Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex, drugs and blood pressure control: the impact of age and gender on sympathetic regulation of arterial pressure

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in developed countries. Numerous studies confirm that increases in blood pressure occur with ageing, and are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. The effects of ageing on the cardiovascular system and blood pressure control differ between males and females, but the mechanisms underlying this remain unclear (Hart et al. 2009a). Starting in puberty, men tend to have higher blood pressures compared with women; this difference continues until women reach menopause, at which point the incidence of hypertension begins to increase rapidly, often exceeding that of men (Hart et al. 2009a). This has led to the suggestion that female sex hormones exhibit a cardio-protective effect in younger women, although this has not been proven. This article focuses on a recent paper published in The Journal of Physiology by Hart et al. (2011) that illustrates the specific cardiovascular parameters that underlie sex- and age-related differences in sympathetic activity and resting blood pressure. The paper also provides novel mechanistic insight into the role of the sympathetic nervous system in the development of hypertension with age, with a particular emphasis on the effect of menopause on the risk of hypertension in women. We will first examine the findings of this article in context with previous studies in this field, and then provide a thoughtful discussion on the complexity of this article's findings.
HETEROSIS AND OUTBREEDING DEPRESSION IN DESCENDANTS OF NATURAL IMMIGRANTS TO AN INBRED POPULATION OF SONG SPARROWS (MELOSPIZA MELODIA)

Abstract We studied heterosis and outbreeding depression among immigrants and their descendants in a population of song sparrows on Mandarte Island, Canada. Using data spanning 19 generations, we compared survival, seasonal reproductive success, and lifetime reproductive success of immigrants, natives (birds with resident-hatched parents and grandparents), and their offspring (F1s, birds with an immigrant and a native parent, and F2s, birds with an immigrant grandparent and resident-hatched grandparent in each of their maternal and paternal lines). Lifetime reproductive success of immigrants was no worse than that of natives, but other measures of performance differed in several ways. Immigrant females laid later and showed a tendency to lay fewer clutches, but had relatively high success raising offspring per egg produced. The few immigrant males survived well but were less likely to breed than native males of the same age that were alive in the same year. Female F1s laid earlier than expected based on the average for immigrant and native females, and adult male F1s were more likely to breed than expected based on the average for immigrant and native males. The performance differences between immigrant and native females and between F1s and the average of immigrants and natives are consistent with the hypothesis that immigrants were disadvantaged by a lack of site experience and that immigrant offspring benefited from heterosis. However, we could not exclude the possibility that immigrants had a different strategy for optimizing reproductive success or that they experienced ecological compensation for life-history parameters. For example, the offspring of immigrants may have survived well because immigrants laid later and produced fewer clutches, thereby raising offspring during a period of milder climatic conditions. Although sample sizes were small, we found large performance differences between F1s and F2s, which suggested that either heterosis was associated with epistasis in F1s, that F2s experienced outbreeding depression, or that both phenomena occurred. These findings indicate that the performance of dispersers may be affected more by fine-scale genetic differentiation than previously assumed in this and comparable systems. Corresponding Editor: H. L. Gibbs
RETROSPECTIVE AND LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF SALMONELLOSIS IN CAPTIVE WILDLIFE IN TRINIDAD

Morbidity and mortality of captive wildlife at the Emperor Valley Zoo, Trinidad from 1993 to 1996 were analysed to determine involvement of Salmonella spp. A 6 mo longitudinal study was conducted to determine the frequency of isolation of Salmonella spp. from apparently healthy, sick and dead wild mammals, birds, and reptiles. The antibiograms of Salmonella isolates were determined using the disc diffusion method. Fecal samples randomly selected from animal enclosures and cloacal swabs of snakes were cultured for Salmonella spp. following enrichment in tetrathionate and selenite cystine broths. For the 1993–96 period, Salmonella spp. was implicated in 17 (12%) of 141 sick or dead animals and the predominant serotype was S. typhimurium. During the 6 mo prospective study in a mean animal population of 1,186, there were 20 (2%) and 14 (1%) animals that were sick and died respectively; Salmonella spp. was implicated in only one mortality. Overall, of 1,012 samples from apparently healthy wildlife cultured, 66 (7%) yielded 24 serotypes of Salmonella. The predominant serotype were S. seigburg (16 isolates), S. gaminara (6 isolates), and S. thompson (6 isolates). None of the samples yielded S. typhimurium. The frequency of isolation of Salmonella spp. in reptiles (14%) was significantly higher than found in either mammals (7%) or birds (3%). Sixty-five (99%) of 66 Salmonella spp. isolates exhibited resistance to one or more of the nine antimicrobial agents tested. Resistance was high to cephalothin (92%), moderate to streptomycin (35%) and tetracycline (29%), but significantly low to gentamicin (2%), chloramphenicol (0%), and sulphamethoxazole/trimethoprim (0%). The prevalence of asymptomatic infections by Salmonella spp. in zoo animals was high and the very high prevalence of antimicrobial resistance could be a problem when treating salmonellosis.
Phytochemical composition and in vitro antimicrobial, antioxidant activites of methanolic leaf extracts from Excoecaria Agallocha

1School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. 2Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (Aquatrop), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. 3 Institute of marine biotechnology, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Terengganu, Malaysia. 4Agriculture and Food Science, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Terengganu, Malaysia. 5Zhejiang University, School of Medicine, 866YuHuangTang Road, Hangzhou, China.
Induced Visual Motion: Effects of Fixation and Retinal Position

In the first of two experiments (N = 33) on the effects on induced motion of target fixation and retinal position, better induced motion was always perceived in a target which was fixated and centered on the fovea than in nonfixated target stimuli which projected onto various locations on the periphery. A similar fixation effect was again observed in Exp. 2 (N = 29) when the nonfixated stimuli fell within the fovea. Ratings of induced motion tended to decrease as retinal eccentricity of the nonfixated stimulus increased in both experiments. The results indicate that target fixation and retinal position should be controlled in research on induced motion. Also, the data may emphasize the similarity of real and induced motion perception.
Novel packet-level resource allocation with effective QoS provisioning for wireless mesh networks

Joint power-subcarrier-time resource allocation is imperative for wireless mesh networks due to the necessity of packet scheduling for quality-of-service (QoS) provisioning, multi-channel communications, and opportunistic power allocation. In this work, we propose an efficient intra-cluster packet-level resource allocation approach. Our approach takes power allocation, subcarrier allocation, packet scheduling, and QoS support into account. The proposed approach combines the merits of a Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT)-driven approach and a genetic algorithm (GA)-based approach. It is shown to achieve a desired balance between time complexity and system performance. Bounds for the throughputs obtained by real-time and non-real-time traffic are also derived analytically.
Tomography of the Source Area of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake: Evidence for Fluids at the Hypocenter?

Seismic tomography revealed a low seismic velocity (−5%) and high Poisson's ratio (+6%) anomaly covering about 300 square kilometers at the hypocenter of the 17 January 1995, magnitude 7.2, Kobe earthquake in Japan. This anomaly may be due to an overpressurized, fluid-filled, fractured rock matrix that contributed to the initiation of the Kobe earthquake.
IMPLICATIONS OF IMMUNOLOGIC METHODS FOR MEASURING ANTIHEMOPHILIC FACTOR (FACTOR VIII) *

Recent immunologic studies have provided important new information about the nature of AHF deficiency diseases and the structure and synthesis of this protein. They provide, moreover, a considerably improved ability to identify the carrier state in hemophilia A. Additional progress may be possible in the identification of carriers and of hemophilic patients at risk of antibody formation, but it will require a different approach to these problems. While preliminary goals have been obtained by using antibodies that identify antigenic determinants shared by normal and nonfunctional AHF, further progress will require the capacity to identify differences between the normal protein and the nonfunctional AHF-like molecules in hemophilic plasma.
The relationship between contraction and intracellular sodium in rat and guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes.

1. The contraction, measured optically, and the intracellular Na+ activity (aNai), measured with the Na(+)‐sensitive fluorescent dye SBFI, have been recorded simultaneously in rat and guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes. 2. In rat and guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes at rest, aNai was 7.8 +/‐ 0.3 mM (n = 4) and 5.1 +/‐ 0.3 mM (n = 16), respectively. 3. When both rat and guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes were stimulated at 1 Hz after a rest there was usually a gradual increase in twitch shortening (referred to as a 'staircase') over several minutes accompanied by an increase in aNai over a similar time course. Twitch shortening increased by 21 +/‐ 3% (n = 6) and 20 +/‐ 4% (n = 16) (of steady‐state twitch shortening during 1 Hz stimulation) per millimolar rise in aNai in rat and guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes, respectively. 4. When rat and guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes were exposed to strophanthidin to block the Na(+)‐K+ pump, there were increases in twitch shortening and aNai over similar time courses. Twitch shortening increased by 24 +/‐ 4% (n = 5) and 20 +/‐ 3% (n = 10) (of control twitch shortening) per millimolar rise in aNai in rat and guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes respectively. 5. The inotropic effect of cardiac glycosides, such as strophanthidin, is widely regarded to be principally the result of the rise in aNai. The similarity of the relation between twitch shortening and aNai during the staircase and on application of strophanthidin suggests that the progressive increase in the strength of contraction during the staircase was also linked to the rise in aNai. 6. In guinea‐pig, but not rat, ventricular myocytes there was hysteresis in the relation between twitch shortening and aNai on application and wash‐off of strophanthidin. This indicates that strophanthidin has another inotropic action in guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes. 7. A computer model of excitation‐contraction coupling has been developed to simulate the staircase and the action of cardiac glycoside and to account for the relation between contraction and intracellular Na+.
Weight gain at the time of menopause.

The menopause is associated with changes in body composition: a decline in bone mineral content, a decrease in collagen synthesis, a loss of lean body mass and an increase in total and abdominal fat mass. Oestrogen deficiency seems to play a role in the menopause-related changes in body composition, but life styles (diet, exercise, smoking habits, alcohol consumption) are also involved. The time course of the decrease in lean mass deserves attention since it could justify specific actions, i.e. exercising or hormonal treatment, early during the perimenopausal period. A decrease in fat-free mass may be responsible for a decrease in energy expenditure favouring weight gain if the calorie intake is not reduced.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells Facilitate Fracture Repair in an Alcohol-Induced Impaired Healing Model

Objectives: Clinical studies have shown alcohol to be a risk factor for traumatic orthopaedic injuries and for nonunion. Data from animal studies suggest that alcohol exposure inhibits fracture healing. This report presents a novel rodent model of impaired fracture healing caused by repeated alcohol exposure. Using this model, we examined the regenerative effects of an intravenously administered population of isolated and expanded mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on fracture healing. Methods: Bone marrow–derived MSC were isolated from transgenic green fluorescent protein C57BL/6 mice, and culture expanded using a lineage depletion protocol. Adult wild-type C57BL/6 mice were subjected to a 2-week binge alcohol exposure paradigm (3 days during which they received daily intraperitoneal injections of a 20% alcohol/saline solution followed by a 4-day rest period and another binge cycle for 3 consecutive days). At completion of the second binge cycle, mice were subjected to a mid-shaft tibia fracture while intoxicated. Twenty-four hours after the fracture, animals were administered an intravenous transplant of green fluorescent protein–labeled MSC. Two weeks after the fracture, animals were euthanized and injured tibiae were collected and subjected to biomechanical, histologic, and microcomputed tomography analysis. Results: Pre-injury binge alcohol exposure resulted in a significant impairment in biomechanical strength and decrease in callus volume. MSC transplants restored both fracture callus volume (P < 0.05) and biomechanical strength (P < 0.05) in animals with alcohol-impaired healing. In vivo imaging demonstrated a time-dependent MSC migration to the fracture site. Conclusions: These data suggest that a 2-week binge alcohol exposure significantly impairs fracture healing in a murine tibia fracture model. Intravenously administered MSC were capable of specifically homing to the fracture site and of normalizing biomechanical, histologic, and microcomputed tomography parameters of healing in animals exposed to alcohol. Understanding MSC recruitment patterns and functional contributions to fracture repair may lead to their use in patients with impaired fracture healing and nonunion.
Efficacy and Safety of Percutaneous Radiofrequency Ablation of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in a Regional Hospital

Objective: This study was performed to assess the treatment effectiveness and safety of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma in a regional hospital. Methods: This was a retrospective review of percutaneous radiofrequency ablation of hepatic tumours performed at the Department of Radiology, Tuen Mun Hospital, Hong Kong, from July 2005 to March 2008. Sixty seven ablative procedures were performed, of which 47 were percutaneous ablations. Thirty five percutaneous radiofrequency ablations of hepatocellular carcinoma with a curative aim were performed on 52 hepatocellular tumours in 32 patients. Patients underwent regular computed tomography imaging of the liver during follow-up and the treatment effectiveness and safety were evaluated. Incomplete ablation, recurrence, complications, and mortality were documented. Results: At 1 month, 48 of 52 tumours (93%) of hepatocellular carcinoma had complete ablation. The primary technical effectiveness rate was 82.7%. The secondary technical effectiveness rate was 92.3%. The rate for minor complications was 4.7%. There were no major complications. There were 2 deaths (4.7%), 1 of which may have been procedure-related. Conclusions: Radiofrequency ablation of the liver is safe and feasible in a regional hospital. These results for treatment effectiveness and complication rates are comparable with previous studies.
Sickle β‐thalassemia: Identical twins differing in severity implicate nongenetic factors influencing course

25‐yr old female identical twins of Italian‐American origin concordant for sickle β‐thalassemia were studied to explain their clinical differences. One of them has been severely affected from childhood with one aplastic crisis, an earlier onset of vaso‐occlusive crises, and recent cardiac decompensation; the other twin shows no cardiac decompensation.
Rhodnius prolixus and its symbiotic actinomycete: a microbiological, physiological and behavioural study

The rôle of the symbiont in this blood-sucking insect has been reinvestigated by a novel method: the substitution of wild-type symbionts by auxotrophic mutants produced in vitro, unable to synthesize particular B-group vitamins namely nicotinamide, thiamin, pyridoxine, riboflavin, p-aminobenzoic acid or biotin. Symbiont-free instar IV insects infected with a mutant of any one of these phenotypes moulted to instar V essentially as though infected with wild-type symbionts and did not exhibit the substantial developmental disturbance shown by symbiont-free controls. Though occasional overgrowth of auxotrophs by prototrophic revertants occurred it was not a significant problem. Continued growth of the nicotinamide, thiamin or pyridoxine auxotroph- and wild-type-infected instar V insects was comparable. With the remaining auxotroph-infected insects results varied between experiments, possibly because of disjunction of pre- and post-ecdysial changes in the insect’s pharyngeal pump. Overall, the results are interpreted as disproving the hypothesis that the de novo synthesis of B-vitamins by the symbiont is the sine qua non of the relationship. This contrasts with the conclusions of previous workers. It is suggested that these differences might be accounted for by the more precise experimental framework adopted here. Variations on the ‘traditional’ vitamin hypothesis are suggested: these involve the ‘conversion of metabolites’ rather than the de novo synthesis of vitamins and may help reconcile conflicting results. The symbiont showed unexpected carbon source utilization in vitro and from this it is inferred that erythrocyte-mediated glycolysis within the insect’s blood-meal continues, thus converting to lactate glucose present in the insect. As blood-meal digestion progresses glycolysis would cease, leading to a possible increase in glucose levels within the gut. Cyclical changes in glucose/lactate levels might influence the development of Trypanosoma cruzi the aetiological agent of Chagas’ disease, which undergoes part of its life cycle in the triatomid gut. Peak populations of about 108 symbionts per instar IV insects were found, corresponding to about 5 % of the dry increase of the instar. Symbionts survived well in the insect’s faeces and this, in conjunction with the demonstrated coprophilic behaviour of the insect, which would lead to a high probability of contact with faeces, may be of critical importance in the establishment of the symbiotic relationship.
A New Graph Theoretic Approach for Protein Threading

In this paper, we develop a novel graph theoretic approach for protein threading. In order to perform the protein sequence-structure alignment in threading both efficiently and accurately, we develop a graph model to describe the tertiary structure of a protein family and the alignment between a sequence and a family can be computed with a dynamic programming algorithm in linear time. Our experiments show that this new approach is significantly faster than existing tools for threading and can achieve comparable prediction accuracy.
12 Neonatal-Prepubertal Hypothyroidism on Postnatal Testis Development

Thyroid hormones stimulate oxidative metabolism in many tissues in the body, however, testis is not one of them. Therefore, in this sense, testis is not considered as a target organ for thyroid hormones. However, recent findings clearly show that thyroid hormones have important functions on the testis development during neonatal-prepubertal life. Testis is an exocrine organ because it produces sperm and it is also an endocrine organ, because it produces hormones. In this chapter, general organization of the adult mammalian testis is first described to understand the organization of the adult testis. Thereafter, the general organization of the mammalian testis at birth is described, followed by how the neonatalprepubertal hypothyroidism affects the testis development during this period, Esbablishment of the Sertoli and Leydig cell numbers in the adult testis during the neonatalprepubertal life, is critical to the general maintenance and reproductive functions of the adult mammalian male; thyroid hormones play a crucial role in these processes. The effects of hypothyroidism on neonatal-prepubertal testis are discussed in this chapter using the observations generated with rodent models, focusing on testicular testosterone secretory capacity and sperm production, which are an essential function to the male mammal.
ATP modulates load‐inducible IL‐1β, COX 2, and MMP‐3 gene expression in human tendon cells

Tendon cells receive mechanical signals from the load bearing matrices. The response to mechanical stimulation is crucial for tendon function. However, overloading tendon cells may deteriorate extracellular matrix integrity by activating intrinsic factors such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) that trigger matrix destruction. We hypothesized that mechanical loading might induce interleukin‐1beta (IL‐1β) in tendon cells, which can induce MMPs, and that extracellular ATP might inhibit the load‐inducible gene expression. Human tendon cells isolated from flexor digitorum profundus tendons (FDPs) of four patients were made quiescent and treated with ATP (10 or 100 μM) for 5 min, then stretched equibiaxially (1 Hz, 3.5% elongation) for 2 h followed by an 18‐h‐rest period. Stretching induced IL‐1β, cyclooxygenase 2 (COX 2), and MMP‐3 genes but not MMP‐1. ATP reduced the load‐inducible gene expression but had no effect alone. A medium change caused tendon cells to secrete ATP into the medium, as did exogenous UTP. The data demonstrate that mechanical loading induces ATP release in tendon cells and stimulates expression of IL‐1β, COX 2, and MMP‐3. Load‐induced endogenous IL‐1β may trigger matrix remodeling or a more destructive pathway(s) involving IL‐1β, COX 2, and MMP‐3. Concomitant autocrine and paracrine release of ATP may serve as a negative feedback mechanism to limit activation of such an injurious pathway. Attenuation or failure of this negative feedback mechanism may result in the progression to tendinosis. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Derivation and Applicability of Asymptotic Results for Multiple Subtests Person-Fit Statistics

In high-stakes testing, it is important to check the validity of individual test scores. Although a test may, in general, result in valid test scores for most test takers, for some test takers, test scores may not provide a good description of a test taker’s proficiency level. Person-fit statistics have been proposed to check the validity of individual test scores. In this study, the theoretical asymptotic sampling distribution of two person-fit statistics that can be used for tests that consist of multiple subtests is first discussed. Second, simulation study was conducted to investigate the applicability of this asymptotic theory for tests of finite length, in which the correlation between subtests and number of items in the subtests was varied. The authors showed that these distributions provide reasonable approximations, even for tests consisting of subtests of only 10 items each. These results have practical value because researchers do not have to rely on extensive simulation studies to simulate sampling distributions.