Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vitro and in vivo Leishmanicidal activity of 2‐hydroxy‐3‐(3‐methyl‐2‐butenyl)‐1,4‐naphthoquinone (lapachol)

This study aims to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo leishmanicidal activity of lapachol, a naphthoquinone found in the seeds and heartwood of certain tropical plants, and to compare its efficacy with a reference drug, sodium stibogluconate (Pentostam®). These compounds (0.0125–4.0 mg/mL) were evaluated in vitro against intracellular amastigotes of Leishmania (Viannia) braziliensis (LVb), then tested in an animal model (hamster) to try to reproduce the leishmanicidal activity. In vitro, lapachol exhibited an anti‐amastigote effect, whereas in vivo it did not prevent the development of LVb‐induced lesions at an oral dose of 300 mg/kg/day for 42 days. Pentostam® demonstrated a significant anti‐amastigote effect in vitro for LVb and apparent clinical cure in vivo (60 mg/kg/day). However, it could not completely eradicate parasites from the tissues of infected animals. The observation that lapachol exerts leishmanicidal activity in vitro without offering significant protection against LVb‐infected lesions in hamsters suggests that lapachol in vivo might possibly inhibit the microbicidal functioning of macrophages. Alternatively, it might be transformed into an inactive metabolite(s) or neutralized, losing its leishmanicidal activity. It is also possible that an optimal and sustained plasma level of the drug could not be achieved at the dose used in this study. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adnexal masses and pregnancy: a 12-year experience.

OBJECTIVE Our purpose was to describe pregnancy-associated adnexal masses in eastern North Carolina. STUDY DESIGN A retrospective study was performed of 60 adnexal masses resected during pregnancy at a regional referral hospital from January 1990 to March 2002. RESULTS Adnexal masses occurred in 0.15% of pregnancies. Average gestational age at diagnosis and surgery was 12 and 20 weeks, respectively. Fifty percent of ovarian tumors were mature cystic teratomas, 20% were cystadenomas, and 13% were functional ovarian cysts. Malignancy occurred in 13%. Tumors with low malignant potential comprised 63% of malignancies. Average cyst size was 11.5 cm for malignancies and 7.6 cm for benign lesions (P value <.05). The preterm birth rate was 9%, the miscarriage rate was 4.7% after elective cases, and average Apgar scores were 7.5 and 8.7 at 1 and 5 minutes. CONCLUSION The incidence of malignancy in pregnancy-associated adnexal masses was high. Ultrasonography detected internal excrescences in the majority of tumors with low malignant potential. Fetal outcomes were not affected.
Lupus Nephritis in Children: Prognostic Significance of Clinicopathological Findings

Background: We aimed to review our experience with childhood lupus nephritis (LN) in respect to the analysis of the clinical and histopathological presentation of LN and prognostic factors affecting the kidney and patient outcomes. Method: Forty-three children (39 girls, 4 boys) with biopsy-proven LN were included in the study. The mean age of the children was 12.0 ± 2.8 years. Based on the renal histopathology and clinical presentation, patients were treated with oral prednisone, intravenous pulses of methylprednisolone or intravenous cyclophosphamide. The final clinical status was classified as follows: (1) renal and extrarenal remission; (2) clinically active renal disease, or (3) adverse outcome, i.e., end-stage renal failure (ESRF) or death. Results: The mean duration of follow-up was 7.2 ± 2.8 years (1 month to 14.2 years). All 43 children had hematuria and 53.5% had proteinuria at admission. Fourteen children were in nephrotic status at the onset of disease. Class IV (diffuse proliferative) nephritis was observed in 29 patients as the most frequent histopathology (67.4%). The patients with class IV nephritis had a tendency to develop nephrotic syndrome, heavy proteinuria, increased Cr levels and persistent hypertension at initial evaluation. Thirty-two of 43 children (74.4%) were in renal remission at the last visit. Five-year kidney and patient survival rates from the time of diagnosis to the endpoints of ESRF or death were 83.7 and 90.7% respectively in the whole group while it was 75.9 and 86.2% respectively in the class IV group. Adverse outcome was significantly associated with the persistent hypertension, anemia, high serum Cr level, heavy proteinuria, nephrotic syndrome and class IV nephritis at presentation. Conclusion: We can conclude that the prognosis of LN in children is primarily dependent on the histopathological lesions. Severity of the clinical renal disease at admission and presence of persistent hypertension are the main poor prognostic factors rather than age, gender, low C3 and C4 levels, ANA positivity and the treatment modalities in Turkish children.
Title Vision as Bayesian Inference : Analysis by Synthesis ?

We argue that the study of human vision should be aimed at determining how humans perform natural tasks on natural images. Attempts to understand the phenomenology of vision from artificial stimuli, though worthwhile as a starting point, risk leading to faulty generalizations about visual systems. In view of the enormous complexity of natural images, they are similar to trying to evaluate the performance of a soldier in battle from his ability at playing with a water pistol. Dealing with this complexity is daunting, but Bayesian inference on structured probability distributions offers the ability to design theories of vision that can deal with the complexity of natural images and which use analysis by synthesis strategies with intriguing similarities to the brain. Introduction: Perception as inference Experimental studies of biological vision systems have typically been performed using artificial stimuli and tasks. While much progress has been made, it is questionable how much light these studies shed on the performance of biological vision systems when faced with the complexity of natural images and natural tasks such as segmentation and object detection and recognition. For example, recent studies suggest that the responses of neurons in V1 to natural stimuli cannot be predicted from their responses to artificial stimuli [3]. It is well known to computer vision researchers that vision algorithms that work on artificial stimuli almost never generalize to natural images (e.g. there are many algorithms which solve the correspondence problem and estimate depth on Julesz random dot stereograms, but give terrible results when applied to natural images). We argue that the major difficulty of vision arises because natural images are both complex and objectively ambiguous. Similar 3D objects can result in different images, and different objects can result in similar images. Moreover, typical images can be highly complex and consist of hundreds of objects, many of which are overlapping. Therefore theoretical and experimental attempts to understand biological systems must come to terms with the daunting complexity of images somwhat analogous to the way that molecular biologists have had to tame the complexity of the genome. In this article, we argue that the theoretical principles described in this special issue are rich enough to deal with the complexities and ambiguities of natural images and to perform major perceptual tasks such as recognition and segmentation. The approach is based on Bayesian inference using probability distributions defined on structured representations [42, 44]. Vision is treated as an inverse inference problem, in the spirit of Helmholtz [19], where the goal is to estimate the factors that have generated the image. Two major themes follow naturally from this approach. Firstly, vision as inverse inference presupposes a formalization of how the input is generated, and which of the causes of that input should be estimated. This probabilistic generative approach
NANOGP8 is a retrogene expressed in cancers

Nanog is a transcription factor that plays key roles in the self‐renewal and maintenance of pluripotency in human embryonic stem (ES) cells. Among Nanog's 11 pseudogenes, NANOGP8 theoretically could be a retrogene, but was considered unlikely as it has not been identified in any expressed sequence tags (ESTs). In this study, we found that NANOGP8 was expressed in several cancer cell lines and in all cancer tissues tested. The complete coding sequence was cloned and the sequence is highly homologous to that of Nanog. We were also able to detect its protein expression using anti‐Nanog antibody in recombinant Escherichia coli and some cancer cell lines tested. In addition, expression of NANOGP8 in NIH3T3 cells can promote cell proliferation. The expression of NANOGP8 in cancer cell lines and cancer tissues suggests that NANOGP8 may play important roles in tumorigenesis. This work not only has potential significance in stem cell and cancer research, but it also raises the possibility that some of the human pseudogenes may have regulatory functions.
Transforming growth factor-beta in the early mouse embryo: implications for the regulation of muscle formation and implantation.

In a search for functions of transforming growth factor-beta during early embryonic development we used two different experimental approaches. In the first we made use of embryonic stem (ES) cells. ES cells in culture differentiate to derivatives of all three germ layers and mimic some aspects of organogenesis when grown as aggregates in suspension to form embryoid bodies. Differentiation proceeds further when the embryoid bodies attach to suitable substrates. Muscle and neuronal cells are among the most readily identified cell types then formed. We examined the effect of all-trans retinoic acid (RA) and members of the transforming growth factor-beta family (TGF-beta 1, TGF-beta 2) under these conditions in an assay where single aggregates formed in hanging microdrops in medium supplemented with serum depleted of lipophilic substances which would include retinoids. Endoderm-like cells formed under all conditions tested. RA at concentrations of 10(-8) M and 10(-7) M induced the formation of neurons but in the absence of RA or at concentrations up to 10(-9) M, neurons were not observed. Instead, beating muscle formed in about one-third of the plated aggregates; this was greatly reduced when RA concentrations increased above 10(-9) M. Immunofluorescent staining for muscle specific myosin showed that two muscle cell types could be distinguished: elongated, non-contractile myoblasts and mononucleate flat cells. The mononucleate flat cells appeared to correspond with rhythmically contracting muscle. The number of non-contractile myoblasts increased 3-fold over controls in the presence of 10(-9) M RA. TGF-beta s increased the number of contractile and non-contractile muscle cells by a factor 3 to 7 over controls, depending on the TGF-beta isoform added and the muscle cell type formed. TGF-beta 2 also invariably increased the rate at which contracting muscle cells were first observed in replated aggregates. The stimulatory effect of TGF-beta s on the formation of mononucleate flat cells was completely abrogated by RA at 10(-9) M while the number of myoblasts under similar conditions was unchanged. These data suggest that a complex interplay between retinoids and TGF-beta isoforms may be involved in regulation of differentiation in early myogenesis. In the second approach, neutralizing polyclonal rabbit antibodies specific for TGF-beta 2 were injected into the cavity of mouse blastocysts 3.5 days post coîtum (pc). After 1 day in culture, embryos were transferred to pseudopregnant females. The number of decidua, embryos and resorptions were counted at day 8.5-9.5 pc. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Heart rate variability and recurrence of atrial fibrillation after electrical cardioversion

BACKGROUND: Heart rate (HR) variability has been shown to predict spontaneous onset of atrial fibrillation (AF). This study was designed to test the hypothesis that HR variability after electrical cardioversion (CV) of persistent AF predicts the recurrence of AF. METHODS: Various time and frequency domain measures of HR variability, along with the non‐linear measures of HR dynamics, were analyzed from the 24‐hour ECG recordings in 78 patients with persistent AF after restoration of sinus rhythm with electrical CV. RESULTS: During the follow‐up of one month, 27 patients (35%) had recurrence of AF. The patients with AF recurrence had significantly higher standard deviation of all R‐R intervals (SDNN 117 ± 34versus100 ± 29P < 0.05), increased high‐frequency (lnHF 5.7 ± 0.6versus5.3 ± 0.7P < 0.05 ), low‐frequency (lnLF 6.2 ± 0.8versus5.6 ± 0.9P < 0.01) and very‐low‐frequency (InVLF 7.1 ± 0.8versus6.5 ± 0.8P < 0.01) power spectral components of HR variability than those who remained in sinus rhythm. Approximate entropy, a measure of complexity of HR dynamics, and the short‐term fractal scaling exponent did not differ between the groups, but the long‐term power‐law slope β was steeper among the patients who remained in sinus rhythm ( P < 0.05). During the first week after the CV, increased HF power (highest tertile) was the most powerful predictor of AF recurrence with odds ratio of 2.8 (95% confidence interval 1.0 to 8.0,P < 0.05). Increased VLF power spectral component at baseline predicted best the late recurrence of AF with odds ratio of 3.3 (95% confidence interval 1.6 to 7.2,P < 0.01). No clinical or echocardiographic variable predicted the recurrence of AF. CONCLUSIONS: Increased HR variability in all major power spectral bands is associated with late recurrence of AF after electrical CV. Enhanced cardiac vagal outflow, reflected as an increased HF power spectral component, seems to predict specifically the early recurrence of AF after the CV.
TSV sharing through multiplexing for TSV count minimization in high-level synthesis

TSV count minimization is an important topic for 3D ICs. In previous works, TSV sharing is limited to the same functional unit output and the same functional unit input. In this paper, we present the first attempt to use multiplexers to extend TSV sharing for cross-layer data transfers that have different functional unit outputs and different functional unit inputs. We use an ILP (integer linear programming) to formally draw up the simultaneous application of resource binding, layer assignment, and TSV sharing (through multiplexing) to minimize the TSV count. Compared with previous works, our approach can greatly further reduce the TSV count.
Do mood symptoms subdivide the schizophrenia phenotype? association of the GMP6A gene with a depression subgroup

Genetic studies of clinically defined subgroups of schizophrenia patients may reduce the phenotypic heterogeneity of schizophrenia and thus facilitate the identification of genes that confer risk to this disorder. Several latent class analyses have provided subgroups of psychotic disorders that show considerable consistency over these studies. The presence or absence of mood symptoms was found to contribute most to the delineations of these subgroups. In this study we used six previously published subtypes of psychosis derived from latent class analysis of a large sample of psychosis patients. In 280 schizophrenia patients and 525 healthy controls we investigated the associations of these subgroups with myelin related genes. After bonferroni correction we found an association of the glycoprotein M6A gene (GPM6A) with the subgroup of schizophrenia patients with high levels of depression (P‐corrected = 0.006). Borderline association of the microtubulin associated protein tau (MAPT) with a primarily non‐affective group of schizophrenia patients (P‐corrected = 0.052) was also observed. GPM6A modulates the influence of stress on the hippocampus in animals. Thus our findings could suggest that GMP6A plays a role in the stress‐induced hippocampal alterations that are found in psychiatric disorders in general and schizophrenia in particular. Overall, these finding suggests that investigating subgroups of schizophrenia based symptoms profile and particularly mood symptoms can facilitate genetic studies of schizophrenia. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Amounts of interstitial cell-stimulating hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone required for follicular development, uterine growth and ovulation in the hypophysectomized rat.

Female rats of the Sprague- Dawley strain were hypophysectomized at 28 days of age; 7 days later, subcutaneous injections of ovine ICSH and/or ovine FSH were initiated. Injected alone, neither gonadotropin stimulated the release of sufficient estrogen to cause uterine development. As little as 0.05 μg of ICSH injected together with 3 μg of FSH for a period of 3 days effected small increases, and 0.5 μg in combination with the same dosage of FSH substantial increases in the uterine weights. A daily dose of 1 μg of FSH neither promoted follicular development nor stimulated an increase in the weights of the ovaries; this dose level likewise was ineffective in stimulating estrogen secretion, even when combined with as much as 20 μg of ICSH. A dose of 3 μg of FSH injected together with 1 pg of ICSH once daily for a period of 3 days tripled the weights of the ovaries; developing follicles contained large antra and many showed evidence of luteinization. The same combination of FSH and ICSH injected once daily at.
Parenchymal Organ, and Not Splenic, Immunity Correlates with Host Survival during Disseminated Candidiasis

ABSTRACT We examined the relationship between host survival and renal and splenic immune responses in a murine model of hematogenously disseminated candidiasis. Male BALB/c mice were infected via tail vein injection with wild-type C. albicans or with an isogenic, Δefg1/Δefg1 hypha-deficient mutant. Host survival, organ fungal burden, intracellular cytokine content of splenic and kidney lymphocytes, and whole-organ cytokine profiles were determined. Wild-type C. albicans induced type 2 splenocyte responses with both nonfatal and fatal inocula. In the kidney, conversely, wild-type inocula causing no or low mortality induced type 1 responses and 100% fatal inocula induced type 2 or interleukin-10 (IL-10)-dominant responses. Hypha-deficient mutant C. albicans caused no or low mortality while inducing type 1 responses in both the spleen and kidney. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that host survival during systemic infection correlates with the type of immune response engendered in a nonlymphoid, parenchymal organ and not with the response in the spleen. Furthermore, the results provide in vivo confirmation that hyphal formation by C. albicans induces type 2 or IL-10-dominant host responses in tissues.
Sparse Solutions of Linear Diophantine Equations

We present structural results on solutions to the Diophantine system $Ay = b$, $ y \in \mathbb{Z}^t_{\ge 0}$ that have the smallest number of nonzero entries. Our tools are algebraic and number theoretic in nature and include Siegel's lemma, generating functions, and commutative algebra. These results have some interesting consequences in discrete optimization.
Botulinum toxin type A for the treatment of headache: why we say yes.

B OTULINUM TOXIN TYPE A (BoNT-A) has long been used to treat disorders associated with increased muscle tone. Support for an analgesic effect of BoNT-A independent of its muscle relaxation effect came from clinical observations that some patients with dystonia obtained pain relief before they obtained improvement in muscle tone. Injections of BoNT-A were discovered serendipitously to alleviate migraine headache when they were given for the treatment of facial wrinkles. After several openlabel studies showed that BoNT-A might have efficacy in headache treatment, randomized controlled trials were initiated to investigate this issue further. New scientific data have provided insight into mechanisms by which BoNT-A may exert its analgesic effect. In our discussion, we focus on clinical data obtained from randomized controlled trials.
Infant exposures and development of type 1 diabetes mellitus: The Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young (DAISY).

IMPORTANCE The incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is increasing worldwide, with the most rapid increase among children younger than 5 years of age. OBJECTIVE To examine the associations between perinatal and infant exposures, especially early infant diet, and the development of T1DM. DESIGN The Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young (DAISY) is a longitudinal, observational study. SETTING Newborn screening for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) was done at St. Joseph's Hospital in Denver, Colorado. First-degree relatives of individuals with T1DM were recruited from the Denver metropolitan area. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1835 children at increased genetic risk for T1DM followed up from birth with complete prospective assessment of infant diet. Fifty-three children developed T1DM. EXPOSURES Early (<4 months of age) and late (≥6 months of age) first exposure to solid foods compared with first exposures at 4 to 5 months of age (referent). MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURE Risk for T1DM diagnosed by a physician. RESULTS Both early and late first exposure to any solid food predicted development of T1DM (hazard ratio [HR], 1.91; 95% CI, 1.04-3.51, and HR, 3.02; 95% CI, 1.26-7.24, respectively), adjusting for the HLA-DR genotype, first-degree relative with T1DM, maternal education, and delivery type. Specifically, early exposure to fruit and late exposure to rice/oat predicted T1DM (HR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.14-4.39, and HR, 2.88; 95% CI, 1.36-6.11, respectively), while breastfeeding at the time of introduction to wheat/barley conferred protection (HR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.26-0.86). Complicated vaginal delivery was also a predictor of T1DM (HR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.03-3.61). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE These results suggest the safest age to introduce solid foods in children at increased genetic risk for T1DM is between 4 and 5 months of age. Breastfeeding while introducing new foods may reduce T1DM risk.
Extractable substances (anionic surfactants) from membrane filters induce morphological changes in the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus (Chlorophyceae)

The effect of filtration of medium through different kinds of filters (glass fiber, mixed esters of cellulose and nitrocellulose) on the morphology in the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus was examined. Several compounds potentially released from membrane filters were further investigated, and among them, two anionic surfactants were found to be morphologically active. Exposure to the anionic surfactants resulted within 2 d in the transformation of unicellular populations of Scenedesmus in populations dominated by colonies. Growth rates between control and surfactant‐exposed populations were identical, and the morphological effect occurred at surfactant concentrations far below the reported no‐observed‐effect concentration for growth inhibition, stressing the need for inclusion of morphological appearance of Scenedesmus in algal toxicity testing to improve the assessment of ecological risks.