Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Direct evidence of Rickettsia typhi infection in Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks and their canine hosts

Murine typhus is a rickettsiosis caused by Rickettsia typhi, whose transmission is carried out by rat fleas in urban settlements as classically known, but it also has been related to cat fleas in a sub-urban alternative cycle that has been suggested by recent reports. These studies remarks that in addition to rats, other animals like cats, opossums and dogs could be implied in the transmission of Rickettsia typhi as infected fleas obtained from serologically positive animals have been detected in samples from endemic areas. In Mexico, the higher number of murine typhus cases have been detected in the Yucatan peninsula, which includes a great southeastern region of Mexico that shows ecologic characteristics similar to the sub-urban alternative cycle recently described in Texas and California at the United States. To find out which are the particular ecologic characteristics of murine typhus transmission in this region, we analyzed blood and Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks obtained from domestic dogs by molecular approaches, demonstrating that both samples were infected by Rickettsia typhi. Following this, we obtained isolates that were analyzed by genetic sequencing to corroborate this infection in 100% of the analyzed samples. This evidence suggests for the first time that ticks and dogs could be actively participating in the transmission of murine typhus, in a role that requires further studies for its precise description.
Fine structural alterations in parathyroid glands of chickens with osteopetrosis.

THE PARATHYROID GLANDS IN BIRDS control the concentration of calcium ion in the plasma by mobilizing calcium from the skeleton, increasing renal excretion of phosphate, and augmenting the rate of absorption and excretion of calcium from the intestine.1 Calcitum metabolism is very active in chickens and is 20 times faster during egg laving than in mammalian species during gestation.2 The parathfTroid glands during the reproductive cycle of female birds are reported by, light microscopv to be hvpertrophied and hvperplastic.1 Similar morphologic changes occur in the parathvroid glands if birds are de-prived of ultraviolet light, vitamin D, or dietarv calcium. '
Angiogenesis in cultured and cryopreserved pancreatic islet grafts.

BACKGROUND The ability of rat pancreatic islets to revascularize after transplantation was examined via in vitro and in vivo imaging of the microvasculature using laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM). METHODS Cultured or cryoprocessed islets were transplanted at the renal subcapsular site in rats. At various time intervals after transplantation, three-dimensional imaging of the graft was performed by LSCM. In vitro studies were conducted via microvascular corrosion casting of the grafted kidney in situations where it was difficult to obtain in vivo confocal data due to surgical complications. The vascular morphology of the islet grafts was evaluated quantitatively via digital image analysis algorithms to determine the morphology of the neovascular ingrowth and the rate of revascularization. RESULTS In cultured islet grafts, the initiation of angiogenesis was observed within 1 week, characterized by the presence of capillary sprouts, tortuous vessels, and blood vessels with blind ends. The revascularization of the graft was typically completed within 2 weeks and could be distinguished as a network of completely perfused blood vessels consisting of intertwining capillaries, with surrounding arterioles and venules. The angiogenesis process in cryopreserved islet grafts required a longer time period to initiate (approximately 2 weeks), and the revascularization was completed in 1 week after the initiation. CONCLUSIONS These results successfully demonstrate the potential of the described in vivo and in vitro LSCM techniques to measure the angiogenesis process in pancreatic islet grafts.
Cytotoxicity of three new triazolo-pyrimidine derivatives against the plant trypanosomatid: Phytomonas sp. isolated from Euphorbia characias.

There is no effective chemotherapy against diseases caused by Phytomonas sp. , a plant trypanosomatid responsible for economic losses in major crops. We tested three triazolo-pyrimidine complexes [two with Pt(II), and another with Ru(III)] against promastigotes of Phytomonas sp. isolated from Euphorbia characias. The incorporation of radiolabelled precursors, ultrastructural alterations and changes in the pattern of metabolite excretion were examined. Different degrees of toxicity were found for each complex: the platinum compound showed an inhibition effect on nucleic acid synthesis, provoking alterations on the levels of mitochondria, nucleus and glycosomes. These results, together with others reported previously in our laboratory about the activity of pyrimidine derivatives, reflect the potential of these compounds as agents in the treatment of Phytomonas sp.
[Can the quality of life be quantified?].

In oncology the question of quality of live leads to a strong but rather academic opposition between practitioners in favor of psychotherapeutic approach and those who prefer psychometric and statistical treatments of such matter. Possibilities of articulations can be found if we don't forget two conditions: first, the very aim of patient's quality of life preoccupation, and secondly, the double meaning, epistemological and ethical of the problem connected with quantification of quality of life. This allows to make a distinction between two strategies in the use questionnaires: do we look for positive definition of Q.O. L. or do we proceed in a negative way, looking for "symptoms". This second way is perfectly compliable with the approach of the patient as a subject in his irreducible singularity. On the opposite positive strategy deals with social imagination. It can produce prescriptive effects and induce the questionnee to certain answers concerning Q.O. L. For instance implicit bad image of illness and overevaluation of definitions modeled by majority consensus. Palliative care implies a concept of medicine which day by day defines goals, and pays attention to "this patient and at this moment" desires and projects. Palliative medicine puts forward a logic of the singular versus a logic of the particular which is determinant in the euthanasia movement. Quantification is necessary and is not, de principio, opposed to the care of a singular subject and patient, if we consider methods used by quantification and results so provided, not as "more objective data" but only "a necessary moment of objectivation". This objectivation in return, implies choices and subjectivities. Statistical quantification is not sheltered from fantasies, nor from political goals, chiefly in the way questionnaire address to the questionnee.
Exposure to harmful housing conditions is common in children admitted to Wellington Hospital.

AIM To measure the prevalence of exposure to potentially modifiable risk factors in the homes of children hospitalised in Wellington. METHODS Parents/caregivers of all children admitted to Wellington Public Hospital during a two-week period in July 2012 completed a standardised questionnaire in a face-to-face interview. The questionnaire collected sociodemographic, health and housing condition data. RESULTS We interviewed parents/caregivers of 106 children, of whom 72% were aged 0-4 years. Respiratory conditions were the most common cause of admission. One third of parents noticed dampness and mould in their house, 50% stated that their house was colder than they preferred during the past month, 20% lived in uninsulated houses, 20% lived in overcrowded houses, and 38% were exposed to second hand smoke (SHS). Compared to New Zealand European (NZE) children, the odds ratios (OR) for Pacific children living in cold and overcrowded houses and being exposed to SHS were 14.0 (95%CI 3.0-66.0), 10.8 (95%CI 2.6-44.1) and 16.0 (95%CI 4.8-55.5) respectively. OR for Maori children living in cold and overcrowded houses and being exposed to SHS were 3.0 (95%CI 1.0-9.0), 6.8 (95%CI 1.6-30.1) and 8.0 (95%CI 2.5-28.6) respectively, compared to NZE children. The OR for children from deprived neighbourhoods (NZDep2006 areas 7-10) living in cold and overcrowded houses and being exposed to SHS were 4.1 (95%CI 1.8-9.6), 5.7 (95%CI 1.9-17.0) and 4.1 (95%CI 1.6-9.6) respectively. CONCLUSIONS Among children admitted to Wellington Hospital there is a high prevalence of exposure to cold, damp and overcrowded houses and many children are exposed to SHS. Maori and Pacific children and children living in socioeconomically deprived areas are more likely than others to be exposed to these potential risk factors for childhood hospitalisation. This audit of child admissions could be repeated to provide surveillance of modifiable risk factors. A shortened version of the questionnaire could be used to screen children to identify those with harmful exposures in their home environment, provided suitable intervention programmes can be established.
Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm presenting with a cutaneous tumor alone as the first symptom of onset: A case report and review of literature

Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), formerly named cluster of differentiation (CD)4+/CD56+ haematodermic neoplasm or blastic natural killer cell lymphoma, is a rare and highly aggressive haematopoietic malignancy. BPDCN typically occurs in the elderly, with a marked predilection for cutaneous involvement. The present study describes a case of BPDCN occurring in a 79-year-old male. The patient presented with skin lesions alone, with no evidence of extracutaneous involvement during the course of the disease. BPDCN was diagnosed based on histological and immunohistochemical observations and the patient was subsequently treated with local radiotherapy alone. However, rapid disease progression occurred and the patient succumbed five months after being diagnosed. The current result therefore demonstrated that BPDCN is highly aggressive even without systemic dissemination, and that radiotherapy appears to be ineffective in treating this tumor. The present study emphasizes the importance of pathologists and dermatologists being aware of this uncommon disease in order to avoid misdiagnosis.
Progression of HCC in mice is associated with a downregulation in the expression of hepatocyte nuclear factors

Hepatocyte nuclear factors (HNF) play a critical role in development of the liver. Their roles during liver tumorigenesis and progression of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) are, however, poorly understood. To address the role of HNFs in tumor progression, we generated a new experimental model in which a highly differentiated slow‐growing transplantable mouse HCC (sgHCC) rapidly gives rise in vivo to a highly invasive fast‐growing dedifferentiated variant (fgHCC). This in vivo model has allowed us to investigate the fundamental mechanisms underlying HCC progression. A complete loss of cell polarity, a decrease in cell‐cell and cell‐extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion, elevation of telomerase activity, and extinction of liver‐specific gene expression accompanies tumor progression. Moreover, cells isolated from fgHCCs acquired the ability to proliferate rapidly in culture. These alterations were coupled with a reduced expression of several liver transcription factors including HNF4, a factor essential for hepatocyte differentiation. Forced re‐expression of HNF4α1 in cultured fgHCC cells reversed the progressive phenotype and induced fgHCC cells to re‐establish an epithelium and reform cell‐ECM contacts. Moreover, fgHCC cells that expressed HNF4α1 also re‐established expression of the profile of liver transcription factors and hepatic genes that are associated with a differentiated hepatocyte phenotype. Importantly, re‐expression of HNF4α1 in fgHCC reduced the proliferation rate in vitro and diminished tumor formation in congenic recipient mice. In conclusion, loss of HNF4 expression is an important determinant of HCC progression. Forced expression of this factor can promote reversion of tumors toward a less invasive highly differentiated slow‐growing phenotype. (HEPATOLOGY 2004;39;1038–1047.)
Cytotoxicological Analysis of a gp120 Binding Aptamer with Cross-Clade Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Entry Inhibition Properties: Comparison to Conventional Antiretrovirals

ABSTRACT The long-term cumulative cytotoxicity of antiretrovirals (ARVs) is among the major causes of treatment failure in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and patients with AIDS. This calls for the development of novel ARVs with less or no cytotoxicity. In the present study, we compared the cytotoxic effects of a cross-clade HIV type 1-neutralizing aptamer called B40 with those of a panel of nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), and the entry inhibitor (EI) T20 in human cardiomyocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. An initial screen in which cell death was used as the end-point measurement revealed that the B40 aptamer and T20 were the only test molecules that had insignificant (0.61 < P < 0.92) effects on the viability of both cell types at the maximum concentration used. PIs were the most toxic class (0.001 < P < 0.00001), followed by NNRTIs and NRTIs (0.1 < P < 0.00001). Further studies revealed that B40 and T20 did not interfere with the cellular activity of the cytochrome P450 3A4 enzyme (0.78 < P < 0.24) or monoamine oxidases A and B (0.83 < P < 0.56) when the activities of the enzymes were compared to those in untreated controls of both cell types. Mitochondrion-initiated cellular toxicity is closely associated with the use of ARVs. Therefore, we used real-time PCR to quantify the relative ratio of mitochondrial DNA to nuclear DNA as a marker of toxicity. The levels of mitochondrial DNA remained unchanged in cells exposed to the B40 aptamer compared to the levels in untreated control cells (0.5 > P > 0.06). These data support the development of B40 and related EI aptamers as new ARVs with no cytotoxicity at the estimated potential therapeutic dose.
Loudly sing cuckoo: More-than-human seasonalities in Britain

This article explores seasonality through the lens of British relations with other beings. Drawing on discussions of temporality and seasonality by Ingold, Harris and Krause and extending them in the light of developments in more-than-human anthropology, the qualities of different sorts of seasonal, more-than-human relations are explored. Haraway’s emphasis on an intimate ‘being with’ other species is used to consider close seasonal relations that draw beings together in shared tasks. However, in modern societies such as Britain, where lives are lived as much indoors as out, less intimate seasonal relations can still carry great significance. These relations are explored using Latimer’s concept of ‘being alongside’. This distinction is expanded upon by comparing narratives of listening to birds in Britain with ethnographic examples from non-European societies where people procure their own subsistence and lead seasonal lives closely enmeshed with plants and animals. Similar relations are examined between farmers and other beings on the Scottish island of Islay, where wild geese and domestic livestock graze the same pastures and where government conservation schemes require the mowing of grass at specific times to foster the breeding success of rare corncrakes. Here ‘being with’ other species is complicated by seemingly detached bureaucratic government schemes, which nevertheless are drawn into the seasonal taskscape by the effects they have on humans and nonhumans alike. Finally, newer seasonal relations with nonhumans that emerge through the use of technologies such as radio-tracking and websites are considered. These render global ecologies of more-than-human seasonality visible in relations of remote witnessing. Seasonality is thus explored as a means to consider the specific relations of place, the contradictions and tensions between being-in-the-world and bureaucratic schemes, and the fragility of the ties that bind weather, wildlife and nation in a time of rapid environmental change.
Embryonic and fetal rat myoblasts form different muscle fiber types in an ectopic in vivo environment

Limb muscle development is characterized by the migration of muscle precursor cells from the somite followed by myoblast differentiation and the maturation of myotubes into distinct muscle fiber types. Previous in vitro experiments have suggested that rat limb myoblasts are composed of at least two distinct myoblast subpopulations that appear in the developing hindlimb at different developmental stages. These embryonic and fetal myoblast subpopulations are believed to generate primary and secondary myotubes, respectively. To test this hypothesis, cells obtained from embryonic day 14 (ED 14) and ED 20 rat hindlimbs were analyzed for myosin heavy chain expression after long‐term differentiation in adult rat brains. Fetal myoblasts from ED 20 hindlimbs produced muscle fibers with a phenotype similar to that seen in tissue culture—predominantly fast myosin with a small proportion also coexpressing slow myosin. However, injection sites populated by embryonic myoblasts from ED 14 hindlimbs produced a different phenotype from that previously reported in culture, with fibers expressing an entire array of myosin isoforms. In addition, a subpopulation of fibers expressing exclusively slow myosin was found only in the embryonic injection sites. Our results support the existence of at least three myogenic subpopulations in early rat limb buds with only one exhibiting the capability to differentiate in vitro. These findings are consistent with a model of muscle fiber type development in which the fiber type potential of myoblast populations is established before differentiation into myotubes. This process establishes myogenic subpopulations that have restricted adaptive ranges regulated by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Complement–IL-4 Regulatory Circuit Controls Liver Regeneration

The involvement of IL-4 in liver regeneration has not yet been recognized. In this article, we show that IL-4, produced by NKT cells that accumulate in regenerating livers after partial hepatectomy, contributes to this process by regulating the activation of complement after liver resection in mice. The mechanism of this regulation was associated with the maintenance of an appropriate level of IgM in mouse blood, because IgM deposited in liver parenchyma most likely initiated complement activation during liver regeneration. By controlling complement activation, IL-4 regulated the induction of IL-6, thereby influencing a key pathway involved in regenerating liver cell proliferation and survival. Furthermore, the secretion of IL-4 was controlled by complement through the recruitment of NKT cells to regenerating livers. Our study thus reveals the existence of a regulatory feedback mechanism involving complement and IL-4 that controls liver regeneration.
The complex relationship among arteriovenous access, heart, and circulation

There are currently near 400 000 patients on hemodialysis in the United States. More than 50% of those treated by chronic hemodialysis die because of a cardiovascular (CV) event. The majority of these patients have functional arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs). AVFs have an adverse effect on cardiac function, but their exact contribution to CV morbidity is not clear. It has long been known that a vascular access with an inappropriately high‐flow rate may cause high‐output heart failure. Paradoxically, there may be hemodynamic and cardiopulmonary benefits conferred by AVF particularly in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. While Brescia‐Cimino`s basic idea of the AVF has saved millions of lives, we would like to stress that there are dangers from their often high blood flow rates, which unfortunately have proved difficult to evaluate.
The effect of dialysis chains on mortality among patients receiving hemodialysis.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association between dialysis facility chain affiliation and patient mortality. STUDY SETTING Medicare dialysis population. STUDY DESIGN Data from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) were used to identify 3,601 free-standing dialysis facilities and 34,914 Medicare patients' incidence to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in 2004. Mixed-effect regression models were used to estimate patient mortality by dialysis facility chain and profit status during the 2-year follow-up. DATA COLLECTION USRDS data were matched with facility, cost, and census data. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Of the five largest dialysis chains, the lowest mortality risk was observed among patients dialyzed at nonprofit (NP) Chain 5 facilities. Compared with Chain 5, hazard ratios were 19 percent higher (95 percent CI 1.06-1.34) and 24 percent higher (95 percent CI 1.10-1.40) for patients dialyzed at for-profit (FP) Chain 1 and Chain 2 facilities, respectively. In addition, patients at FP facilities had a 13 percent higher risk of mortality than those in NP facilities (95 percent CI 1.06-1.22). CONCLUSIONS Large chain affiliation is an independent risk factor for ESRD mortality in the United States. Given the movement toward further consolidation of large FP chains, reasons behind the increase in mortality require scrutiny.
Design and Use of Fluorescent Fusion Proteins in Cell Biology

This unit describes strategies for designing functional fluorescent fusion protein constructs. Such constructs can be exploited as probes of cellular environments, protein dynamics, protein life histories, protein binding partners, and markers in living cells. The properties and uses of many currently available fluorescent proteins are discussed. In addition, alternative approaches and troubleshooting guidelines are provided.
Comparative Transcriptome Analysis in Eggplant Reveals Selection Trends during Eggplant Domestication

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an economically and nutritionally important fruit crop of the Solanaceae family, which was domesticated in India and southern China. However, the genome regions subjected to selective sweeps in eggplant remain unknown. In the present study, we performed comparative transcriptome analysis of cultivated and wild eggplant species with emphasis on the selection pattern during domestication. In total, 44,073 (S. sisymbriifolium) to 58,677 (S. melongena cultivar S58) unigenes were generated for the six eggplant accessions with total lengths of 36.6-46 Mb. The orthologous genes were assessed using the ratio of nonsynonymous (K a) to synonymous (K s) nucleotide substitutions to characterize selective patterns during eggplant domestication. We identified 19 genes under positive selection across the phylogeny that were classified into four groups. The gene (OG12205) under positive selection was possibly associated with fruit-related traits in eggplant, which may have resulted from human manipulation. Eight positive selected genes were potentially involved in stress tolerance or disease resistance, suggesting that environmental changes and biotic stresses were important selective pressures in eggplant domestication. Taken together, our results shed light on the effects of artificial and natural selection on the transcriptomes of eggplant and its wild relatives. Identification of the selected genes will facilitate the understanding of genetic architecture of domesticated-related traits and provide resources for resistant breeding in eggplant.