Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chemical Anoxia Delays Germ Cell Apoptosis in the Human Testis1

Abstract An understanding of testicular physiology and pathology requires knowledge of the regulation of cell death. Previous observation of suppression of apoptosis by hypoxia suggested a role for ATP in germ cell death. However, the exact effects of ATP production on germ cell death and of apoptosis on the levels of ATP and other adenine nucleotides (ANs) have remained unclear. We investigated the levels of ANs during human testicular apoptosis (analyzed by HPLC) and the role of chemical anoxia in germ cell death (detected by Southern blot analysis of DNA fragmentation, in situ end labeling of DNA, and electron microscopy). Incubation of seminiferous tubule segments under serum-free conditions induced apoptosis and concomitantly decreased the levels of ANs. Chemical anoxia, induced with potassium cyanide (KCN), an inhibitor of mitochondrial respiration, dropped ATP levels further and suppressed apoptosis at 4 h. After 24 h, many of the testicular cells underwent delayed apoptosis despite ATP depletion. Some cells showed signs of necrosis or toxicity. The addition of 2-deoxyglucose, an antimetabolite of glycolysis, did not alter the results obtained with KCN alone, whereas a toxic concentration of hydrogen peroxide switched apoptosis to necrosis. In most of the testicular cells, mitochondrial respiration appears to play a crucial role in controlling primary cell death cascades. In the human testis, there seem to be secondary apoptotic pathways that do not require functional respiration (or ATP).
Resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs overcome by c-Myc inhibition in a Lewis lung carcinoma murine model

Chemotherapy resistance is a significant obstacle in lung cancer therapy, and has been found to frequently correlate with amplification and overexpression of the c-myc oncogene. Earlier studies have shown that c-Myc inhibition alone is not always effective in cancer models. The purpose of this study was to test different dosing regimen, which included commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs in combination with c-Myc inhibition in a Lewis lung syngeneic drug-resistant murine tumor model. Inhibition of c-myc was specifically achieved by using phosphorodiamidate Morpholino oligomer (PMOs), a novel, non-toxic antisense DNA chemistry for inhibition of gene expression by an RNase H-independent mechanism. When administration of cisplatin overlapped with c-myc PMO (AVI-4126) treatment there was no additional effect on tumor growth inhibition compared to cisplatin alone. In contrast, using a dosing regimen in which cisplatin or taxol treatment preceded AVI-4126, a dramatic decrease in tumor growth rate was observed with tumor areas less then 0.5 cm2 in 60% of the animals at the end of the study. This effect was specific to c-Myc inhibition as other antisense PMOs against p21 or Rad51 showed no such effect in combination with chemotherapy. Immunoblot and HPLC-based analysis of tumor lysates at the end of the study confirmed c-Myc inhibition and detection of intact AVI-4126, respectively. In conclusion, AVI-4126 potentiates the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs in a manner that is schedule dependent.
Unilateral Balance Training of Noninjured Individuals and the Effects on Postural Sway

The purpose of this study was to provide normative data on postural sway by comparing the mean gain score between two balance training groups and a control group. Twenty-seven recreational collegiate athletes (14 females, 13 males, 18-36 years old) with no past documented lower extremity injury or lesion of the vestibular system were randomly placed into three groups: control (nontraining), foam surface training, or hard surface training. The Chattecx Dynamic Balance System (CDB) was utilized for objective post-and pretraining recordings. CDB tests were performed on the training and nontraining extremities with subjects' eyes open and eyes closed. Results revealed no significant post to pre mean gain score differences within any group, nor was any significance revealed between group differences. Although no significant differences were revealed, trends indicated specificity of training toward testing mode. These data should assist clinicians in preventing ankle injury or compensating for ankle instability.
Asymmetries in ON and OFF visual pathways of humans revealed using contrast-evoked cortical potentials

Abstract Positive- and negative-contrast stimuli yield the perceptions of brightness and darkness, respectively, and are processed separately by ON and OFF neural pathways. The properties of these morphologically and pharmacologically distinct subsystems were measured in humans by recording visual evoked potentials (VEPs). These electrical responses from the visual cortex were elicited by novel positive- and negative-contrast stimuli, designed to emphasize, selectively, contributions from ON and OFF pathways. Results revealed differential processing of the two types of contrast information, suggesting asymmetries in ON and OFF subsystems; OFF subsystems have finer spatial tuning and greater contrast gain than ON subsystems. These VEPs may be useful in diagnosing neurological disorders that involve primarily one subsystem.
Hypoxia Modifies the Vasodilatory Effects of Nitroglycerin, Prostaglandin E1, and Hydralazine on Isolated Porcine Coronary Arteries

Summary: To evaluate the potency of vasodilatory drugs in hypoxia, we studied the effects of nitroglycerin (NTG), prostaglandin E1 (PGE1), and hydralazine on porcine coronary artery constricted with endothelin-1 (ET-1) in both oxygenated and hypoxic conditions. Removal of endo-thelium potentiated NTG-induced relaxation in oxygenated conditions. Hypoxia potentiated relaxation of endo-thelium-intact arteries induced by NTG, but not relaxation of endothelium-denuded arteries. These findings suggest that hypoxia may modify endothelial function in NTG-induced relaxation. The relaxation of endothelium-intact and -denuded arteries induced by PGE1 in hypoxia was significantly greater than that in the oxygenated condition. PGE, significantly increased the content of cyclic AMP in the hypoxic condition; it was much greater than that in the oxygenated condition, suggesting that hypoxia may enhance PGE1-induced relaxation by increasing cyclic AMP levels. Hypoxia attenuated hydralazine-induced relaxation in both endothelium-intact and denuded arteries. Indomethacin and aspirin attenuated hydralazine-induced relaxation in the oxygenated condition, suggesting that cyclooxygenase-related eicosanoid(s) may be involved in hydralazine-induced relaxation. However, indomethacin did not alter relaxation of hypoxic arteries induced by hydralazine. These findings suggest that hypoxia may inactivate cyclooxygenase in hydralazine-induced relaxation. Hypoxia may greatly modify the action of vasodilators on porcine coronary smooth muscle.
Calcium exchange hypothesis of skeletal muscle fatigue: A brief review

Skeletal muscle fatigue is often associated with diminished athletic performance and work productivity as well as increased susceptibility to injury. The exact cause of muscle fatigue probably involves a number of factors which influence force production in a manner dependent on muscle fiber type and activation pattern. However, a growing body of evidence implicates alterations in intracellular Ca2+ exchange as a major role in the fatigue process. These changes are thought to occur secondary to reductions in the rates of Ca2+ uptake and release by the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). This hypothesis is based on the finding that peak myoplasmic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) is reduced as force declines during fatigue. In addition, direct measurements of Ca2+ uptake and release show that fatiguing activity causes intrinsic alterations in the functional properties of the SR. We also propose that fatigue‐induced alterations in Ca2+ exchange may be beneficial, reducing the rate of energy utilization by the muscle fiber and preventing irreversible damage to the cell. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
GENETIC VARIATION OF RED BLOOD CELL ENZYMES IN THE DOG: USE OF SOLUBLE GLUTAMIC OXALOACETIC TRANSAMINASE AS PROOF OF CHIMERISM

One hundred ten dogs, of whom at least 63 were unrelated, were examined for electrophoretically distinguishable, genetic variants of 22 different red blood cell enzymes and of hemoglobin. A variant of soluble glutamic oxalaocetic transaminase (S-GOT) was found to occur with high frequency in dogs of the Basenji breed, and infrequent variants of indophenol oxidase and acid phosphatase were found in other breeds. The S-GOT variant was utilized to establish the presence of donor- and the absence of recipient-type cells following marrow transplantation.
Cluster Structure of Anaerobic Aggregates of an Expanded Granular Sludge Bed Reactor

ABSTRACT The metabolic properties and ultrastructure of mesophilic aggregates from a full-scale expanded granular sludge bed reactor treating brewery wastewater are described. The aggregates had a very high methanogenic activity on acetate (17.19 mmol of CH4/g of volatile suspended solids [VSS]·day or 1.1 g of CH4 chemical oxygen demand/g of VSS·day). Fluorescent in situ hybridization using 16S rRNA probes of crushed granules showed that 70 and 30% of the cells belonged to the archaebacterial and eubacterial domains, respectively. The spherical aggregates were black but contained numerous whitish spots on their surfaces. Cross-sectioning these aggregates revealed that the white spots appeared to be white clusters embedded in a black matrix. The white clusters were found to develop simultaneously with the increase in diameter. Energy-dispersed X-ray analysis and back-scattered electron microscopy showed that the whitish clusters contained mainly organic matter and no inorganic calcium precipitates. The white clusters had a higher density than the black matrix, as evidenced by the denser cell arrangement observed by high-magnification electron microscopy and the significantly higher effective diffusion coefficient determined by nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. High-magnification electron microscopy indicated a segregation of acetate-utilizing methanogens (Methanosaeta spp.) in the white clusters from syntrophic species and hydrogenotrophic methanogens (Methanobacterium-like andMethanospirillum-like organisms) in the black matrix. A number of physical and microbial ecology reasons for the observed structure are proposed, including the advantage of segregation for high-rate degradation of syntrophic substrates.
Inecuaţii Integrale Şi Stabilitatea Ulam-Hyers Cu

In this thesis we collected some recent results from the theory of Picard operators and its applications. This method was introduced by Prof. Ioan A. Rus and used later on by many mathematicians (see the references). It seemed to be very powerful tool in the theory of ordinaryand partial differential equations (to study existence, uniqueness, stability and differentiability of the solutions, etc.), integral equations and inequalities and also in many other type of problems related to fixed point theory. Most of the results contained in the present thesis are taken from the recent papers [8], [9] and [10], and some of them were presented as well at the 4th International Conference on Nonlinear Operators, Differential Equations and Applications, ICNODEA 2011, ClujNapoca, Romania, July 5-8, 2011 by the author and also by his advisor. After a short introduction of Picard operators, some abstract Gronwall lemmas, UlamHyers stability and the relation between them, in the following chapters we will discuss in a more detailed way some specific problems, applications of these results. In Chapter 1 we present some new improvements of the well known Wendroff inequality and give the representation for the best estimation. We also prove some nonlinear BihariWendroff type inequalities. These results are contained in [8] and were motivated by [1]. In Chapter 2 we extend the results obtained in the previous chapter to arbitrary time scales. Moreover we study some nonlinear integral inequalities on time scales. These results (published in [9]) improve some recently obtained results in [19], [4] and [5]. In Chapter 3 we continue our work with the study of the Ulam-Hyers stability of dynamical equations on time scales. We present some results for bounded time scale intervals and for unbounded ones as well. In the case of unbounded domains we cannot use the usual operatorial framework of Picard operators, but using some direct methods we could have obtained some positive results, which are more general, than the ones discussed in [6]. And due to the fact, that we are working on time scales, these results will unify the stability properties of differential and difference equations (see [31],[32],[16] and [24]-[26]). The chapter is mainly containing the results from [10]. In Chapter 4 we will use the same ideas to study the Ulam-Hyers stability of some linear and nonlinear elliptic PDEs on bounded, connected domains with Lipschitz boundary. In the case of this chapter the main tools, which are used are not necessarily the abstract techniques of the Picard operators, but there is a big accent on the Sobolev embeddings (due to the bounded domains), Poincaré’s and the Cauchy-Schwartz inequalities. Finally in Chapter 5 we will present some further research possibilities about improving some stochastic Wendroff type inequalities, studying the Ulam-Hyers stability of stochastic ODEs and PDEs, and some other type of (evolution) PDEs. This work is the result of my own activity. I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.
Compressive sensing for array signal processing

Compressive sensing (CS) is an emerging area in which the conventional two step process of data acquisition and compression can be integrated into a single step. Compressive sensing exploits the sparsity of a signal and allows the digital signal to be reconstructed from far fewer measurements than the original size of the signal. This is possible as long as the measurements satisfy certain reasonable conditions such as Restricted Isometry Property, Incoherence, etc. The theory of compressed sensing can also be applied to the field of sensor array processing . In this paper, compressive sensing is applied to the problem of Direction of Arrival estimation. We perform Compressive Beamforming using two different approaches. In the time domain approach, CS can be applied to reduce the sampling rate of the Analog-to-Digital Converter, i.e., the number of samples received by each sensor of the array. In the spatial domain approach, CS can be applied to compress the array of large number of elements into an array of much smaller number of elements. Both these approaches are compared to the conventional beamforming technique and found to be close to the ideal impulse output. Compressed sensing recovery is performed using Subspace Pursuit (SP) and the two approaches are compared. The results obtained using SP is found to outperform the results obtained in the previous papers.
Group desensitization of test anxiety in elementary school.

Summary Fifth and sixth grade students (N = 87) were divided into High Test Anxious and Low Test Anxious groups on the basis of galvanic skin responses (GSR). Ss identified as High Anxious responded positively to group systematic desensitization procedures, exhibiting significantly (p < .05) lower autonomic indices of test anxiety and significantly (p < .001) improved criterion test scores. Low Anxious Ss exposed to the systematic desensitization program demonstrated no significant change in criterion test scores.
Evaluation of Brilliance MRSA 2 Agar for Detection of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Clinical Samples

ABSTRACT We compared 2 chromogenic media (Oxoid Brilliance MRSA 2 agar [Thermo Fisher Scientific] and MRSA-ID [bioMérieux]) for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in 1,368 hospital samples. For both media, broth enrichment was essential to obtain satisfactory diagnostic performance. Although with direct cultures only, the diagnostic performance (particularly sensitivity) of Brilliance MRSA 2 agar appears better than that of MRSA-ID, no difference in sensitivity or specificity between the media was detected after inclusion of an enrichment step.
Screening for Adolescent Anxiety Disorders in a Pediatric Emergency Department

Objectives Adolescence is a time of increasing risk for some anxiety disorders. Scant data exist on adolescent anxiety in emergency department (ED) settings. We sought to characterize select clinical characteristics and health care use associated with anxiety disorders in a pediatric ED. Methods We screened a convenience sample of 100 adolescent-parent dyads presenting to the ED for the presence of child anxiety disorders using the 5-item Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, parent (SCARED-P) and child (SCARED-C) versions. Additional demographic and clinical data were also collected. Results The SCARED-P and SCARED-C screens identified probable anxiety disorder(s) in 26% to 33% of adolescent participants, respectively. Correlates of positive SCARED-C screens were female sex, asthma, presenting complaint involving headache or migraine, and school absenteeism due to physical problems. Correlates of positive SCARED-P screens were lower parental educational level, presenting complaint involving headache or migraine, and more medical specialty and total medical visits. Few anxious adolescents had received mental health services in the past 6 months. In multivariate models, female sex was independently associated with SCARED-C total score, and presenting complaint involving headache or migraine was independently associated with SCARED-P total score. Conclusions The current pilot data suggest that anxiety disorders are more prevalent among adolescent ED patients than among the general population but largely untreated. Several demographic and clinical variables may help to identify occult anxiety disorders. Greater awareness of anxiety disorders in this population may assist in redirecting a pattern of low use of mental health services but higher overall health care use.
Translocation heterozygosity and associated subfertility in man.

Details of meiotic chromosome studies in four human male translocation heterozygotes are given. All are associated with subfertility. One Robertsonian translocation and one reciprocal autosome translocation appear to be associated with increased levels of abortion. Segregation of unbalanced gametic genomes is thought to be the underlying cause of fetal death. Two other reciprocal autosome translocations are associated with gametogenic failure, leading to azospermia in male heterozygotes.
Degree of cross‐genotype reactivity of hepatitis C virus–specific CD8+ T cells directed against NS3

The inherent sequence diversity of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) with the existence of multiple genotypes that differ up to 20% at the amino acid level represents one of the major obstacles for immune control. Accordingly, immune control of a heterologous virus challenge, particularly across genotypes, is difficult to achieve; however, the overall role of genotype‐specific sequence differences has not yet been defined at the epitope level. The aim of this study was to determine the role of genotype‐specific sequence differences for the CD8+ T cell response against HCV. We analyzed a cohort of anti‐HCV–positive injection drug users infected with HCV genotype 1 (n = 17) or genotype 3 (n = 22) or undetectable HCV‐RNA (n = 14) with overlapping peptides covering consensus sequences of NS3 from both genotypes. Importantly, the majority of HCV‐specific CD8 T cells were specific for one genotype only indicating that sequence differences between genotypes are relevant at the epitope level. Interestingly, T cells active against both genotypes were significantly more frequent in HCV‐RNA–negative subjects. Of note, we identified five subjects with undetectable viremia and coexistence of two T cell populations—one for each genotype—suggesting immune control of two different genotypes. Conclusion: We systematically analyzed the degree of cross‐genotype reactivity of HCV‐specific T cells and have shown that CD8 responses targeting different HCV genotypes can be primed in the same individual and that such responses potentially characterize a subgroup among injection drug users being protected from chronic HCV infection. (HEPATOLOGY 2009.)
Selection and Serial Entrepreneurs

There is substantial evidence that serial entrepreneurs outperform de novo entrepreneurs. But is this positive association between prior experience and performance the result of learning by doing or of selection on ability? This paper proposes a strategy that combines the fixed‐effects model and IV estimations to distinguish empirically selection effects from learning. Using panel data from the NLSY79, I find that selection on ability is the more important determinant of serial business formation and the early performance of new businesses. In contrast, the effects of learning by doing are apparent only when the analysis focuses on founding new startups in sectors closely related to entrepreneurs’ previous ventures.
VARIATION IN YEARLY RESIDENTIAL RADON CONCENTRATIONS IN THE UPPER MIDWEST

It is well known that inhalation of 222Rn and 222Rn decay products increases the risk of lung cancer. While the occurrences of high radon areas in the United States are generally known, studies examining the temporal yearly radon variation in homes across different regions are lacking. This information is essential to assess the ability of a year-long radon measurement to predict the future radon concentration in a home or reconstruct the retrospective residential radon concentration. The purpose of this study is to help fill this gap by examining the temporal variation of residential radon concentrations in homes over several years as well as to explore factors that affect the yearly temporal variability of residential radon concentrations. The coefficient of variation was used as a measure of relative variation between multiple measurements performed across homes over several years. Generalized linear model analyses were applied to investigate factors affecting the coefficient of variation. The median coefficient of variation between the first and second test period was 12%, while a median coefficient of variation of 19% was found between the first and third test period. Factors impacting the coefficients of variation were found to vary for different types of homes and by floors of a home. This study provides important insights into the uncertainty of residential radon gas concentrations that can be incorporated into the sensitivity analyses for the risk estimates of both the North American and global pooling of residential radon studies to improve risk estimates.