Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Angiogenic factors in preeclampsia: so complex, so simple?

Hoechst.htm 23. Cointe D, Beliard R, Jorieux S et al. Unusual N-glycosylation of a recombinant human erythropoietin expressed in a human lymphoblastoid cell line does not alter its biological properties. Glycobiology 2000; 10: 511–519 24. Shahrokh Z, Flatman S, Davies M, Baycroft A, Heartlein M. Erythropoietin produced by a human cell line has only trace levels of potentially immunogenic N-glycolylneuraminic acid residues. Haematologica 2006; 91 [S1]: 208 (Abstract) 25. Noguchi A, Mukuria CJ, Suzuki E et al. Immunogenicity of N-glycolylneuraminic acid-containing carbohydrate chains of recombinant human erythropoietin expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. J Biochem (Tokyo) 1995; 117: 59–62 26. Tangvoranuntakul P, Gagneux P, Diaz S et al. Human uptake and incorporation of an immunogenic nonhuman dietary sialic acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2003; 100: 12045–12050 27. Nguyen DH, Tangvoranuntakul P, Varki A. Effects of natural human antibodies against a nonhuman sialic acid that metabolically incorporates into activated and malignant immune cells. J Immunol 2005; 175: 228–236 28. Kwan JT, Pratt RD. Epoetin-d, erythropoietin produced in a human cell line, in the management of anaemia in predialysis chronic kidney disease patients. Curr Med Res Opin 2007; 23: 307–311 29. Spinowitz BS, Pratt RD. Epoetin-d is effective for the management of anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease. Curr Med Res Opin 2006; 22: 2507–2513 30. Egrie JC, Browne JK. Development and characterization of novel erythropoiesis stimulating protein (NESP). Br J Cancer 2001; 84: 3–10 31. Elliott S, Lorenzini T, Asher S et al. Enhancement of therapeutic protein in vivo activities through glycoengineering. Nat Biotechnol 2003; 21: 414–421 32. Jelkmann W. The enigma of the metabolic fate of circulating erythropoietin (Epo) in view of the pharmacokinetics of the recombinant drugs rhEpo and NESP. Eur J Haematol 2002; 69: 265–274 33. MacDougall IC. Novel erythropoiesis stimulating protein. Semin Nephrol 2000; 20: 375–381 34. Wish JB. The economic realities of erythropoiesis-stimulating agent therapy in kidney disease. Kidney Int 2006; 70: S21–S25 35. MacDougall IC. CERA (Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator): a new erythropoiesis-stimulating agent for the treatment of anemia. Curr Hematol Rep 2005; 4: 436–440 36. SteadRB, Lambert J,WesselsD et al.Evaluation of the safety and pharmacodynamics of Hematide, a novel erythropoietic agent, in a phase 1, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation study in healthy volunteers. Blood 2006; 108: 1830–1834 37. Kochendoerfer GG. Site-specific polymer modification of therapeutic proteins. Curr Opin Chem Biol 2005; 9: 555–560
The essential roles of cytidine diphosphate‐diacylglycerol synthase in bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei

Lipid metabolism in Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of African sleeping sickness, differs from its human host in several fundamental ways. This has lead to the validation of a plethora of novel drug targets, giving hope of novel chemical intervention against this neglected disease. Cytidine diphosphate diacylglycerol (CDP‐DAG) is a central lipid intermediate for several pathways in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, being produced by CDP‐DAG synthase (CDS). However, nothing is known about the single T. brucei CDS gene (Tb927.7.220/EC 2.7.7.41) or its activity. In this study we show TbCDS is functional by complementation of a non‐viable yeast CDS null strain and that it is essential in the bloodstream form of the parasite via a conditional knockout. The TbCDS conditional knockout showed morphological changes including a cell‐cycle arrest due in part to kinetoplast segregation defects. Biochemical phenotyping of TbCDS conditional knockout showed drastically altered lipid metabolism where reducing levels of phosphatidylinositol detrimentally impacted on glycoylphosphatidylinositol biosynthesis. These studies also suggest that phosphatidylglycerol synthesized via the phosphatidylglycerol‐phosphate synthase is not synthesized from CDP‐DAG, as was previously thought. TbCDS was shown to localized the ER and Golgi, probably to provide CDP‐DAG for the phosphatidylinositol synthases.
[Exercise therapy].

Therapeutic exercise has a central role within physiatry. Contrary to other forms of treatment, the patient does not passively absorb energy (i.e. electricity or heat) but has to supply the energy him/herself. Exercise therapy is the only causal therapy in physical medicine and it can be dosed such that it is almost always applicable. Particularly about the latter point there is much confusion: Measures of positioning like in Guthrie-Smith's apparatus equally belong to therapeutic exercise as sequential therapy with power machines. Thus many patients are not submitted to physiotherapy and therapeutic exercise in particular, which are admittedly based on empiricism rather than scientific evaluation. This review attempts to provide an overview of the various methods of exercise therapy--incomplete and prone to the authors own preferences.
Functional cooperation between KCa3.1 and TRPC1 channels in human breast cancer: Role in cell proliferation and patient prognosis

Intracellular Ca2+ levels are important regulators of cell cycle and proliferation. We, and others, have previously reported the role of KCa3.1 (KCNN4) channels in regulating the membrane potential and the Ca2+ entry in association with cell proliferation. However, the relevance of KC3.1 channels in cancer prognosis as well as the molecular mechanism of Ca2+ entry triggered by their activation remain undetermined. Here, we show that RNAi-mediated knockdown of KCa3.1 and/or TRPC1 leads to a significant decrease in cell proliferation due to cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase. These results are consistent with the observed upregulation of both channels in synchronized cells at the end of G1 phase. Additionally, knockdown of TRPC1 suppressed the Ca2+ entry induced by 1-EBIO-mediated KCa3.1 activation, suggesting a functional cooperation between TRPC1 and KCa3.1 in the regulation of Ca2+ entry, possibly within lipid raft microdomains where these two channels seem to co-localize. We also show significant correlations between KCa3.1 mRNA expression and poor patient prognosis and unfavorable clinical breast cancer parameters by mining large datasets in the public domain. Together, these results highlight the importance of KCa3.1 in regulating the proliferative mechanisms in breast cancer cells as well as in providing a promising novel target in prognosis and therapy.
Bacterial Diversity Stabilizes Community Productivity

Background Stability is a crucial ecosystem feature gaining particular importance in face of increasing anthropogenic stressors. Biodiversity is considered to be a driving biotic force maintaining stability, and in this study we investigate how different indices of biodiversity affect the stability of communities in varied abiotic (composition of available resources) and biotic (invasion) contexts. Methodology/Principal Findings We set up microbial microcosms to study the effects of genotypic diversity on the reliability of community productivity, defined as the inverse of the coefficient of variation of across-treatment productivity, in different environmental contexts. We established a bacterial diversity gradient ranging from 1 to 8 Pseudomonas fluorescens genotypes and grew the communities in different resource environments or in the presence of model invasive species. Biodiversity significantly stabilized community productivity across treatments in both experiments. Path analyses revealed that different aspects of diversity determined stability: genotypic richness stabilized community productivity across resource environments, whereas functional diversity determined stability when subjected to invasion. Conclusions/Significance Biodiversity increases the stability of microbial communities against both biotic and abiotic environmental perturbations. Depending on stressor type, varying aspects of biodiversity contribute to the stability of ecosystem functions. The results suggest that both genetic and functional diversity need to be preserved to ensure buffering of communities against abiotic and biotic stresses.
Spark Plasma Sintering of βSiAlON-cBN Composite

βSiAlON-cubic boron nitride (cBN) composites were prepared from β-SiAlON and cBN powders using spark plasma sintering (SPS) at firing temperature of 1600-1900oC under pressure of 100MPa, and densification, phase transformation and hardness of the composites were investigated. The phase transformation of cBN to hexagonal BN (hBN) was inhibited in βSiAlON-cBN composite. βSiAlON-cBN composites containing 10-30 vol% cBN fired at 1650oC were densified to 95-98% of theoretical density with no transformation of cBN to hBN. Vickers hardness of the βSiAlON-cBN composite containing 20 vol% cBN fired at 1650oC was 17.5 GPa in maximum value, and the hardness significantly decreased as cBN phase was transformed to hBN in the composites.
Can coffee consumption lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease? A literature review

In light of the fact that the number of elderly citizens in society is steadily increasing, the search for dietary factors which might prolong mental agility is growing in significance. Coffee, together with its main ingredient, caffeine, has been the focus of much attention from various researchers, as data on its beneficial effects on human health continue to accumulate. Most reports indicate that moderate coffee consumption may in fact lower the risk for common neurodegenerative conditions, i.e. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Regardless, due to their complex pathogenesis as well as methodology of scientific research, the exact impact of coffee consumption remains to be fully elucidated. At present, it seems safe to inform the general public that coffee drinkers need not fear for their health. Possibly, in the future experts will recommend drinking coffee not only to satisfy individual taste preferences but also to decrease age-related mental deterioration.
An Examination of Practical Granger Causality Inference

Learning temporal causal structures among multiple time series is one of the major tasks in mining time series data. Granger causality is one of the most popular techniques in uncovering the temporal dependencies among time series; however it faces two main challenges: (i) the spurious effect of unobserved time series and (ii) the computational challenges in high dimensional settings. In this paper, we utilize the confounder path delays to find a subset of time series that via conditioning on them we are able to cancel out the spurious confounder effects. After study of consistency of different Granger causality techniques, we propose Copula-Granger and show that while it is consistent in high dimensions, it can efficiently capture non-linearity in the data. Extensive experiments on a synthetic and a social networking dataset confirm our theoretical results.
Cancer metastasis and EGFR signaling is suppressed by amiodarone-induced versican V2

Extracellular matrix components play an active role in cancer progression and prognosis. Versican, a large extracellular matrix proteoglycan, can promote cancer metastasis through facilitating cell proliferation, adhesion, migration and angiogenesis. We had previously demonstrated that amiodarone caused ectopic overexpression of similar to versican b (s-vcanb), inhibited EGFR/GSK3β/Snail signaling, and enhanced Cdh5 at the heart field of zebrafish, indicating interference with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Since S-vcanb is homologous to mammalian versican V2 isoform, we examined the effects of amiodarone on mammalian tumor proliferation, migration, invasion and metastasis in vitro and in vivo and on EMT signaling pathways. Monolayer wound assays and extracellular matrix transwell invasion assays showed reduced migration and invasion by 15 μM amiodarone treated B16OVA, JC, 4T-1, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 tumor cell lines. All cancer cell lines showed reduced metastatic capabilities in vivo after treatment with amiodarone in experimental animals. Western blots revealed that EMT-related transcription factors Snail and Twist were reduced and E-cadherin was enhanced in amiodarone treated cells through an EGFR/ERK/GSK3β-dependent pathway. Immunohistochemistry showed amiodarone lead to increased expression of versican V2 isoform concomitant with reduced versican V1. Our study illustrated the role of versican v2 in EMT modulation and cancer suppression by amiodarone treatment.
Role of bacterial cellulose fibrils in Agrobacterium tumefaciens infection

During the attachment of Agrobacterium tumefaciens to carrot tissue culture cells, the bacteria synthesize cellulose fibrils. We examined the role of these cellulose fibrils in the attachment process by determining the properties of bacterial mutants unable to synthesize cellulose. Such cellulose-minus bacteria attached to the carrot cell surface, but, in contrast to the parent strain, with which larger clusters of bacteria were seen on the plant cell, cellulose-minus mutant bacteria were attached individually to the plant cell surface. The wild-type bacteria became surrounded by fibrils within 2 h after attachment. No fibrils were seen with the cellulose-minus mutants. Prolonged incubation of wild-type A. tumefaciens with carrot cells resulted in the formation of large aggregates of bacteria, bacterial fibrils, and carrot cells. No such aggregates were formed after the incubation of carrot cells with cellulose-minus A. tumefaciens. The absence of cellulose fibrils also caused an alteration in the kinetics of bacterial attachment to carrot cells. Cellulose synthesis was not required for bacterial virulence; the cellulose-minus mutants were all virulent. However, the ability of the parent bacterial strain to produce tumors was unaffected by washing the inoculation site with water, whereas the ability of the cellulose-minus mutants to form tumors was much reduced by washing the inoculation site with water. Thus, a major role of the cellulose fibrils synthesized by A. tumefaciens appears to be anchoring the bacteria to the host cells, thereby aiding the production of tumors.
Nitrate Removal from Wastewater through Biological Denitrification with OGA 24 in a Batch Reactor

Nitrates pollution of waters is a worldwide problem and its remediation is a big challenge from the technical and the scientific point of view. One of the most used and promising cleaning techniques is the biological treatment of wastewaters operated by denitrifying bacteria. In this paper we begin a thorough study of denitrifying performances of the bacterium Azospira sp. OGA 24, recently isolated from the highly polluted Sarno river in the south of Italy. Here, the kinetics of nitrates consumption operated by bacteria in a specifically devised batch bioreactor, in anoxic condition and with acetate as the organic substrate, has been characterized. Experimental data were then used in a simplified model of a real wastewater treatment plant to find that OGA 24 can clean water with efficiency up to 90%. The denitrifying performances of OGA 24 match the requirements of Italian laws and make the bacterium suitable for its employment in treatment plants.
RENAL STATUS OF MULTIPLE MYELOMA PATIENTS IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Introduction: The spectrum of clinical manifestation in multiple myeloma (MM) ranges from asymptomatic disease to severely debilitative state. Unexplained renal disease is an indication for the investigation of patients for MM. This study is a retrospective analysis of the renal profile of patients with multiple myeloma in relation to management strategy in our institution. Methods: Medical records of 64 patients with multiple myeloma seen between 2000 and 2008 were retrospectively reviewed at an 850–bed tertiary hospital in South-Western Nigeria. The Mahn-Whitney test was used to compare laboratory features between patient with renal failure and those without renal failure. Subjects with serum creatinine ≥2mg/dL were regarded to have renal failure. Overall survival was calculated from diagnosis to death or lost to follow-up Results: A total of forty three patients were eligible. The renal status was categorized into three according to serum creatinine level; those with normal serum creatinine level (0.5-1.5mg/dl) were 26 (60.5%), serum creatinine level (>1.6-1.9mg/dl), and creatinine level ≥2mg/ dl were 3(7%) and 14(32.5%) respectively. Hyperuricaemia was observed in 6(42.9%) of MM patients with renal failure compared with 7(26.9%) of patient without renal failure (p<0.05). Twenty–one percent of those with renal failure had hypercalceamia. Thirty–six percent of the renal failure patients had haemodialysis. The average survival for all patients with renal failure was 18 months after diagnosis. Conclusion: The outcome in patients with renal failure remained poor with early mortality despite supportive management. Hyperuricaemia and dehydration, given the hot climate might have worked in concert with other factors to worsen the renal status in these patients.
Capturing 3D stretchable surfaces from single images in closed form

We present a closed form solution to the problem of recovering the 3D shape of a nonrigid potentially stretchable surface from 3D-to-2D correspondences. In other words, we can reconstruct a surface from a single image without a priori knowledge of its deformations in that image. State of the art solutions to nonrigid 3D shape recovery rely on the fact that distances between neighboring surface points must be preserved and are therefore limited to inelastic surfaces. Here, we show that replacing the inextensibility constraints by shading ones removes this limitation while still allowing 3D reconstruction in closed-form. We demonstrate our method and compare it to an earlier one using both synthetic and real data.
Investigating the Associations of Self-Rated Health: Heart Rate Variability Is More Strongly Associated than Inflammatory and Other Frequently Used Biomarkers in a Cross Sectional Occupational Sample

The present study aimed to investigate the possible mechanisms linking a single–item measure of global self-rated health (SRH) with morbidity by comparing the association strengths between SRH with markers of autonomic nervous system (ANS) function, inflammation, blood glucose and blood lipids. Cross–sectional comprehensive health–check data of 3947 working adults (age 42±11) was used to calculate logistic regressions, partial correlations and compare correlation strength using Olkins Z. Adjusted logistic regression models showed a negative association between SRH (higher values indicating worse health) and measures of heart rate variability (HRV). Glycemic markers were positively associated with poor SRH. No adjusted association was found with inflammatory markers, BP or lipids. In both unadjusted and adjusted linear models Pearson’s correlation strength was significantly higher between SRH with HRV measures compared to SRH with other biomarkers. This is the first study investigating the association of ANS function and SRH. We showed that a global measure of SRH is associated with HRV, and that all measures of ANS function were significantly more strongly associated with SRH than any other biomarker. The current study supports the hypothesis that the extent of brain–body communication, as indexed by HRV, is associated with self-rated health.
Aeromonas Surface Glucan Attached through the O-Antigen Ligase Represents a New Way to Obtain UDP-Glucose

We previously reported that A. hydrophila GalU mutants were still able to produce UDP-glucose introduced as a glucose residue in their lipopolysaccharide core. In this study, we found the unique origin of this UDP-glucose from a branched α-glucan surface polysaccharide. This glucan, surface attached through the O-antigen ligase (WaaL), is common to the mesophilic Aeromonas strains tested. The Aeromonas glucan is produced by the action of the glycogen synthase (GlgA) and the UDP-Glc pyrophosphorylase (GlgC), the latter wrongly indicated as an ADP-Glc pyrophosphorylase in the Aeromonas genomes available. The Aeromonas glycogen synthase is able to react with UDP or ADP-glucose, which is not the case of E. coli glycogen synthase only reacting with ADP-glucose. The Aeromonas surface glucan has a role enhancing biofilm formation. Finally, for the first time to our knowledge, a clear preference on behalf of bacterial survival and pathogenesis is observed when choosing to produce one or other surface saccharide molecules to produce (lipopolysaccharide core or glucan).
L'urancalcarite, Ca(UO2)3CO3(OH)6.3H2O, nouveau minéral de Shinkolobwe, Shaba, Zaïre

L'urancalcarite se presente en touffes de cristaux aciculaires jaune vif. Optiquement biaxe negative, 2Vcalc. = 66°, N g = 1,736, N m = 1,712 et N p = 1,660. Systeme orthorhombique, groupe spatial Pbnm ou Pbn2 1, a = 15,42(3), b =16,08(4), c = 6,970(6) A, Z = 4, Dcalc. = 4,10, Dmes. ~ 4,03. Raies principales du diagramme de poudre [d(A),I,hkl] : 8,06 (10) (020), 4,02 (8) (040 et 311), 3,488 (7) (002), 3,193 (5) (022), 2,101 (5) (313 et 370), 2,829 (4) (501). Analyse chimique a la microsonde electronique : UO3 78,68, CaO 4,36, CO2 (par chromatographic) 4,93 et H2O (par thermogravimetrie) 10,61 %, total 98,58 %. Formule : CaO3UO3. CO2.6H2O. L'urancalcarite provient du gisement uranifere de Shinkolobwe (Shaba meridional, Zaire). Associations : uraninite, uranophane, wyartite, masuyite. Le nom rappelle la composition.
Feeding habitats and wood preferences of termites in Iran

Termites are one of the most destructive insect pests of crops, buildings and forests across the world, causing heavy damages each year. For effective control of termite, its feeding preferences and habitats are important. Feeding habits and preferences of wood destroying termites was carried out in ten provinces of Iran, i.e. Sistan, Baluchistan, Kerman, Hormuzgan, Khurasan, Esfahan, Khuzistan, Fars, Tehran and Mazandaran in 2011. Five habitats were recognized on the basis of dominance of five tree species, i.e. Populus alba, Tamarix gallica, Morus alba, Salix babylonica and Vitis vinifera. Maximum infestation (20.6%) was recorded for P. alba and minimum (0.072%) for M. alba. A total of 17 tree species were found in five habitats. P. alba habitat harbored higher number of 13 species of termites and this habitat was more diverse in vegetation than other habitats. P. alba was the preferred host for termite species, Postelectrotermes pasniensis. In T. gallica dominated habitat only two termite species, i.e. Anacanthotermes iranicus and A. vegans were present. A. vegans had positive association with T. gallica. Microtermes mycophagus and A. gurganiensis were recorded in Vitis vinifera and Salix babylonica habitats, respectively. The findings of the present research might help in devising efficient control strategies against the wood feeding termites.