Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The distinct role of STIM1 and STIM2 in the regulation of store‐operated Ca2+ entry and cellular function

Stromal interaction molecules STIM1 and STIM2 are endoplasmic reticulum (ER) Ca2+ sensors that initiate store‐operated Ca 2+ entry (SOCE). The roles of STIM1‐mediated SOCE in cancer biology have been highlighted in different types of cancer, but that of STIM2 is unknown. By the model of cervical cancer, here we focus on the cooperative regulation of SOCE by STIM proteins and their distinct roles in cellular function. Immunofluorescent stainings of surgical specimens of cervical cancer show that STIM1 and STIM2 are abundant in tumor tissues, but STIM1 is the major ER Ca 2+ sensor identified in the invasive front of cancer tissues. STIM1 or STIM2 overexpression in cervical cancer SiHa cells induces an upregulated SOCE. Regarding cellular function, STIM1 and STIM2 are necessary for cell proliferation, whereas STIM1 is the dominant ER Ca 2+ sensor involved in cell migration. During SOCE, STIM1 is aggregated and translocated towards the Orai1‐containing plasma membrane in association with the microtubule plus‐end binding protein EB1. In contrast, STIM2 is constitutively aggregated without significant trafficking or association with microtubules. These results show the distinct role of STIM1 and STIM2 in SOCE and cellular function of cervical cancer cells.
Comparison of the clinical characteristics and comprehensive assessments of the 2011 and 2017 GOLD classifications for patients with COPD in China

Objective Compared with the 2011 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), there have been significant changes in the 2017 GOLD classification. The purpose of this study was to analyze the changes in clinical characteristics of the new A-B-C-D system and to explore its role in comprehensive assessment of COPD. Subjects and methods A total of 631 stable COPD patients were included in a cross-sectional survey. Data collected included baseline data and pulmonary function testing results, respiratory muscle strength, symptoms and quality of life, exercise capacity, nutritional status, and anxiety and depression as a comprehensive assessment. Based on the 2011 GOLD and 2017 GOLD classifications, patients were divided into Groups A1–D1 and Groups A2–D2, respectively. Results In the 2011 GOLD, 64 subjects in Group C1 were reclassified into Group A2 (41.6%), while 77 subjects in Group D1 were reclassified into Group B2 (27.1%). The old and new grading systems were somewhat consistent (Cohen’s kappa=0.6963, P<0.001). Lung function was lower, while the body mass index, airflow obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise capacity index (BODE index) was higher in Group A2 than in Group A1 (P<0.001). In Group B2, lung function, 6-minute walking distance (6MWD), and respiratory muscle strength were significantly lower than in Group B1 (P<0.001), while the BODE index (P<0.001) was higher. In comprehensive assessment, subjects in Groups B2 and D2 had significantly lower lung function, 6MWD, respiratory muscle strength, quality of life, higher symptom scores, and BODE index than subjects in Group A2 (P<0.001). The differences between Group A2 and C2 were small. Conclusion Compared with the 2011 GOLD, the 2017 GOLD reclassified more patients into Groups A and B, those with significantly worse lung function and higher BODE index. In the comprehensive assessment of the new classification, Groups B and D may have greater disease severity. However, the effectiveness of the new grading system in predicting patient prognosis, and its guidance on the use of drugs, remains to be explored in future studies.
Assessment of variations in sphenoid sinus pneumatization in Indian population: A multidetector computed tomography study

Abstract Background and Purpose: The purpose of our study was to assess the prevalence of variations in the extent of sphenoid pneumatization in the Indian population and compare with existing literature. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 500 patients who underwent CT of the paranasal sinuses. The multiplanar reformations of paranasal sinus were assessed for the type of pneumatization of the sphenoid sinus and type of clival, lateral recess, lesser wing, and anterior recess extensions. Results: The conchal, presellar, incomplete sellar, and complete sellar types comprised 0%, 1.2%, 22.2%, and 76.6% of patients. The extensions of pneumatization subtypes in the study population were clival in 76.6% subjects; lateral recess, lesser wing, and anterior recess in 59.7%, 20.4%, and 20.4% of sinuses, respectively. The pure forms were seen in 25.4% and combined forms in 61% of sinuses. The presellar type (1.2%) was less common and sellar type (98.8%) being common in our population compared to the Caucasian and East Asian population. The sphenoid sinuses were extensively pneumatized in our population compared to the Chinese and Caucasian population, the prevalence being 76.6%, 68%, and 44.5% for clival; 59.7%, 46%, and 28.3% for lateral recess; 20.4%, 32%, and 12% for lesser wing extension, respectively. The pure forms were relatively less common and combined forms being more common compared to the Chinese and Caucasian population in our study. Conclusion: The extent of pneumatization of the sphenoid sinus has clinical and surgical implications in sellar and central skull base lesions, and variability in different populations confirms that ethnicity influences the differences in prevalence.
Alpha2beta1 Integrin (VLA-2) Protects Activated Human Effector T Cells From Methotrexate-Induced Apoptosis

β1 integrins are critical for T cell migration, survival and costimulation. The integrin α2β1, which is a receptor for collagen, also named VLA-2, is a major costimulatory pathway of effector T cells and has been implicated in arthritis pathogenesis. Herein, we have examined its ability to promote methotrexate (MTX) resistance by enhancing effector T cells survival. Our results show that attachment of anti-CD3-activated human polarized Th17 cells to collagen but not to fibronectin or laminin led to a significant reduction of MTX-induced apoptosis. The anti-CD3+collagen-rescued cells still produce significant amounts of IL-17 and IFNγ upon their reactivation indicating that their inflammatory nature is preserved. Mechanistically, we found that the prosurvival role of anti-CD3+collagen involves activation of the MTX transporter ABCC1 (ATP Binding Cassette subfamily C Member 1). Finally, the protective effect of collagen/α2β1 integrin on MTX-induced apoptosis also occurs in memory CD4+ T cells isolated from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients suggesting its clinical relevance. Together these results show that α2β1 integrin promotes MTX resistance of effector T cells, and suggest that it could contribute to the development of MTX resistance that is seen in RA.
Women manifest more severe COPD symptoms across the life course

Background Previous studies suggest that gender differences exist in COPD diagnosis and symptoms; these differences may be more pronounced in younger adults. Our objective was to explore age-associated gender differences across a range of COPD severities. Materials and methods A total of 4,484 current and former smokers with COPD from the Genetic Epidemiology of COPD cohort were investigated using regression modeling to explore the association between gender, age, disease severity, and the contributing elements of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) classification system (symptoms, exacerbation risk, airflow limitation). Results The age–gender interaction was observed across multiple age categories. Compared to men with COPD, younger women with COPD had a greater likelihood of more severe dyspnea, airflow limitation, greater risk for exacerbations, and categorization in GOLD groups B and D. These differences were less pronounced in older women with COPD. However, older women remained more likely to experience severe dyspnea and to manifest more severe COPD (B vs A) than older men, despite lower pack-years of smoking. Conclusion These data demonstrate the significant symptom burden of COPD in women, especially younger women. More research is needed to understand the pathogenesis of increased severity of COPD in women and to develop gender-targeted clinical assessment and management approaches to improve outcomes for women and men with COPD at all ages.
Existence results for multivalued operators of monotone type in reflexive Banach spaces

Let X be a real reflexive Banach space and X∗ its dual space. Let T : X ⊃ D(T ) → 2X be an operator of class AG(S+), where G ⊂ X. A result concerning the existence of pathwise connected sets in the range of T is established, and as a consequence, an open mapping theorem is proved. In addition, for certain operators T of class BG(S+), the existence of nonzero solutions of 0 ∈ Tx in G1 \ G2, where G1, G2 ⊂ X satisfy 0 ∈ G2 and G2 ⊂ G1, is established. The Skrypnik’s topological degree theory is used, utilizing approximating schemes for operators of classes AG(S+) and BG(S+), along with the methodology of a recent invariance of domain result by Kartsatos and the author.
Towards a fullerene-based quantum computer

Molecular structures appear to be natural candidates for a quantum technology: individual atoms can support quantum superpositions for long periods, and such atoms can in principle be embedded in a permanent molecular scaffolding to form an array. This would be true nanotechnology, with dimensions of order of a nanometre. However, the challenges of realizing such a vision are immense. One must identify a suitable elementary unit and demonstrate its merits for qubit storage and manipulation, including input/output. These units must then be formed into large arrays corresponding to an functional quantum architecture, including a mechanism for gate operations. Here we report our efforts, both experimental and theoretical, to create such a technology based on endohedral fullerenes or ‘buckyballs’. We describe our successes with respect to these criteria, along with the obstacles we are currently facing and the questions that remain to be addressed.
Overprecision increases subsequent surprise

Overconfident people should be surprised that they are so often wrong. Are they? Three studies examined the relationship between confidence and surprise in order to shed light on the psychology of overprecision in judgment. Participants reported ex-ante confidence in their beliefs, and after receiving accuracy feedback, they then reported ex-post surprise. Results show that more ex-ante confidence produces less ex-post surprise for correct answers; this relationship reverses for incorrect answers. However, this sensible pattern only holds for some measures of confidence; it fails for confidence-interval measures. The results can help explain the robust durability of overprecision in judgment.
Involvement of the Opioid System in High Alcohol Consumption : Environmental and Genetic Influences

Animals exposed to short periods of handling during the critical period of development, i.e., the first 21 days of life in rats, show attenuated neuroendocrine responses to stress in adult life. We have previously reported long-term changes in brain dynorphin (DYN) peptide levels in male Sprague-Dawley rats after neonatal handling. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether neonatal handling, 15-min individual separation from the mother during postnatal days 1-21, can induce long-term changes in DYNB, Met-enkephalin Arg(6)Phe(7) (MEAP) and nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) immunoreactive (ir) levels in female Sprague-Dawley rats. The peptides were measured in brain and pituitary gland 2 months after the handling procedure. The results reveal that handled (H) rats had increased ir levels of N/OFQ, DYNB and MEAP in the periaqueductal gray (PAG) as compared to nonhandled (NH) controls. Furthermore, H rats had decreased ir levels of DYNB in the frontal cortex and in the amygdala. In contrast to previous findings in male rats, DYNB levels were unaffected in areas related to the hypothalamo - pituitary - adrenal (HPA)-axis. The results indicate that a manipulation early in life can induce persistent neurochemical changes in the N/OFQ and opioid peptide system in female Sprague-Dawley rats.
Best proximity point for proximal Berinde nonexpansive mappings on starshaped sets

In this paper, we introduce the new concept of proximal mapping, namely proximal weak contractions and proximal Berinde nonexpansive mappings. We prove the existence of best proximity points for proximal weak contractions in metric spaces, and for proximal Berinde nonexpansive mappings on starshape sets in Banach spaces. Examples supporting our main results are also given. Our main results extend and generalize some of well-known best proximity point theorems of proximal nonexpansive mappings in the literatures.
Effect of dietary fatty acid composition on plasma lipid levels in rats

The aim of the research was to evaluate in a model organism an effect of different fatty acids on plasma level of total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and triacylglycerols (TAG). The findings have been trying to be applied to human nutrition. Forty adult male rats (Wistar Albino) were divided into four groups with ten animals each and were examined for the effect of fatty acids contained in food on animal tissues. All groups were fed the first seven weeks standard feed for mice and rats with the addition of 20% of beef tallow. Fodder was adjusted in the next seven weeks. Basic feed mixture with 5% of safflower oil (n-6 group, SF), fish oil (n-3 group, F), Schizochytrium alga oil (n-3 group, DHA), and 20% of beef tallow (T-group). Beef tallow is representative of “atherogenic” saturated fatty acids, DHA oil and fish oil have high representation in proportion of n-3 fatty acids and safflower oil has high representation in proportion of n-6 fatty acids. At the end of the fattening period, the plasma concentrations of lipids and fatty acid content in the liver tissues was determined. DHA-diet had the most positive (decreasing) effect on TAG levels (P<0.05). It was concluded that dietary Schizochytrium microalga oil (with high DHA content) may have the positive potential for decreasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, but the results obtained in rats should be applied to humans cautiously. Key-Words: plasma lipids level; liver; dietary fatty acids; beef tallow; fish oil; safflower oil; Schizochytrium microalga
Further studies regarding effects of transportation on survival and homing of Snake River Chinook salmon and steelhead trout

The homing ability of adult fish that were captured during their seaward migration as juveniles and then transported downstream (from Ice Harbor Dam to Bonneville Dam) was not diminished. Data from returning adults indicated survival of adult fish that had been transported downstream as juveniles was higher than that of fish not trans­ ported. The percentage of increased survival ranged from 50 to 300% depending on the river environment during the time of transport. Information on the timing of the seaward migration and the extent of mixing of seaward runs of spring and summer chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, was also obtained. Losses to juvenile and adult Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus spp" and steelhead trout, Salmo gairdneri, populations migrating in the Colum­ bia and Snake Rivers have increased drastically in the last decade because of the effects of recently completed dams, The reservoirs formed by these dams have inundated some important spawning and rearing areas, have created new passage problems for both adult and juvenile migrants, and, in most cases, have significantly changed the aquatic environment to the detri­ ment of salmonid fishes. Gas bubble disease caused by high concen­ trations of dissolved nitrogen gas, resulting from the spilling of water at dams, has been pinpointed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (Ebel, 1969; Beiningen and Ebel, 1970; Ebel, 1971) as a major cause of salmon and steelhead trout mortalities. Nitro­ gen gas in the atmosphere is forced into solu­ tion as the water plunges into deep spill basins; the dissolved gas remains in solution in impounded sections of the river resulting in several hundred kilometers of water super­ saturated with nitrogen gas through which fish must migrate. Another significant source of mortality can be due to passage of fish
Regorafenib adjusted dose for Chilean patients with chemoresistant metastatic colorectal cancer: a case series

Background Regorafenib is a therapeutic alternative for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (MCRC) resistant to conventional therapies. The reported toxicity is relevant and there is no data on Latin American patients. The objective was to evaluate the overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and quality of life (QoL) in a prospective cohort of Latin American patients treated with an adjusted dose of regorafenib. Methods We prospectively recruited patients with MCRC that progressed to standard therapy. A dose escalation algorithm was used. OS, PFS, response rate and QoL were evaluated. Results We recruited 13 patients between June and November 2015. The median age was 60 years. Median OS was 8.6 months and median PFS was 2.2 months. The response rate was 8%. Grade 3–4 toxicities included grade 3 palmoplantar erythrodysesthesia in 23% and grade 3 fatigue in 12% of patients. Conclusion Regorafenib treatment is effective in Latin American patients with conventional therapy resistant MCRC.
Operating Lease and Credit Rating

This paper documents how firms’ concern about credit rating downgrading and their attempts to get credit rating upgrading affect their choice between the use of debt and lease. Firms near a credit rating change tend to use less debt relative to operating lease to finance their new projects. This effect becomes more evident when firms’ rating concern becomes stronger. This effect is also more significant when firms’ cost of equity finance is higher. The finding is consistent with the empirical evidence that the use of operating lease has much less impact on firm’s credit rating compared to the use of debt. The result is surprising because rating agencies are fully aware of firms’ use of off-balance-sheet finance and would adjust it when they assess firms’ creditworthiness. There are two possible reasons for the result. First, the operating lease obligations are usually underestimated. Second, auditors tolerate more misstatement in disclosed off-balance-sheet items than they do in recognized balance sheet items. JEL classification: G30, G31
Dynamic Relationship between Urbanization, Energy Consumption and Environmental Degradation in Pakistan: Evidence from Structure Break Testing

This study investigates the CO2 emission-urbanization-growth in Pakistan by taking time series data from the period of 1972 to 2013. The study applied three approaches of co-integration (ARDL bounds test, Johansen and Juselius and Gregory and Hansen structural break test) to confirm the valid long-run positive interaction between CO2 emission and urbanization. The robustness of co-integrating vectors are further checked using FMOLS and DOLS tests and the results validate the long-run coefficients. The results of VDM exhibit the uni-directional causality between CO2 emission and urbanization running from urbanization to CO2 emission. It was therefore noted that policies in which the government needs to allocate greater portion to environmental safeguard and energy saving components in the planning, such as encouraging energy saving framework and creating a chain of increasing indicators of environmental protection and energy saving.
Mott transition and magnetic collapse in iron-bearing compounds under high pressure

ABSTRACT We discuss the electronic, magnetic, and related structural transitions in the iron-based Mott insulators under high pressures relevant to the Earth's lower mantle conditions. The paper focuses on the above-mentioned topics based primarily on our theoretical analysis and various experimental studies employing synchrotron X-ray diffraction,57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, and electrical transport measurements. We review the main theoretical tools employed for the analysis of the properties of materials with strongly interacting electrons and discuss the problems of theoretical description of such systems. In particular, we discuss a state-of-the-art method for calculating the electronic structure of strongly correlated materials, the method, which merges standard band-structure techniques (DFT) with dynamical mean-field theory of correlated electrons (DMFT). We employ this method to study the pressure-induced magnetic collapse in Mott insulators, such as wüstite (FeO), magnesiowüstite (Fe Mg )O (x=0.25 and 0.75) and goethite (FeOOH), and explore the consequences of the magnetic collapse for the electronic structure and phase stability of these materials. We show that the paramagnetic cubic -structured FeO and (Fe,Mg)O and distorted orthorhombic (Pnma) FeOOH exhibit upon compression a high- to low-spin (HS-LS) transition, which is accompanied by a simultaneous collapse of local moments. However, the HS-LS transition is found to have different consequences for the electronic properties of these compounds. For FeO and (Fe Mg )O, the transition is found to be accompanied by a Mott insulator-to-metal phase transition. In contrast to that, both (Fe Mg )O and FeOOH remain insulating up to the highest studied pressures, indicating that a Mott insulator to band insulator phase transition takes place. Our combined theoretical and experimental studies indicate a crossover between localized to itinerant moment behavior to accompany magnetic collapse of Fe ions.
On solutions of the Schrödinger equation with radiation conditions at infinity : The long-range case

© Annales de l’institut Fourier, 1999, tous droits réservés. L’accès aux archives de la revue « Annales de l’institut Fourier » (http://annalif.ujf-grenoble.fr/) implique l’accord avec les conditions générales d’utilisation (http://www.numdam.org/legal.php). Toute utilisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright.
HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders: a changing pattern

Combination antiretroviral therapy has dramatically decreased the incidence of HIV-related mortality and serious opportunistic diseases, among which is HIV-associated dementia. However, minor forms of cognitive dysfunction have not disappeared and may even have increased in frequency. Aging of HIV+ patients, insufficient penetration of antiretroviral drugs into the brain with continuous low-grade viral production and inflammation may play a role. A putative neurotoxicity of combination antiretroviral therapy is controversial. In this article, we will discuss these aspects, as well as clinical and pathophysiological features shared by HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and other neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer’s disease. This article will briefly summarize the current clinical trials on neuroprotective agents, and the management of patients with neurocognitive disorders will be discussed.