Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy expenditure in obstructive sleep apnea: effects of treatment with continuous positive airway pressure.

We examined 24-h energy expenditure (EE) in a chamber for indirect calorimetry in five male patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and six snoring control subjects (snorers). The 24-h EE was remeasured in patients with OSA after 3-mo treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Patients with OSA had a greater degree of severe sleep-breathing disturbance than snorers. Patients with OSA had higher 24-h EE [39.2 +/- 3.0 vs. 33.9 +/- 2.7 kcal.24 h-1.kg fat-free mass (FFM)-1, P < 0.05], daytime urinary norepinephrine and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA), and aminoterminal procollagen III peptide (PIIIp) levels, and they tended to have higher sleeping EE (32.4 +/- 4.1 vs. 26.3 +/- 1.9 kcal.24 h-1.kg FFM-1, P < 0.1) than snorers. CPAP treatment normalized sleep architecture and breathing. CPAP treatment also decreased sleep EE (from 32.4 +/- 4.1 to 27.2 +/- 1.4 kcal.24 h-1.kg FFM-1, P < 0.05) and EE variability during sleep (from 1.6 +/- 0.5 to 1.0 +/- 0.5 kcal.24 h-1.kg FFM-1, P < 0.05) and increased the basal metabolic rate-to-sleep EE ratio in all subjects. Serum PIIIp and plasma norepinephrine decreased after CPAP in all patients. We conclude that OSA is associated with an increased sleep EE, which is normalized by treatment with CPAP.
Blood Pressure in Healthy Humans Is Regulated by Neuronal NO Synthase

NO is physiologically generated by endothelial and neuronal NO synthase (nNOS) isoforms. Although nNOS was first identified in brain, it is expressed in other tissues, including perivascular nerves, cardiac and skeletal muscle. Increasing experimental evidence suggests that nNOS has important effects on cardiovascular function, but its composite effects on systemic hemodynamics in humans are unknown. We undertook the first human study to assess the physiological effects of systemic nNOS inhibition on basal hemodynamics. Seventeen healthy normotensive men aged 24±4 years received acute intravenous infusions of an nNOS-selective inhibitor, S-methyl-L-thiocitrulline, and placebo on separate occasions. An initial dose-escalation study showed that S-methyl-L-thiocitrulline (0.1–3.0 µmol/kg) induced dose-dependent changes in systemic hemodynamics. The highest dose of S-methyl-L-thiocitrulline (3.0 µmol/kg over 10 minutes) significantly increased systemic vascular resistance (+42±6%) and diastolic blood pressure (67±1 to 77±3 mm Hg) when compared with placebo (both P<0.01). There were significant decreases in heart rate (60±4 to 51±3 bpm; P<0.01) and left ventricular stroke volume (59±6 to 51±6 mL; P<0.01) but ejection fraction was unaltered. S-methyl-L-thiocitrulline had no effect on radial artery flow-mediated dilatation, an index of endothelial NOS activity. These results suggest that nNOS-derived NO has an important role in the physiological regulation of basal systemic vascular resistance and blood pressure in healthy humans.
When is an ecological network complex? Connectance drives degree distribution and emerging network properties

Connectance and degree distributions are important components of the structure of ecological networks. In this contribution, we use a statistical argument and simple network generating models to show that properties of the degree distribution are driven by network connectance. We discuss the consequences of this finding for (1) the generation of random networks in null-model analyses, and (2) the interpretation of network structure and ecosystem properties in relationship with degree distribution.
WAF1 accumulation by carbon-ion beam and alpha-particle irradiation in human glioblastoma cultured cells.

PURPOSE There have been no reports about the effects of heavy-ion beams on the expression of the WAF1 gene, although ionizing radiation such as y-rays and X-rays is well known to induce WAF1 (p21/CIP1/sdi1) gene expression in a p53-dependent manner. In the present study, it was examined whether WAF1 accumulation was induced after carbon-ion (C-) beam or alpha-particle irradiation in four glioblastoma cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS A colony assay for radiosensitivity and Western blot analysis of WAF1 were applied to two human glioblastoma cell lines, A-172 bearing wild-type p53 (wtp53) and T98G bearing mutated p53 (mp53). A-172/neo and A-172/mp53 were transfected with a control vector (containing only a neo selection marker) and a mp53 expression vector respectively. RESULTS The amount of WAF1 increased markedly after X-ray irradiation in A-172 and A-172/neo cells but not in T98G and A-172/mp53 cells. The level of WAF1 reached a plateau at 3-10 h after X-ray irradiation at 5 Gy in A-172 and A-172/neo cells. Likewise, the levels of WAF1 in A-172 and A-172/neo cells reached a plateau at 3-10 h and 6-24 h after C-beam (3.0 Gy) and alpha-particle (4.5 Gy) irradiation respectively. The amount of WAF1 increased markedly in a dose-dependent manner 10 h after X-ray, C-beam or alpha-particle irradiation in A-172 and A-172/neo cells but not in T98G or A-172/mp53 cells. In addition, cell survival assay showed that these cell lines were most sensitive to C-beams, less sensitive to alpha-particles and least sensitive to X-rays at 10% survival. There was no difference in sensitivity among these cell lines against C-beam and alpha-particle irradiation whereas wtp53 cells (A-172 and A-172/neo) were more sensitive to X-rays than mp53 cells (A-172/mp53 and T98G). CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that C-beams and alpha-particles induce p53-dependent WAF1 accumulation as well as is the case with X-rays, suggesting that WAF1 protein accumulation may not contribute to cell killing.
Are natural fiber composites environmentally superior to glass fiber reinforced composites ?

Natural fibers are emerging as low cost, lightweight and apparently environmentally superior alternatives to glass fibers in composites. We review select comparative life cycle assessment studies of natural fiber and glass fiber composites, and identify key drivers of their relative environmental performance. Natural fiber composites are likely to be environmentally superior to glass fiber composites in most cases for the following reasons: (1) natural fiber production has lower environmental impacts compared to glass fiber production; (2) natural fiber composites have higher fiber content for equivalent performance, reducing more polluting base polymer content; (3) the light-weight natural fiber composites improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions in the use phase of the component, especially in auto applications; and (4) end of life incineration of natural fibers results in recovered energy and carbon credits. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The Basic Properties of the Electronic Structure of the Oxygen-evolving Complex of Photosystem II Are Not Perturbed by Ca2+ Removal*

Background: EPR/55Mn ENDOR spectroscopy of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) and Mn2+ in Ca2+-depleted photosystem II. Results: Electronic model of the Ca2+-depleted OEC; characterization of Mn2+ binding. Conclusion: Ca2+ is not critical for maintaining the electronic and spatial structure of the OEC. Its removal exposes a Mn2+ binding site supposedly in an extrinsic subunit. Significance: Mechanistic implications for water oxidation; Mn2+ in photoassembly/D1 protein repair. Ca2+ is an integral component of the Mn4O5Ca cluster of the oxygen-evolving complex in photosystem II (PS II). Its removal leads to the loss of the water oxidizing functionality. The S2′ state of the Ca2+-depleted cluster from spinach is examined by X- and Q-band EPR and 55Mn electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy. Spectral simulations demonstrate that upon Ca2+ removal, its electronic structure remains essentially unaltered, i.e. that of a manganese tetramer. No redistribution of the manganese valence states and only minor perturbation of the exchange interactions between the manganese ions were found. Interestingly, the S2′ state in spinach PS II is very similar to the native S2 state of Thermosynechococcus elongatus in terms of spin state energies and insensitivity to methanol addition. These results assign the Ca2+ a functional as opposed to a structural role in water splitting catalysis, such as (i) being essential for efficient proton-coupled electron transfer between YZ and the manganese cluster and/or (ii) providing an initial binding site for substrate water. Additionally, a novel 55Mn2+ signal, detected by Q-band pulse EPR and ENDOR, was observed in Ca2+-depleted PS II. Mn2+ titration, monitored by 55Mn ENDOR, revealed a specific Mn2+ binding site with a submicromolar KD. Ca2+ titration of Mn2+-loaded, Ca2+-depleted PS II demonstrated that the site is reversibly made accessible to Mn2+ by Ca2+ depletion and reconstitution. Mn2+ is proposed to bind at one of the extrinsic subunits. This process is possibly relevant for the formation of the Mn4O5Ca cluster during photoassembly and/or D1 repair.
Testing the Robustness of Online Word Segmentation: Effects of Linguistic Diversity and Phonetic Variation

Models of the acquisition of word segmentation are typically evaluated using phonemically transcribed corpora. Accordingly, they implicitly assume that children know how to undo phonetic variation when they learn to extract words from speech. Moreover, whereas models of language acquisition should perform similarly across languages, evaluation is often limited to English samples. Using child-directed corpora of English, French and Japanese, we evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art statistical models given inputs where phonetic variation has not been reduced. To do so, we measure segmentation robustness across different levels of segmental variation, simulating systematic allophonic variation or errors in phoneme recognition. We show that these models do not resist an increase in such variations and do not generalize to typologically different languages. From the perspective of early language acquisition, the results strengthen the hypothesis according to which phonological knowledge is acquired in large part before the construction of a lexicon.
Robust Clustering by Evolutionary Computation

In this paper we present a scheme driven by evolutionary computation to overcome the problem of comparing clustering results. The clustering results are achieved by qualitatively different clustering algorithms, which produce different partitionings. Our scheme helps us to overcome these problems of algorithms by generating clustering ones and selecting the best evaluated to evolve in another generation until the whole procedure reaches a robust result.
Comparing Predictive and Co-occurrence Based Models of Lexical Semantics Trained on Child-directed Speech

Distributional Semantic Models have been successful at predicting many semantic behaviors. The aim of this paper is to compare two major classes of these models – co-occurrence-based models, and prediction error-driven models – in learning semantic categories from child-directed speech. Co-occurrence models have gained more attention in cognitive research, while research from computational linguistics on big datasets has found more success with prediction-based models. We explore differences between these types of lexical semantic models (as representatives of Hebbian vs. reinforcement learning mechanisms, respectively) within a more cognitively relevant context: the acquisition of semantic categories (e.g., apple and orange as fruit vs. soap and shampoo as bathroom items) from linguistic data available to children. We found that models that perform some form of abstraction outperform those that do not, and that co-occurrence-based abstraction models performed the best. However, different models excel at different categories, providing evidence for complementary learning systems.
Down-Regulation of the Escherichia coli K-12 nrf Promoter by Binding of the NsrR Nitric Oxide-Sensing Transcription Repressor to an Upstream Site

ABSTRACT FNR-dependent activation of the Escherichia coli K-12 nrf promoter is downregulated by the nitric oxide-sensitive NsrR protein together with the nucleoid-associated protein IHF, which bind to overlapping targets adjacent to the DNA site for FNR. The NsrR target is inactivated by mutation at the Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium nrf promoter.
A Dataset for Arabic Textual Entailment

There are fewer resources for textual entailment (TE) for Arabic than for other languages, and the manpower for constructing such a resource is hard to come by. We describe here a semi-automatic technique for creating a first dataset for TE systems for Arabic using an extension of the ‘headline-lead paragraph’ technique. We also sketch the difficulties inherent in volunteer annotators-based judgment, and describe a regime to ameliorate some of these.
[The diagnosis and treatment of colorectal Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 32 cases].

OBJECTIVE To summarize the clinical features, diagnostic and therapeutic experiences of colorectal Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). METHODS Clinical data of 32 patients with colorectal NHL admitted to our hospital from January 1988 to December 2006 was retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS This study included 22 B-cell NHL and 10 T-cell NHL cases. In the B-cell NHL group, the male: female ratio was 14:8 and the median age was 60.5 years. In the T-cell NHL group, the male: female ratio was 5:5 and the median age was 31.0 years. The ileocecal region was most frequently involved in both groups, which accounted for 77.3% and 60.0% of the B and T group respectively. The common clinical manifestations included abdominal pain, weight loss, and abdominal mass. Of the 14 cases of B-cell NHL with definite subtype classifications, 64.3% were of the Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) type. Among the 22 B-cell NHL, 40.9% were with localized diseases (stage I-II1), while all 10 patients in T-cell NHL group were in stage IV with 3 patients complicated with massive GI bleeding and 4 with perforation. All patients of B-cell type received chemotherapy utilizing mainly CHOP after surgical resection. After a median follow-up of 55 months, the disease-free survival was rate 88.2%. Among the T-cell NHL group, 8 out of 10 patients underwent surgery and chemotherapy was given to all those who could tolerate it. Five patients died within 2 months after surgery. It's known that 3 patients were still alive after 23 months. CONCLUSIONS The ileocecal region is the most frequently involved site of the colorectal NHL. The histology is usually B-cell type with a majority being DLBCL. Currently R-CHOP chemotherapy after the surgical resection is the principal treatment modality. Patients of B-cell type have a better prognosis while the prognosis of T-cell NHL is poor. Therefore more aggressive diagnostic and therapeutic approaches are recommended for T-cell NHL patients. The prospective of organ preservation treatment for colorectal NHL is still in need of further investigations.
The ( partial ) rehabilitation of interest rate parity in the floating rate era : Longer horizons , alternative expectations , and emerging markets

This paper examines several new empirical findings in the study of uncovered interest parity. It reviews recent developments in the study of long-horizon interest parity regressions, the implications of relaxing the rational expectations methodology and the characteristics of results pertaining to the non-G7 currencies, including those in less developed economies. In brief, the evidence against uncovered interest parity in the current floating rate era is not as great as is commonly thought, although it is still true that for the major currencies, the short-term interest differential remains a biased predictor of ex post changes in the exchange rate. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. JEL classification: F31; F41
Efficacy and Safety of Metreleptin in Patients with Partial Lipodystrophy: Lessons from an Expanded Access Program

Objective Patients with lipodystrophy have severe metabolic abnormalities (insulin resistance, diabetes, and hypertriglyceridemia) that may increase morbidity and mortality. Metreleptin is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for treatment of generalized forms of lipodystrophy. We aimed to determine the efficacy and safety of metreleptin among patients with partial lipodystrophy using an expanded-access model. Methods Study FHA101 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00677313) was an open-label, expanded-access, long-term clinical effectiveness and safety study in 23 patients with partial lipodystrophy and diabetes and/or hypertriglyceridemia with no prespecified leptin level. Metreleptin was administered subcutaneously at 0.02 mg/kg twice daily (BID) at Week 1, followed by 0.04 mg/kg BID at Week 2. Dose adjustments thereafter were based on patient response (maximum dose of 0.08 mg/kg BID). One-year changes in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, alanine and aspartate aminotransferases, and treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were evaluated. Results HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose, and triglycerides were numerically decreased throughout 1 year, with mean (standard error) changes from baseline of −0.88 (0.62)%, −42.0 (22.4) mg/dL, and −119.8 (84.1) mg/dL, respectively, which were greater among patients with higher baseline abnormalities. Liver enzymes did not worsen, and the most frequently observed TEAEs (≥ 10% incidence) were mild to moderate and included nausea (39.1%), hypoglycemia (26.1%), and urinary tract infections (26.1%)—all reported previously. There were no reports of clinically significant immune-related adverse events or new safety signals. Conclusions Our clinical observations document the large heterogeneity and disease burden of partial lipodystrophy syndromes and suggest that metreleptin treatment benefits may extend to patients with partial lipodystrophy. Additional studies are needed to confirm these preliminary findings.
Evolution of plant resistance and tolerance to frost damage

Plant defence against any type of stress may involve resistance (traits that reduce damage) or tolerance (traits that reduce the negative fitness impacts of damage). These two strategies have been proposed as redundant evolutionary alternatives. A late-season frost enabled us to estimate natural selection and genetic constraints on the evolution of frost resistance and tolerance in a wild plant species. We employed a genetic selection analysis (which is unbiased by environmental correlations between traits and fitness) on 75 paternal half-sibling families of annual wild radish [Raphanus raphanistrum (Brassicaceae)]. In an experimental population in southern Ontario, we found strong selection favouring plant resistance to frost, but selection against tolerance to frost. The selection against tolerance may have been caused by a cost of tolerance, as we provide evidence for a negative genetic correlation between tolerance and fitness in the absence of frost damage. Although we found no evidence for the theoretically predicted trade-off between frost tolerance and resistance among our families, we did detect negative correlational selection acting on the two traits, indicating that natural selection favoured high resistance combined with low tolerance and low resistance coupled with high tolerance, but not high or low levels of both traits together. There were few genetic correlations between the measured traits overall, but frost tolerance was negatively correlated with initial seed mass, and frost resistance was positively correlated with resistance to insect herbivory. Periodic episodes of strong selection such as that caused by the late-season frost may be disproportionately important in evolution, and are likely becoming more common because of human alterations of the environment.
Novel Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers for Low Dose Aspirin-Associated Small Bowel Bleeding

Background Aspirin-induced enteropathy is now increasingly being recognized although the pathogenesis of small intestinal damage induced by aspirin is not well understood and related risk factors have not been established. Aim To investigate pharmacogenomic profile of low dose aspirin (LDA)-induced small bowel bleeding. Methods Genome-wide analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was performed using the Affymetrix DMET™ Plus Premier Pack. Genotypes of candidate genes associated with small bowel bleeding were determined using TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assay kits and direct sequencing. Results In the validation study in overall 37 patients with small bowel bleeding and 400 controls, 4 of 27 identified SNPs: CYP4F11 (rs1060463) GG (p=0.003), CYP2D6 (rs28360521) GG (p=0.02), CYP24A1 (rs4809957) T allele (p=0.04), and GSTP1 (rs1695) G allele (p=0.04) were significantly more frequent in the small bowel bleeding group compared to the controls. After adjustment for significant factors, CYP2D6 (rs28360521) GG (OR 4.11, 95% CI. 1.62 -10.4) was associated with small bowel bleeding. Conclusions CYP4F11 and CYP2D6 SNPs may identify patients at increased risk for aspirin-induced small bowel bleeding.
Linkage of Bacterial Protein Synthesis and Presentation of MHC Class I-Restricted Listeria monocytogenes-Derived Antigenic Peptides

The processing and MHC class I-restricted presentation of antigenic peptides derived from the p60 protein of the facultative intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is tightly linked to bacterial protein synthesis. We used non-linear regression analysis to fit a mathematical model of bacterial antigen processing to a published experimental data set showing the accumulation and decay of p60-derived antigenic peptides in L. monocytogenes-infected cells. Two alternative models equally describe the experimental data. The simulation accounting for a stable and a hypothetical rapidly degraded form of antigen predicts that the antigenic peptides p60 217–225 and p60 449–457 are derived from a putative instable form of p60 with an average intracellular half-life of approximately 3 minutes accounting for approximately 31% of all p60 molecules synthesized. The alternative model predicts that both antigenic peptides are processed from p60 degraded intracellularly with a half-life of 109 min and that antigen processing only occurs as long as bacterial protein synthesis is not inhibited. In order to decide between both models the intracellular accumulation of p60 in infected cells was studied experimentally and compared with model predictions. Inhibition of p60 degradation by the proteasome inhibitor epoxomicin revealed that during the first 3 h post infection approximately 30% of synthesized p60 molecules were degraded. This value is significantly lower than the approximately 50% degradation of p60 that would be expected in the presence of the predicted putative short-lived state of p60 and also fits precisely with the predictions of the alternative model, indicating that the tight connection of bacterial protein biosynthesis and antigen processing and presentation of L. monocyctogenes-derived antigenic peptides is not caused by the presence of a highly instable antigenic substrate.