Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of treatment with praziquantel, silymarin and/or β-glucan on pathophysiological markers of liver damage and fibrosis in mice infected with Mesocestoides vogae (Cestoda) tetrathyridia

Abstract Mesocestoides vogae tetrathyridia infection in mice causes hepatocyte injury, hepatic granulomatous inflammmation, liver fibrosis and chronic peritonitis manifested with portal hypertension. To reduce the detrimental effect of parasites on the host liver, the effect of the anthelmintic drug praziquantel (PZQ) in combination with natural products silymarin (an antioxidant) and β-glucan (an immunomodulator) was investigated. The therapeutic effect of drugs was assessed by means of aminotransferase (alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)) activities, content of albumin, total proteins and hyaluronic acid (HA) in sera of ICR mice infected with M. vogae larvae. Animals were treated with PZQ suspended in oil emulsion (Group 1), PZQ combined with silymarin incorporated into lipid microspheres (LMS) (Group 2), PZQ combined with β-glucan incorporated into liposomes (LG) (Group 3), PZQ co-administered with LMS and LG (Group 4). Untreated animals (Group 5) served as the control. Treatment of animals started at the early chronic phase of infection (day 14 p.i.) and lasted 10 days; serum samples were collected on days 0, 7, 14, 25, 28, 31, 35 and 45 p.i. ALT and AST activities were significantly (P < 0.05) decreased in Groups 2, 3 and 4. HA content was significantly (P < 0.05 and 0.01) lower in Groups 2 and 4. Albumin levels were decreased in Groups 2 and 4, total protein concentration decreased in Groups 1 and 3 (P < 0.05 and 0.01). These results showed that combined treatment of PZQ with silymarin and/or β-glucan was able to ameliorate or suppress fibrogenesis in the liver, protect liver cells from oxidative damage and, possibly, stimulate regeneration of the parenchyma.
The role of DNA damage and caspase activation in cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of macrophages induced by bisphenol-A-glycidyldimethacrylate.

AIM To evaluate the potential toxicological implications of BisGMA on murine macrophage cell line RAW264.7. METHODOLOGY Lactate dehydrogenase release, flow cytometry, Western blot and fluorometric assays were used to detect cell viability, mode of cell death and caspase activities, respectively. In addition, alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis and cytokinesis-block micronucleus assays were applied to detect genotoxicity. Statistical analyses were performed using anova followed by the Bonferroni's t-test for multi-group comparisons test. RESULTS BisGMA demonstrated a cytotoxic effect on RAW264.7 cells in a dose-dependent and a time-dependent manner (P < 0.05). BisGMA was found to induce two modes of cell death. The mode of cell death changed from apoptosis to necrosis as the concentrations of BisGMA elevated. Caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9 activities were significantly induced by BisGMA in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). Moreover, BisGMA exhibited genotoxicity via a dose-related increase in the numbers of micronucleus and DNA strand breaks (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity induced by BisGMA are mediated by DNA damage and caspase activation.
Clinical Characteristics , and Management of Acute Hydrocarbons Poisoning at Benha Poisoning Control Unit : A One-Year Prospective Clinical Study

Hydrocarbons poisoning is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing countries. The aim of this work is to investigate the pattern and management of acute hydrocarbons poisoning at Benha Poisoning Control Unit, Benha University Hospitals, Egypt, from 1 st February 2013 to 31 th January 2014. Of the total 72 hydrocarbons exposures, kerosene consititued the majority (66.7%), followed by gasoline (27.8%) and thinner (5.5%). Males represented 56.9% and females 43.1% of cases, 76.4% were below age of five, and 63.9% came from rural areas. Accidental manner predominate (93.1%), the majority (84.7%) was home exposures, and during summer months (37.5%). All patients were exposed orally; combined dermal exposure occurred in 44.4% of them. Commonly observed symptoms were cough (72.2%), dyspnea (50%), wheezy chest (40.3%), respiratory distress (12.5%), vomiting (45.8%) drowsiness (36.1%), agitation (11.1%), convulsion (2.8%), and fever (26.4%). According to the poisoning severity score, 13.9% were asymptomatic, 61.1% were minor, 16.7% were moderate and 8.3% were severe, with no fatal cases. There was a significant relation between vomiting and clinical severity and pneumonia. Radiological findings of pulmonary pathology occurred in 70.8%; increased broncho-vascular markings were the most common (51.2%), followed by pneumonia (19.4%). No specific treatment was used; supplemental oxygen in 86.1% of patients, and only 5.6% were put on mechanical ventilation. In conclusion, acute hydrocarbons poisoning is a prevalent household accidental toxic hazard among rural male children <5years old. Patients must be monitored both clinically and radiologically to recognize potential pulmonary complications, and symptomatic treatment is effective.
The taxane limbo: how low can we go?

JNCI | Editorials 761 The taxanes are among the most active classes of cytotoxic agents for the treatment of breast cancer and other solid tumors. They have a molecular target (the microtubule), a mechanism of action (enhanced microtubule stability), and reasonably consistent efficacy in metastatic breast cancer ( 1 – 3 ). After extensive testing in the metastatic setting, we routinely use three drugs, numerous combinations, and several standard dose and schedule alternatives. Paclitaxel administered intravenously at a dose of 175 mg/m 2 for 3 hours every third week emerged, fi rst, from phase 3 trials in the metastatic setting and was tested as an add-on to standard four-cycle doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (AC) in the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9344 and National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) B-28 trials with positive results ( 4 , 5 ). These trials were criticized for failure to use a “best” anthracycline regimen and uneven treatment duration across the arms (ie, four vs eight treatment cycles) ( 6 ). Subsequent trials that controlled the number of treatment cycles demonstrated that docetaxel given in place of 5-fl uorouracil as part of a concurrent combination with AC or in place of several cycles of fl uorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FEC) was superior; since then, a number of trials have been reported with mostly positive results regardless of anthracycline comparator, taxane choice, dose, or schedule ( 7 , 8 ). A recent meta-analysis of the published studies reported relatively constant risk reductions for both recurrence and death across the two tested taxanes ( 9 ). Despite these seemingly consistent data, controversy continues. With the goal of maximizing benefi t, we ask is there a best taxane and/or a best schedule? And with a goal of limiting toxicity, we ask The Taxane Limbo: How Low Can We Go?
Predicting the Secondary Structure Common to Two RNA Sequences with Dynalign

Dynalign is a dynamic programming algorithm for the simultaneous prediction of the lowest‐free‐energy secondary structure common to two RNA sequences and the alignment of the two sequences. It has been shown that the average accuracy of secondary structure prediction is improved using Dynalign, as compared to free‐energy minimization of a single sequence. This unit provides protocols for using Dynalign on a Microsoft Windows platform as part of the RNAstructure package, and for compiling and using Dynalign on Unix/Linux computers.
Running Head : Participation of older people in learning activities Learning in later life : Participation in formal , nof rmal and informal activities in a nationally representative Spanish sample

This article examines the participation of Spanish older people in formal, non-formal and informal learning activities and presents a pro file f participants in each kind of learning activity. Method: We used data from a nationally re presentative sample of Spanish people between 60 and 75 years old (n = 4703). The data we re extracted from the 2007 Encuesta sobre la Participación de la Población Adulta en Ac tividades de Aprendizaje (EADA, Survey on Adult Population Involvement in Learning Activit es). Overall, only 22.8% of the sample participated in a learning activity. However, there was wide variation in the participation rates for the different types of activity. Informal activities were far more common than formal ones. Multivariate logistic regression indicated th at education level and involvement in social and cultural activities were associated with likeli hood of participating, regardless of the type of learning activity. When these variables were tak en into account, age did not predict decreasing participation, at least in non-formal an d informal activities. Implications for further research, future trends and policies to pro mote older adult education are discussed.
Competitive interaction between phosphate and citrate on goethite.

Interaction between various species in natural systems may affect the adsorption of these species and thereby their mobility and bioavailability. Recently an ion adsorption model has been developed, based on the surface structure of metal (hydr)oxides and the structure of surface complexes identified by spectroscopy. This model has been applied to the adsorption of phosphate and weak organic acids on goethite in single anion systems. We studied the interaction between phosphate and citrate on goethite, which is important for a better understanding of the competi tive binding of phosphate and organic matter in natural systems. Citrate adsorption in the presence of phosphate decreased strongly over a wide pH range, whereas phosphate adsorption was only affected at pH values below 7, with the largest interaction around pH 5. Competition for binding sites appeared to be an important factor in determining the competitive adsorption of phosphate and citrate when taking into account that a larger number of surfa.
Upregulation of proinflammatory and proangiogenic cytokines by leptin in human hepatic stellate cells

Leptin upregulates collagen expression in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), but the possible modulation of other actions has not been elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and function of leptin receptors (ObR) in human HSCs and the biological actions regulated by leptin. Exposure of HSCs to leptin resulted in upregulation of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP‐1) expression. Leptin also increased gene expression of the proangiogenic cytokines vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin‐1, and VEGF was also upregulated at the protein level. Activated HSCs express ObRb and possibly other ObR isoforms. Exposure to leptin increased the tyrosine kinase activity of ObR immunoprecipitates and resulted in activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3. Several signaling pathways were activated by leptin in HSCs, including extracellular‐signal–regulated kinase, Akt, and nuclear factor κB, the latter being relevant for chemokine expression. Leptin also increased the abundance of hypoxia‐inducible factor 1α, which regulates angiogenic gene expression, in an extracellular‐signal–regulated kinase– and phoshatidylinositol 3‐kinase–dependent fashion. In vivo, leptin administration induced higher MCP‐1 expression and more severe inflammation in mice after acute liver injury. Conversely, in leptin‐deficient mice, the increase in MCP‐1 messenger RNA and mononuclear infiltration was less marked than in wild‐type littermates. Finally, ObR expression colocalized with VEGF and α‐smooth muscle actin after induction of fibrosis in rats. In conclusion, ObR activation in HSCs leads to increased expression of proinflammatory and proangiogenic cytokines, indicating a complex role for leptin in the regulation of the liver wound‐healing response. (HEPATOLOGY 2005;42:1339–1348.)
Coalescent theory for a Monoecious Random Mating Population with a Varying Size

Consider a monoecious diploid population with nonoverlapping generations, whose size varies with time according to an irreducible, aperiodic Markov chain with states x 1 N,…,x K N, where K ≪ N. It is assumed that all matings except for selfing are possible and equally probable. At time 0 a random sample of n ≪ N genes is taken. Given two successive population sizes x j N and x i N, the numbers of gametes that individual parents contribute to offspring can be shown to be exchangeable random variables distributed as G ij . Under minimal conditions on the first three moments of G ij for all i and j, a suitable effective population size N e is derived. Then if time is recorded in a backward direction in units of 2N e generations, it can be shown that coalescent theory holds.
Omorfi — Free and open source morphological lexical database for Finnish

This demonstration presents a freely available open source lexical database omorfi. Omorfi is a mature lexicographical database project, started out as a single-person single-purpose free open source morphological analyser project, omorfi has since grown to be used in variety of applications including spell-checking, statistical and rule-based machine translation, treebanking, joint syntactic and morphological parsing, poetry generation, information extraction. In this demonstration we hope to show both the variety of end-user facing applications as well as the tools and interfaces for computational linguists to make the best use of a developing product. We show a shallow database arrangement that has allowed a great variety of contributors from different projects to extend the lexical database while not breaking the continued use of existing end-applications. We hope to show both the best current practices for lexical data management and software engineering with regards to continuous external project integration of a constantly developing product. As case examples we show some of the integrations with following applications: Voikko spell-checking for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Android, statistical machine translation pipelines with moses, rule-based machine translation with apertium and traditional xerox style morphological analysis and generation. morphological segmentation, as well as application programming interfaces for python and Java.
Design of parity preserving reversible sequential circuits

Irreversible computing requires consumption of energy to obtain missing bits due to overlapped mapping between input and output vectors. For this reason, reversible computing has become one of the most significant computing processes for the forthcoming computing technology as they dissipate very low power. Therefore, a major research objective in this field is the synthesis of different types of reversible latches and flip flops. A parity preserving reversible new gate is proposed in this paper. A modification of existing Peres gate is also proposed. Using the proposed gates, the conventional flip flops - RS flip flop, JK flip flop, D flip flop and T flip flop are designed. Therefore, the proposed designs are fault tolerant. The master-slave JK flip flop and master-slave D flip flop are also designed using the proposed gates. The proposed circuit designs are superior to the existing designs in terms of number of gates, garbage outputs and quantum costs.
Variance in the resistance of murine early bone marrow B cells to a deficiency in zinc

Little is known of the effects of nutritional deficiencies on lymphopoietic processes. Nevertheless, deficiencies in zinc adversely affect imm_une function causing thymic atrophy and lymphopenia in both humans and animals. Previous studies of the effects of zinc deficiency (ZD) on lymphopoiesis in adult mice indicated that a suboptimal intake of zinc caused a 50% or more depletion of the marrow of developing B cells. Thus, interference in the production of lymphocytes by ZD appeared to be a significant factor in the loss of host defence capacity. In the current study three‐colour imm_unofluorescence phenotyping of early bone marrow B lymphocytes (B220+ imm_unoglobulin−) using flow cytometry demonstrated that a 27‐day period of ZD caused a 50–70% decline in pre‐B cells (B220+ CD43− imm_unoglobulin M (IgM)−) for moderate and severely zinc‐deficient mice, respectively. Conversely, early pro‐B cells (B220+ CD43+ 6C3−) and late pro‐B cells (B220+ CD43+ 6C3+) exhibited little or no change in their distribution within the marrow. Indeed, the greater resistance of pro‐B cells resulted in a 50% increase in the proportion of this subset within the B‐cell compartment of the marrow as the deficiency in zinc advanced. Collectively, the data indicate that the B‐cell compartment of the marrow is substantially altered by ZD and the stage specific sensitivity noted among early B cells may be related to chronically elevated levels of glucocorticoids present during ZD or other parameters that affect their survival and resistance to apoptosis.
Do Imports and Foreign Capital Inflows Lead Economic Growth? Cointegration and Causality Analysis in Pakistan

The article investigates the impacts of imports and foreign capital inflows on economic growth of Pakistan over the period 1990 to 2010. We have applied the structural break autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration to examine the long-run relationship between the variables. The vector error correction model (VECM) Granger causality multivariate framework is used to investigate the causal relationship between the series. Empirical analysis in this article confirms the long-run relationship between foreign capital inflows, imports and economic growth. The results indicate that foreign capital inflows and imports have positive and significant effect on economic growth in case of Pakistan. Causality analysis reveals the bidirectional causality between the variables, but strong causal relation is running from foreign capital inflows and imports to economic growth.
Australian Seismological Reference Model (AuSREM): mantle component

B. L. N. Kennett,1 A. Fichtner,2 S. Fishwick3 and K. Yoshizawa4 1Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia. E-mail: Brian.Kennett@anu.edu. au 2Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD, Utrecht, The Netherlands 3Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK 4Earth and Planetary Dynamics, Department of Natural History Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University, N10W8 Kita-ku, Sapporo 060810, Japan
Chondral Delamination of the Knee in Soccer Players

This study reports on the diagnosis and treatment of chondral delamination in the knees of soccer players. The authors attempted to provide a clinical standard for comparison with emerging cartilage repair techniques. Twenty-three consecutive chondral fractures in a ho mogeneous population of athletes were evaluated us ing physical examination, magnetic resonance imag ing, and arthroscopic examination. All knees were treated with debridement to a stable border and re moval of the calcified cartilage base. Results were graded using the scoring system advocated by propo nents of chondral transplant. All patients reported pain that limited soccer activities. Effusions occurred in 48%, joint line tenderness in 33%, and crepitus in 19% of the knees. Results from magnetic resonance imag ing correlated with arthroscopic examination in 21 % of the knees. Arthroscopic examinations revealed lesions on the medial femoral condyle in eight patients, the patella in six, the lateral femoral condyle in six, and the trochlea in three. Athletes returned to play at an aver age of 10.8 weeks. Repeat arthroscopic procedures in eight cases revealed fibrocartilage at the initial site. There were 6 excellent, 9 good, 0 fair, and 0 poor results at their 1-year followup examinations (15 knees). The definitive diagnosis of chondral delamina tion relies on a thorough arthroscopic probing of the articular surface. The early functional results of this treatment compare favorably with the autologous transplantation technique. Caution, however, is recom mended when treating articular cartilage injuries be cause no long-term data exists on whether any treat ment modality can prevent the development of degenerative joint disease.
Music and Psychophysiological Recovery from Stress

Objective This experimental study examined whether listening to self-chosen music after stress exposure improves mood, decreases subjective arousal and rumination, and facilitates cardiovascular recovery. Method Participants (N = 123) were exposed to a mental arithmetic task with harassment to induce stress. Afterward, participants were randomly assigned to one of four “recovery” conditions where they (1) listened to self-chosen relaxing music, (2) listened to self-chosen happy music, (3) listened to an audio book, or (4) sat in silence. After this 5-minute “recovery manipulation period,” participants sat in silence for another 5 minutes. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate were continuously measured. Results The recovery conditions caused differences in positive affect (F(3,119) = 13.13, p < . 001) and negative affect (F(3,119) = 2.69, p = . 049). As expected, mood improved while listening to either relaxing music or happy music. The conditions showed no differences in subjective arousal (F(3,117) = 2.03, p = . 11) and rumination (F(3,119) = 1.10, p = . 35). Systolic blood pressure recovery, however, differed between the conditions (linear time trend: F(3,116) = 4.50, p = . 005; quadratic time trend: F(3,115) = 5.24, p = . 002). Listening to both relaxing and happy music delayed systolic blood pressure recovery when compared with both control conditions. Conclusions Listening to self-selected music is an effective mood enhancer, but it delays blood pressure recovery.
Stabilizing linear time-invariant systems with finite-state hybrid static output feedback

For linear time-invariant (LTI) systems which are not stabilizable by single state feedback or single static output feedback, we consider a hybrid control strategy composed of a finite set of static output feedback controllers and a switching law so that the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable when the controllers are switched under the switching law. Multiple Lyapunov functions and piecewise observers are used to determine the switching law, and a sufficient condition is derived for the existence and the computation of Lyapunov functions and static output feedback gains.