Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
miR-675-5p enhances tumorigenesis and metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by targeting REPS2

Recently H19 has been demonstrated to be up-regulated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and shown to be the precursor of miR-675 that encodes miR-675-5p conservatively. miR-675 is overexpressed in many human cancers; however, the function of miR-675-5p is largely unknown in ESCC. In this study, we found that miR-675-5p expression was significantly increased in ESCC tissues and cell lines and related with ESCC progression and poor prognosis. We also showed here that down-regulation of miR-675-5p in ESCC cells dramatically induced cell G1 arrest and reduced cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in vitro as well as tumorigenesis and tumor metastasis in vivo. We subsequently identified that REPS2 was a target gene of miR-675-5p. We found that inhibition of miR-675-5p up-regulated the expression of REPS2, inhibited RalBP1/RAC1/CDC42 signaling pathway. Inversely, interference of REPS2 abrogated the effect induced by miR-675-5p inhibition, which resembled the function of miR-675-5p up-regulation. Taken together, our findings suggested that miR-675-5p might play an oncogenic role in ESCC through RalBP1/RAC1/CDC42 signaling pathway by inhibiting REPS2 and might serve as a valuable prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for ESCC patients.
Characterizing sediment acid volatile sulfide concentrations in European streams

Sediment acid volatile sulfide (AVS) concentrations were measured in wadeable streams of a wide variety of ecoregions of western Europe (84 sites in 10 countries and nine ecoregions) to better understand spatial distribution and ecoregion relationships. Acid volatile sulfide has been shown to be a major factor controlling the bioavailability and toxicity of many common trace metals, such as Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn. Sediment characteristics varied widely. The ratio of the sum of the simultaneously extracted metals (SEM) to AVS ranged from 0.03 to 486.59. The ΣSEM‐AVS ranged from −40.02 to 17.71 μmol/g. On a regional scale, sediment characteristics such as dominant parent soil material showed significant trends in AVS distribution and variation by ecoregion. Total Fe and Mn were correlated weakly with SEM concentrations. Three AVS model approaches (i.e., the SEMAVS ratio, SEM‐AVS difference, and carbon normalization) were compared at threshold exceedance levels of SEM/AVS > 9, SEM‐AVS > 2, and SEM‐AVS/foc > 150 μmol/g organic carbon (OC). Only 4.76% of the sediments exceeded all three AVS thresholds; 22.6% of the sediments exceeded two models; and 13% of the sediments exceeded one model only. Using the SEM:AVS, SEM‐AVS, and fraction of organic carbon models, and including site‐specific data and regional soil characteristics, ecoregions 1 (Portugal), 3 (Italy), 4 (Switzerland), and 9 (Belgium/Germany) had the highest potential metals toxicity; ecoregions 13 and 8 (Belgium/France) showed the lowest potential toxicity. However, because AVS can vary widely spatially and temporally, these data should not be considered as representative of the sampled ecoregions. The general relationship between AVS levels and sediment characteristics provides some predictive capability for wadeable streams in the European ecoregions.
Carbohydrate loading and metabolism during exercise in men and women.

During endurance exercise at approximately 65% maximal O2 consumption, women oxidize more lipids, and therefore decrease carbohydrate and protein oxidation, compared with men (L.J. Tarnopolsky, M.A. Tarnopolsky, S.A. Atkinson, and J.D. MacDougall. J. Appl. Physiol. 68: 302-308, 1990; S.M. Phillips, S.A. Atkinson, M.A. Tarnopolsky, and J.D. MacDougall. J. Appl. Physiol. 75: 2134-2141, 1993). The main purpose of this study was to examine the ability of similarly trained male (n = 7) and female (n = 8) endurance athletes to increase muscle glycogen concentrations in response to an increase in dietary carbohydrate from 55-60 to 75% of energy intake for a period of 4 days (carbohydrate loading). In addition, we sought to examine whether gender differences existed in metabolism during submaximal endurance cycling at 75% peak O2 consumption (VO2 peak) for 60 min. The men increased muscle glycogen concentration by 41% in response to the dietary manipulation and had a corresponding increase in performance time during an 85% VO2 peak trial (45%), whereas the women did not increase glycogen concentration (0%) or performance time (5%). The women oxidized significantly more lipid and less carbohydrate and protein compared with the men during exercise at 75% VO2-peak. We conclude that women did not increase muscle glycogen in response to the 4-day regimen of carbohydrate loading described. In addition, these data support previous observations of greater lipid and lower carbohydrate and protein oxidation by women vs. men during submaximal endurance exercise.
Patterns of Handwashing Behavior and Visits to Patients on a General Medical Ward of Healthcare Workers

Abstract Objective: To obtain accurate data regarding the handwashing behavior and patterns of visits to patients by healthcare workers (HCWs). Methods: All visits by HCWs to selected patient rooms were recorded for 3 days and 2 nights. Additionally, 5 nurses were observed for 1 day each and 2 nurses were observed for 1 night each. Nurses were observed for their entire shifts and all of their activities were recorded. Setting: A general medical ward in a tertiary-care hospital. Participants: Convenience samples of HCWs and patients. Results: Patients were visited every 25 minutes on average. Monitoring rooms and observing nurses resulted in similar rates of patient visits. The highest level of risk was contact with body fluids in 11% of visits and skin in 40% of visits. The overall rate of handwashing was 46%; however, the rate was higher for visits involving contact with body fluids (81%) and skin (61%). Nurses returned immediately to the same patient 45% of the time. The rate of handwashing was higher for the last of a series of visits to a patient's room (53% vs 30%, P < .0001). Conclusions: Nurses adjusted their handwashing rates in accordance with the risk level of each visit. Monitoring patient rooms and observing nurses yielded similar estimates of patient visits and proportions of visits involving contact with skin or body fluids. Education programs about hand hygiene may be more effective if patterns of care and levels of risk are incorporated into recommendations.
Becoming pregnant: exploring the perspectives of women living with diabetes.

BACKGROUND The risk of adverse pregnancy outcome for women with type 1 diabetes is reduced through tight diabetes control. Most women enter pregnancy with inadequate blood glucose control. Interview studies with women suggest the concept of 'planned' and 'unplanned' pregnancies is unhelpful. AIM To explore women's accounts of their journeys to becoming pregnant while living with type 1 diabetes. DESIGN OF STUDY Semi-structured interviews with 15 women living with pre-gestational type 1 diabetes, between 20 and 30 weeks gestation and with a normal pregnancy ultrasound scan. SETTING Four UK specialist diabetes antenatal clinics. METHOD Interviews explored women's journeys to becoming pregnant and the impact of health care. Analysis involved comparison of women's accounts of each pregnancy and a thematic analysis. RESULTS Women's experiences of becoming pregnant were diverse. Of the 40 pregnancies described, at least one positive step towards becoming pregnant was taken by 11 women in 23 pregnancies but not in the remaining 17 pregnancies, with variation between pregnancies. Prior to and in early pregnancy, some women described themselves as experts in their diabetes but most described seeking and/or receiving advice from their usual health professionals. Three women described pre-conception counselling and the anxiety this provoked. CONCLUSION For women living with type 1 diabetes each pregnancy is different. The concept of planned and unplanned pregnancy is unhelpful for designing health care. Formal preconception counselling can have unintended consequences. Those providing usual care to women are well positioned to provide advice and support to women about becoming pregnant, tailoring it to the changing needs and situation of each woman.
The Use of Embryonic Spinal Cord Grafts to Replace Identified Motoneuron Pools Depleted by a Neurotoxic Lectin, Volkensin

The viability of solid pieces of embryonic spinal cord grafted into adult spinal cords that had been depleted of motoneurons by a neurotoxic lectin, volkensin, was investigated. The possibility that the grafted neurons will extend their axons via the degenerated ventral roots and reinnervate the denervated muscles was also studied. Cells in the embryonic spinal cord were prelabeled with bromodeoxyuridine and grafted into the host cord 2 or 3 weeks after volkensin treatment. Six to 24 weeks later the fluorescent dyes Fast Blue and Diamidino Yellow were applied to the peripheral nerve or muscles which were expected to be reinnervated by neurons from the graft. The grafted cells were visualized by bromodeoxyuridine immunocytochemistry. Although the transplants survived, no neurons of graft origin reinnervated the muscles via the ventral roots of the host spinal cord. Therefore, in another series of experiments axons from grafted and host neurons were guided toward an implanted extensor hallucis longus (EHL) muscle via its motor nerve. The EHL muscle was removed from either healthy or volkensin-affected hindlimb of the host, placed paravertebrally, and the proximal end of its motor nerve inserted into the spinal cord at the site of the graft. In these experiments, neurons of graft origin reinnervated the paravertebrally placed muscle implant via the muscle's own nerve. However, significantly fewer neurons were observed when volkensin-affected nerve-muscle implants were used. To establish whether grafted spinal cord neurons are necessary for reinnervation of skeletal muscles, in separate experiments embryonic neocortical tissue was transplanted into the motoneuron-depleted spinal cord. These grafts were connected to healthy nerve-muscle implants. In this case little reinnervation of the muscle occurred. These results suggest that, though volkensin-affected peripheral nerve is not a good conduit for regenerating axons, other inhibitory effects located in the CNS may be responsible for the failure of growing embryonic neurons to reach their peripheral targets via the existing anatomical routes. Experiments with grafted neocortical tissue indicate that good reinnervation of implanted muscles can only be achieved by using homologous embryonic tissue.
In vitro and in vivo cleavage of HIV-1 RNA by new SOFA-HDV ribozymes and their potential to inhibit viral replication

RNA-based compounds are promising agents to inactivate viruses. New specific hepatitis delta virus (HDV)-derived ribozymes are natural molecules that can be engineered to specifically target a viral RNA. We have designed specific on-off adaptor (SOFA)-HDV ribozymes targeting the tat and rev sequences of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA. We show that the SOFA-HDV ribozymes cleave their RNA target in vitro. They inhibit the Tat-mediated transactivation of HIV-1 from 62% to 86% in different assays. In vivo, the amount of HIV RNA was decreased by 60 and 86% with two distinct ribozymes, which indicates that the inhibition of HIV production is directly correlated to the decline in spliced and unspliced viral RNAs. These SOFAHDV- ribozymes inhibited the expression and the viral production of four HIV-1 strains, indicating an extended potential to act on multiple HIV variants. In HEK 293T and HeLa cells transfected with pNL4-3 and the SOFA-HDV-ribozymes, the reduced RNA levels consequently decreased the Gag protein expression in the cell and virus production in the supernatant. When transfected before HIV-1 infection, the ribozymes prevented the incoming virus from being expressed. The ribozymes inhibited HIV production up to 90% when transfected in combination with the HIV protease inhibitor Atazanavir. Our results strongly suggest that SOFA-HDV ribozymes have a great potential to target HIV-1 and to be used as therapeutic agents in combination therapy.
Cfs1p, a Novel Membrane Protein in the PQ-Loop Family, Is Involved in Phospholipid Flippase Functions in Yeast

Type 4 P-type ATPases (P4-ATPases) function as phospholipid flippases, which translocate phospholipids from the exoplasmic leaflet to the cytoplasmic leaflet of the lipid bilayer, to generate and maintain asymmetric distribution of phospholipids at the plasma membrane and endosomal/Golgi membranes. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has four heteromeric flippases (Drs2p, Dnf1p, Dnf2p, and Dnf3p), associated with the Cdc50p family noncatalytic subunit, and one monomeric flippase, Neo1p. They have been suggested to function in vesicle formation in membrane trafficking pathways, but details of their mechanisms remain to be clarified. Here, to search for novel factors that functionally interact with flippases, we screened transposon insertional mutants for strains that suppressed the cold-sensitive growth defect in the cdc50Δ mutant. We identified a mutation of YMR010W encoding a novel conserved membrane protein that belongs to the PQ-loop family including the cystine transporter cystinosin and the SWEET sugar transporters. We named this gene CFS1 (cdc fifty suppressor 1). GFP-tagged Cfs1p was partially colocalized with Drs2p and Neo1p to endosomal/late Golgi membranes. Interestingly, the cfs1Δ mutation suppressed growth defects in all flippase mutants. Accordingly, defects in membrane trafficking in the flippase mutants were also suppressed. These results suggest that Cfs1p and flippases function antagonistically in membrane trafficking pathways. A growth assay to assess sensitivity to duramycin, a phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)-binding peptide, suggested that the cfs1Δ mutation changed PE asymmetry in the plasma membrane. Cfs1p may thus be a novel regulator of phospholipid asymmetry.
Epidermal barrier in disorders of the skin

The water permeability barrier of the stratum corneum (SC) seems primarily to be regulated by the lamellarly arranged lipid bilayers between the corneocytes, which originate largely from polar lipid precursors provided by the cells of stratum granulosum via exocytosis of the lamellar body (LB) content. In particular, the structural organization of these intercellular lipid lamellae seems to be responsible for the very low water permeability of the intact skin, and these lipid‐rich structures might also influence the desquamation process in the SC. The aim of this study was to obtain further insight into the distribution and organization of the epidermal lipids (EL) and the mechanism involved in desquamation and barrier function in normal human skin and scaling skin disorders. Biopsies of healthy human skin (n = 12), of inflammatory skin diseases (atopic dry skin (n = 9), psoriatic skin lesions [n = 2]), and of hereditary keratinization disorders (autosomal recessive ichthyoses congenita (n = 3), X‐chromosomal ichthyosis (XCI) [n = 3]) were analyzed utilizing a special fixation protocol with ruthenium tetroxide (RuO4) postfixation. While the atopic dry skin revealed normal barrier structures, the psoriasis lesions were characterized by severe alteration of the lipid structures leading to an abnormal interaction with the desmosomal unit. While the intercellular domains in some of the studied keratinization disorders showed an impaired distribution of the EL (autosomal recessive ichthyoses), X‐chromosomal ichthyosis showed normal lipid architecture. Dry and scaly skin disorders are therefore not always accompanied by an impairment of the water permeability barrier. Microsc. Res. Tech. 38:361–372, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Ventricular repolarization is prolonged in nondipper hypertensive patients: role of left ventricular hypertrophy and autonomic dysfunction

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of circadian behavior of blood pressure, left ventricular hypertrophy, and autonomic function on QTc interval duration in untreated hypertensive patients. Design Hypertensive patients underwent simultaneous blood pressure and ECG 24-h ambulatory monitoring. Patients were classified into two groups on the basis of a lack of nocturnal fall in blood pressure, as dippers and nondippers. A group of normotensive healthy subjects was studied as controls. Methods QT and QTc intervals were automatically computed and spectral analysis was applied to RR interval time series from the same electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was computed by echocardiogram. Results No difference among the three groups was found concerning mean values and circadian pattern of heart rate; by contrast, QTc was significantly longer in nondippers compared to dippers or to normotensive subjects, particularly at night-time, whereas all groups exhibited similar circadian variations in heart rate. Compared to dippers, nondippers showed significantly higher LVMI, which positively correlated with QTc, and parasympathetic withdrawal, which negatively correlated with QTc. Conclusions Nondippers show a prolonged ventricular repolarization throughout the 24-h period, absent either in dippers or normotensives. The association of left ventricular hypertrophy and vagal deactivation may lead to prolongation of QTc, potentially facilitating ventricular arrhythmias in nondipper hypertensive patients.
An insight into industrial accidents involving the hand.

BACKGROUND Industrial hand injuries are a common occurrence and contributes to a large segment of workers' morbidity. The main aim of this study was to look into the day pattern, types and location of upper limbs injures, identify the types of machines involved and highlight the treatment received. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study was performed on 57 industrial workers admitted and treated by the Orthopaedic team of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) for acute injuries sustained whilst working. RESULTS The majority of the workers were male (93%). The commonest age group involved was between 25-35 years (48%). The right hand was injured more then the left with majority of injuries involving the fingers. Interestingly, we also observed that injuries occurred more on Saturdays. Laceration was the most common injury followed by fractures and crush injuries. Treatment depends on the type and severity of injuries. For most lacerated wounds, treatment was debridement, primary suturing and antibiotic therapy. Injuries on Saturdays indicated that workers needed a longer time break especially during weekends after a long hectic week. CONCLUSIONS Injuries sustained by workers may be prevented by proper working techniques and conditions together with wearing of protective gadgets.
Heavy Ion SEU Cross Section Calculation Based on Proton Experimental Data, and Vice Versa

The aim of this work is to provide a method to calculate single event upset (SEU) cross sections by using experimental data. Valuable tools such as PROFIT and SIMPA already focus on the calculation of the proton cross section by using heavy ions cross-section experiments. However, there is no available tool that calculates heavy ion cross sections based on measured proton cross sections with no knowledge of the technology. We based our approach on the diffusion-collection model with the aim of analyzing the characteristics of transient currents that trigger SEUs. We show that experimental cross sections could be used to characterize the pulses that trigger an SEU. Experimental results allow yet defining an empirical rule to identify the transient current that are responsible for an SEU. Then, the SEU cross section can be calculated for any kind of particle and any energy with no need to know the Spice model of the cell. We applied our method to some technologies (250 nm, 90 nm and 65 nm bulk SRAMs) and we show that the proton (respectively heavy ions) cross-section curve can be obtained without any further parameter when the heavy ion (respectively protons) cross-section curve is known.
The role of low soil temperature in the inhibition of growth and PSII function during dark chilling in soybean genotypes of contrasting tolerance.

Dark chilling affects growth and yield of warm-climate crops such as soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ]. Several studies have investigated chilling-stress effects on photosynthesis and other aspects of metabolism, but none have compared effects of whole-plant chilling (WPC; shoots and roots) with that of aboveground chilling in legumes. This is important because low root temperatures might induce additional constraints, such as inhibition of N(2) fixation, thereby aggravating chilling-stress symptoms. Effects of dark chilling on PSII, shoot growth, leaf ureide content and photosynthetic capacity were studied in two soybean genotypes, Highveld Top (chilling tolerant) and PAN809 (chilling sensitive), in experiments comparing effects of WPC with that of shoot chilling (SC). Both treatments inhibited shoot growth in PAN809 but not Highveld Top. Also, WPC in PAN809 caused a decrease in leaf ureide content followed by severe chlorosis and alterations in O-J-I-P fluorescence-rise kinetics, distinct from SC. A noteworthy difference was the appearance of a Delta K peak in the O-J-I-P fluorescence rise in response to WPC. These genotypic and treatment differences also reflected in the degree of inhibition of CO(2) assimilation rates. The appearance of a Delta K peak, coupled with growth inhibition, reduced ureide content, chlorosis and lower CO(2) assimilation rates, provides mechanistic information about how WPC might have aggravated chilling-stress symptoms in PAN809. We introduce a model explaining how chilling soil temperatures might trigger N-limitation in sensitive genotypes and how characteristic changes in O-J-I-P fluorescence-rise kinetics are linked to changes in carbon and nitrogen metabolism.