Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leukocyte ABCA1 Remains Atheroprotective in Splenectomized LDL Receptor Knockout Mice

Aim ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) is an important mediator of macrophage cholesterol efflux. It mediates the efflux of cellular cholesterol to lipid-poor apolipoprotein A-I. LDL receptor (LDLr) knockout (KO) mice deficient for leukocyte ABCA1 (ABCA1 KO→LDLr KO) show increased atherosclerosis and splenic lipid accumulation despite largely attenuated serum cholesterol levels. In the present study, we aimed to explore the importance of the spleen for the atheroprotective effects of leukocyte ABCA1. Methods LDLr KO mice were transplanted with bone marrow from ABCA1 KO mice or wild-type (WT) controls. After 8 weeks recovery, mice were either splenectomized (SP-x) or underwent a sham operation, and were subsequently challenged with a Western-type diet (WTD). Results In agreement with previous studies, the atherosclerotic lesion area in ABCA1 KO→LDLr KO sham animals (655±82×103 µm2) was 1.4-fold (p = 0.03) larger compared to sham WT→LDLr KO mice (459±33×103 µm2) after 8 weeks WTD feeding, despite 1.7-fold (p<0.001) lower serum cholesterol levels. Interestingly, deletion of ABCA1 in leukocytes led to 1.6-fold higher neutrophil content in the spleen in absence of differences in circulating neutrophils. Levels of KC, an important chemoattractant for neutrophils, in serum, however, were increased 2.9-fold (p = 0.07) in ABCA1 KO→LDLr KO mice. SP-x induced blood neutrophilia as compared to WT→LDLr KO mice (1.9-fold; p<0.05), but did not evoke differences in serum cholesterol and anti-oxLDL antibody levels. Atherosclerotic lesion development, however, was 1.3-fold induced both in the presence and absence of leukocyte ABCA1 (WT: 614±106×103 µm2, ABCA1 KO: 786±44×103 µm2). Two-way ANOVA revealed independent effects on atherosclerosis for both leukocyte ABCA1 deficiency and SP-x (p<0.05). Conclusions The observed splenic alterations induced by leukocyte ABCA1 deficiency do not play a significant role in the anti-atherogenic effects of leukocyte ABCA1 on lesion development.
Partially Symmetric Functions Are Efficiently Isomorphism-Testable

Given a Boolean function f, the f-isomorphism testing problem requires a randomized algorithm to distinguish functions that are identical to f up to relabeling of the input variables from functions that are far from being so. An important open question in property testing is to determine for which functions f we can test f-isomorphism with a constant number of queries. Despite much recent attention to this question, essentially only two classes of functions were known to be efficiently isomorphism testable: symmetric functions and juntas. We unify and extend these results by showing that all partially symmetric functions -- functions invariant to the reordering of all but a constant number of their variables -- are efficiently isomorphism-testable. This class of functions, first introduced by Shannon, includes symmetric functions, juntas, and many other functions as well. We conjecture that these functions are essentially the only functions efficiently isomorphism-testable. To prove our main result, we also show that partial symmetry is efficiently testable. In turn, to prove this result we had to revisit the junta testing problem. We provide a new proof of correctness of the nearly-optimal junta tester. Our new proof replaces the Fourier machinery of the original proof with a purely combinatorial argument that exploits the connection between sets of variables with low influence and intersecting families. Another important ingredient in our proofs is a new notion of symmetric influence. We use this measure of influence to prove that partial symmetry is efficiently testable and also to construct an efficient sample extractor for partially symmetric functions. We then combine the sample extractor with the testing-by-implicit-learning approach to complete the proof that partially symmetric functions are efficiently isomorphism-testable.
Control of ion distribution in isolated smooth muscle cells. I. Potassium

We describe a technique for examining unidirectional ion movements in suspensions of enzymatically disaggregated smooth muscle cells derived from stomach muscle of the toad. This technique has been used to analyze the movement of 42K across these cells. This analysis was greatly simplified by the finding that the cells were in a steady state with respect to K+ distribution after isolation. The potassium contents of the isolated cells were identical to those of intact smooth muscle (131 mM/liter intracellular fluid) and stable for over 4 h; moreover, the unidirectional influx and efflux rates were equal. An additional simplification was provided by the finding that virtually all the K+ exchanges in a manner predicted for a simple two-compartment system consisting of an extracellular and an intracellular space. Transmembrane K+ flux in these cells averaged 1.2 pmol.cm-2.s-1 at room temperature. A large portion (approximately 80%) of 42K influx appeared to be mediated by a saturable transport system with an apparent Km of 0.6 mM and an apparent Vmax of 1.3 pmol.cm-2.s-1. The calculated resting membrane permeability to K+ in these isolated smooth muscle cells, assuming a membrane potential of -50 mV, was 2.9 X 10(-8) cm/s. The calculated gK+ was 2.7 mumho/cm2 constituting only a small fraction of the total membrane conductance as measured electrophysiologically. The latter finding suggests that the resting membrane potential in the isolated cells must be determined by ions in addition to K+. We propose that these methods for studying ion movements in smooth muscle should aid in unraveling the mechanisms responsible for controlling the distribution of ions both at rest, as in the present study, as well as in response to neurotransmitters.
Regulation of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 production in adipocytes by glucose

Objective Type 1 and 2 diabetes are characterized by elevated blood glucose levels and increased dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) activity levels in the serum. However, previous studies reported a negative correlation between glucose concentrations and DPP4 levels. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the connection between glucose and DPP4 in adipocytes under physiological and diabetic conditions, because DPP4 is an adipokine. Methods Blood glucose and serum DPP4 levels were measured, and adipocytes were collected from mice under normal, high-fat diet fed, and diabetic conditions. The adipocytes obtained were incubated for 24 hours in medium containing 5.5 or 25 mM glucose, and 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were differentiated under 5.5 or 25 mM glucose. Adipocytes from mice and 3T3-L1 were stimulated by tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) for 24 hours. The levels of released and intracellular DPP4 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Mice fed high-fat diet had lower serum DPP4 levels in the first and second week than controls. However, this difference gradually disappeared over 6 weeks. The differentiation of 3T3-L1 adipocytes under 25 mM glucose produced lower DPP4 levels than those differentiated under 5.5 mM; this was also observed in isolated adipocytes from mice. However, these effects of glucose were lost in adipocytes from diabetic mice, and an increase in total DPP4 levels was observed. The stimulation of adipocytes with TNF-α increased the release of DPP4 irrespective of glucose concentration. Conclusion The production of DPP4 in adipocytes was negatively regulated by 25 mM glucose under physiological conditions, but not in diabetic mice. Our results suggest that the observed increase in serum DPP4 levels may be attributed to increased production of DPP4 in adipocytes and an enhancement in TNF-α-induced release.
Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pattern of comorbidities in a general population

Background: Nowadays, there is increasing awareness about the frequent chronic comorbidities in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but little information is available to quantify the burden of illness that these conditions cause in this population. We aimed to identify and describe a population suffering from COPD highlighting the co-morbid conditions that may contribute to poor clinical outcomes. Design: Epidemiological cross-sectional study conducted using administrative heath services databases. Results: A cohort of 126,283 COPD patients was identified. The estimated prevalence in adult population was 3.6%. Ninety-eight percent of these patients (123,603) received at least one prescription of “non-respiratory drugs” and, considering chronic specific comorbidities (cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression) 86,351 patients (68.4% of COPD patients) suffered from at least one of these conditions. 80,840 pts (64.4%) were treated for cardiovascular diseases, 17,091 subjects for diabetes (12.4%) and 10,292 for depression (8%). About 16% of COPD subjects (19,168 patients) had two out of the three considered comorbid conditions and 1352 patients (1.1%) all three. Conclusion: This study highlights the complex spectrum of comorbidities in COPD patients. The prevalence of main chronic diseases increases with age, in particular among female group. An enhanced public awareness about these conditions is necessary, just as a more comprehensive approach in their management.
Addendum to: On Volumes of Arithmetic Quotients of SO(1,n)

There are errors in the proof of uniqueness of arithmetic subgroups of the smallest covolume. In this note we correct the proof, obtain certain results which were stated as a conjecture, and we give several remarks on further developments. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 11E57 (primary); 22E40 (secondary). 1.1. Let us recall some notation and basic notions. Following [1] we will assume that n is even and n ≥ 4. The group of orientation preserving isometries of hyperbolic n-space is isomorphic to SO(1, n)o, the connected component of the identity of the special orthogonal group of signature (1, n), which can be identified with SO0(1, n), the subgroup of SO(1, n) preserving the upper half space. This group is not Zariski closed in SLn+1 thus in order to construct arithmetically defined subgroups of SO(1, n)o we consider arithmetic subgroups of the orthogonal group SO(1, n) or, more precisely, of groups G = SO( f ) where f is an admissible quadratic form defined over a totally real number field k (see [1, Section 2.1]). We have an exact sequence of k-isogenies: 1 → C → G φ → G → 1, (1.1) where G(k) Spin( f ) is the simply connected cover of G and C μ2 is the center of G. This induces an exact sequence in Galois cohomology (see [5, Section 2.2.3]) G(k) φ → G(k) δ → H1(k, C) → H1(k, G). (1.2) The main idea of this note is that by using (1.2) certain questions about arithmetic subgroups of G can be reduced to questions about the Galois cohomology group H1(k, C). A coherent collection of parahoric subgroups P = (Pv)v∈V f of G (V f = V f (k) denotes the set of finite places of the field k) defines a principal arithmetic subgroup Received October 16, 2006; accepted in revised form March 12, 2007.
Border sequences of Medicago truncatula CLE36 are specifically cleaved by endoproteases common to the extracellular fluids of Medicago and soybean

CLE (CLAVATA3/ESR-related) peptides are developmental regulators that are secreted into the apoplast. Little is known about the role of the sequences that flank CLE peptides in terms of their biological activity or how they are targeted by proteases that are known to liberate the final active CLE peptides from their precursor sequences. The biological activity of Medicago truncatula CLE36, which possesses broadly conserved border sequences flanking the putative final active CLE36 peptide product, was assessed. Using in vitro root growth assays and an in vitro root and callus formation assay it is shown that CLE36 peptides of different lengths possess differential biological activities. Using mass spectrometry, Glycine max and Medicago extracellular fluids were each shown to possess an endoproteolytic activity that recognizes and cleaves at border sequences in a synthetic 31 amino acid CLE36 ‘propeptide bait’ to liberate biologically active peptide products. Inhibitor studies suggest that a subtilisin, in combination with a carboxypeptidase, liberated and trimmed CLE36, respectively, to form biologically relevant 11–15 amino acid cleavage products. The 15 amino acid cleavage product is more biologically potent on Arabidopsis than shorter or longer CLE peptides. In situ hybridization shows that the soybean orthologue of CLE36 (GmCLE34) is expressed in the provascular tissue. The results suggest that secreted subtilisins can specifically recognize the border sequences of CLE36 propeptides and liberate biologically active cleavage products. These secreted proteases may affect the stability and biological activity of CLE peptides in the apoplast or be involved in CLE36 processing.
Treatment of spontaneous ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma: A single-center study

Objectives: Spontaneous rupture of hepatocarcinoma (HCC) is a fatal complication of advanced HCC and is associated with poor prognosis. However, there is no consensus on the best approach to treat hemoperitoneum due to ruptured HCC. In this paper, we evaluate and discuss the outcomes of different treatment methods employed at our center for ruptured HCC. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 132 patients diagnosed with ruptured HCC at our hospital from January 2003 to December 2012 and evaluated and compared the outcomes of five treatment methods for ruptured HCC: conservative treatment, surgical hemostasis, transarterial embolization (TAE), and one- and two-stage resections. Results: There was no significant difference in the median survival time between the conservative treatment and surgical hemostasis groups. Patients in the TAE alone group had a better prognosis than those in the conservative treatment and surgical hemostasis groups. The survival time of the tumor resection group was obviously better than that of the conservative treatment, surgical hemostasis, and TAE alone groups, but no significant difference was observed between the one-stage and two-stage resection groups. Conclusions: One-stage hepatectomy is a better option for patients with preserved liver function, whereas TAE is a better option for those with poorly preserved liver function.
The self in impression formation: Trait centrality and social perception.

Abstract A pretest was used to identify whether the traits of honesty or intelligence were either central or peripheral to individual subjects′ self-conceptions. In a subsequent impression formation task, these subjects′ impressions of others were influenced by both subject trait centrality and judgment dimension. When presented with target descriptions containing both positive and negative behaviors, the impression judgments of subjects for whom the trait of honesty was central were more influenced by dishonest behaviors than subjects for whom the trait of honesty was peripheral, and the impression judgments of subjects for whom the trait of intelligence was central were more influenced by intelligent behaviors than subjects for whom the trait of intelligence was peripheral. Other data suggest that these effects were due to the fact that centrality affected the influence of negative cues on impressions: Trait-central subjects rated dishonest targets as more dishonest than trait-peripheral subjects, but trait-central subjects rated stupid targets as less stupid than trait-peripheral subjects. The implications of the obtained results for potential motivational and cognitive mediators of the impact of the self on impressions of others are discussed.
Theta lifting of nilpotent orbits for symmetric pairs

We consider a reductive dual pair (G, G') in the stable range with G' the smaller member and of Hermitian symmetric type. We study the theta lifting of nilpotent K' c -orbits, where K' is a maximal compact subgroup of G' and we describe the precise K c -module structure of the regular function ring of the closure of the lifted nilpotent orbit of the symmetric pair (G, K). As an application, we prove sphericality and normality of the closure of certain nilpotent K C -orbits obtained in this way. We also give integral formulas for their degrees.
Persistence of Antibodies against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

To determine how long antibodies against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus persist, we measured long-term antibody responses among persons serologically positive or indeterminate after a 2012 outbreak in Jordan. Antibodies, including neutralizing antibodies, were detectable in 6 (86%) of 7 persons for at least 34 months after the outbreak.
Structural performance of thick adherend steel—composite adhesive joints

Abstract The aim of this paper is to assess the performance of two types of bonded joint with reference to specific design concepts, materials and application for hybrid steel-composite panel construction. The joints are (a) laminate-to-frame connections and (b) butt joints between adjacent laminates. The objectives are (a) to understand the structural behaviour, (b) to determine the failure mechanisms and (c) to determine the effect of the joint geometry on the strength of the bonded joints. The materials used for these joints were polyester-glass composite laminates, mild steel sections and epoxy adhesives. The paper describes the results from mechanical testing and numerical analyses for these joints. A key conclusion is that structural epoxy adhesives provide substantial joint strength to composite panels even though the composite uses low-strength resin. The joint strength is governed by adherend geometry.
Wireless Mobile Computing using Energy-E Client Caching

Caching can reduce the bandwidth requirement in a mo-bile computing environment. However, due to battery power limitations, a wireless mobile computer may of-ten be forced to operate in a doze or even totally dis-connected mode. As a result, the mobile computer may miss some cache invalidation reports broadcasted by a server, forcing it to discard the entire cache contents after waking up. In this paper, we present an energy-e cient cache invalidation method, called GCORE, that allows a mobile computer to operate in a discon-nected mode to save battery while still retaining most of the caching bene ts after a reconnection. We present an e cient implementation of GCORE and conduct simulations to evaluate its caching e ectiveness. The results show that GCORE can substantially improve mobile caching by reducing the communication band-width (or energy consumption) for query processing.
Quantitative Proteomics Approach to Screening of Potential Diagnostic and Therapeutic Targets for Laryngeal Carcinoma

To discover candidate biomarkers for diagnosis and detection of human laryngeal carcinoma and explore possible mechanisms of this cancer carcinogenesis, two-dimensional strong cation-exchange/reversed-phase nano-scale liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis was used to identify differentially expressed proteins between the laryngeal carcinoma tissue and the adjacent normal tissue. As a result, 281 proteins with significant difference in expression were identified, and four differential proteins, Profilin-1 (PFN1), Nucleolin (NCL), Cytosolic non-specific dipeptidase (CNDP2) and Mimecan (OGN) with different subcellular localization were selectively validated. Semiquantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting were performed to detect the expression of the four proteins employing a large collection of human laryngeal carcinoma tissues, and the results validated the differentially expressed proteins identified by the proteomics. Furthermore, we knocked down PFN1 in immortalized human laryngeal squamous cell line Hep-2 cells and then the proliferation and metastasis of these transfected cells were measured. The results showed that PFN1 silencing inhibited the proliferation and affected the migration ability of Hep-2 cells, providing some new insights into the pathogenesis of PFN1 in laryngeal carcinoma. Altogether, our present data first time show that PFN1, NCL, CNDP2 and OGN are novel potential biomarkers for diagnosis and therapeutic targets for laryngeal carcinoma, and PFN1 is involved in the metastasis of laryngeal carcinoma.
Adaptive compressive sensing and processing for radar tracking

Compressive sensing and processing of radar waveforms enables high-resolution tracking while using low sampling rates and inexpensive processing. Compressive processing, however, introduces an additional estimation error, especially when the compressive sensing process is agnostic to the received waveform characteristics. In this work, an adaptive compressive sensing and processing scheme is applied to the radar tracking problem. The adaptive scheme naturally incorporates sequentially updated information on target state that is readily available from a particle filter based tracker. The proposed method is shown to improve tracking performance compared to a non-adaptive scheme, while maintaining a low-sampling rate and a computationally inexpensive operation.
Kinds of Ideals of Fuzzy Lattice

We characterize a fuzzy lattice through a fuzzy partial order relation, define ideals and filters of fuzzy lattices, characterize an ideal of fuzzy lattice using its level set and its support and show that a subset of a fuzzy lattice is an ideal if and only if its support is an ideal. Similarly, we show the same for its level set. Lastly, we define some kinds of ideals and filters of fuzzy lattice and we study the intersection among families the each kind of ideal and filter, and some of its consequences.
Inhibition of Inflammatory Pain by Activating B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Signal Pathway in Nociceptive Sensory Neurons

B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been known to be secreted from cardiac myocytes and activate its receptor, natriuretic peptide receptor-A (NPR-A), to reduce ventricular fibrosis. However, the function of BNP/NPR-A pathway in the somatic sensory system has been unknown. In the present study, we report a novel function of BNP in pain modulation. Using microarray and immunoblot analyses, we found that BNP and NPR-A were expressed in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) of rats and upregulated after intraplantar injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA). Immunohistochemistry showed that BNP was expressed in calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-containing small neurons and IB4 (isolectin B4)-positive neurons, whereas NPR-A was present in CGRP-containing neurons. Application of BNP reduced the firing frequency of small DRG neurons in the presence of glutamate through opening large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels (BKCa channels). Furthermore, intrathecal injection of BNP yielded inhibitory effects on formalin-induced flinching behavior and CFA-induced thermal hyperalgesia in rats. Blockade of BNP signaling by BNP antibodies or cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) inhibitor KT5823 [(9S,10R,12R)-2,3,9,10,11,12-hexahydro-10-methoxy-2,9-dimethyl-1-oxo-9,12-epoxy-1H-diindolo[1,2,3-fg:3′,2′,1′-kl]pyrrolo[3,4-i][1,6]benzodiazocine-10-carboxylic acid methyl ester] impaired the recovery from CFA-induced thermal hyperalgesia. Thus, BNP negatively regulates nociceptive transmission through presynaptic receptor NPR-A, and activation of the BNP/NPR-A/PKG/BKCa channel pathway in nociceptive afferent neurons could be a potential strategy for inflammatory pain therapy.