Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Oxymatrine on the TGFbeta-Smad signaling pathway in rats with CCl4-induced hepatic fibrosis.

AIM To explore the anti-fibrotic effect of Oxymatrine on CCl4-induced liver fibrosis in rats and its modulation on the TGFbeta-Smad signaling pathway. METHODS One hundred healthy male SD rats were randomly divided into three groups: normal group (n = 20), treatment group of Oxymatrine (n = 40) and CCl4-induced fibrosis group (n = 40). Experimental hepatic fibrosis was induced by subcutaneous injection of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4 soluted in liquid paraffin with the concentration of 300 g/L, the dosage of injection was 3 mL/kg, twice per week for 8 wk). The treated rats received Oxymatrine via celiac injection at a dosage of 10 mg/kg twice a week at the same time. The deposition of collagen was observed with H&E and Masson staining. The concentration of serum TGF-beta1 was assayed with ELISA. The gene expression of Smads and CBP (CREB binding protein) was detected with in situ hybridization (ISH) and immunohistochemistry (IH), respectively. All the experimental figures were scanned and analyzed with special figure-analysis software. RESULTS A significant reduction of collagen deposition and rearrangement of the parenchyma was noted in the liver tissue of Oxymatrine-treated rats. The semiquantitative histological scores (2.43 +/- 0.47 microm2 vs 3.76 +/- 0.68 microm2, P < 0.05) and average area of collagen in those rats were significantly decreased when compared with hepatic cirrhosis model rats (94.41 +/- 37.26 microm2 vs 290.86 +/- 89.37 microm2, P < 0.05). The gene expression of Smad 3 mRNA was considerably decreased in the treated animals. The A value of Smad 3 mRNA was lower in the treated rats than the model rats (0.034 +/- 0.090 vs 0.167 +/- 0.092, P < 0.05). Contrarily, the A value of Smad 7 mRNA was increased considerably in the treated animals (0.175 +/- 0.065 vs 0.074 +/- 0.012, P < 0.05). There was an obvious decrease in the expression of CBP mRNA in treated rats as illuminated by a reduction of its A value when compared with model rats (0.065 +/- 0.049 vs 0.235 +/- 0.025, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Oxymatrine is effective in reducing the production and deposition of collagen in the liver tissue of experimental rats. Oxymatrine could promote the expression of Smad 7 and inhibit the expression of Smad 3 and CBP in CCl4-induced hepatic fibrosis in SD rats, could modulate the fibrogenic signal transduction of TGFbeta-Smad pathway.
Stability Theorems for Delay Differential Inclusions

This technical note addresses stability problems of delay differential inclusions. A chain rule is proposed for a wide class of Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals which are not necessarily invariantly differentiable. We also obtain an invariance-like theorem, where the derivative of the candidate functional is bounded above by a continuous negative semidefinite function. Several examples are given to show the effectiveness of the results.
Total and free thyroid hormone concentrations in the neonatal period.

Radioimmunoassay measurements of serum concentrations of thyroxine (T4), triiodothyronine (T3), free T4 (FT4), free T3 (FT3), and thyroxine binding globulin (TBG) were conducted in full-term newborn infants between birth and 5 days of age. The mean concentrations of T4 and FT4 increased from cord blood levels of 11.9 µg/100 ml and 2.9 ng/100 ml to peak values of 16.2 µg/100 ml and 7 ng/100 ml by 24 to 48 hours of age. Mean serum total and free T3 concentrations increased from cord blood levels of 50.5 ng/100 ml and 146 pg/100 ml to peak values of 419 ng/100 ml and 1,260 pg/100 ml by 24 hours of age. Mean T3/T4 and FT3/FT4 ratios increased from 1/238 to 1/39 and from 1/20 to 1/6, respectively, during this period. By 72 to 126 hours, both the T4 and T3 concentrations had fallen somewhat. Mean serum TBG concentrations were unchanged and approximated 5.0 mg/100 ml during the first 5 days of life. These data confirm earlier reports that the normal newborn infant rapidly becomes chemically hyperthyroid in the neonatal period due to increased thyroid hormone secretion; this neonatal hyperthyroid state is due more to T3 than to T4. The data also confirm earlier reports that the fetus is T3 deficient due to a decreased capacity to monodeiodinate T4 to T3 in extrathyroidal tissues. The rapid increase in serum T3 after delivery at a time when the capacity to convert T4 to T3 is reduced suggests that the increment in serum T3 is due, predominantly, to increased T3 secretion from the thyroid gland stimulated by the neonatal TSH surge. Thus with parturition, the newborn infant is transformed from a state of chemical T3 deficiency to a state of chemical T3 thyrotoxicosis.
Coenzyme Q(10) improves endothelial dysfunction of the brachial artery in Type II diabetes mellitus.

AIM/HYPOTHESIS We assessed whether dietary supplementation with coenzyme Q(10) improves endothelial function of the brachial artery in patients with Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus and dyslipidaemia. METHODS A total of 40 patients with Type II diabetes and dyslipidaemia were randomized to receive 200 mg of coenzyme Q(10) or placebo orally for 12 weeks. Endothelium-dependent and independent function of the brachial artery was measured as flow-mediated dilatation and glyceryl-trinitrate-mediated dilatation, respectively. A computerized system was used to quantitate vessel diameter changes before and after intervention. Arterial function was compared with 18 non-diabetic subjects. Oxidative stress was assessed by measuring plasma F(2)-isoprostane concentrations, and plasma antioxidant status by oxygen radical absorbance capacity. RESULTS The diabetic patients had impaired flow-mediated dilation [3.8 % (SEM 0.5) vs 6.4 % (SEM 1.0), p = 0.016], but preserved glyceryl-trinitrate-mediated dilation, of the brachial artery compared with non-diabetic subjects. Flow-mediated dilation of the brachial artery increased by 1.6 % (SEM 0.3) with coenzyme Q(10) and decreased by -0.4 % (SEM 0.5) with placebo (p = 0.005); there were no group differences in the changes in pre-stimulatory arterial diameter, post-ischaemic hyperaemia or glyceryl-trinitrate-mediated dilation response. Coenzyme Q(10) treatment resulted in a threefold increase in plasma coenzyme Q(10) (p < 0.001) but did not alter plasma F(2)-isoprostanes, oxygen radical absorbance capacity, lipid concentrations, glycaemic control or blood pressure. CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION Coenzyme Q(10) supplementation improves endothelial function of conduit arteries of the peripheral circulation in dyslipidaemic patients with Type II diabetes. The mechanism could involve increased endothelial release and/or activity of nitric oxide due to improvement in vascular oxidative stress, an effect that might not be reflected by changes in plasma F(2)-isoprostane concentrations.
Admission control for variable spreading gain CDMA wireless packet networks

A technique for variable spreading gain code-division multiple access (VSG-CDMA) with transmit power control has been proposed in I and Sabnani (1995) to provide integrated services in a wireless packet network. System capacities of VSG-CDMA networks with and without considering user activity factors were derived. The analysis gives a lower bound of system capacity because a user's transmitted power is considered part of the interference to its own signal. In this paper, we present an optimistic upper bound assuming that there is no multipath fading or the energy of a signal in all multipath components can be fully resolved. An optimum power vector assignment and a simple criterion for all users to simultaneously achieve their quality of service (QoS) requirements (in terms of bit energy-to-interference density ratios) are derived. We found from numerical examples that, compared with the lower bound given in I and Sabnani, significant improvement can be obtained if multipath fading can be satisfactorily handled. Several access control schemes are also studied to guarantee delay bound requirements. Simulation results reveal that more connections can be further accommodated with access control.
An Overview of Software-based Support Tools for ISO 26262

Safety in the automotive domain is becoming more and more important with the ever increasing level of complexity in emerging technologies built-in into the cars. As a stimulus for industry to refine its safety measures related to electrical, electronic and software systems in the cars, the ISO 26262 standard has been recently introduced. Developing safety-related systems according to this standard in an efficient and effective way requires adequate computer-aided support. For this reason, some initiatives towards software-based supporting tools for ISO 26262 were recently started. This paper gives an account of the main such initiatives after recalling the main features of the ISO 26262 standard. In particular, we briefly discuss how the main activities from ISO 26262 such as hazard analysis and risk assessment, functional safety concept, safety validation, etc can have a software support, and what is the state-of-the-art.
Explaining regional unemployment differences in Germany: a spatial panel data analysis

This paper analyzes determinants for regional differences in German unemployment rates. We specify a spatial panel model to avoid biased and inefficient estimates due to spatial dependence. Additionally, we control for temporal dynamics in the data. Our study covers the whole of Germany as well as East andWest Germany separately. We exploit district-level data on 24 possible explanatory variables for the period from 1999 until 2007. Our results suggest that the spatial dynamic panel model is the best model for this analysis. Furthermore, we find that German regional unemployment is of disequilibrium nature, which justifies political interventions.
Identifying Web Queries with Question Intent

Vertical selection is the task of predicting relevant verticals for a Web query so as to enrich the Web search results with complementary vertical results. We investigate a novel variant of this task, where the goal is to detect queries with a question intent. Specifically, we address queries for which the user would like an answer with a human touch. We call these CQA-intent queries, since answers to them are typically found in community question answering (CQA) sites. A typical approach in vertical selection is using a vertical's specific language model of relevant queries and computing the query-likelihood for each vertical as a selective criterion. This works quite well for many domains like Shopping, Local and Travel. Yet, we claim that queries with CQA intent are harder to distinguish by modeling content alone, since they cover many different topics. We propose to also take the structure of queries into consideration, reasoning that queries with question intent have quite a different structure than other queries. We present a supervised classification scheme, random forest over word-clusters for variable length texts, which can model the query structure. Our experiments show that it substantially improves classification performance in the CQA-intent selection task compared to content-oriented based classification, especially as query length grows.
Public sector managed care: a comparative evaluation of substance abuse treatment in three counties.

AIMS A study of publicly funded substance abuse treatment systems compared MidState, a county that reorganized its treatment system using managed care principles, to two other California counties that took different approaches, NorthState and SouthState. It was hypothesized that MidState would have better outcomes due to its emphasis on quality of care. DESIGN This natural experiment compared the 'experimental' county, MidState, to two 'control' counties, assessing client outcomes following treatment. Administrative and historical exigencies that may affect system differences were explored in interviews with treatment program managers and staff. SETTINGS Comparison counties were selected using treatment system and county census data, maximizing similarities to enhance internal validity. PARTICIPANTS Adult clients (n = 681) were interviewed when beginning treatment and 12 months later (81% response rate). In addition, 50 treatment program managers and staff members across the three counties were interviewed during the year of client recruitment. MEASUREMENTS Client interviews assessed functioning in the seven Addiction Severity Index domains-alcohol, drug, psychiatric, legal, employment, medical and family/social. FINDINGS Outcomes (differences between baseline and 12 month composite scores) did not differ between counties in six of seven domains; in the seventh, psychiatric functioning, SouthState had better outcomes than MidState. Staff interviews indicated generally similar treatment strategies across counties, with MidState supplying greater oversight and performance standards. CONCLUSIONS Managed care in public sector treatment generally did not result in poorer outcomes. Future attention in MidState to the barriers to successful implementation of individualized treatment, and to dual diagnosis treatment, might bring more positive results.
A century of the mechanics of breathing.

When the twentieth century began, a substantial amount was already known about the mechanics of breathing, and the respiratory muscles. The chest wall had been modeled as a bellows with a bladder inside representing the lung. It was known that the respiratory system was elastic and stored energy on inflation that did the work of expiration. Measurements of transpulmonary pressure had been made and there had been attempts to correlate these with lung volume (1). However, a century ago we had no framework in which to view measurements. Without a model of how the system behaves, measurements of respiratory mechanics are uninterpretable. In addition, we lacked technology to make measurements. In the past 100 years this has changed: modeling has provided great insights into the system’s behavior and technological advances have permitted measurements that previously were impossible. Sometimes, however, advances are made without new models and new technology because scientists view problems from new perspectives. Such appears to be the case with surface tension, which I discuss separately. This review is not comprehensive, but focuses on the role of models and technology in the development of new knowledge in the field and on discoveries related to surface tension. Only a limited number of topics are discussed. I apologize to those whose work should be included, but that I fail to discuss. MODELING Lung Models
Effect of pH on activities of novel beta-lactamases and beta-lactamase inhibitors against these beta-lactamases

The effects of acidic conditions on activities of seven beta-lactamases--TEM-1 (class A), KOXY (class A), IMP-1 (class B), AmpC (class C), MOX-1 (class C), OXA-5 (class D), and PSE-2 (class D)--and their inhibitors were measured. The enzymatic activities of KOXY, IMP-1, and MOX-1 at pH 5.8 were slightly lower than those at pH 7.5. However, the activities of PSE-2 and OXA-5 were greatly reduced at pH 5.8. All of the beta-lactamase inhibitors tested had poorer inhibitory activities at pH 5.8 than at pH 7.5 except clavulanic acid for TEM-1.
Do Demographic Factors Influence Uveitis Patients’ Understanding of Uveitis?

ABSTRACT Purpose: To establish how much uveitis patients know about their own condition and to investigate the contribution of demographic factors to that knowledge. Methods: A self-designed questionnaire, comprising 20 questions about uveitis, was distributed to 200 consecutive patients attending a uveitis clinic. The questionnaire requested demographic details and required responses to uveitis-specific knowledge questions. Postcode was used to determine level of social deprivation using Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007. Univariate analyses with the Mann–Whitney test and Kruskal–Wallis test were utilized. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to simultaneously measure the independent influence of demographic variables on the level of patients’ understanding of their condition. Results: Of the respondents, 62% were female, 71% aged >40 years and 67% of white ethnic origin, with 41% having been under the care of a uveitis specialist for >10 years and 72% attending ≥3 clinic appointments in the preceding 12 months. Median questionnaire score (out of 60) was 27 (interquartile range, IQR 15). Females scored significantly higher than males (30 vs 24; p = 0.001), but there was no difference according to age, ethnicity, or social deprivation quintile, nor the duration patients had been under ophthalmic review or number of clinic attendances in the preceding 12 months. Multivariable analyses determined no independent influence of any of the factors on the uveitis questionnaire score. Conclusions: Uveitis patients’ understanding of their condition is poor. This has relevance for adherence to treatment, follow-up clinic attendance, and eventual outcomes in these patients.
The Lorenz Transform approach to the Optimal Repair-Cost limit remplacement Policy with Imperfect Repair

In this paper, we consider a repair-cost limit replacement problem with imperfect repair and develop a graphical method to de- termine the optimal repair-cost limit which minimizes the expected cost per unit time in the steady-state, using the Lorenz transform of the un- derlying repair-cost distribution function. The method proposed can be applied to an estimation problem of the optimal repair-cost limit from empirical repair-cost data. Numerical examples are devoted to examine asymptotic properties of the non-parametric estimator for the optimal repair-cost limit.
A Saccharomyces cerevisiae Gene Required for Heterologous Fatty Acid Elongase Activity Encodes a Microsomal β-Keto-reductase*

A number of Saccharomyces cerevisiaemembrane-bound oxidoreductases were examined for potential roles in microsomal fatty acid elongation, by assaying heterologous elongating activities in individual deletion mutants. One yeast gene, YBR159w, was identified as being required for activity of both theCaenorhabditis elegans elongase PEA1 (F56H11.4) and theArabidopsis thaliana elongase FAE1. Ybr159p shows some limited homology to human steroid dehydrogenases and is a member of the short-chain alcohol dehydrogenase superfamily. Disruption of YBR159w is not lethal, in contrast to previous reports, although the mutants are slow growing and display high temperature sensitivity. Both Ybr159p and an Arabidopsis homologue were shown to restore heterologous elongase activities when expressed in ybr159Δ mutants. Biochemical characterization of microsomal preparations fromybr159Δ cells revealed a primary perturbation in β-ketoacyl reduction, confirming the assignment of YBR159w as encoding a component of the microsomal elongase.
Optimal Induction of Hepatitis C Virus Envelope-Specific Immunity by Bicistronic Plasmid DNA Inoculation with the Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor Gene

ABSTRACT In this study, we have constructed various DNA vaccine vectors that carried hepatitis C virus (HCV) envelope genes without and with the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) gene in several different ways. In Buffalo rats that received plasmids carrying the HCV envelope genes, which encode envelope proteins E1 and E2, both antibody and lymphoproliferative responses against these proteins were induced. These responses were greatly enhanced by the codelivery of the GM-CSF gene. In particular, inoculation with a bicistronic plasmid that independently expressed the GM-CSF gene and the envelope genes in the same construct generated the highest antibody titers and significantly increased lymphoproliferative responses against these proteins. Moreover, strong antibody responses to homologous and heterologous hypervariable region 1 peptides were elicited in the immunized rats.
Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) experiences: an underestimated factor in perinatal care

Background. Childhood sexual abuse can have several negative consequences on pregnancy, birth, and the early neonatal period. However, most obstetricians are not aware if their patients have a history of childhood sexual abuse. We therefore investigated childhood sexual abuse experiences in 226 women three to eight months after delivery of a healthy child. Methods. 415 women were approached to answer a self‐administered questionnaire including obstetrical questions and questions focusing on abuse experiences. 320 women agreed to participate, 226 (69.1% of the women fulfilling inclusion criteria) of which returned a completed questionnaire. Sexual abuse was explored using a modified version of a questionnaire developed by Wyatt. The complete questionnaire was designed in cooperation with the German “Frauennotruf”, a society providing care for victims of sexual abuse. Results. The prevalence of childhood sexual abuse was a minimum of 11.5% and a maximum of 14.6% if women who were not sure about such experiences during their childhood were included. Another 1.3% of the women had experienced sexual abuse as an adult. Lifetime sexual abuse prevalence was 12.8% and 15.9%, respectively. Of the women with an experience of childhood sexual abuse, 42.3% mentioned an ongoing abuse situation for at least six months. Conclusions. As approximately every 9th woman presenting for obstetrical care has experienced childhood sexual abuse, and as those experiences may have a negative impact on fetal and maternal well‐being, adequate counseling models should be offered to victims of sexual abuse.
Containment of Higher-Order Multi-Leader Multi-Agent Systems: A Dynamic Output Approach

This technical note addresses the distributed containment control problem for a linear multi-leader multi-agent system with a directed communication topology. A new class of distributed observer-type containment protocols based only on the relative output measurements of the neighboring agents is proposed, removing the impractical assumption in some of the existing approaches that the observers embedded in the multiple dynamic agents have to share information with their neighbors. Under the mild assumption that, for each follower, there exists at least one leader having a directed path to that follower, some sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee the states of the followers to asymptotically converge to a convex hull formed by those of the dynamic leaders. Finally, some numerical simulations on containment of a multi-vehicle system are given to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
Immunogenic and Antigenic Epitopes of Immunoglobulins Binding of Human Monoclonal Anti‐D Antibodies to FcRI on the Monocyte‐Like U937 Cell Line

Abstract. Seventeen human monoclonal IgGl‐ or IgG3 anti‐D‐secreting clones have been examined for their ability to sensitise O+ red cells for Fc‐receptor‐mediated rosette formation with U937 cells. IgG3 but not IgGl anti‐D antibodies were able to mediate stable rosette formation with unstimulated U937 cells via interaction with the FcRI receptor. Decreasing FcRI density by incubating U937 cells with di‐butyryl cAMP almost completely abolished rosette formation, whilst increasing FcRI density by incubating U937 cells with interferon‐γ increased the percentage of cells forming rosettes with IgG3‐ and IgGl‐sensitised red cells. These data suggest that rosette formation between IgG anti‐D‐sensitised red cells and FcRI‐expressing cells is dependent upon the density of IgG3 on the red cell surface, the density of FcRI on the effector cell, multiple FcRI/IgG interactions are required for stable rosette formation and that more FcRI/IgGl than FcRI/IgG3 interactions are required.