Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Participation of tumour necrosis factor and nitric oxide in the mediation of vascular dysfunction in splanchnic artery occlusion shock

1 Splanchnic artery occlusion (SAO) shock is characterized by irreversible circulatory failure. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF‐α) may affect the 1‐arginine/nitric oxide (NO) pathway, thus contributing to the cardiovascular derangements of circulatory shock. 2 We investigated the contribution of both TNF‐α and the 1‐arginine/nitric oxide pathway to the vascular dysfunction of SAO shock. Anaesthetized rats, subjected to total occlusion of the superior mesenteric artery and the coeliac trunk for 45 min developed a severe shock state (SAO shock) resulting in a fatal outcome within 75–90 min after the release of occlusion. Sham operated animals were used as controls. SAO shocked rats had also a marked hypotension and enhanced macrophage and serum levels of TNF‐α. Furthermore, aortic rings from shocked rats showed a marked hyporeactivity to phenylephrine (PE 1 nm‐10 μm) and reduced responsiveness to acetylcholine (ACh lOnM‐lOμm). Endothelium‐denuded aortic rings had also a marked hyporeactivity to phenylephrine, which was restored to control values by in vitro administration of N° nitro‐1‐arginine‐methyl ester (1‐NAME 10 μm). 3 In vivo administration of cloricromene (2 mg kg−1, i.v.), an inhibitor of TNF‐α biosynthesis, increased survival, enhanced mean arterial blood pressure and reduced macrophage and serum levels of TNF‐α. Furthermore, aortic rings from shocked rats treated with cloricromene exhibited a greater contractile response to phenylephrine and improved responsiveness to ACh when compared to aortic rings from vehicle‐treated SAO shocked rats. 4 Our results suggest that TNF‐α alters both endothelial and muscular L‐arginine/nitric oxide pathways which in turn produce vascular dysfunction in SAO shock.
Asymptomatic familial cerebral aneurysms.

PURPOSE We evaluated the prevalence and features of cerebral aneurysms in the family members of people with asymptomatic aneurysms among 8680 participants undergoing magnetic resonance angiography. METHODS Of the 8680 participants, 380 had family histories of aneurysms and 8300 did not. The prevalence and features of asymptomatic aneurysms were compared in these two subgroups. In addition, the prevalence in all living first- or second-degree relatives was evaluated in 20 families. RESULTS The prevalence of asymptomatic aneurysms was 7.0% (606 of 8680 participants) overall and 10.5% (40 of 380 participants) and 6.8% (566 of 8300 participants) in the subgroups with and without family histories of aneurysms, respectively. The prevalence in the female participants with family histories of aneurysms (12.3%, 28 of 228 participants) was higher than that in the male participants with family histories of aneurysms (7.9%, 12 of 152 participants) (P < 0.0001). Compared with the entire group, this subgroup more commonly showed aneurysms situated at the junction of the internal carotid and posterior communicating arteries (P < 0.0005) and at the middle cerebral artery (P < 0.0001). The prevalence of aneurysms in 115 members of the 20 families was 33.9%. Although the members of 14 families with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage showed higher prevalence of ruptured and asymptomatic aneurysms (42.1%) than did the members of 6 families with only asymptomatic aneurysms (17.9%), the former had very low prevalence of asymptomatic aneurysms. CONCLUSION The prevalence of aneurysms is significantly elevated in family members of people with asymptomatic aneurysms. It is suggested that familial asymptomatic aneurysms are more likely to rupture in families having members with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage than in those without.
Tricycloalternarene derivatives produced by an endophyte Alternaria alternata isolated from Maytenus hookeri

A new tricycloalternarene derivative, named tricycloalternarenal (1), together with three known compounds was isolated from the cultures of Alternaria alternata, an endophytic fungus in the leaves of the plant Maytenus hookeri (Celastraceae). Structure of 1 was established as (2E)‐6‐(3,3a,5,6,7,8,9,9a‐octahydro‐5‐hydroxy‐3a‐methyl‐8‐oxo‐cyclo‐penta[b]chromen‐1‐yl)‐2‐methylhept‐2‐enal by spectroscopic methods, including 2D‐NMR experiments. The remaining compounds were determined as tricycloalternarene‐3b (2), alterperylenol (3), and dihydroalterperylenol (4). (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Pharmacokinetic advantage of intra-arterial cyclosporin A delivery to vascularly isolated rabbit forelimb. II. Dose dependence.

A vascularly isolated rabbit forelimb model simulating conditions of composite tissue allografting was used to determine the regional pharmacokinetic advantage achievable in extremity tissue components during i.a. cyclosporin A (CSA) administration. CSA was infused continuously via osmotic minipump into the right brachial artery of New Zealand rabbits at multiple doses ranging from 1.0 to 8.0 mg/kg/day. On day 6, CSA concentrations were measured in aortic whole blood, as well as in skin, muscle, bone, and bone marrow samples from both right and left forelimbs. The variation of right-sided mean CSA concentrations with dose was tissue dependent and saturable in the case of skin and bone, whereas left-sided tissue concentrations correlated significantly with systemic blood levels. At 1.0 mg/kg/day, there were no significant differences between right and left mean CSA concentrations for all four tissues examined. However, with a doubling of the i.a. dose, huge increases in local tissue CSA concentrations were produced with only very modest increases in systemic whole-blood and tissue drug levels, resulting in a 4-fold regional advantage (right/left ratio of CSA concentrations) in bone and bone marrow, 7-fold in muscle, and 14-fold in skin. With further dose increases to 8.0 mg/kg/day, the regional advantage decreased to 4-fold in skin, increased to 9-fold in bone marrow, remained relatively constant in bone, and initially decreased and then increased to 9-fold in muscle. These favorable pharmacokinetic results suggest that reduced, local doses of CSA might be useful in preventing extremity composite tissue allograft rejection with decreased systemic drug exposure.
Statistical universals reveal the structures and functions of human music

Significance Which features of music are universal and which are culture-specific? Why? These questions are important for understanding why humans make music but have rarely been scientifically tested. We used musical classification techniques and statistical tools to analyze a global set of 304 music recordings, finding no absolute universals but dozens of statistical universals. These include not only commonly cited features related to pitch and rhythm but also domains such as social context and interrelationships between musical features. We speculate that group coordination is the common aspect unifying the cross-cultural structural regularities of human music, with implications for the study of music evolution. Music has been called “the universal language of mankind. ” Although contemporary theories of music evolution often invoke various musical universals, the existence of such universals has been disputed for decades and has never been empirically demonstrated. Here we combine a music-classification scheme with statistical analyses, including phylogenetic comparative methods, to examine a well-sampled global set of 304 music recordings. Our analyses reveal no absolute universals but strong support for many statistical universals that are consistent across all nine geographic regions sampled. These universals include 18 musical features that are common individually as well as a network of 10 features that are commonly associated with one another. They span not only features related to pitch and rhythm that are often cited as putative universals but also rarely cited domains including performance style and social context. These cross-cultural structural regularities of human music may relate to roles in facilitating group coordination and cohesion, as exemplified by the universal tendency to sing, play percussion instruments, and dance to simple, repetitive music in groups. Our findings highlight the need for scientists studying music evolution to expand the range of musical cultures and musical features under consideration. The statistical universals we identified represent important candidates for future investigation.
Principles Of Animal Design The Optimization And Symmorphosis Debate

Thank you for reading principles of animal design the optimization and symmorphosis debate. As you may know, people have search hundreds times for their chosen novels like this principles of animal design the optimization and symmorphosis debate, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some malicious virus inside their computer.
Studying Acute Coronary Syndrome Through the World Wide Web: Experiences and Lessons

This study details my viewpoint on the experiences, lessons, and assessments of conducting a national study on care-seeking behavior for heart attack in the United States utilizing the World Wide Web. The Yale Heart Study (YHS) was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Grounded on two prior studies, the YHS combined a Web-based interview survey instrument; ads placed on the Internet; flyers and posters in public libraries, senior centers, and rehabilitation centers; information on chat rooms; a viral marketing strategy; and print ads to attract potential participants to share their heart attack experiences. Along the way, the grant was transferred from Ohio State University (OSU) to Yale University, and significant administrative, information technology, and personnel challenges ensued that materially delayed the study’s execution. Overall, the use of the Internet to collect data on care-seeking behavior is very time consuming and emergent. The cost of using the Web was approximately 31% less expensive than that of face-to-face interviews. However, the quality of the data may have suffered because of the absence of some data compared with interviewing participants. Yet the representativeness of the 1154 usable surveys appears good, with the exception of a dearth of African American participants.
Characterization of the env gene in avian oncoviruses by heteroduplex mapping

The genome of ring-necked pheasant virus, an avian oncovirus, is largely homologous to the genomes of chicken oncoviruses except for a specific nonhomology in env, the gene coding for the surface glycoprotein of the virion (J. Tal, D. J. Fujita, S. Kawai, H. E. Varmus, and J. M. Bishop, J. Virol. 21:497--505, 1977). We have used this nonhomology between ring-necked pheasant virus and chicken oncoviruses in electron microscopic studies of heteroduplex molecules. The env-specific region of nonhomology is 1.5 to 1.7 kilobases in length. Its 3' boundary is located 0.6 to 0.7 kilobases from the 3' end of the genome in transformation-defective viruses and 2.5 kilobases from the 3' end in nondefective avian sarcoma viruses. Comparison of several strains of avian oncoviruses shows that the 3' half of this env region is conserved, while the 5' half is more diverged. A small area at the very 3' end of env also shows divergence between different avian oncoviruses. We found no evidence for the presence of a previously unrecognized gene between env and src. An electrophoretic comparison of the glycoproteins from various avian oncoviruses shows that those of ring-necked pheasant virus and Chinese quail virus differ in molecular weight from the glycoproteins of the chicken oncoviruses.
Effect of age on muscle activation and twitch properties during static and dynamic actions

In this investigation we examined age‐associated changes in peak torque, voluntary activation levels, and potentiated twitch properties of the knee extensors during isometric (ISO), shortening (SHO), and lengthening (LEN) actions in 18 young subjects (19–27 years) and 12 elderly subjects (64–77 years). Peak torque was lower for the elderly subjects under the ISO (−31%) and SHO (−28%) conditions (P < 0.05); however, the loss in LEN peak torque in the elderly was less marked (−17%) (P > 0.05). Voluntary activation levels within and between groups were not significantly different and ranged between 96.8% and 98.9% (P > 0.05). Peak twitch torque and some temporal twitch characteristics were altered with age (P < 0.05), but such changes were similar across all muscle actions (P > 0.05). These data suggest that the attenuated reduction in LEN muscle strength associated with age is probably not related to contraction‐specific changes in voluntary activation levels or potentiated twitch properties. Muscle Nerve, 2009
Adaptations made by rheumatoid arthritis patients to continue working: a pilot study of workplace challenges and successful adaptations.

OBJECTIVES The goals of this pilot study were to use qualitative research techniques in a group of currently employed patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to develop categories of challenges encountered in maintaining employment and categories of successful adaptations made to continue working; and to identify obstacles considered to be persistent threats to continued employment. METHODS Patients were interviewed by telephone with a questionnaire composed of structured-response format and open-ended response format questions focusing on specific challenges and adaptations in the workplace. RESULTS Of the 22 patients interviewed, 96% were women, mean age was 50 years, 84% were college graduates, and the majority had light physical job demands and high autonomy over their work and hours worked. Patients encountered diverse challenges, such as fatigue, pain, typing, writing, physical requirements, maintaining a pleasant disposition, working overtime, traveling for business, commuting, being on time, not being able to choose rest periods, and environmental issues. Patients also made multiple adaptations to continue working, the most helpful being changing job or altering career path (36%), altering work hours (32%), using more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (27%), using car service (23%), sleeping more (18%), and working at home (14%). Patients were not at all confident in their ability to continue working because of RA, and perceived the following persistent threats to continued employment: fatigue (45%), not being able to use hands (45%), not being able to choose rest periods (27%), and commuting problems (18%). In addition, patients confronted psychological stresses, such as dealing with coworkers and supervisors and balancing job and personal roles. These challenges and adaptations included unfavorable work-related occurrences, or "negative work-role events. " CONCLUSIONS Seemingly successfully employed patients with RA faced multiple challenges and made major adaptations to maintain employment and still perceived their employment to be in jeopardy because of RA. The findings of this study have important implications for screening patients at risk for negative work-role events and for possible work-related and social support interventions aimed at preserving employment.
Development of the Connected Speech Test (CST)

This paper describes the first phase in the development of the Connected Speech Test (CST). This test of intelligibility of everyday speech has been developed primarily for use as a criterion measure in investigations of hearing aid benefit. The test consists of 48 passages of conversationally produced connected speech. Each passage contains 25 key words for scoring. All passages are of equal intelligibility for the average normal hearer. Key words vary in intelligibility within a passage but span the same intelligibility range in all passages. Several passages are administered, and the results averaged, to yield a single intelligibility score. For pairs of scores, each based on mean performance across 4 randomly-chosen passages, the 95% critical difference is estimated to be about 14 rationalized arcsine units (rau). The performance-intensity function for the CST has a slope of 12 rau/dB signal-to-babble ratio. Investigations of the test are continuing with hearing-impaired listeners.
Single-Tablet Regimens for the Treatment of HIV-1 Infection

Objective: To review the pharmacokinetics, safety, drug-drug interactions, and advantages and disadvantages of currently available single-tablet regimens (STRs) for HIV-1 infection. Data Sources: A search using PubMed was conducted (up to September 2016) using the following keywords: single tablet regimen AND HIV. Additionally, a PubMed search was conducted for each individual STR using the generic names of the agents. Articles were evaluated for content, and additional references were identified from a review of literature citations. Study Selection and Data Extraction: Studies included were predominantly phase III clinical trials with the exception of tenofovir alafenamide because phase I and phase II trials were also relevant for this new antiretroviral agent. Data Synthesis: Six STRs are currently available for the treatment of HIV-1. Each agent has unique pharmacokinetic, safety, and drug-drug interaction profiles that result in distinct advantages and disadvantages. Three of these agents are first-line recommended therapies per national guidelines because of high virological efficacy and tolerability. Conclusions: STRs have significantly advanced HIV management by minimizing pill burden and improving patient compliance. It is important to consider the nuances of each STR in regard to renal and hepatic function, drug interactions, and tolerability, to ensure safe and effective use.
Death and survival of neuronal cells exposed to Alzheimer's insults

Neuronal cell death is the central abnormality occurring in brains suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD). The notion that AD is a disease caused by loss of neurons points toward suppression of neuronal death as the most important therapeutic target. Nevertheless, the mechanisms for neuronal death in AD are still relatively unclear. Three known mutant genes cause familial AD (FAD): amyloid precursor protein, presenilin 1, and presenilin 2. Detailed analysis of cytotoxic mechanisms of the FAD‐linked mutant genes reveals that they cause neuronal cell death at physiologically low expression levels. Unexpectedly, cytotoxic mechanisms vary depending on the type of mutations and genes, suggesting that various mechanisms for neuronal cell death are involved in AD patients. In support of this, activity‐dependent neurotrophic factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, and insulin‐like growth factor‐I can completely protect neurons from β‐amyloid (Aβ) cytotoxicity but exhibit incomplete or little effect on cytotoxicity by FAD mutant genes. By contrast, Humanin, a newly identified 24‐residue peptide, suppresses neuronal cell death by various FAD mutants and Aβ, whereas this factor has no effect on cytotoxicity from AD‐irrelevant insults. Studies investigating death and survival of neuronal cells exposed to AD insults will open a new horizon in developing therapy aimed at neuroprotection. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Identifying the relevant page numbers that referred by the back-of-book index using syntactic similarity and semantic similarity

The index term that is usually found in the back-of-book index was created to help readers with finding the information, such as important names or terms on book pages. A good back-of-book index should guide the reader to find relevant term on the book page. The process to create the back-of-book index requires great effort. The important words should be extracted from a large collection of words in the book. The subjectivity and knowledge of the author determine which important words should be indexed. The inaccurate indexing process could result in back-of-book index that refers to an irrelevant page number. This research aims to identify the relevant page numbers using syntactic similarity approach and semantic approach that based on Wordnet thesaurus. Through these approaches, we measure the relatedness between sentence and the index term to identify the relevant page number. We use Kappa statistic to measure the reliability of our methods, our experimental result shows that the semantic approach has better performance than the syntactic approach. The average Kappa value in the semantic similarity framework is 0.619, imply that the semantic similarity approach could identify the relevant page numbers as well as the book author.
Essays on macroeconomics with financial frictions

The first chapter of this thesis, joint with Angela Abbate analyses the importance of the risk-taking channel for monetary policy. To answer this question, we develop and estimate a quantitative monetary DSGE model where banks choose excessively risky investments, due to an agency problem which distorts banks’ incentives. As the real interest rate declines, these distortions become more important and excessive risk taking increases, lowering the efficiency of investment. We show that this novel transmission channel generates a new and quantitatively significant monetary policy trade-off between inflation and real interest rate stabilization: it is optimal for the central bank to tolerate greater inflation volatility in exchange for lower risk taking. The second chapter develops a quantitative model of sovereign default with endogenous default costs to propose a novel answer to the question why governments repay their debt. In the model domestic banks are exposed to sovereign debt. Hence sovereign default causes large losses for the banks, which translate into a financial crisis. The government trades these costs off against the advantage of not repaying international investors. Besides replicating business cycle moments, the model is able to generate not only output costs of a realistic magnitude, but also endogenously predicts that default is followed by a period during which no new foreign lending takes place. The duration of this period matches empirical estimates. The third chapter outlines a method to reduce the computationally necessary state space for solving dynamic models with global methods. The idea is to replace several state variables by a summary state variable. This is made possible by anticipating future choices that depend on one of the replaced variables. I explain how this method can be applied to a simple portfolio choice problem.
A fast delay-constrained multicast routing algorithm

In this paper, we propose a fast multicast routing heuristic, called DCMA, for delay-sensitive applications. The running complexity of DCMA is O(m log m+|V|), where m is the size of the multicast group and |V| is the number of nodes in the network. We first present a unicast version of DCMA, called SDCR, which is used to setup an end-to-end, cost effective delay-constrained path between two nodes. SDCR can always find a delay-constrained path if one exists. Its running complexity is O(|V|). SDCR is used in constructing DCMA, which is guaranteed to be loop free. Simulation results are used to demonstrate the high performance and cost effectiveness of the proposed heuristic.
The Short and Long Term Impact of Europe’s Natural Gas Market on Electricity Markets until 2050

The interdependence of electricity and natural gas is becoming a major energy policy and regulatory issue in all jurisdictions around the world. The increased role of gas fired plants in renewable-based electricity markets and the dependence on natural gas imports make this issue particular important for the European energy market. In this paper we provide a comprehensive combined analysis of electricity and natural gas infrastructure with an applied focus: We analyze three different scenarios of the long-term European decarbonization pathways, and analyze the interrelation between electricity and natural gas markets on investments in the long run and spatial aspects in the short run.