Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microdomains of distinctive glycoprotein composition in the kidney proximal tubule brush border

Two membrane proteins, maltase and gp330 (the pathogenic antigen of Heymann nephritis), present in the proximal tubule brush border have recently been independently purified and found to be large glycoproteins of similar molecular weight (Mr = approximately 300,000) by SDS PAGE. To determine the relationship between the two, monoclonal antibodies raised against the purified proteins were used for comparative immunochemical analyses and immunocytochemical localization. When a detergent extract of [35S]methionine-labeled rat renal cortex was used for immunoprecipitation with monoclonal antimaltase IgG, a single band of approximately 300 kdaltons was precipitated, whereas a single 330-kdalton band was precipitated with monoclonal anti-gp330 IgG. Monoclonal antimaltase (gp300) IgG also immunoprecipitated maltase activity from solubilized renal maltase preparations, whereas monoclonal anti-gp330 IgG failed to do so. When cyanogen bromide-generated peptide maps of the two proteins were compared, there were many similar peptides, but some differences. When maltase and gp330 were localized by indirect immunofluorescence and by indirect immunoperoxidase and immunogold techniques at the electron microscope level, they were found to be differently distributed in the brush border of the initial (S1 and S2) segments of the proximal tubule: maltase was concentrated (approximately 90%) on the microvilli, and gp330 was concentrated (approximately 90%) in the clathrin-coated apical invaginations located at the base of the microvilli. We conclude that maltase (gp300) and the Heymann nephritis antigen (gp330) are structurally related membrane glycoproteins with a distinctive distribution in the proximal tubule brush border which may serve as markers for the microvillar and coated microdomains, respectively, of the apical plasmalemma.
Examining factors that influence the effectiveness of cleaning antineoplastic drugs from drug preparation surfaces: A pilot study

Occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs has been documented to result in various adverse health effects. Despite the implementation of control measures to minimize exposure, detectable levels of drug residual are still found on hospital work surfaces. Cleaning these surfaces is considered as one means to minimize the exposure potential. However, there are no consistent guiding principles related to cleaning of contaminated surfaces resulting in hospitals to adopt varying practices. As such, this pilot study sought to evaluate current cleaning protocols and identify those factors that were most effective in reducing contamination on drug preparation surfaces. Three cleaning variables were examined: (1) type of cleaning agent (CaviCide®, Phenokil II™, bleach and chlorhexidine), (2) application method of cleaning agent (directly onto surface or indirectly onto a wipe) and (3) use of isopropyl alcohol after cleaning agent application. Known concentrations of antineoplastic drugs (either methotrexate or cyclophosphamide) were placed on a stainless steel swatch and then, systematically, each of the three cleaning variables was tested. Surface wipes were collected and quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to determine the percent residual of drug remaining (with 100% being complete elimination of the drug). No one single cleaning agent proved to be effective in completely eliminating all drug contamination. The method of application had minimal effect on the amount of drug residual. In general, application of isopropyl alcohol after the use of cleaning agent further reduced the level of drug contamination although measureable levels of drug were still found in some cases.
Cord blood iron profile and breast milk micronutrients in maternal iron deficiency anemia

Micronutrient deficiencies among pregnant women are widespread in low‐income countries, including Egypt. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is the most frequent nutritional deficiency during pregnancy, with an impact on maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. We aimed to evaluate the effect of maternal IDA and nutritional status on birth anthropometry, cord blood iron profile and breast milk micronutrients in 50 anemic (hemoglobin <11 g/dl) and 30 healthy pregnant women.
THE CHARACTERIZATION AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF CLAY MINERALS IN THE ATHABASCA BASIN, SASKATCHEWAN: APPLICATION OF SHORTWAVE INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY

The application of shortwave infrared (SWIR) reflectance spectroscopy to the characterization of clay minerals in the Athabasca Basin, in Saskatchewan, has been evaluated by detailed examination of 70 mineral separates (20 of kaolinite, 10 of dickite, 19 of illite, 16 of chlorites and 5 of magnesiofoitite). Clay minerals in the Athabasca Basin are widespread in the sandstones and are particularly abundant in alteration haloes associated with unconformity-type U deposits. SEM, TEM, XRD, EMPA, EPR and SWIR analyses confirm that dickite is a major clay mineral in the sandstones. Kaolinite from different geological settings has distinct values of crystallinity ( i.e. , Hinckley index in the range 0.84 to 1.61 in alteration haloes, 0.45 to 0.7 in the bleached zones of the paleoregolith, and 0.12 to 0.31 in late fractures and cavities). The SWIR reflectance spectroscopy is capable of quantitatively estimating the crystallinity of kaolinite by using a “14SP Index”. Attempts to use SWIR reflectance spectroscopy for structural and compositional analysis of Athabasca illite and sudoite were complicated by the common occurrence of impurities in these minerals. Binary and ternary mixtures using well-characterized mineral standards reveal that SWIR reflectance spectroscopy is capable of identifying clay minerals at abundances as low as 1 wt%. Also, numerical relationships between spectral features and the abundances of clay minerals have been established from the muscovite – kaolinite, muscovite – dickite and muscovite – sudoite mixtures, and have been used to improve an empirical SWIR method for quantitative analysis of clay minerals in the Athabasca Basin. The estimated precision and accuracy of the improved empirical method are between 5 to 10%, comparable to those of conventional XRD methods. The detection limits of the SWIR method for samples containing multiple species of clay minerals are approximately 5 wt. % in relative abundance.
The differential spatiotemporal expression pattern of shelterin genes throughout lifespan

Shelterin forms the core complex of telomere proteins and plays critical roles in protecting telomeres against unwanted activation of the DNA damage response and in maintaining telomere length homeostasis. Although shelterin expression is believed to be ubiquitous for stabilization of chromosomal ends, some evidence suggests that some shelterin subunits have tissue-specific functions. However, very little is known regarding how shelterin subunit gene expression is regulated during development and aging. Using two different animal models, the mouse and zebrafish, we reveal herein that shelterin subunits exhibit distinct spatial and temporal expression patterns that do not correlate with the proliferative status of the organ systems examined. Together, this work shows that the shelterin subunits exhibit distinct spatiotemporal expression patterns, suggesting important tissue-specific functions during development throughout the lifespan.
Human papillomavirus type distribution in 30,848 invasive cervical cancers worldwide: Variation by geographical region, histological type and year of publication

Pooled data on human papillomavirus (HPV) type distribution in invasive cervical cancer (ICC) can help to predict the potential impact of HPV type‐specific vaccines and screening tests, and to understand the carcinogenicity of HPV types. We performed a meta‐analysis of HPV type‐specific prevalence data published from 1990 to 2010, including a total of 243 studies and 30,848 ICC. The proportion of ICC associated with HPV16 and/or 18 (HPV16/18) was between 70 and 76% in all world regions except Asia. In Western/Central Asia, 82% of ICC was HPV16/18‐associated compared to only 68% in Eastern Asia. The 12 most common HPV types identified, in order of decreasing prevalence, were HPV16 (57%), 18 (16%), 58, 33, 45, 31, 52, 35, 59, 39, 51 and 56. The prevalence of other types, phylogenetically related to those above, ranged from <0.1% for HPV85 to 0.6% for HPV68. Overall HPV prevalence increased significantly from 85.9% in studies published from 1990 to 1999 to 92.9% in studies published from 2006 to 2010. Prevalence increases were large for multiple infections (from 4.0 to 15.7%) and for HPV16 (from 51.8 to 60.0%, including HPV16 alone or in multiple infections). Smaller but significant increases in prevalence were also seen for HPV39, 53 and 58. A large amount of recently published data has improved the understanding of the contribution of a broad range of HPV types to ICC in different world regions. However, estimating the fraction of ICC attributable to different types is increasingly complicated by the detection of multiple HPV infections in ICC.
[Retracted] Isoquercitrin inhibits the progression of liver cancer in vivo and in vitro via the MAPK signalling pathway

Liver cancer is a malignant tumour with high morbidity and fatality rates that is common worldwide. At present, the clinical approaches to treating primary liver cancer include partial hepatectomy, systemic or local chemotherapy, radiotherapy, radiofrequency ablative surgery and liver transplantation. However, all of these approaches have shortcomings, including poor prognosis and numerous side-effects. A large number of studies have proven that many effective ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine, particularly the flavonoid compounds extracted from plants, have achieved breakthroughs in terms of enhancing the effects and reducing the toxicity of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, preventing tumour metastasis and relapse after surgery, alleviating the clinical symptoms of advanced tumours, improving the quality of life of the patient with tumours and extending patient long‑term survival. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of isoquercitrin, the flavonoid from Bidens bipinnata L. extract, on the progression of liver cancer and to achieve a deeper understanding of the biological characteristics of isoquercitrin's involvement in the progression of liver cancer. In the in vitro experiments, isoquercitrin was found to strongly inhibit the proliferation of human liver cancer cells, promote the apoptosis of human liver cancer cells, and block the cell cycle in the G1 phase. Isoquercitrin activated caspase-3, -8 and -9, inhibited the expression level of ERK and p38MAPK protein phosphorylation, and promoted the phosphorylation of JNK. Additionally, isoquercitrin reduced the expression level of PKC in human liver cancer cells. In the in vivo experiments, isoquercitrin was also found to significantly inhibit the growth of transplanted tumours in nude mice. The present study confirmed that isoquercitrin could inhibit the progression of human liver cancer in vivo and in vitro, and the molecular mechanism of isoquercitrin may be closely associated with the MAPK and PKC signalling pathways.
In Vitro Permeation of Micronized and Nanonized Alaptide from Semisolid Formulations

This study is focused on in vitro permeation of the original Czech compound, a skin/mucosa tissue regeneration promoter, known under the international nonproprietary name “alaptide,” in micronized and nanonized forms. Alaptide showed a great potential for local applications for treatment and/or regeneration of the injured skin. The above mentioned technological modifications influence the permeation of alaptide through artificial or biological membranes, such as PAMPA or skin. The permeation of micronized and nanonized form of alaptide formulated to various semisolid pharmaceutical compositions through full-thickness pig ear skin using a Franz cell has been investigated in detail. In general, it can be concluded that the nanonized alaptide permeated through the skin less than the micronized form; different observations were made for permeation through the PAMPA system, where the micronized form showed lower permeation than the nanonized alaptide.
Postmodern cancer: the role of human immunodeficiency virus in uterine cervical cancer

The association between cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) is well known, but its association with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is controversial. Coinfection with HPV and HIV is to be expected and recent epidemiological data from Africa show that cervical cancer is the most common AIDS defining neoplasm in women. Unlike other AIDS defining neoplasms, the occurrence of cervical cancer is not dependent on immune compromise. HIV alters the natural history of HPV infection, with decreased regression rates and more rapid progression to high grade and invasive lesions, which are refractory to treatment, requiring more stringent intervention and monitoring. The more aggressive behaviour is mirrored by a different molecular pathway. HIV associated cervical cancers are thought to progress through the microsatellite instability pathway, whereas HIV negative ones progress through loss of heterozygosity. Interaction is probably via viral proteins, with HIV proteins enhancing effectiveness of HPV proteins, and perhaps contributing to cell cycle disruption. Dysregulation of the cellular and humoral arms of the local and systemic immune systems may ensure disease progression. Furthermore, HPV infection may predispose to HIV infection and facilitate its progression.
Supporting adaptable technical information systems in heterogeneous environments-using WWW and ORDBMS

Due to the ever rising competition in nearly all industrial sectors, there is a strong need for integrated information systems (ISs) that will store, retrieve, manipulate and exchange information efficiently to support all activities in an enterprise. Moreover, such an IS should not be a one-size-fit-all or a permanent solution, rather, the adaptability must be pursued so that the system can deal with all possible changes resulting from new technologies or new application demands. We present our first experience with developing such an integrated IS for a technical application domain. From the data processing point of view, the environment to be managed consists of distributed client/server systems embodied by heterogeneous hardware and software components; unconventional data types such as multimedia data and HTML statements are to be managed, and effective and robust database (DB) support should be provided. To meet the challenges posed by these advanced applications, new information techniques, such as World Wide Web (WWW or Web) and object-relational database management systems (ORDBMSs), are employed to facilitate a platform-independent DB access via a versatile user interface, as well as powerful DB services with high extensibility.
Smooth Neuroadaptive PI Tracking Control of Nonlinear Systems With Unknown and Nonsmooth Actuation Characteristics

This paper considers the tracking control problem for a class of multi-input multi-output nonlinear systems subject to unknown actuation characteristics and external disturbances. Neuroadaptive proportional–integral (PI) control with self-tuning gains is proposed, which is structurally simple and computationally inexpensive. Different from traditional PI control, the proposed one is able to online adjust its PI gains using stability-guaranteed analytic algorithms without involving manual tuning or trial and error process. It is shown that the proposed neuroadaptive PI control is continuous and smooth everywhere and ensures the uniformly ultimately boundedness of all the signals of the closed-loop system. Furthermore, the crucial compact set precondition for a neural network (NN) to function properly is guaranteed with the barrier Lyapunov function, allowing the NN unit to play its learning/approximating role during the entire system operation. The salient feature also lies in its low complexity in computation and effectiveness in dealing with modeling uncertainties and nonlinearities. Both square and nonsquare nonlinear systems are addressed. The benefits and the feasibility of the developed control are also confirmed by simulations.
Explicit ion, implicit water solvation for molecular dynamics of nucleic acids and highly charged molecules

An explicit ion, implicit water solvent model for molecular dynamics was developed and tested with DNA and RNA simulations. The implicit water model uses the finite difference Poisson (FDP) model with the smooth permittivity method implemented in the OpenEye ZAP libraries. Explicit counter‐ions, co‐ions, and nucleic acid were treated with a Langevin dynamics molecular dynamics algorithm. Ion electrostatics is treated within the FDP model when close to the solute, and by the Coulombic model when far from the solute. The two zone model reduces computation time, but retains an accurate treatment of the ion atmosphere electrostatics near the solute. Ion compositions can be set to reproduce specific ionic strengths. The entire ion/water treatment is interfaced with the molecular dynamics package CHARMM. Using the CHARMM‐ZAPI software combination, the implicit solvent model was tested on A and B form duplex DNA, and tetraloop RNA, producing stable simulations with structures remaining close to experiment. The model also reproduced the A to B duplex DNA transition. The effect of ionic strength, and the structure of the counterion atmosphere around B form duplex DNA were also examined. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2008
Prevalence of thoracic spine pain in a surveillance network.

BACKGROUND Back pain has long been identified as a major occupational health issue, but there are few prevalence studies on thoracic spine pain (TSP). The epidemiological surveillance of musculoskeletal disorders implemented in 2002 by the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance in the Pays de la Loire region provided the opportunity to study the prevalence of TSP in a large, representative sample of workers. AIMS To assess the prevalence of TSP across a week in a regional workforce according to age, occupational category and industry sector in men and women separately. METHODS A random sample of workers aged 20-59 years, representative of the regional workforce, was constituted between 2002 and 2005. Medical and occupational data were gathered by questionnaire. RESULTS The sample consisted of 3710 workers (58% men). The prevalence of TSP was higher in women (17%) than in men (9%). Lower grade male white-collar workers were more likely to report TSP (17%) than male workers in other occupational categories, whereas upper grade female white-collar and professional workers were more likely to report TSP. No significant difference in the prevalence of TSP was noted in either men or women according to industry sector. CONCLUSIONS Although TSP is less frequent than low back and neck pain, the results of this study indicate that 1 in 10 men and 1 in 5 women suffer from TSP.
Survival analysis of conservative vs. dialysis treatment of elderly patients with CKD stage 5

Elderly patients represent a growing population among people suffering from ESRD. So far only limited data on actual survival benefits of elderly adults initiating dialysis have been published. Besides the high burden of preexisting comorbidities, dialysis treatment itself may be associated with a further deterioration in functional status in this population. We retrospectively analyzed the Austrian Dialysis and Transplant Registry and identified 8,622 patients who started maintenance hemodialysis after the age of 65 years between 2002 and 2009. We compared this data set to a cohort of 174 patients aged over 65 years with CKD stage 5 who progressed to an eGFR < 10ml/min/ and were managed conservatively in the same era. All patients who died of malignant disease were excluded from this analysis. The risk of mortality was analyzed using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Furthermore, a parametric model of time to event analysis was used for visualization of changing risk over time and precise calculation of time to equal risk assuming a Weibull distribution. Hemodialysis treatment was associated with a decreased risk for death with a HR of 0.23 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.29; p<0.001) compared to conservative treatment. The time to event analysis however showed, that although survival was initially superior in the hemodialysis group, hazards crossed thereafter. Time to equal risk was 2.9 months and 1.9 months for female and male patient aged 65, respectively, and decreased to one month in the very elderly aged 95. Elderly patients with ERSD did benefit from initiation of hemodialysis, as the conservative group showed a very high initial mortality rate. This survival benefit of dialysis treatment however did not persist beyond the first two months compared to survivors of the conservative group.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-B–Deficient Mice Display an Atrial Conduction Defect

Background—Vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) and their receptors are essential regulators of vasculogenesis and angiogenesis in both embryos and adults. One of the factors with a still unknown physiological function is VEGF-B, which is expressed in many tissues, including the heart. Methods and Results—Mice carrying a targeted deletion in the VEGF-B gene were developed. In VEGF-B−/− animals, no gross abnormalities were observed in organs that normally show high expression of VEGF-B, such as the heart, muscle, and kidney. Analysis of heart function by ECG showed that adult VEGF-B−/− mice have an atrial conduction abnormality characterized by a prolonged PQ interval. VEGF- or basic fibroblast growth factor–induced corneal angiogenesis was similar in normal and VEGF-B−/− mice. Conclusions—VEGF-B seems to be required for normal heart function in adult animals but is not required for proper development of the cardiovascular system either during development or for angiogenesis in adults.
Effective Usage of Computational Trust Models in Rational Environments

Reputation-based trust models using statistical learning have been intensively studied for distributed systems where peers behave maliciously. However practical applications of such models in environments with both malicious and rational behaviors are still very little understood. This paper studies the relation between accuracy of a computational trust model and its ability to effectively enforce cooperation among rational agents. We provide theoretical results showing under which conditions cooperation emerges when using a trust learning algorithms with given accuracy and how cooperation can be still sustained while reducing cost and accuracy of those algorithms. We then verify and extend these theoretical results to a variety of settings involving honest, malicious and strategic players through extensive simulation. These results will enable a much more targeted, cost-effective and realistic design for decentralized trust management systems, such as needed for peer-to-peer systems and electronic commerce.