Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intracellular Accumulation of Oﬂoxacin-Loaded Liposomes in Human Synovial Fibroblasts

In order to incorporate oﬂoxacin within liposomes, the reverse-phase evaporation technique was carried out. The liposome lipid matrix consisted of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine-cholesterol-dihexadecylphosphate (4: 3:4 molar ratio). The liposome formulation presented a mean size of 185 (cid:54) 31 nm and had an encapsulation capacity of 5.3 (cid:109) l/ (cid:109) mol. The liposome formulation was able to deliver oﬂoxacin into McCoy cells in a greater amount (2.6-fold) than the free drug, improving antibiotic accumulation. The efﬁcacies of ﬂuoroquinolone antibiotics have led to their proposed use for the treatment and prophylaxis of different bacterial diseases: therapy for the respiratory tract, skin struc- ture, bone and gastrointestinal infections, as well as urinary tract infections. Owing to their poor solubility in water, ﬂuo- roquinolones are used as salts (lactates or hydrochlorides). This problem may be overcome by formulating solid dispersion systems that are able to improve the dissolution time and the bioavailability of the drug (7, 11). Therefore, the use of anti- biotic delivery systems would result in enhanced concentrations of the antimicrobial
HIV_A_294367 667..679

1Mizan Tepi University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, Mizan Aman, Ethiopia; 2Mizan Tepi University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Mizan Aman, Ethiopia; 3Mizan Tepi University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Public Health, Mizan Aman, Ethiopia; 4Kotebe Metropolitan University, Menelik II College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Background: HIV/AIDS is one of the major global public health problems. CD4 is a glycoprotein found on the surface of different immune cells. CD4 cell counts determine the need for screening and prophylactic interventions against common opportunistic infections in those with advanced HIV disease. Thus, this study aimed to assess the predictors of current CD4 T-cell count among women of reproductive age on antiretroviral therapy in public hospitals, southwest Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2018. A total of 422 participants in the three public hospitals were selected using a systematic random sampling method. Linear regression analyses were used to determine the important predictors of current CD4 T-cell count at p-values of <0.05. Results: A total of 422 women with a median age of 37.00 years participated in this study. More than one in ten (12.8%) respondents experienced immunological failure. An increased current CD4 T-cell count was observed among patients with a tertiary level of education [β = 56.45, 95% CI (3.5, 109.4)], baseline WHO clinical stage II [β = 44.06, 95% CI (5.3, 82.9)], initial regimen of AZT+3TC+EFV [β = 167.23, 95% CI (100.4, 234.1)], with increased baseline CD4 T-cell count [β = 0.35, 95% CI (0.2, 0.5)], and with increased time duration on ART [β = 14.36, 95% CI (6.304, 22.4)]. On the other hand, the current CD4 T-cell count was lowered among patients with poor baseline adherence, opportunistic infection, and viral load of ≥1000 by 181.06 cells/mm, 101.62 cells/mm, and 137.53 cells/mm compared to good baseline adherence, no opportunistic infection and undetectable viral load, respectively. Conclusion: The immunological failure was relatively low. Maintaining adherence, early identification and treatment of opportunistic infections, and minimizing viral load to undetectable levels may further decrease immunological failure.
Controllable Liquid Crystal Micro Tube Laser

: This study demonstrates controllable random lasing emissions in a dye-doped nematic liquid crystal (DDNLC)-inﬁltrated microcapillary. The emission wavelength of the micro tube laser can be adjusted by changing the focusing position of the pumped pulses on the center or the periphery of the liquid crystal region of the microcapillary. In addition, with doping azo-dyes in the DDNLC of the micro tube laser, optical controllability of the lasing intensity and wavelength can be further achieved. The controllable micro tube laser may ﬁnd highly widespread photonic applications in multicolor emitting sources, and vibration and UV sensors. and T. -S.M. ; investigation, all authors; writing—original draft preparation, J.-D.L. and P.-C.W. ; writing—review and editing, J.-D.L. and C. -R.L. ; supervision, B. -Y.H. , C. -T.K. and C. -R.L. ; funding acquisition, C. -T.K. and C. -R.L. All authors have read the manuscript.
Breakoff and Unit Nonresponse Across Web Surveys

Sample members start web surveys but fail to complete them at relatively high rates compared to other modes. Existing theories and empirical findings on unit nonresponse may or may not apply to breakoff. This study contrasts breakoff and unit nonresponse in web surveys through response behavior for the same individuals across different surveys. Nonrespondents to one survey were considerably more likely to be nonrespondents to subsequent surveys, but such consistency in response behavior was substantially lower for breakoffs. There is a degree of transitioning between response behaviors, however, such as nonrespondents in one survey being more likely to be breakoffs than respondents in a subsequent survey, indicative of unmeasured common causes. Limited support for the common cause hypothesis is also found in demographic covariates, yet to a very limited degree; race and gender were associated with both breakoff and nonresponse, and some associations (e.g., year in school) were in the opposite direction. Subjects invited to multiple surveys in a short period of time were more likely than others to be nonrespondents, but were not more likely to break off.
invited review Regulation of apoptosis by vasoactive peptides

Regulation of apoptosis by vasoactive pep- tides. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 281: L749–L761, 2001. — Although originally discovered because of their ability to affect hemody- namics, vasoactive peptides have been found to function in a variety of capacities including neurotransmission, endocrine functions, and the regulation of cell proliferation. A growing body of evidence describes the ability of vasoactive peptides to regulate cell death by apoptosis in either a positive or negative fashion depending on the peptide and the type of target cell. The available evidence to date is strongest for the peptides endothelin, angiotensin II, vasoactive intestinal peptide, atrial natriuretic peptide, and adrenomedullin. Each of these peptides is discussed, with speciﬁc regard to apoptosis, in terms of regulatory activity, target cell speciﬁcity, and potential role in pulmonary physiology.
Periodic solutions for evolution equations in Hilbert spaces

We consider the existence of periodic solutions of the problem $ g(t, u)\in$ $u^{\prime}+Au$ , where $A$ is a maximal monotone operator defied in a Hilbert space and $g$ : $R\times H\rightarrow H$ is a Caratheodory function periodic with respect to the first variable.
Quantifying Drought Resistance of Drylands in Northern China from 1982 to 2015: Regional Disparity in Drought Resistance

: Drylands are expected to be affected by greater global drought variability in the future; consequently, how dryland ecosystems respond to drought events needs urgent attention. In this study, the Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Standardized Precipitation and Evaporation Index (SPEI) were employed to quantify the resistance of ecosystem productivity to drought events in drylands of northern China between 1982 and 2015. The relationships and temporal trends of resistance and drought characteristics, which included length, severity, and interval, were examined. The temporal trends of resistance responded greatest to those of drought length, and drought length was the most sensitive and had the strongest negative effect with respect to resistance. Resistance decreased with increasing drought length and did not recover with decreasing drought length in hyper-arid regions after 2004, but did recover in arid and semi-arid regions from 2004 and in dry sub-humid regions from 1997. We reason that the regional differences in resistance may result from the seed bank and compensatory effects of plant species under drought events. In particular, this study implies that the ecosystem productivity of hyper-arid regions is the most vulnerable to drought events, and the drought–resistance and drought–recovery interactions are likely to respond abnormally or even shift under ongoing drought change. regions, resistance declined with increasing drought length from 1994, did not recover with decreasing drought length after 2004, and the quasi-periodicity of resistance changed abruptly from 8 years to 2 years in 2006. Despite increasing drought events in previous years, resistance recovered from 2004 in arid and semi-arid regions, and from 1997 in dry sub-humid regions with decreasing drought length. These results demonstrate that ecosystem productivity in hyper-arid regions is the most vulnerable to drought and the drought–resistance interactions are likely to respond abnormally or even shift under on-going drought change. Resistances in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions are expected to be stable when drought characteristics are similar to current ones.
University of Birmingham First Observation of the Radiative Decay b0

The radiative decay Λ 0 b → Λ γ is observed for the first time using a data sample of proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1 . 7 fb − 1 collected by the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Its branching fraction is measured exploiting the B 0 → K (cid:1) 0 γ decay as a normalization mode and is found to be B ð Λ 0 b → Λ γ Þ ¼ ð 7 . 1 (cid:3) 1 . 5 (cid:3) 0 . 6 (cid:3) 0 . 7 Þ × 10 − 6 , where the quoted uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and systematic from external inputs, respectively. This is the first observation of a radiative decay of a beauty baryon.
Assessment of the biological and pharmacological effects of the a n b 3 and a n b 5 integrin receptor antagonist, cilengitide (EMD 121974), in patients with advanced solid tumors

Background: Cilengitide, an antiangiogenic agent that inhibits the binding of integrins a m b 3 and a m b 5 to the extracellular matrix, was studied at two dose levels in cancer patients to determine the optimal biological dose. Patients and methods: The doses of cilengitide were 600 or 1200 mg/m 2 as a 1-h infusion twice weekly every 28 days. A novel dose escalation scheme was utilized that relied upon the biological activity rate. Results: Twenty patients received 50 courses of cilengitide with no dose-limiting toxic effects. The pharmacokinetic (PK) proﬁle revealed a short elimination half-life of 4 h, supporting twice weekly dosing. Of the six soluble angiogenic molecules assessed, only E-selectin increased signiﬁcantly from baseline. Analysis of tumor microvessel density and gene expression was not informative due to intrapatient tumor heterogeneity. Although several patients with evaluable tumor biopsy pairs did reveal posttreatment increases in tumor and endothelial cell apoptosis, these results did not reach statistical signiﬁcance due to the aforementioned heterogeneity. Conclusions: Cilengitide is a well-tolerated antiangiogenic agent. The biomarkers chosen in this study underscore the difﬁculty in assessing the biological activity of antiangiogenic agents in the absence of validated biological assays. at each time point for the two dose levels were constructed. Analysis of variance for repeated measures was carried out to examine the main effect of dose and time and dose by time interaction for each biomarker using SAS version 9.1. The results of endothelial and tumor cell apoptosis were reported as a percentage. A arcsine square root transformation for percent apoptosis followed by two-sample paired t -tests to examine whether the change of percent apoptosis pre- and posttreatment was different from zero was carried out.
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN 12,13 METABOLITES OF LINOLEIC ACID AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is linked with diabetes-related cognitive decline. Oxylipins are bioactive molecules derived from polyunsaturated free fatty acids. Hydrolysis of cytochrome p450-derived epoxides into diols by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) are of relevant interest due to their involvement in diabetic microvascular disease. Methods: This thesis examines peripheral concentrations of 12,13-species of linoleic acid (LA)derived oxylipins and associations with cognitive performance in patients with T2DM or prediabetes. Cognition was assessed through multiple cognitive tests evaluating domains including executive function and memory. Serum oxylipin concentrations were measured via ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry. Results: Serum concentrations of 12(13)-EpOME and 12,13-DiHOME were negatively associated with executive function. Serum concentrations of 12(13)-EpOME were also negatively associated with verbal memory. Conclusions: In T2DM, concentrations of 12,13-species of LA-derived oxylipins were negatively associated with cognitive performance, suggesting a possible role in the pathogenesis of diabetes-related cognitive decline.
K ATP channel opening accelerates and stabilizes rotors in a swine heart model of ventricular ﬁbrillation

The mechanisms underlying ventricular ﬁbrillation (VF) are still disputed. Recent studies have highlighted the role of K ATP -channels. We hypothesized that, under certain conditions, VF can be driven by stable and epicardially detectable rotors in large hearts. To test our hypothesis, we used a swine model of accelerated VF by opening K ATP -channels with cromakalim. reveal any signiﬁcant regional preponderance. Complex fractionated electrograms were not found in areas near persistent rotors. Our also showed that complex fractionation does not to localize stationary rotors.
Mapping SLE Susceptibility Genes Mapping the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Susceptibility Genes

Summary Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a prototype systemic, autoimmune inflammatory disease that can involve virtually any organ or tissue type. The disease has a strong familial tendency but, like most human illness, has a complex pattern of inheritance that is consistent with multiple susceptibility genes as well as environmental risk factors. Association studies have been performed, especially for the major histocompatibility complex on chromosome 6 and for various complement components. Several large familial studies have begun to report results for genetic linkage. Linkage has been established for many genetic intervals. SLE is a complex clinical illness, and investigation of the genetics of the illness based on clinical manifestations revealed linkages not found without consideration of the phenotype of the disease.
Tailoring Uptake E ﬃ cacy of HSV-1 gD Tailoring Uptake E ﬃ cacy of Hsv-1 GD Derived Carrier Peptides

: Regions of the Herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein D (gD) were chosen to design carrier peptides based on the known tertiary structure of the virus entry receptor complexes. These complexes consist of the following: HSV-1 gD–nectin-1 and HSV-1 gD–herpesvirus entry mediator (HVEM). Three sets of peptides were synthesised with sequences covering the (i) N -terminal HVEM- and nectin-1 binding region -5–42, (ii) the 181–216 medium region containing nectin-1 binding sequences and (iii) the C -terminal nectin-1 binding region 214–255. The carrier candidates were prepared with acetylated and 5(6)-carboxyﬂuorescein labelled N -termini. The peptides were chemically characterised and their conformational features in solution were also determined. In vitro internalisation proﬁle and intracellular localisation were evaluated on SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. Peptide originated from the C -terminal region 224–247 of the HSV-1 gD showed remarkable internalisation compared to the other peptides with low to moderate entry. Electronic circular dichroism secondary structure studies of the peptides revealed that the most e ﬀ ectively internalised peptides exhibit high helical propensity at increasing TFE concentrations. We proved that oligopeptides derived from the nectin-1 binding region are promising candidates—with possibility of Lys 237 Arg and / or Trp 241 Phe substitutions—for side-reaction free conjugation of bioactive compounds—drugs or gene therapy agents—as cargos.
Periodontal Disease as a Speciﬁc, albeit Chronic, Infection: Diagnosis and Treatment

THE CLINICAL CONDITION . 727 ARE WE DEALING WITH A DISEASE? 729 Experimental Gingivitis Model . 729 Host Response . 730 ARE WE DEALING WITH AN INFECTION? 731 Nonspecific Plaque Hypothesis . 731 Bacterial complexity of dental plaque.731 Nonspecific mechanisms . 732 Treatment based on the nonspecific plaque hypothesis.732 Specific Plaque Hypothesis.732 Exceptions to the nonspecific bacterial overgrowth hypothesis . 733 (i) Localized juvenile periodontitis . 733 (ii) Acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis.734 Is periodontal disease an anaerobic or a microaerophilic infection? 734 (i) Early-onset periodontitis (aggressive periodontitis) . 735 (ii) Adult periodontitis (chronic periodontitis) . 739 (iii) Summary . 741 TREATMENT.741 Debridement . 741 Systemic Antimicrobials.743 Local-Delivery Devices . 744 DIAGNOSIS OF AN ANAEROBIC INFECTION.744 DNA Probes . 744 Enzyme Assays . 745 Is Dentistry Ready for a Diagnostic Test? 745 CONCLUSIONS . 745 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . 746 REFERENCES . 746
Weakly regular T 2 –symmetric spacetimes. The future causal geometry of Gowdy spacetimes

We investigate the future asymptotic behavior of Gowdy spacetimes on T 3 , when the metric satisﬁes weak regularity conditions, so that the metric coeﬃcients (in suitable coordinates) are only in the Sobolev space H 1 or have even weaker regularity. The authors recently introduced this class of spacetimes in the broader context of T 2 -symmetric spacetimes and established the existence of a global foliation by spacelike hypersurfaces when the time function is chosen to be the area of the surfaces of symmetry. In the present paper, we identify the global causal geometry of these spacetimes and, in particular, establish that weakly regular Gowdy spacetimes are future timelike geodesically complete. This result extends a theorem by Ringstr¨om for metrics with suﬃciently high regularity. We emphasize that our proof of the energy decay is based on an energy functional inspired by the Gowdy-to-Ernst transformation. In order to establish the geodesic completeness property, we prove a higher regularity property concerning the metric coeﬃcients along timelike curves and we provide a novel analysis of the geodesic equation for Gowdy spacetimes, which does not require high-order regularity estimates. Even when suﬃcient regularity is assumed, our proof provides an alternative and shorter proof of the energy decay and of the geodesic completeness property for Gowdy spacetimes.
Implicit and explicit measures of teaching self-ef ﬁ cacy and their relation to cultural heterogeneity: differences between preservice and in-service teachers

In this preliminary study, we explored preservice and in-service teachers ’ sense of teaching self-efﬁ-cacy with a well-established questionnaire and a newly adapted implicit measure of the self-concept Single-Target Implicit Association Test. Teaching self-efﬁcacy is an important construct when it comes to the handling of culturally heterogeneous classes. Hence, teaching self-efﬁcacy might also contribute to teachers ’ motivational orientations regarding and beliefs about ethnic minority students. Using a quasi-experimental design, we presented preservice and in-service teachers with both the implicit and explicit measures of teaching self-efﬁcacy and found no differences due to teacher expertise on the explicit measure. However, the implicit measure revealed that preservice teachers had much weaker cognitive associations between the construct of teaching self-efﬁcacy and their self-concepts. Motivational orientations regarding and beliefs about ethnic minority students showed substantial correlations with the explicit measure of teaching efﬁcacy, while the implicit measure correlated with the self-efﬁcacy regarding the teaching of ethnic minority students, but only for in-service teachers. The ﬁndings highlight the importance of the consideration of implicit and explicit teaching efﬁcacy for the teaching in culturally heterogeneous classes. These ﬁrst results should inspire researchers to consider both kinds of measures in future research, particularly when investigating the relationship between teaching self-efﬁcacy and teachers ’ beliefs about and motivational orientations regarding the inclusion of ethnic minority students.
from Mouse Bone Marrow Inflammatory Dendritic Cell Development Functionally Distinctive Stages of Reactive Oxygen Species Level Defines Two

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in various physiological activities. However, their role in dendritic cell (DC) activation and generation has not been investigated. Using the bone marrow-derived GM-CSF–induced ex vivo DC model, we characterize how induction of ROS correlates with inﬂammatory DC functionality and expansion. We describe that the functionality of GM-CSF–induced DCs is distinct in two developmental stages. Whereas division of DC-committed hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) neared completion by day 6, the level of ROS soared after day 4. Day 3 ROS lo DCs were highly responsive to TLR stimuli such as LPS and zymosan by rapid upregulation of CD80, CD86, and MHC class II, in contrast to the low response of day 6 ROS hi DCs. ROS hi DCs could not initiate and sustain a signiﬁcant level of NF- k B phosphorylation in response to LPS and zymosan, although demonstrating hyperactivation of p38 MAPK by LPS, in a fashion disparate to ROS lo DCs. ROS lo DCs stimulated a higher level of allogeneic and OVA-speciﬁc T cell proliferative responses, although ROS hi DCs were much more proﬁcient in processing OVA. In response to pathogenic stimuli, ROS hi DCs also demonstrated rapid cellular adhesion and H 2 O 2 release, indicating their role in immediate microbial targeting. Moreover, HPC expansion and DC generation were dependent on the surge of ROS in an NADPH oxidase-independent manner. These ﬁndings point to the potential role of cellular ROS in mediating functionality and development of DCs from HPCs during inﬂammation. The Journal of Immunology , 2010, 184: 000–000. m g/ml)at4˚Cfor30minandat37˚C for 5 min to determine the Ag binding and uptake capacities of DCs, re-spectively. To assess Ag processing, DCs were incubated with DQ-OVA (MolecularProbes)(1 m g/ml)at 37˚Cand harvestedat speciﬁedtime points, because DQ-OVA as a self-quenched, low background conjugate exhibited bright ﬂuorescence only upon proteolytic degradation. In all Ag assays, live CD11c + cells were gated and FITC ﬂuorescence determined by ﬂow cy- tometry. The estimated level of DQ-OVA proteolysis was determined by subtracting the MFI for background binding at 4˚C (0 min time point).