Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ovarian Steroid‐Independent Diurnal Rhythm in Cyclic GMP/Nitric Oxide Efflux in the Medial Preoptic Area: Possible Role in Preovulatory and Ovarian Steroid‐Induced LH Surge*

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between cyclic LH hypersecretion and nitric oxide (NO) release in the medial preoptic area (MPOA), the hypothalamic site implicated in induction of LH hypersecretion. The MPOA extracellular cyclic GMP (cGMP) efflux (an index of NO release), was monitored by microdialysis. Quite unexpectedly, we observed a daily afternoon rise in the MPOA cGMP efflux in cycling female rats on proestrus and diestrus II, in ovariectomized (ovx) rats and in ovx rats treated with ovarian steroids to induce the LH surge. The daily rise in cGMP efflux occurred earlier in diestrous and in estradiol benzoate (EB)‐treated ovx rats than in ovx rats. Progesterone (P) injection to estrogen‐primed ovx rats further advanced the onset of the rise close to the earliest time of rise as seen on proestrus. The afternoon increase in the cGMP efflux in proestrous rats was abolished by pentobarbital treatment that blocked the LH surge. Intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of 1H‐[1,2,4]oxadiazo[4,3‐a]quinoxalin‐one (ODQ), a selective inhibitor of soluble guanylyl cyclase, suppressed the P‐induced LH surge in EB‐primed ovx rats, but not basal LH secretion in unprimed ovx rats. Analysis of brain NOS (bNOS) levels in the POA by Western blotting showed that the morning bNOS levels were higher in the POA of EB‐treated rats than in unprimed ovx rats. Further, with the exception of ovx rats treated with sequential EB and P treatment, the POA bNOS levels rose significantly in the afternoon in unprimed ovx and EB‐treated ovx rats. Collectively, these findings reveal a diurnal rhythm in the MPOA cGMP/NO efflux that is ovarian steroid‐independent. Ovarian steroids apparently shift the timing of the afternoon rise in cGMP/NO efflux to synchronize with the activation of steroid‐dependent neuronal systems responsible for the LH surge.
Pharmacological inhibition of HSP90 and ras activity as a new strategy in the treatment of HNSCC

Advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) is currently treated with taxane‐based chemotherapy. We have previously shown that docetaxel (DTX) induces a ras‐dependent survival signal that can be antagonized by farnesyl transferase inhibitors (FTI) such as tipifarnib (TIP). Here we show that the synergistic TIP/DTX combination determines synergistic apoptotic conditions but, at the same time, it modulates the expression of the components of the multichaperone complex that is, in turn, involved in the regulation of the stability of members of the ras‐mediated pathway. Therefore, we have stably transfected HNSCC KB and Hep‐2 cells with a plasmid encoding for HSP90. The expression of the protein was increased in both transfected cell lines but its activation status was increased in Hep‐2 clones and decreased in KB clones. On the basis of these results, we have treated both parental and HSP90‐transfected cells with a HSP90 inhibitor geldanamycin (GA). We have found that the antiproliferative activity of GA is dependent upon the activation status of HSP90 and that it is strongly synergistic when added in combination with TIP but not with DTX in cells overexpressing HSP90 and even more in cells with increased HSP90 activity. These data were paralleled by the decreased expression and activity of the components belonging to the ras→mediated signal transduction pathway. The present results suggest that multichaperone complex activation could be a resistance mechanism to the anti‐proliferative and apoptotic effects induced by TIP and that the combination of FTIs such as TIP with GA could be a suitable therapeutic strategy in the treatment of HSP90‐overexpressing HNSCC. J. Cell. Physiol. 228: 130–141, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
High‐resolution electroencephalography and source localization in neonates

Although Electroencephalography (EEG) source localization is being widely used in adults, this promising technique has not yet been applied to newborns because of technical difficulties, such as lack of data concerning the newborn skull conductivity, thickness, and homogeneity. Using a new type of EEG headcap molded on each baby's head, we aimed to determine whether this technique could be adapted to neonates, and to evaluate the importance of these technical difficulties. We carried out EEG source reconstruction of the recordings of five neonates using dipole fit algorithm. We used four different head models for each neonate, obtained from individual MRI scans: normal skull thickness and conductivity of 0.0042 S/m; normal thickness and conductivity of 0.33 S/m; increased thickness and conductivity of 0.0042 S/m; and normal thickness and conductivity with a modeled bregma fontanel. Dipole locations were consistent with MRI and clinical data. The mean difference between the dipole locations in the 0.0042 and the 0.33 S/m skull layer models was 11.6 ± 2.5 mm, with an average 29.7% decrease in magnitude for the 0.33 S/m model but no significant changes for the dipoles orientation. Skull layer thickness had a large influence on magnitude, but no significant effect on position and orientation. The mean difference between the dipole locations induced by the modeled fontanel was 2.0 ± 2.1 mm, with an average 2.1% increase in magnitude. Our results show that EEG source localization is feasible in neonates. With further development, the technique may prove useful for neurological evaluation of neonates. Hum Brain Mapp, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The pattern and timing of breathing during incremental exercise: a normative study

Clinical evaluation of the pattern and timing of breathing during submaximal exercise can be valuable for the identification of the mechanical ventilatory consequences of different disease processes and for assessing the efficacy of certain interventions. Sedentary individuals (60 male/60 female, aged 20–80 yrs) were randomly selected from >8,000 subjects and submitted to ramp incremental cycle ergometry. Tidal volume (VT)/ resting inspiratory capacity, respiratory frequency, total respiratory time (Ttot), inspiratory time (TI), expiratory time (TE), duty cycle (TI/Ttot) and mean inspiratory flow (VT/TI) were analysed at selected submaximal ventilatory intensities. Senescence and female sex were associated with a more tachypnoeic breathing pattern during isoventilation. The decline in Ttot was proportional to the TI and TE reductions, i.e. TI/Ttot was remarkably constant across age strata, independent of sex. The pattern, but not timing, of breathing was also influenced by weight and height; a set of demographically and anthropometrically based prediction equations are therefore presented. These data provide a frame of reference for assessing the normality of some clinically useful indices of the pattern and timing of breathing during incremental cycle ergometry in sedentary males and females aged 20–80 yrs.
Dissimilar Manifestation of Heterosis in Superhybrid Rice at Early-Tillering Stage under Nutrient-Deficient and Nutrient-Sufficient Condition1

Hybrids may benefit from both activating metabolism-related pathways and alleviating fitness cost through down-regulating genes responsible for stress tolerance. Heterosis has long been exploited for crop breeding; however, the genetic mechanisms, particularly the initial establishment of heterosis during the early vegetative growth phase, remain elusive. The biggest challenge for that is to exclude noise genes from the identified heterosis-related candidates. Herein, we use nutrient-deficient hybrid with no measurable growth heterosis as control. After filtering these irrelevant genes, only 336 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which is significantly lower than in previous reports, were identified as heterosis-related genes in a superhybrid rice of Liang-You-Pei-Jiu (LYP9) at early-tillering stage. Among the DEGs that could be mapped to quantitative trait loci (QTL), approximately 72.8% could be covered by yield or growth vigor-related QTL, thereby suggesting that our DEGs were reliable and may have potential value to rice breeding. Among the 336 DEGs identified, a majority showed intermediate expression relative to that of its parental lines (i.e. additive effects), particularly, expression was frequently more similar to the paternal line rather than the maternal line (44.1% versus 32.7%); the remaining 27.1% were exclusively up- or down-regulated between the hybrid and either parent. Interestingly, up-regulated genes encoded various enzymes, whereas down-regulated genes were enriched in responses to stress, indicating that hybrids may benefit from both activating metabolism-related pathways and alleviating fitness cost through allelic interactions. Furthermore, a significantly larger proportion of divergent genes and higher nonsynonymous substitutions rates were detected in these DEGs, suggesting a potential contribution to the establishment of heterosis in superhybrid rice LYP9.
Pancreatic Necrosis: An Early Finding in Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Despite the clinical importance of pancreatic necrosis in the course of acute pancreatitis, little is known about when it develops. Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) is a reliable parameter with a high detection rate for pancreatic necrosis. We analyzed 199 patients with acute pancreatitis. The development of pancreatic necrosis was ascertained by a daily measurement of serum CRP in 45 patients with contrast-enhanced computed tomographic proven necrotizing pancreatitis. In all 45 cases, the criteria for pancreatic necrosis were satisfied within the first 4 days of the onset of symptoms. This indicates that pancreatic necrosis is an early finding that develops within hours.
Telomere length regulation during postnatal development and ageing in Mus spretus.

Telomere shortening has been causally implicated in replicative senescence in humans. To examine the relationship between telomere length and ageing in mice, we have utilized Mus spretus as a model species because it has telomere lengths of approximately the same length as humans. Telomere length and telomerase were analyzed from liver, kidney, spleen, brain and testis from >180 M.spretus male and female mice of different ages. Although telomere lengths for each tissue were heterogeneous, significant changes in telomere lengths were found in spleen and brain, but not in liver, testis or kidney. Telomerase activity was abundant in liver and testis, but weak to non-detectable in spleen, kidney and brain. Gender differences in mean terminal restriction fragment length were discovered in tissues from M.spretus and from M.spretus xC57BL/6 F1 mice, in which a M. spretus -sized telomeric smear could be measured. The comparison of the rank order of tissue telomere lengths within individual M. spretus showed that certain tissues tended to be longer than the others, and this ranking also extended to tissues of the M.spretus xC57BL/6 F1 mice. These data suggest that telomere lengths within individual tissues are regulated independently and are genetically controlled.
Metal artifact reduction in x-ray computed tomography (CT) by constrained optimization.

PURPOSE The streak artifacts caused by metal implants have long been recognized as a problem that limits various applications of CT imaging. In this work, the authors propose an iterative metal artifact reduction algorithm based on constrained optimization. METHODS After the shape and location of metal objects in the image domain is determined automatically by the binary metal identification algorithm and the segmentation of "metal shadows" in projection domain is done, constrained optimization is used for image reconstruction. It minimizes a predefined function that reflects a priori knowledge of the image, subject to the constraint that the estimated projection data are within a specified tolerance of the available metal-shadow-excluded projection data, with image non-negativity enforced. The minimization problem is solved through the alternation of projection-onto-convex-sets and the steepest gradient descent of the objective function. The constrained optimization algorithm is evaluated with a penalized smoothness objective. RESULTS The study shows that the proposed method is capable of significantly reducing metal artifacts, suppressing noise, and improving soft-tissue visibility. It outperforms the FBP-type methods and ART and EM methods and yields artifacts-free images. CONCLUSIONS Constrained optimization is an effective way to deal with CT reconstruction with embedded metal objects. Although the method is presented in the context of metal artifacts, it is applicable to general "missing data" image reconstruction problems.
Reading First, Libraries Last: An Historical Perspective on the Absence of Libraries in Reading Education Policy

Reading education has been high on the public policy agenda in the United States. This article addresses the question of why public and school libraries have not been actively involved in legislative efforts to promote children's reading development. An historical perspective on the place of libraries in current reading education policy in the United States is provided, and two possibilities are assessed—1) that libraries have changed, shifting in their institutional identity, and 2) that conceptions of the reading process and the best instructional practices have undergone a dramatic transformation in the wake of the cognitive revolution. The author concludes that newer models of reading focus on cognition and the sociocultural contexts in which literacy occurs, and justify greater attention to the role of libraries in children's print literacy development.
The Phases of the Oestrous Cycle in the Adult White Rat

The duration of the oestrous cycle in thirty-nine adult rats derived from ten litters was 4.4 ± 0.04 days. The variance in cycle length tended to be less within than between litter-groups ( P ≏0.05). It was significantly less for individual rats than between individuals ( P The mean duration of early oestrus was 18 hr. , oestrus 25 hr. , late oestrus 5 hr. , early dioestrus 24 hr. , dioestrus 28 hr. and late dioestrus 7 hr. The length of the dioestrous phase is variable and determines the length of the cycle, while the duration of oestrus appears to be relatively constant. The figures have been compared with those published by other laboratories. Analyses of variance did not disclose any significant fluctuation in the weight of the body, adrenals or ovaries in phase with the oestrous cycle. The uterus showed a characteristic increase in weight immediately before the onset of oestrus.
Guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents in HIV-infected adults and adolescents. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The draft Federal guidelines on the use of antiretrovirals in treating adults and adolescents are reprinted. References, panel members' names, and some charts and graphs have been left out, ordering information for the full report is included. The guidelines were issues in June 1997 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and are designed to insure that all HIV patients receive care that is effective and endorsed by HIV care providers.
Housing and welfare in laboratory rats: effects of cage stocking density and behavioural predictors of welfare

Using male and female Alderley Park (Wistar-derived) rats housed in single-sex groups in standard laboratory cages, we looked at the effect of group size (one, three, five or eight) on competitive behaviour and time budgeting (initial and longer term), changes in their serum testosterone (males), corticosterone and antibody concentrations, and organ pathology at age 16 weeks, together with the interrelationships between behavioural measures and pathophysiological indices of social stress. Group size had only limited long-term effects on overall time budgeting and did not affect pathophysiological responses, although there were highly significant differences between individuals in replicate cage groups. Pathophysiology within both sexes showed strong and highly specific correlations with a small subset of behaviours suggesting frustrated attempts to escape from cages, including chewing the cage bars. Escape-related behaviour also correlated strongly with one component of competitive behaviour, Aggressive Grooming within both sexes, although Aggressive Grooming correlated with pathophysiological responses only among males. Females generally showed greater escape-related behaviour associated with greater signs of pathophysiology regardless of the level of aggression shown between cagemates. Major differences in intercorrelated behavioural and pathophysiological responses between replicate groups implied that the individual composition of groups rather than their size had the greater impact on the welfare of the rats, especially among females. This may be consistent with adaptive sex differences in their competitive reproductive strategies. The frequency of apparent escape-related behaviours and Aggressive Grooming, particularly when rats are first introduced into their cage groups, may provide a simple assessment of the welfare implications of particular cage groupings. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Closed kinetic chain exercises with or without additional hip strengthening exercises in management of patellofemoral pain syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is a common musculoskeletal pain condition, especially in females. Decreased hip muscle strength has been implicated as a contributing factor. Isolated open kinetic chain hip abductors and lateral rotators exercises were added by many authors to the rehabilitation program. However, Closed Kinetic Chain (CKC) exercises focusing on hip and knee muscles were not investigated if they can produce similar effect of hip strengthening and decreasing pain without the need of isolated exercises for hip musculature. AIM The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of a CKC exercises program with or without additional hip strengthening exercises on pain and hip abductors and lateral rotators peak torque. DESIGN Prospective randomized clinical trial. SETTING Patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome referred to the outpatient physical therapy clinic of the faculty of physical therapy, cairo university. POPULATION Thirty two patients who had patellofemoral pain syndrome with age ranged from eighteen to thirty years. METHODS Patients were randomly assigned into two groups: CKC group and CKC with hip muscles strengthening exercises as a control (CO) group. Treatment was given 3 times/week, for 6 weeks. Patients were evaluated pre- and post-treatment for their pain severity using VAS, function of knee joint using Kujala questionnaire, hip abductors and external rotators concentric/eccentric peak torque. RESULTS There were significant improvements in pain, function and hip muscles peak torque in both groups (P<0.05). However, there was no statistically significant difference between groups in hip muscles torque (P<0.05) but pain and function improvements were significantly greater in the CO group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Six weeks CKC program focusing on knee and hip strengthening has similar effect in improving hip muscles torque in patients with PFPS as a CKC exercises with additional hip strengthening exercises. However, adding isolated hip strengthening exercises has the advantage of more pain relief. CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT CKC exercises with additional hip strengthening could be more beneficial in decreasing pain in PFPS than CKC exercises alone.
Inhibition of Herpes Simplex Virus by Polyamines

Background: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) establishes latent infection in humans with periodic reactivation. Acyclovir, valacyclovir and foscarnet are in medical use today against HSV type-1 (HSV-1) and type-2 (HSV-2), inhibiting the DNA synthesis of the viruses. Additional drugs that will affect the growth of these viruses by other mechanisms and also decrease the frequency of appearance of drug-resistant mutants are required. Methods: Cationic polysaccharides were synthesized by conjugation of various oligoamines to oxidized polysaccharides by reductive amination. Polycations of dextran, pullulan and arabinogalactan were grafted with oligoamines of 2–4 amino groups forming Schiff-base imine-based conjugates followed by reduction with borohydride to obtain the stable amine-based conjugate. Evaluation of toxicity to BS-C-1 cells and antiviral activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2 of the different compounds was performed in vitro by a semiquantitative assay. A quantitative study with a selected compound followed. Results: Structure–activity relationship studies showed that the nature of the grafted oligoamine of the polycation plays an essential role in the antiviral activity against HSV-1 and HSV-2. Dextran-propan-1,3-diamine (DPD) was found to be the most potent of all the compounds examined. DPD did not decrease the infectivity of HSV upon direct exposure to the virions. The growth of HSV was significantly inhibited when DPD was added to the host cells 1 h prior to infection, thus preventing the adsorption and penetration of the virus into the cells. Conclusions: Our in vitro data warrant clinical investigation. DPD could have an advantage as a topical application in combination therapy of HSV lesions.
Some Stylized Facts of Short-Term Stock Prices of Selected Nigerian Banks

This paper examines presence of some stylized facts of short-term stock prices in the banking sector of the Nigerian Stock Market (NSM). Non-normality, lack of autocorrelation in the returns at first lag and significant positive autocorrelation in higher magnitude returns, widely studied in other markets, are investigated using daily closing stock prices of the four major Nigerian banks (Access, First, Guaranty Trust and United Bank for Africa (UBA)), from 2001 to 2013; encompassing periods of different financial scenarios. Jarque-Bera (JB), Doonik-Hansen, Kolmogrov-Smirnov and Ljung-Box (Q) test statistics are applied. Our findings reveal that the four banks stocks behave slightly different, but generally possess the stylized facts found in other markets. Observed is that, while the distributions of the returns for two of these banks (First and UBA) are approximately symmetric and leptokurtic; those of Access and Guaranty Trust banks are significantly non-symmetric and leptokurtic, thus non-normally distributed. Also established is that, while autocorrelation functions of daily returns are either negative or zero, those of both absolute returns and the squared returns are mostly positive. The autocorrelations of absolute returns are found to be predominantly positive and more persistent than those of the squared returns; indicating volatility clustering. Consequently, we conclude that the short-term stock prices of these banks behave like those of other markets. Some implications of the results for financial investment and stock market behaviour in the banking sector of NSM are discussed.