Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intravenous, non-viral RNAi gene therapy of brain cancer

RNA interference (RNAi) has the potential to knock down oncogenes in cancer, including brain cancer. However, the therapeutic potential of RNAi will not be realised until the rate-limiting step of delivery is solved. The development of RNA-based therapeutics is not practical, due to the instability of RNA in vivo. However, plasmid DNA can be engineered to express short hairpin RNA (shRNA), similar to endogenous microRNAs. Intravenous, non-viral RNAi-based gene therapy is enabled with a new gene-targeting technology, which encapsulates the plasmid DNA inside receptor-specific pegylated immunoliposomes (PILs). The feasibility of this RNAi approach was evaluated by showing it was possible to achieve a 90% knockdown of brain tumour-specific gene expression with a single intravenous injection in adult rats or mice with intracranial brain cancer. The survival of mice with intracranial human brain cancer was extended by nearly 90% with weekly intravenous injections of PILs carrying plasmid DNA expressing a shRNA directed against the human epidermal growth factor receptor. RNAi-based gene therapy can be coupled with gene therapy that replaces mutated tumour suppressor genes to build a polygenic approach to the gene therapy of cancer.
Anticryptococcal cytotoxicity of murine nonadherent cells is perforin and nonperforin mediated

The encapsulated fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans is a significant agent of life-threatening infections, particularly in people with suppressed cell-mediated immunity. The cellular cytotoxicity against C. neoformans infection is mainly mediated by NK and T cells, but effector mechanisms are not well understood. The objective of this study was (i) to determine whether prior exposure to the cryptococcal antigens enhances anticryptococcal activity of cytotoxic cells in mice and (ii) the contribution of perforin- and nonperforin-mediated cytotoxicity of NK and T cells in growth inhibition of C. neoformans. Our data showed that in vitro exposure of nonadherent (NA) spleen mononuclear cells from nonimmunized mice to heat-killed C. neoformans strain Cap67 unencapsulated mutant of B3501 (Ag1) or its supernatant (Ag2) demonstrated higher anticryptococcal activity. This effector mechanism can be enhanced further after immunization with either Ag1 or Ag2. There is a synergistic effect of immunization and in vitro incubation of the NA cells with the same antigens. Concanamycin A (CMA) and strontium chloride (SrCl2) inhibition assays were performed to clarify the contribution of perforin- and nonperforin-mediated anticryptococcal cytotoxicity of NA cells in these events. Treatment with these inhibitors demonstrated that anticryptococcal cytotoxicity of non-primed NA cells was primarily perforin mediated. Anticryptococcal activity of the NA cells obtained from immunized mice after in vitro incubation with cryptococcal antigens was both perforin and non-perforin mediated. Taken together these data demonstrate that in mice a nonperforin-mediated pathway of anticryptococcal cytotoxicity can be induced by immunization. Further research is needed to examine their potential role for human vaccines strategies and/or therapies.
ASYNCHRONOUS PARALLELIZATION OF THE PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM AND ITS APPLICATION TO PARAMETER ESTIMATION IN A LARGE DIMENSIONAL SPACE

Despite its recognized strength in global optimization problems, the high number of objective function evaluations requested by the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method severely limits its application when the computational cost of the objective function calculation is large, as in most actual engineering problems. In order to overcome this deficiency to enable the efficient use of the PSO algorithm in large-scale engineering problems, the parallel computation in clusters appears as an excellent resource. Following this premise, an asynchronous parallelization of the PSO algorithm was developed in this work using the master-slave parallel paradigm and functions of the MPI (Message Passing Interface) library. A set of benchmark tests was conducted to validate and to analyze the performance of the developed method. The developed algorithm, named AIU-PPSO (Asynchronous and Immediate Update Parallel PSO), showed excellent performance, with linear speedup and parallel efficiency higher than 90% for all tested problems. The results were obtained using MIMD parallel computers with distributed memory and 20 Gbits/s Infiniband network. Finally, an actual parameter estimation problem of a population balance model was successfully solved. This problem has a costly objective function and 81 parameters to be estimated.
Bifurcations in discrete time neural networks: controlling complex network behaviour with inputs

The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the emergence of complex dynamical behaviour in small recurrent neural networks, which already exhibit a rich repertoire of complex dynamical behaviour. Consequently the question arises, how this repertoire of dynamical behaviour can be controlled and particularly which parameter sets cause a specific dynamics. The knowledge of these parameter sets allows to directly switch between different dynamical regimes. In this thesis we develop a general approach to analytically compute the bifurcation manifolds of a RNN, which separate different regimes of dynamical behaviour in the input parameter space. To this aim we consider discrete-time additive recurrent neural networks with fixed weight matrices and consider the external inputs to the neurons as free bifurcation parameters. In order to obtain the solution manifolds of local fixed point bifurcations, i.e. saddle-node, flip and Neimark-Sacker bifurcations, a system of nonlinear equations is solved in two steps: First the bifurcation manifolds are derived in the intermediate space of activation function derivatives and second are transformed to the original input parameter space. The resulting bifurcation diagrams are studied in detail for two-neuron networks and a whole class of corresponding weight matrices. Using the example of a three-neuron network the generalisation of the proposed approach to higher-dimensional neural networks is discussed. Due to an exponential growth of the number of solution branches of the bifurcation manifolds, selected slices of the parameter space as well as special cascaded networks are examined only.
Sedentary Behavior as a Risk Factor for Physical Frailty Independent of Moderate Activity: Results From the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

OBJECTIVES This prospective longitudinal study investigated the association between baseline objectively measured sedentary time and 2-year onset of physical frailty. METHODS We studied 1333 Osteoarthritis Initiative participants 55 to 83 years of age who were at risk for physical frailty, as assessed via low gait speed (< 0.6 m per second) or inability to perform a single chair stand. Baseline sedentary time was assessed through accelerometer monitoring. Hazard ratios (HRs) for physical frailty onset were estimated with discrete survival methods that controlled for moderate physical activity, sociodemographic characteristics, baseline gait and chair stand functioning, and health factors. RESULTS The incidence of physical frailty in this high-risk group was 20.7 per 1000 person-years. Greater baseline sedentary time (adjusted HR = 1.36 per sedentary hour; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02, 1.79) was significantly related to incident physical frailty after control for time spent in moderate-intensity activities and other covariates. CONCLUSIONS Our prospective data demonstrated a strong relationship between daily sedentary time and development of physical frailty distinct from insufficient moderate activity. Interventions that promote reductions in sedentary behaviors in addition to increases in physical activity may help decrease physical frailty onset.
MRS of Ischemic/ Hypoxic Brain Disease

Significant increases in magnetic field strengths and improvements in magnetic field homogeneity have made combined high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and multinuclear spectroscopy (MRS) feasible for investigating the relationship between biochemical and structural changes induced by ischemic brain disease. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy is the only noninvasive technique capable of measuring concentrations of high-energy phosphate metabolites, lactate, and other metabolically relevant compounds. Anticipated advances in localization of the volume of tissue from which spectra are obtained will enhance the clinical potential of MRS in the diagnosis of ischemic disease.
Prevalence of periodontal disease and characterization of its extent and severity in an adult population - an observational study.

INTRODUCTION Present study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of periodontal disease in an adult population and to further characterize the extent and severity of the disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study population consisted of 700 randomly selected individuals reporting to out patient department of dental college and hospital. Demographic details and lifestyle characteristics of the all the subjects were recorded and a thorough oral examination was performed. In order to evaluate the periodontal status of subjects, five indices (CAL, PD, OHI, PI and GI) were assessed and subjects having at least one site with clinical attachment loss (CAL) ≥3mm were diagnosed as having periodontitis. Further, to analyse the extent of disease, subjects having periodontitis were divided into two groups as having at least one site with CAL ≥5mm and having at least three sites with CAL ≥5mm. RESULTS RESULTS showed that there was a high prevalence of periodontitis amongst population with almost 72% of the individuals having at least one site with CAL ≥3mm. A trend was noted in which periodontal status worsened as the age increased. Analysing the extent and severity of disease amongst the population, results revealed that almost 41% of population had at least one site with CAL ≥5mm whereas almost 21% of individuals had at least three sites with CAL ≥5mm. CONCLUSION Present study provides with evidence of high prevalence of periodontal disease amongst the population. Importantly, this study also unveils the lack of awareness for dental health amidst the population.
Scaled Gate Stacks for Sub-20-nm CMOS Logic Applications Through Integration of Thermal IL and ALD HfOx

The impact of gate insulator processes to achieve deeply scaled interlayer (IL)/high-k (HK) bilayer stacks for sub-20-nm CMOS on negative-bias temperature instability and positive-bias temperature instability is studied. IL scaling is done by novel low-thermal-budget rapid-thermal-process-based ultrathin IL and monolayer IL. Innovative IL top surface treatment enables integration of IL and atomic-layer-deposition-based hafnium oxide HK without vacuum break. Fully integrated stacks show scaling of equivalent oxide thickness down to ~6Å, with excellent gate leakage, mobility, and world-class BTI. The mechanism responsible for improved BTI is discussed.
Measurement of Blood‐Brain Barrier GLUT1 Glucose Transporter and Actin mRNA by a Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay

Abstract: The expression of the blood‐brain barrier GLUT1 glucose transporter is down‐regulated in brain capillary endothelial cells in tissue culture. Consequently, the study of the regulation of this low‐abundance transcript requires the isolation of poly(A)+ mRNA from relatively large numbers of brain endothelial cells in culture (˜107). Therefore, in order to facilitate studies with smaller amounts of cells, we describe here a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to measure the mRNA of GLUT1 and the mRNA of the housekeeping gene, actin, which is used as standard control. Bovine brain endothelial cells were grown as either a primary culture (EP cells) or as a brain endothelial cell line (ECL cells) in 25‐mm 6‐well cluster dishes, and total or poly(A)+ RNA was isolated. Following synthesis of cDNA with AMV reverse transcriptase and oligo(dT)18 primer, PCR was performed with sense and antisense primers for bovine GLUT1 and 7‐actin, respectively. Reactions were performed in the presence of 2.5 μCi of [α‐32P]dCTP, and products were resolved in agarose gels and quantified by scanning densitometry of autoradiograms. A direct relationship between RNA‐cDNA and PCR products was observed for GLUT1 after 30 cycles, and for actin after 15 PCR cycles. The method was reproducible within specified ranges of starting RNA‐derived cDNA, and the intraassay coefficient of variation averaged 7.2 β 1.8%. The GLUT1/actin mRNA ratio was as follows: brain capillaries β EP > ECL. In addition, it is demonstrated that tumor necrosis factor‐α induced a three‐to fourfold increase in the GLUT1/actin mRNA ratio in ECL cells. This method provides a 100‐200‐fold increase in the sensitivity of detection of blood‐brain barrier GLUT1 transcript in bovine brain capillary endothelial cells in tissue culture compared with the conventional northern blotting technique using poly(A)+ mRNA.
Thermally assisted photoemission effect on CeB 6 and LaB 6 for application as photocathodes

The thermally assisted photoemission (TAPE) effect was investigated for the hexaboride thermionic cathodes (LaB6 and CeB6). It was found that the quantum efficiency of these cathodes can be increased by raising the cathode temperature along with the thermionic emission. In addition both materials can emit a measurable photoemission current by being irradiated with a laser having a photon energy below the work function at sufficiently high cathode temperatures. Our measurements indicate that this process is linear. These results show the significance of the TAPE effect. An additional effect of cathode heating is surface cleaning. This effect was detected as the hysteresis of the quantum efficiency which can be observed by heating up and cooling down the cathode. This effect slightly changes the quantum efficiency but not as much as the TAPE effect.
Approximating fixed points of nonexpansive and generalized nonexpansive mappings

In this paper we consider a mapping S of the form S = α 0 I + α 1 T + α 2 T 2 + … + α K T K , where α i ≥ 0 . 0$" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3. org/1998/Math/MathML"> α 1 > 0 with ∑ i = 0 k α i = 1 , and show that in a uniformly convex Banach space the Picard iterates of S converge to a fixed point of T when T is nonexpansive or generalized nonexpansive or even quasinonexpansive.
Hemispheric threshold differences for motor evoked potentials produced by magnetic coil stimulation

A brief monophasic pulse through an electromagnetic coil preferentially activates motor pathways of each hemisphere, depending on the direction of coil current flow. Using the preferred direction for each hemisphere, the minimum stimulus intensity (threshold) that evoked compound muscle action potentials in the contralateral abductor digiti minimi (ADM) muscle was significantly less for the left hemisphere than the right. Threshold for biceps on each side was significantly higher than ADM, but there was no side-to-side difference. Assessing handedness using a standard handedness index, those who had less tendency to use the right hand for everyday tasks had greater differences between hemispheres for ADM thresholds. The lower threshold of the left-hemisphere projection to hand muscles is probably related to the asymmetry of corticomotoneuronal monosynaptic connections; a greater number project to the motor neuron pool of the right- than left-hand muscles.
Respiratory virus infection of mice provokes a permanent humoral immune response

We have observed that respiratory virus infection of mice provokes an extremely persistent humoral immune reaction, due to a long-sustained population of antibody-secreting cells in the bone marrow. Theories of humoral immunity that strongly distinguish primary and secondary reactions thus may not adequately describe the immune response to respiratory viruses.
A histological survey of green fluorescent protein expression in ‘green’ mice: implications for stem cell research

Aims: The transgenic enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expressing ‘green’ mouse (C57BL/6‐TgN(ACTbEGFP)1Osb) is a widely used tool in stem cell research, where the ubiquitous nature of EGFP expression is critical to track the fate of single or small groups of transplanted haematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Our aim was to investigate this assumed ubiquitous expression by performing a detailed histological survey of EGFP expression in these mice. Methods: Fluorescent microscopy of frozen tissue sections was used to perform a detailed histological survey of the pattern of EGFP expression in these mice. Flow cytometry was also used to determine the expression pattern in blood and bone marrow. Results: Three patterns of EGFP expression were noted. In most tissues there was an apparently stochastic variegation of the transgene, with individual cell types demonstrating highly variable rates of EGFP expression. Certain specific cell types such as pancreatic ductal epithelium, cerebral cortical neurones and glial cells and glomerular mesangial cells consistently lacked EGFP expression, while others, including pancreatic islet cells, expressed EGFP only at extremely low levels, barely distinguishable from background. Lastly, in the colon and stomach the pattern of EGFP expression was suggestive of clonal inactivation. Only cardiac and skeletal muscle showed near ubiquitous expression. Conclusions: These findings raise questions regarding the ‘ubiquitous’ expression of EGFP in these transgenic mice and suggest caution in relying overly on EGFP alone as an infallible marker of donor cell origin.
Predictors of maternal control over children's eating behaviour

The aim of the study was to investigate the determinants of the level of control mothers exert over the food intake and eating behaviour of their young children. Questionnaires assessing maternal perception of child's weight status, control over food intake, body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint were completed by 89 mothers of 5-8-year-old children (40 boys, 49 girls). It was found that there was little difference between the control of boys' and girls' eating, but that the pattern of correlations was different. In particular, mothers' dietary restraint predicted the degree of monitoring of daughters', but not sons', eating behaviour, even when actual and perceived weight of the child were taken into account. It was concluded that the degree of control over child-feeding might provide a behavioural mechanism for the inter-generational transmission of eating attitudes and beliefs within families.
Sociodemographic predictors of sport injury in adolescents.

OBJECTIVE To examine sociodemographic risk factors for sport injury in adolescents. METHODS This is a cross-sectional survey design in which a random sample of high school students (ages 14-19) completed an in-class survey (N = 2721). Students were asked questions regarding sociodemographic factors, sport participation, and sport injury in the past year. RESULTS The incidence proportion of self-reported and medically treated sports injury, adjusting for the clustering effect of school, was 67.5 (95% CI; 64.2-71.1) and 43.2 (95% CI; 40.4-46.3) per 100 adolescents per year, respectively. Students from small towns had a lower risk of injury than those in the larger urban center (ORadjusted = 0.76, 95% CI 0.63-0.92). Non-Caucasian students had a lower risk of injury than did Caucasian students (ORadjusted = 0.63 (95% CI 0.5-0.79) for all sport injury and 0.57 (95% CI 0.47 - 0.7) for medically treated sport injury. Students with BMI in the 50th-90th percentiles had the greatest risk of sport injury. The risk of injury increased with weekly hours of participation. CONCLUSIONS Location of residence, weekly exposure (participation hours), ethnicity, and BMI were simultaneous predictors of sport injuries in adolescents.
The Perceptions of Local Community about Tourism in the New World Wonders : The Case of Petra in Jordan

Since its rediscovery on August 22nd 1812 by the Swiss traveler J. Burckhardt, who disguised himself as a pilgrim seeking to make a sacrifice at the tomb of Aaron (Burckhardt 1822); explorers and tourists were attracted to the red rose city of Petra. The great Nabataean capital and commercial center is carved in the red sandstone. It is located just outside the town of Wadi Musa in southern Jordan, with a distance of 260 kilometers from Amman via the Desert Highway and 280 kilometers via the King's Highway. In July 7, 2007, Petra won the contest and became as one of the new seven world wonders. The archaeological park which includes the ancient city is accessed through an outer Siq (path) in which significant features as Obelisk tombs and Djen Blocks can be seen, then a natural gorge known as Siq with a length of 1200 m with the water channels system still existing, as well as niches and the two statutes of Dushara and al-Uzza ABSTRACT
A Look at Cryosurgery

Cryosurgery provides a means of tissue destruction which is easily and accurately controllable and which can be applied to remote areas of the body. The mechanism and properties of freezing are discussed with particular mention of the maximum freezing effect and its clinical application. The application of cryosurgery to various clinical problems is discussed.
An Experiential Approach to the Inpatient Anger Management Group

Abstract Groups that target aggression on the inpatient milieu usually use psycho-educational and cognitive-behavioral techniques. In contrast, this article presents an experiential approach that targets the moment-by-moment experience within the inpatient group. It makes unique use of group-closing relaxation exercises that facilitate cohesion, consolidate the affectively charged material generated during the session, and reorganize patients’ emotional/cognitive understanding of themselves and the world around them. These groups also give patients the opportunity to negotiate the affective residue associated with past aggressive acts, and the opportunity to examine the personal meaning and underlying assumptions behind ongoing group interactions. We describe several techniques or modes of intervention. The authors also use case examples to illustrate the theory, technique, and impact the approach can have on its members.
An improved anonymous multi‐receiver identity‐based encryption scheme

Anonymous receiver encryption is an important cryptographic primitive. It allows a sender to use the public identities of multiple receivers to encrypt messages so that only the authorized receivers or a privileged set of users can decrypt the messages, and the identities of the receivers are not revealed. Recently, Zhang et al. proposed a novel anonymous multi‐receiver encryption scheme and claimed that their scheme could realize the receiver's identity privacy. Unfortunately, in this paper, we pointed out that the scheme by Zhang et al. did not achieve the anonymity of the receiver identity after analyzing the security of the scheme. At the same time, we give the corresponding attack. After analyzing the reason to produce such attacks, a novel anonymous multi‐receiver encryption scheme is given to achieve the anonymity of the receiver's identities. And we formally prove that the proposed scheme is semantically secure for confidentiality and receiver identities’ anonymity. The security of the scheme is based on decisional bilinear Diffie‐Hellman problem. Compared with the scheme by Zhang et al., Fan et al., Wang et al., and Chien et al., our scheme is shown to be better performance and robust security. To the best of our knowledge, our scheme is most efficient in terms of computational cost and communication overhead. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.