Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct transdifferentiation gives rise to the earliest new hair cells in regenerating avian auditory epithelium

The avian auditory epithelium is capable of complete regeneration after hair cell (HC) loss. Most new HCs arise via cell division, but approximately one‐third of new HCs arise via direct transdifferentiation (DT), in which supporting cells (SCs) alter their phenotype without dividing. In this study, we used synchronous, gentamicin‐induced near‐total HC loss in the basal end of the epithelium and continuous infusion of the cell division marker bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to identify the origin of each individual regenerating HC. Early new HCs were identified by immunolabeling for the HC‐specific marker myosin‐VIIa, and mitotic cells with BrdU immunolabeling. The first new HCs arising via DT appear 72–96 hr after gentamicin, 24–48 hr earlier than the first new mitotic HCs. After Day 6, however, most new HCs are mitotic. The “intermediate” morphology that has been suggested to be characteristic of DT is seen in HCs arising via both pathways. These findings suggest that DT is a simpler, more rapid process that produces the first new HCs, and that mitotic regeneration is somewhat slower but ultimately produces most new HCs. The identical morphology of regenerating HCs from both pathways suggests that once HC fate is established, all new HCs follow similar cellular processes during differentiation and reorganization into the regenerated epithelium. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Survey of medication administration policies within schools in Sheffield

National guidelines exist to help schools in supporting pupils with medical needs. However, school staff are not contractually bound to help with the administration of medication and policies differ across schools, depending on local needs and views. A postal survey was conducted in Sheffield to elicit schools’ views regarding medication administration. Over 80 percent of the responding schools were willing to administer long-term medication and 67 percent would help with short-term needs as well. Written information from professionals is valued by most schools and many would prefer that dosages of medication are adjusted to avoid school hours. Of the schools, 17 percent did not want to take any responsibility for medication administration. Reluctance seems to arise from perceived lack of training and fear of litigation. These issues need to be addressed in order to improve school staff’s confidence with the administration of medication.
The relationship between mathematics and language: academic implications for children with specific language impairment and English language learners.

PURPOSE The present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications for English language learners (ELLs). METHOD School-age children (N = 61; 20 SLI, 20 ELL, 21 native monolingual English [NE]) were assessed using a norm-referenced mathematics instrument and 3 experimental computer-based mathematics games that varied in language demands. Group means were compared with analyses of variance. RESULTS The ELL group was less accurate than the NE group only when tasks were language heavy. In contrast, the group with SLI was less accurate than the groups with NE and ELLs on language-heavy tasks and some language-light tasks. Specifically, the group with SLI was less accurate on tasks that involved comparing numerical symbols and using visual working memory for patterns. However, there were no group differences between children with SLI and peers without SLI on language-light mathematics tasks that involved visual working memory for numerical symbols. CONCLUSION Mathematical difficulties of children who are ELLs appear to be related to the language demands of mathematics tasks. In contrast, children with SLI appear to have difficulty with mathematics tasks because of linguistic as well as nonlinguistic processing constraints.
Identification of a Region in the Vitamin D-binding Protein that Mediates Its C5a Chemotactic Cofactor Function*

The vitamin D-binding protein (DBP), also known as group-specific component or Gc-globulin, is a multifunctional plasma protein that can significantly enhance the leukocyte chemotactic activity to C5a and C5a des-Arg. DBP is a member of the albumin gene family and has a triple domain modular structure with extensive disulfide bonding that is characteristic of this protein family. The goal of this study was to identify a region in DBP that mediates the chemotactic cofactor function for C5a. Full-length and truncated versions of DBP (Gc-2 allele) were expressed in Escherichia coli using a glutathione S-transferase fusion protein expression system. The structure of the expressed proteins was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting, whereas protein function was verified by quantitating the binding of [3H]vitamin D. Dibutyryl cAMP-differentiated HL-60 cells were utilized to test purified natural DBP and recombinant expressed DBP (reDBP) for their ability to enhance chemotaxis and intracellular Ca2+ flux to C5a. Natural and full-length reDBP (458 amino acid residues) as well as truncated reDBPs that contained the N-terminal domain I (domains I and II, residues 1–378; domain I, residues 1–191) significantly enhanced both cell movement and intracellular Ca2+ concentrations in response to C5a. Progressive truncation of DBP domain I localized the chemotactic enhancing region between residues 126–175. Overlapping peptides corresponding to this region were synthesized, and results indicate that a 20-amino-acid sequence (residues 130–149, 5′-EAFRKDPKEYANQFMWEYST-3′) in domain I of DBP is essential for its C5a chemotactic cofactor function.
Detection of total- and partial-body irradiation in a monkey model: a comparative study of chromosomal aberration, micronucleus and premature chromosome condensation assays.

PURPOSE To investigate the efficacy of three cytogenetic methods (dicentrics, micronuclei (MN) and premature chromosome condensation (PCC) analysis) for assessment of the unirradiated fraction and the persistence of damage after total-body (TB) and partial-body (PB) irradiation of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). MATERIALS AND METHODS Animals were exposed to X-rays (5 Gy), either TB or PB, with about 6% of marrow cells shielded. Blood samples were collected at different times after exposure, i.e. 1, 3 and 7 days, and cultures were set up for the different cytogenetic endpoints. In addition, blood count analysis was performed before and after irradiation. RESULTS Blood count analysis was not suitable for discriminating between TB and PB exposure. By using Poisson or overdispersion distribution as the basis, it was not possible to distinguish TB from PB irradiation when dicentric chromosomes and MN were analysed. PCC analysis, in contrast, showed a Poisson distribution after TB exposure and overdispersion after PB exposure. Using the PCC assay, reliable dose estimates could be obtained up to 7 days after irradiation. CONCLUSIONS For dicentrics and MN, shielding of 6% of bone marrow cells was found to be too small to estimate the unirradiated fraction accurately. The PCC technique was useful for dose assessment and the inhomogeneous exposure of 6% was detected within a short period of time after exposure.
Practical stabilization of two-wheel mobile robot with velocity limitations using time-varying control law

This paper presents a new time-varying kinematic algorithm ensuring practical stabilization for the regulation and trajectory tracking (for both admissible and non-admissible trajectories) problem applied to control of two-wheel mobile robot. This proposition is based on work done by W. Dixon et al. (2003) and P. Morin and C. Samson (2003). The significant part of the paper concentrates on choosing suitable accuracy of tracking in order to limit frequency of control signal and to improve quality of transient stage. Theoretical results are verified for regulation problem by extensive experimental work using real mobile robot and vision localization system with respect to the different values of input saturation.
Comparative analysis of vegetation indices, non-parametric and physical retrieval methods for monitoring nitrogen in wheat using UAV-based multispectral imagery

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based remote sensing offers great possibilities to acquire in a fast and convenient way field data for precision agriculture applications. The UAV-based multispectral images with five wavebands (490, 550, 671, 700, 800 nm) were obtained at five growth stages from consecutive two years' wheat field experiments with different combinations in variety, N application rate and planting density. In this paper, we compared systematically leaf nitrogen content (LNC) estimation accuracy and processing speed of a multitude of vegetation indices (VIs), non-parametric and physically-based model retrieval methods. With regard to vegetation indices, most possible band combinations with existing five bands and a linear regression fitting function have been evaluated. The best performing index was optimized three-band combination 2.5(R800-R700)/(R800+6R700-7.5R490) according to EVI (Enhanced vegetation index) for LNC with 10-fold cross-validation determination (R2) of 0.73. This method shows especially fast processing speed (0.03 s). As for non-parametric methods, 14 common regression algorithms have been evaluated. Among these algorithms, Random Forest [TreeBagger] is the best performing method with R2 of 0.79 for LNC. This method has the advantage of making use of the full optical spectrum as well as flexible, nonlinear fitting. Additionally, the model is trained and validated relatively fast (2.3 s). Compared with the front two methods, it remains a challenge to estimate the canopy nitrogen through inversion of a PROSAIL based radiative transfer model (RTM). After the generation of a look-up table (LUT), a number of cost functions and regularization options were evaluated for inversion of LCC (leaf chlorophyll content). Inversion of nitrogen indirectly relying on inversion of LCC based on the empirical linear relationship between LCC and LNC. Although this method offered per-pixel estimation, generation of a look-up table and image processing took considerably more time. Besides, the validation performed less reliable. To sum up, Random Forest [TreeBagger] provides fast and accurate estimation of nitrogen using UAV-acquired multispectral imagery which will be good basis for remote sensing of canopy nitrogen status in a wide range of crop.
On transformation formulae of ordinary hypergeometric series

In this paper, making use of some well-known summation formulae and generating relations due to Qureshi, Khan and Pathan, an attempt has been made to establish some transformation formulae of ordinary hyper geometric series which are seemed to be new and in different form. We have also given some special cases. Keywords : Summation Formulae, Ordinary Hyper geometric Series, Transformation Formulae, Generating Relation.
Spermatotoxic Effect of Hexaconazole in Adult Rats

Hexaconazole is a systemic triazole fungicide used in agricultural practices. The aim of the present investigation is to study the toxic effect of Hexaconazole on the epididymal spermatozoa. The adult male rats were exposed to Hexaconazole at the dose of 25 mg/kg body weight, orally daily for 60 days. The control group received corn oil alone as vehicle. Third group of rats were administered with Hexaconazole for 60 days and left untreated for further period of 60 days. Hexaconazole treatment resulted in a significant decrease in the epididymal sperm count, motility and viability and increased incidence of sperm abnormalities. However, the toxic effect of Hexaconazole was reversible in the withdrawal group. Thus, the present investigation suggests that the chronic low
Personal Exposure to Airborne Dust and Microorganisms in Agricultural Environments

Airborne dust and microorganisms are associated with respiratory diseases and increased mortality and morbidity. Farmers are at high risk of exposure to both of these hazards. Very limited information, however, is available on the combined exposures to both hazards on different types of farms. Moreover, most of the previous studies have measured the mass concentration of particles ignoring the particle size. In this study, farmers' exposure to airborne dust and microorganisms was studied using our newly developed personal sampling system. Particle number concentration and size distribution were measured with an optical particle counter. Simultaneously, particles were collected on a filter and analyzed for microorganisms. The field measurements were conducted in animal confinements (swine, poultry, and dairy) and during grain harvesting (corn and soybean). The results show the following average concentrations on the workers' breathing zone: 1.7 × 10 6 to 2.9 × 10 7 particles/m 3 for total dust, 0.9 × 10 3 to 3.9 × 10 4 spores/m 3 for total fungal spores, 0.3 × 10 3 to 3.6 × 10 4 CFU/m 3 for culturable fungal spores, 0.3 × 10 4 to 3.3 × 10 8 CFU/m 3 for culturable bacteria, and limit of detection (LOD) to 2.8 × 10 3 CFU/m 3 for culturable actinomycetes in animal confinements. The respective concentrations were 4.4 × 10 6 to 5.8 × 10 7 particles/m 3 , 3.4 × 10 4 to 6.1 × 10 6 spores/m 3 , 8.2 × 10 4 to 7.4 × 10 6 CFU/m 3 , 0.4 × 10 5 to 1.4 × 10 6 CFU/m 3 , and LOD to 2.6 × 10 4 CFU/m 3 during grain harvesting. The highest contribution of large particles (3–10 μ m) in total particles was found during grain harvesting, whereas the size distribution was dominated by smaller particles (< 3 μ m) in animal confinements. High fraction (up to 37%) of particles between 2–10 μ m was found to be fungal spores. The results indicate that an increase in the concentration of large dust particles (2–10 μ m) during grain harvesting was partially attributed to the increase in the concentration of the fungal spores. Overall, the combined exposure to airborne dust and microorganisms was found to be more severe during harvesting than in animal confinements.
Some Observations on the Fine Structure of the Human Ductuli Efferentes Testis

The epididymis is composed of two structures: namely ductuli efferentes originating from the rete testis and constituting a part of the caput epididymidis, and ductus epididymidis which is connected with the ductuli efferentes and forms the corpus as well as cauda epididymidis. It has been said that ductuli efferentes function not only to transport the sperm, but also in secretion and absorption. The absorbing function of ductuli efferentes was first postulated by MOLLENDORFF (1920) who confirmed that the aggregations of vital dyes, such as trypan blue, were stored in the epithelial cells after the intramuscular injection. It takes several days for sperms to pass through the epididymal canal (MASON and SHAVER 1952) and the sperms gradually gain the ability for fertilization during this phase. The fact suggests that the sperm is influenced by epithelial cells during the passage of the canal. ALLEN and SLATER (1957) reported that epididymal canal and its secretion have two functions, namely these serve for a differentiation of active sperm by giving a useful nutriment to the sperm and also contribute to the maintaining of the adequate environment for the sperm. WINDLE (1960) described that the sperm first acquires the autonomic motility within the epididymal canal. YOUNG (1929, 31) found that the change of fertilizing ability of the sperm is not due to the specific activities of epididymal secretion, but the duration stayed in the epididymal canal is important for the maturation of the sperm. There are many opinions concerning the roles of secretion of the epithelium but its nature seems still to be investigated further. The present paper deals with the fine structure of the human ductuli efferentes as revealed by electron microscopy and presents some evidences for the absorption and secretion of the epithelial cells based on the morphological standpoint.
Minimally invasive surgery using ablative modalities for the localized renal mass

Due to a number of evolving devices and modalities to treat the small, localized renal mass, the physician and patient have the opportunity to choose an appropriate therapy from several treatment options. Minimally invasive surgery to ablate a localized renal tumor is an alternative strategy to nephron‐sparing surgery for the small renal mass. Even though partial nephrectomy has been established as an optimal technique for nephron‐sparing surgery, patients who have comorbidities and renal insufficiency would potentially benefit from less invasive treatment. With respect to those concerns, several articles are discussed here regarding thermal ablative therapy for the small renal mass along with oncological outcomes and complications among these modalities compared to conventional procedures. In this review, a comprehensive PubMed search was conducted. For the purposes of reviewing the current status of thermal ablative modalities for the small renal mass, only articles written in English published from 1992 to 2009 were considered. Cryoablation and radiofrequency ablation are the most utilized and potentially promising therapies that are evolving as nephron‐sparing minimally invasive surgery for patients with a localized renal tumor. High‐intensity focused ultrasound, a relatively new modality to treat the renal mass, needs further study. All modalities require long‐term follow up with unified reporting methods in terms of patient selection, pre‐ and post‐treatment evaluation, treatment description, and analysis of outcome.
Basic Principles of MR Contrast

The use of intravenous contrast media is well established in magnetic resonance (MR) for improved diagnosis. MR differs from other imaging modalities in the complexity of signal and contrast dependence, with the method of measurement having great impact on tissue contrast. Unlike computed tomography, in which contrast depends solely on x-ray density, the signal intensity on MR is determined by differences in spin density, T1 and T2 relaxation times, diffusion, perlusion, and magnetic susceptibility. The only contrast agents in widespread clinical use at this time are paramagnetic metal ion chelates. These compounds influence tissue contrast by enhancing T1 and T2 relaxation. The effectiveness of any one agent is dependent on a number of basic parameters, including concentration, number of coordination sites, magnetic moment, distance between the ion and water protons, and correlation times. An understanding of general contrast mechanisms, principles of contrast agent design, and basic MR imaging techniques is important for proper clinical implementation and medical diagnosis.
Analysis of sputum in COPD

A number of studies have suggested a pathogenetic role for airway inflammation in the induction of both chronic sputum production and chronic airflow obstruction in smokers.1 It is therefore important to characterise and quantify inflammatory changes in the assessment of subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Assessment of inflammation may be achieved by different means including invasive methods such as bronchial biopsies, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) or examination of surgical specimens and non-invasive methods such as spontaneous or induced sputum. The induction of sputum by inhalation of hypertonic saline is a safe, reliable, and relatively non-invasive method in COPD, provided the technique is performed in a standardised way and measures are used to prevent adverse reactions.2-4 Induced sputum differs from spontaneous sputum by having a higher number of viable cells and less squamous cell contamination.3 There are no differences between spontaneous and induced samples from patients with COPD or asthma in the total and differential cell counts, but there is poor agreement in the fluid phase components.5 6 Bronchial biopsies and BAL can be performed in COPD for investigative use according to the published recommendations.7 8 When the different methods of assessing airway inflammation are compared in the same subjects, a different profile of inflammatory cells is obtained depending on the compartment of the lung examined by each technique—that is, the lumen of the central airways using sputum analysis,9 the airway wall using bronchial biopsies, and the peripheral airways using BAL.10 By combining these techniques, integrated and comprehensive information on cell traffic and inflammatory processes in COPD at different levels of the airway can be obtained. Analysis of induced or spontaneous sputum has contributed to the identification of smokers susceptible to developing COPD, to the characterisation of the inflammatory process during exacerbations, and …
Moonlighting glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is required for efficient hepatitis C virus and dengue virus infections in human Huh-7.5.1 cells.

Hijacking of cellular biosynthetic pathways by human enveloped viruses is a shared molecular event essential for the viral lifecycle. In this study, the accumulating evidence of the importance of human glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) in the host secretory pathway led us to hypothesize that this moonlighting enzyme could play a key role in the lifecycle steps of two important Flaviviridae members, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and dengue virus (DENV). We used short interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown of human GAPDH in Huh-7.5. 1 cells- both pre- and post-HCV infection- to demonstrate that GAPDH is a host factor for HCV infection. siRNA-induced GAPDH knockdown performed pre-HCV infection inhibits HCV core production in infected cells and leads to a decrease in infectivity of the HCV-infected cell supernatants. siRNA-induced GAPDH knockdown performed post-HCV infection does not have an effect on HCV core abundance in infected cells, but does lead to a decrease in infectivity of the HCV-infected cell supernatants. Exogenous expression of V5-tagged human GAPDH, pre- and post-infection, increases the infectivity of HCV-infected cell supernatants, suggesting a role for GAPDH during HCV post-replication steps. Interestingly, siRNA-induced GAPDH knockdown in HCV replicon-harbouring cells had no effect on viral RNA replication. Importantly, we confirmed the important role of GAPDH in the HCV lifecycle using Huh-7-derived stable GAPDH-knockdown clones. Finally, siRNA-induced GAPDH knockdown inhibits intracellular DENV-2 E glycoprotein production in infected cells. Collectively, our findings suggest that the moonlighting enzyme, GAPDH, is an important host factor for HCV infection, and they support its potential role in the DENV lifecycle.
Uncoupling the Role of Sonic Hedgehog in Limb Development: Growth and Specification

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling is essential for the anterior-posterior (A-P) patterning of the embryonic limb bud. An additional role for Shh has now been identified in the mouse and chick, in which Shh promotes the proliferation of limb mesenchymal cells, which increases the number of digits that form. Surprisingly, these data are not consistent with any of the previous models in the mouse that described roles for Shh and the zone of polarizing activity in the patterning of the A-P axis. Therefore, new light is shed on the mechanisms of Shh action, which both challenges our understanding of limb development and gives insights into the evolutionary changes that result in digit reductions.