Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pharmacokinetics of Antiretroviral Drugs in Anatomical Sanctuary Sites: The Male and Female Genital Tract

HIV resides within anatomical ‘sanctuary sites’, where local drug exposure and viral dynamics may differ significantly from the systemic compartment. Suboptimal anti-retroviral concentrations in the genital tract may result in compartmentalized viral replication, selection of resistant mutations and possible re-entry of wild-type/resistant virus into the systemic circulation. Therefore, achieving adequate antiretroviral exposure in the genital tract has implications for the prevention of sexual and vertical transmission of HIV. Penetration of antiretrovirals in the genital tract is expressed by accumulation ratios derived from the measurement of drug concentrations in time-matched seminal plasma/cervicovaginal fluid and plasma samples. Penetration varies by gender and may be drug (as opposed to class) specific with high interindividual variability. Concentrations in seminal plasma are highest for nucleoside analogues and lowest for protease inhibitors and efavirenz. Seminal accumulation of newer agents, raltegravir and maraviroc, is moderate (rank order of accumulation is nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors [lamivudine/zidovudine/tenofovir/didanosine > stavudine/abacavir] > raltegravir > indinavir/maraviroc/nevirapine >> efavirenz/protease inhibitors [amprenavir/atazanavir/darunavir > lopinavir/ritonavir > saquinavir] > enfuvirtide). In the female genital tract, the nucleoside analogues exhibit high accumulation ratios, whereas protease inhibitors have limited penetration; however, substantial variability exists between individuals and study centres. Second generation non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor etravirine, and maraviroc and raltegravir, demonstrate effective accumulation in cervicovaginal secretions (rank order of accumulation is nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor [zidovudine/lamivudine/didanosine > emtricitabine/tenofovir] > indinavir > maraviroc/raltegravir/darunavir/etravirine > nevirapine/abacavir > protease inhibitors [amprenavir/atazanavir/ritonavir] > lopinavir/stavudine/efavirenz > saquinavir).
Stress and Negative Relationship Quality among Older Couples: Implications for Blood Pressure.

OBJECTIVES The cardiovascular system may represent a significant pathway by which marriage and stress influence health, but research has focused on married individuals cross-sectionally. This study examined associations among chronic stress, negative spousal relationship quality, and systolic blood pressure over time among middle-aged and older husbands and wives. METHOD Participants were from the nationally representative longitudinal Health and Retirement Study. A total of 1,356 (N = 2,712) married and cohabitating couples completed psychosocial and biomeasure assessments in waves 2006 and 2010. Analyses examined whether Wave 1 (2006) relationship quality and stress were associated with changes in blood pressure over time. RESULTS The effects of stress and negative relationship quality were dyadic and varied by gender. Husbands had increased blood pressure when wives reported greater stress, and this link was exacerbated by negative spousal relationship quality. Negative relationship quality predicted increased blood pressure when both members of the couple reported negative quality relations. DISCUSSION Findings support the dyadic biopsychosocial model of marriage and health indicating: (a) stress and relationship quality directly effect the cardiovascular system, (b) relationship quality moderates the effect of stress, and (c) the dyad rather than only the individual should be considered when examining marriage and health.
Comparison of Sedative Effect of Fentanil and Remifentanil during Phacoemulsification with Local Anesthesia

Nowadays, Phacoemulsification surgery is mostly carried out under local anesthesia. In this type of anesthesia the patient needs to be sedated. Because of painful intracameral injection, an Intravenus (IV) analgesia is also required using bolus dose of Fentanil or Remifentanil. Our main purpose was the comparison of the sedative effects of 2 models of Intravenous local analgesia during Phacoemulsification in cataractus patients. Moreover , to investigate the patient, surgeon satisfaction and complication rate in two groups. Material and methods: This Clinical Trial study was carried out on 64 patients with cataract who underwent phacoemulsification surgery in Baqiyatallah hospital in second half of year 2013. Patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Physical Status classification system ; ASA class I & II were chosen and randomly divided into two groups. The level of sedation was assessed using the Ramsay sedation(RS) scale. Moreover , along with sedative effect, patient, surgeon satisfaction ,Vital signs, rate of pain and complication rate were recorded and compared in two groups. Results: Thirty six patients were in Fentanil group with mean age of 64.71± 8.21 years and 28 in Remifentanil group with mean age of 65.2 ± 12.43. RS in Fentanil group was significantly higher than Remifentanil group (2.02±1.08 versus 1.42±1.19, p<.05). Rate of satisfaction of patients and surgeons was significantly higher in Fentanil group in comparison with Remifentanil group (p<.05). Side effects in Fentanil group was also significantly less than Remifentanil (p<.05). There was no significant difference in vital signs of patients in two groups neither before surgery nor after that. Conclusion: Results of this study show that, Fentanil has fewer side effects, more sedation effect and more patient and surgeon satisfaction in comparison with Remifentanil. The administration of fentanil appears to be a better choice as an analgesic with local anesthesia in cataract surgery
A Semiparametrically Efficient Estimator of the Time‐Varying Effects for Survival Data with Time‐Dependent Treatment

The timing of a time‐dependent treatment—for example, when to perform a kidney transplantation—is an important factor for evaluating treatment efficacy. A naïve comparison between the treated and untreated groups, while ignoring the timing of treatment, typically yields biased results that might favour the treated group because only patients who survive long enough will get treated. On the other hand, studying the effect of a time‐dependent treatment is often complex, as it involves modelling treatment history and accounting for the possible time‐varying nature of the treatment effect. We propose a varying‐coefficient Cox model that investigates the efficacy of a time‐dependent treatment by utilizing a global partial likelihood, which renders appealing statistical properties, including consistency, asymptotic normality and semiparametric efficiency. Extensive simulations verify the finite sample performance, and we apply the proposed method to study the efficacy of kidney transplantation for end‐stage renal disease patients in the US Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.
The Poggendorff Illusion and Estimates of Transverse Extent

The underestimation of transverse extent relative to longitudinal extent, in the Poggendorff Illusion, was tested by varying oblique line orientation, interparallel line distance, and presence or absence of obliques. 20 subjects made estimates of the transverse extent on both a longitudinal and transverse extent. The results indicated that, although underestimation was found for some stimulus conditions, overestimation was found fot others. It was argued that even though presence of obliques affected judgmental error the longitudinal-transverse illusion could not form a basis for the Poggendorff Illusion.
Childhood Diarrheal Morbidity in the Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana: Socio-Economic, Environmental and Behavioral Risk Determinants

Diarrhea has been identified as a major cause of childhood morbidity in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study examines two weeks incidence of diarrhea among children under six years in Accra. The results indicate that the household economic status and education of the mother are significant determinants of diarrhea. There is a significant association between diarrhea morbidity and access to water and sanitation facilities hygiene practices flies infestation and the regular consumption of street food. Integrated child health intervention programs including provision of facilities maternal hygiene education and environmental health awareness have to be strongly implemented in order to reduce the high incidence of childhood diarrhea. (authors)
Narrative Processing of Entertainment Media and Mental Illness Stigma

This study examined the narrative effects of familiarity, transportation, whether a story is factual or fiction, and perceived realism on the stigmatizing behavior of social distancing behavior. A sample of N = 137 participants watched a commercial movie about mental illness. Genre was manipulated to determine whether fiction or nonfiction impacted social distancing behavior. Although there was no effect of the genre manipulation, transportation was found to have a relationship with social distancing, with the more relevant the participants found the story, the lower they demonstrated social distancing behavior. How much participants identified with the main character was found to have a partial mediating effect between perceived story relevance and social distancing behavior.
Progress in Research

changes in viscosity. This has been studied both in the presence and in the absence of oxygen; with both there is a high initial loss of viscosity, but only in the former case are there also post-irradiation hydrolytic reactions which result in a further loss of viscosity. Biological effects of radiation have been more extensively studied, and much effort continues to be devoted to investigating the manner and circumstance in which radiation damages the structure or function of the chromosome, induces mutations, or interferes with the synthesis of genetic material such as D.N. A. A detailed re-examination of the experimental evidence relating to chromatid aberrations caused by ionizing radiations is of special interest to the geneticist, but because of the supposed intimate connexion between chromosomal damage and inhibition of growth this is also of more general significance. A comparison of the inhibition of Vicia fava root-growth by radiation and by chemicals is described and a similar sort of comparison is made between the mutagenic efficiency of x rays and some of the nitrogen mustards. An elegant technique of microirradiation which permits the irradiation of parts of single tissue-culture cells has been achieved by using polonium, which serves as a source of alpha particles, deposited on the tip of tungsten micro-needles. In this way it is apparently possible to selectively irradiate the nuclear or cytoplasmic regions. The effect of radiation on erythropoiesis has been studied by radioisotope technique involving the uptake of "9Fe into the blood. This investigation has yielded information on the life span of the reticulocyte and red cell in the rhesus monkeys in which the experiments were carried out. Yet another use of cortisone is described in a series of experiments where parenteral injections of cortisone limited the development of radiation damage in normal and malignant tissue.
Spinal motoneurons of the larval zebrafish

Application of horseradish peroxidase to lesions of the muscles and the central nervous system of larval zebrafish Brachydanio rerio was used to identify several types of neurons present in the spinal cord. The spinal cord was found to contain three distinct motoneuronal types: primary and secondary motoneurons that innervate the axial muscles, and pectoral fin motoneurons that innervate the muscles of the pectoral girdle. The cell types are similar to those described in larvae of other anamniote vertebrates. The axial muscles of t, given hemisegment are innervated by two or three primary motoneurons and a larger number of secondary motoneurons in the corresponding spinal segment, whereas fin muscles are innervated by a pool of motoneurons spanning several spinal segments.
Light and electron microscopic study of mature spermatozoa from White Pekin duck (Anas platyrhynchos): an ultrastructural and molecular analysis

The morphology, ultrastructure, and functions of mature avian spermatozoa have been of immense commercial and scientific interest for several reasons. This is mainly important in case of birds in poultry production, conservation, and in the use of sperm morphometry as phylogenetic evidence. Avian spermatozoa share complex or no correlation of sperm morphometry with respect to testis and/or body size as described before. In this work, we have isolated mature spermatozoa from White Pekin duck (Anas platyrhynchos) by non‐invasive methods and performed several immunostaining analysis as well as cytochemical analysis using electron and light microscopes. Here, we report the presence of different post‐translationally modified tubulin such as tyrosinated‐, detyrosinated‐, acetylated‐, polyglutamylated‐, and glycylated‐tubulin in specific regions of the mature spermatozoa. By using field‐emission scanning electron microscope, we confirm the presence of acrosome‐like structure at the tip of the sperm head. However, this structure remains non‐reactive to common lectins such as Peanut Agglutinin (PNA) and cholesterol‐sensitive dyes such as Filipin. We report that this acrosomal structure is primarily made of lipid‐based structures and is resistant to 0.1% Triton X100. Confocal microscopy and super resolution structured illumination microscopy study indicates that the nucleus is bifurcated at the tip region. By using specific markers, we report that the perforatorium structure present at the tip of the spermatozoa head contains specialized organelles that is similar to atypical mitochondria. We propose that these ultrastructural and molecular parameters can be used as species‐specific features. The bifurcated nucleus and presence of atypical mitochondria within this structure may be relevant for the complex mitochondrial inheritance and mitochondrial heteroplasmy observed in case of avian population.
[The effects of hormone replacement therapy in menopause on symptoms of anxiety and depression].

OBJECTIVE Replacement of deficient hormones (hormone replacement therapy, HRT) is the main treatment modality in menopause. There is no concensus among researchers as to how HRT influences psychiatric symptoms that might develop during menopausal period. In this study we aimed to explore the effects of HRT on symptoms of anxiety and depression comparatively by using either estrogen or tibolone. METHOD Women with natural menopause who applied to the outpatient Clinic of Obstetrics and Gynecology Department were included in the study. Subjects (n=70) were randomized into two groups with one group to receive 17beta-estradiol and other group tibolon. All subjects were evaluated at baseline and after 3-months of HRT with Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). RESULTS Forty six of 70 patients completed the study. The 17beta-estradiol (n=23) and the tibolone (n=23) groups were similar with respect to age, education and occupational status. The time from onset of menopause was longer in the tibolon group. HARS and HDRS scores were significantly decreased after 3 months of HRT in both the 17beta-estradiol and the tibolone groups. The two drug regimens were not significantly different in this respect. CONCLUSION HRT with 17beta-estradiol and tibolone improves symptoms of anxiety and depression in menopausal women.
Using an information-theoretic sensor placement algorithm to assess classifier robustness

In this paper, we use an information theoretical sensor placement algorithm to assess the impact of target camouflage, concealment, and deception (CCD) effects on classifier performance. Physics-based target models are constructed to exhibit varying CCD effects of a single target class. An information theoretical sensor placement algorithm is used to identify potential sensor locations yielding highly probable discrimination of test targets representing non-CCD and CCD targets. Platforms are positioned according to the identified sensor locations for classification processing. Classification performance results are presented and discussed in the context of the modeled CCD effect. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the placement algorithm to identify sensor locations void of the intended CCD effects.
Cell cycle‐dependent transduction of cell‐permeant Cre recombinase proteins

Protein transduction has been widely used to analyze biochemical processes in living cells quantitatively and under non‐steady‐state conditions. The present study analyzed the effects of cell cycle on the uptake and activity of cell‐permeant Cre recombinase proteins. Previous studies had suggested that the efficiency of recombination and/or protein transduction varied among individual cells, even within a clonal population. We report here that cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle undergo recombination at a lower rate than cells at other phases of the cell cycle, and that this variation results largely from differences in protein uptake, associated with differences in cell size. These results have implications regarding the mechanism of protein transduction and identify a source of heterogeneity that can influence the response of individual cells to cell‐permeant proteins. J. Cell. Biochem. 89: 674–687, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Characterization of dermal type I collagen of C3H mouse at different stages of the hair cycle

Hair follicles develop or regress in accordance with the hair cycle. In this study, we partially characterized fibrillar type I collagen, the predominant component in the dermis, at two stages of the hair cycle: anagen and telogen. Skin samples were obtained from the backs of two groups of 11‐week‐old C3H mice: one at anagen stage induced by shaving and the other at telogen stage. The amount of neutral salt‐soluble (newly synthesized) collagen obtained from anagen skin was about twofold that from telogen skin, while the level of acid‐soluble collagen was not significantly different between the two groups. The degree of lysine hydroxylation of pepsinized type I collagen obtained from anagen skin was significantly higher than that in telogen (5.0% higher in α1 chain, and 15.6% higher in α2 chain). Proline hydroxylation at the anagen stage was also slightly higher than in the telogen stage. Two major collagen cross‐links were found in both groups of skin; dehydro‐hydroxylysinonorleucine and dehydro‐histidinohydroxymerodesmosine. The concentration of the latter, a complex tetravalent cross‐link, was significantly lower in anagen skin when compared with telogen skin (mean ± SD 0.64 ± 0.07 vs. 0.78 ± 0.06 mol/mol collagen). The former showed no significant difference between the two groups. In addition, a significant amount of lysyl‐aldehyde (a cross‐link precursor) was found in anagen (0.16 ± 0.02 mol/mol collagen), while it was 0.12 mol/mol collagen in telogen. These results indicate that the remodelling of collagen is more active in anagen skin than in telogen, and that characteristic post‐translational modifications of dermal collagen seen in anagen may play a part in facilitating an environment around hair follicles for their migration and growth.
Knockout of pgdS and ggt genes improves γ‐PGA yield in B. subtilis

One of the emerging biopolymers that are currently under active investigation is bacterial poly(γ‐glutamic acid) (γ‐PGA). However, before its full industrial exploitation, a substantial increase in microbial productivity is required. γ‐PGA obtained from the Bacillus subtilis laboratory strain 168 offers the advantage of a producer characterized by a well defined genetic framework and simple manipulation techniques. In this strain, the knockout of genes for the major γ‐PGA degrading enzymes, pgdS and ggt, leads to a considerable improvement in polymer yield, which attains levels analogous to the top wild γ‐PGA producer strains. This study highlights the convenience of using the laboratory strain of B. subtilis over wild isolates in designing strain improvement strategies aimed at increasing γ‐PGA productivity. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110: 2006–2012. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Adeno-associated virus-mediated L 1 adhesion molecule expression ameliorates inhibitory glial scar formation and promotes axonal regeneration and functional recovery after spinal cord injury in adult mice

Lack of permissive molecules and abundance of inhibitory molecules in the local lesion environment of adult mammals after spinal cord injury prevent axons from successful regeneration and, therefore, contribute to the failure of satisfactory functional recovery. Taking advantage of adeno-associated viral vector (AAV) transduction, we expressed the neural cell adhesion molecule L1 in the spinal cord of adult mice after compression injury. Expression of L1 was observed up to 10 mm rostral and 10 mm caudal to the lesion center 5 weeks after infection, the longest time period studied. L1 expression was not detectable in the fibronectin-positive lesion core. Overexpression of L1 improved motor functional recovery, enhanced serotonergic axonal regeneration, and prevented corticospinal tract axons from degenerative retraction. The expression of the neurite outgrowth inhibitory chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan NG2 was drastically decreased in AAV-L1 treated spinal cords, along with reduction of the reactive astroglial marker GFAP, suggesting that besides acting as a neurite-ougrowth promoting molecule, overexpression of L1 in all neural cell types of the spinal cord promotes axonal regrowth, sparing of severed axons, and functional recovery by reducing inhibitory mechanisms. These beneficial functions may be attributed to intracellular signaling cascades triggered by and in L1 overexpressing cells in the lesioned spinal cord. In vitro experiments confirm that L1 inhibits astrocyte proliferation, migration, process extension, and GFAP expression.
Hypoglycemic and antioxidant effects of honey supplementation in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

OBJECTIVES Oxidative stress plays a crucial role in the development of diabetic complications. The aims of this study were to investigate whether honey could reduce hyperglycemia and ameliorate oxidative stress in kidneys of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. METHODS Diabetes was induced by a single dose of STZ (60 mg/kg; i. p.). Diabetic rats were randomly grouped and administered distilled water (0.5 mL/day) and honey (0.2 g/kg/day, 1.2 g/kg/day and 2.4 g/kg/day) by oral gavage for four weeks. Each group consisted of six rats. RESULTS Total antioxidant status (TAS), activities of catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione reductase (GR), and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) were significantly reduced, while superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was up-regulated in kidneys of diabetic rats. Lipid peroxidation (TBARS) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) were significantly elevated while body weight was reduced in diabetic rats. Honey significantly increased body weight, TAS, activities of CAT, GPx, GR, and GST in diabetic rats. It significantly restored SOD activity, and reduced FPG and TBARS levels in diabetic rats. Histopathological examinations of the kidneys revealed that mesangial matrix expansion and thickening of glomerular basement membrane were reduced in the honey-treated diabetic rats. CONCLUSIONS Honey exerts a hypoglycemic effect and ameliorates oxidative stress in kidneys of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.