does not modulate intrinsic interbeat interval, pacemaker synchronization or action potential conduction.
Cultivating the Cortex in German Neuroanatomy

Argument The cerebral localization of mental functions is one of the centerpieces of modern brain research. Though the localization paradigm in its cultural and social interwovenness has been characterized as successful in the last third of the nineteenth century by a variety of historians of the neurosciences, there is also general agreement that localization came under threat around 1900. Besides the so-called holistic protest against the localization of mental functions, the neuroanatomical approach itself was challenged by experimental psychology, psychiatric nosology, and psychoanalysis. This story underestimates the fact that anatomically-based localization remained powerful in response to these multiple challenges. This meant a neuroanatomical revision of tools, concepts, and practices. But this meant also a shift in the cultivation of the cortex from a more philosophical agenda to rather concrete political claims. More specifically, the idea of the cortex as the noblest part of man was supplemented by suggestions concerning its “Höherzüchtung. ” I will analyze this re-orientation and radicalization in two steps. First, I briefly discuss the anatomical and philosophical account of Theodor Meynert and then turn to Paul Flechsig who in the late nineteenth century inscribed the ability to create culture and civilization into the cortex. Second, I focus on the neuroanatomists Oskar and Cécile Vogt, who began their careers around 1900 and expanded the cultivation of the cortex. Even before World War I, they proclaimed a “cerebral hygiene. ” Consequently, the Vogts linked their innovative neuroanatomical researches with the rising field of genetics, racial hygiene, and eugenics. In the early Weimar Republic, the Vogts openly supported socialist ideas and were engaged in establishing an Institute for Brain Research in Soviet Moscow, where Lenin’s brain was analyzed. By the end of the Weimar Republic, the rhetoric of the Vogts was bluntly authoritarian. Based on a few anatomical examinations of so-called elite brains and the brains of criminals, they made concrete suggestions for eugenics and the breeding of “one-sidedly gifted leaders. ” Given the remarkable popularity of the Vogts around 1930, their program is an important example of the hubris of predicting and guiding future developments on the basis of scientific authority. It can be regarded as an ironic nemesis that the Vogts – never sympathizing with the political aims of the National Socialists – were forced to finish their careers as influential Kaiser Wilhelm scientists in Nazi-Germany. Der Mensch wird immer mehr ein Hirntier werden. (Vogt 1912, 309)
Notes on Scale Effects and Savings Behaviour

This note shows demonstrates that the assumptions regarding savings behavior determine whether endogenous growth models of the "AK variety" contain the prediction that larger countries (or regions) should grow faster than less populous areas. In particular, if aggregate savings predominantly are generated by wage income standard endogenous models may imply positive, negative or no scale effects from the size of population.
Candidate gene approach identifies six SNPs in tenascin‐C (TNC) associated with degenerative rotator cuff tears

Evidence for a heritable predisposition to rotator cuff tears (RCTs) is growing. Unrelated Caucasian individuals with surgically diagnosed full thickness RCTs (cases) and elderly Caucasian controls with intact rotator cuffs were screened for differences at the candidate genes: TNC, Col5A1, TIMP‐1, MMP‐1, MMP‐2, MMP‐3, MMP‐9, and MMP‐13. A first cohort (59 cases; 32 controls) was genotyped with the Sequenom MassARRAY iPLEX system. Of 142 SNPs within about 67–kbp of the TNC gene, 30 were tested for differences in proportions between cases and controls. A second, matched cohort (96 patients; 44 controls) was also genotyped for the same 30 SNPs, but with the KASP™ genotyping technology. Combining the two cohorts and after Bonferroni correction, six SNPs were significantly associated with RCT. Compared to controls, RCT patients showed a significantly higher rate of homozygosity at rs72758637, rs7021589, and rs1138545; a significantly higher rate of heterozygosity at rs10759753, rs3789870, and rs7035322 and a higher minor allele frequency at rs3789870. Rs1138545, a missense SNP in exon10 might be of biological significance because it varies the amino acid sequence close to the TNC‐FNIII5 domain. The FNIII5 domain binds multiple growth factors and co‐ligates with integrins during tendon healing. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:894–901, 2017.
“States” of informality in post-socialist Europe (and beyond)

Abstract This article explores the main debates and works that underpin the theoretical conceptualization of this special issue and documents the exponential growth of literature on informality both globally and, especially, in post-socialist spaces. In spite of this growth, informality is still relatively understudied considering how widespread and significant a phenomenon it has become. In particular, if we go beyond a merely economistic view of the phenomenon, one could argue that an understanding of informality explains a variety of social responses and the number of cases where we have been able to apply an informality framework is perhaps very telling. Debates remain too bounded by one of two paradigms: either recourse to geographic particularism or exceptionalism or ongoing debates on transition or transformation (the appropriateness of ‘posting’ socialism). To break with this attitude, we suggest with this special issue that study of informality needs to build into itself a middle-field theory explaining its endurance which acknowledges both specificities of social action arising from common(ish) pasts and experience of change after 1989/91 leading to translatable presents, as well as these societies’ positioning as mediating sites of neocapitalism between the Global North and South, with such a theory being a key articulation of the multiple modernities thesis.
Assessing the Role of Education in Women's Knowledge and Acceptance of Adjunct High-Risk Human Papillomavirus Testing for Cervical Cancer Screening

Objective. To assess women's knowledge, concerns, and willingness for adjunct high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) testing before and after an educational intervention. Materials and Methods. At the time of their annual gynecologic examination, women aged 30 years and older received an educational intervention about HR-HPV. Subjects completed preintervention and postintervention questionnaires. Demographic characteristics were summarized using frequency measures. Comparisons between the pre-education and posteducation questionnaires were performed using Fisher exact test. Results. Fifty women completed the study. After the educational intervention, 77% of women were willing to be tested for HR-HPV. Sixty-seven percent of women would be likely to return for their annual gynecologic examination even if a Pap smear was not required for 3 years. Education statistically reduced concern regarding a positive HR-HPV result with 60% pre-education and 27% posteducation very concerned (p =.002). When surveyed about what their concerns would be if tested positive for HR-HPV, women associate future cervical cancer diagnosis (38% pre-education vs 48% posteducation, p =.903) but not partner infidelity (0%) with testing positive for HR-HPV. Knowledge concerning HPV, cervical cancer, and cervical cancer screening was statistically improved after the educational intervention in all but 2 questions. Conclusion. Women 30 years and older are willing to have adjunct HR-HPV testing, with education reducing their degree of concern about testing positive. Women who test positive would be most concerned about getting cervical cancer. Women would be willing to return for yearly gynecologic examinations, even if a Pap smear was not needed for 3 years. Education improves women's knowledge of HPV, cervical cancer, and cervical cancer screening, but did not allay the concern for getting cervical cancer.
Did US regions with manufacturing design generate more production jobs in the 2000s? New evidence on innovation and regional development

US manufacturing policies increasingly steer resources toward the act of innovation. Emerging case-study evidence suggests that this innovation leads to manufacturing job growth. However, the case-study evidence from which this claim is assembled is incomplete and selective. Using regional-level industry-occupation data for US manufacturing sectors, we test the contribution of manufacturing innovation activities to production employment growth within US regions, for the 2000–2006 and 2006–2010 periods. While production employment continued to disperse from sites of historical manufacturing concentration over both time periods, innovation activities provided some advantages. From 2000 to 2006, regions with higher innovation concentrations in high-tech and medium–low technology industries, experienced slower rates of production employment decline. From 2006 to 2010, a period spanning the Great Recession, innovation activities were associated with reduced production job losses for industries of all technology levels. These results indicate that innovation has benefits beyond high-technology industries, but that those benefits are limited and selective.
Social inequality, ethnicity and cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND Epidemiological research on cardiovascular risk factors has led to important advances in prevention science by providing insights that have now resulted in substantial reductions in mortality. This research used the variation in risk among individuals as the guide to causal exposures. Large differentials remain among socio-demographic groups, however, and the causes of these differentials may be distinctly different from those observed at the individual level. METHODS Vital statistics and census data from the US and selected regions were used in an ecologic analysis. RESULTS In 1996 heart disease mortality in the US varied from 156/100 000 among African-American women to 51/100 000 among Asian women; similar differentials were observed for men. Income equality was correlated with heart disease mortality among the 47 largest US cities (r = -0.4; P = 0.006). Independent of income equality, racial segregation was also associated with risk of death from cardiovascular disease in this sample of cities. CONCLUSIONS Social processes generate marked differentials in heart disease mortality among demographic groups. In the US, death rates are currently 2-3 times higher among African Americans compared to Asians. Broadly speaking, this variation results from their separate cultural legacies, based on well-recognized lifestyle factors and dietary patterns. Ecological comparisons across cities that share similar lifestyle patterns suggest that income inequality and patterns of racial discrimination are each associated with large variation in mortality in a similar manner. Racism and social inequality can be conceptualized as social causes of excess cardiovascular mortality that may not be measurable at the individual level.
Biochemical failure after radical prostatectomy in men with pathologic organ‐confined disease: pT2a versus pT2b

The 1997 TNM staging system for prostate carcinoma defines a pT2a disease as a tumor histologically involving one lobe of the prostate and pT2b disease as a tumor histologically involving both prostatic lobes. Whether this distinction provides prognostic significance is unclear. The authors evaluated biochemical outcomes between men with pT2aN0 and pT2bN0 disease.
Electromechanical analysis of piezoelectric beam-type transducers with interlayer slip

This paper presents accurate electromechanical analysis of piezoelectric beam-type transducers with interlayer slip, based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. The closed solutions of two different kinds of piezoelectric beam-type transducers under external harmonic loads are derived. The effects of the interfacial slip parameter on the responses of the transducers are discussed. Comparisons with other related experimental and theoretical results are also given, and good agreement is found.
[The role of health care providers in the late diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis among adults in Medellín, Colombia].

OBJECTIVE To describe the role of health care providers in the delayed diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) among the adult population in a city in Colombia. METHODS A case study of PTB diagnosis among adults in the city of Medellín, Colombia, in 2007. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviews with 19 patients (11 with early diagnosis and 8 with late diagnosis), from medical records, and by a survey of PTB-related knowledge and practices among 89 doctors and nurses at health care clinics. A research workshop was held with patients to share the results and validate new categories. RESULTS A lack of PTB knowledge and patient stereotyping were found to lead to misinterpretation of symptoms and the use of symptomatic treatments. The lack of knowledge regarding risk factors and clinical protocols made diagnosis difficult when the patient did not match the stereotype or presented with a more well-known illness. Misinformation on PTB transmission and inappropriate measures led to discriminatory practices and social isolation and only reinforced stereotypes and stigma, which in turn discouraged the quest for medical attention. CONCLUSIONS Health care providers played a large part in the late diagnosis of PTB in the adults studied. Beliefs regarding social stigma and a lack of knowledge about the disease-shared by providers and patients-contributed to stereotyping of the illness and the disease-carrier, and limited the probability of an early diagnosis of PTB.