Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential effects of γ‐secretase and BACE1 inhibition on brain Aβ levels in vitro and in vivo

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is hypothesized to result from elevated brain levels of β‐amyloid peptide (Aβ) which is the main component of plaques found in AD brains and which cause memory impairment in mice. Therefore, there has been a major focus on the development of inhibitors of the Aβ producing enzymes γ‐secretase and β‐site amyloid precursor protein‐cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1). In this study, we investigated the Aβ‐lowering effects of the BACE1 inhibitor LY2434074 in vitro and in vivo, comparing it to the well characterized γ‐secretase inhibitor LY450139. We sampled interstitial fluid Aβ from awake APPswe/PS1dE9 AD mice by in vivo Aβ microdialysis. In addition, we measured levels of endogenous brain Aβ extracted from wildtype C57BL/6 mice. In our in vitro assays both compounds showed similar Aβ‐lowering effects. However, while systemic administration of LY450139 resulted in transient reduction of Aβ in both in vivo models, we were unable to show any Aβ‐lowering effect by systemic administration of the BACE1 inhibitor LY2434074 despite brain exposure exceeding the in vitro IC50 value several fold. In contrast, significant reduction of 40–50% of interstitial fluid Aβ and wildtype cortical Aβ was observed when infusing LY2434074 directly into the brain by means of reverse microdialysis or by dosing the BACE1 inhibitor to p‐glycoprotein (p‐gp) mutant mice. The effects seen in p‐gp mutant mice and subsequent data from our cell‐based p‐gp transport assay suggested that LY2434074 is a p‐gp substrate. This may partly explain why BACE1 inhibition by LY2434074 has lower in vivo efficacy, with respect to decreased Aβ40 levels, compared with γ‐secretase inhibition by LY450139.
A Review of Omega-3 Ethyl Esters for Cardiovascular Prevention and Treatment of Increased Blood Triglyceride Levels

The two marine omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), prevalent in fish and fish oils, have been investigated as a strategy towards prophylaxis of atherosclerosis. While the results with fish and fish oils have been not as clear cut, the data generated with the purified ethyl ester forms of these two fatty acids are consistent. Although slight differences in biological activity exist between EPA and DHA, both exert a number of positive actions against atherosclerosis and its complications. EPA and DHA as ethyl esters inhibit platelet aggregability, and reduce serum triglycerides, while leaving other serum lipids essentially unaltered. Glucose metabolism has been studied extensively, and no adverse effects were seen. Pro-atherogenic cytokines are reduced, as are markers of endothelial activation. Endothelial function is improved, vascular occlusion is reduced, and the course of coronary atherosclerosis is mitigated. Heart rate is reduced, and heart rate variability is increased by EPA and DHA. An antiarrhythmic effect can be demonstrated on the supraventricular and the ventricular level. More importantly, two large studies showed reductions in clinical endpoints like sudden cardiac death or major adverse cardiac events. As a consequence, relevant cardiac societies recommend using 1 g/day of EPA and DHA for cardiovascular prevention, after a myocardial infarction and for prevention of sudden cardiac death.
Cancer patterns in eastern India: The first report of the Kolkata cancer registry

There are no population‐based data available for the cancer patterns in Eastern India. This is the first report of cancer incidence in the region from the population‐based cancer registry in Kolkata (Calcutta), the capital city of the state of West Bengal, India, for the period 1998–1999. The cancer registry collects data on all new cases of cancer diagnosed in the resident population of Kolkata. Since cancer is not a notifiable disease in India, registration is carried out by active data collection by the registry staff. The cancer registry staff visits 50 data sources comprising cancer hospitals, secondary and tertiary care hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories and death registration offices; scrutinizes medical records and collects details on incident cancer cases. A customized version of CanReg‐3 software was used for data entry and analysis. A total of 11,700 cases were registered during the 2‐year period from 1 January 1998 to 31 December 1999. The overall age‐adjusted (world population) incidence rates were 102.1 per 100,000 males and 114.6 per 100,000 females. The most frequently reported malignancies in males were lung cancer (16.3%), followed by cancers of the oral cavity (7.1%), pharynx (5.7%) and larynx (5.7%). In females, the most frequently reported malignancies were breast (22.7%) followed by uterine cervix (17.5%), gallbladder (6.4%) and ovary (5.8%). The data reported by the Kolkata cancer registry provide information on the cancer profile in Eastern India for the first time. The highest incidence rate of lung cancer in males in India is reported from Calcutta. A high risk of gallbladder cancer is observed in women. The observed cancer patterns indicate that tobacco‐control measures and early detection of head and neck, breast and cervical cancers are of importance for cancer control in this population. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Trends and threshold exceedances analysis of airborne pollen concentrations in Metropolitan Santiago Chile

Pollen is one of the primary causes of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in urban centers. In the present study, the concentrations of 39 different pollens in the Santiago de Chile metropolitan area over the period 2009–2013 are characterized. The pollen was monitored daily using Burkard volumetric equipment. The contribution of each type of pollen and the corresponding time trends are evaluated. The concentrations of the pollens are compared with the established threshold levels for the protection of human health. The results show that the total amount of pollen grains originating from trees, grasses, weeds and indeterminate sources throughout the period of the study was 258,496 grains m-3, with an annual average of 51,699 ± 3,906 grains m-3 year-1. The primary source of pollen is Platanus orientalis, which produces 61.8% of the analyzed pollen. Grass pollen is the third primary component of the analyzed pollen, with a contribution of 5.82%. Among the weeds, the presence of Urticacea (3.74%) is remarkable. The pollination pattern of the trees is monophasic, and the grasses have a biphasic pattern. The trends indicate that the total pollen and tree pollen do not present a time trend that is statistically significant throughout the period of the study, whereas the grass pollen and weed pollen concentrations in the environment present a statistically significant decreasing trend. The cause of this decrease is unclear. The pollen load has doubled over the past decade. When the observed concentrations of the pollens were compared with the corresponding threshold levels, the results indicated that over the period of the study, the pollen concentrations were at moderate, high and very high levels for an average of 293 days per year. Systematic counts of the pollen grains are an essential method for diagnosing and treating patients with pollinosis and for developing forestation and urban planning strategies.
Gravitational radiation from nonaxisymmetric instability in a rotating star.

We present the first calculations of the gravitational radiation produced by nonaxisymmetric dynamical instability in rapidly rotating compact star. The star deforms into a bar shape, shedding \ensuremath{\sim}4% of its mass and \ensuremath{\sim}17% of its angular momentum. The gravitational radiation is calculated in the quadrupole approximation. For a mass M\ensuremath{\sim}1.4${\mathit{M}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\bigodot}}}$ and radius R\ensuremath{\sim}10 km, the gravitational waves have frequency \ensuremath{\sim}4 kHz and amplitude h\ensuremath{\sim}2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}22}$ at the distance of the Virgo Cluster. They carry off energy \ensuremath{\Delta}E/M\ensuremath{\sim}0.1% and radiate angular momentum \ensuremath{\Delta}J/J\ensuremath{\sim}0.7%.
Vegetarian Diets and the Incidence of Cancer in a Low-risk Population

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Dietary factors account for at least 30% of all cancers in Western countries. As people do not consume individual foods but rather combinations of them, the assessment of dietary patterns may offer valuable information when determining associations between diet and cancer risk. Methods: We examined the association between dietary patterns (non-vegetarians, lacto, pesco, vegan, and semi-vegetarian) and the overall cancer incidence among 69,120 participants of the Adventist Health Study-2. Cancer cases were identified by matching to cancer registries. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was conducted to estimate hazard ratios, with “attained age” as the time variable. Results: A total of 2,939 incident cancer cases were identified. The multivariate HR of overall cancer risk among vegetarians compared with non-vegetarians was statistically significant [HR, 0.92; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.85–0.99] for both genders combined. Also, a statistically significant association was found between vegetarian diet and cancers of the gastrointestinal tract (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.63–0.90). When analyzing the association of specific vegetarian dietary patterns, vegan diets showed statistically significant protection for overall cancer incidence (HR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.72–0.99) in both genders combined and for female-specific cancers (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.47–0.92). Lacto-ovo-vegetarians appeared to be associated with decreased risk of cancers of the gastrointestinal system (HR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.60–0.92). Conclusion: Vegetarian diets seem to confer protection against cancer. Impact: Vegan diet seems to confer lower risk for overall and female-specific cancer than other dietary patterns. The lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets seem to confer protection from cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(2); 286–94. ©2012 AACR.
Great expectations : the relations between expectancies for success and academic achievement

The main aims of this broad exploratory study were (a) to gain insights as to the possible interrelations between Unisa students' expectations for success and a variety of significant variables (such as their academic performance, self-perceptions, confidence, motivation, self-determination, others' expectancies, locus of control and attributions relating to previous performance), and (b) to discover possible differences relating to various groups (i.e. racial and gender groups; 'pass' and 'fail' groups; and 'realistic' and 'unrealistic' groups). The results of 61 hypotheses are compared with a variety of theoretical suggestions and past findings. It was found that, on the whole, the various groups, inter alia, expected to succeed, were confident about the accuracy of their expectations, perceived themselves to work hard, considered themselves to have considerable ability and to be above class average. Despite this rosy outlook many students failed the examinations. Two of the most striking findings of this study were that (a) those who failed overestimated their future performance to a significantly greater extent than those who passed, and (b) overestimations were negatively correlated with achievement. In contrast to theory and numerous research findings, the psychological profiles of 'overoptimists', 'realists', and 'underestimators' revealed that overoptimistic expectancies and self-perceptions appear to be maladaptive in an academic context. Indeed, the findings suggest that accurate or even underoptimistic self-assessments may be more conducive to academic success. It is proposed that overoptimism may reflect ignorance of standards required, of adequate study methods, or may result in inappropriate preparation. In light of the findings, the implications and possible benefits and dangers of overoptimistic expectations and self-perceptions are discussed. The subjects are 715 third year Unisa psychology students, who are more heterogeneous than most other university students as they not only vary considerably in age but also come from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.
Becoming Good Human Beings: Low-Income Mothers' Dreams for Children and Their Insight into Children's Needs.

A case study approach was employed to investigate low-income families’ aspirations for their children and their understandings of their children’s developmental needs. Participants were four women whose children or grandchildren were enrolled in an urban early childhood program and were considered “at risk. ” Qualitative methods including interviews, observations, and analysis of artifacts were used. Results indicated that the participants’ aspirations for their children included going to college, as has been shown in other studies to be characteristic of middle-class families. Results also suggested that the participants were insightful about child development, young children’s learning, and the needs of young children. Analysis indicated that participants understood the importance of a shared role between families and teachers in their children’s development, and they wanted to work with their children’s teachers in that manner. The participants expected early childhood programs to not only prepare young children for school but to prepare them to negotiate successfully social interactions with both children and adults. Implications for teachers, administrators, and teacher education programs are discussed.
Causal modelling of evoked brain responses.

The aim of this thesis was to test predictive coding as a model of cortical organization and function using a specific brain response, the mismatch negativity (MMN), and a novel tool for connectivity analysis, dynamic causal modelling (DCM). Predictive coding models state that the brain perceives and makes inferences about the world by recursively updating predictions about sensory input. Thus, perception would result from comparing bottom-up input from the environment with top-down predictions. The generation of the MMN, an event- related response elicited by violations in the regularity of a structured auditory sequence, has been discussed extensively in the literature. This thesis discusses the generation of the MMN in the light of predictive coding, in other words, the MMN could reflect prediction error, occurring whenever the current input does not match a previously learnt rule. This interpretation is tested using DCM, a methodological approach which assumes the activity in one cortical area is caused by the activity in another cortical area. In brief, this thesis assesses the validity of DCM, shows the usefulness of DCM in explaining how cortical activity is expressed at the scalp level and exploits the potential of DCM for testing hierarchical models underlying the MMN. The first part of this thesis is concerned with technical issues and establishing the validity of DCM. The second part addresses hierarchical cortical organization in MMN generation, plausible network models or mechanisms underlying the MMN, and finally, the effect of repetition or learning on the connectivity parameters of the causal model.
Young children's naive thinking about the biological world

Naive Biology as a Core Domain of Thought. The Living-nonliving Distinction. Personification as Analogy in Biological Understanding. The Distinction between Biological and Psychological Processes. Vitalistic Causality. Construction of Naive Biology under Cognitive and Sociocultural Constraints. Conceptual Change in Naive Biology. Toward Better Understanding of Conceptual Development.
Postoperative retention of urine in general surgical patients.

OBJECTIVE To find out the incidence of retention of urine after various general surgical operations, and to assess the effects of applying a bag filled with warm water (40-45 degrees C), and encouraging early mobilisation onreducing the necessity for catheterisation. DESIGN Open study. SETTING Cumhuriyet University Hospital, Sivas, Turkey. SUBJECTS 577 consecutive patients who had no history of urinary problems and had not already been catheterised, and who underwent general surgical operations between April 1989 and December 1991. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Ability to pass urine spontaneously. RESULTS 64 of 272 men (24%) and 47 of 305 women (15%) developed retention of urine (p = 0.02), and 15 and 11, respectively, required catheterisation. Patients were most likely to develop retention after repair of incisional hernia (13/32, 38%), midline laparotomy (19/82, 23%), and subcostal incisions (30/142, 21%), but there were no significant differences among these. Significantly more patients whose operations had lasted 60 minutes or more, and who had opiate analgesia, required catheterisation (5/232 compared with 21/345, p = 0.04, and 11/120 compared with 15 out of 457, p = 0.01, respectively). 85 of the 111 patients who went into retention (77%) were able to pass urine spontaneously after application of a bag containing warm water to the suprapubic region, and walking about. The mean period of catheterisation was 12 hours (range 4-76), and all patients but one passed urine spontaneously when the catheter was removed. Only two of the 26 patients who were catheterised developed microbiologically confirmed urinary tract infections. CONCLUSION Retention of urine is a common complication after general surgical operations, but the necessity for catheterisation can be kept to a minimum by simple and inexpensive measures.
Antibiotic-Resistant Extended Spectrum ß-Lactamase- and Plasmid-Mediated AmpC-Producing Enterobacteriaceae Isolated from Retail Food Products and the Pearl River in Guangzhou, China

We conducted a survey in 2015 to evaluate the presence of extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)- and plasmid-mediated AmpC-producing Enterobacteriaceae in retail food and water of the Pearl River in Guangzhou, China, as well as their antibiotic resistance profiles. Samples (88 fresh food samples and 43 water samples) from eight different districts were analyzed by direct plating and after enrichment. Multidrug-resistant strains were found in 41.7 and 43.4% of food and water samples, respectively. ESBLs were found in 3.4 and 11.6% of food and water samples, respectively, and AmpC producers were found in 13.6 and 16.3% of food and water samples, respectively. Molecular characterization revealed the domination of blaCTX−Mgenes; plasmidic AmpC was of the type DHA-1 both in food and water samples. Thirteen of Fifty one β-lactamase-producing positive isolates were detected to be transconjugants, which readily received the β-lactamase genes conferring resistance to β-lactam antibiotics as well as some non-β-lactam antibiotics. These findings provide evidence that retail food and the river water may be considered as reservoirs for the dissemination of β-lactam antibiotics, and these resistance genes could readily be transmitted to humans through the food chain and water.
Intimal Hyperplasia in Mouse Vein Grafts Is Regulated by Flow

Altered flow conditions are presumed to cause stenosis in vein grafts due to exaggerated neointimal formation. The aim of this study was to establish a mouse model of flow-regulated intimal hyperplasia (IH) in vein grafts. The caval vein was grafted into the common carotid artery of 38 mice, followed by modulation of the blood flow, resulting in vein grafts with high (HF) and low flow (LF). The vessel wall thickening was evaluated after 3, 14 and 42 days by morphometric analyses and immunohistochemistry. There was an immediate significant change in flow, which was persistent throughout the time of observation. After 42 days, flow was increased 2.7 times in HF animals compared to LF animals. The vessel wall was composed of two layers where the inner layer was positive for α-actin and considered as IH. The area of neointimal formation was 74% larger in the LF group compared to the HF group. The present study demonstrates that flow regulates IH in vein grafts in mice. This model gives the potential to study the effect of shear stress on vascular biology in genetically modified animals.
Evolving Robust Gene Regulatory Networks

Design and implementation of robust network modules is essential for construction of complex biological systems through hierarchical assembly of ‘parts’ and ‘devices’. The robustness of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is ascribed chiefly to the underlying topology. The automatic designing capability of GRN topology that can exhibit robust behavior can dramatically change the current practice in synthetic biology. A recent study shows that Darwinian evolution can gradually develop higher topological robustness. Subsequently, this work presents an evolutionary algorithm that simulates natural evolution in silico, for identifying network topologies that are robust to perturbations. We present a Monte Carlo based method for quantifying topological robustness and designed a fitness approximation approach for efficient calculation of topological robustness which is computationally very intensive. The proposed framework was verified using two classic GRN behaviors: oscillation and bistability, although the framework is generalized for evolving other types of responses. The algorithm identified robust GRN architectures which were verified using different analysis and comparison. Analysis of the results also shed light on the relationship among robustness, cooperativity and complexity. This study also shows that nature has already evolved very robust architectures for its crucial systems; hence simulation of this natural process can be very valuable for designing robust biological systems.
The influence of dilute SLS solution on drag-reduction

The aim of this research is to study the effect of Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) on the turbulent water flow inside a horizontal pipe. An experimental apparatus was designed and built, which consist of a reservoir tank, manometer, flow meter, gear pump, horizontal pipes. SLS was added different concentration (100, 200, and 300 ppm) to tap water to flow through 31.75 mm pipe diameter at different flow rate (2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0) m3/hr. The drag-reduction percentage (Dr %) was calculated for all concentration at different rates. The maximum drag-reduction at 300 ppm concentration and 6.0 m3/hr flow rate was (21.352%). And the frictional factor (f) at the same condition was 3.88*10-3. Percentage flow increase (TI %) was calculated for all conditions and the maximum result was (14.123 %) at the same conditions above. The results indicated that the increasing of concentration and flow rate lead to rising drag-reduction percentage and percentage flow increase. About friction factor most of the experimental data points are located at or close Blasius asymptote, which give an indication that the starting points of the operation are close to that of the standard operation conditions suggested in the literatures.