Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Renal transplantation in baboons under FK 506.

FK 506 was tested in unrelated baboons submitted to renal transplantation and bilateral native nephrectomy. Untreated baboons died after 9.2 ± 4.0 SD days. When FK 506 was given orally for 90 days, survival with the optimum dose was 74.6 ± 28.9 days; this allowed maximum credit for each individual animal of 90 days. A 3-day course of intramuscular FK 506 started on postoperative day 4 allowed 1- to 2-month survival. Delayed rejection in these baboons as well as in those treated daily for 90 days with FK could sometimes be reversed temporarily with a second 3-day course. The doses required for a good therapeutic effect were 10 times greater in baboons than in dogs, a finding that may reflect a species difference of lymphocyte sensitivity to this drug. FK appeared to be relatively nontoxic in subhuman primates, and it remains a promising drug for clinical trial. © 1989.
Pavlovian Conditioning of the Tickle Response of Human Subjects: Temporal and Delay Conditioning

Previous studies of the human response to a tickle have demonstrated that subjects will respond to a gesture that signals the onset of a tickle in the same way as to a tickle. Researchers have described this anticipatory response as an “expectation. ” In the current study, we investigated, from the Pavlovian framework, the response to a verbal stimulus preceding the tickle stimulus. We exposed subjects to experimental phases which included the Neutral Stimulus Alone, 100% Pairing of the Neutral and Unconditioned Stimuli (tickle strokes to the foot), Random Presentation, Partial (75%) Reinforcement, and Temporal Conditioning. Pavlovian conditioning was observed in all phases, suggesting a parsimonious explanation for the expectation effect described by others.
Frequency and Distribution of Tuberculosis Resistance-Associated Mutations between Mumbai, Moldova, and Eastern Cape

ABSTRACT Molecular diagnostic assays, with their ability to rapidly detect resistance-associated mutations in bacterial genes, are promising technologies to control the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). Sequencing assays provide detailed information for specific gene regions and can help diagnostic assay developers prioritize mutations for inclusion in their assays. We performed pyrosequencing of seven Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene regions (katG, inhA, ahpC, rpoB, gyrA, rrs, and eis) for 1,128 clinical specimens from India, Moldova, and South Africa. We determined the frequencies of each mutation among drug-resistant and -susceptible specimens based on phenotypic drug susceptibility testing results and examined mutation distributions by country. The most common mutation among isoniazid-resistant (INHr) specimens was the katG 315ACC mutation (87%). However, in the Eastern Cape, INHr specimens had a lower frequency of katG mutations (44%) and higher frequencies of inhA (47%) and ahpC (10%) promoter mutations. The most common mutation among rifampin-resistant (RIFr) specimens was the rpoB 531TTG mutation (80%). The mutation was common in RIFr specimens in Mumbai (83%) and Moldova (84%) but not the Eastern Cape (17%), where the 516GTC mutation appeared more frequently (57%). The most common mutation among fluoroquinolone-resistant specimens was the gyrA 94GGC mutation (44%). The rrs 1401G mutation was found in 84%, 84%, and 50% of amikacin-resistant, capreomycin-resistant, and kanamycin (KAN)-resistant (KANr) specimens, respectively. The eis promoter mutation −12T was found in 26% of KANr and 4% of KAN-susceptible (KANs) specimens. Inclusion of the ahpC and eis promoter gene regions was critical for optimal test sensitivity for the detection of INH resistance in the Eastern Cape and KAN resistance in Moldova. (This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under registration number NCT02170441.)
Role of P‐Glycoprotein in the Blood‐Brain Transport of Colchicine and Vinblastine

Abstract: Classically, drug penetration through the blood‐brain barrier depends on the lipid solubility of the substance, except for some highly lipophilic drugs, like colchicine and vinblastine, both substrates of P‐glycoprotein, a drug efflux pump present at the luminal surface of the brain capillary endothelial cells. Colchicine and vinblastine uptake into the brain was studied in the rat using the in situ brain perfusion technique and two inhibitors of P‐glycoprotein, verapamil and SDZ PSC‐833. When rats were pretreated with PSC‐833 (10 mg/kg, intravenous bolus), colchicine and vinblastine uptake was enhanced 8.42‐ and 9.08‐fold, respectively, in all the gray areas of the rat brain studied. The mean colchicine distribution volume was increased from 0.67 ± 0.41 to 5.64 ± 0.70 µl/g and vinblastine distribution volume from 2.74 ± 1.15 to 24.88 ± 4.03 µl/g. When rats were pretreated with verapamil (1 mg/kg, intravenous bolus), colchicine distribution volume was increased 3.70‐fold. The increase in colchicine and vinblastine did not differ between the eight brain gray areas. PSC‐833 and verapamil pretreatment had no influence on the distribution volume of either drug in the choroid plexus. Nevertheless, distribution volumes remained small, considering the highly lipophilic nature of the substances. We suggest that P‐glycoprotein is either only partially inhibited (difficulty of fully saturating P‐glycoprotein, especially under in vivo conditions) or not the only barrier to these two drugs.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE AT SEXUAL MATURITY AND SOME PRODUCTIVE TRAITS IN LOCAL CHICKENS STRAIN

A total of 250 females of Alexandria chickens from egg line which selected for age of sexual maturity were divided into three groups according to their age at sexual maturity trait (X ± one unit of S.D.), as early sexual maturity (ESM) averaged (128.5 d), medium sexual maturity (MSM) averaged (152.8 d) and late sexual maturity (LSM) averaged (166.6 d). The objectives of this study were to determinate the relationship between age at sexual maturity and each of growth and egg production traits and to estimate genetic and phenotypic correlation coefficients between age at sexual maturity and studied traits. Results showed that, there were significant differences of body weight at 4 wks (202.2, 187.4 and 177.5 gm.) and at 8 wks (560.6, 502.8 and 479.0 gm.) for ESM, MSM and LSM, respectively. However, there were no significant differences of body weight at hatch day (BW0) and at sexual maturity (BWM) among these groups. These results showed that the early age at sexual maturity group had the heaviest weight till 8 weeks of age, which was not found at sexual maturity. Early age at sexual maturity group gave the highest egg number during the first 90 days after sexual maturity (42.6 eggs) compared with MSM and LSM groups (28.2 and 30.6 eggs, respectively). Also, egg mass during the first 90 days after sexual maturity was the highest value (1405.8 gm.) for early maturity group; in the meanwhile the average of egg weight was the lowest value (33.0 gm.). The genetic and phenotypic correlations of age at sexual maturity were negatively with all of body weight at 4-wk, 8-wk of age, egg number and egg mass, while they were positive with egg weight. Therefore, breeding programs aiming to reduced age at sexual maturity to obtain a high number and mass of eggs, must consider high body weight till 8-wk of age, after that restrict the body weight till sexual
FGFR3 is expressed and is important for survival in INA‐6, a human myeloma cell line without a t(4;14)

Objectives: Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) is a proto‐oncogene that is often dysregulated together with multiple myeloma SET‐domain (MMSET) by the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) gene in t(4;14)pos multiple myeloma (MM) cells, and which is usually not expressed in MM cells without this translocation. Whether FGFR3 may play a role in MM cells without t(4;14) and the IGH‐MMSET fusion protein is unclear and is the focus of this report.
A New Digital Method for the Objective Comparison of Frontal Sinuses for Identification *

Abstract: Use of the frontal sinuses for identification requires an objective method of comparison to meet Daubert standards. Christensen’s application of Elliptical Fourier Analysis and Likelihood Ratios seems to be a viable solution for this problem. The proposed method draws upon this work and attempts to simplify its application. Variation between pairs of digitized sinus tracings was quantified by summing the difference between corresponding measurements taken from a fixed origin to the outer edge of the sinus outlines using Adobe Photoshop® CS2. Same‐skull and different‐skull pairs were used to develop reference distributions from which the probability of unknown pairs coming from the same or a different individual was estimated. Error rates of 0% were achieved. Resulting correlation coefficients demonstrated inter‐rater and test–retest reliability. Further refinement of the reference distributions and more rigorous testing of error rates should make this technique applicable to casework.
PICK1 Mediates Transient Synaptic Expression of GluA2-Lacking AMPA Receptors during Glycine-Induced AMPA Receptor Trafficking

The number and subunit composition of postsynaptic AMPA receptors (AMPARs) is a key determinant of synaptic transmission. The vast majority of AMPARs contain GluA2 subunit, which renders the channel impermeable to calcium. However, a small proportion are GluA2 lacking and therefore calcium permeable (CP-AMPARs). It has been proposed recently that long-term potentiation (LTP) involves not only an increase in the total number of AMPARs at the synapse but also a transient switch to CP-AMPARs in the first few minutes after LTP induction. The molecular mechanisms that underlie this switch to CP-AMPARs and the subsequent switch back to calcium-impermeable AMPARs are unknown. Here, we show that endogenous GluA1 is rapidly inserted at the synaptic plasma membrane of rat hippocampal neurons immediately after stimulation with elevated glycine, a treatment known to induce LTP. In contrast, GluA2 is restricted from trafficking to the cell surface by a glycine-induced increase in PICK1–GluA2 binding on endosomal compartments. Between 5 and 20 min after stimulus, activation of CP-AMPARs triggers a release of GluA2 from PICK1, allowing GluA2-containing AMPARs to traffic to the synaptic plasma membrane. These results define a PICK1-dependent mechanism that underlies transient alterations in the subunit composition and calcium permeability of synaptic AMPARs that is important during the early phase after stimulation with glycine and therefore is likely to be important during the expression of LTP.
Development of Time , Speed , and Distance Concepts

The rule-assessment approach was used to examine 5-, 8-, 11-, and 20-year-olds' understanding of the concepts of time, speed, and distance. Parallel tasks were developed for the three concepts that allowed specification of whether children were relying on time, speed, distance, end point, end time, beginning point, or beginning time cues in making their judgments. It was found that 5-year-olds understood all three concepts in the same way: Whichever train ended farther ahead on the tracks was said to have traveled for the longer time, at the faster speed, and for the greater distance. Twenty-year-olds, at the other extreme, understood all three concepts as distinct and separate ideas. The transitional period was marked by specific confusions among the three concepts: Time was regularly confused with distance, distance was confused with time, and speed was confused with distance and to some extent with end point. Both speed and distance concepts appeared to be mastered well before the concept of time.
Body temperature stability achieved by the large body mass of sea turtles

To investigate the thermal characteristics of large reptiles living in water, temperature data were continuously recorded from 16 free-ranging loggerhead turtles, Caretta caretta, during internesting periods using data loggers. Core body temperatures were 0.7–1.7°C higher than ambient water temperatures and were kept relatively constant. Unsteady numerical simulations using a spherical thermodynamic model provided mechanistic explanations for these phenomena, and the body temperature responses to fluctuating water temperature can be simply explained by a large body mass with a constant thermal diffusivity and a heat production rate rather than physiological thermoregulation. By contrast, body temperatures increased 2.6–5.1°C in 107–152 min during their emergences to nest on land. The estimated heat production rates on land were 7.4–10.5 times the calculated values in the sea. The theoretical prediction that temperature difference between body and water temperatures would increase according to the body size was confirmed by empirical data recorded from several species of sea turtles. Comparing previously reported data, the internesting intervals of leatherback, green and loggerhead turtles were shorter when the body temperatures were higher. Sea turtles seem to benefit from a passive thermoregulatory strategy, which depends primarily on the physical attributes of their large body masses.
Nutritional Management for Buffalo Production

The buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is an important contributor to milk, meat, power, fuel and leather production in many developing countries. Buffaloes can be categorized into Asian and Mediterranean buffaloes. Asian buffalo includes two subspecies known as Riverine and Swamp types. Riverine (water buffalo) and Swamp buffaloes possess different genetics (50 vs. 48 chromosomes, respectively), morphology (body frame, body weight, horn shape and skin color) and behavior (wallowing in mud or water) and thus, are reared and used for different purposes. Low per head milk yield, poor reproductive performance (seasonal breeding behavior, anestrous, and longer calving interval) and low growth rate in buffaloes have been attributed to insufficient supply of nutrients. In many parts of Asia, where the buffalo is an integral part of the food chain and rural economy, irregular and inadequate availability of quality feedstuffs and their utilization are hampering the performance of this unique animal. Balanced nutrition and better management can enhance buffalo productivity. Many efforts have been made in the last few decades to improve nutrient supply and utilization in buffaloes. Recent research on locally available feed resources such as crop residues, and industrial by-products, dietary addition of micronutrients, use of performance modifiers and use of ruminally protected fat and protein sources have shown significant potential to improve growth, milk yield and reproductive performance of buffaloes. However, a number of issues, including establishment of nutrient requirements for dairy and beef, development of buffalo calf feeding systems, nutritional management of metabolic and reproductive anomalies, and understanding and exploitation of the buffalo gut ecosystem, need to be addressed. Extensive coordinated research and extension efforts are required for improved buffalo nutrition in developing countries.
Older adults expend more listening effort than young adults recognizing speech in noise.

PURPOSE Listening in noisy situations is a challenging experience for many older adults. The authors hypothesized that older adults exert more listening effort compared with young adults. Listening effort involves the attention and cognitive resources required to understand speech. The purpose was (a) to quantify the amount of listening effort that young and older adults expend when they listen to speech in noise and (b) to examine the relationship between self-reported listening effort and objective measures. METHOD A dual-task paradigm was used to objectively evaluate the listening effort of 25 young and 25 older adults. The primary task involved a closed-set sentence-recognition test, and the secondary task involved a vibrotactile pattern recognition test. Participants performed each task separately and concurrently under 2 experimental conditions: (a) when the level of noise was the same and (b) when baseline word recognition performance did not differ between groups. RESULTS Older adults expended more listening effort than young adults under both experimental conditions. Subjective estimates of listening effort did not correlate with any of the objective dual-task measures. CONCLUSIONS Older adults require more processing resources to understand speech in noise. Dual-task measures and subjective ratings tap different aspects of listening effort.
MORTALITY FROM DUCK PLAGUE VIRUS IN IMMUNOSUPPRESSED ADULT MALLARD DUCKS

Environmental contaminants contain chemicals that, if ingested, could affect the immunological status of wild birds, and in particular, their resistance to infectious disease. Immunosuppression caused by environmental contaminants, could have a major impact on waterfowl populations, resulting in increased susceptibility to contagious disease agents. Duck plague virus has caused repeated outbreaks in waterfowl resulting in mortality. In this study, several doses of cyclophosphamide (CY), a known immunosuppressant, were administered to adult mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) to determine if a resultant decrease in resistance to a normally sub-lethal strain of duck plague virus would occur, and induce mortality in these birds. Death occurred in birds given CY only, and in birds given virus and CY, but not in those given virus only. There was significantly greater mortality and more rapid deaths in the duck plague virus-infected groups than in groups receiving only the immunosuppressant. A positively correlated dose-response effect was observed with CY mortalities, irrespective of virus exposure. A fuel oil and a crude oil, common environmental contaminants with immunosuppressive capabilities, were tested to determine if they could produce an effect similar to that of CY. Following 28 days of oral oil administration, the birds were challenged with a sub-lethal dose of duck plague virus. No alteration in resistance to the virus (as measured by mortality) was observed, except in the positive CY control group.
Association of esophagitis and esophageal strictures with diseases treated with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

BACKGROUND It has been speculated that intake of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) represents a risk factor for the occurrence of esophagitis and esophageal strictures. METHODS A case-control study was conducted to compare the occurrence of comorbid diseases treated with NSAIDs in case and control subjects with and without esophageal disease, respectively. The case population was comprised of all patients with esophagitis (International Classification of Diseases code 530.1) or esophageal stricture (code 530.3) who were discharged from hospitals of the Department of Veteran Affairs between 1981 and 1994. In separate multivariate logistic regressions, the occurrence of esophagitis or esophageal stricture served as the outcome variable, and age, gender, ethnicity, and comorbid occurrence of an NSAID-related diagnosis served as modifier variables. RESULTS A total of 101,366 individual case subjects were included, of whom 92,860 presented with esophagitis and 14,201 with stricture. The occurrence of erosive esophagitis was associated with osteoarthritis (odds ratio = 1.42, 95% confidence interval = 1.36-1.48), osteoporosis (1.38, 1.25-1.52), back pain (1.49, 1.42-1.56), femur bone fracture (1.46, 0.92-2.32), fibrositis (1.57, 1.41-1.75), tension headache (1.34, 1.27-1.40), ankylosing spondylitis (1.33, 1.24-1.42), rheumatoid arthritis (1.13, 1.05-1.21), sicca syndrome (1.15, 1.05-1.26), and systemic sclerosis (6.16, 4.65-8.14). NSAID-related diagnoses represented similar risk factors for both esophagitis and esophageal stricture. CONCLUSIONS A large variety of diseases treated by NSAIDs are associated with a significantly increased risk of esophageal erosion or stricture; the risk appears similar for both of these. In some comorbid conditions, the underlying disease process may contribute to the occurrence of esophageal pathology.
Evolution and Function of Innate Immune Receptors – Insights from Marine Invertebrates

Innate, nonadaptive immune receptors represent phylogenetically ancient first-line sensors of invariant non-self patterns and other cellular danger signals. From lower animal phyla to vertebrates, most pathogens are immediately detected by various recognition systems and are destroyed by induction of defense effectors like antimicrobial peptides. Toll-like receptors, nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain-like receptors and scavenger receptor cysteine-rich proteins represent archetypes of the innate immune receptors, which mediate the complex interaction between the host and microbiota at the interface of epithelial barriers. In this review, we will use knowledge gained from marine invertebrates as a paradigm to describe how this constant molecular crosstalk within the holobiont, i.e. the animal with all its associated microorganisms, contributes to epithelial homeostasis, immunological integrity and maintenance of the resident microbial diversity.
Release characteristics of brilliant blue from calcium-alginate beads coated with quaternized chitosan

Calcium-alginate beads coated with quaternized chitosan were prepared in a neutral environment, and morphologies were observed by SEM. Optimum conditions for the encapsulation and retention of a model drug (brilliant blue, BB) in acid were obtained from studies of preparation conditions, including alginate and quaternized chitosan concentration, calcium chloride (CaCl2) concentration in the gelling medium and by comparing one-step and two-step preparation methods. Results showed that very high BB encapsulation efficiency (99%, w/w) and low leakage in acid (8%, w/w) was achieved from dry beads when 2.0% (w/v) alginate was dropped into 1.0% (w/v) CaCl2 containing 0.3% (w/v) quaternized chitosan by a one-step method. The release of BB in 0.9% (w/v) NaCl was modulated by coating calcium-alginate with different weight average molecule weight (Mw) and degree of substitution (DS) of quaternized chitosan. A decreased of Mw accelerated the release of BB and a high DS value significantly decreased the release in 0.9% (w/v) NaCl.
Career Plateuning and Work Attitudes: Moderating Effects of Mentoring with Nigerian Employees

This study examined the relation of career plateauing to job satisfaction, to organizational commitment, and turnover intentions and the moderating effects of mentoring on the relationships between career plateauing and the three dependent variables. Data were collected from 280 government employees in Nigeria who were more than 30 years old and came from a wide variety of organizations. Results of this study showed that career plateauing was negatively correlated with job satisfaction and organizational commitment and positively correlated with turnover intentions. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that mentoring played significant moderating role on the relationships between career plateauing and job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Based on the findings, the implications, limitations of this study and direction for future research were discussed.