Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quercetin, an Inhibitor of Heat Shock Protein Synthesis, Inhibits the Acquisition of Thermotolerance in a Human Colon Carcinoma Cell Line

Here, we describe the effects of quercetin on the induction of thermotolerance as examined by colony forming assay in a cell line derived from human colon carcinoma (COLO320 DM). Cells became resistant to heat treatment at 45°C when they were preheated at 42°C for 1.5 h or at 45°C for 10 min. This induction of thermotolerance was almost completely inhibited by continuous treatment with 100 μM quercetin during the first and second heating sessions, and the interval between. This effect of quercetin was demonstrated to be dose‐dependent over a concentration range of 50 200 μM, Quercetin did not increase the thermosensitivity of non‐tolerant cells. The presence of quercetin during the first conditioning heating was more effective in inhibiting thermotolerance than its presence during the second heating. Quercetin was also found to inhibit the acquisition of thermotolerance induced by sodium arsenite. Cycloheximide, a nonspecific inhibitor of protein synthesis, did not affect the acquisition of thermotolerance by the same cell line, Quercetin specifically inhibits the synthesis of all heat shock proteins so far reported previously, and this leads to inhibition of the induction of thermotolerance. Such inhibition of thermotolerance by quercetin may improve the efficacy of clinical fractionated hyperthermia.
The effect of enzymatic pre-treatment of corn or soybean meal on their phytate content under different in vitro conditions

BACKGROUND: Phosphorous is one of the expensive nutrients in poultry feed. Therefore, improving the bioavailability of this nutrient in feed ingredients could be effective for lowering the cost of feed. OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to evaluate the effect of pre-treatment of feed ingredients by commercial enzymes and different levels of pH on the release of phosphorus from phytate under in vitro condition. METHODS: Three solutions including Distilled water, HCl 0.5% and HCl 1% (with pH=5.5, 2.12 and 1.88 respectively) and three enzymes (None, Bio-phytase, Rovabio Excel AP, and Rovabio Max AP) were used to determine phytate content of corn and soybean meal. First, each sample was supplemented with the enzymes and pre-treated under the above mentioned solutions for 3 h at 25 and 40 oC. RESULTS: The results indicated that pre-treatment of corn samples with Bio-phytase or Rovabio Max AP and different solutions (at 25 oC and 40 oC for 3 h) reduced phytate content significantly. The best results were obtained with corn samples supplemented with Rovabio Max AP and mixing by HCl 1% at 25 oC, so that phytate content decreased up to 99.5% in comparison with control. The same results were also obtained for soybean samples. The highest reduction in phytate content (up to 47.4%) was observed by adding Rovabio Max AP and HCl 1% solution at 40 oC. CONCLUSIONS: It could be concluded that pre-treating corn and soybean meal using various methods such as commercial enzymes including phytase and solutions with different pH were effective to reduce phytate content, which means increasing the bioavailability of phosphorous.
Evaluation of the prognostic and physiological functions of death associated protein kinase 1 in breast cancer

Death associated protein kinase 1 (DAPK1) is a notable serine/threonine kinase involved in the regulation of multiple cellular pathways, including apoptosis and autophagy. Although DAPK1 is usually considered to be a tumor suppressor, it was previously reported to promote the viability of p53 mutant cancer cell lines and possess physiological oncogenic functions in breast cancer. However, the ability of endogenous DAPK1 to suppress breast cancer cell mobility has not been assessed. In the present study, the prognostic function of DAPK1 in a Chinese patient cohort was evaluated, and no significant association was observed between DAPK1 expression and patient survival or lymph node metastasis. In order to investigate the physiological function of endogenous DAPK1, stable inducible DAPK1 knockdown MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines were established. Consistent with previous studies, endogenous DAPK1 only regulated cell viability in p53 mutant MDA-MB-231 cells. However, knockdown of DAPK1 did not significantly affect cell motility of either MCF7 or MDA-MB-231 cells. Altogether, these results further explored the function of endogenous DAPK1 in breast cancer and may shed light in understanding the molecular signaling pathways regulating the physiological function of DAPK1.
Volume stabilization of single, dye-doped water microdroplets with femtoliter resolution

A self-control mechanism that stabilizes the size of Rhodamine B-doped water microdroplets standing on a superhydrophobic surface is demonstrated. The mechanism relies on the interplay between the condensation rate that was kept constant and the evaporation rate induced by laser excitation, which critically depends on the size of the microdroplets. The radii of individual water microdroplets (>5 μm) stayed within a few nanometers during long time periods (up to 455 s). By blocking the laser excitation for 500 ms, the stable volume of individual microdroplets was shown to change stepwise.
Molecular detection of invertebrate prey in vertebrate diets: trophic ecology of Caribbean island lizards

Understanding community assembly and population dynamics frequently requires detailed knowledge of food web structure. For many consumers, obtaining precise information about diet composition has traditionally required sacrificing animals or other highly invasive procedures, generating tension between maintaining intact study populations and knowing what they eat. We developed 16S mitochondrial DNA sequencing methods to identify arthropods in the diets of generalist vertebrate predators without requiring a blocking primer. We demonstrate the utility of these methods for a common Caribbean lizard that has been intensively studied in the context of small island food webs: Anolis sagrei (a semi‐arboreal ‘trunk‐ground’ anole ecomorph). Novel PCR primers were identified in silico and tested in vitro. Illumina sequencing successfully characterized the arthropod component of 168 faecal DNA samples collected during three field trips spanning 12 months, revealing 217 molecular operational taxonomic units (mOTUs) from at least nine arthropod orders (including Araneae, Blattodea, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Isoptera, Lepidoptera and Orthoptera). Three mOTUs (one beetle, one cockroach and one ant) were particularly frequent, occurring in ≥50% of samples, but the majority of mOTUs were infrequent (180, or 83%, occurred in ≤5% of samples). Species accumulation curves showed that dietary richness and composition were similar between size‐dimorphic sexes; however, female lizards had greater per‐sample dietary richness than males. Overall diet composition (but not richness) was significantly different across seasons, and we found more pronounced interindividual variation in December than in May. These methods will be generally useful in characterizing the diets of diverse insectivorous vertebrates.
Implications of the Propensity Score Matching Paradox in Pharmacoepidemiology

Recent work has demonstrated that propensity score matching may lead to increased covariate imbalance, even with the corresponding decrease in propensity score distance between matched units. The extent to which this paradoxical phenomenon might harm causal inference in real epidemiologic studies has not been explored. We evaluated the effect of this phenomenon using insurance claims data from the Pharmaceutical Assistance Contract for the Elderly (1999-2002) and Medicaid Analytic eXtract (2000-2007) databases in the United States. For each data set, we created several 1:1 propensity-score-matched data sets by manipulating the size of the covariate set used to generate propensity scores, the index exposure prevalence in the prematched data set, and the matching algorithm. We matched all index units, then progressively pruned matched sets in order of decreasing propensity score distance, calculating covariate imbalance after each pruning. Although covariate imbalance sometimes increased after progressive pruning of matched sets, the application of commonly used propensity score calipers for defining an acceptable match stopped pruning near the lowest region of the imbalance trend and resulted in an improvement over the imbalance in the prematched data set. Thus, propensity score matching does not appear to induce increased covariate imbalance when standard propensity score calipers are applied in these types of pharmacoepidemiologic studies.
Decrease in Hysteresis of Planetary Climate for Planets with Long Solar Days

The ice-albedo feedback on rapidly rotating terrestrial planets in the habitable zone can lead to abrupt transitions (bifurcations) between a warm and a snowball (ice-covered) state, bistability between these states, and hysteresis in planetary climate. This is important for planetary habitability because snowball events may trigger rises in the complexity of life, but could also endanger complex life that already exists. Recent work has shown that planets tidally locked in synchronous rotation states will transition smoothly into the snowball state rather than experiencing bifurcations. Here we investigate the structure of snowball bifurcations on planets that are tidally influenced, but not synchronously rotating, so that they experience long solar days. We use PlaSIM, an intermediate-complexity global climate model, with a thermodynamic mixed layer ocean and the Sun’s spectrum. We find that the amount of hysteresis (the range in stellar flux for which there is bistability in climate) is significantly reduced for solar days with lengths of tens of Earth days, and disappears for solar days of hundreds of Earth days. These results suggest that tidally influenced planets orbiting M and K stars that are not synchronously rotating could have much less hysteresis associated with the snowball bifurcations than they would if they were rapidly rotating. This implies that the amount of time it takes them to escape a snowball state via CO2 outgassing would be greatly reduced, as would the period of cycling between the warm and snowball state if they have low CO2 outgassing rates.
In vivo stimulation of de novo collagen production caused by cross-linked hyaluronic acid dermal filler injections in photodamaged human skin.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether endogenous synthesis of new extracellular matrix may contribute to the degree and duration of clinical benefits derived from cross-linked hyaluronic acid dermal filler injections. DESIGN In vivo biochemical analyses after filler injections. SETTING Academic referral center. PARTICIPANTS Eleven healthy volunteers (mean age, 74 years) with photodamaged forearm skin. Interventions Filler and vehicle (isotonic sodium chloride) injected into forearm skin and skin biopsy specimens taken 4 and 13 weeks later. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES De novo synthesis of collagen, the major structural protein of dermal extracellular matrix, was assessed using immunohistochemical analysis, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and electron microscopy. RESULTS Compared with controls, immunostaining in skin receiving cross-linked hyaluronic acid injections revealed increased collagen deposition around the filler. Staining for prolyl-4-hydroxylase and the C-terminal and N-terminal epitopes of type I procollagen was enhanced at 4 and 13 weeks after treatment (P<.05). Gene expression for types I and III procollagen as well as several profibrotic growth factors was also up-regulated at 4 and 13 weeks compared with controls (P<.05). Fibroblasts in filler-injected skin demonstrated a mechanically stretched appearance and a biosynthetic phenotype. In vitro, fibroblasts did not bind the filler, suggesting that cross-linked hyaluronic acid is not directly stimulatory. CONCLUSIONS Injection of cross-linked hyaluronic acid stimulates collagen synthesis, partially restoring dermal matrix components that are lost in photodamaged skin. We hypothesize that this stimulatory effect may be induced by mechanical stretching of the dermis, which in turn leads to stretching and activation of dermal fibroblasts. These findings imply that cross-linked hyaluronic acid may be useful for stimulating collagen production therapeutically, particularly in the setting of atrophic skin conditions.
Impact of analysis interval size on the quality of optical frequency domain imaging assessments of stent implantation for lesions of the superficial femoral artery

This study aimed to investigate the influence of analysis interval size on optical frequency domain imaging (OFDI) assessment of stent therapy for lesions of the superficial femoral artery (SFA). Background. No consensus or validating data are available with respect to the methodology of intravascular imaging analysis for the peripheral arteries. Methods. OFDI was performed for 30 SFA lesions, during endovascular therapy and at the 6‐month follow‐up. Initially, lumen and stent borders were traced at 1‐mm axial intervals. Volumes were calculated using a PC‐based software, and the volume index (VI) was defined as the volume divided by the stent length. Two additional OFDI analyses were performed using 2‐mm and 5‐mm intervals, thereby reducing the number of cross‐sectional image frames analyzed. Results. The mean stent length was 89.7 ± 35.2 mm. The mean difference in baseline minimum lumen area (MLA) was 0.4 mm2 between MLA values from the 1‐mm and 2‐mm interval analyses, and 2.2 mm2 between MLA values from the 1‐mm and 5‐mm interval analyses. In volumetric analysis, there were excellent correlations and good agreements for stent, lumen, and neointimal VI measurements obtained on the basis of different analysis intervals. Conclusions. Using large intervals in OFDI analyses of SFA lesions resulted in few differences in measurement variability of volumetric parameters. However, planar analysis for MLA assessment can be susceptible to high variability when large intervals are applied. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Antidepressant efficacy of ketamine in treatment-resistant major depression: a two-site randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE Ketamine, a glutamate N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, has shown rapid antidepressant effects, but small study groups and inadequate control conditions in prior studies have precluded a definitive conclusion. The authors evaluated the rapid antidepressant efficacy of ketamine in a large group of patients with treatment-resistant major depression. METHOD This was a two-site, parallel-arm, randomized controlled trial of a single infusion of ketamine compared to an active placebo control condition, the anesthetic midazolam. Patients with treatment-resistant major depression experiencing a major depressive episode were randomly assigned under double-blind conditions to receive a single intravenous infusion of ketamine or midazolam in a 2:1 ratio (N=73). The primary outcome was change in depression severity 24 hours after drug administration, as assessed by the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). RESULTS The ketamine group had greater improvement in the MADRS score than the midazolam group 24 hours after treatment. After adjustment for baseline scores and site, the MADRS score was lower in the ketamine group than in the midazolam group by 7.95 points (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.20 to 12.71). The likelihood of response at 24 hours was greater with ketamine than with midazolam (odds ratio, 2.18; 95% CI, 1.21 to 4.14), with response rates of 64% and 28%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Ketamine demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects in an optimized study design, further supporting NMDA receptor modulation as a novel mechanism for accelerated improvement in severe and chronic forms of depression. More information on response durability and safety is required before implementation in clinical practice.
Benchmarks for Outpatient Dialectical Behavioral Therapy in Adults With Borderline Personality Disorder

Purpose: This article provides benchmark data on within-group effect sizes from published randomized clinical trials supporting the efficacy of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) for borderline personality disorder (BPD) in adults aged 18–65 years. Method: Within-group effect sizes were calculated via the Glass approach and adjusted for sample size using Hedges’s g then aggregated to produce benchmarks for symptoms commonly associated with BPD, such as self-harm, depression, and anger. Results: Aggregate within-group effect sizes are presented separately for treatment (DBT) and control (treatment as usual) groups and for interviewer assessed and self-reported outcome measures. Discussion: Community-based practitioners can use these benchmarks as a comparison tool to evaluate the ways in which they are adopting or adapting the DBT intervention and to determine if the intervention should be modified or replaced, given their unique practice setting and client population.
Noise and topology in driven systems—an application to interface dynamics

Motivated by a stochastic differential equation describing the dynamics of interfaces, we study the bifurcation behaviour of a more general class of such equations. These equations are characterized by a two-dimensional phase space (describing the position of the interface and an internal degree of freedom). The noise accounts for thermal fluctuations of such systems. The models considered show a saddle-node bifurcation and have furthermore homoclinic orbits, i.e. orbits leaving an unstable fixed point and returning to it. Such systems display intermittent behaviour. The presence of noise combined with the topology of the phase space leads to unexpected behaviour as a function of the bifurcation parameter, i.e. of the driving force of the system. We explain this behaviour using saddle-point methods and considering global topological aspects of the problem. This then explains the non-monotonic force–velocity dependence of certain driven interfaces.
Computational mechanics of Nitinol stent grafts

A finite element analysis of tubular, diamond-shaped stent grafts under representative cyclic loading conditions for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair is presented. Commercial software was employed to study the mechanical behavior and fatigue performance of different materials found in commercially available stent–graft systems. Specifically, the effects of crimping, deployment, and cyclic pressure loading on stent–graft fatigue life, radial force, and wall compliances were simulated and analyzed for two types of realistic but different Nitinol materials (NITI-1 and NITI-2) and grafts (expanded polytetrafluoroethylene—ePTFE and polyethylene therephthalate—PET). The results show that NITI-1 stent has a better crimping performance than NITI-2. Under representative cyclic pressure loading, both NITI-1 and NITI-2 sealing stents are located in the safe zone of the fatigue-life diagram; however, the fatigue resistance of an NITI-1 stent is better than that of an NITI-2 stent. It was found that the two types of sealing stents do not damage a healthy neck artery. In the aneurysm section, the NITI-1&ePTFE, NITI-1&PET, and NITI-2&PET combinations were free of fatigue fracture when subjected to conditions of radial stress between 50 and 150mmHg. In contrast, the safety factor for the NITI-2&ePFTE combination was only 0.67, which is not acceptable for proper AAA stent–graft design. In summary, a Nitinol stent with PET graft may greatly improve fatigue life, while its compliance is much lower than the NITI–ePTFE combination. r 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Phenolic acid composition and anticancer activity against human cancer cell lines of the commercially available fermentation products of Houttuynia cordata

A number of Houttuynia cordata fermentation products are commercially available in Thailand. However, their anticancer activity remains to be investigated. In this study, the phenolic acid composition and anticancer activity of two commercialized H. cordata fermentation products were investigated. Reversed phase HPLC was used to identify and quantify phenolic acids. MTT and Annexin V staining assays were used to investigate antiproliferative and apoptosis induction activities, respectively. Seven phenolic acids including protocatechuic, p-hydroxybenzoic, vanillic, syringic, p-coumaric, ferulic, and sinapinic acids were detected in the water-soluble constituents of both fermentation products 1 and 2. Water-soluble constituents of fermentation product 2 containing a greater phenolic acid content were more effective than product 1 in inhibiting the growth of HeLa, HCT116, and HT29 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The non-cancer cell line Vero cells appeared to be resistant to both fermentation products. The growth inhibitory effects of both fermentation products in HeLa, HCT116, and HT29 cells included induction of apoptosis. These results suggest that commercially available fermentation products of H. cordata contain several anticancer phenolic acids that may be beneficial in the treatment of human cancer.
Cancer Incidence 2010-2014 Among the North Cyprus Population of Adults Aged 15 and Over

RESULTS Total of 1,782 cancer cases were diagnosed. ASR value was 180.61 and 192.75 per 100,000 person-years for males and females, respectively. Most prevalent male (M) cancers were lung, prostate, colorectal, thyroid, and bladder. Similarly, for females (F), they were breast, thyroid, colorectal, lung, and non-melanoma skin cancer. Thyroid cancer in females in NC was more prevalent than in SE. Breast (F), prostate, colorectal (F), bladder (M), and ovary and corpus were less frequent than in SE and SC; cervix, larynx (M), brain (M) and colorectal (M) only were less frequent than in SE, and the remainder were statistically similar.
Anatomically constrained dipole adjustment (ANACONDA) for accurate MEG/EEG focal source localizations

This paper proposes an alternative approach to enhance localization accuracy of MEG and EEG focal sources. The proposed approach assumes anatomically constrained spatio-temporal dipoles, initial positions of which are estimated from local peak positions of distributed sources obtained from a pre-execution of distributed source reconstruction. The positions of the dipoles are then adjusted on the cortical surface using a novel updating scheme named cortical surface scanning. The proposed approach has many advantages over the conventional ones: (1) as the cortical surface scanning algorithm uses spatio-temporal dipoles, it is robust with respect to noise; (2) it requires no a priori information on the numbers and initial locations of the activations; (3) as the locations of dipoles are restricted only on a tessellated cortical surface, it is physiologically more plausible than the conventional ECD model. To verify the proposed approach, it was applied to several realistic MEG/EEG simulations and practical experiments. From the several case studies, it is concluded that the anatomically constrained dipole adjustment (ANACONDA) approach will be a very promising technique to enhance accuracy of focal source localization which is essential in many clinical and neurological applications of MEG and EEG.