Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protective effect of endogenous hydrogen sulfide against oxidative stress in gastric ischemia-reperfusion injury

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gaseous signaling molecule, which plays a critical role in a number of physiological and pathological progresses. In order to determine the effect of endogenous H2S on gastric ischemia-reperfusion (GI-R), we evaluated the gastric mucosal damage in rats intraperitoneally injected with DL-propargylglycine (PAG, 50 mg/kg/day) or L-cysteine (L-cys, 50 mg/kg/day) for 7 days before GI-R. GI-R injury was achieved by clamping the celiac artery for 30 min, followed by reperfusion for 60 min. Gastric mucosal damage was macroscopically assessed in the area of injury and deep damage was assessed by histopathological scoring. PAG increased the area of gastric mucosal injury and deep damage compared with that in untreated GI-R rats (P<0.05). While PAG decreased the H2S concentration and cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE) expression in the gastric mucosa, L-cys significantly attenuated the effects of GI-R. Western blot analysis revealed that the increases of malondialdehyde (MDA) and xanthine oxidase (XOD), and decreases of glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the restriction of superoxide (O2−) production in the PAG group were inhibited by L-cys (P<0.05). Endogenous H2S has a protective effect against GI-R in rats by inhibiting oxygen free radical overproduction.
I.Q. Changes in Chronic Schizophrenia

The question of the long-stay mental hospital population has recently received a great deal of attention. Proposals, based on the statistics of mental hospital admissions and discharges over the last few years, the increasing development of day hospitals, out-patient clinics, psychiatric units attached to general hospitals, and community services for the mentally ill within the general framework of new and improved methods of treatment, have led to considerable thought as to how best to reintegrate former mental hospital patients into the community. The process of discharging long-stay patients has, of course, been continuous, but the numbers involved have been comparatively small in the past. A policy of reducing considerably the number of mental hospital beds depends partly on aiming at the highest possible maintenance capacity of discharged patients. For long-stay female patients this would involve, among other aims, the re-training in domestic skills to adequate levels, while in male patients the aim would have to be some form of industrial resettlement. The general aim of increasing the activity and skill level of long-stay mental patients has found its expression in the establishment of industrial workshops. From its early beginnings (Baker, 1956) this form of therapy has developed into the establishment of production workshops or factories both inside and outside the walls of mental hospitals. (Wadsworth, Scott and Tonge, 1958; Early, 1960; Cooper and Early, 1961; Wadsworth et al 1961, 1962.)
Bidirectional Ventricular Tachycardia and Fibrillation Elicited in a Knock-In Mouse Model Carrier of a Mutation in the Cardiac Ryanodine Receptor

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is an inherited disease characterized by adrenergically mediated polymorphic ventricular tachycardia leading to syncope and sudden cardiac death. The autosomal dominant form of CPVT is caused by mutations in the RyR2 gene encoding the cardiac isoform of the ryanodine receptor. In vitro functional characterization of mutant RyR2 channels showed altered behavior on adrenergic stimulation and caffeine administration with enhanced calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. As of today no experimental evidence is available to demonstrate that RyR2 mutations can reproduce the arrhythmias observed in CPVT patients. We developed a conditional knock-in mouse model carrier of the R4496C mutation, the mouse equivalent to the R4497C mutations identified in CPVT families, to evaluate if the animals would develop a CPVT phenotype and if beta blockers would prevent arrhythmias. Twenty-six mice (12 wild-type (WT) and 14RyRR4496C) underwent exercise stress testing followed by epinephrine administration: none of the WT developed ventricular tachycardia (VT) versus 5/14 RyRR4496C mice (P=0.02). Twenty-one mice (8 WT, 8 RyRR4496C, and 5 RyRR4496C pretreated with beta-blockers) received epinephrine and caffeine: 4/8 (50%) RyRR4496C mice but none of the WT developed VT (P=0.02); 4/5 RyRR4496C mice pretreated with propranolol developed VT (P=0.56 nonsignificant versus RyRR4496C mice). These data provide the first experimental demonstration that the R4496C RyR2 mutation predisposes the murine heart to VT and VF in response caffeine and/or adrenergic stimulation. Furthermore, the results show that analogous to what is observed in patients, beta adrenergic stimulation seems ineffective in preventing life-threatening arrhythmias.
Influence of Motivation Factor and Anxiety in L2 Learning among Engineering Students in Dharmapuri, India

Objectives: This study investigates the influence of motivation factors and language anxiety in second language learning among engineering students in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu, India.The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between L2 learners' motivation factors and language anxiety. Methods: The researchers had adopted Gardner's Attitude and Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) questionnaire and conducted semi-structured interviews. The data were collected from 120 engineering college students and the interview was conducted with twenty respondents. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Cronbach's Alpha, and Correlation. Findings: The results revealed that motivation factors and language anxiety are positively correlated among Technical L2 learners. Applications/Improvements: The language instructor could create pleasant and collaborative environment inside the classroom.
Dissemination of Clostridium difficile spores between environment and households: Dog paws and shoes

Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic, spore‐forming bacterium that causes intestinal infections. Although C. difficile is still predominantly considered as a nosocomial pathogen, there has been an increase in the number of community‐associated infections. Since C. difficile is ubiquitous and can be isolated from nearly any environment, one of the possibilities for community acquisition could be exposure to spores in the domestic environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of C. difficile spores on shoes, slippers and on dog paws and to explore the importance of these surfaces as vectors for the dissemination of C. difficile in a domestic environment. Overall, C. difficile was present in 14 (70%) of 20 households and in 31 of 90 (34%) collected samples. Shoes and slippers had the highest positivity rates, 19 of 44 (43%) and 6 of 21 (28%), respectively, followed by dog paws 6 of 25 (24%). Thirteen C. difficilePCR ribotypes were identified with half of the isolates belonging to ribotype 014/020, which is the predominant type circulating in human population and is also commonly found in the environment (e.g. soil and water) in Slovenia. In three households, identical PCR ribotypes were found on dog paws, shoes and slippers. To understand the fine‐scale genetic relatedness of these isolates, we sequenced the genomes. Low level of single nucleotide variant (SNV) differences between isolates from the same households, consistent with a recent transmission from a common source, were seen for isolates of PCR ribotype 014/020 but not for PCR ribotype 010. Our results suggest that shoe soles and dog paws could serve for the dissemination of C. difficile spores between households and environment and could contribute to community‐relevant sources for C. difficile infection in humans.
Do uniruled six-manifolds contain Sol Lagrangian submanifolds?

We prove using symplectic field theory that if the suspension of a hyperbolic diffeomorphism of the two-torus Lagrangian embeds in a closed uniruled symplectic six-manifold, then its image contains the boundary of a symplectic disc with vanishing Maslov index. This prevents such a Lagrangian submanifold to be monotone, for instance the real locus of a smooth real Fano manifold. It also prevents any Sol manifold to be in the real locus of an orientable real Del Pezzo fibration over a curve, confirming an expectation of J. Kollar. Finally, it constraints Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of uniruled symplectic four-manifolds.
Antioxidant activities of different tissue extract of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) containing phenolic compounds.

Polyphenols and tannins have implications for health and nutrition because of their antioxidant activities. Foods with high content of phenolics, such as fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, show decreasing incidence of several diseases upon their consumption. However, there are limited reports on antioxidative properties of tannins present in legumes. Faba bean seed has been known for high content of condensed tannin which is attributed as one of the antinutritional factors in this highly proteinaceous pulse crop. Therefore, the objective of this study was to estimate and characterize the phenolic compounds in different tissues of this underutilized pulse and their antioxidative activities. Fairly good amount of phenolics were observed in all tissues extract which was quite evident from their high FRAP (Ferric reducing antioxidant power) value. It was further, observed that the extract prepared from its seeds presented a potent radical scavenger activity as indicated by its high capacity to reduce the free radical diphenylpicrylhydrazyl, whereas the tannin-free extract indicated loss of antioxidative activities. The seed extract also interacted with superoxide anions, hydroxyl radicals as well as the oxidant species, hydrogen peroxide. Thus, our results provide evidence that the extract prepared from different tissues of faba bean shows antioxidant and radical scavenging activities largely because of its condensed tannins (proanthocyanidins).
Conventional and genetic measures of seed dispersal for Dipteryx panamensis (Fabaceae) in continuous and fragmented Costa Rican rain forest

The effects of habitat fragmentation on seed dispersal can strongly influence the evolutionary potential of tropical forest plant communities. Few studies have combined traditional methods and molecular tools for the analysis of dispersal in fragmented landscapes. Here seed dispersal distances were documented for the tree Dipteryx panamensis in continuous forest and two forest fragments in Costa Rica, Central America. Distance matrices were calculated between adult trees (n = 283) and the locations of seeds (n = 3016) encountered along 100 × 4-m transects (n = 77). There was no significant difference in the density of seeds dispersed > 25 m from the nearest adult (n = 253) among sites. There was a strong correlation between the locations of dispersed seeds and the locations of overstorey palms favoured as bat feeding roosts in continuous forest and both fragments. Exact dispersal distances were determined for a subset of seeds (n = 14) from which maternal endocarp DNA could be extracted and matched to maternal trees using microsatellite analysis. Dispersal within fragments and from pasture trees into adjacent fragments was documented, at a maximum distance of 853 m. Results show no evidence of a fragmentation effect on D. panamensis seed dispersal in this landscape and strongly suggest bat-mediated dispersal at all sites.
Risk Factors for Febrile Seizures: A Matched Case Control Study

INTRODUCTION: Febrile seizures (FSs) are benign convulsions that occur in infants or small children and are brought on by fever without evidence of meningitis or encephalitis (1) . It is the most common type of seizures and occurs in 2-4% of all children (2) . In spit of its high prevalence, little is known about the etiology (1) and many risk factors had been suggested (3-13) . In a population study in south Taiwan, Huang found the presence of FSs in the siblings and the numbers of fever episodes per year were the independent and significant predictors of FSs for an individual case (3) . Doose found that seizure incidence in offspring. Offspring of individual with a history of FSs was 10% and offspring of females with affected parents were at an increased risk (4) . In large families, the FSs susceptibility trait is inherited as autosomal dominant pattern with reduced penterance, in other families; inheritance appears to be multifactorial (5) .
Sox9 is required for prostate development and prostate cancer initiation

Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignancies and the second leading cause of death from cancer in men. The molecular mechanisms driving prostate carcinogenesis are complex; with several lines of evidence suggesting that the re-expression of conserved developmental programs plays a key role. In this study, we used conditional gene targeting and organ grafting, to describe conserved roles for the transcription factor Sox9 in the initiation of both prostate organogenesis and prostate carcinogenesis in murine models. Abrogation of Sox9 expression prior to the initiation of androgen signaling blocks the initiation of prostate development. Similarly, Sox9 deletion in two genetic models of prostate cancer (TRAMP and Hi-Myc) prevented cancer initiation. Expression profiling of Sox9-null prostate epithelial cells revealed that the role of Sox9 in the initiation of prostate development may relate to its regulation of multiple cytokeratins and cell adherence/polarity. Due to its essential role in cancer initiation, manipulation of Sox9 targets in at-risk men may prove useful in the chemoprevention of prostate cancer.
The Hopf Algebra of Fliess Operators and Its Dual Pre-lie Algebra

We study the Hopf algebra H of Fliess operators coming from Control Theory in the one-dimensional case. We prove that it admits a graded, finite-dimensional, connected grading. Dually, the vector space ℝ ⟨ x 0, x 1 ⟩ is both a pre-Lie algebra for the pre-Lie product dual of the coproduct of H, and an associative, commutative algebra for the shuffle product. These two structures admit a compatibility which makes ℝ ⟨ x 0, x 1 ⟩ a Com-Pre-Lie algebra. We give a presentation of this object as a pre-Lie algebra.
Fitting Superellipses

In the literature, methods for fitting superellipses to data tend to be computationally expensive due to the nonlinear nature of the problem. This paper describes and tests several fitting techniques which provide different trade-offs between efficiency and accuracy. In addition, we describe various alternative error of fit measures that can be applied by most superellipse fitting methods.
Incomplete Assessment of Experimental Cytoprotectants in Rodent Ischemia Studies

Background: Inadequate preclinical testing (e.g., rodent studies) has been partly blamed for the failure of many cytoprotectants to effectively treat stroke in humans. For example, some drugs went to clinical trial without rigorous functional and histological assessment over long survival times. In this study, we characterized recent experimental practices in rodent cytoprotection experiments to determine whether the limitations of early studies have been rectified. Methods: We identified 138 rodent cytoprotection studies published in several leading journals (Journal of Neuroscience, Stroke, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism and Experimental Neurology) for 2000 - 2002 and compared these to those published in 1990. From each study we determined the ischemia model, age and sex of the animal, the histological and functional endpoints used, and the methodology used to assess intra- and postischemic temperature. Results: Ninety-eight percent of recent studies used young adult rodents and most used males. Most studies (60%) did not assess functional outcome and survival times were often ≤ 48 hr (66%) for focal ischemia and ≤ 7 days (80%) for global ischemia. Over 60% of the experiments relied solely upon rectal temperature during ischemia and only 32.6% of ischemia studies measured temperature after surgery. The 1990 data were similar. Conclusion: Many investigators ignore the need to assess long-term functional and histological outcome and do not accurately represent clinical conditions of ischemia (e.g., use of aged animals). In addition, intra- and postischemic temperature measurement and control is frequently neglected or inadequately performed. Further clinical failures are likely.
Assessment of Measures of Physical Activity of Children with Cerebral Palsy at Home and School: A Pilot Study

Home and school are important settings where children can accrue health promoting physical activity (PA). Little is known about the PA levels and associated environmental characteristics at home and school in children with cerebral palsy (CP). An observational tool - Behaviors of Eating and Activity for Children’s Health Evaluation System (BEACHES) - offers potential for providing information. Objective: To validate BEACHES against Actigraph accelerometer and to document PA of children with CP at a special residential school facility for children with physical disabilities. Methods: Five children with CP (2 girls, 3 boys; aged 9.82 ± 2.39 years) in Level I of the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) participated. PA monitoring was conducted once a week during four consecutive weeks at morning recess at school and during after school hours at the children’s residence. Estimates of time spent being sedentary and being active were derived from the Actigraph and compared to estimates obtained with BEACHES. Results: Children’s PA observed using BEACHES was comparable to the Actigraph estimations. In general, children were more active at recess than after school and the physical locations assessed by BEACHES were associated with objectively measured PA time. Conclusion: This pilot study indicates that BEACHES appears to be a suitable measure of PA for children with CP in both home and school settings. Additional study with a larger and more diverse sample is recommended to verify the results.
Characterization of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli strains isolated in the region of Nis, Serbia.

INTRODUCTION Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli represent one of the main causes of bacterial diarrhoea in humans. Although the disease is usually mild and self-limiting, severe chronic sequelae may occur, such as reactive arthritis, Guillain-Barré and Miller Fisher syndromes. Serotyping is used as an epidemiological marker, while post-infective polyneuropathies are associated with several O serotypes. OBJECTIVE Strains of C. jejuni and C. coli were serotyped based on heat stable (HS) and heat labile (HL) antigens, as well as biotypes to determine strain diversity. METHODS Campylobacter spp. was isolated using selective blood media with antibiotics. Differentiation to the species level was done by a combination of biotyping tests and by a PCR-based RFLP test. The isolates were characterised by Penner and Lior serotyping methods. RESULTS The serotypes showed diversity without predominant serotypes. 24 HS serotypes were detected among 29 C. jejuni strains, and seven serotypes among nine C. coli strains. HL serotyping method successfully typed 62.5% of strains. Among 16 C.jejuni strains 14 serotypes were detected, and three among four C. coli strains. A C.jejuni strain associated with a patient with Guillain-Barré syndrome was typed as biotype II, O:19. CONCLUSION The biotyping and serotyping results have indicated that C. jejuni and C. coli strains in the region of Nis, Serbia are diverse and could be probably of unrelated sources of origin or reservoirs. The strain associated with the Guillain-Barré syndrome patient was serotype O:19, one of the most common in this post-infective complication.
High Medication Adherence During Periconception Periods Among HIV-1–Uninfected Women Participating in a Clinical Trial of Antiretroviral Pre-exposure Prophylaxis

Introduction:Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may be an important safer conception strategy for HIV-1–uninfected women with HIV-1–infected partners. Understanding medication adherence in this population may inform whether PrEP is a feasible safer conception strategy. Methods:We evaluated predictors of pregnancy and adherence to study medication among HIV-1–uninfected women enrolled in a randomized placebo-controlled trial of PrEP among African HIV-1–serodiscordant couples. Participants were counseled on HIV-1 risk reduction, contraception, and adherence and tested for pregnancy at monthly study visits. Pill counts of dispensed drug were performed and, at a subset of visits, plasma was collected to measure active drug concentration. Results:Among 1785 women, pregnancy incidence was 10.2 per 100 person-years. Younger age, not using contraception, having an additional sexual partner, and reporting unprotected sex were associated with increased likelihood of pregnancy. Monthly clinic pill counts estimated that women experiencing pregnancy took 97% of prescribed doses overall, with at least 80% pill adherence for 98% of study months, and no difference in adherence in the periconception period compared with previous periods (P = 0.98). Tenofovir was detected in plasma at 71% of visits where pregnancy was discovered. By multiple measures, adherence was similar for women experiencing and not experiencing pregnancy (P ≥ 0.1). Conclusions:In this clinical trial of PrEP, pregnancy incidence was 10% per year despite excellent access to effective contraception. Women experiencing pregnancy had high medication adherence, suggesting that PrEP may be an acceptable and feasible safer conception strategy for HIV-1–uninfected women with HIV-1–serodiscordant partners.
Phylogenetic Relationships in the Genus Rosa: New Evidence from Chloroplast DNA Sequences and an Appraisal of Current Knowledge

Abstract The genus Rosa (roses) comprises approximately 190 shrub species distributed widely throughout the temperate and subtropical habitats of the northern hemisphere. Despite numerous recent studies examining phylogenetic relationships in the genus, relationships remain obscure due to problems such as poor identification of garden specimens, hybridization in nature and in the garden, and low levels of chloroplast and nuclear genome variation. Phylogenetic analyses of non-coding chloroplast sequences from the trnL-F region and psbA-trnH intergenic spacer for 70 taxa show slightly more variation than previous analyses of the genus. Bayesian and parsimony analyses suggest that subg. Rosa can be divided into two large clades, each with low internal resolution. One comprises species from sections Carolinae, Cinnamomeae and Pimpinellifoliae p.p., whilst the other consists of all of the remaining sections of subg. Rosa (Banksianae p.p., Bracteatae, Caninae, Indicae, Laevigatae, Rosa, Synstylae and Pimpinellifoliae p.p.). A fairly complete sampling of field-collected North American taxa has been incorporated in this analysis. Analyses indicate that migration into North America occurred at least twice within this primarily Old World genus. Most North American taxa, except R. setigera and R. minutifolia, fall into a single clade that includes Asian and European taxa. Analyses also are consistent with the notion that cultivated commercial roses have a relatively narrow genetic background. Six of the seven primary taxa believed to be involved in the creation of domesticated roses are found within the same large clade that mostly includes Asian and European taxa.