Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology Open Access Changes in Extracellular Matrix (ecm) and Ecm-associated Proteins in the Metastatic Progression of Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is no exception to the multi-step process of metastasis. As PCa progresses, changes occur within the microenvironments of both the malignant cells and their targeted site of metastasis, enabling the necessary responses that result in successful translocation. The majority of patients with progressing prostate cancers develop skeletal metastases. Despite advancing efforts in early detection and management, there remains no effective, long-term cure for metastatic PCa. Therefore, the elucidation of the mechanism of PCa metastasis and preferential establishment of lesions in bone is an intensive area of investigation that promises to generate new targets for therapeutic intervention. This review will survey what is currently know concerning PCa interaction with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the roles of factors within the tumor and ECM microenvironments that contribute to metastasis. These will be discussed within the context of changes in expression and functional heterodimerization patterns of integrins, changes in ECM expression and reorganization by proteases facilitating invasion. In this context we also provide a brief summary of how growth factors (GFs), cytokines and regulatory signaling pathways favor PCa metastasis to bone.
A Meta-Analysis of Folic Acid in Combination with Anti-Hypertension Drugs in Patients with Hypertension and Hyperhomocysteinemia

Folic acid is generally used to lower homocysteine concentrations and prevent stroke and cardiovascular disease (CVD) at present. However, the efficacy of therapies that lower homocysteine concentrations in reducing the risk of CVD and stroke remains controversial. Our objective was to do a meta-analysis of relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to evaluate the efficacy of folic acid supplementation among patients with hypertension and Hyperhomocysteinemia (HT/HHcy). We included RCTs examining the effects of folic acid plus antihypertensive therapy compared to antihypertensive alone. Weighted Mean Difference (WMD) and Relative risk (RR) were used as a measure of the effect of folic acid on the outcome measures with a random effect model. Sixty-five studies including 7887 patients met all inclusion criteria. Among them, 49 trials reported significant effect of combination therapy for reducing SBP (systolic Blood Pressure) and DBP (Diastolic Blood Pressure) levels compared with antihypertensive alone (WMD = −7.85, WMD = −6.77, respectively). Meanwhile, folic acid supplementation apparently reduced the level of total homocysteine (WMD = 5.5). In addition, folic acid supplementation obviously reduced the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (CVCE) by 12.9% compared with control groups. In terms of the stratified analyses, a bigger beneficial effect was seen in those RCTs with treatment duration of more than 12 weeks, a decrease in the concentration of total homocysteine of more than 25%, with folic acid fortification. Our findings indicated that folic acid supplementation was effective in the primary prevention of CVCE among HT/HHcy patients, as well as reducing the blood pressure and total homocysteine levels.
An environmentally relevant concentration of estrogen induces arrest of male gonad development in zebrafish, Danio rerio

The aim of the present study was to elucidate how full life‐cycle exposure to estrogens impacts zebrafish development and reproduction, compared to partial life‐cycle exposure only, and whether the estrogen‐induced effects in zebrafish are reversible or irreversible. Zebrafish were exposed in a flow‐through system to an environmentally relevant concentration (3 ng/L) of the synthetic estrogen 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) either from fertilization until the all‐ovary stage of gonad development (i.e., 42 d postfertilization [DPF] in our experiment) or from fertilization until the reproductive stage (i.e., 118 DPF). Reversibility of the estrogen‐induced effects was assessed after 58 d of depuration in EE2‐free water until 176 DPF. Early life exposure led to a lasting induction of plasma vitellogenin (VTG) in adult females but altered neither the sex ratio nor the reproductive capabilities. Full life‐cycle exposure resulted in elevated VTG concentrations and caused gonadal feminization in 100% of exposed fish and thus inhibited reproduction. Two types of ovaries were observed in continuously exposed adult fish, immature ovaries with primary growth stage oocytes only and mature ovaries containing the full range of all oocyte maturation stages. Fish with immature ovaries had plasma VTG levels like control males, while fish with mature ovaries had female‐like VTG levels. The effects of full life cycle exposure were at least partly reversible, and 26% of fish of the previous all‐female cohort developed fully differentiated testes. These findings suggest that continuous estrogen exposure had arrested the developmental transition of the gonads of genetic males from the early all‐ovary stage to functional testes. After the exposure had ceased, however, these males apparently were able to accomplish testicular differentiation.
Narrowband power line communications evaluation in complex distribution networks

A high performance Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is key to the adequate development of the Smart Grid. There are several technologies that can be used to deploy it, being PLC (Power Line Communications) the most extended, at least in western European countries. A PLC AMI is composed of a data concentrator and a number of meters, being restricted to a transformer substation due to the properties of current PLC technologies. However, this configuration is not suitable for other electrical networks (like American), where the number of meters per substation is very limited and the utilities are forced to install a high number of expensive data concentrators or to move to wireless technologies. To solve this problem, in this paper a new structure for PLC AMI networks, which take advantage of frequency band extension, is proposed and tested in a real environment in Colombia. Furthermore, the feasibility of deploying a metering network in this scenario is also evaluated through simulation. To this end, it is used the PRIME (PoweRline Intelligent Metering Evolution) standard, which is one of the most extended for PLC metering networks nowadays.
The Gay Male Gaze

Abstract This article examines body image disturbance among gay men from various sociocultural perspectives. A review of the empirical literature on body image disturbance indicates that gay males experience greater body dissatisfaction than other groups due to their higher levels of gender nonconformity. The impact of gendered power relations on body image is considered in light of feminist, postmodernist, queer, and disability theories of the body. The history of gay bodily beauty is also examined, along with contemporary critiques of gay body politics. The author concludes that gender oppression constitutes a distinct mode of psychosocial oppression among gay men that is no less disabling than heterosexism, and therefore deserves greater attention in gay affirmative theory, research, and practice.
Identification and characterization of cells infiltrating the graft and aqueous humour in rat corneal allograft rejection

In a rat model of corneal transplantation, Fischer 344 (RT1lv1) rats received orthotopic corneal isografts or Wistar‐Furth (RT1u) donor allografts. Rejection was observed in 25 of 26 allograft recipients, at a median time of 18 days, with all isografts surviving > 100 days. Flow cytometric analysis of aqueous humour identified cellular infiltration of the aqueous at the time of allograft rejection, in contrast to the acellular aqueous found in isografts at corresponding times following transplantation. A higher proportion of CD8+ than CD4+ cells was found at days 1–3 following rejection, whereas there was a higher proportion of CD4+ cells at days 5–8. No changes in peripheral blood T cell subsets were found at the time of rejection. Immunohistochemical analysis of cells infiltrating recipient iris and grafted cornea undertaken at days 1–2, 4 and 7–10 following onset of rejection, demonstrated inflammatory cells in the graft epithelium, stroma and aggregated on the endothelium. Large numbers of macrophages, T cells (CD4+ > CD8+ at all time points), natural killer (NK) cells and neutrophils were detected in graft tissue at days 1–2 and 4, diminishing after that time. Most infiltrating cells expressed MHC class II antigen, and a smaller number expressed IL‐2R. Expression of the co‐stimulatory marker B7 was identified in a few cells at day 4 in the region of the graft‐host wound. The immune response in graft rejection was characterized at day 4 also by expression of intercellular adhesion molecule‐1 (ICAM‐1) on endothelial cells of iris and corneal vessels, demonstration of interferon‐gamma on mononuclear cells in the peripheral (recipient) cornea, and tumour necrosis factor‐alpha on aggregated mononuclear cells on the graft, but not recipient, endothelium. Only sparse cellular infiltrates were found in isograft controls, with inflammation located at the graft‐host wound. These findings suggest that inflammatory cells reach a corneal allograft by two routes—from vessels in the peripheral recipient cornea, and from vessels in the recipient iris via the aqueous humour. Different aqueous and intragraft T cell subset proportions were seen early in rejection, although a preponderance of CD4+ cells was found in both aqueous and graft at later times.
To Work or Not to Work: Nonfinancial Employment Commitment and the Social Desirability Bias

Abstract The so-called “lottery question,” which asks whether individuals would stop or continue working if there were no economic reasons to do so, was used to evaluate non-financial employment commitment. Data were collected through a survey conducted among a representative sample of the adult population in Israel. The sample included 501 respondents, who were interviewed via telephone in their homes by professional interviewers from a national survey agency. The additional contribution of social desirability to the prediction of nonfinancial employment commitment, beyond the contribution of age, is significant. There is a higher likelihood of indicating a desire to continue working under conditions of high social desirability rather than under those of low social desirability. It is suggested that, in order to examine the actual scope of nonfinancial employment commitment, some measures of detecting or reducing the social desirability bias should be taken.
An investigation of nutrient-dependent mRNA translation in Drosophila larvae

ABSTRACT The larval period of the Drosophila life cycle is characterized by immense growth. In nutrient rich conditions, larvae increase in mass approximately two hundred-fold in five days. However, upon nutrient deprivation, growth is arrested. The prevailing view is that dietary amino acids drive this larval growth by activating the conserved insulin/PI3 kinase and Target of rapamycin (TOR) pathways and promoting anabolic metabolism. One key anabolic process is protein synthesis. However, few studies have attempted to measure mRNA translation during larval development or examine the signaling requirements for nutrient-dependent regulation. Our work addresses this issue. Using polysome analyses, we observed that starvation rapidly (within thirty minutes) decreased larval mRNA translation, with a maximal decrease at 6–18 hours. By analyzing individual genes, we observed that nutrient-deprivation led to a general reduction in mRNA translation, regardless of any starvation-mediated changes (increase or decrease) in total transcript levels. Although sugars and amino acids are key regulators of translation in animal cells and are the major macronutrients in the larval diet, we found that they alone were not sufficient to maintain mRNA translation in larvae. The insulin/PI3 kinase and TOR pathways are widely proposed as the main link between nutrients and mRNA translation in animal cells. However, we found that genetic activation of PI3K and TOR signaling, or regulation of two effectors – 4EBP and S6K – could not prevent the starvation-mediated translation inhibition. Similarly, we showed that the nutrient stress-activated eIF2&agr; kinases, GCN2 and PERK, were not required for starvation-induced inhibition of translation in larvae. These findings indicate that nutrient control of mRNA translation in larvae is more complex than simply amino acid activation of insulin and TOR signaling.
PROCEED: A Pareto Optimization-Based Circuit-Level Evaluator for Emerging Devices

Evaluation of novel devices in the context of circuits is crucial to identifying and maximizing their value. We propose a new framework, Pareto optimization-based circuit-level evaluator for emerging device (PROCEED), that uses comprehensive performance, power, and area metrics for accurate device-circuit coevaluation through optimization of digital circuit benchmarks. The PROCEED assesses technology suitability over a wide operating region (megahertz to gigahertz) by leveraging available circuit knobs (threshold voltage assignment, power management, sizing, and so on). It improves the benchmark accuracy by 3x to 115x compared with the existing methods while offering orders of magnitude improvements in runtime over full physical design implementation flows. To illustrate the PROCEED's capabilities, we deploy it to assess emerging technologies, including novel tunneling field-effect transistors, compared with conventional silicon CMOS. As a further illustration, we extend PROCEED to evaluate future heterogeneous integration of varied devices onto the same silicon substrate.
The Antioxidant Potential of Azadirachta indica Ameliorates Cardioprotection Following Diabetic Mellitus-Induced Microangiopathy

Background: Cardiac complications associated with diabetes mellitus have become major cause of concern. Antidiabetic drugs, with varied mode of action, are although available, apprehensions exist for their limited action or side effects upon prolonged use. Efforts are therefore inclined toward finding other alternatives. The present study was, thus, undertaken to evaluate the cardioprotective effect of Azadirachta indica(AI) on microangiopathic changes in rat model of diabetes. Materials and Methods: Diabetes was induced in male rats by single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (60 mg/kg body weight). Seven days after glucose levels are stabilized, aqueous leaf extract of AI (ALE) (600 mg/kg1 body weight) was administered orally to diabetic animals every day for 7 days. Results: High blood glucose characterizing diabetes in these animals was found to show increased lipid peroxidation (LPO), altered antioxidant biomarkers together with microangiopathic alterations. The treatment of diabetic rats with ALE reduced the levels of blood glucose, LPO, and restored the activities of antioxidant enzyme. Light and transmission electron microscopic analysis revealed reduced necrotic areas and inflammation in tissue architecture of ALE treated heart in comparison to untreated diabetic group. Conclusion: AI provides cardioprotection by ameliorating oxidative stress in rat model of diabetic mellitus.
Recognition-by-components: a theory of human image understanding.

The perceptual recognition of objects is conceptualized to be a process in which the image of the input is segmented at regions of deep concavity into an arrangement of simple geometric components, such as blocks, cylinders, wedges, and cones. The fundamental assumption of the proposed theory, recognition-by-components (RBC), is that a modest set of generalized-cone components, called geons (N £ 36), can be derived from contrasts of five readily detectable properties of edges in a two-dimensiona l image: curvature, collinearity, symmetry, parallelism, and cotermination. The detection of these properties is generally invariant over viewing position an$ image quality and consequently allows robust object perception when the image is projected from a novel viewpoint or is degraded. RBC thus provides a principled account of the heretofore undecided relation between the classic principles of perceptual organization and pattern recognition: The constraints toward regularization (Pragnanz) characterize not the complete object but the object's components. Representational power derives from an allowance of free combinations of the geons. A Principle of Componential Recovery can account for the major phenomena of object recognition: If an arrangement of two or three geons can be recovered from the input, objects can be quickly recognized even when they are occluded, novel, rotated in depth, or extensively degraded. The results from experiments on the perception of briefly presented pictures by human observers provide empirical support for the theory. Any single object can project an infinity of image configurations to the retina. The orientation of the object to the viewer can vary continuously, each giving rise to a different two-dimensional projection. The object can be occluded by other objects or texture fields, as when viewed behind foliage. The object need not be presented as a full-colored textured image but instead can be a simplified line drawing. Moreover, the object can even be missing some of its parts or be a novel exemplar of its particular category. But it is only with rare exceptions that an image fails to be rapidly and readily classified, either as an instance of a familiar object category or as an instance that cannot be so classified (itself a form of classification).
A lantern-tree-based QoS multicast protocol for wireless ad-hoc networks

In this paper, we propose a lantern-tree-based QoS multicast protocol with a reliable mechanism for wireless ad-hoc networks, where the MAC sublayer adopts the CDMA-over-TDMA channel model. In this paper, we identify a lantern-tree for developing an on-demand QoS multicast protocol to satisfy certain bandwidth requirements from a source to a set of destination nodes. The lantern-tree serves as the multicast-tree. Our lantern-tree-based scheme offers a higher success rate to construct the QoS multicast tree due to using the lantern-tree. The lantern-tree is a tree whose sub-path is constituted by the lantern-path, where the lantern-path is a special multi-path structure. This greatly improves the success rate by means of multi-path routing. In particular, our proposed scheme can be easily applied to most existing on-demand multicast protocols. Performance analysis results demonstrate the QoS achievements of our proposed protocol.
Handbook of disability studies

Introduction: The Formation of Disability Studies - Gary L Albrecht, Katherine D Seelman, and Michael Bury PART ONE: THE SHAPING OF DISABILITIES STUDIES AS A FIELD An Institutional History of Disability - David L Braddock and Susan Parish Counting Disability - Glenn T Fujiura and Violet Rutkowski-Kmitta Disability Definitions, Models, Classification Schemes and Applications - Barbara Altman Theorizing Disability - Gareth Williams Methodological Paradigms That Shape Disability Research - Scott Campbell Brown Disability - Patrick Fougeyrollas and Line Beauregard An Interactive Person-Environment Social Creation Representation and Its Discontents - David T Mitchell and Sharon L Snyder The Uneasy Home of Disability in Literature and Film Philosophical Issues in the Definition and Social Response to Disability - David Wasserman Disability and the Sociology of the Body - Bryan S Turner Intellectual Disabilities- Quo Vadis? - Trevor R Parmenter Disability, Bioethics and Human Rights - Adrienne Asch Disability Studies and Electronic Networking - Ellen Liberti Blasiotti, John D Westbrook, and Iwao Kobayashi PART TWO: EXPERIENCING DISABILITY Divided Understandings - Carol Gill The Social Experience of Disability Mapping the Family - Philip M Ferguson Disability Studies and the Exploration of Parental Response to Disability Disability and Community - Michael P Kelly A Sociological Approach Welfare States and Disabled People - Robert F Drake Advocacy and Political Action - Sharon Barnartt, Kay Schrinerm and Richard Scotch Health Care Professionals and Their Attitudes Towards, and Decisions Affecting Disabled People - Ian Basnett The Role of Social Networks in the Lives of Persons with Disabilities - Bernice A Pescosolido Inclusion/Exclusion - Jean-Francois Ravaud and Henri-Jacques Stiker An Analysis of Historical and Cultural Meanings PART THREE: DISABILITY IN CONTEXT Disability Culture - Colin Barnes and Geoff Mercer Assimilation or Inclusion? Identity Politics, Disability and Culture - Lennard J Davis Making the Difference - Tom Shakespeare and Nick Watson Disability, Politics, and Recognition Disability Human Rights, Law and Policy - Jerome E Bickenbach The Political Economy of the Disability Marketplace - Gary L Albrecht and Michael Bury Disability and Health Policy - Gerben DeJong and Ian Basnett The Role of Markets in the Delivery of Health Services Disability Benefit Programs - Bonnie O'Day and Monroe Berkowitz Can We Improve the Return to Work Record? A Disability Studies Perspective on Employment Issues and Policies for Disabled People - Kay Schriner An International View Science and Technology Policy - Katherine D Seelman Is Disability a Missing Factor? Disability, Education and Inclusion - Len Barton and Felicity Armstrong Cross-Cultural Issues and Dilemmas Support Systems - Simi Litvak and Alexandra Enders The Interface Between Individuals and Environments The Relationship between Disabled People and Health and Welfare Professionals - Sally French and John Swain Public Health Trends in Disability - Don Lollar Past, Present, and Future Disability in the Developing World - Benedicte Ingstad
The anomalous x-ray pulsars

The Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXP) are a small group of pulsars characterized by periods of several seconds and by the absence of massive companion stars. Three of them are associated with supernova remnants. It is unclear whether they are accreting from very low mass companions or consist of isolated neutron stars. In the latter case, their rotational energy loss is too small to provide the observed luminosity, and other powering mechanisms must be invoked. The discovery of similar periodicities and spin-down values in the Soft Gamma-Ray-repeaters suggests that also the AXP could be strongly magnetized neutron stars in which the X-ray emission is powered by the dissipation of the magnetic energy. However, also models based on accretion onto isolated neutron stars have been proposed.