Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of different exercise intensities on the pancreas of animals with metabolic syndrome

Introduction Metabolic syndrome (MS) comprises several metabolic disorders that are risk factors for cardiovascular disease and has its source connected to the accumulation of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and development of insulin resistance. Despite studies showing beneficial results of exercise on several risk factors for cardiovascular disease, studies evaluating the effects of different intensities of exercise training on the pancreas with experimental models are scarce. Methods In total, 20 Wistar rats were used, divided into four groups: control (C), metabolic syndrome (MS and without exercise), metabolic syndrome and practice of walking (MSWalk), and metabolic syndrome and practice of running (MSRun). The applied procedures were induction of MS by fructose in drinking water; experimental protocol of walking and running; weighing of body mass and VAT; sacrifice of animals with blood collection and removal of organs and processing of samples for light microscopy using the analysis of volume densities (Vv) of the studied structures. Results Running showed a reduction of VAT weight (−54%), triglyceride levels (−40%), Vv[islet] (−62%), Vv[islet.cells] (−22%), Vv[islet.insterstitial] (−44%), and Vv[acinar.insterstitial] (−24%) and an increase of Vv[acini] (+21%) and Vv[acinar.cells] (+22%). Regarding walking, we observed a decrease of VAT weight (−34%) and triglyceride levels (−27%), an increase of Vv[islet.cells] (+72%) and Vv[acinar.cells] (+7%), and a decrease of Vv[acini] (−4%) and Vv[acinar.insterstitial] (−16%) when compared with those in the MS group. Conclusion Our results suggest that the experimental model with low-intensity exercise (walking) seems to be more particularly recommended for preventing morphological and metabolic disorders occurring in the MS.
Renal‐Clip Hypertension in Rabbits Immunized Against Angiotensin II

The rabbit immunized against angiotensin II was shown to be a valid model for the study of renal-clip hypertension. In particular, there was a specific and complete blockade of the pressor effect of high doses of intravenous renin and angiotensin in vivo, even at angiotensin II production rates which far exceeded those associated with renal-clip hypertension. Despite this, four immunized rabbits developed hypertension after renal-artery clipping with contralateral nephrectomy, and in three of these the hypertension was severe. In four other rabbits, there was no evidence of modification of an established hypertension after immunization against angiotensin II. In both groups, the specific absence of pressor response to high doses of renin and angiotensin II after immunization was confirmed. These studies provide strong evidence that angiotensin is not the sole or even the major factor in either the initiation or maintenance of this form of hypertension.
On the rates of convergence of the wireless multi-access interference distribution to the normal distribution

It is of prime importance to reveal the structure of wireless multi-access interference distributions to compute many performance bounds and metrics for wireless networks such as transmission capacity, outage probability and bit-error-rate. However, at the present, there are no closed form expressions for the multi-access interference distributions in wireless networks apart from a very special case. This paper presents a principled methodology towards the resolution of this bottleneck by establishing rates of convergence of the multi-access interference distribution to a Gaussian distribution for any given bounded power-law decaying path-loss function G. In particular, it is shown that the interference distribution converges to the Gaussian distribution with the same mean and variance at a rate √1/λ, where λ>0 is the intensity of the homogenous planar Poisson point process generating node locations.
Bio-metals imaging and speciation in cells using proton and synchrotron radiation X-ray microspectroscopy

The direct detection of biologically relevant metals in single cells and of their speciation is a challenging task that requires sophisticated analytical developments. The aim of this article is to present the recent achievements in the field of cellular chemical element imaging, and direct speciation analysis, using proton and synchrotron radiation X-ray micro- and nano-analysis. The recent improvements in focusing optics for MeV-accelerated particles and keV X-rays allow application to chemical element analysis in subcellular compartments. The imaging and quantification of trace elements in single cells can be obtained using particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The combination of PIXE with backscattering spectrometry and scanning transmission ion microscopy provides a high accuracy in elemental quantification of cellular organelles. On the other hand, synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence provides chemical element imaging with less than 100 nm spatial resolution. Moreover, synchrotron radiation offers the unique capability of spatially resolved chemical speciation using micro-X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The potential of these methods in biomedical investigations will be illustrated with examples of application in the fields of cellular toxicology, and pharmacology, bio-metals and metal-based nano-particles.
Neurophysiologic Correlates of Post-stroke Mood and Emotional Control

Objective: Emotional disturbance is a common complication of stroke significantly affecting functional recovery and quality of life. Identifying relevant neurophysiologic markers associated with post-stroke emotional disturbance may lead to a better understanding of this disabling condition, guiding the diagnosis, development of new interventions and the assessments of treatment response. Methods: Thirty-five subjects with chronic stroke were enrolled in this study. The emotion sub-domain of Stroke Impact Scale (SIS-Emotion) was used to assess post-stroke mood and emotional control. The relation between SIS-Emotion and neurophysiologic measures was assessed by using covariance mapping and univariate linear regression. Multivariate analyses were conducted to identify and adjust for potential confounders. Neurophysiologic measures included power asymmetry and coherence assessed by electroencephalography (EEG); and motor threshold, intracortical inhibition (ICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) measured by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Results: Lower scores on SIS-Emotion was associated with (1) frontal EEG power asymmetry in alpha and beta bands, (2) central EEG power asymmetry in alpha and theta bands, and (3) lower inter-hemispheric coherence over frontal and central areas in alpha band. SIS-Emotion also correlated with higher ICF and MT in the unlesioned hemisphere as measured by TMS. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study using EEG and TMS to index neurophysiologic changes associated with post-stroke mood and emotional control. Our results suggest that inter-hemispheric imbalance measured by EEG power and coherence, as well as an increased ICF in the unlesioned hemisphere measured by TMS might be relevant markers associated with post-stroke mood and emotional control which can guide future studies investigating new diagnostic and treatment modalities in stroke rehabilitation.
Gaze fixation deficits and their implication in ataxia–telangiectasia

Background and aim: Ataxia–telangiectasia (A-T) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by progressive neurological deficits, including prominent ocular motor dysfunction. Unstable fixation often leads to difficulty reading and blurred vision. Here we characterise the disturbance of visual fixation in A-T. Methods: Eye movements were recorded from 13 A-T patients (with dual search coils in five patients and video oculography in seven) during attempted fixation. Results: Two abnormalities—nystagmus and saccadic intrusions—were common. Horizontal, vertical and torsional nystagmus was present in straight ahead (spontaneous nystagmus) and eccentric gaze (gaze evoked nystagmus). In eight patients the horizontal nystagmus changed directions—periodic alternating nystagmus (PAN). Two types of saccadic intrusions were seen—micro-saccadic oscillations (SO) and square wave saccadic intrusions (SWSI). SO were small amplitude (0.1–0.9°) and high frequency (14–33 Hz) back to back horizontal saccades. SWSI ranged between 1° and 18° (median 3°) with an intersaccadic interval ranging between 50 and 800 ms (median 300 ms). The potential impact of abnormal gaze stabilisation on vision was quantified. Discussion: Degeneration of cerebellar Purkinje neurons disinhibit the caudal fastigial oculomotor region (FOR) and vestibular nuclei (VN). Disinhibition of VN can cause nystagmus, including PAN, while disinhibition of FOR can affect saccade generating mechanisms, leading to SWSI and SO.
Molecular Aspects of Polyene- and Sterol-Dependent Pore Formation in Thin Lipid Membranes

Amphotericin B modifies the permeability properties of thin lipid membranes formed from solutions containing sheep red cell phospholipids and cholesterol. At 10-6 M amphotericin B, the DC membrane resistance fell from ≈108 to ≈102 ohm-cm2, and the membranes became Cl--, rather than Na+-selective; the permeability coefficients for hydrophilic nonelectrolytes increased in inverse relationship to solute size, and the rate of water flow during osmosis increased 30-fold. These changes may be rationalized by assuming that the interaction of amphotericin B with membrane-bound sterol resulted in the formation of aqueous pores. N-acetylamphotericin B and the methyl ester of N-acetylamphotericin B, but not the smaller ring compounds, filipin, rimocidin, and PA-166, produced comparable permeability changes in identical membranes, and amphotericin B and its derivatives produced similar changes in the properties of membranes formed from phospholipid-free sterol solutions. However, amphotericin B did not affect ionic selectivity or water and nonelectrolyte permeability in membranes formed from solutions containing phospholipids and no added cholesterol, or when cholesterol was replaced by either cholesterol palmitate, dihydrotachysterol, epicholesterol, or Δ5-cholesten-3-one. Phospholipid-free sterol membranes exposed to amphotericin B or its derivatives were anion-selective, but the degree of Cl- selectivity varied among the compounds, and with the aqueous pH. The data are discussed with regard to, first, the nature of the polyene-sterol interactions which result in pore formation, and second, the functional groups on amphotericin B responsible for membrane anion selectivity.
Determination of the Thickness of a Power-Law Fluid Driven by the Penetration of a Long Gas Bubble in a Rectangular Channel Using a Singular Perturbation Method

In the present work an analytical and numerical study is presented in order to determine the residual fluid film thickness of a power-law fluid on the walls of a rectangular horizontal channel when it is displaced by another immiscible fluid of negligible viscosity. The mathematical model describes the motion of the displaced fluid and the interface be- tween both fluids. In order to obtain the residual film thickness,m , we used a singular perturbation technique: the match- ing asymptotic method; in the limit of small capillary number, Ca . The main results indicated that the residual film thickness of the non-Newtonian fluid decreases for decreasing values of the power-law index, which is in qualitative agreement with experimental results.
Analysis of Pros and Cons in Using the Water–Energy–Food Nexus Approach to Assess Resource Security: A Review

The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is drawing much attention in scholarly literature as a novel alternative to address complex resources and achieve resource security. The aim of this study is to analyze and review existing nexus studies to investigate the current status of nexus research worldwide. This study used a narrative review approach to provide a comprehensive overview on the WEF nexus using a variety of databases. It is indicated that the majority of studies in Asia and Africa focused on the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus. China and Brazil had the largest nexus research. Based on the existing literature, most of attention has been paid to food production. However, food consumption patterns and dietary change are rarely evaluated, and there is a lack of study on impacts of dietary change on the WEF nexus. Moreover, there is a lack of frameworks for the evaluation of the WEF nexus under dietary change scenarios. The major challenge of the nexus approach is data availability in crop production, which can be solved by using remote sensing data. There is a lack of standard and conceptual frameworks for nexus assessment and, then, an essential need to provide a new holistic and standard approach that be applicable worldwide to increase connections between researchers and decision makers, as well as the applicability of nexus approaches. Future research must couple the development of a holistic standard approach with experimental tests in different areas, involving interdisciplinary research groups able to carry out all the experimental activities, the numerical simulations, and the statistical analyses of climatic time series (in a climate change perspective) indispensable to demonstrate the real benefits of using a WEF-derived nexus approach.
Metabolism of Some Polyols by Rhizobium meliloti

The utilization of d-mannitol, d-arabitol, and d-sorbitol by Rhizobium meliloti was studied in extracts from mannitol-grown cells. Two different polyol dehydrogenases were induced by any of these polyols: (i) a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)-arabitol dehydrogenase and (ii) a NAD-sorbitol dehydrogenase, whereas polyol phosphate dehydrogenases were absent. d-Arabitol dehydrogenase was observed to act on both d-arabitol and d-mannitol, but d-sorbitol dehydrogenase acted specifically on d-sorbitol. d-Arabitol was oxidized to d-xylulose, d-mannitol and d-sorbitol were oxidized to d-fructose. An adenosine triphosphate-linked hexokinase which acts on d-fructose and absence of hexose isomerase were also detected in this organism.
Copy number alterations in pancreatic cancer identify recurrent PAK4 amplification

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal of all cancers. The median survival is 6 months, and less than 5% of those diagnosed survive 5-years. Recurrent genetic deletions and amplifications in 73 pancreatic adenocarcinomas, the largest sample set analyzed to date for pancreatic cancer, were defined using comparative genomic hybridization The recurrent genetic alterations identified target a number of previously well-characterized genes, as well as regions that contain possible new oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. We have focused on chromosome 19q13, a region frequently found amplified in pancreatic cancer, and demonstrate how boundaries of common regions of mutation can be mapped, and how a gene, in this case PAK4 amplified on chromosome19q13, can be functionally validated. We show that although the PAK4 gene is not activated by mutation in cell lines with gene amplification, an oncogenic form of the KRAS2 gene is present in these cells, and oncogenic KRAS2 can activate PAK4. In fact in the three samples we identified with PAK4 gene amplification, the KRAS2 gene was activated and genomically amplified. The kinase activity of the PAK4 protein is significantly higher in cells with genomic amplification as compared to cells without amplification. Our study demonstrates the utility of analyzing copy number data in a large set of neoplasms to identify genes involved in cancer. We have generated a useful dataset which will be particularly useful for the pancreatic cancer community as efforts are undertaken to sequence the pancreatic cancer genome.
Recording inter‐annual changes on a boulder beach in Galicia, NW Spain using an unmanned aerial vehicle

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was flown over a boulder beach (area 20 000 m2) on the southern coast of Galicia (northwestern Spain) in May 2016, continuing earlier work based on flights over the same beach in July 2012, May 2013, and late March 2014. Digital surface models (DSMs) with 1.8 cm resolution were constructed from the 2014 and 2016 data to identify changes in beach morphology over the intervening period. Analyses were conducted using a Limit of Detection (LoD) of 0 cm and 3.71 cm. In both cases, the analyses showed that erosion dominated over 19% of the beach area. Accretion occurred over the rest of the beach, which acquired an additional 1500 m3 of material over the study period. Re‐analysis of the data from earlier flights suggested that erosion dominated on the beach in 2012–2013 and deposition in 2013–2014. Without any clear relationship between beach behaviour and storm severity during each winter period, it is proposed that gravitationally induced erosion and storm‐wave induced deposition are the result of perturbations about an equilibrium beach gradient. The UAV data also suggested that an essentially random component modulates regional patterns of movement. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Observations on the Responses of Rats with Spontaneous Hypertension and Control Rats to Pressor Drugs and to Hexamethonium

The establishment, by selective breeding, of a colony of rats with a high incidence of spontaneous hypertension has been confirmed by a kymographic technique with femoral artery cannulation. The reaction of rats to several pressor drugs has been altered by selective breeding. In both control and inherited hypertensive rats, the initial level of the blood pressure prior to administration of the drug influences the magnitude of the responses to several pressor drugs but not to norepinephrine. If hypertensives are compared only with other hypertensives and controls with other controls, it is clear that high preinjection pressures have an inhibiting effect on the pressor responses to biologically and synthetically prepared angiotensin, to vasopressin, and possibly lessen also the responses to s-methyl iso-thiourea. When under experimental conditions the blood pressures of rats with inherited hypertension have fallen into the upper range of control rat blood pressures, the responses to epinephrine, vasopressin, s-methyl iso-thiourea and biological angiotensin are greater in the hypertensives than in the controls. The difference in the case of synthetic angiotensin is not statistically significant. In the case of norepinephrine, the responses are equal. Hexamethoniun reduced the blood pressures of inherited hypertensive and control rats to the same level.
Pilot survey of aflatoxin–albumin adducts in sera from Egypt

Aflatoxins are potent liver carcinogens that frequently contaminate cereals in developing countries. Aflatoxin exposure has been predicted in Egypt but, to date, no studies have measured the level of aflatoxin–albumin (AF–alb) adducts as a validated biomarker to assess exposure. In this pilot survey, a limited number of sera samples, available from a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) case-control study in Egypt, were analysed. AF–alb was detected in 24/24 samples from HCC-negative individuals (geometric mean 9.0 pg mg−1; range 3.5–25.8pg mg−1), while 7/22 samples from HCC-positive cases had detectable AF–alb (geometric mean 2.6 pg mg−1; range: non-detectable–32.8 pg mg−1). These AF–alb data do not represent a case-control comparison due to inherent difficulties in comparing markers of dietary intake between controls and patients with disease. Although these data are limited, the potential health consequences of aflatoxin exposure in this region merit further investigation.
Randomized study of high-dose pulse calcitriol or placebo prior to radical prostatectomy.

BACKGROUND Cancer chemoprevention trials require enormous resources due to the large numbers of patients and the years of follow-up needed to achieve sufficient statistical power. Examination of candidate prevention agents using biomarkers as surrogate end points has been proposed as a method to rapidly identify promising agents for prevention trials. Treatment of patients with candidate agents prior to scheduled biopsy or surgical resection of malignancy allows for direct examination of the treatment effects on tumor tissue. In this study, we selected this approach to test several hypotheses about the effect of calcitriol (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol), the active form of vitamin D, on early-stage human prostate cancer. METHODS After selection of surgical treatment for histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the prostate, patients were randomized to either calcitriol 0.5 mug/kg or placebo weekly for 4 weeks. The expression levels of the vitamin D receptor (VDR), proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PTEN (MMAC1/TEP1), c-Myc, transforming growth factor (TGF) beta receptor type II (TGFbeta RII), and Bcl-2 were quantified using immunohistochemistry in the patients' prostate specimens post surgery. RESULTS Thirty-seven of 39 prostate tumors were evaluable for molecular end points. VDR expression was reduced in patients treated with calcitriol (mean, 75.3% of cells) compared with those that received placebo (mean, 98.6%; P = 0.005). Calcitriol treatment did not result in a statistically significant change in the fraction of cells expressing TGFbeta RII, PTEN, or proliferating cell nuclear antigen. Bcl-2 and c-Myc expression was at the lower limits of detection in both the calcitriol group and the placebo group; therefore, we were unable to determine whether drug treatment induced a significant change in these biomarkers. CONCLUSIONS High-dose calcitriol down-regulates VDR expression in human prostate cancer. Further study is needed to determine the biological consequences of VDR down-regulation in prostate cancer. This study shows that the use of the preprostatectomy model is feasible and can be used to test the effect of candidate chemopreventive agents on prostate cancer.
What Does Affect the Correlation Among Evaluation Measures?

Information Retrieval (IR) is well-known for the great number of adopted evaluation measures, with new ones popping up more and more frequently. In this context, correlation analysis is the tool used to study the evaluation measures and to let us understand if two measures rank systems similarly, if they grasp different aspects of system performances or actually reflect different user models, if a new measure is well motivated or not. To this end, the two most commonly used correlation coefficients are the Kendall’s τ correlation and the AP correlation τAP. The goal of the article is to investigate the properties of the tool, that is, correlation analysis, we use to study evaluation measures. In particular, we investigate three research questions about these two correlation coefficients: (i) what is the effect of the number of systems and topics? (ii) what is the effect of removing low-performing systems? (iii) what is the effect of the experimental collections? To answer these research questions, we propose a methodology based on General Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) and ANalysis Of VAriance (ANOVA) to isolate the effects of the number of topics, number of systems, and experimental collections and to let us observe expected correlation values, net from these effects, which are stable and reliable. We learned that the effect of the number of topics is more prominent than the effect of the number of systems. Even if it produces different absolute values, the effect of removing low-performing systems does not seem to provide information substantially different from not removing them, especially when comparing a whole set of evaluation measures. Finally, we found out that both document corpora and topic sets affect the correlation among evaluation measures, the effect of the latter being more prominent. Moreover, there is a substantial interaction between evaluation measures, corpora and topic sets, meaning that the correlation between different evaluation measures can be substantially increased or decreased depending on the different corpora and topics at hand.