Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pathogenesis and diagnosis of tuberculosis in cattle complementary field studies. SE3013. DEFRA. 2000 to 2005

Description Attempts to control bovine tuberculosis in GB are hampered by lack of scientific knowledge in several key areas: (1). A true picture of the pathology, immunology and clinical pathology of reactor cattle; (2). The extent to which ongoing infection in herds is due to cattle to cattle spread being maintained by animals falsely testing negative to the skin test. By undertaking detailed pathological, clinico­pathological, bacteriological and immunological examination of 200 reactor and 200 in contact non­reactor cattle, it will be possible to define many of the parameters critical for experimental and modelling studies. These include, lesion localisation, the extent of nasal shedding in the early stagers of disease and the role of concurrent infection as a covariate in pathogenesis. The detailed immunological profiling will assist in validating markers of early disease and pathology, which should help to detect animals in the early stages of infection. All results arising from the study will be closely integrated by using advanced systems of data capture, transfer and storage, and the experience gained should assist MAFF in other complex field studies, such as the current Krebs’ trial. Objective 01 31/03/2001 Develop intranet based method for data capture and transfer
A Tractable Model of Buffer Stock Saving

We present a tractable model of the effects of nonfinancial risk on intertemporal choice. Our purpose is to provide a simple framework that can be adopted in fields like representative-agent macroeconomics, corporate finance, or political economy, where most modelers have chosen not to incorporate serious nonfinancial risk because available methods were too complex to yield transparent insights. Our model produces an intuitive analytical formula for target assets, and we show how to analyze transition dynamics using a familiar Ramsey-style phase diagram. Despite its starkness, our model captures most of the key implications of nonfinancial risk for intertemporal choice.
Prospective study of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive reactions after earthquake and political violence.

OBJECTIVE The authors sought to assess the severity and longitudinal course of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive reactions among two groups of adults differentially exposed to severe and mild earthquake trauma and a third group exposed to severe violence. They also examined interrelationships among these reactions and predictors of outcome and compared posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom category profile and course between those exposed to earthquake and those exposed to violence. METHOD Seventy-eight non-treatment-seeking subjects were assessed with self-report instruments approximately 1.5 and 4.5 years after the 1988 Spitak earthquake in Armenia and the 1988 pogroms against Armenians in Azerbaijan. RESULTS The two groups that had been exposed to severe trauma (earthquake or violence) had high initial and follow-up PTSD scores that did not remit over the 3-year interval. Overall, depressive symptoms subsided. Posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive reactions were highly intercorrelated within and across both time intervals. No significant differences in PTSD severity, profile, or course were seen between subjects exposed to severe earthquake trauma versus those exposed to severe violence. CONCLUSIONS After exposure to severe trauma, either an earthquake or violence, adults are at high risk of developing severe and chronic posttraumatic stress reactions that are associated with chronic anxiety and depressive reactions. Clinical evaluation and therapeutic intervention should include specific attention to these reactions. Early mental health intervention is recommended to prevent their chronicity.
La tempête de verglas : une occasion d'étudier les effets du stress prénatal chez l'enfant et la mère : Les désastres naturels

Depuis plusieurs annees, des etudes ont demontre que les evenements stressants pendant la grossesse affectent le niveau de developpement neurologique, de meme que le fonctionnement cognitif et psychologique ulterieurs de l'enfant. Par exemple, Mednick (1997) a examine l'impact d'un important seisme survenu en Chine sur le developpement intellectuel et psychologique d'enfants a naitre. Vingt-trois ans plus tard, des differences significatives dans le fonctionnement intellectuel, la depression et la taille de certaines regions du cerveau ont ete constatees chez ce groupe en comparaison aux enfants du groupe temoin. Des evenements de moindre envergure, tels un divorce ou la perte d'emploi durant la grossesse, peuvent egalement augmenter l'incidence des complications obstetricales et avoir un impact sur le fonctionnement neurologique du bebe, son poids a la naissance et la circonference de sa tete. Le deces du pere ou l'exposition a un desastre naturel durant la grossesse ont ete associes a la depression, a la schizophrenie et a la criminalite a l'âge adulte. Divers effets adverses relies aux evenements stressants ont aussi ete notes chez les primates. L'ensemble de ces etudes suggerent que le second trimestre de la grossesse constitue une periode critique pendant laquelle les evenements stressants peuvent affecter le developpement du foetus. Des contraintes methodologiques nuisent actuellement a la recherche sur le stress prenatal maternel. Les etudes sur des animaux offrent d'excellents controles des environnements prenatal et postnatal. Cependant, les resultats de ces etudes sont difficilement applicables a l'humain a cause de la presence chez ce dernier, de nombreux facteurs de risque ou de protection absents chez les animaux. De plus, on ne peut assigner les stresseurs de facon aleatoire, dans les etudes sur les effets des evenements de vie pendant la grossesse humaine. En effet, les traits de personnalite de la mere peuvent etre transmis certes genetiquement mais egalement au niveau du developpement. Par ailleurs, les enfants d'une mere avec de telles difficultes de personnalite sont exposes a plus d'evenements de vie prenatale. D'autre part, la majorite des etudes sur l'humain ont une variance restreinte car il faut un tres vaste echantillon de femmes enceintes pour garantir un nombre suffisant de sujets ayant vecu des evenements de vie majeurs. Finalement, les etudes retrospectives demontrant un lien entre un risque eleve de schizophrenie ou de depression et des evenements prenataux n'incluent pas de mesures prises sur le champ de la gravite objective ou de la manifestation biologique du stress. Nous presentons ici une revue de litterature portant sur le stress prenatal suivie d'une discussion sur comment la tempete de verglas de 1998 pourrait etre utilisee pour faire la lumiere sur des questions telles que les mecanismes par lesquels le stress prenatal exerce une influence sur la sante mentale du foetus.
Growth kinetics of Pseudomonas putida G7 on naphthalene and occurrence of naphthalene toxicity during nutrient deprivation.

The objectives of this work were (1) to demonstrate how the chemostat approach could be modified to allow determination of kinetic parameters for a sparingly soluble, volatile substrate such as naphthalene and (2) to examine the influence of the interactions of various nutrients on possible growth-inhibitory effects of naphthalene. Pseudomonas putida G7 was used as a model naphthalene-degrading microorganism. Naphthalene was found to be toxic to P. putida G7 in the absence of a nitrogen source or oxygen. The death rate of cells grown on minimal medium plus naphthalene and then exposed to naphthalene under anoxic conditions was higher than that observed under oxic conditions in the absence of a nitrogen source. The presence of necessary nutrients for the biodegradation of PAH compounds is indicated to be important for the survival of microorganisms that are capable of PAH degradation. The amounts of ammonia and oxygen necessary for naphthalene biodegradation and for suppression of naphthalene toxicity were calculated from growth yield coefficients. A chemostat culture of P. putida G7 using naphthalene as a carbon and energy source was accomplished by using a feed augmented with a methanol solution of naphthalene so as to provide sufficient growth to allow accurate evaluation of kinetic parameters. When naphthalene was the growth-limiting substrate, the degradation of naphthalene followed Monod kinetics. Maximum specific growth rate (micrometer) and Monod constant (Ks) were 0.627 +/- 0.007 h-1 and 0.234 +/- 0.0185 mg/L, respectively. The evaluation of biodegradation parameters will allow a mathematical model to be applied to predict the long-term behavior of PAH compounds in soil when combined with PAH transport parameters.
Induction of stable microtubules in 3T3 fibroblasts by TGF-beta and serum.

Previous studies have shown that fibroblasts induced to migrate into an in vitro wound rapidly generate an array of stable, post-translationally detyrosinated microtubules (Glu MTs) oriented toward the direction of migration. To understand how cells generate a stable array of MTs at a specific location, we have analyzed the contribution of media components to the formation of oriented Glu MTs in wounded monolayers of 3T3 fibroblasts. When confluent monolayers were placed in serum-free medium (SFM) for 2 days before wounding, the cells contained virtually no Glu MTs or nocodazole-resistant MTs and were incapable of generating Glu MTs in response to wounding. Such SFM-treated monolayers were capable of generating oriented Glu MTs within 1 hour of wounding, if calf serum (CS) was added back to the medium. The Glu MTs in the CS refed cells were oriented toward the wound in cells at the wound edge, and were juxtanuclear in cells within the monolayer, demonstrating that CS restored the Glu MT array characteristic of each cell type. To determine the nature of the 'Glu MT-inducing' factor in CS, we subjected CS to different treatments and found that the CS factor was nondialyzable, resistant to heat, mild acid and trypsin, but inactivated by treatment with dithiothreitol. The factor was not absorbed by charcoal and was present in lipoprotein-deficient serum. These properties are consistent with the properties of a number of polypeptide growth factors, so we screened purified growth factors for their ability to induce Glu MTs in wounded SFM-treated monolayers. Of all the growth factors tested, only TGF-beta 1 and TGF-beta 2 induced a significant level (> or = 70% of the CS response) of oriented Glu MTs. The SFM-treated cells were exquisitely sensitive to TGF-beta 1, with significant induction of Glu MTs observed at 0.01 ng/ml TGF-beta 1. Induction of Glu MTs observed by immunofluorescence after CS or TGF-beta treatments were paralleled by increases in Glu tubulin detected on western blots. The Glu MTs formed after either CS or TGF-beta 1 treatment showed enhanced resistance to nocodazole, confirming that both treatments increased the level of stable MTs in cells. The TGF-beta 1 induction of stable MTs was slower than that of CS (2-4 hours onset versus 1 hour onset), but by 24 hours the level of MT stabilization in TGF-beta 1 was even greater than that in CS. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Diagnosis of a Power Output Lowering of PV Array with a (-dI/dV)-V Characteristic

It is reported that the volume of an estimated PV system installations in Japan must be set at about 4.82 [GW] up to 2010. As a result, it seems that PV systems must spread in the future in a general household, and therefore the maintenance and management of PV systems must become important keeping to the normal output performance of a PV system. However, it will be very difficult to locate the lowering factors to affect to output performance of the PV system installed in a residential rooftop. Besides, even if a cause of the output lowering of the PV system was found more, it will be very difficult to remove these. The authors paid attention to that shape of an I-V characteristic of a PV system changed by the output lowering caused by loss factors such as deterioration of a PV module, a shadow, and so on, and study the method to simply and automatically evaluate the output lowering of a PV system. In this paper, the (dI/dV)-V characteristic to be obtained from the I-V characteristic of a PV array is adopted as the standard characteristic for the automatic analysis. The (dI/dV)-V characteristic was simulated with an abnormal I-V characteristic of PV array covered in a shadow partially. A performance fall of PV array to be caused by a partial shadow is evaluated by an appearance of a peak of the (dI/dV)-V characteristic, and an appearance position of this peak changes by a condition of a shadow. From these results, it became clear that an appearance of a peak of a (dI/dV)-V characteristic must be means to be effective to diagnose the output lowering of a PV system
Smoking cessation in pregnancy

Managing smoking cessation during pregnancy is vital to the wellbeing of the fetus and the mother. Women who continue to smoke during pregnancy expose the fetus to thousands of chemicals which have been shown to cause deleterious short- and long-term effects. Although a large majority of women cease smoking early in the pregnancy, many of them relapse following delivery. Following a review of current research, an overview of the safety and efficacy of smoking cessation treatments for pregnant women will be considered. Limited research has been performed in this field; however, it can be concluded that low-dose intermittent nicotine replacement therapy is a safe treatment modality for women who smoke during pregnancy. At present there has been no research on other current smoking cessation treatments; however, we will suggest techniques to improve cessation rates and strategies to reduce relapse.
Will Cross-Ownership Re-Establish Market Power in the Nordic Power Market?

The integration of the power markets in Norway and Sweden in 1996 significantly constrained the major power companies’ ability to exercise market power within their national borders. In recent years, however, mergers and reciprocal acquisition of shares have reduced the number of independent players on the Norwegian-Swedish power market. The aim of this paper is to explore to what extent increasing cross-ownership among the major power companies in Norway and Sweden might re-establish the market power that was lost when the two national power markets were integrated. The analysis is based on a numerical model, assuming Cournot quantity setting behavior, of the Norwegian-Swedish power market. The simulation results suggest that partial ownership relations between generators tend to increase horizontal market power and thus the market price of electricity.
Improved tone model for low complexity tone recognition

This paper proposes an improved tone model for low complexity tone recognition. This model recognizes tone by using only estimated vowel signals, called vowel magnitude difference function, vowel-MDF (VMDF) so that we can reduce the number of input frames and the fundamental frequency (F0) negative influence from neighboring syllables in continuous speech. Vowel segmentation is therefore an important part of the tone recognition. The tone model improves vowel segmentation by estimating vowel parts in the voiced/unvoiced detection process more precisely. This results in more accurate and less complex tone recognition. The proposed method is tested using 44 Thai words, selected from voice activation for GPS systems and phone dialing options. The experimental results show a 3.03% improvement in recognition accuracy, compared with the conventional vowel segmentation.
A Conserved Motif in Region V of the Large Polymerase Proteins of Nonsegmented Negative-Sense RNA Viruses That Is Essential for mRNA Capping

ABSTRACT Nonsegmented negative-sense (NNS) RNA viruses cap their mRNA by an unconventional mechanism. Specifically, 5′ monophosphate mRNA is transferred to GDP derived from GTP through a reaction that involves a covalent intermediate between the large polymerase protein L and mRNA. This polyribonucleotidyltransferase activity contrasts with all other capping reactions, which are catalyzed by an RNA triphosphatase and guanylyltransferase. In these reactions, a 5′ diphosphate mRNA is capped by transfer of GMP via a covalent enzyme-GMP intermediate. RNA guanylyltransferases typically have a KxDG motif in which the lysine forms this covalent intermediate. Consistent with the distinct mechanism of capping employed by NNS RNA viruses, such a motif is absent from L. To determine the residues of L protein required for capping, we reconstituted the capping reaction of the prototype NNS RNA virus, vesicular stomatitis virus, from highly purified components. Using a panel of L proteins with single-amino-acid substitutions to residues universally conserved among NNS RNA virus L proteins, we define a new motif, GxxT[n]HR, present within conserved region V of L protein that is essential for this unconventional mechanism of mRNA cap formation.
Epidemiological Interpretation of Studies Examining the Effect of Antibiotic Usage on Resistance

SUMMARY Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a growing clinical problem and public health threat. Antibiotic use is a known risk factor for the emergence of antibiotic resistance, but demonstrating the causal link between antibiotic use and resistance is challenging. This review describes different study designs for assessing the association between antibiotic use and resistance and discusses strengths and limitations of each. Approaches to measuring antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance are presented. Important methodological issues such as confounding, establishing temporality, and control group selection are examined.
Nilotinib in imatinib-resistant CML and Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL.

BACKGROUND Resistance to imatinib mesylate can occur in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Preclinical in vitro studies have shown that nilotinib (AMN107), a new BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is more potent than imatinib against CML cells by a factor of 20 to 50. METHODS In a phase 1 dose-escalation study, we assigned 119 patients with imatinib-resistant CML or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) to receive nilotinib orally at doses of 50 mg, 100 mg, 200 mg, 400 mg, 600 mg, 800 mg, and 1200 mg once daily and at 400 mg and 600 mg twice daily. RESULTS Common adverse events were myelosuppression, transient indirect hyperbilirubinemia, and rashes. Of 33 patients with the blastic phase of disease, 13 had a hematologic response and 9 had a cytogenetic response; of 46 patients with the accelerated phase, 33 had a hematologic response and 22 had a cytogenetic response; 11 of 12 patients with the chronic phase had a complete hematologic remission. CONCLUSIONS Nilotinib has a relatively favorable safety profile and is active in imatinib-resistant CML. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00109707 [ClinicalTrials.gov].).
Rad3-Cds1 Mediates Coupling of Initiation of Meiotic Recombination with DNA Replication

Premeiotic S-phase and meiotic recombination are known to be strictly coupled in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, the checkpoint pathway regulating this coupling has been largely unknown. In fission yeast, Rad3 is known to play an essential role in coordination of DNA replication and cell division during both mitotic growth and meiosis. Here we have examined whether the Rad3 pathway also regulates the coupling of DNA synthesis and recombination. Inhibition of premeiotic S-phase with hydroxyurea completely abrogates the progression of meiosis, including the formation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). DSB formation is restored in rad3 mutant even in the presence of hydroxyurea, although repair of DSBs does not take place or is significantly delayed, indicating that the subsequent recombination steps may be still inhibited. Examination of the roles of downstream checkpoint kinases reveals that Cds1, but not Chk1 or Mek1, is required for suppression of DSB in the presence of hydroxyurea. Transcriptional induction of some rec+ genes essential for DSB occurs at a normal timing and to a normal level in the absence of DNA synthesis in both the wild-type and cds1Δ cells. On the other hand, the transcriptional induction of the mei4+ transcription factor and cdc25+ phosphatase, which is significantly suppressed by hydroxyurea in the wild-type cells, occurs almost to a normal level in cds1Δ cells even in the presence of hydroxyurea. These results show that the Rad3-Cds1 checkpoint pathway coordinates initiation of meiotic recombination and meiotic cell divisions with premeiotic DNA synthesis. Because mei4+ is known to be required for DSB formation and cdc25+ is required for activation of meiotic cell divisions, we propose an intriguing possibility that the Rad3-Cds1 meiotic checkpoint pathway may target transcription of these factors.
The antisickling effects of dried fish (tilapia) And dried prawn ( Astacus red )

The antisickling effect of dried fish (Tilapia) and dried prawn ( Astacus red ) were investigated to ascertain the ability of the extracts of these samples to inhibit polymerisation of sickle cell haemoglobin (HbS), improve the Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ ratio and lower the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in blood plasma. The samples were first ground into powder and soaked in chloroform/dichloromethane to defat them and in essence produce the fat soluble fraction (filtrate). The defatted residues were soaked in methanol for 24 hours to obtain a methanol soluble fraction. This was finally fractioned in a mixture of BuOH/H2O (1:1) to give the butanol-soluble (BUS) and water-soluble (WAS) fractions respectively. These fractions were subsequently concentrated by rotary evaporation. The fat-soluble (FAS), BUS, and WAS phases were able to inhibit HbS polymerisation to varying degrees from 50% for FAS to 95% for BUS. The water-soluble phases of these samples were also found to increase the Fe 2+ /Fe 3+ ratio from 6% to 95%. The phases equally reduced LDII activity in serum of ten sickle cell disease patients to varying degrees from 12% to 40%. Nutritionally, the different fractions or phases were found to be rich in free amino acids which ranged from 951.05mg/100g of sample for tilapia to 1906.05mg/100g of sample for crayfish ( Astacus; red ). The soluble protein concentration of the samples was equally estimated. Dried tilapia has an aggregate protein content of 28.7. 30mg/100g of sample while dried prawn has 1626mg/100g of sample. Dried fish (Tilapia) and dried prawn ( Astacus red ) could both be nutritionally and therapeutically beneficial in the management of sickle cell disease. Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management Vol. 9(3) 2005: 115-119