Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of trypan blue on cell viability and gene expression in human retinal pigment epithelial cells

Aim: To evaluate the effects of trypan blue on cell viability and gene expression in human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. Methods: Three concentrations (0.06 mg/ml, 0.6 mg/ml, and 4 mg/ml) of trypan blue were applied to human ARPE19 cells for 1 minute. Cell viability was measured using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. RPE cells were sampled daily for 6 consecutive days to assess the effects of trypan blue on cell viability. The effects of trypan blue on the expression of apoptosis related and cell cycle arrest gene expressions including c-fos, c-jun, p53, and p21 were performed using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and immunostaining. Results: The MTT assay showed a concentration dependent suppression effect of trypan blue on cell viability, with higher reduction in the 0.6 mg/ml and 4 mg/ml trypan blue treated groups. No significant change in the expression of c-fos and c-jun was found with all three concentrations of trypan blue. An increase in p53 expression was found in the 4 mg/ml trypan blue treated group at 10–30 minutes after trypan blue application. Immunostaining showed a mild, albeit insignificant, increase of p53 expression in the RPE cells. No significant increase in p21 expression was observed in the 0.06 mg/ml trypan blue treated group but there were significant increases in p21 expression in both the 0.6 mg/ml (p = 0.032) and the 4 mg/ml (p = 0.025) treated groups. Conclusions: Trypan blue may lead to toxicity on cultured RPE cells as indicated by the reduction in cell viability and changes in the expression of apoptosis related and cell cycle arrest genes at higher concentrations. The application of 0.06 mg/ml trypan blue for 1 minute appeared to have no significant effect on cultured RPE.
Brain Oscillations and Functional Connectivity during Overt Language Production

In the present study we investigate the communication of different large scale brain sites during an overt language production task with state of the art methods for the estimation of EEG functional connectivity. Participants performed a semantic blocking task in which objects were named in semantically homogeneous blocks of trials consisting of members of a semantic category (e.g., all objects are tools) or in heterogeneous blocks, consisting of unrelated objects. The classic pattern of slower naming times in the homogeneous relative to heterogeneous blocks is assumed to reflect the duration of lexical selection. For the collected data in the homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions the imaginary part of coherency (ImC) was evaluated at different frequencies. The ImC is a measure for detecting the coupling of different brain sites acting on sensor level. Most importantly, the ImC is robust to the artifact of volume conduction. We analyzed the ImC at all pairs of 56 EEG channels across all frequencies. Contrasting the two experimental conditions we found pronounced differences in the theta band at 7 Hz and estimated the most dominant underlying brain sources via a minimum norm inverse solution based on the ImC. As a result of the source localization, we observed connectivity between occipito-temporal and frontal areas, which are well-known to play a major role in lexical-semantic language processes. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of investigating interactive brain activity during overt language production.
Changes in intracardiac blood flow velocities and right and left ventricular stroke volumes with gestational age in the normal human fetus: a prospective Doppler echocardiographic study.

We used Doppler echocardiography to quantitate the changes in intracardiac blood flow velocities and right and left ventricular stroke volumes in 80 normal human fetuses from 19 to 40 weeks gestation. Blood flow velocity spectra across the aortic, pulmonary, tricuspid, and mitral valves were digitized to obtain peak velocities (m/sec) and flow velocity integrals. Aortic and pulmonary diameters were measured at valve level from two-dimensional echocardiographic images and cross-sectional area was calculated assuming a circular orifice. Ventricular stroke volume was calculated as the product of the cross-sectional area of a great vessel and the flow velocity integral through that vessel. The pulmonary arterial and aortic diameters increased linearly with gestational age (r = .82, r = .84), and pulmonary arterial diameter consistently exceeded aortic diameter. There was a positive relationship between stroke volume and gestational age: stroke volume increased exponentially from 0.7 ml at 20 weeks to 7.6 ml at 40 weeks for the right ventricle (r = .87) and from 0.7 ml at 20 weeks to 5.2 ml at 40 weeks for the left ventricle (r = .91). Similar results were obtained for right and left ventricular and combined cardiac outputs. In 44% of the fetuses it was possible to quantitate both right and left ventricular stroke volumes. There was a close correlation between right and left ventricular stroke volumes in these fetuses (r = .96) and right ventricular stroke volume exceeded left ventricular stroke volume by 28%. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Congestive heart failure in subjects with thyrotoxicosis in a black community

Introduction: Thyroid hormone has profound effects on a number of metabolic processes in virtually all tissues but the cardiovascular manifestations are prominent usually creating a hyperdynamic circulatory state. Thyrotoxicosis is not a common cause of congestive heart failure among black communities. Objectives: To determine the hospital prevalence, clinical characteristics and echocardiographic findings in patients with thyrotoxicosis who present with congestive heart failure (CCF) in the eastern part of Nigeria. Subjects and methods: A total of 50 subjects aged 15 years and above who were diagnosed as thyrotoxic following clinical and thyroid function tests were consecutively recruited. Fifty age- and sex-matched controls with no clinical or biochemical evidence of thyrotoxicosis and no comorbidities were used as controls. Two-dimensional echocardiography was carried out on all the subjects. CCF was determined clinically and echocardiographically. Results: Eight patients (5 females and 3 males) out of a total of 50 thyrotoxic patients presented with congestive heart failure. Conclusion: The study revealed that congestive heart failure can occur in thyrotoxicosis in spite of the associated hyperdynamic condition. The underlying mechanism may include direct damage by autoimmune myocarditis, congestive circulation secondary to excess sodium, and fluid retention.
Epidemiological profile of adult patients with tuberculosis and AIDS in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil: cross-referencing tuberculosis and AIDS databases.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the epidemiological profile of patients with tuberculosis (TB) only and that of patients with TB/AIDS in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, between 2000 and 2006. METHODS For the patients of interest, we collected demographic and clinical data from the Epidemiological Surveillance Center (TB database), Brazilian Case Registry Database, and Brazilian National Mortality Database, as well as the Brazilian National CD4+/CD8+ T Lymphocyte Count and Viral Load Network Laboratory Test Control System and the Logistic Medication Monitoring System (HIV/AIDS databases). All of the compiled data were cross-referenced. RESULTS During the study period, we identified 9,543 TB patients > 15 years of age, 437 of whom (4.6%) had AIDS. The median age did not differ between TB/AIDS and TB-only patients (35 years vs. 38 years). Of the 437 TB/AIDS patients, 298 (68.2%) were male, and 156 (35.8%) were in the 30-39 age bracket. In terms of TB treatment outcome, 79.0% were cured, 9.7% were referred to other facilities, 6.0% died, 5.2% abandoned treatment, and 0.2% developed multidrug-resistant TB. Death was 4.75 times more common in patients with TB/AIDS than in those with TB only. Pulmonary TB accounted for 82.4% of the cases. The combination of pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB was 8.2 times more common in the TB/AIDS patients than in the TB-only patients (95% CI: 6.2-10.8). CONCLUSIONS Our results emphasize the significance of AIDS among TB patients in Brazil, as well as the importance of evaluating secondary data in order to improve their quality and develop public health interventions.
Chronic Ankle Instability Leads to Lower Extremity Kinematic Changes During Landing Tasks: A Systematic Review

Ankle and knee injuries are two of the most common injuries. It has been shown that ankle sprains can lead to chronic ankle instability thereby affecting the function of the ankle. Since the lower extremity is a kinetic chain anything that affects the ankle is thought to affect the knee and hip as well. Changes in lower extremity function associated with chronic ankle instability may predispose patients for non-contact ACL injuries. The purpose of this study was to provide a systematic review of the research done on chronic ankle instability (CAI) and lower extremity kinematics during landing tasks. SportsDiscus, PubMed, and CINAHL were used to search “ankle instability” and “landing kinematics. ” Included articles must have evaluated patients with chronic ankle instability and have identified kinematic changes at the knee to be included in the review. A total of 338 subjects participated in the six studies identified. The principal findings in these studies were that CAI subjects had decreased knee flexion compared to the control group. Hip flexion was the same between CAI and control groups and dorsiflexion range of motion had mixed results. Patients with chronic ankle instability demonstrate decreased knee flexion. Decreased knee flexion has shown to be a key risk factor in non-contact knee injuries. In the future, more research needs to be done comparing chronic ankle instability to non-contact knee injury rates.
IMAGE STEGANOGRAPHY METHOD BASED ON KOHONEN NEURAL NETWORK

A new high capacity image steganography method based on kohonen neural network is introduced. Kohonen network is trained according to the absolute contrast sensitivity of pixels present in cover image. Trained network classify the pixels in different classes of sensitivity. Data embedding is performed in less sensitive pixels by LSB substitution method, which replaces the least significant bits of cover image with secret information that would be embedded. We implement Optimal Pixel Adjustment Process (OPAP) to obtain an optimal mapping function to reduce the difference error between the cover and the stego-image, therefore improving the hiding capacity with low distortions. On the receiving side, the original image is not needed for extracting the embedded data. It is observed that the capacity and security is increased with acceptable PSNR in the proposed algorithm compared to the existing algorithm.
The interaction between tea polyphenols and rice starch during gelatinization

The interaction between tea polyphenols (TPLs) and rice starch (RS) during gelatinization has been studied. In the RVA analysis, TPLs-fortified RS exhibited no clearly defined peak viscosity and hot paste viscosity. After excluding other factors, irregular viscosity changes were attributed to the strong interactions between RS and TPLs during pasting/gelatinization. Subsequently, the coupling constants of samples A (the gelatinized sample of the blend of 16% TPLs and RS) and B (the blend of 16% TPLs and gelatinized RS sample) in 1H-NMR measurements were found to be the difference. Sample A had two coupling constants, 26hJHH = 82.08, 100.77 Hz and 6hJHH = 35.57 Hz, whereas Sample B had one larger coupling constant, 9hJHH = 140.24 Hz. This implied that these two samples differed in H–H interaction and interaction strength of sample A may be stronger than that of sample B. More important is, sample A had clearly broadened O–H stretching and frequency red-shifts of C–O–H bending as compared with sample B in quantitative FT–IR analysis. The overall results indicate that TPLs and RS can have hydrogen bonding interaction during gelatinization.
Towards polymer composites with ultimate conductivity

• A submitted manuscript is the author's version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Users inventing ways to enjoy new mobile services - the case of watching mobile videos

The introduction and marketing of third-generation mobile services has not been enough to make them a commercial success. User involvement and user innovations are apparently needed before such success can be achieved. We handed out mobile phones with video capability to test users to see what kind of meaningful contexts they might find for watching streaming mobile video. There were at least two different contexts in which they considered it natural to view mobile video. Firstly, they were able to avoid boring situations by entertaining themselves. Secondly, mobile video made it possible to share experiences with other people. Singing karaoke together or watching cartoons with children offered fun moments and represented a type of use not frequently found in visions of mobile entertainment.
A usability study of awareness widgets in a shared workspace groupware system

Workspace awareness is knowledge about others’ interaction with a shared workspace. Groupware systems provide only limited information about other participants, often compromising workspace awareness. This paper describes a usability study of several widgets designed to help maintain awareness in a groupware workspace. These widgets include a miniature view, a radar view, a multiuser scrollbar, and a “what you see is what I do” view. The study examined the widgets’ information content, how easily people could interpret them, and whether they were useful or distracting. Experimenter observations, subject questionnaires, and interviews indicate that the miniature and radar displays are useful and valuable for tasks involving spatial manipulation of artifacts.
Formalized systems development methodologies: a critical perspective

Systems development issues occupy a position of central importance in the information systems field and much has been prescribed in the quest for successful systems development. However, given the well‐documented ‘software crisis’, success is far from guaranteed for systems development projects. Many researchers see the solution to the software crisis in terms of increased control and the more widespread adoption of rigorous and formalized system development methodologies. This paper presents some arguments and pressures which support the use of methodologies and some evidence of the literature bias which favours methodologies is provided. However the problems associated with the use of methodologies have not perhaps received as much attention in previous research. This paper identifies a number of arguments and pressures which question the value of methodologies, and reports the results of a field study which investigated the role of methodologies in practice. The critical perspective adopted throughout shows that, contrary to the predominant view in literature, the assumption that increased adoption of methodologies addresses the problems inherent in systems development is by no means proven.
Health Status and the Spiral of Decline

COPD is complex and there are multiple determinants of poor health, so most studies of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) now include health status, or health related quality of life measurement, along with FEV1 as a primary endpoint. It is important to make a distinction between quality of life—which is unique to the individual, and health status measurement—which is standardized quantification of the impact of disease. Health status scores correlate weakly with FEV1 but they are predictors of mortality independently of age and FEV1. The determinants of impaired health status may change over time and the clinical consequences associated with a given change in score may change with disease progression. The largest study to date suggests that health status decline is linear over time, but longer-term studies are needed to confirm these findings. Inhaled corticosteroids have been shown to reduce the rate of decline of health status, possibly due to exacerbation prevention.
Large Energy, Wavelength Widely Tunable, Topological Insulator Q-Switched Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

We report on the generation of large energy, widely wavelength tunable pulses in an erbium-doped fiber laser passively Q-switched by a topological insulator saturable absorber (TI-SA). The TI-SA is prepared through an optical deposition method. Its saturating intensity and modulation depth are measured to be about 57 MW/cm2 and 22%, respectively. We show that the high modulation depth of TI-SA allows the generation of stable Q-switched pulses with per-pulse energy up to 1.5 μJ and its broadband saturable absorption favors the tunable Q-switching operation from 1510.9 nm to 1589.1 nm. Our study suggests that TI: Bi2Te3 could be a promising saturable absorber for both the high energy and broadband optical applications.
Nitroglycerin-Induced Endothelial Dysfunction and Tolerance Involve Adverse Phosphorylation and S-Glutathionylation of Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase: Beneficial Effects of Therapy With the AT1 Receptor Blocker Telmisartan

Objective—Continuous administration of nitroglycerin (GTN) causes tolerance and endothelial dysfunction by inducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) production from various enzymatic sources, such as mitochondria, NADPH oxidase, and an uncoupled endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). In the present study, we tested the effects of type 1 angiotensin (AT1)-receptor blockade with telmisartan on GTN-induced endothelial dysfunction in particular on eNOS phosphorylation and S-glutathionylation sites and the eNOS cofactor synthesizing enzyme GTP–cyclohydrolase I. Methods and Results—Wistar rats were treated with telmisartan (2.7 or 8 mg/kg per day PO for 10 days) and with GTN (50 mg/kg per day SC for 3 days). Aortic eNOS phosphorylation and S-glutathionylation were assessed using antibodies against phospho-Thr495 and Ser1177 or protein-bound glutathione, which regulate eNOS activity and eNOS-dependent superoxide production (uncoupling). Expression of mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase was determined by Western blotting. Formation of aortic and cardiac ROS was assessed by fluorescence, chemiluminescence, and 3-nitrotyrosine/malondialdehyde-positive protein content. Telmisartan prevented endothelial dysfunction and partially improved nitrate tolerance. Vascular, cardiac, mitochondrial, and white blood cell ROS formation were significantly increased by GTN treatment and inhibited by telmisartan. GTN-induced decrease in Ser1177, increase in Thr495 phosphorylation or S-glutathionylation of eNOS, and decrease in mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase expression were normalized by telmisartan. Conclusion—These data identify modification of eNOS phosphorylation as an important component of GTN-induced endothelial dysfunction. Via its pleiotropic “antioxidant” properties, telmisartan prevents, at least in part, GTN-induced oxidative stress, nitrate tolerance, and endothelial dysfunction.
SD118-Xanthocillin X (1), a Novel Marine Agent Extracted from Penicillium commune, Induces Autophagy through the Inhibition of the MEK/ERK Pathway

A compound named SD118-xanthocillin X (1) (C18H12N2O2), isolated from Penicillium commune in a deep-sea sediment sample, has been shown to inhibit the growth of several cancer cell lines in vitro. In the present study, we employed a growth inhibition assay and apoptotic analysis to identify the biological effect and detailed mechanism of SD118-xanthocillin X (1) in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells. SD118-xanthocillin X (1) demonstrated a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on the growth of HepG2 cells and caused slight cellular apoptosis and significantly induced autophagy. Autophagy was detected as early as 12 h by the conversion of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3-I) to LC3-II, following cleavage and lipid addition to LC3-I. The pharmacological autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine largely attenuates the growth inhibition and autophagic effect of SD118-xanthocillin X (1) in HepG2 cells. Our data also indicated that the autophagic effect of SD118-xanthocillin X (1) occurs via the down-regulation of the MEK/ERK signaling pathway and the up-regulated class III PI3K/Beclin 1 signaling pathway.
Tear Cathepsin S as a Candidate Biomarker for Sjögren's Syndrome

The diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome (SS) in routine practice is largely a clinical one and requires a high index of suspicion by the treating physician. This great dependence on clinical judgment frequently leads to delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis. Tear protein profiles have been proposed as simple and reliable biomarkers for the diagnosis of SS. Given that cathepsin S activity is increased in the lacrimal glands and tears of NOD mice (a murine model of SS), the aim of this study was to explore the clinical utility of using tear cathepsin S (CTSS) activity as a biomarker for SS.
Context Sensitive Stylesheets for Scene Graphs

— Augmented Reality (AR) enables users to visualize synthetic information overlaid on a real video stream. Such visualization is achieved by tools that vary depending on the underlying data or the task at hand. While some tools distort, filter or enhance the explored information little or no work has focused on the separation of style definitions and their mapping to scene objects. We target this separation based on a context rich scenegraph. Our research allows the definition of visualization tools independent on the data to be visualized or the application that will use them. We show how contextual information may add another hierarchical dimension to scene objects, and how this may in turn be used by hierarchical style definitions –not unlike those of Cascading Stylesheets. We compare differences with previous work, we show a complex application example and we discuss the contribution of our work to AR.
Guideline for treatment of bipolar disorder by the Japanese Society of Mood Disorders, 2012

The Japanese Society of Mood Disorders established a committee for treatment guidelines of mood disorders, which created the first edition of a treatment guideline for bipolar disorders on 10 March 2011. The committee has now created a second edition, which we report here. In creating this treatment guideline, the first step was to have several bipolar disorder specialists review well‐conducted studies and meta‐analyses. Based on this evidence, and with a consensus among the specialists, treatment procedures that were considered optimal were compiled and the strength of recommendation for each treatment method was determined. The first draft, prepared in this manner, was further revised through a process of critical investigation by all committee members to produce the final edition.