Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Studies on immunocompetence status in two turkey varieties in India

1. Two hundred and twenty-seven adult turkeys of both sexes, of two varieties (104 Black and 123 White) were used to evaluate their immunocompetence status and body weights. 2. Response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) (humoral immunity) was measured by Haemagglutination (HA) test 5 days post immunisation (dpi) and expressed as log2 values. Mercaptoethanol resistant (MER) antibodies representing IgG were determined by Mercaptoethanol HA test and Mercaptoethanol sensitive (MES) antibodies, representing IgM as the difference in total HA titre and IgG. Serum lysozyme concentrations were estimated by ‘Lysoplate assay’ and expressed in log2 values. 3. Least squares analysis of variance revealed that the White variety had higher adult body weight (4·788 ± 0·040 kg) than the Black (3·774 ± 0·044 kg). Sexual dimorphism was apparent and meals were heavier then females in both varieties. The interaction effect of variety and sex on body weight was also significant. 4. Least squares means for immunological traits, namely, total anti-SRBC antibodies, MER, MES titres and serum lysozyme were 7·161 ± 0·189, 0·801 ± 0·071, 6·362 ± 0·160 and 1·766 ± 0·043 µg/ml, respectively. The Black variety had a higher MES antibody titre than the White. 5. Sex had an effect on all the immunological traits except on MER titres. Females generally had higher anti-SRBC, MER and MES titres and serum lysozyme. The variety × sex interaction effect was significant for MES titres and serum lysozyme. White males had the lowest MES titres.
Sex‐Dependent and Sex‐Independent Distribution of the β‐Subunit of Nerve Growth Factor in the Central Nervous and Peripheral Tissues of Mice

Abstract: Levels of the β‐subunit of nerve growth factor (β‐NGF) were measured in the central nervous and peripheral tissues of mice using a highly sensitive, sandwich‐type enzyme immunoassay system. Antiserum was raised in rabbits against the 7S form of NGF, which was purified from mouse submandibular glands. β‐NGF‐specific antibody isolated on a column of Sepharose CL‐4B coupled with purified β‐NGF reacted only with β‐NGF. The assay for β‐NGF was performed by incubation of F(ab′)2 fragments of the antibody immobilized on a polystyrene ball with tissue extract and then with the same antibody Fab’ fragments labeled with β‐D‐galactosidase, followed by measurement of galactosidase activity. Our assay system was found to be highly sensitive (minimal detection limit, 0.3 pg/0.3 ml of assay mixture). Furthermore, the presence of gelatin hydrolysates and protease inhibitors during preparation of tissue extracts enabled us to determine the precise levels of β‐NGF in almost all organs of mice. The amount of β‐NGF in submandibular glands was extremely high, and its level increased rapidly until mice were 2 months of age; then, the level continued to increase slowly until mice were 1 year old (3–5 mg/g of tissue). In serum, some of the 2‐month‐old males, but none of the females, exhibited a fairly high level of β‐NGF (> 100 pg/ml). The level of β‐NGF at 4 months of age was relatively high (2–5 ng/g) in the pancreas, spleen, and ovary among the organs examined, excluding the submandibular glands. An unexpected finding was that levels of β‐NGF not only in submandibular glands, but also in the brain, adrenal glands, and spinal cord, of males were three to seven times as high as levels in the analogous organs of females. Possible mechanisms regulating the level of β‐NGF in neural and paraneural tissues are discussed.
Interactions of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling and Sonic Hedgehog Regulate the Neurogenesis of Ventral Midbrain Dopamine Neurons

Signaling mechanisms involving Wnt/β-catenin and sonic hedgehog (Shh) are known to regulate the development of ventral midbrain (vMB) dopamine neurons. However, the interactions between these two mechanisms and how such interactions can be targeted to promote a maximal production of dopamine neurons are not fully understood. Here we show that conditional mouse mutants with region-specific activation of β-catenin signaling in vMB using the Shh–Cre mice show a marked expansion of Sox2-, Ngn2-, and Otx2-positive progenitors but perturbs their cell cycle exit and reduces the generation of dopamine neurons. Furthermore, activation of β-catenin in vMB also results in a progressive loss of Shh expression and Shh target genes. Such antagonistic effects between the activation of Wnt/β-catenin and Shh can be recapitulated in vMB progenitors and in mouse embryonic stem cell cultures. Notwithstanding these antagonistic interactions, cell-type-specific activation of β-catenin in the midline progenitors using the tyrosine hydroxylase–internal ribosomal entry site–Cre (Th-IRES-Cre) mice leads to increased dopaminergic neurogenesis. Together, these results indicate the presence of a delicate balance between Wnt/β-catenin and Shh signaling mechanisms in the progression from progenitors to dopamine neurons. Persistent activation of β-catenin in early progenitors perturbs their cell cycle progression and antagonizes Shh expression, whereas activation of β-catenin in midline progenitors promotes the generation of dopamine neurons.
Lipocalin-2/neutrophil gelatinase-B associated lipocalin is strongly induced in hearts of rats with autoimmune myocarditis and in human myocarditis.

BACKGROUND Lipocalin-2/neutrophil gelatinase-B associated lipocalin (Lcn2/NGAL) is involved in the transport of iron and seems to play an important role in inflammation. A recent study has reported that it is also expressed in the failing heart and may be a biomarker not only for renal failure but also for heart failure. Because Lcn2/NGAL is thought to be induced by interleukin-1, it might be strongly induced in the presence of myocarditis. METHODS AND RESULTS This study investigated the expression of Lcn2/NGAL in rat experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) and in human myocarditis. In EAM hearts, the expression of Lcn2/NGAL was markedly increased (>100-fold at an early stage), and in human myocarditis it was also highly expressed compared with non-inflammatory failing hearts. Lcn2/NGAL expressing cells in hearts with EAM and human myocarditis were identified as cardiomyocytes, vascular wall cells, fibroblasts and neutrophils. Lcn2/NGAL in EAM rats was also expressed in the liver. Plasma Lcn2/NGAL levels abruptly increased at an early stage of EAM, and high levels were initially sustained during the inflammatory stage, then decreased with recovery. In contrast, levels of B-type natriuretic peptide increased only slowly as the disease progressed. CONCLUSIONS Cardiomyocytes, vascular wall cells and fibroblasts in myocarditis strongly express Lcn2/NGAL via proinflammatory cytokines.
Differential responses of circulating and tissue adrenomedullin and gene expression to volume overload.

BACKGROUND Adrenomedullin (AM), which is produced by various tissues and organs, also circulates in the blood. Circulating AM levels increase during disease states such as essential hypertension, heart failure, and renal failure. However, little is known about how circulating AM or AM production responds to volume overload (VOL). METHODS AND RESULTS Progressive VOL was induced in rats by an aortocaval shunt (AC) or by an aortocaval shunt with banding of the abdominal aorta distal to the shunt (AC + B), which created a larger shunt volume. Plasma and tissue AM concentrations, as well as AM gene expression levels, were measured at 1, 5, and 14 days after operation. Plasma concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), aldosterone, and renin activity (PRA) were also examined. Pulmonary congestion, pleural effusion, and ascites rapidly progressed in the AC + B group, suggesting that VOL caused more rapid heart failure under these conditions. Plasma AM concentrations in the AC + B and AC groups at day 1 compared with those in sham-operated rats were increased by 300% and 140%, respectively, and then gradually declined. The time course of plasma AM over 14 days was similar to that of plasma aldosterone and PRA, but not of plasma ANP or intracardiac filling pressure. The increase in plasma AM was accompanied by upregulated AM gene expression in the lung and aorta and by decreased AM concentrations in the atrium, ventricle, and adrenal gland. Cardiac AM gene expression levels were increased in the hypertrophied ventricles of AC and AC + B rats. CONCLUSIONS The major findings of the present study were 1) a rapid increase in plasma AM after the imposition of VOL in association with increased plasma aldosterone and PRA, 2) the contribution of several organs to this increase, and 3) a late increase in the AM messenger RNA (mRNA) level in the ventricles as VOL-induced ventricular hypertrophy developed.
A large‐scale functional screen identifies Nova1 and Ncoa3 as regulators of neuronal miRNA function

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of neuronal development, network connectivity, and synaptic plasticity. While many neuronal miRNAs were previously shown to modulate neuronal morphogenesis, little is known regarding the regulation of miRNA function. In a large‐scale functional screen, we identified two novel regulators of neuronal miRNA function, Nova1 and Ncoa3. Both proteins are expressed in the nucleus and the cytoplasm of developing hippocampal neurons. We found that Nova1 and Ncoa3 stimulate miRNA function by different mechanisms that converge on Argonaute (Ago) proteins, core components of the miRNA‐induced silencing complex (miRISC). While Nova1 physically interacts with Ago proteins, Ncoa3 selectively promotes the expression of Ago2 at the transcriptional level. We further show that Ncoa3 regulates dendritic complexity and dendritic spine maturation of hippocampal neurons in a miRNA‐dependent fashion. Importantly, both the loss of miRNA activity and increased dendrite complexity upon Ncoa3 knockdown were rescued by Ago2 overexpression. Together, we uncovered two novel factors that control neuronal miRISC function at the level of Ago proteins, with possible implications for the regulation of synapse development and plasticity.
Quantum expectation-value estimation by computational basis sampling

Measuring expectation values of observables is an essential ingredient in variational quantum algorithms. A practical obstacle is the necessity of a large number of measurements for statistical convergence to meet requirements of precision, such as chemical accuracy in the application to quantum chemistry computations. Here we propose an algorithm to estimate the expectation value based on its approximate expression as a weighted sum of classically-tractable matrix elements with some modulation, where the weight and modulation factors are evaluated by sampling appropriately prepared quantum states in the computational basis on quantum computers. Each of those states is prepared by applying a unitary transformation consisting of at most N CNOT gates, where N is the number of qubits, to a target quantum state whose expectation value is evaluated. Our algorithm is expected to require fewer measurements than conventional methods for a required statistical precision of the expectation value when the target quantum state is concentrated in particular computational basis states. We provide numerical comparisons of our method with existing ones for measuring electronic ground state energies (expectation values of electronic Hamiltonians for the lowest-energy states) of various small molecules. Numerical results show that our method can reduce the numbers of measurements to obtain the ground state energies for a targeted precision by several orders of magnitudes for molecules whose ground states are concentrated. Our results provide another route to measure expectation values of observables, which could accelerate the variational quantum algorithms.
Effective-one-body multipolar waveforms for eccentric binary black holes with nonprecessing spins

We construct an inspiral-merger-ringdown eccentric gravitational-wave (GW) model for binary black holes with non-precessing spins within the effective-one-body formalism. This waveform model, SEOBNRv4EHM, extends the accurate quasi-circular SEOBNRv4HM model to eccentric binaries by including recently computed eccentric corrections up to 2PN order in the gravitational waveform modes, notably the (l, |m|) = (2,2), (2,1), (3,3), (4,4), (5,5) multipoles. The waveform model reproduces the zero eccentricity limit with an accuracy comparable to the underlying quasi-circular model, with the unfaithfulness of . 1% against quasicircular numerical-relativity (NR) simulations. When compared against 28 public eccentric NR simulations from the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes catalog with initial orbital eccentricities up to e ' 0.3 and dimensionless spin magnitudes up to +0.7, the model provides unfaithfulness < 1%, showing that both the (2, |2|)-modes and the higher-order modes are reliably described without calibration to NR datasets in the eccentric sector. The waveform model SEOBNRv4EHM is able to qualitatively reproduce the phenomenology of dynamical captures, and can be extended to include spin-precession effects. It can be employed for upcoming observing runs with the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA detectors and used to re-analyze existing GW catalogs to infer the eccentricity parameters for binaries with e . 0.3 (at 20 Hz or lower) and spins up to . 0.9− 0.95. The latter is a promising region of the parameter space where some astrophysical formation scenarios of binaries predict mild eccentricity in the ground-based detectors’ bandwidth. Assessing the accuracy and robustness of the eccentric waveform model SEOBNRv4EHM for larger eccentricities and spins will require comparisons with, and, likely, calibration to eccentric NR waveforms in a larger region of the parameter space.
Morphology of human myocardial bridges and association with coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND The functional significance of myocardial bridging remains controversial. The bridge morphology and structure of the tunneled vessels may modify its ultimate clinical effects. OBJECTIVE To describe the morphological characteristics of myocardial bridges and their influence on coronary histology. DESIGN A descriptive cross-sectional study. METHODS One hundred and nine formalin-fixed adult hearts were evaluated by dissection for these data: prevalence, site, lengths and depths of myocardial bridges. Vessel segments proximal and distal to the bridged portion were also processed for histology and stained to elaborate smooth muscle, collagen and elastic fibers. Stereology was also employed to compare the relative sizes of the tunica intima and the vessel wall to lumen ratios. RESULTS Myocardial bridges were found in 40.4% of the hearts, most commonly in the left anterior descending artery (LAD). The average length of the bridges was 22.66 +11.94 mm while the depth was 1.83+ 0.98mm, with only 11% being long (34.87mm - 50mm) and 9% of them being deep (3.46mm - 5.00mm). The tunica intima was thickest proximal to and thinnest under the myocardial bridge. The intima of the proximal segment was also more elastic. An elaborate perivascular 'cushion' of adipose tissue intervened between the intramural coronary and the surrounding myocardium. CONCLUSIONS Most myocardial bridges are superficial and short. Tunica intima under myocardial bridges is spared from "atherogenesis". The thick perivascular space around the bridged segment may protect it from extreme compression.
Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (rt-PCR): A New Patent to Diagnostic Purposes for Paracoccidioidomycosis.

BACKGROUND Paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) is a systemic mycosis caused by dimorphic fungi Paracoccidioides brasiliensis and Paracoccidioides lutzii. It is prevalent in Latin American, mainly in Brazil. Therefore, PCM has fundamental impact on the Brazilian global economy, especially in public health system, since it is affecting economical active population in different country regions. OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to standardize the Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (rt-PCR) for an efficient and safe PCM diagnosis amplifying the recombinant protein PB27 gene, only expressed by specimens of Paracoccidioides genus. METHODS To standardize a methodology of rt-PCR using species-specific primers and probe designed for annealing in this specific region of the fungi´s genome, amplifying the recombinant protein PB27 gene, only expressed by specimens of Paracoccidioides genus. Followed by design in silico, experiments were performed in vitro to determine rt-PCR specificity, efficiency and genome detection limit. RESULTS The primers and probe sequences were deposited in Brazilian Coordination of Technological Innovation and Transfer (CTIT), under patent reference number BR1020160078830. The present study demonstrated the rt-PCR applicability for support on diagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis, presenting low cost, which makes it affordable for public health services in developing countries as Brazil. It is noteworthy that it is necessary to validate this methodology using clinical samples before to use as a safe method of diagnosis. A review of all patents related to this topic was performed and it was shown that, to date, there are no records of patent on kits for paracoccidioidomycosis´s diagnostic. Indeed, there is still a lot to go to reach this goal. CONCLUSION The reaction developed was standardized and patented, opening perspectives to molecular diagnosis development for paracoccidioidomycosis, since rt-PCR can be applied to a broad spectrum of infectious diseases. It would need to be tested in biological samples in order to validate this method and then generate a diagnostic kit for Paracoccidioidomycosis.
Molecular analysis of the inhibitory effect of phosphorylated ribavirin on the vesicular stomatitis virus in vitro polymerase reaction

The effect of phosphorylated ribavirin on the vesicular stomatitis virus in vitro transcription reaction was examined. Analysis of the kinetics observed when the concentrations of nucleoside triphosphates were varied was performed with vesicular stomatitis virus wild-type standard virions. Double-reciprocal and Eadie-Hofstee plots showed competitive inhibition with all natural nucleoside triphosphates when both ribavirin diphosphate (RDP) and ribavirin triphosphate (RTP) were used. The Km values for ATP obtained for the wild-type polymerase were similar to those reported previously. To further characterize the observed inhibition kinetics, in vitro transcription products synthesized in the presence or absence of RDP and RTP were purified by CsCl centrifugation and were primer extended with oligonucleotides specific for either positive-sense leader or nucleocapsid mRNA transcripts. The ratios of leader to nucleocapsid mRNA were measured from primer-extended in vitro transcription products. It was found that the addition of RDP or RTP did not significantly change the in vitro ratio, suggesting that the polymerase is blocked before it enters the 3' end of the template.
Proprotein convertase inhibitory activities of flavonoids isolated from Oroxylum indicum.

BACKGROUND Proprotein Convertases (PCs) or Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexins (PCSKs) belong to a family of calcium-dependent endoproteases that are structurally related to bacterial subtilisin and yeast kexin. These enzymes play major roles in the processing of inactive precursor proteins producing their bioactive mature forms that are implicated in a wide variety of diseases including cancer, viral and bacterial infections. As a result, PCs are major targets for intervention of these diseases. OBJECTIVE Our objective in this study is to find non-peptide inhibitors of PC-enzymes from a potential natural source. RESULTS Herein we describe several natural flavonoid compounds as inhibitors of PC-enzymes including furin, a key member. These compounds were isolated from the medicinal plant Oroxylum indicum, fully characterized and tested in vitro for their PC-inhibitory property against the fluorogenic peptide substrate, Boc-RVRR-MCA (Boc = tert-butyloxy carbonyl, MCA = 4-methyl coumarin7-amide). The measured Ki and IC50 were found to be in low microM ranges. A comparative analysis of inhibition against furin, PC4, PC5 and PC7 suggested a partial selectivity towards PC4. These flavonoids also blocked efficiently the PC4-mediated processing of a fluorogenic peptide derived from the processing site of its substrate, pro-Insulin Growth Factor-1 (proIGF-1). This anti-protease activity may provide a rationale for the observed anticancer and anti-HIV properties of some of these flavonoid compounds. This is the first demonstration of anti-PC activity of flavonoid compounds.
Isotopic evidence of partial mycoheterotrophy in the Gentianaceae: Bartonia virginica and Obolaria virginica as case studies.

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY An estimated 10% of plant species have evolved to steal C from their symbiotic fungal partners (mycoheterotrophy), and while physiological evidence for full and partial mycoheterotrophy is well developed in the Orchidaceae and Ericaceae, it is lacking for the majority of other mycoheterotrophic taxa. The family Gentianaceae not only contains several lineages of achlorophyllous mycoheterotrophs, but also contains species that are putative partially mycoheterotrophic. The North American genera Bartonia and Obolaria (Gentianaceae) are green but have leaves reduced to scales or foliose bracts and so have ambiguous mycoheterotrophic status. • METHODS We investigated the natural abundance (13)C and (15)N profiles of both genera along with total N and chlorophyll content and investigated mycorrhizal infection using light microscopy. • KEY RESULTS The shoots of B. virginica were significantly more enriched in (15)N than the surrounding vegetation but not in (13)C. In contrast, the shoots of O. virginica are not enriched in (15)N compared to the surrounding vegetation but were significantly enriched in (13)C. Total N concentrations were significantly higher than the surrounding vegetation in B. virginica, while the collaroid roots of both species were infected by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. • CONCLUSIONS This microscopic evidence coupled with the natural abundance stable isotope profiles strongly suggests that both species are partially mycoheterotrophic. However, differences in the root-shoot stable isotopic patterns relative to surrounding vegetation between B. virginica and O. virginica are suggestive of the utilization of different physiological pathways or extent of commitment to mycoheterotrophic C gain.