Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metal content of ephedra-containing dietary supplements and select botanicals.

PURPOSE The metal content of dietary supplements, including 13 ephedra-containing supplements, was studied. METHODS Samples of botanicals (black cohosh, echinacea, goldenseal, kava kava, milk thistle, saw palmetto, Synephrine, and valerian root), ephedra-containing dietary supplements (Amp II, EPH 833, Ephedra, Ephedra 1000, Hydroxycut, Metabolife 356, Metabolift, Ripped Fuel, Ripped Fuel Extreme, Ripped Fuel [ma huang-free], Stacker 2 [two lots], Super Stinger, Virgin Earth, Xenadrine RFA-1 [two lots], Yellow Jacket), and nonprescription reference agents (NoDoz and Primatene) were digested in acid, reacidified, and then spiked with internal standards. Metals were quantified using Environmental Protection Agency quality assurance and quality-control standards 6020 and 200.8. Forty-seven metals were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, with subpart-per-trillion detection limits. RESULTS All metals detected were in concentrations below toxic levels or physiological limit levels for the daily doses specified by the products' labeling. Metals found in highest concentrations among all the supplements sampled were sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, aluminum, iron, titanium, mercury, strontium, lead, barium, and silver. Of the 27 supplements analyzed, those with the lowest metal concentrations were mostly single-ingredient botanical supplements, while multiple-component, ephedra-containing dietary supplements generally had higher metal concentrations. Significant lot-to-lot variations were found for two ephedra-containing dietary supplements. CONCLUSION None of 47 metals was found in highly toxic amounts in 23 brands of dietary supplements and two nonprescription reference preparations.
Daptomycin – a novel antibiotic against Gram-positive pathogens

Daptomycin is a novel member of a new class of antimicrobial agents used in treating resistant Gram-positive infections. These infections are becoming more commonplace and treatment options are limited. At present, daptomycin is approved for use in the US for complicated skin and skin-structure infections that are a common complication of surgery, diabetic foot ulcers, and burns. The most common causative organisms in these types of infections are Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus agalactiae, and Group C and G streptococci. Traditionally, these infections have been treated with penicillin and cephalosporins, but resistance to these agents is widespread and increasing. Of particular concern is the rapid increase in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). The SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme reported that ~ 30% of S. aureus isolates from skin and skin-structure infections were MRSA. The standard treatment for MRSA infections is vancomycin but resistance to this agent is also developing. There is a continuing need for the development of new antibiotics with Gram-positive activity, to combat multi-drug-resistant Gram-positive infections.
Numerical solutions of generalized Burgers–Fisher and generalized Burgers–Huxley equations using collocation of cubic B-splines

In this work, we propose a numerical scheme to obtain approximate solutions of generalized Burgers–Fisher and Burgers–Huxley equations. The scheme is based on collocation of modified cubic B-spline functions and is applicable for a class of similar diffusion–convection–reaction equations. We use modified cubic B-spline functions for space variable and for its derivatives to obtain a system of first-order ordinary differential equations in time. We solve this system by using SSP-RK54 scheme. The stability of the method has been discussed and it is shown that the method is unconditionally stable. The approximate solutions have been computed without using any transformation or linearization. The proposed scheme needs less storage space and execution time. The test problems considered by the different researchers have been discussed to demonstrate the strength and utility of the proposed scheme. The computed numerical solutions are in good agreement with the exact solutions and competent with those available in the literature. The scheme is simple as well as computationally efficient. The scheme provides approximate solution not only at the grid points but also at any point in the solution range.
Bond strength of restorative material to dentin submitted to bleaching and Er:YAG laser post-treatment.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the bond strength of a restorative material to bleached dentin, pretreated with Er:YAG laser. BACKGROUND DATA Laser irradiation for dental surface treatment may increase the bond strength of restorative material to tooth surface. There are no reports of using Er:YAG laser on dentin bleached with 35% hydrogen peroxide. METHODS Forty maxillary canines were sectioned, resulting in 80 fragments (5×5 mm) of intracoronary dentin that were divided into eight groups (n=10) according to the dental bleaching (present or not), surface conditioning (with or without laser) and the post-bleaching time to perform restoration (immediately or 7 days). The bleached specimens received two applications of 38% hydrogen peroxide. Er:YAG laser was applied for 20 sec with 400 mJ/15 Hz. Restorative procedure was performed using phosphoric acid, an adhesive system, and resin using a split Teflon matrix. The specimens were submitted to shear bond strength test and the data (MPa) were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey's test (α=0.05). RESULTS There were significant differences among the three factors (p<0.05). The highest values were obtained for unbleached specimens compared with bleached, for those treated with laser compared with those only conditioned with acid, and for those restored after 7 days compared with those having immediate restoration. In the interaction of factors, the bleached specimens treated with laser and restored immediately were statistically similar (p>0.05) to those bleached and restored after 7 days. CONCLUSIONS Er:YAG laser can restore the bond strength of the dentin/restorative material interface even if the restoration is performed immediately after bleaching.
On Fuzzy e-Negotiation Agents: autonomous negotiation with incomplete and imprecise information

The paper presents some aspects of the customable Fuzzy e-Negotiation Agents (FeNAs) system for autonomous multi-issue negotiation in the presence of limited common knowledge and imprecise/soft constraints and preferences. The FeNAs use the principles of utility theory and fuzzy constraint based reasoning in order to find a consensus that maximizes the agent's utility at the highest possible level of fuzzy constraint satisfaction subject to its acceptability by other agents. A scenario for negotiating document translation services is used to illustrate FeNAs' capabilities for multi-issue integrative negotiation.
The effect of low back pain on trunk muscle size/function and hip strength in elite football (soccer) players

ABSTRACT Low back pain (LBP) is a common problem in football (soccer) players. The effect of LBP on the trunk and hip muscles in this group is unknown. The relationship between LBP and trunk muscle size and function in football players across the preseason was examined. A secondary aim was to assess hip muscle strength. Twenty-five elite soccer players participated in the study, with assessments conducted on 23 players at both the start and end of the preseason. LBP was assessed with questionnaires and ultrasound imaging was used to assess size and function of trunk muscles at the start and end of preseason. Dynamometry was used to assess hip muscle strength at the start of the preseason. At the start of the preseason, 28% of players reported the presence of LBP and this was associated with reduced size of the multifidus, increased contraction of the transversus abdominis and multifidus muscles. LBP decreased across the preseason, and size of the multifidus muscle improved over the preseason. Ability to contract the abdominal and multifidus muscles did not alter across the preseason. Asymmetry in hip adductor and abductor muscle strength was found between players with and without LBP. Identifying modifiable factors in players with LBP may allow development of more targeted preseason rehabilitation programmes.
Integration efficiency for speech perception within and across sensory modalities by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired individuals

In face-to-face speech communication, the listener extracts and integrates information from the acoustic and optic speech signals. Integration occurs within the auditory modality i.e., across the acoustic frequency spectrum and across sensory modalities i.e., across the acoustic and optic signals . The difficulties experienced by some hearing-impaired listeners in understanding speech could be attributed to losses in the extraction of speech information, the integration of speech cues, or both. The present study evaluated the ability of normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners to integrate speech information within and across sensory modalities in order to determine the degree to which integration efficiency may be a factor in the performance of hearing-impaired listeners. Auditory-visual nonsense syllables consisting of eighteen medial consonants surrounded by the vowel a were processed into four nonoverlapping acoustic filter bands between 300 and 6000 Hz. A variety of one, two, three, and four filter-band combinations were presented for identification in auditory-only and auditory-visual conditions: A visual-only condition was also included. Integration efficiency was evaluated using a model of optimal integration. Results showed that normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners integrated information across the auditory and visual sensory modalities with a high degree of efficiency, independent of differences in auditory capabilities. However, across-frequency integration for auditory-only input was less efficient for hearing-impaired listeners. These individuals exhibited particular difficulty extracting information from the highest frequency band 4762–6000 Hz when speech information was presented concurrently in the next lower-frequency band 1890–2381 Hz . Results suggest that integration of speech information within the auditory modality, but not across auditory and visual modalities, affects speech understanding in hearing-impaired listeners. DOI: 10.1121/1.2405859
[Relationship of serum Chemerin to obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus].

OBJECTIVE To detect the serum Chemerin levels in patients with obesity and newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and explore the relationship of serum Chemerin to body fat parameters, glucose and lipid metabolism, and insulin resistance index (IR). METHODS 76 newly diagnosed T2DM patients and 76 subjects with normal glucose regulation (NGR), with the body mass index (BMI) < 25 kg/m(2) (NW) or > or = 25 kg/m(2) (OW/OB), 38 in each subgroups each, underwent body measurement including body weight, height, waist circumference, and hip circumference, and waist hip ratio (WHR) and calculation of body mass index (BMI) were calculated. Peripheral blood samples were collected from them to detect the blood lipids, glucose, hemoglobin A1C, fasting insulin (FINS), and fasting C peptide. Homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) was calculated. ELISA was used to detect the Chemerin level, body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) were evaluated and insulin sensitivity was assessed by HOMA-IR. RESULTS The serum Chemerin level of the females was (109 +/- 28) microg/L, significantly higher than that of the males [(98 +/- 23) microg/L, P < 0.05]. After adjustment of gender and age, the serum Chemerin level of the OW/OB group, including NGR-OW/OB and T2DM-OW/OB subgroups, was (113 +/- 27) microg/L, significantly higher than that of the NW group [(94 +/- 25) microg/L, P < 0.01], that of the NGR-OW/OB subgroup being the highest. Partial correlation analyses showed that the serum Chemerin was positively correlated with waist circumference, WHR, fasting serum C peptide, HOMA-IR, TG, ALT, gamma-GT, and uric acid (r = 0.460 - 0.182, all P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (r = -0.251, P < 0.01). Stepwise regression analysis showed that fasting serum C peptide and TG were the independent variables of Chemerin (beta = 0.328, 0.280, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Serum Chemerin levels are much higher in females and obese subjects are much higher than in men and subjects with normal weight. Serum Chemerin is correlated with insulin level, body fat disposition and lipid metabolism which suggesting that it may play a role in the pathophysiology of obesity and metabolic syndrome.
The study of epigenetic mechanisms based on the analysis of histone modification patterns by flow cytoametry

Epigenetic regulation of genes involved in cell growth, survival, or differentiation through histone modifications is an important determinant of cancer development and outcome. The basic science of epigenetics uses analytical tools that, although powerful, are not well suited to the analysis of heterogeneous cell populations found in human cancers, or for monitoring the effects of drugs designed to modulate epigenetic mechanisms in patients. To address this, we selected three clinically relevant histone marks (H3K27me3, H3K9ac, and H3K9me2), modulated their expression levels by in vitro treatments to generate high and low expressing control cells, and tested the relative sensitivity of candidate antibodies to detect the differences in expression levels by flow cytoametry using a range of sample preparation techniques. We identified monoclonal antibodies to all three histone marks that were suitable for flow cytoametry. Staining intensities were reduced with increasing formaldehyde concentration, and were not affected by ionic strength or by alcohol treatment. A protocol suitable for clinical samples was then developed, to allow combined labeling of histone marks and surface antigens while preserving light scatter signals. This was applied to normal donor blood, and to samples obtained from 25 patients with leukemia (predominantly acute myeloid leukemia). Significant cellular heterogeneity in H3K9ac and H3K27me3 staining was seen in normal peripheral blood, but the patterns were very similar between individual donors. In contrast, H3K27me3 in particular showed considerable inter‐patient heterogeneity in the leukemia cell populations. Although further refinements are likely needed to fully optimize sample staining protocols, “flow epigenetics” appears to be technically feasible, and to have potential both in basic research, and in clinical application. © 2013 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Smart Products for Sharing

ABSTRACT Sharing markets create mutual insurance for consumers who are unsure about their future needs for goods, thus rendering products more valuable both before and after the purchase. By embedding intelligence in their products, enabling them to sense, monitor, and authorize transfers between users, firms can economically participate in the collaborative consumption of their goods after they have been sold. Building on a dynamic model with overlapping generations of heterogeneous agents, we determine a firm’s jointly optimal product price and sharing tariff. The active use of product intelligence as a gatekeeper for collaborative consumption can narrow the gap between the retail and the equilibrium price in the sharing market. Because of its tendency to decrease the demand for ownership, the use of smart products with a positive sharing tariff does not always maximize the firm’s overall expected profits. A positive sharing tariff tends to be profitable with relatively high unit production cost and impatient consumers.
PARAOXONASE POLYMORPHISMS AND PLATELET ACTIVATING FACTOR ACETYLHYDROLASE ACTIVITY AS A GENETIC RISK FACTORS IN CEREBRAL ATHEROSCLEROSIS

The results of the present study show that basal and stimulated PON1 activities were significantly decreased in patient’s group with cerebrovascular stenosis ( group of patients with symptoms of cerebrovascular insufficiency and stenosis of carotid artery more than 50% of the lumen) versus control no-stenosis group (p 0.05. According to the obtained results the decreased PON1 activities in patients with cerebrovascular stenosis may cause decreased HDL antioxidant capacity and therefore contribute to the increase risk of the development of cerebrovascular atherosclerosis.However, there were no significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies of pon1 and pon2 genes between patients with stenosis of cerebral arteries and no-stenosis control group indicating that changes in paraoxonase activity are determined by both genetic and environmental factors. Our results show the most significant linear relationship between PAF-AH activity and total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol ( p 0, 05) while LDL standardized PAF-AH activity showed significant difference between both examined groups (p<0.0001). According to our results the LDL-standardized PAF-AH activity could be used as an additional discriminating biochemical indicator of cerebrovascular stenosis.
Pharmacokinetics of vancomycin in patients undergoing hemodialysis with polyacrylonitrile.

The pharmacokinetics of vancomycin in patients undergoing dialysis with cuprophane membranes are well known, however little has been reported of the use of polyacrylonitrile membranes in dialysis. We studied, in a crossover design, eight dialysis patients (7 men, 1 woman) aged 30 to 66 years who prospectively received 1 gram of vancomycin i.v. before first dialysis and were subsequently hemodialyzed with cuprophane every second day for a total of three times. A month later trial was repeated using polyacrylonitrile. A mono-compartment model was used to calculated pharmacokinetic parameters. Mean +/- standard deviation of vancomycin clearance varied from 5.2 +/- 2.1 ml/min in the interdialysis period to 9.7 +/- 2.7 ml/min during dialysis with cuprophane and to 58.4 +/- 15.6 ml/min during dialysis with polyacrylonitrile (p less than 0.001). Vancomycin half-life varied from 71.5 +/- 23.0 to 35.9 +/- 9.8 and to 6.1 +/- 1.4 hours, respectively (p less than 0.001). Fractional removal of vancomycin increased from 4% using the cuprophane dialyzer to 34% using the polyacrylonitrile dialyzer (p less than 0.001). Serum vancomycin levels at 100 and 168 hours were higher with cuprophane than with polyacrylonitrile (7.0 +/- 2.2 vs 3.9 +/- 1.2 micrograms/ml) (p less than 0.001). Moreover, the mean levels at 100 hours were suboptimal on polyacrylonitrile. Approximately 208 +/- 53 mg of vancomycin were removed during one polyacrylonitrile dialysis. Thus, those patients who undergo dialysis with polyacrylonitrile and are treated with vancomycin may need supplementary doses post dialysis or to lessen dosage intervals than those traditionally used for dialysis patients since clearance of the drug is significantly higher than with cuprophane dialyzers. Continuous monitoring of vancomycin levels is also recommended.
A 64 Mb SRAM in 32 nm High-k Metal-Gate SOI Technology With 0.7 V Operation Enabled by Stability, Write-Ability and Read-Ability Enhancements

A 64 Mb SRAM macro has been fabricated in a 32 nm high-k metal-gate SOI technology. The SRAM features a 0.154 μm2 bit-cell, the smallest to date for a 32 nm SOI product. A 0.7 V VDDMIN operation is enabled by three assist features. Stability is improved by a bit-line regulation scheme which reduces charge injection into the bit-cell. Enhancements to the write path include an increase of 40% of bit-line boost voltage. Finally, a bit-cell-tracking delay circuit improves both performance and yield across the process space.
Dependence of the chemical nature of antibodies on the net electrical charge of antigens.

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Differential Roles of Chemokines CCL2 and CCL7 in Monocytosis and Leukocyte Migration during West Nile Virus Infection

West Nile virus (WNV) is a re-emerging pathogen and the leading cause of epidemic encephalitis in the United States. Inflammatory monocytes are a critical component of the cellular infiltrate found in the CNS during WNV encephalitis, although the molecular cues involved in their migration are not fully understood. In mice, we previously showed that WNV infection induces a CCR2-dependent monocytosis that precedes monocyte migration into the CNS. Currently, the relative contribution of the CCR2 ligands, chemokines CCL2 and CCL7, in directing monocyte mobilization and leukocyte migration into the CNS is unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that, although both CCL2 and CCL7 are required for efficient monocytosis and monocyte accumulation in the CNS, only CCL7 deficiency resulted in increased viral burden in the brain and enhanced mortality. The enhanced susceptibility in the absence of CCL7 was associated with the delayed migration of neutrophils and CD8+ T cells into the CNS compared with WT or Ccl2−/− mice. To determine whether CCL7 reconstitution could therapeutically alter the survival outcome of WNV infection, we administered exogenous CCL7 i.v. to WNV-infected Ccl7−/− mice and observed a significant increase in monocytes and neutrophils, but not CD8+ T cells, within the CNS, as well as an enhancement in survival compared with Ccl7−/− mice treated with a linear CCL7 control peptide. Our experiments suggest that CCL7 is an important protective signal involved in leukocyte trafficking during WNV infection, and it may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of acute viral infections of the CNS.