Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relation between body iron store and ferritin, and coronary artery disease

BACKGROUND Iron is essential for many physiological processes; whereas, iron overload has been known as a risk factor in progression of atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to investigate the importance of serum ferritin levels, which are known as an indicator of body iron stored in the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS In a case-control study, we evaluated 432 eligible men who underwent coronary angiography at Chamran Cardiology Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. They were separated into two groups of case (with CAD) and control (without CAD). All subjects had given written informed consents. Then, the blood samples were taken after 12-14 hours of fast by a biologist for measuring cardiovascular risk factors and body iron stores, including serum ferritin, serum iron, and total iron binding capacity (TIBC). For statistical analyses, chi-square test, Student's t-test, one-way ANOVA, and the logistic regression were used. RESULTS In the present study, 212 participants with CAD in the case group and 220 participants free of CAD in the control group were included in the analysis. At baseline, there were significant differences in serum ferritin (P < 0.001) and other cardiovascular risk factors between the two groups. Moreover, when other risk factors of CVD were included in the model, serum ferritin [Odd Ratio (OR) = 1.006, 95% confidence interval of 95% (95% CI) 1.00-1.01, P = 0.045] and serum ferritin ≥ 200 (OR = 4.49, 95% CI 1.72-11.70, P < 0.001) were associated with CAD. CONCLUSION High iron store, as assessed by serum ferritin, was associated with the increased risk of CAD. Furthermore, it was a strong and independent risk factor in the incident of atherosclerosis in the Iranian male population.
To IPD or not to IPD?

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that obtain original research data on individual participants enrolled in trials have been described as the gold standard of review. However, they may take longer and be more resource intensive than other types of review. The authors describe potential advantages and disadvantages of the individual patient data (IPD) approach, including benefits from improved data quality, benefits afforded by the type of analyses that can be done, and advantages in achieving consensus around results and interpretation by an international multi disciplinary team. Disadvantages and barriers relating to resource and expertise, negotiating collaboration, and software requirements are also discussed. At the outset, reviewers should consider the methodological factors likely to influence results in their particular review setting, together with time and resource constraints, so that an active decision can be made about whether to extract data frompublished reports, collect addi tional or replacement summary data from trialists, or collect IPD.
Site-Directed Mutagenesis of the 19-Kilodalton Lipoprotein Antigen Reveals No Essential Role for the Protein in the Growth and Virulence of Mycobacterium intracellulare

ABSTRACT The mycobacterial 19-kilodalton antigen (19Ag) is a highly expressed, surface-associated glycolipoprotein which is immunodominant in infected patients and has little homology with other known proteins. To investigate the pathogenic significance of the 19Ag, site-directed mutagenesis of the Mycobacterium intracellulare 19Ag gene was carried out by using a suicide vector-based strategy. Allelic replacement of the 19Ag gene of a mouse-avirulent M. intracellulare strain, 1403, was achieved by double-crossover homologous recombination with a gentamicin resistance gene-mutated allele. Unfortunately, an isogenic 19Ag was not achievable in the mouse-virulent strain, D673. However, a 19Ag mutant was successfully constructed in M. intracellulare FM1, a chemically mutagenized derivative of strain D673. FM1 was more amenable to genetic manipulation and susceptible to site-directed mutagenesis of the 19Ag gene yet retained the virulent phenotype of the parental strain. No deleterious effects of 19Ag gene mutation were observed during in vitro growth ofM. intracellulare. Virulence assessment of the isogenic 19Ag mutants in a mouse infection model demonstrated that the antigen plays no essential role in the growth of M. intracellularein vivo. Site-directed mutagenesis of the 19Ag gene demonstrated that it plays no essential role in growth and pathogenicity of M. intracellulare; however, the exact nature of its biological function remains unknown.
Inhibition of Interferon Regulatory Factor 7 (IRF7)-Mediated Interferon Signal Transduction by the Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Viral IRF Homolog vIRF3

ABSTRACT Upon viral infection, the major defense mounted by the host immune system is activation of the interferon (IFN)-mediated antiviral pathway that is mediated by IFN regulatory factors (IRFs). In order to complete their life cycle, viruses must modulate the host IFN-mediated immune response. Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), a human tumor-inducing herpesvirus, has developed a unique mechanism for antagonizing cellular IFN-mediated antiviral activity by incorporating viral homologs of the cellular IRFs, called vIRFs. Here, we report a novel immune evasion mechanism of KSHV vIRF3 to block cellular IRF7-mediated innate immunity in response to viral infection. KSHV vIRF3 specifically interacts with either the DNA binding domain or the central IRF association domain of IRF7, and this interaction leads to the inhibition of IRF7 DNA binding activity and, therefore, suppression of alpha interferon (IFN-α) production and IFN-mediated immunity. Remarkably, the central 40 amino acids of vIRF3, containing the double α helix motifs, are sufficient not only for binding to IRF7, but also for inhibiting IRF7 DNA binding activity. Consequently, the expression of the double α helix motif-containing peptide effectively suppresses IRF7-mediated IFN-α production. This demonstrates a remarkably efficient means of viral avoidance of host antiviral activity.
Automatic Facial Expression Recognition

The face is innervated by two di↵erent brain systems that compete for control of its muscles: a cortical brain system related to voluntary and controllable behavior, and a sub-cortical system responsible for involuntary expressions. The interplay between these two systems generates a wealth of information that humans constantly use to read the emotions, intentions, and interests [25] of others. Given the critical role that facial expressions play in our daily life, technologies that can interpret and respond to facial expressions automatically are likely to find a wide range of applications. For example, in pharmacology, the e↵ect of new anti-depression drugs could be assessed more accurately based on daily records of the patients’ facial expressions than asking the patients to fill out a questionnaire, as it is currently done [7]. Facial expression recognition may enable a new generation of teaching systems to adapt to the expression of their students in the way good teachers do [61]. Expression recognition could be used to assess the fatigue of drivers and air-pilots [58, 59]. Daily-life robots with automatic expression recognition will be able to assess the states and intentions of humans and respond accordingly [41]. Smart phones with expression analysis may help people to prepare for important meetings and job interviews. Thanks to the introduction of machine learning methods, recent years have seen great progress in the field of automatic facial expression recognition. Commercial real-time expression recognition systems are starting to be used in consumer applications, e.g., smile detectors embedded in digital cameras [62]. Nonetheless, considerable progress has yet to be made: Methods for face detection and tracking (the first step of automated face analysis)
Acute fracture of the femoral neck: assessment of femoral head perfusion with gadopentetate dimeglumine-enhanced MR imaging.

OBJECTIVE Evaluation of the perfusion and viability of the femoral head after fracture of the femoral neck is important because the outcome of conservative treatment or joint-preserving surgery is adversely affected by the development of capital osteonecrosis. We evaluated the use of MR imaging, before and after IV administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine, for assessing perfusion of the femoral head in 13 patients with acute fracture of the femoral neck. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Multiecho (1600/30-240 [TR/TE]) MR images were obtained before contrast administration and gradient-echo (315/14, 90 degrees flip angle) MR images were obtained both before and after contrast administration. MR findings were correlated with findings on superselective digital subtraction angiograms of the vessels supplying the femoral head and with clinical-radiographic follow-up for at least 12 months. RESULTS Digital subtraction angiography showed impaired blood supply to the femoral head in five patients. On contrast-enhanced MR images of these patients, the femoral head did not enhance and was lower in signal intensity than were the enhancing femoral shaft and neck distal to the fracture and the enhancing femoral head on the unaffected side. In the patients with persistent perfusion, contrast-enhanced MR images showed a uniform increase in signal intensity in the femoral shaft and neck as well as the femoral head; the femoral head on the fractured side showed contrast enhancement similar to that on the healthy side. CONCLUSION These preliminary results indicate that contrast-enhanced MR imaging may be useful for noninvasive evaluation of femoral head perfusion after fracture of the femoral neck. MR findings also may aid the clinician in deciding between joint-preserving therapy and hip arthroplasty.
Inhibition of Mesothelin as a Novel Strategy for Targeting Cancer Cells

Mesothelin, a differentiation antigen present in a series of malignancies such as mesothelioma, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancer, has been studied as a marker for diagnosis and a target for immunotherapy. We, however, were interested in evaluating the effects of direct targeting of Mesothelin on the viability of cancer cells as the first step towards developing a novel therapeutic strategy. We report here that gene specific silencing for Mesothelin by distinct methods (siRNA and microRNA) decreased viability of cancer cells from different origins such as mesothelioma (H2373), ovarian cancer (Skov3 and Ovcar-5) and pancreatic cancer (Miapaca2 and Panc-1). Additionally, the invasiveness of cancer cells was also significantly decreased upon such treatment. We then investigated pro-oncogenic signaling characteristics of cells upon mesothelin-silencing which revealed a significant decrease in phospho-ERK1 and PI3K/AKT activity. The molecular mechanism of reduced invasiveness was connected to the reduced expression of β-Catenin, an important marker of EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition). Ero1, a protein involved in clearing unfolded proteins and a member of the ER-Stress (endoplasmic reticulum-stress) pathway was also markedly reduced. Furthermore, Mesothelin silencing caused a significant increase in fraction of cancer cells in S-phase. In next step, treatment of ovarian cancer cells (OVca429) with a lentivirus expressing anti-mesothelin microRNA resulted in significant loss of viability, invasiveness, and morphological alterations. Therefore, we propose the inhibition of Mesothelin as a potential novel strategy for targeting human malignancies.
Spindle microtubule dynamics in sea urchin embryos: analysis using a fluorescein-labeled tubulin and measurements of fluorescence redistribution after laser photobleaching

The rate of exchange of tubulin that is incorporated into spindle microtubules with dimeric tubulin in the cytoplasm has been measured in sea urchin eggs by studying fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching (FRAP). Dichlorotriazinyl amino fluorescein (DTAF) has been used to label bovine brain tubulin. DTAF-tubulin has been injected into fertilized eggs of Lytechinus variegatus and allowed to equilibrate with the endogenous tubulin pool. Fluorescent spindles formed at the same time that spindles were seen in control eggs, and the injected embryos proceeded through many cycles of division on schedule, suggesting that DTAF-tubulin is a good analogue of tubulin in vivo. A microbeam of argon laser light has been used to bleach parts of the fluorescent spindles, and FRAP has been recorded with a sensitive video camera. Laser bleaching did not affect spindle structure, as seen with polarization optics, nor spindle function, as seen by rate of progress through mitosis, even when one spindle was bleached several times in a single cell cycle. Video image analysis has been used to measure the rate of FRAP and to obtain a low resolution view of the fluorescence redistribution process. The half-time for spindle FRAP is approximately 19 s, even when an entire half-spindle is bleached. Complete exchange of tubulin in nonkinetochore spindle and astral microtubules appeared to occur within 60-80 s at steady state. This rate is too fast to be explained by a simple microtubule end-dependent exchange of tubulin. Efficient microtubule treadmilling would be fast enough, but with current techniques we saw no evidence for movement of the bleached spot during recovery, which we would expect on the basis of Margolis and Wilson's model (Nature (Lond.). , 1981, 293:705)-- fluorescence recovers uniformly. Microtubules may be depolymerizing and repolymerizing rapidly and asynchronously throughout the spindle and asters, but the FRAP data are most compatible with a rapid exchange of tubulin subunits all along the entire lengths of nonkinetochore spindle and astral microtubules.
Yamabe Constants and the Perturbed Seiberg-Witten Equations

Among all conformal classes of Riemannian metrics on ${\Bbb CP}_2$, that of the Fubini-Study metric is shown to have the largest Yamabe constant. The proof, which involves perturbations of the Seiberg-Witten equations, also yields new results on the total scalar curvature of almost-K\"ahler 4-manifolds.
Comparison of Methods to Quantify Volume During Resistance Exercise

McBride, JM, McCaulley, GO, Cormie, P, Nuzzo, JL, Cavill, MJ, and Triplett, NT. Comparison of methods to quantify volume during resistance exercise. J Strength Cond Res 23(1): 106-110, 2009-The purpose of this investigation was to compare 4 different methods of calculating volume when comparing resistance exercise protocols of varying intensities. Ten Appalachian State University students experienced in resistance exercise completed 3 different resistance exercise protocols on different days using a randomized, crossover design, with 1 week of rest between each protocol. The protocols included 1) hypertrophy: 4 sets of 10 repetitions in the squat at 75% of a 1-repetition maximum (1RM) (90-second rest periods); 2) strength: 11 sets of 3 repetitions at 90% 1RM (5-minute rest periods); and 3) power: 8 sets of 6 repetitions of jump squats at 0% 1RM (3-minute rest periods). The volume of resistance exercise completed during each protocol was determined with 4 different methods: 1) volume load (VL) (repetitions [no.] × external load [kg]); 2) maximum dynamic strength volume load (MDSVL) (repetitions [no.] × [body mass − shank mass (kg) + external load (kg)]); 3) time under tension (TUT) (eccentric time +milliseconds] + concentric time +milliseconds]); and 4) total work (TW) (force [N] × displacement [m]). The volumes differed significantly (p < 0.05) between hypertrophy and strength in comparison with the power protocol when VL and MDSVL were used to determine the volume of resistance exercise completed. Furthermore, significant differences in TUT existed between all 3 resistance exercise protocols. The TW calculated was not significantly different between the 3 protocols. These data imply that each method examined results in substantially different values when comparing various resistance exercise protocols involving different levels of intensity.
The effects of adrenomedullin overexpression in breast tumor cells.

BACKGROUND Adrenomedullin is a secreted peptide hormone with multiple activities. Several reports have indicated that adrenomedullin may be involved in tumor survival, but this has not been directly shown. Here we evaluate the in vitro and in vivo effects of adrenomedullin overexpression in human breast cancer cells. METHODS The human breast cancer cell lines T47D and MCF7, both of which express low basal levels of adrenomedullin, were stably transfected with an expression construct that contained the coding region of the human adrenomedullin gene or with empty expression vector. Properties of the transfected cells were assessed by proliferation and apoptosis assays, in vitro and in vivo angiogenesis assays, cell migration experiments, and xenograft implants. The effect of synthetic adrenomedullin on human ovarian (ECV) cancer cell motility was also tested. Western blot analysis was used to compare expression levels of several genes whose products are associated with cell growth and regulation of apoptosis. RESULTS T47D and MCF7 cells transfected with the adrenomedullin construct both expressed high levels of adrenomedullin mRNA and protein. Compared with cells transfected with empty vector, cells that overexpressed adrenomedullin displayed a more pleiotropic morphology, an increased angiogenic potential both in vitro and in vivo, and less apoptosis after serum deprivation. T47D and MCF7 cells did not display measurable motility, but ECV ovarian cancer cells treated with synthetic adrenomedullin were more motile than saline-treated ECV cells. Adrenomedullin-overexpressing T47D cells had higher levels of proteins involved in oncogenic signal transduction pathways (such as Ras, Raf, PKC, and MAPKp49) and lower levels of pro-apoptotic proteins (such as Bax, Bid, and caspase 8) than T47D cells transfected with empty vector. In a preliminary in vivo experiment, three of 10 nude mice injected with adrenomedullin-overexpressing T47D cells developed xenograft tumors, whereas none of the 10 nude mice injected with cells carrying the empty plasmid developed tumors. CONCLUSIONS These results further support the role of adrenomedullin as a survival factor for tumors. Development of physiologically efficient inhibitors of adrenomedullin may prove useful in the clinical management of cancer.
Non-Destructive Observation of Damage Processes in Loaded High Ductile Specimens with Different Crack Configuration by X-Ray Dynamic Defectoscopy

This work reports on the results of the experimental observation of development and evolution of material damage during loading processes in aluminium alloy flat specimens with different pre-crack configurations by means of the new “X-ray Dynamic Defectoscopy” technique and by plastic strain increments identified by the optical Method of Interpolated Ellipses on the its surface. We have acquired good knowledge about the evolution of damage zone during loading. The dependence of intensity and shape of damage zone on the crack configuration, part of the field previously little investigated experimentally, has been determined.
The Tumorigenicity of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells and In Vitro Differentiated Neuronal Cells Is Controlled by the Recipients' Immune Response

Embryonic stem (ES) cells have the potential to differentiate into all cell types and are considered as a valuable source of cells for transplantation therapies. A critical issue, however, is the risk of teratoma formation after transplantation. The effect of the immune response on the tumorigenicity of transplanted cells is poorly understood. We have systematically compared the tumorigenicity of mouse ES cells and in vitro differentiated neuronal cells in various recipients. Subcutaneous injection of 1×106 ES or differentiated cells into syngeneic or allogeneic immunodeficient mice resulted in teratomas in about 95% of the recipients. Both cell types did not give rise to tumors in immunocompetent allogeneic mice or xenogeneic rats. However, in 61% of cyclosporine A-treated rats teratomas developed after injection of differentiated cells. Undifferentiated ES cells did not give rise to tumors in these rats. ES cells turned out to be highly susceptible to killing by rat natural killer (NK) cells due to the expression of ligands of the activating NK receptor NKG2D on ES cells. These ligands were down-regulated on differentiated cells. The activity of NK cells which is not suppressed by cyclosporine A might contribute to the prevention of teratomas after injection of ES cells but not after inoculation of differentiated cells. These findings clearly point to the importance of the immune response in this process. Interestingly, the differentiated cells must contain a tumorigenic cell population that is not present among ES cells and which might be resistant to NK cell-mediated killing.
Medicinal uses and biological activities of Vitex negundo

Vitex negundo Linn. is credited with innumerable medicinal activities like analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant, antioxidant, bronchial relaxant, hepatoprotective, etc. The ethanolic extract of leaves has been found safe as LD 50 dose (by oral route) of it was recorded in non-toxic dose range. Larger trials are required to prove its all activities before it is recommended in future for clinical use, but it carries a great potential to be developed as a drug by the pharmaceutical industry. In this paper general medicinal uses and pharmacological activities of various parts of the plant have been reviewed.
Motion Correspondence in the Ternus Display Shows Feature Bias in Spatiotopic Coordinates Introduction

How is the visual system able to maintain object identity as the objects or the eyes move? While many early studies have shown small or no influence of feature information on this correspondence process, more recent studies have shown large feature effects. Here we investigated if this incongruity might be due to the distance over which the feature influence has an effect. We used a variation of the Ternus display (Ternus, 1926), an ambiguous apparent motion display, in which two sets of three discs are presented and one can perceive either three discs moving together (group motion) or one disc jumping across the other two discs (element motion). We biased the percept toward element motion by matching the features of some of the discs. In Experiment 1, with the three discs aligned and moving vertically, we added a horizontal offset between the two sets of discs and found a strong bias toward element motion that decreased with increasing spatial offset. In Experiment 3 participants had to make horizontal saccades across the same Ternus displays so that the two Ternus frames were horizontally offset on the retina, but not in spatiotopic coordinates. We found that the bias showed a similar spatial range, but now it was clear that the range was set in spatial coordinates independently of the retinal position. These results show that feature information contributes to correspondence over a limited spatial range (Experiment 1) and that the range is imposed in spatial, not retinal, coordinates (Experiment 2). (2012). Motion correspondence in the Ternus display shows feature bias in spatiotopic coordinates.