Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ketamine-HCI as a Suitable Anesthetic for Endocrine, Metabolic, and Cardiovascular Studies in Macaca fascicularis Monkeys

Abstract Ketamine-HCl has been reported, depending on experimental conditions and dosage given, to have significant cardiovascular and endocrine effects in some species. However, previous studies in primates have inadequately distinguished between animal handling and ketamine effects. We, therefore, examined the effects of various doses of ketamine (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 mg/kg) on mean arterial blood pressure and on plasma insulin, glucose, and cortisol concentrations in 10 chronically cannulated Macaca fascicularis monkeys which had been acclimated to restraining chairs. Each monkey received three different doses of ketamine according to a balanced incomplete block design. Ketamine anesthesia produced no significant changes in plasma insulin, glucose, or cortisol concentrations nor did it affect mean arterial blood pressure. In addition, the effects of ketamine-HCl on endocrine responses to insulin-induced hypoglycemia were examined in four animals according to a cross-over design. These animals also had chronically maintained cannulas and had been acclimated to restraining chairs. Plasma glucose concentrations, as well as plasma ACTH, growth hormone, and Cortisol responses in ketamine-anesthetized animals receiving an insulin challenge were no different from those in unanesthetized control animals. Thus, our studies indicate that ketamine-HCl does not perturb these particular hormonal systems in M. fascicularis monkeys.
PRÁTICA DE ATIVIDADE FÍSICA NO LAZER ENTRE ACADÊMICOS DE EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA E FATORES ASSOCIADOS

A pratica da atividade fisica vem sendo amplamente recomendada em funcao dos comprovados beneficios a saude e o profissional de Educacao Fisica pode contribuir para que essa informacao atinja grande parte da populacao. Oobjetivo desse estudo foi investigar o nivel de atividade fisica no lazer e fatores associados entre academicos deEducacao Fisica. Foi realizado um estudo transversal, onde 221 sujeitos, com idade media de 22,2 anos (DP=3,1)fizeram parte da pesquisa. A prevalencia de nivel suficiente (≥150 min/semana) de pratica de atividade fisica nolazer foi de 74,2% entre os academicos. Os homens mostraram-se significativamente mais ativos que as mulheres. Entre os homens foi verificada uma relacao direta entre o nivel de atividade fisica e o nivel socioeconomico. Para as mulheres, se observou uma relacao direta do nivel de atividade fisica com o ano de curso e o tabagismo.Considerando a importante relacao entre atividade fisica e saude e o papel do professor de Educacao Fisica nestecontexto, nada mais apropriado que aqueles que divulgarao este conhecimento sejam exemplos de seu propriodiscurso.
Pediatric acute liver failure: Etiology, outcomes, and the role of serial pediatric end‐stage liver disease scores

To describe etiology, short‐term outcomes and prognostic accuracy of serial PELD scores in PALF. Retrospective analysis of children aged ≤16 yr, admitted with PALF under the QLTS, Brisbane, Australia, between 1991 and 2011. PELD‐MELD scores were ascertained at three time points (i) admission (ii), meeting PALF criteria, and (iii) peak value. Fifty‐four children met criteria for PALF, median age 17 months (1 day–15.6 yr) and median weight 10.2 kg (1.9–57 kg). Etiology was known in 69%: 26% metabolic, 15% infective, 13% drug‐induced, 6% autoimmune, and 9% hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. Age <3 months and weight <4.7 kg predicted poor survival in non‐transplanted children. Significant independent predictors of poor outcome (death or LT) were peak bilirubin > 220 μm/L and peak INR > 4. Serial PELD‐MELD scores were higher in the 17 (32%) transplant recipients (mean: [i] 26.8, [ii] 31.8, [iii] 42.6); highest in the 12 (22%) non‐transplanted non‐survivors (mean: [i] 31.6, [ii] 37.2, [iii] 45.7) compared with the 25 (46%) transplant‐free survivors (mean: [i] 25.3, [ii] 26.0, [iii] 30.3). PELD‐MELD thresholds of ≥27 and ≥42 at (ii) meeting PALF criteria and (iii) peak predicted poor outcome (p < 0.001). High peak bilirubin and peak INR predict poor outcome and serial PELD‐MELD is superior to single admission PELD‐MELD score for predicting poor outcome.
Cloning of a Cation Efflux Pump Gene Associated with Chlorhexidine Resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae

ABSTRACT Expression libraries of a chlorhexidine-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain were constructed and transformed into Escherichia coli XLOLR. Twenty chlorhexidine-resistant transformants were obtained after selection. All clones contained a novel 903-nucleotide locus. Its sequences were compatible with a cation efflux pump, and the locus was thus designated as cepA. Retransformation using cepA-containing plasmids conferred chlorhexidine resistance to both XLOLR and a chlorhexidine-sensitive K. pneumoniae strain. Therefore, CepA is associated with chlorhexidine resistance and may act as a cation efflux pump.
Homodimerization as a molecular switch between low and high efficiency PrPC cell surface delivery and neuroprotective activity

PrPC is associated with a variety of functions, and its ability to interact with a multitude of partners, including itself, may largely explain PrP multifunctionality and the lack of consensus on the genuine physiological function of the protein in vivo. In contrast, there is a consensus in the literature that alterations in PrPC trafficking and intracellular retention result in neuronal degeneration. In addition, a proteolytic modification in the late secretory pathway termed the α-cleavage induces the secretion of PrPN1, a PrPC-derived metabolite with fascinating neuroprotective activity against toxic oligomeric Aβ molecules implicated in Alzheimer disease. Thus, studies focusing on understanding the regulation of PrPC trafficking to the cell surface and the modulation of α-cleavage are essential. The objective of this commentary is to highlight recent evidences that PrPC homodimerization stimulates trafficking of the protein to the cell surface and results in high levels of PrPN1 secretion. We also discuss a hypothetical model for these results and comment on future challenges and opportunities.
Intracellular trafficking and fate of chimeric adenovirus 5/F35 in human B lymphocytes

Investigation of the molecular processes that control the development and function of lymphocytes is essential for our understanding of humoral immunity, as well as lymphocyte‐associated pathogenesis. Adenovirus‐mediated gene transfer provides a powerful tool for investigating these processes. However, we observed variation in transgene expression among normal human peripheral blood B lymphocytes from different donors and at distinct stages of differentiation. It is recognized that efficient gene transfer is highly dependent on the intracellular route by which the viruses travel within the host cell. Thus, we aimed to examine this aspect in the present study.
Maxillary sinus floor elevation and grafting with deproteinized bovine bone mineral: a clinical and histomorphometric study.

OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the histomorphometric and clinical outcomes of maxillary sinus floor elevation using deproteinized bovine bone mineral (DBBM). MATERIAL AND METHODS Maxillary sinuses with a residual vertical height of <5 mm were augmented with DBBM alone before implant placement 9 months later. At the time of implant surgery, trephine samples were removed and histological and histomorphometric analyses were performed to examine the percentage of bone and residual graft using point counting and software-aided analysis. Patients were recalled for clinical and radiographic examination up to 3 years later. RESULTS Twenty-five patient specimens were analysed. The percentages of regenerated bone and residual graft material were 19% and 40%, respectively. Software-aided analysis was comparable to point counting. Twelve patients attended for clinical follow-up. Implants placed into this regenerated bone exhibited success and survival rates of 100% after an average follow-up of 3 years. The average vertical height gained was 7.9 mm. CONCLUSIONS The use of DBBM alone in maxillary sinus floor elevation is a predictable method to gain vertical bone height in the posterior maxilla.
Nanocarrier-mediated drugs targeting cancer stem cells: an emerging delivery approach

Introduction: Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in the development of drug resistance, metastasis and recurrence. Current conventional therapies do not commonly target CSCs. Nanocarrier-based delivery systems targeting cancer cells have entered a new era of treatment, where specific targeting to CSCs may offer superior outcomes to efficient cancer therapies. Areas covered: This review discusses the involvement of CSCs in tumor progression and relevant mechanisms associated with CSCs resistance to conventional chemo- and radio-therapies. It highlights CSCs-targeted strategies that are either under evaluation or could be explored in the near future, with a focus on various nanocarrier-based delivery systems of drugs and nucleic acids to CSCs. Novel nanocarriers targeting CSCs are presented in a cancer-specific way to provide a current perspective on anti-CSCs therapeutics. Expert opinion: The field of CSCs-targeted therapeutics is still emerging with a few small molecules and macromolecules currently proving efficacy in clinical trials. However considering the complexities of CSCs and existing delivery difficulties in conventional anticancer therapies, CSC-specific delivery systems would face tremendous technical and clinical challenges. Nanocarrier-based approaches have demonstrated significant potential in specific drug delivery and targeting; their success in CSCs-targeted drug delivery would not only significantly enhance anticancer treatment but also address current difficulties associated with cancer resistance, metastasis and recurrence.
Renal Diseases Associated with Preeclampsia in Postmenopausal Women

Preeclampsia is a disorder that occurs during pregnancy and is characterized by hypertension and proteinuria. Consequently there is an association of preeclampsia with renal disease. However, it remains unknown what association lies between preeclampsia and de novo renal diseases in postmenopausal women. Methods: The electronic medical record was searched between April 1995 and March 2011 for renal biopsied patients with postmenopause. Information during pregnancy was obtained using the maternal health record book, which is issued from the patients’ district health office for every pregnant woman. The kidney biopsy diagnoses of glomerular diseases were basically made in accordance with the criteria given in the World Health Organization monographs of kidney disease. Results: Of the 37 women in the preeclampsia group, there were 10 with nephrosclerosis and 8 with focal segmental glomerular sclerosis. In the non-preeclampsia group of 96, 11 had nephrosclerosis and 1 with focal glomerular sclerosis. On that basis, there were more of the 2 kidney disorders in the preeclampsia than the nonpreeclampsia group with significance (P<0.05 and P<0.01 respectively). However, the prevalence of IgA nephropathy was not different between the two groups (10 vs. 20). At the time of renal biopsy, there were no differences in the levels of blood pressure, urinary excretion of protein and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Conclusion: Renal diseases diagnosed after menopause are strongly influenced by a past history of preeclampsia. Further it cannot be denied that this might contribute to cardiovascular diseases in postmenopausal women.
Motivation for Protecting Selfish Vehicles' Location Privacy in Vehicular Networks

Location privacy is an important issue in vehicular networks since knowledge of a vehicle's location can result in leakage of sensitive information. A way to protect vehicles' location privacy is to have them change their pseudonyms in predetermined regions known as mix zones. However, selfish vehicles may not change their pseudonyms because of limited resources (such as pseudonyms and bandwidth). This could jeopardize the location privacy of those vehicles that are in need of changing their pseudonyms. To encourage vehicles to cooperate in changing their pseudonyms, we propose a method called Motivation for Protecting Selfish Vehicles' Location Privacy (MPSVLP). In MPSVLP, vehicles can form a mix zone dynamically when their pseudonyms are close to expiration and can also earn reputation “credit” by implementing a pseudonym change. The simulations show that MPSVLP motivates more selfish vehicles to cooperate with each other while maintaining a high level of location privacy. In addition, MPSVLP can reduce communication overhead in comparison with the existing methods.
Quantifying Statistical Interdependence, Part III: N > 2 Point Processes

Abstract Stochastic event synchrony (SES) is a recently proposed family of similarity measures. First, “events” are extracted from the given signals; next, one tries to align events across the different time series. The better the alignment, the more similar the N time series are considered to be. The similarity measures quantify the reliability of the events (the fraction of “nonaligned” events) and the timing precision. So far, SES has been developed for pairs of one-dimensional (Part I) and multidimensional (Part II) point processes. In this letter (Part III), SES is extended from pairs of signals to N > 2 signals. The alignment and SES parameters are again determined through statistical inference, more specifically, by alternating two steps: (1) estimating the SES parameters from a given alignment and (2), with the resulting estimates, refining the alignment. The SES parameters are computed by maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation (step 1), in analogy to the pairwise case. The alignment (step 2) is solved by linear integer programming. In order to test the robustness and reliability of the proposed N-variate SES method, it is first applied to synthetic data. We show that N-variate SES results in more reliable estimates than bivariate SES. Next N-variate SES is applied to two problems in neuroscience: to quantify the firing reliability of Morris-Lecar neurons and to detect anomalies in EEG synchrony of patients with mild cognitive impairment. Those problems were also considered in Parts I and II, respectively. In both cases, the N-variate SES approach yields a more detailed analysis.
Multiple dielectric structures to eliminate moding problems in conductor-backed coplanar waveguide MIC'

A conventional conductor-backed (grounded) coplanar waveguide (CBCPW) leaks energy from its dominant mode in the form of a parallel plate mode in the substrate region at all frequencies which can generate undesirable coupling effects and produce an ineffective circuit. A multiple dielectric structure with appropriate dimensions is used to suppress the leakage effects and the spectral domain method (SDM) predicts the critical frequency (transition point for leaky and nonleaky modes) for the waveguide. Experimental data verify this procedure and demonstrate the significance of the moding (leakage coupling) problems. <<ETX>>
Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in children with temporal lobe epilepsy

We performed proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the mesial temporal regions in 20 children with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy and compared results with those from 13 normal subjects. Abnormalities of the ratio of N‐acetylaspartate to choline plus creatine (NAAI[Cho+Cr]) were seen in 15 patients (75%). The ratio NAA/(Cho+Cr) was correctly lateralizing in 55% and incorrectly lateralizing in none. Bilateral abnormalities were seen in 45%. Overall there was a unilateral decrease in N‐acetylaspartate on the side ipsilateral to the seizure focus (mean 19% decrease vs normals, with 5% decrease on the contralateral side), suggesting neuronal loss or dysfunction. There was also a bilateral increase in creatine and choline (mean l8%), consistent with reactive astrocytosis. We conclude that proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy can contribute to lateralization of the seizure focus, and by detection of bilateral abnormalities, can contribute to the understanding of the underlying pathophysiology in temporal lobe epilepsy.
P2Y1 and P2Y13 purinergic receptors mediate Ca2+ signaling and proliferative responses in pulmonary artery vasa vasorum endothelial cells

Extracellular ATP and ADP exhibit potent angiogenic effects on pulmonary artery adventitial vasa vasorum endothelial cells (VVEC), however the mechanisms of nucleotide‐mediated angiogenesis remain not fully elucidated. This study was undertaken to delineate the purinergic receptor subtypes involved in extracellular nucleotide‐mediated Ca2+ signaling and mitogenic responses in VVEC. Stimulation of VVEC with ATP resulted in the elevation of intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) via Ca2+influx through plasma membrane channels as well as Ca2+ mobilization from intracellular stores; moreover, simultaneous Ca2+ responses were observed in both cytosolic and nuclear compartments. An increase in [Ca2+]i was observed in response to some P2, but not P1 purinergic receptor agonists. Using RT‐PCR, we identified mRNA for the P2Y1,2,4,13,14, P2X2,5,7 and A1,2b,3 purinergic receptors in VVEC. Preincubation of VVEC with P2Y1 selective antagonist, MRS2179 and P2Y13 selective antagonist, MRS2211, as well as with Pertussis toxin, attenuated at varying degrees, agonist‐induced intracellular Ca2+ responses and activation of ERK1/2, Akt and S6 ribosomal protein, indicating that P2Y1 and P2Y13 receptors play a predominant role in VVEC growth responses. Together, our findings suggest that P2Y1 and P2Y13 receptors may represent novel and specific targets for treatment of pathologic vascular remodeling involving vasa vasorum expansion.
Analysis of the formation of memory and place cells in the hippocampus

Ein weit verbreitetes Modell postuliert, dass Gedachtnisinhalte (reprasentiert als neuronale Aktivitatsmuster im entorhinalem Kortex) in der hippocampalen Subregion CA3 abgespeichert werden und dass diese Region als ein autoassociatives Netzwerk funktioniert. Seit Kurzem ist jedoch bekannt, dass viele Neurone im entorhinalem Kortex, die sogenannten Gitterzellen, in einer speziellen Weise feuern. Wir untersuchen ob das Modell auch Muster speichern kann, welche die Aktivitat von Gitterzellen wiederspiegeln und finden heraus, dass ein autoassociatives CA3 Netzwerk schadlich ist fur Gedachtnisbildung. Wir prasentieren stattdessen ein alternatives Modell, welches Muster effektiver speichern kann. Des Weiteren zeigen wir, dass in einem vorwartsgerichtetem Netzwerk realistische Ortszellen nicht allein aus Gitterzellen erzeugt werden konnen, sondern schlagen vielmehr vor, dass Ortszellen aus allen verschieden entorhinalen Zelltypen generiert werden.
Accepted for publication in : International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation ( IPIN ) , 2016 Image-based localization using Gaussian processes

Visual localization is the process of finding the location of a camera from the appearance of the images it captures. In this work, we propose an observation model that allows the use of images for particle filter localization. To achieve this, we exploit the capabilities of Gaussian Processes to calculate the likelihood of the observation for any given pose, in contrast to methods which restrict the camera to a graph or a set of discrete poses. We evaluate this framework using different visual features as input and test its performance against laser-based localization in an indoor dataset, showing that our method requires smaller particle filter sizes while having better initialization performance.
Effects of prior learning on mathematics performance at secondary level

This research study was triggered by the relatively low percentage of students who successfully study mathematics at the Higher School Certificate (HSC) level. While pass rate in mathematics averages 76% at primary level, it remains a concern that only around 42% of School Certificate (SC) students get a good grade (distinction or credit) in that subject. Causes are multifaceted but this study particularly sought to investigate the effects of prior learning achievement at the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) level on academic performance at secondary level in Mathematics. It analyzed the distribution of grades at SC and established a relationship with results obtained five years before by the same group of students. The trend was analyzed using data from the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate (MES) for three cohorts of CPE students. Compared to the number of students taking the CPE exams, it was found that only 18% of them studied the subject at HSC level. Grades at SC proved to be significantly influenced by CPE grades. Students consistently regressed in their mathematics learning over the five years of secondary schooling. This study unveils that to some extent mathematics disabilities can be diagnosed right at CPE level and confirms that prior knowledge has a determining effect on future learning achievement.
Identifying human trafficking in Norway: A register-based study of cases, outcomes and police practices

This article examines the identification of human trafficking crimes in Norway. By combining two different sources of police registry data that contain the total set of human trafficking cases reported to the Norwegian police between 2003 and 2013, the study examines the role of the police in the creation of human trafficking complaints, the characteristics of the complaints and their outcomes. Findings suggest that, despite a growing number of reported human trafficking complaints, the police seem to play a decreasing part in the identification of human trafficking crimes. The potential under-representation of police initiatives and its consequences for case outcomes is discussed in light of a theory of discretionary decision-making among police officials.
Flexible incomplete Cholesky factorization with multi‐parameters to control the number of nonzero elements in preconditioners

An incomplete Cholesky (IC) factorization with multi‐parameters is presented. The marked virtue of the proposed IC factorization algorithm is to dynamically control the number of nonzero elements in each column of the IC factorization preconditioner L with the help of these involved parameters. Parameter setting strategies are also given. Numerical results show that the total computing time for both computation of the preconditioner L and iterative solution is evidently reduced for almost all test matrices. In general, these parameters can obviously enhance the effectiveness and performance of the IC factorization. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.