Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single‐drug parenteral estrogen treatment in prostatic cancer: A study of two maintenance‐dose regimens

Treatment of 17 patients with prostatic cancer with 320 mg polyestradiol phosphate (PEP) as intramuscular injections every fourth week suppressed serum testosterone (T) values to orchidectomy levels within 1 month, and serum estradiol‐17β (E2) rose to a mean level of 2,456 pmol/liter after 6 months. Following 6 months of treatment, the PEP dose was reduced to 80 mg/4 weeks in 9 and 160 mg/4 weeks in eight patients. Mean T levels increased significantly after dose reduction in both groups and were above the upper orchidectomy limit at 1 month after dose reduction in the 80 mg group. Mean T levels, however, remained below this level at 5 months in the 160 mg group. Dose reduction caused a rise in gonadotropin levels in the 80 mg but not in the 160 mg group. While 320 mg/4 weeks may be a suitable initial dosage, doses ≪ 160 mg/4 weeks are insufficient as maintenance dosages if orchidectomy values of T are required.
Intracellular sequestration of hetero-oligomers formed by wild-type and glaucoma-causing myocilin mutants.

PURPOSE To investigate mechanism(s) by which mutations in the olfactomedin domain of myocilin (MYOC), also known as the trabecular meshwork-induced glucocorticoid response (TIGR) gene, cause autosomal dominant open-angle glaucoma, the structure and properties of wild-type (WT) MYOC protein were examined, when expressed alone or simultaneously with the Q368X or K423E disease-associated polypeptides. METHODS Myocilin was analyzed in human aqueous humor and human trabecular meshwork (HTM) tissues. COS-7 and immortalized human trabecular meshwork (iHTM) cell lines were transfected with expression vectors encoding WT MYOC, mutated, and/or epitope-tagged cDNAs. MYOC proteins were characterized by double-epitope tagging procedures and/or Western blot analysis. RESULTS MYOC polypeptides formed highly similar oligomers in aqueous humor, HTM tissues, transfected COS-7, and iHTM cell lines. These complexes ranged in size from 116 kDa to more than 200 kDa. The smallest complex, approximately 116 kDa, resulted from dimerization between two MYOC monomers. Expression of a 150-kDa complex was strongest in aqueous humor. Cotransfections of the WT construct with either the Q368X or K423E cDNA produced MYOC(WT)/MYOC(mutant) heterodimers and higher molecular weight hetero-oligomeric complexes. WT homo-oligomeric complexes were secreted in the extracellular media of both cell lines whereas the Q368X and K423E mutant/mutant homomultimers and heteromeric WT/mutant oligomers remained sequestered intracellularly. CONCLUSIONS Formation of heteromeric WT/mutant complexes may provide a critical mechanism by which mutant myocilin polypeptides produce autosomal dominant open-angle glaucoma. The intracellular sequestration of abnormal WT/mutant complexes could lead to the malfunction of MYOC-expressing cells and to POAG potentially involving a dominant negative effect.
Assessing relations among multiple environmental gradients for shallow lakes in Old Crow Flats, Yukon, using hydrological, limnological and community-collaborative research approaches

vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . x DEDICATION . xii TABLE OF CONTENTS . xiii LIST OF TABLES . xviii LIST OF FIGURES . xix CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1. OUTLINE . 1 1.2. CHEMISTRY OF SNOW AND RAIN IN NORTHERN REGIONS . 3 1.3. LIMNOLOGY OF SHALLOW LAKES IN NORTHERN CANADA . 4 1.4. THE OLD CROW FLATS: GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY AND CLIMATE . 5 1.5. THE NEED FOR COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH IN ARCTIC SCIENCE . 7 1.6. THESIS OVERVIEW: . 8 CHAPTER 2. SOURCE-WATER INPUTS AND CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS REGULATE LIMNOLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF SHALLOW SUBARCTIC LAKES (OLD CROW FLATS, YUKON, CANADA) . 14 2.1. OUTLINE . 15 2.2. INTRODUCTION . 16 2.3. MATERIALS AND METHODS . 18 2.3. 1. Study area . 18
Genotyping of Campylobacterspp

method. The major disadvantages of both of these techniques are the high number of untypeable strains and the time-consuming and technically demanding requirements of the techniques. Production and quality control of antiserum reagents for serotyping schemes are costly; consequently, these reagents are not widely available. A recently developed scheme (23) based on HS antigens in which modified antibody production and antigen detection techniques are used may be an improvement for routine use, but this scheme does not solve the problem of restricted reagent availability or the problem of the high level of nontypeability. Because of such problems, the value of serotyping techniques for national and global epidemiological studies has been restricted. Thus, there is a well-recognized need for alternative subtyping schemes. Recently, molecular subtyping methods have been developed. The major advantage of genotyping techniques is that potentially they could be universally available. Some of these techniques, like ribotyping, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and flagellin typing (fla typing), are already in use in a number of laboratories (62). In this review we describe the technologies currently available for genotypic subtyping of Campylobacter spp. , discuss the advantages and problems of each technique, and indicate the current value of each method.
On beamforming with finite rate feedback in multiple-antenna systems

We study a multiple-antenna system where the transmitter is equipped with quantized information about instantaneous channel realizations. Assuming that the transmitter uses the quantized information for beamforming, we derive a universal lower bound on the outage probability for any finite set of beamformers. The universal lower bound provides a concise characterization of the gain with each additional bit of feedback information regarding the channel. Using the bound, it is shown that finite information systems approach the perfect information case as (t-1)2/sup -B/t-1/, where B is the number of feedback bits and t is the number of transmit antennas. The geometrical bounding technique, used in the proof of the lower bound, also leads to a design criterion for good beamformers, whose outage performance approaches the lower bound. The design criterion minimizes the maximum inner product between any two beamforming vectors in the beamformer codebook, and is equivalent to the problem of designing unitary space-time codes under certain conditions. Finally, we show that good beamformers are good packings of two-dimensional subspaces in a 2t-dimensional real Grassmannian manifold with chordal distance as the metric.
A CYTOCHROME-b PERSPECTIVE ON PASSERINA BUNTING RELATIONSHIPS

Abstract We sequenced the complete mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene (1,143 nucleotides) for representatives of each species in the cardinalid genera Passerina (6 species), Guiraca (1 species), and Cyanocompsa (3 species), and used a variety of phylogenetic methods to address relationships within and among genera. We determined that Passerina, as presently recognized, is paraphyletic. Lazuli Bunting (P. amoena) is sister to the much larger Blue Grosbeak (Guiraca caerulea). Indigo Bunting (P. cyanea) and Lazuli Bunting are not sister taxa as generally thought. In all weighted parsimony trees and for the gamma-corrected HKY tree, Indigo Bunting is the sister of two sister groups, a “blue” (Lazuli Bunting and Blue Grosbeak) and a “painted” (Rosita's Bunting [P. rositae], Orange-breasted Bunting [P. leclancherii], Varied Bunting [P. versicolor], and Painted Bunting [P. ciris]) clade. The latter two species form a highly supported sister pair of relatively more recent origin. Uncorrected (p) distances for ingroup (Passerina and Guiraca) taxa range from 3.0% (P. versicolor–P. ciris) to 7.6% (P. cyanea–P. leclancherii) and average 6.5% overall. Assuming a molecular clock, a bunting “radiation” between 4.1 and 7.3 Mya yielded four lineages. This timing is consistent with fossil evidence and coincides with a late-Miocene cooling during which a variety of western grassland habitats evolved. A reduction in size at that time may have allowed buntings to exploit that new food resource (grass seeds). We speculate that the Blue Grosbeak subsequently gained large size and widespread distribution as a result of ecological character displacement.
Acute ethanol exposure inhibits macrophage IL‐6 production: role of p38 and ERK1/2 MAPK

Acute ethanol consumption has been linked to an increase in infectious complications in trauma and burn patients. Ethanol modifies production of a variety of macrophage‐derived immunoregulatory mediators. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a potent stimulator of inflammatory responses in macrophages, activates several intracellular signaling pathways, including mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPK). In the current study, we investigated the effect of acute ethanol exposure on in vivo activation of p38 and extracellularly regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) MAPK in murine macrophages and the corresponding, LPS‐stimulated interleukin (IL)‐6 production. We demonstrated that a single dose of ethanol transiently down‐regulated p38 and ERK1/2 activation levels (3–24 h after treatment) and impaired IL‐6 synthesis. Ethanol‐related reduction in IL‐6 production was not further affected by the presence of inhibitors of p38 and ERK1/2 (SB 202190 and PD 98059, respectively). These results demonstrate that acute ethanol exposure can impair macrophage IL‐6 production and indicate that this effect may result from ethanol‐induced alterations in intracellular signaling through p38 and ERK1/2.
Serial Analysis of Gene Expression Study of a Hybrid Rice Strain (LYP9) and Its Parental Cultivars1[w]

Using the serial analysis of gene expression technique, we surveyed transcriptomes of three major tissues (panicles, leaves, and roots) of a super-hybrid rice (Oryza sativa) strain, LYP9, in comparison to its parental cultivars, 93-11 (indica) and PA64s (japonica). We acquired 465,679 tags from the serial analysis of gene expression libraries, which were consolidated into 68,483 unique tags. Focusing our initial functional analyses on a subset of the data that are supported by full-length cDNAs and the tags (genes) differentially expressed in the hybrid at a significant level (P < 0.01), we identified 595 up-regulated (22 tags in panicles, 228 in leaves, and 345 in roots) and 25 down-regulated (seven tags in panicles, 15 in leaves, and three in roots) in LYP9. Most of the tag-identified and up-regulated genes were found related to enhancing carbon- and nitrogen-assimilation, including photosynthesis in leaves, nitrogen uptake in roots, and rapid growth in both roots and panicles. Among the down-regulated genes in LYP9, there is an essential enzyme in photorespiration, alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase 1. Our study adds a new set of data crucial for the understanding of molecular mechanisms of heterosis and gene regulation networks of the cultivated rice.
The prevalence of Pediculus humanus capitis in two primary schools of Hacılar, Kayseri.

OBJECTIVE Pediculosis capitis is a worldwide public health concern, and today, head lice are seen in all socio-economic levels. The infestation usually occurs by head-to-head contact and children, primarily girls, aged 3-12 years are mostly affected. In the present study a total of 405 pupils (214 boys and 191 girls) from two pre- and primary schools in the Kayseri-Hacılar region were examined for pediculosis capitis during March 2010. METHODS Lice and/or eggs were detected by visual examination of the children's hair. RESULTS Out of 405 children, 44 (10.9%) were infested with head lice. There were significant differences between the schools and the gender while no significant differences could be found between infestation and child's age, education of the parents, income of the family, housing type, source of water, and the presence or absence of a bathroom. CONCLUSION Head lice remain a public health problem and more emphasis should be given to the education of parents regarding their biology and control.
Anatomical Variations of the Circulus Arteriosus in Cadaveric Human Brains

Objective. Circulus arteriosus/circle of Willis (CW) is a polygonal anastomotic channel at the base of the brain which unites the internal carotid and vertebrobasilar system. It maintains the steady and constant supply to the brain. The variations of CW are seen often. The Aim of the present work is to find out the percentage of normal pattern of CW, and the frequency of variations of the CW and to study the morphological and morphometric aspects of all components of CW. Methods. Circulus arteriosus of 150 formalin preserved brains were dissected. Dimensions of all the components forming circles were measured. Variations of all the segments were noted and well photographed. The variations such as aplasia, hypoplasia, duplication, fenestrations, and difference in dimensions with opposite segments were noted. The data collected in the study was analyzed. Results. Twenty-one different types of CW were found in the present study. Normal and complete CW was found in 60%. CW with gross morphological variations was seen in 40%. Maximum variations were seen in the PCoA followed by the ACoA in 50% and 40%, respectively. Conclusion. As it confirms high percentage of variations, all surgical interventions should be preceded by angiography. Awareness of these anatomical variations is important in neurovascular procedures.
Adaptive handoff algorithms for dynamic traffic load distribution in 4G mobile networks

In 4G mobile networks which is a kind of packet-based cellular systems, resources are shared among all users and the amount of available resources is determined by traffic load. If traffic load is concentrated in a cell, this cell become to the hotspot cell. The hotspot cell can cause to block or drop calls and consequently degrades the service quality even though available resources are remained in neighboring cells. Therefore, it is essential to distribute traffic load of the hotspot cell in order to effectively use remained resources and maintain the acceptable service quality. We propose adaptive handoff algorithms for dynamic traffic load distribution in the hotspot cell. In the simulation, we find that these algorithms can reduce call drop rate of new and handoff calls thus enhance the service quality
Transfer Joint Matching for Unsupervised Domain Adaptation

Visual domain adaptation, which learns an accurate classifier for a new domain using labeled images from an old domain, has shown promising value in computer vision yet still been a challenging problem. Most prior works have explored two learning strategies independently for domain adaptation: feature matching and instance reweighting. In this paper, we show that both strategies are important and inevitable when the domain difference is substantially large. We therefore put forward a novel Transfer Joint Matching (TJM) approach to model them in a unified optimization problem. Specifically, TJM aims to reduce the domain difference by jointly matching the features and reweighting the instances across domains in a principled dimensionality reduction procedure, and construct new feature representation that is invariant to both the distribution difference and the irrelevant instances. Comprehensive experimental results verify that TJM can significantly outperform competitive methods for cross-domain image recognition problems.
The IG-DMR and the MEG3-DMR at Human Chromosome 14q32.2: Hierarchical Interaction and Distinct Functional Properties as Imprinting Control Centers

Human chromosome 14q32.2 harbors the germline-derived primary DLK1-MEG3 intergenic differentially methylated region (IG-DMR) and the postfertilization-derived secondary MEG3-DMR, together with multiple imprinted genes. Although previous studies in cases with microdeletions and epimutations affecting both DMRs and paternal/maternal uniparental disomy 14-like phenotypes argue for a critical regulatory function of the two DMRs for the 14q32.2 imprinted region, the precise role of the individual DMR remains to be clarified. We studied an infant with upd(14)pat body and placental phenotypes and a heterozygous microdeletion involving the IG-DMR alone (patient 1) and a neonate with upd(14)pat body, but no placental phenotype and a heterozygous microdeletion involving the MEG3-DMR alone (patient 2). The results generated from the analysis of these two patients imply that the IG-DMR and the MEG3-DMR function as imprinting control centers in the placenta and the body, respectively, with a hierarchical interaction for the methylation pattern in the body governed by the IG-DMR. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating an essential long-range imprinting regulatory function for the secondary DMR.
Modeling Multiple Correlated Functional Outcomes with Spatially Heterogeneous Shape Characteristics

1comScore, Inc., Vienna, VA, 22180, U.S.A. Email: jeab.soiaporn@gmail.com 2Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A1S6, Canada. Email: jiguo cao@sfu.ca 3Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University, Texas, 77843, U.S.A. Email:carroll@stat.tamu. edu 4Department of Statistical Science and School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, Cornell University, New York 14850, U.S.A. Email:dr24@cornell.edu
Phospholipase D inhibition technology for enhancing the shelf life and quality of greenhouse tomato and sweet bell pepper.

PHOSPHOLIPASE D INHIBITION TECHNOLOGY FOR ENHANCING THE SHELF LIFE AND QUALITY OF GREENHOUSE TOMATO AND SWEET BELL PEPPER Amer Sohail Cheema Advisor: University of Guelph, 2018 Dr. Gopinadhan Paliyath From harvest to consumption, fresh produce is exposed to different exogenous factors contributing to product deterioration. Phospholipase D is a key enzyme involved in membrane deterioration that occurs during fruit ripening and senescence. Hexanal, an inhibitor of phospholipase D is known to enhance membrane preservation, and has been successfully applied for preand post-harvest treatment of fruits, vegetables and flowers. The current work aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of preand post-harvest application of hexanal formulations on quality parameters and shelf life of greenhouse tomatoes and bell peppers. Preharvest spray application of aqueous formulations containing hexanal alone, or in combination with other ingredients such as antioxidants, enhanced firmness, ascorbic acid and soluble solids in the treated fruits. The average fruit weight and yield remained the same in treated and untreated plots. Post-harvest dip application of hexanal formulations also enhanced quality parameters and shelf life of tomato even after 4 weeks of storage at 12 o C, followed by one week at room temperature. Our results suggest that preharvest or postharvest application of hexanal formulations can result in enhanced membrane preservation in tomatoes and bell peppers. This observation was further supported by the effect of hexanal vapour treatments on quality parameters, shelf-life and antioxidative enzyme activities of bell pepper fruits. Treated fruits showed an increase in firmness, a reduction in physiological water loss and lowered electrical conductivity; which indicated better membrane preservation during storage. These treatments also resulted in an increase in the levels of protein concentration and antioxidant enzyme activities, specifically that of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione reductase, guaiacol peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidase. Analysis of the release kinetics of hexanal vapour in a contained system suggested that most of the hexanal applied as vapour was absorbed and metabolized within the tissue of pepper fruits. These studies also revealed that 6 h hexanal vapour exposure is the minimum effective treatment time required for obtaining enhanced preservation of pepper fruits. Using a headspace solid phase microextraction (SPME) method for volatile extraction in peppers, 11 additional compounds were identified in hexanal-treated fruit. Overall, the present studies provide a strong rationale for adopting the hexanal-based technologies to enhance the quality and shelf life of greenhouse produce.
Effect of Culture Supernatant Derived from Trichophyton Rubrum Grown in the Nail Medium on the Innate Immunity-related Molecules of HaCaT

Background:Trichophyton rubrum is superficial fungi characteristically confined to dead keratinized tissues. These observations suggest that the soluble components released by the fungus could influence the host immune response in a cell in contact-free manner. Therefore, this research aimed to analyze whether the culture supernatant derived from T. rubrum grown in the nail medium could elicit the immune response of keratinocyte effectively. Methods:The culture supernatants of two strains (T1a, TXHB) were compared for the &bgr;-glucan concentrations and their capacity to impact the innate immunity of keratinocytes. The &bgr;-glucan concentrations in the supernatants were determined with the fungal G-test kit and protein concentrations with bicinchoninic acid protein quantitative method, then HaCaT was stimulated with different concentrations of culture supernatants by adopting morphological method to select a suitable dosage. Expressions of host defense genes were assessed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction after the HaCaT was stimulated with the culture supernatants. Data were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance, followed by the least significant difference test. Results:The T. rubrum strains (T1a and TXHB) released &bgr;-glucan of 87.530 ± 37.581 pg/ml and 15.747 ± 6.453 pg/ml, respectively into the media. The messenger RNA (mRNA) expressions of toll-like receptor-2 (TLR2), TLR4, and CARD9 were moderately up-regulated in HaCaT within 6-h applications of both supernatants. HaCaT cells were more responsive to T1a than TXHB. The slight increase of dendritic cells-specific intercellular adhesion molecule 3-grabbing nonintegrin expression was faster and stronger, induced by T1a supernatant than TXHB. The moderate decreases of RNase 7, the slight up-regulations of Dectin-1 and interleukin-8 at the mRNA level were detected only in response to T1a rather than TXHB. After a long-time contact, all the elevated defense genes decreased after 24 h. Conclusion:The culture supernatant of T. rubrum could directly and transiently activate the innate immune response of keratinocytes.
Characterization of Intra-Type Variants of Oncogenic Human Papillomaviruses by Next-Generation Deep Sequencing of the E6/E7 Region

Different human papillomavirus (HPV) types are characterized by differences in tissue tropism and ability to promote cell proliferation and transformation. In addition, clinical and experimental studies have shown that some genetic variants/lineages of high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) types are characterized by increased oncogenic activity and probability to induce cancer. In this study, we designed and validated a new method based on multiplex PCR-deep sequencing of the E6/E7 region of HR-HPV types to characterize HPV intra-type variants in clinical specimens. Validation experiments demonstrated that this method allowed reliable identification of the different lineages of oncogenic HPV types. Advantages of this method over other published methods were represented by its ability to detect variants of all HR-HPV types in a single reaction, to detect variants of HR-HPV types in clinical specimens with multiple infections, and, being based on sequencing of the full E6/E7 region, to detect amino acid changes in these oncogenes potentially associated with increased transforming activity.