Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxidative stress and the effect of parasites on a carotenoid-based ornament

SUMMARY Oxidative stress, the physiological condition whereby the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species overwhelms the capacity of antioxidant defences, causes damage to key bio-molecules. It has been implicated in many diseases, and is proposed as a reliable currency in the trade-off between individual health and ornamentation. Whether oxidative stress mediates the expression of carotenoid-based signals, which are among the commonest signals of many birds, fish and reptiles, remains controversial. In the present study, we explored interactions between parasites, oxidative stress and the carotenoid-based ornamentation of red grouse Lagopus lagopus scoticus. We tested whether removing nematode parasites influenced both oxidative balance (levels of oxidative damage and circulating antioxidant defences) and carotenoid-based ornamentation. At the treatment group level, parasite purging enhanced the size and colouration of ornaments but did not significantly affect circulating carotenoids, antioxidant defences or oxidative damage. However, relative changes in these traits among individuals indicated that males with a greater number of parasites prior to treatment (parasite purging) showed a greater increase in the levels of circulating carotenoids and antioxidants, and a greater decrease in oxidative damage, than those with initially fewer parasites. At the individual level, a greater increase in carotenoid pigmentation was associated with a greater reduction in oxidative damage. Therefore, an individual's ability to express a carotenoid-based ornament appeared to be linked to its current oxidative balance and susceptibility to oxidative stress. Our experimental results suggest that oxidative stress can mediate the impact of parasites on carotenoid-based signals, and we discuss possible mechanisms linking carotenoid-based ornaments to oxidative stress.
Best-response auctions

We present a new framework for auction design and analysis that we term "best-response auctions". We use this framework to show that the simple and myopic best-response dynamics converge to the VCG outcome and are incentive compatible in several well-studied auction environments (Generalized Second Price auctions, and auctions with unit-demand bidders). Thus, we establish that in these environments, given that all other bidders are repeatedly best-responding, the best course of action for a bidder is to also repeatedly best-respond. Our results generalize classical results in economics regarding convergence to equilibrium and incentive compatibility of ascending-price English auctions. In addition, our findings provide new game-theoretic justifications for some well-studied auction rules. Best-response auctions provide a way to bridge the gap between the full-information equilibrium concept and the usual private-information auction theory.
Soaring Migratory Birds Avoid Wind Farm in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Southern Mexico

The number of wind farms operating in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, southern Mexico, has rapidly increased in recent years; yet, this region serves as a major migration route for various soaring birds, including Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) and Swainson's Hawks (Buteo swainsoni). We analyzed the flight trajectories of soaring migrant birds passing the La Venta II wind farm during the two migratory seasons of 2011, to determine whether an avoidance pattern existed or not. We recorded three polar coordinates for the flight path of migrating soaring birds that were detected using marine radar, plotted the flight trajectories and estimated the number of trajectories that intersected the polygon defined by the wind turbines of La Venta II. Finally, we estimated the actual number of intersections per kilometer and compared this value with the null distributions obtained by running 10,000 simulations of our datasets. The observed number of intersections per kilometer fell within or beyond the lower end of the null distributions in the five models proposed for the fall season and in three of the four models proposed for the spring season. Flight trajectories had a non-random distribution around La Venta II, suggesting a strong avoidance pattern during fall and a possible avoidance pattern during spring. We suggest that a nearby ridgeline plays an important role in this pattern, an issue that may be incorporated into strategies to minimize the potential negative impacts of future wind farms on soaring birds. Studies evaluating these issues in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have not been previously published; hence this work contributes important baseline information about the movement patterns of soaring birds and its relationship to wind farms in the region.
Evidence for the Ubiquitin Protease UBP43 as an Antineoplastic Target

New pharmacologic targets are needed for lung cancer. One candidate pathway to target is composed of the E1-like ubiquitin-activating enzyme (UBE1L) that associates with interferon-stimulated gene 15 (ISG15), which complexes with and destabilizes cyclin D1. Ubiquitin protease 43 (UBP43/USP18) removes ISG15 from conjugated proteins. This study reports that gain of UBP43 stabilized cyclin D1, but not other D-type cyclins or cyclin E. This depended on UBP43 enzymatic activity; an enzymatically inactive UBP43 did not affect cyclin D1 stability. As expected, small interfering RNAs that reduced UBP43 expression also decreased cyclin D1 levels and increased apoptosis in a panel of lung cancer cell lines. Forced cyclin D1 expression rescued UBP43 apoptotic effects, which highlighted the importance of cyclin D1 in conferring this. Short hairpin RNA-mediated reduction of UBP43 significantly increased apoptosis and reduced murine lung cancer growth in vitro and in vivo after transplantation of these cells into syngeneic mice. These cells also exhibited increased response to all-trans-retinoic acid, interferon, or cisplatin treatments. Notably, gain of UBP43 expression antagonized these effects. Normal-malignant human lung tissue arrays were examined independently for UBP43, cyclin D1, and cyclin E immunohistochemical expression. UBP43 was significantly (P < 0.01) increased in the malignant versus normal lung. A direct relationship was found between UBP43 and cyclin D1 (but not cyclin E) expression. Differential UBP43 expression was independently detected in a normal-malignant tissue array with diverse human cancers. Taken together, these findings uncovered UBP43 as a previously unrecognized antineoplastic target. Mol Cancer Ther; 11(9); 1968–77. ©2012 AACR.
The Inhibition of Macrophage Foam Cell Formation by 9-Cis β-Carotene Is Driven by BCMO1 Activity

Atherosclerosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developed societies, and begins when activated endothelial cells recruit monocytes and T-cells from the bloodstream into the arterial wall. Macrophages that accumulate cholesterol and other fatty materials are transformed into foam cells. Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that a diet rich in carotenoids is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease; while previous work in our laboratory has shown that the 9-cis β-carotene rich alga Dunaliella inhibits atherogenesis in mice. The effect of 9-cis β-carotene on macrophage foam cell formation has not yet been investigated. In the present work, we sought to study whether the 9-cis β-carotene isomer, isolated from the alga Dunaliella, can inhibit macrophage foam cell formation upon its conversion to retinoids. The 9-cis β-carotene and Dunaliella lipid extract inhibited foam cell formation in the RAW264.7 cell line, similar to 9-cis retinoic acid. Furthermore, dietary enrichment with the algal powder in mice resulted in carotenoid accumulation in the peritoneal macrophages and in the inhibition of foam cell formation ex-vivo and in-vivo. We also found that the β-carotene cleavage enzyme β-carotene 15,15’-monooxygenase (BCMO1) is expressed and active in macrophages. Finally, 9-cis β-carotene, as well as the Dunaliella extract, activated the nuclear receptor RXR in hepa1-6 cells. These results indicate that dietary carotenoids, such as 9-cis β-carotene, accumulate in macrophages and can be locally cleaved by endogenous BCMO1 to form 9-cis retinoic acid and other retinoids. Subsequently, these retinoids activate the nuclear receptor RXR that, along with additional nuclear receptors, can affect various metabolic pathways, including those involved in foam cell formation and atherosclerosis.
in Antitumor Therapy Monocyte/Macrophage Populations + NK1.1Macrophages and Support Tumor-Resident Upregulation of NK1.1-Dependent Killing by Monosodium Urate Crystals Induce

Macrophages display phenotypic and functional heterogeneity dependent on the changing inﬂammatory microenvironment. Under some conditions, macrophages can acquire effector functions commonly associated with NK cells. In the current study, we inves-tigated how the endogenous danger signal monosodium urate (MSU) crystals can alter macrophage functions. We report that naive, primary peritoneal macrophages rapidly upregulate the expression of the NK cell-surface marker NK1.1 in response to MSU crystals but not in response to LPS or other urate crystals. NK1.1 upregulation by macrophages was associated with mechanisms including phagocytosis of crystals, NLRP3 inﬂammasome activation, and autocrine proinﬂammatory cytokine signaling. Further analysis demonstrated that MSU crystal–activated macrophages exhibited NK cell–like cytotoxic activity against target cells in a perforin/granzyme B–dependent manner. Furthermore, analysis of tumor hemopoietic cell populations showed that effective, MSU-mediated antitumor activity required coadministration with Mycobacterium smegmatis to induce IL-1 b production and signiﬁcant accumulation of monocytes and macrophages (but not granulocytes or dendritic cells) expressing elevated levels of NK1.1. Our ﬁndings provide evidence that MSU crystal–activated macrophages have the potential to develop tumoricidal NK cell–like functions that may be exploited to boost antitumor activity in vivo. The Journal of Immunology , 2015, 195: 000–000. urate (MSU) crystals autoinﬂammatory danger potent endogenous adjuvant cell phenotypes and
The Four Patterns of the East Branch of the Kuroshio Bifurcation in the Luzon Strait

Based on the self-organizing map (SOM) method, a suite of satellite measurement data, and Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) reanalysis data, the east branch of the Kuroshio bifurcation is found to have four coherent patterns associated with mesoscale eddies in the Pacific Ocean: anomalous southward, anomalous eastward, anomalous northward, and anomalous westward. The robust clockwise cycle of the four patterns causes significant intraseasonal variation of 62.2 days for the east branch. Furthermore, the study shows that the four patterns of the east branch of the Kuroshio bifurcation can influence the horizontal and vertical distribution of local sea temperature.
Importance sampling actor-critic algorithms

Importance sampling (IS) and actor-critic are two methods which have been used to reduce the variance of gradient estimates in policy gradient optimization methods. We show how IS can be used with temporal difference methods to estimate a cost function parameter for one policy using the entire history of system interactions incorporating many different policies. The resulting algorithm is then applied to improving gradient estimates in a policy gradient optimization. The empirical results demonstrate a 20-40 times reduction in variance over the IS estimator for an example queueing problem, resulting in a similar factor of improvement in convergence for a gradient search
Affective Privilege: Asymmetric Interference by Emotional Distracters

Numerous theories posit that affectively salient stimuli are privileged in their capacity to capture attention and disrupt ongoing cognition. Two underlying assumptions in this theoretical position are that the potency of affective stimuli transcends task boundaries (i.e., emotional distracters do not have to belong to a current task-set to disrupt processing) and that there is an asymmetry between emotional and cognitive processing (i.e., emotional distracters disrupt cognitive processing, but not vice versa). These assumptions have remained largely untested, as common experimental probes of emotion–cognition interaction rarely manipulate task-relevance and only examine one side of the presumed asymmetry of interference. To test these propositions directly, a face–word Stroop protocol was adapted to independently manipulate (a) the congruency between target and distracter stimulus features, (b) the affective salience of distracter features, and (c) the task-relevance of emotional compared to non-emotional target features. A three-way interaction revealed interdependent effects of distracter relevance, congruence, and affective salience. Compared to task-irrelevant distracters, task-relevant congruent distracters facilitated performance and task-relevant incongruent distracters impaired performance, but the latter effect depended on the nature of the target feature and task. Specifically, task-irrelevant emotional distracters resulted in equivalent performance costs as task-relevant non-emotional distracters, whereas task-irrelevant non-emotional distracters did not produce performance costs comparable to those generated by task-relevant emotional distracters. These results document asymmetric cross-task interference effects for affectively salient stimuli, supporting the notion of affective prioritization in human information processing.
Arteriohepatic Dysplasia in Infancy and Childhood: A Longitudinal Study of Six Patients

Arteriohepatic dysplasia (syndromatic ductular hypoplasia, Alagille syndrome) is a condition of chronic cholestasis dating from infancy accompanied by characteristic facies, pulmonic stenosis, and other somatic abnormalities. The pathologic hallmark of arteriohepatic dysplasia is a paucity or absence of intrahepatic bile ducts, wildely regarded as a congenital deficiency. We present a longitudinal study of six infants and children with arteriohepatic dysplasia, stressing evolution of the characteristic pathology on liver biopsy. All patients were biopsied twice. All five liver biopsies performed during infancy (<6 months old) showed intrahepatic cholestasis and portal inflammation, and two infants had, in addition, giant cell transformation. No infant showed congenital absence of interlobular bile ducts. Three of five infants had normal numbers of interlobular bile ducts (0.5 to 1.0 interlobular bile ducts per triad) and two infants had a paucity of interlobular bile ducts (<0.5 per triad). Three infants showed focal destructive inflammation of interlobular bile ducts. All biopsies performed later in childhood, between 3 and 20 years of age, showed a paucity or absence of interlobular bile ducts. At this time cholestasis and inflammation had largely resolved but some fibrosis persisted. The number of interlobular bile ducts decreased with age in each patient but there was no characteristic age at which interlobular bile ducts disappeared completely. The presence of interlobular bile ducts in infancy followed later in childhood by paucity or absence of interlobular bile ducts, suggests that intrahepatic bile duct deficiency in some patients with arteriohepatic dysplasia is acquired rather than congenital. The mechanism of bile duct disappearance in these patients may have been destructive inflammation of duct epithelium.
Effect of low-energy shockwave therapy on angiogenic factors in the penile tissue of diabetic rats.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of low-energy shock wave therapy (LESWT) on angiogenesis factors at penile tissue in a diabetic rat model. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 30 male Sprague-Dawley rats which were allocated into three equal groups were included study. Group 1 (control group) included 10 male rats which did not receive any treatment were randomly chosen to serve as normal control. The remaining rats were injected intraperitoneally with 60 mg/kg of streptozotocin (STZ) to induce diabetes. Diabetic rats were divided into two equal group which constituted diabetic control, and LESWT treatment (DM+LESWT) group. Each rat in the DM+LESWT group received L-ESWT therapy. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA expression levels of penile tissue were evaluated. RESULTS Following STZ dosing eNOS level dropped in the diabetic control group relative to the control group. Statistically significant increase in eNOS levels were seen in the LESWT+DM group. Similarly, in the diabetic control group STZ treatment decreased VEGF levels, while in the LESWT+DM group VEGF nearly approached to baseline levels. However variations in VEGF levels were not statistically significant. CONCLUSION Mechanism action of ESWT in the penile tissue seems to involve angiogenic factors.
Assessing Pharmacy Student Knowledge on Multiple-Choice Examinations Using Partial-Credit Scoring of Combined-Response Multiple-Choice Items

This study developed, implemented, and evaluated the use of partial-credit scoring for the combinedresponse multiple-choice (CRMC) examination format utilized in an elective nonprescription drugs course. Behavioral objectives and CRMC questions were developed and classified according to the appropriate cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. External and internal content panels validated these objectives and reviewed developed CRMC questions prior to their use on three course examinations. Item response data for the partial credit scoring and the traditional dichotomous scoring method were then compared in terms of item difficulty, item discrimination, reliability, efficiency, cognitive domain being measured, and criterion-referenced grading assignments. The results demonstrated that the partial credit scoring method increased item difficulty and resulted in student outcomes which were more reflective of student knowledge compared to dichotomous scoring. Further, the partial credit scoring method increased the reliability and efficiency when compared to the dichotomous scoring method. The item difficulty difference attained by using the two methods of scoring was statistically different (P< 0.05) at different levels of the cognitive domain.
Role of the small GTP-binding protein rho in epithelial cell migration in the rabbit cornea.

PURPOSE To determine the role of the small guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-binding protein Rho in the migration of corneal epithelial cells. METHODS The presence of the Rho target proteins Rho-associated coiled coil-containing protein kinase (ROCK)-1 and ROCK-2 in rabbit cornea was examined by immunohistochemical analysis, and that of the corresponding mRNAs in rabbit corneal epithelial cells was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis. The effects of various agents on epithelial cell migration were investigated by measuring the length of the migration path in rabbit corneal blocks in culture. RESULTS Both ROCK-1 and ROCK-2 were detected in the rabbit corneal epithelium at both protein and mRNA levels. The Rho activator lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) stimulated corneal epithelial migration in a dose-dependent manner, whereas exoenzyme C3, a Rho inhibitor, inhibited epithelial migration also in a dose-dependent manner. The stimulatory effect of LPA on corneal epithelial migration was prevented by exoenzyme C3. Both cytochalasin B, an inhibitor of actin filament assembly, and ML-7, an inhibitor of myosin light chain kinase, also prevented LPA stimulation of epithelial migration. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that Rho mediates corneal epithelial migration in response to external stimuli by regulating the organization of the actin cytoskeleton.
Life values structure in a Spanish sample of adolescents

We examined the structure of personal life values as a representation of underlying motivation, in a Spanish sample of children and adolescents 12 - 16 years old. In general, results showed that youth put higher priority on intrinsic life goals (meaningful relationships, being physically healthy, self-acceptance) than extrinsic life goals (image, money, power). Gender differences were found in specific life goals. When comparing our results with another longitudinal American study using the same instrument and methodology, we found similar results, although Spanish youth value priorities goals related to support rather than striving as in American adolescents. Cultural and age trend in life priorities are discussed.
Research on concentration of pork production in Romania.

The paper aimed to analyze the concentration of pig livestock and pork production in Romanai between 2007-2014 based on the empirical data provided by National Institute of Statistics. Pork production declined due to the continuous pig livestock decrease. Pig distribution is relatively uniform by micro region of development. The West region is in the top for the pig livestock and pork production. It is followed by South Muntenia and South East regions. In all the other regions, pork production declined. The lowest pork production is in Bucharest-Ilfov area. The values of Herfindahl-Hirschman Index varied between HHI=0.137 in 2007 and HHI= 0.154 in 2014, while the Gini-Struck coefficients ranged between GS=0.119 in 2007 and GS=0.159 in 2014, reflecting a good uniformity of production distribution but also a slight trend to a moderate uniformity to the end of the period. As long as domestic production is not enough to cover consumption, pig breeders should be supported to increase production, otherwise they will fail and imports will continue to cover market demand because of the overproduction in the Western countries.
Sympathetic Innervation Induced in Engrafted Engineered Cardiomyocyte Sheets by Glial Cell Line Derived Neurotrophic Factor In Vivo

The aim of myocardial tissue engineering is to repair or regenerate damaged myocardium with engineered cardiac tissue. However, this strategy has been hampered by lack of functional integration of grafts with native myocardium. Autonomic innervation may be crucial for grafts to function properly with host myocardium. In this study, we explored the feasibility of in vivo induction of autonomic innervation to engineered myocardial tissue using genetic modulation by adenovirus encoding glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). GFP-transgene (control group) or GDNF overexpressing (GDNF group) engineered cardiomyocyte sheets were transplanted on cryoinjured hearts in rats. Nerve fibers in the grafts were examined by immunohistochemistry at 1, 2, and 4 weeks postoperatively. Growth associated protein-43 positive growing nerves and tyrosine hydroxylase positive sympathetic nerves were first detected in the grafts at 2 weeks postoperatively in control group and 1 week in GDNF group. The densities of growing nerve and sympathetic nerve in grafts were significantly increased in GDNF group. No choline acetyltransferase immunopositive parasympathetic nerves were observed in grafts. In conclusion, sympathetic innervation could be effectively induced into engrafted engineered cardiomyocyte sheets using GDNF.