Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alterations of Metastasis-Related Genes Identified Using an Oligonucleotide Microarray of Genistein-Treated HCC1395 Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract Genistein, one of the major isoflavones, potently inhibits the growth and metastasis of breast cancer. However, the precise molecular mechanism in metastasis inhibition is not clear. We investigated the effect of genistein in HCC1395 cells, a cell line derived from an early-stage primary breast cancer. Genistein dose dependently both decreased cell viability and inhibited the invasion potential. We used human oligonucleotide microarrays to determine the gene expression profile altered by genistein treatment. TFPI-2, ATF3, DNMT1, and MTCBP-1, which inhibit invasion and metastasis, were upregulated, and MMP-2, MMP-7, and CXCL12, which promote invasion and metastasis, were downregulated. We used quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction to verify the microarray data at the mRNA level. We conclude that genistein-induced alternations of gene expression involving metastasis may be exploited for devising chemopreventive and therapeutic strategies, particularly for early-stage breast cancer.
Stress-Induced Accumulation of DcAOX1 and DcAOX2a Transcripts Coincides with Critical Time Point for Structural Biomass Prediction in Carrot Primary Cultures (Daucus carota L.)

Stress-adaptive cell plasticity in target tissues and cells for plant biomass growth is important for yield stability. In vitro systems with reproducible cell plasticity can help to identify relevant metabolic and molecular events during early cell reprogramming. In carrot, regulation of the central root meristem is a critical target for yield-determining secondary growth. Calorespirometry, a tool previously identified as promising for predictive growth phenotyping has been applied to measure the respiration rate in carrot meristem. In a carrot primary culture system (PCS), this tool allowed identifying an early peak related with structural biomass formation during lag phase of growth, around the 4th day of culture. In the present study, we report a dynamic and correlated expression of carrot AOX genes (DcAOX1 and DcAOX2a) during PCS lag phase and during exponential growth. Both genes showed an increase in transcript levels until 36 h after explant inoculation, and a subsequent down-regulation, before the initiation of exponential growth. In PCS growing at two different temperatures (21°C and 28°C), DcAOX1 was also found to be more expressed in the highest temperature. DcAOX genes’ were further explored in a plant pot experiment in response to chilling, which confirmed the early AOX transcript increase prior to the induction of a specific anti-freezing gene. Our findings point to DcAOX1 and DcAOX2a as being reasonable candidates for functional marker development related to early cell reprogramming. While the genomic sequence of DcAOX2a was previously described, we characterize here the complete genomic sequence of DcAOX1.
Symptoms and radiographic osteoarthritis: not as discordant as they are made out to be?

Objectives: Joint pain and radiographic osteoarthritis are often discordant. Aim: To investigate this issue more closely by studying the detailed nature of pain and disability, and how this relates to radiographic osteoarthritis. Methods: Population-based study of 819 adults aged ⩾50 years with knee pain. The severity of knee pain, stiffness and disability was measured using a validated scale (the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) Score) and pain persistence was recorded. Global severity was measured by the graded chronic pain scale. Three radiographic views of the knees were obtained—weight-bearing posteroanterior metatarsophalangeal, supine skyline and supine lateral. Results: 745 participants with knee pain in the past 6 months were eligible (mean age 65 years, 338 men). Radiographic osteoarthritis was more common in those with a longer history and more persistent symptoms. A strong trend was found of radiographic osteoarthritis being more strongly associated with higher WOMAC scores for pain severity, stiffness and disability (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval (CI)) for highest v lowest WOMAC category: 3.7 (2.0 to 6.7), 3.0 (2.0 to 4.6) and 2.8 (1.6 to 5.0), respectively). Those individual WOMAC items for pain and disability pertaining to weight-bearing mobility were the most strongly associated with radiographic osteoarthritis. Combining pain persistence and global severity, persistent severe pain was associated with a significant increase in the occurrence of radiographic osteoarthritis (2.6 (95% CI 1.5 to 4.7)). Conclusions: A consistent association was found between severity of pain, stiffness and physical function and the presence of radiographic osteoarthritis. This study highlights the potential contribution of underlying joint disease to the degree of pain and disability.
A HIERARCHICAL DESIGN OPTIMIZATION FRAMEWORK FOR BUILDING PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

This article presents a mathematical model that provides explicit support for preserving the consistency between decisions made at various points during building performance analysis. Analytical Target Cascading, a multilevel engineering design optimization framework, is applied to the energy analysis process. Within this framework, the energy analysis problem is decomposed into hierarchical levels based on individual performance goals. Interactions among all levels in the hierarchy are accounted for by linking them mathematically. A top-down and bottom-up iterative process is applied to determine the optimal values of performance goals compatible with one another. Application to the energy analysis of a three zone example is presented and results are discussed.
Angiotensin II receptor inhibition prevents pneumocyte apoptosis in surfactant‐depleted rat lungs

Pneumocyte apoptosis is implicated in the pathophysiology of acute inflammatory lung injuries in newborns and adults. Pulmonary angiotensin (ANG) II contributes to lung epithelial apoptosis in vitro, but its role in acute lung injury in vivo is unclear. We therefore studied the effects of ANG II receptor action on the pulmonary inflammatory and apoptotic changes in surfactant‐depleted lungs in rats. Lung injury was induced by repeated lung lavage with saline, and the rats were then ventilated with 60% oxygen for 1, 3, or 5 hr. Separate groups of rats were pretreated with a nonspecific ANG II receptor inhibitor saralasin, the specific ANG II type 1 receptor antagonist losartan, or ANG II type 2 receptor inhibitor PD123319, and were similarly studied. Lungs were studied histologically for tissue injury, and with terminal deoxynucleodityl transferase‐mediated dUTP nick end‐labeling (TUNEL) and cleaved caspase 3 antibody staining, and by electron microscopy for apoptotic cell death. Surfactant‐depleted lungs showed an increased number of TUNEL‐positive epithelial cells throughout the study, and intrapulmonary leukocyte migration and histological tissue injury scores were similarly elevated, compared to controls, from 1–5 hr of ventilation. Pretreatment with saralasin or losartan significantly prevented the increase of TUNEL positivity in pneumocytes, but had no effect on the amount of neutrophil influx or total injury score in lavaged lungs. In contrast, administration of PD123319 did not affect the number of TUNEL‐positive epithelial cells or histological injury . The results suggest that increased epithelial apoptosis in surfactant‐deficient lungs is mediated by ANG II receptor (specifically, subtype 1) action. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2005; 39:349–358. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Frictionless Random Dynamics and Finite Energy Diffusion Processes

We investigate undamped random flights subject to an intermittent impulsive stochastic forcing and to deterministic external force fields (conservative and magnetic ones) where dissipative time scales are much longer than the time duration of processes of interest, including the particle lifetime. The pertinent phase-space processes randomly switch between diffusive and determin-istic regimes whose time scales are an exact inversion of those casually adopted for the stadard damped random dynamics like e g. the Brownian motion. We derive explicit forms of Markovian transition probability densities for the phase-space diffusion processes. By invoking a hydrody-namical formalism for those stochastic processes we investigate mechanisms which might tame, or make irrelevant, otherwise unlimited growth of mean energy. The resulting tamed random evolution is closely related to the class of so-called finite energy diffusion processes.
QUANTUM YIELDS FOR LASER PHOTOCYCLIZATION OF BILIRUBIN IN THE PRESENCE OF HUMAN SERUM ALBUMIN. DEPENDENCE OF QUANTUM YIELD ON EXCITATION WAVELENGTH

The quantum yield for laser photocyclization of bilirubin to lumirubin in the presence of human serum albumin (tHLR) was measured at five monochromatic excitation wavelengths in the range 450–530 nm. Solutions used were optically thin throughout the wavelength range and precautions were taken to exclude contributions from photocyclization of bilirubin XHIa impurities. The values obtained (7.2‐18 10‐4) were lower than those previously reported and showed the following wavelength dependence: 457.9 < 488.0 < 501.7 < 514.5 528.7. However, the rate of lumirubin formation, normalized to constant fluence, decreased with wavelength over the same wavelength range and no evidence was found that photoisomerization of bilirubin to lumirubin is faster with green (514.5 or 528.7 nm) than with blue (457.9 or 488.0 nm) light. The stereoselectivity of the configurational isomerization of bilirubin to 4Z,15E and 4E,15Z isomers also was studied. This reaction became less regioselective for the 4Z,15E isomer with increasing wavelength. The observed wavelength dependence of tHLR and of the [4Z,15E]: [4Z,15E] ratio at photoequilibrium are consistent with an exciton coupling model in which intramolecular energy transfer can occur between the two pyrromethenone chromophores of the bilirubin molecule in the excited state. Relative rates of lumirubin formation in vivo at different excitation wavelengths and constant fluence were estimated for different optical thicknesses and for different skin thicknesses. These estimates suggest that the recently reported clinical equivalence of blue and green phototherapy lights probably reflects the marked variation of skin transmittance with wavelength more than wavelength‐dependent photochemistry. The calculations also indicated that the optimal wavelength for phototherapy is probably on the long wavelength side of the bilirubin absorption maximum.
Grey-scale and colour Doppler ultrasound versus magnetic resonance imaging for the prenatal diagnosis of placenta accreta

Abstract Objective: To assess the effectiveness of grey-scale and colour Doppler ultrasound (US) versus magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the prenatal diagnosis of placenta accreta. Methods: A prospective observational study including a total of 74 patients with placenta previa and previous uterine scar (n = 74). Grey-scale and colour Doppler US was done followed by MRI by different observers to diagnose adherent placenta. Test validity of US and MRI were calculated. Maternal morbidity and mortality were also assessed. Results: A total of 53 patients confirmed to have placenta accreta at operation. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of US was 94.34, 91.67, 96.15 and 88% compared to 96.08, 87.50, 94.23 and 91.3% for MRI, respectively. The most relevant US sign was turbulent blood flow by colour Doppler, while dark intra-placental band was the most sensitive MRI sign. Venous thromboembolism (1.3%), bladder injury (29.7%), ureteric injury (18.9%), postoperative fever (10.8%), admission to ICU (50%) and re-operation (31.1%). Conclusion: Placenta accreta can be successfully diagnosed by grey-scale and colour Doppler US. MRI would be more likely suggested for either posteriorly or laterally situated placenta previa in order to exclude placental invasion.
Strategic Trade, Competitive Industries and Agricultural Trade Disputes

The primary predictions of strategic-trade theory are not restricted to imperfectly-competitive markets. Indeed, these predictions emerge in a natural three-country extension of the traditional theory of trade policy in competitive markets, once the theory is augmented to allow for politically-motivated governments, so that the sign of export policy may be converted from tax to subsidy. This suggest that the ongoing agricultural trade disputes may be best interpreted from the perspective of strategic-trade theory. In fact, these disputes may offer the most important example yet of strategic-trade theory.
Rewarding Feedback After Correct Visual Discriminations Has Both General and Specific Influences on Visual Cortex

Reward can influence visual performance, but the neural basis of this effect remains poorly understood. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how rewarding feedback affected activity in distinct areas of human visual cortex, separating rewarding feedback events after correct performance from preceding visual events. Participants discriminated oriented gratings in either hemifield, receiving auditory feedback at trial end that signaled financial reward after correct performance. Greater rewards improved performance for all but the most difficult trials. Rewarding feedback increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals in striatum and orbitofrontal cortex. It also increased BOLD signals in visual areas beyond retinotopic cortex, but not in primary visual cortex representing the judged stimuli. These modulations were seen at a time point in which no visual stimuli were presented or expected, demonstrating a novel type of activity change in visual cortex that cannot reflect modulation of response to incoming or anticipated visual stimuli. Rewarded trials led on the next trial to improved performance and enhanced visual activity contralateral to the judged stimulus, for retinotopic representations of the judged visual stimuli in V1. Our findings distinguish general effects in nonretinotopic visual cortex when receiving rewarding feedback after correct performance from consequences of reward for spatially specific responses in V1.
Memory shapes time perception and intertemporal choices

There is a consensus that human and non-human subjects experience temporal distortions in many stages of their perceptual and decision-making systems. Similarly, intertemporal choice research has shown that decision-makers undervalue future outcomes relative to immediate ones. Here we combine techniques from information theory and artificial intelligence to show how both temporal distortions and intertemporal choice preferences can be explained as a consequence of the coding efficiency of sensorimotor representation. In particular, the model implies that interactions that constrain future behavior are perceived as being both longer in duration and more valuable. Furthermore, using simulations of artificial agents, we investigate how memory constraints enforce a renormalization of the perceived timescales. Our results show that qualitatively different discount functions, such as exponential and hyperbolic discounting, arise as a consequence of an agent's probabilistic model of the world.
Reduced heart rate variability in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder compared to healthy controls

Despite current diagnostic systems distinguishing schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) as separate diseases, emerging evidence suggests they share a number of clinical and epidemiological features, such as increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. It is not well understood if poor cardiac autonomic nervous system regulation, which can be indexed non‐invasively by the calculation of heart rate variability (HRV), contributes to these common CVD risk factors in both diseases.
Methemoglobinemia Induced By Vegetable Intake in Infants in Northern Spain

Background and Objective: Acquired methemoglobinemia (MHb) induced in infants by intake of vegetables is a condition uncommonly reported in the literature. The purpose of the present study was to study new vegetables involved and other epidemiological risk factors. Methods: Seventy-eight cases of diet-induced MHb seen in Pamplona from 1987 to 2010 are reported. Infant characteristics were collected, and a case-control study was conducted using as controls 78 age- and sex-matched infants selected at the same geographic area. Bivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to detect factors involved in MHb occurrence. Nitrate levels were tested in natural vegetables used to prepare purées. Results: A clear relation was found between MHb and use of borage (Borago officinalis) (OR 5.2; 95% CI 1.1–24.6) and maybe chard (Beta vulgaris var cicla) (OR 2.0; 95% CI 0.4–8.7), time from preparation to use (OR 17.4, 95% CI 3.5–86.3 if the purée had been prepared 24–48 hours before and OR 24.9, 95% CI 3.3–187.6 if prepared >48 hours before), and breast-feeding (OR 10.4; 95% CI 1.9–57.2). Tests confirmed that vegetables with the highest nitrate levels were borage (n = 15), with mean nitrate levels of 3968 mg/kg, and chard (n = 17), with mean levels of 2811 mg/kg. Conclusions: The main associated factors were shown to be time from purée preparation to use (>24 hours), use of certain vegetables (borage and chard), and breast-feeding. Nitrate levels in both vegetables implicated as etiological factors in acquired MHb are high.
Protein Side-chain Positioning 1 A Maximum Edge-weight Clique Finding Algorithmic Approach for Solving Protein Side-chain Positioning Problem

We have developed a novel approach to solve the protein side-chain packing problem using the notion of a maximum edge-weight clique. Our approach is based on efficient reduction of protein side-chain packing problem to a graph and then solving the reduced graph to find the maximum clique. Since our approach is based on deterministic algorithms in contrast to the various existing algorithms based on heuristic approaches, our algorithm guarantees of finding an optimal solution. We have compared our results with the various existing approaches and have found that our results are comparable or considerably better than the existing methods.
Wealth and Disability in Later Life: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

We examined wealth inequalities in disability, taking into account the effect of both depression and social support among older English adults using data from 5,506 community-dwelling people aged 50 years and over from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Disability was measured as self-reported limitations in the Basic Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). Depressive symptomatology was measured using the 8-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. Social support was assessed by marital status and frequency of contact with friends, relatives or children. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the role of social support and depressive symptoms on disability by total household wealth, which is a measure of accumulated assets over the course of life. Our findings showed that the poorest men with disability were more likely to live without a partner and have no weekly contact with children, family or friends compared to the wealthiest. Among women with disability, the poorest were more likely to report loneliness and have no partner while the wealthiest and the intermediate groups were more likely to be living with a partner. There was a strong inverse dose-response association between wealth and depressive symptoms among all participants with disability. This study shows a clear wealth gradient in disability among older English adults, especially for those with elevated depressive symptoms.
The Effects of Incentive Framing on Performance Decrements for Large Monetary Outcomes: Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms

There is a nuanced interplay between the provision of monetary incentives and behavioral performance. Individuals' performance typically increases with increasing incentives only up to a point, after which larger incentives may result in decreases in performance, a phenomenon known as “choking. ” We investigated the influence of incentive framing on choking effects in humans: in one condition, participants performed a skilled motor task to obtain potential monetary gains; in another, participants performed the same task to avoid losing a monetary amount. In both the gain and loss frame, the degree of participants' behavioral loss aversion was correlated with their susceptibility to choking effects. However, the effects were markedly different in the gain and loss frames: individuals with higher loss aversion were susceptible to choking for large prospective gains and not susceptible to choking for large prospective losses, whereas individuals with low loss aversion choked for large prospective losses but not for large prospective gains. Activity in the ventral striatum was predictive of performance decrements in both the gain and loss frames. Moreover, a mediation analysis revealed that behavioral loss aversion hindered performance via the influence of ventral striatal activity on motor performance. Our findings indicate that the framing of an incentive has a profound effect on an individual's susceptibility to choking effects, which is contingent on their loss aversion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the ventral striatum serves as an interface between incentive-driven motivation and instrumental action, regardless of whether incentives are framed in terms of potential losses or gains.
Influence of local temperature changes in the preoptic area and rostral hypothalamus on the regulation of food and water intake.

Abstract : Local cooling of the preoptic area and rostral hypothalamus was found to induce eating in the fed goat. When the same animal was dehydrated to the state of aphagia, cooling of this area inhibited the animal's urge to drink and at the same time induced eating. Although in a normal goat feeding practically stops when the rectal temperature exceeds 40C (APPLEMAN and DELOUCHE, 1958), local cooling of the preoptic area and the rostral hypothalamus was found to induce the goat to eat hay with a seemingly good appetite at body temperature above 41C. Warming the same area had the reverse effect. It inhibited eating in the previously hungry animal and at the same time induced the goat to drink large quantities of water. In another goat the preoptic 'heat loss centre' had been permanently inactivated by proton irradiation. This animal became adipsic due to the lesion but was seen to continue to eat hay with a seemingly good appetite at body temperatures above 41C. The anorexic effect of warming the preoptic area thus does not seem to be due to a direct thermal effect on the hypothalamic 'appetite centre'. The results provide direct evidence in favour of BROBECK's (1948) 'thermostatic' theory of the regulation of food intake and justify the further extension of this theory to involve also the regulation of water intake. (Author)