Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Mitochondria in the Radiation-Induced Bystander Effect in Human Lymphoblastoid Cells

Abstract Cells without intact mitochondrial DNA have been shown to lack the bystander effect, which is an energy-dependent process. We hypothesized that cells harboring mutations in mitochondrial genes responsible for ATP synthesis would show a decreased bystander effect compared to normal cells. Radiation-induced bystander effects were analyzed in two normal and four mitochondrial mutant human lymphoblastoid cells. Medium from previously irradiated cells (conditioned medium) was transferred to unirradiated cells from the respective cell lines and evaluated for the bystander effect using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay. Unlike normal cells that were used as a control, mitochondrial mutant cells neither generated nor responded to the bystander signals. The bystander effect was inhibited in normal cells by adding the mitochondrial inhibitors rotenone and oligomycin to the culture medium. Time-controlled blocking of the bystander effect by inhibitors was found to occur either for prolonged exposure to the inhibitor prior to irradiation with an immediate and subsequent removal of the inhibitors or immediate post-application of the inhibitor. Adding the inhibitors just prior to irradiation and removing them immediately after irradiation was uneventful. Fully functional mitochondrial metabolic capability may therefore be essential for the bystander effect.
Differences in need for hemodynamic support in horses anesthetized with sevoflurane as compared to isoflurane.

OBJECTIVE To study whether hemodynamic function in horses, particularly mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), is better maintained with sevoflurane than isoflurane, thus requiring less pharmacological support. STUDY DESIGN Prospective randomized clinical investigation. Animals Thirty-nine racehorses undergoing arthroscopy in lateral recumbency. METHODS Horses were assigned to receive either isoflurane (n = 20) or sevoflurane (n = 19) at 0.9-1.0 minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) for maintenance of anesthesia. Besides routine clinical monitoring, cardiac output (CO) was measured by lithium dilution. Hemodynamic support was prescribed as follows: when MAP decreased to <70 mmHg, patients were to receive infusion of 0.1% dobutamine, which was to be discontinued at MAP >85 mmHg or heart rate >60 beats minute(-1). Statistical analysis of results, given as mean +/- SD, included a clustered regression approach. RESULTS Average inhalant anesthetic time [91 +/- 35 (isoflurane group) versus 97 +/- 26 minutes (sevoflurane group)] and dose (in MAC multiples), volume of crystalloid solution infused, and cardiopulmonary parameters including CO were similar in the two groups, except heart rate was 8% higher in isoflurane than sevoflurane horses (p < 0.05). To maintain MAP >70 mmHg, isoflurane horses received dobutamine over a significantly longer period (55 +/- 26 versus 28 +/- 21% of total anesthetic time, p < 0.01) and at a 51% higher dose than sevoflurane horses (41 +/- 19 versus 27 +/- 23 microg kg(-1) MAC hour(-1); p = 0.058), with 14/20 isoflurane animals and only 9/19 sevoflurane horses being infused with dobutamine at >30 microg kg(-1) MAC hour(-1) (p < 0.05). Dobutamine infusion rates were consistently lower in the sevoflurane as compared to the isoflurane group, with differences reaching significance level during the 0-30 minutes (p < 0.01) and 61-90 minutes periods (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Horses under sevoflurane anesthesia may require less pharmacological support in the form of dobutamine than isoflurane-anesthetized horses. This could be due to less suppression of vasomotor tone.
Detection of histone deacetylase inhibition by noninvasive magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are new and promising antineoplastic agents. Current methods for monitoring early response rely on invasive biopsies or indirect blood-derived markers. Our goal was to develop a magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)–based method to detect HDAC inhibition. The fluorinated lysine derivative Boc-Lys-(Tfa)-OH (BLT) was investigated as a 19F MRS molecular marker of HDAC activity together with 31P MRS of endogenous metabolites. In silico modeling of the BLT-HDAC interaction and in vitro MRS studies of BLT cleavage by HDAC confirmed BLT as a HDAC substrate. BLT did not affect cell viability or HDAC activity in PC3 prostate cancer cells. PC3 cells were treated, in the presence of BLT, with the HDAC inhibitor p-fluoro-suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (FSAHA) over the range of 0 to 10 μmol/L, and HDAC activity and MRS spectra were monitored. Following FSAHA treatment, HDAC activity dropped, reaching 53% of control at 10 μmol/L FSAHA. In parallel, a steady increase in intracellular BLT from 14 to 32 fmol/cell was observed. BLT levels negatively correlated with HDAC activity consistent with higher levels of uncleaved BLT in cells with inhibited HDAC. Phosphocholine, detected by 31P MRS, increased from 7 to 16 fmol/cell following treatment with FSAHA and also negatively correlated with HDAC activity. Increased phosphocholine is probably due to heat shock protein 90 inhibition as indicated by depletion of client proteins. In summary, 19F MRS of BLT, combined with 31P MRS, can be used to monitor HDAC activity in cells. In principle, this could be applied in vivo to noninvasively monitor HDAC activity. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(5):1325–34]
Oral yeast colonization throughout pregnancy

Background Recent studies suggest that placenta may harbour a unique microbiome that may have origin in maternal oral microbiome. Although the major physiological and hormonal adjustments observed in pregnant women lead to biochemical and microbiological modifications of the oral environment, very few studies evaluated the changes suffered by the oral microbiota throughout pregnancy. So, the aim of our study was to evaluate oral yeast colonization throughout pregnancy and to compare it with non-pregnant women. Material and Methods The oral yeast colonization was assessed in saliva of 30 pregnant and non-pregnant women longitudinally over a 6-months period. Demographic information was collected, a non-invasive intra-oral examination was performed and saliva flow and pH were determined. Results Pregnant and non-pregnant groups were similar regarding age and level of education. Saliva flow rate did not differ, but saliva pH was lower in pregnant than in non-pregnant women. Oral yeast prevalence was higher in pregnant than in non-pregnant women, either in the first or in the third trimester, but did not attain statistical significance. In individuals colonized with yeast, the total yeast quantification (Log10CFU/mL) increase from the 1st to the 3rd trimester in pregnant women, but not in non-pregnant women. Conclusions Pregnancy may favour oral yeast growth that may be associated with an acidic oral environment. Key words:Oral yeast, fungi, pregnancy, saliva pH.
Effects of High and Low Sodium Intake on Arterial Pressure and Forearm Vascular Resistance in Borderline Hypertension: A Preliminary Report

The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of high and low sodium intake on arterial pressure and forearm vascular resistance in subjects with borderline hypertension and to compare responses to sodium excess in these subjects with responses in a recent study in normotensive subjects. Six subjects with borderline hypertension were studied after ten days of high (410 mEq/24 hr) and low (10 mEq/24 hr) sodium intake. Potassium intake was constant. In five of six subjects, high sodium intake decreased forearm blood flow and increased forearm vascular resistance and arterial pressure. During low and high sodium intake forearm blood flow averaged 7.8 ±1.2 (se) and 5.9 ± 0.8 ml/min x 100 ml, respectively; forearm vascular resistance averaged 13.5 ± 2.2 and 19.1 ± 3.0 units, respectively; and mean arterial pressure averaged 89 ± 3 and 98 ± 2 mm Hg, respectively. High sodium intake augmented forearm vasoconstrictor responses to lower body negative pressure, a stimulus to neurogenic vasoconstriction. The results contrast with our earlier results in normotensive subjects in whom sodium excess produced forearm vasodilatation and failed to increase arterial pressure significantly. Decreases in renin and aldosterone with high sodium intake were similar in the two groups. The results suggest that excessive sodium intake in subjects with borderline hypertension produces abnormal increases in forearm vascular resistance, neurogenic vasoconstriction, and arterial pressure. The reasons for the contrast between the borderline hypertensives and normotensives are unknown, but they do not seem to be related to the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.
Tight Bounds on the Capacity of Binary Input Random CDMA Systems

In this paper, we consider code-division multiple-access (CDMA) communication over a binary input additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel using random spreading. For a general class of symmetric distributions for spreading sequences, in the limit of a large number of users, we prove an upper bound to the capacity. The bound matches the formula obtained by Tanaka using the replica method. We also show concentration of various relevant quantities including mutual information and free energy. The mathematical methods are quite general and allow us to discuss extensions to other multiuser scenarios.
Normative Values for Circadian and Ultradian Cardiovascular Rhythms in Childhood

Abstract—To assess the prevalence and characteristics of physiological circadian (24-hour) and ultradian (12-, 8-, and 6-hour) rhythms of mean arterial blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), we analyzed 24-hour ambulatory BP profiles from 938 healthy school children aged 5 to 18 years. Cosine harmonics were fitted by Fourier analysis, and an amplitude and acrophase (time of peak) were calculated for each rhythm. Ninety percent of children displayed circadian rhythmicity of BP, independent of age, whereas circadian HR rhythmicity decreased with puberty from 96% to 87% (P <0.0001). Puberty had marked effects on the prevalence of ultradian rhythmicity: 12- and 6-hour rhythms increased for BP (27% to 47%, P <0.0001; 18% to 25%, P =0.01) and HR (36% to 47%, 17% to 31%, both P =0.001), whereas 8-hour BP rhythms decreased (34% to 23%, P =0.002). Median amplitudes were 10.1, 5.9, 5.6, and 5.2 mm Hg for the 24-, 12-, 8-, and 6-hour BP rhythms, respectively, and 13.4, 7.7, 6.8, and 6.4 bpm for HR. The acrophase occurred at approximately 14:00 hours, 8:00 hours, 5:30 hours, and 2:00 hours (military time) for the four BP rhythms, and at 13:30 hours, 08:30 hours, 01:50 hours, and 02:00 hours for HR. For the combined curve, the peak–trough difference was 25.9 mm Hg and 35 bpm for BP and HR, respectively, with the peaks occurring at 13:50 hours and 13:10 hours. There was marked association between BP and HR rhythms, both for prevalence (P <0.0001 for coupling of BP and HR rhythms of the same period length) and timing, with a median time lag of BP after HR acrophase of only 21, 16, 13, and 5 minutes for the four rhythms, respectively.
Cis proline mutants of ribonuclease A. I. thermal stability

A chemically synthesized gene for ribonuclease A has been expressed in Escherichia coli using a T7 expression system (Studier, F.W., Rosenberg, A.H., Dunn, J.J., & Dubendorff, J.W., 1990, Methods Enzymol. 185, 60–89). The expressed protein, which contains an additional N‐terminal methionine residue, has physical and catalytic properties close to those of bovine ribonuclease A. The expressed protein accumulates in inclusion bodies and has scrambled disulfide bonds; the native disulfide bonds are regenerated during purification. Site‐directed mutations have been made at each of the two cis proline residues, 93 and 114, and a double mutant has been made. In contrast to results reported for replacement of trans proline residues, replacement of either cis proline is strongly destabilizing. Thermal unfolding experiments on four single mutants give ΔTm ≅ 10 °C and ΔΔG0 (apparent) = 2–3 kcal/mol. The reason is that either the substituted amino acid goes in cis, and cis ⟺ trans isomerization after unfolding pulls the unfolding equilibrium toward the unfolded state, or else there is a conformational change, which by itself is destabilizing relative to the wild‐type conformation, that allows the substituted amino acid to form a trans peptide bond.
Distances and weighting schemes for bag of visual words image retrieval

Current text retrieval techniques allow to index and retrieve text documents very efficiently and with a good accuracy. Image retrieval, on the contrary, is still very coarse and does not yield satisfying results. Therefore, computer vision researchers try to benefit from text retrieval contributions to enhance their retrieval systems. In particular, Sivic and Zisserman, with their video-google framework [1], propose a description of images similar to standard text descriptors: images are described by elementary image parts, called visual words. Thus, they perform image retrieval using the standard Vector Space Model (VSM) of Information Retrieval (IR) and benefit from some classical IR techniques such as inverted files. Among available text retrieval techniques, automatically finding the most relevant words to describe a document has been intensively studied for texts, but not for images. In this paper, we propose to explore the use of term weighting techniques and classical distances from text retrieval in the case of images. These weights are standard VSM weights, weights derived from probabilistic models of IR or new weighting schemes that we propose. Our experiments, performed on several datasets, show that no weighting scheme can improve retrieval on every dataset, but also that choosing weights fitting the properties of the dataset can improve precision and MAP up to 10%. This study provides some interesting insights about the semantic and statistical differences between textual and visual words, and about the way visual word-based image retrieval systems can be optimized. It also shows some limits of the bag of visual words model, and the relation existing between Minkowski distances and local weighting. At last, this study questions some experimental habits commonly found in the literature (choice of L1 distance, TF*IDF weights and evaluation using one dataset only).
Drishti: an integrated navigation system for visually impaired and disabled

Drishti is a wireless pedestrian navigation system. It integrates several technologies including wearable computers, voice recognition and synthesis, wireless networks, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global positioning system (GPS). Drishti augments contextual information to the visually impaired and computes optimized routes based on user preference, temporal constraints (e.g. traffic congestion), and dynamic obstacles (e.g. ongoing ground work, road blockade for special events). The system constantly guides the blind user to navigate based on static and dynamic data. Environmental conditions and landmark information queried from a spatial database along their route are provided on the fly through detailed explanatory voice cues. The system also provides capability for the user to add intelligence, as perceived by, the blind user, to the central server hosting the spatial database. Our system is supplementary to other navigational aids such as canes, blind guide dogs and wheel chairs.
Self-migration of operating systems

This paper is about on-the-fly migration of entire operating systems between physically different host computers. Resource allocation is often static; using migration allows applications to dynamically change bindings between programs and physical hosts as to improve utilisation. We first survey different approaches to migration and then present two prototypes that allow migration not only of an application but also of the operating system running the application. One of the prototypes includes a novel approach, self-migration, to operating system migration. Performance numbers show that migration can be done with merely subsecond suspension of the application.
Towards therapy to relieve memory impairment after anterior thalamic lesions: improved spatial working memory after immediate and delayed postoperative enrichment

Injury to the anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN) is associated with severe amnesia in humans. To test the principle that these deficits may be amenable to intervention, the behavioural effects of postoperative housing in an enriched environment were examined in rats that received neurotoxic lesions of the ATN. As expected, rats with ATN lesions maintained in standard group‐housing showed severe, and in this case long‐term, deficits in a preoperatively trained non‐matching‐to‐sample spatial working memory task. Thirty days of enriched housing, introduced either at 5 days (Experiment 1) or delayed until 40 days post‐surgery (Experiment 2) markedly reduced this working memory impairment, including evidence of improved utilization of spatial cues. The treatment gains found in Experiment 2 were maintained at 4 months post‐surgery despite no further enrichment. ATN lesions also retarded the postoperative acquisition of spatial discrimination problems in Experiment 1, irrespective of the separation between target arms, but this impairment was not ameliorated by the prior enrichment. This study provides the first evidence of substantial recovery of severe, and otherwise long‐lasting, spatial working memory deficits after ATN brain injury and suggests that further investigation on the extent of possible recovery of function in animal models of diencephalic amnesia is warranted.
Investigation on the chemical properties of some pomegranate cultivars (Punica granatum L.) grown in the Messaad Algerian arid region under drip irrigation

In Messaad a city, of Algeria central region, under arid climate, pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one of the main fruit crops in agricultural systems after apricot. To examine the ability of transformation and direct consumption, a chemical analysis study of pomegranate juice was conducted on fruits of three pomegranate cultivars: Khadraye KH1, Hamraye HM1, Senin Alouj SL1 from the drip-irrigated Messaad orchards. A study of chemical properties such as pH, titratable acidity TS, total solids TSS, crude fibers CF of pomegranate seed juices was carried out from the fruits of three cultivars. Descriptive statistics, analyze of variance and Principal Component Analysis based on quantitative parameters are used. The cultivars Senin Aloudj SL1 and Khadraye KH1 of Messaad are characterized as sweet with respectively 1.80 and 1.84% of crude fiber content. The cultivar Hamraye HM1 is qualified sour-sweet to sweet with 2.10% crude fiber rate. The SL1 and KH1 are suitable for the consumption in fresh and can be object of food transformation to which is added the therapeutic and medicinal interest that confers the pomegranate tree whereas the HM1 apart from its consumption can be used as excellence to food transformation in various products. The findings presented in this work justify the interest of germplasm variability not only for it fresh consumption and processing, but also in the broad sense of valorization and preserving phytogenetic resources for agriculture and food locally threatened.
To Supplement or Not to Supplement: A Metabolic Network Framework for Human Nutritional Supplements

Flux balance analysis and constraint based modeling have been successfully used in the past to elucidate the metabolism of single cellular organisms. However, limited work has been done with multicellular organisms and even less with humans. The focus of this paper is to present a novel use of this technique by investigating human nutrition, a challenging field of study. Specifically, we present a steady state constraint based model of skeletal muscle tissue to investigate amino acid supplementation's effect on protein synthesis. We implement several in silico supplementation strategies to study whether amino acid supplementation might be beneficial for increasing muscle contractile protein synthesis. Concurrent with published data on amino acid supplementation's effect on protein synthesis in a post resistance exercise state, our results suggest that increasing bioavailability of methionine, arginine, and the branched-chain amino acids can increase the flux of contractile protein synthesis. The study also suggests that a common commercial supplement, glutamine, is not an effective supplement in the context of increasing protein synthesis and thus, muscle mass. Similar to any study in a model organism, the computational modeling of this research has some limitations. Thus, this paper introduces the prospect of using systems biology as a framework to formally investigate how supplementation and nutrition can affect human metabolism and physiology.
Power allocation and routing in multibeam satellites with time-varying channels

We consider power and server allocation in a multibeam satellite downlink which transmits data to <i>N</i> different ground locations over <i>N</i> time-varying channels. Packets destined for each ground location are stored in separate queues and the server rate for each queue <i>i</i> depends on the power <i>p<sub>i</sub></i> (<i>t</i>) allocated to that server and the channel state <i>c<sub>i</sub></i> (<i>t</i>) according to a concave rate-power curve μ<sub><i>i</i></sub>(<i>p<sub>i</sub>, c<sub>i</sub></i>). We establish the capacity region of all arrival rate vectors (λ<sub>1</sub>,.,λ<sub><i>N</i></sub>) which admit a stabilizable system. We then develop a power-allocation policy which stabilizes the system whenever the rate vector lies within the capacity region. Such stability is guaranteed even if the channel model and the specific arrival rates are unknown. Furthermore, the algorithm is shown to be robust to arbitrary variations in the input rates and a bound on average delay is established. As a special case, this analysis verifies stability and provides a performance bound for the <i>Choose-the-K-Largest-Connected-Queues</i> policy when channels can be in one of two states (ON or OFF) and <i>K</i> servers are allocated at every timestep (<i>K</i> < <i>N</i>). These results are extended to treat a joint problem of routing and power allocation in a system with multiple users and satellites and a throughput maximizing algorithm for this joint problem is constructed. Finally, we address the issue of interchannel interference and develop a modified policy when power vectors are constrained to feasible activation sets. Our analysis and problem formulation is also applicable to power control for wireless systems.
Initial Public Offerings, Subsequent Seasoned Equity Offerings, and Long-Run Performance: Evidence from Ipos in Germany

The objective of this study is to investigate the long-run performance of initial public offerings (IPO) in Germany for the period from 1977 to 1995. Of particular interest is to examine whether underpricing and the timing of subsequent seasoned equty offerings (SEO) may help to explain why some firms have substantial positive and others have substantial negative long-run abnormal holding period returns after going public. We find significant empirical evidence that firms that raised additional funds after an IPO through a seasoned equity offering outperformed the market. There is a significant difference in returns relative to the firms that had no subsequent equity offering. A comparison of seasoned equity offerings of IPOs and of established firms suggests that the information asymmetry is more pronounced for IPO firms.