Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Capillary Depletion Method for Quantification of Blood–Brain Barrier Transport of Circulating Peptides and Plasma Proteins

Abstract: Recent studies indicate that circulating peptides or plasma proteins, such as insulin or transferrin, or modified proteins, such as cationized albumin, undergo receptor‐mediated or absorptive‐mediated transport through the brain capillary wall, i.e., the blood‐brain barrier (BBB). Although morphologic studies such as autoradiography or immunoperoxidase labeling can demonstrate transport of blood‐borne protein into brain, there is a need for a rapid, sensitive, and quantifiable physiology‐based technique for comparing the relative rates of transport of several different blood‐borne peptides or proteins into brain. Therefore, the present investigations describe a carotid arterial infusion technique coupled with a capillary depletion method for quantifying transport of blood‐borne cationized albumin, cationized IgG, and acetylated low‐density lipoprotein (LDL). Because differentiation of true transcytosis into the postcapillary compartment of brain parenchyma from binding and/or endocytosis to the brain microvasculature is important, the present studies use a dextran density centrifugation step to deplete brain homogenate of the vasculature. In addition, 3H‐labeled native albumin is used as a vascular space marker to account for release of capillary contents into the postcapillary supernatant following homogenization of brain. This study demonstrates rapid transport of cationized IgG or cationized albumin into brain, as these compounds achieve a volume of distribution of 20–30 μl/g within 10 min of arterial perfusion. Conversely, acetylated LDL, although rapidly bound by cerebral microvasculature, is shown not to undergo transport into the postcapillary compartment of brain parenchyma. These studies provide the basis for a sensitive, quantifiable technique for studying transport of radiolabeled blood‐borne peptides and proteins across the BBB of anesthetized animals.
Detection of inducible clindamycin resistance (MLSBi) among methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from Libya

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) first emerged as nosocomial pathogens in the early 1960s are of great concern to public health and highly reported in human clinical samples. There are major international concerns about rising levels of MRSA and multi-drug resistant S. aureus owing to the difficulties of treating infections and the ease with which MRSA spreads within hospitals. Until recently, most infections of MRSA were acquired primarily in hospital settings, but now MRSA is responsible for both hospital and community-acquired infections. The objective of this study was to investigate MRSA collected isolates for MLSB phenotypes, in particular inducible clindamycin resistance (MLSB i ). (Published: 13 January 2010) Citation: Libyan J Med 2010, 5: 4636 - DOI: 10.3402/ljm.v5i0. 4636
Dp71ab/DAPs complex composition changes during the differentiation process in PC12 cells

PC12 cells express different Dp71 isoforms originated from alternative splicing; one of them, Dp71ab lacks exons 71 and 78. To gain insight into the function of Dp71 isoforms we identified dystrophin associated proteins (DAPs) that associate in vivo with Dp71ab during nerve growth factor (NGF) induced differentiation of PC12 cells. DAPs expression was analyzed by RT–PCR, Western blot and indirect immunofluorescence, showing the presence of each mRNA and protein corresponding to α‐, β‐, γ‐, δ‐, and ε‐sarcoglycans as well as ζ‐sarcoglycan mRNA. Western blot analysis also revealed the expression of β‐dystroglycan, α1‐syntrophin, α1‐, and β‐dystrobrevins. We have established that Dp71ab forms a complex with β‐dystroglycan, α1‐syntrophin, β‐dystrobrevin, and α‐, β‐ and γ‐sarcoglycans in undifferentiated PC12 cells. In differentiated PC12 cells, the complex composition changes since Dp71ab associates only with β‐dystroglycan, α1‐syntrophin, β‐dystrobrevin, and δ‐sarcoglycan. Interestingly, neuronal nitric oxide synthase associates with the Dp71ab/DAPs complex during NGF treatment, raising the possibility that Dp71ab may be involved in signal transduction events during neuronal differentiation. J. Cell. Biochem. 102: 82–97, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Generalized Space-Time Formulation for Robust Persistent Scatterer Interferometry

Differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry allows measuring slow terrain movements. The extraction of this information is a complex task. Important advances were introduced by the persistent scatterer approach, with the ideas of minimizing the amplitude and phase dispersions in long series of SAR acquisitions. This approach exploits mainly the temporal properties of the signals. On the contrary, other approaches, more similar to classical differential interferometry, exploit first the spatial and then the temporal properties of the data. In this work, we present a generalized formulation of the persistent scatterer interferometry problem that contains the two approaches mentioned above as limiting cases. In the general case, the spatial and temporal properties of the data are exploited jointly, which helps recovering the correct solution even with a limited number of images. Tests performed on real ERS data show that the proposed approach is promising.
Enterovirus 71 2 B induces cell apoptosis by 1 directly inducing the conformational activation 2 of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax

39 To survive and replicate within a host, many viruses have evolved strategies that target crucial 40 components within the apoptotic cascade, leading to either an inhibition or induction of cell 41 apoptosis. Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infections have been demonstrated to impact the mitochondrial 42 apoptotic pathway and induce apoptosis in many cell lines. However, the detailed mechanism of 43 EV71-induced apoptosis remains to be elucidated. In this study, we report that EV71 2B protein 44 (2B) localized to the mitochondria and induced cell apoptosis by interacting directly with and 45 activating the pro-apoptotic protein Bax. 2B recruited Bax to the mitochondria and induced Bax 46 conformational activation. In addition, mitochondria isolated from 2B expressing cells that were 47 treated with a recombinant Bax showed increased Bax interaction and Cyt c release. Importantly, 48 apoptosis in cells with either EV71 infection or 2B expression was dramatically reduced in Bax 49 but not in Bak knockdown cells, suggesting that Bax played a pivotal role in EV71 or 2B-induced 50 apoptosis. Further studies indicate that a hydrophobic region of 18 amino acids (aa) in the 51 C-terminal (63-80) region of 2B was responsible for the location of 2B in the mitochondria. A 52 hydrophilic region of 14 aa in the N-terminal region of 2B was functional in Bax interaction and 53 its subsequent activation. Moreover, over-expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-XL 54 abrogates 2B-induced release of Cyt c and caspase activation. Therefore, this study provides direct 55 evidence that EV71 2B induces cell apoptosis and impacts the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway 56 by directly modulating the redistribution and activation of pro-apoptotic protein Bax. 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 on O cber 4, 2017 by gest http/jvi.asm . rg/ D ow nladed fom
CS 224 N Assignment 4 :

Machine comprehension tests the systems ability to understand a piece of text through a reading comprehension task. We train an end-to-end neural reading comprehension (RC) model that is able to extract and rank a set of answer candidates from a given document to answer questions. Starting off with the baseline suggested in the Assignment handout, we were able to make considerable improvements in performance over the described baseline by exploring and combining several techniques inspired from previous work relevant to Machine Comprehension using the Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD), in addition to our own ideas and modifications to come up with an effective model.
Face Recognition across Age Using Auto Encoder Neural Network

: In this modern era of digitization and advanced technology, human face has become a demanding icon to authenticate ones identity. One peculiar feature which distinguishes it from other biometric techniques is that it does not need the test subject to perform its working. Other conditions where face recognition does not work well include poor lighting, sunglasses, hats, scarves, beards, long hair, makeup or other objects partially covering the subject’s face, and low resolution images. Facial Aging is such a process that affects both the shape as well as wrinkles on the face. These shapes and wrinkles changes degrade the performance of the automatic face recognition. In this paper, neural network is used for the performance evaluation of research work. Stack Auto-encoderis used for training purpose and serves as one of the input of deep network and confusion matrix is used for calculating the accuracy of the model. The evaluation is performed in the MATLAB environment.
Artisanal and Small-scale Mining in India

Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development is a project of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). The project was made possible by the support of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). IIED is a company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England. Reg. No. 2188452. VAT Reg. No. GB 440 4948 50. Registered Charity No. 800066 Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development
Purchase Intention on Counterfeit Movies: An Empirical Study on College Students

This study aims at examining the impacts of ethical concern, collectivism, perceived quality, and hedonic shopping motivation on purchase intention toward counterfeit movies. Closed-ended questionnaires were distributed to 350 college students in two cities in Indonesia with 88.57 percent response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The findings showed ethical concern and collectivism significantly influenced purchase intention toward counterfeit movies.
Effect of Heated Humidified Gases on Temperature Drop after Cardiopulmonary Bypass

In an attempt to prevent the decrease in nasopharyngeal temperature (NPT) (“afterdrop”) after cardiac surgery, 30 patients undergoing hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) were randomly assigned to receive humidified heated inspired gases at 45°C at the proximal end of the endotracheal tube (group I) or dry gases at room temperature (group II), from the time of termination of CPB. All patients received high flow rates on CPB during the rewarming period with the use of vasodilator drugs when necessary. Both groups were comparable with respect to total bypass time, rewarming time, and temperature at termination of CPB. In addition, the NPT was compared with the tympanic membrane temperature (TMT) in group I to assess the validity of the NPT under these conditions. The results indicate that heating and humidifying inspired gases do not prevent afterdrop and do not falsely increase the nasopharyngeal temperature. The reasons for the ineffectiveness of heated humidified gases may include a large heat deficit at termination of CPB despite a normal NPT, and the very small heat content of heated gases. Monitoring the temperature of a site that reflects the heat deficit, and a more complete rewarming during CPB are suggested as a better approach to the prevention of afterdrop.
Egg phenotype differentiation in sympatric cuckoo Cuculus canorus gentes

The brood parasitic common cuckoo Cuculus canorus consists of gentes, which typically parasitize only a single host species whose eggs they often mimic. Where multiple cuckoo gentes co‐exist in sympatry, we may expect variable but generally poorer mimicry because of host switches or inter‐gens gene flow via males if these also contribute to egg phenotypes. Here, we investigated egg trait differentiation and mimicry in three cuckoo gentes parasitizing great reed warblers Acrocephalus arundinaceus, marsh warblers Acrocephalus palustris and corn buntings Miliaria calandra breeding in close sympatry in partially overlapping habitat types. The three cuckoo gentes showed a remarkable degree of mimicry to their three host species in some but not all egg features, including egg size, a hitherto largely ignored feature of egg mimicry. Egg phenotype matching for both background and spot colours as well as for egg size has been maintained in close sympatry despite the possibility for gene flow.
National Institute of Mental Health Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD follow-up: 24-month outcomes of treatment strategies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE In the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA), the effects of medication management (MedMgt) and behavior modification therapy (Beh) and their combination (Comb) and usual community comparison (CC) in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) differed at the 14-month assessment as a result of superiority of the MTA MedMgt strategy (Comb or MedMgt) over Beh and CC and modest additional benefits of Comb over MedMgt alone. Here we evaluate the persistence of these beneficial effects 10 months beyond the 14 months of intensive intervention. METHODS Of 579 children who entered the study, 540 (93%) participated in the first follow-up 10 months after the end of treatment. Mixed-effects regression models explored possible persisting effects of the MTA medication strategy, the incremental benefits of Comb over MedMgt alone, and the possible superiority of Beh over CC on 5 effectiveness and 4 service use domains. RESULTS The MTA medication strategy showed persisting significant superiority over Beh and CC for ADHD and oppositional-defiant symptoms at 24 months, although not as great as at 14 months. Significant additional benefits of Comb over MedMgt and of Beh over CC were not found. The groups differed significantly in mean dose (methylphenidate equivalents 30.4, 37.5, 25.7, and 24.0 mg/day, respectively). Continuing medication use partly mediated the persisting superiority of Comb and MedMgt. CONCLUSION The benefits of intensive MedMgt for ADHD extend 10 months beyond the intensive treatment phase only in symptom domains and diminish over time.
Repression of Arginase-2 Expression in Dendritic Cells by MicroRNA-155 Is Critical for Promoting T Cell Proliferation

Arginine, a semiessential amino acid implicated in diverse cellular processes, is a substrate for two arginases—Arg1 and Arg2—having different expression patterns and functions. Although appropriately regulated Arg1 expression is critical for immune responses, this has not been documented for Arg2. We show that Arg2 is the dominant enzyme in dendritic cells (DCs) and is repressed by microRNA-155 (miR155) during their maturation. miR155 is known to be strongly induced in various mouse and human DC subsets in response to diverse maturation signals, and miR155-deficient DCs exhibit an impaired ability to induce Ag-specific T cell responses. By means of expression profiling studies, we identified Arg2 mRNA as a novel miR155 target in mouse DCs. Abnormally elevated levels of Arg2 expression and activity were observed in activated miR155-deficient DCs. Conversely, overexpression of miR155 inhibited Arg2 expression. Bioinformatic and functional analyses confirmed that Arg2 mRNA is a direct target of miR155. Finally, in vitro and in vivo functional assays using DCs exhibiting deregulated Arg2 expression indicated that Arg2-mediated arginine depletion in the extracellular milieu impairs T cell proliferation. These results indicate that miR155-induced repression of Arg2 expression is critical for the ability of DCs to drive T cell activation by controlling arginine availability in the extracellular environment.
FASTA barcodes: a simple method for the identification of yeast ORF deletions

A consortium of yeast geneticists have created ∼6000 individual ORF deletions, representing > 96% of the currently verified or predicted ORFs in S. cerevisiae. Importantly, molecular barcodes (each a unique 20 bp sequence termed either Uptag or Downtag) were used as identifiers for every ORF deletion. Microarray analyses of pooled yeast deletions has been used to identify thousands of genes involved in general fitness, haploinsufficiency, drug resistance and DNA damage repair. However, application of this powerful technology requires considerable expense, expertise and specialized equipment. While standard PCR techniques and specifically designed PCR primers can be used to confirm that a given ORF is in fact deleted, this procedure cannot be used to identify unknown deletions. In theory, every ORF deletion could be determined by barcode sequencing. However, neither a consolidated barcode database nor a reliable search engine is currently available for this purpose. To address this need, we have adapted a FASTA sequence program that utilizes the unique barcode database to allow users to identify individual ORF deletions, based upon simple sequencing reactions of PCR amplifications of either Uptag or Downtag barcodes. In silico and practical testing of this application reveals that it is an inexpensive, reliable and reproducible method for rapidly identifying unknown deletions. This approach allows laboratories to conduct small‐ or large‐scale genetic screens with pooled yeast deletion strains and identify or verify any ORF deletion without the need for microarray technology. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The role of genetic variation across IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, and BDNF in antipsychotic-induced weight gain

Abstract Objectives. Antipsychotics with high weight gain-inducing propensities influence the expression of immune and neurotrophin genes, which have been independently related to obesity indices. Thus, we investigated whether variants in the genes encoding interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, and IL-6 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met are associated with antipsychotic-induced weight gain (AIWG). Methods. Nineteen polymorphisms were genotyped using Taqman® assays in 188 schizophrenia patients on antipsychotic treatment for up to 14 weeks. Mean weight change (%) from baseline was compared across genotypic groups using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Epistatic effects between cytokine polymorphisms and BDNF Val66Met were tested using Model-Based Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction. Results. In European patients, IL-1β rs16944*GA (P = 0.013, Pcorrected = 0.182), IL-1β rs1143634*G (P = 0.001, Pcorrected = 0.014), and BDNF Val66Met (Val/Val, P = 0.004, Pcorrected = 0.056) were associated with greater AIWG, as were IL-1β rs4849127*A (P = 0.049, Pcorrected = 0.784), and IL-1β rs16944*GA (P = 0.012, Pcorrected = 0.192) in African Americans. BDNF Val66Met interacted with both IL-1β rs13032029 (Val/Met+ TT, PPerm = 0.029), and IL-6 rs2069837 (Val/Val+ AA, PPerm = 0.021) in Europeans, in addition to IL-1β rs16944 (Val/Val+ GA, PPerm = 0.006) in African Americans. Conclusions. SNPs across IL-1β and BDNF Val66Met may influence AIWG. Replication of these findings in larger, independent samples is warranted.
Multiscale permutation entropy analysis of EEG recordings during sevoflurane anesthesia

Electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring of the effect of anesthetic drugs on the central nervous system has long been used in anesthesia research. Several methods based on nonlinear dynamics, such as permutation entropy (PE), have been proposed to analyze EEG series during anesthesia. However, these measures are still single-scale based and may not completely describe the dynamical characteristics of complex EEG series. In this paper, a novel measure combining multiscale PE information, called CMSPE (composite multi-scale permutation entropy), was proposed for quantifying the anesthetic drug effect on EEG recordings during sevoflurane anesthesia. Three sets of simulated EEG series during awake, light and deep anesthesia were used to select the parameters for the multiscale PE analysis: embedding dimension m, lag τ and scales to be integrated into the CMSPE index. Then, the CMSPE index and raw single-scale PE index were applied to EEG recordings from 18 patients who received sevoflurane anesthesia. Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modeling was used to relate the measured EEG indices and the anesthetic drug concentration. Prediction probability (Pk) statistics and correlation analysis with the response entropy (RE) index, derived from the spectral entropy (M-entropy module; GE Healthcare, Helsinki, Finland), were investigated to evaluate the effectiveness of the new proposed measure. It was found that raw single-scale PE was blind to subtle transitions between light and deep anesthesia, while the CMSPE index tracked these changes accurately. Around the time of loss of consciousness, CMSPE responded significantly more rapidly than the raw PE, with the absolute slopes of linearly fitted response versus time plots of 0.12 (0.09–0.15) and 0.10 (0.06–0.13), respectively. The prediction probability Pk of 0.86 (0.85–0.88) and 0.85 (0.80–0.86) for CMSPE and raw PE indicated that the CMSPE index correlated well with the underlying anesthetic effect. The correlation coefficient for the comparison between the CMSPE index and RE index of 0.84 (0.80–0.88) was significantly higher than the raw PE index of 0.75 (0.66–0.84). The results show that the CMSPE outperforms the raw single-scale PE in reflecting the sevoflurane drug effect on the central nervous system.
Immunomodulatory role of microRNAs transferred by extracellular vesicles

The immune system is composed of different cell types localised throughout the organism to sense and respond to pathological situations while maintaining homeostasis under physiological conditions. Intercellular communication between immune cells is essential to coordinate an effective immune response and involves both cell contact dependent and independent processes that ensure the transfer of information between bystander and distant cells. There is a rapidly growing body of evidence on the pivotal role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in cell communication and these structures are emerging as important mediators for immune modulation upon delivery of their molecular cargo. In the last decade, EVs have been shown to be efficient carriers of genetic information, including microRNAs (miRNAs), that can be transferred between cells and regulate gene expression and function on the recipient cell. Here, we review the current knowledge of intercellular functional transfer of EV‐delivered miRNAs and their putative role in immune regulation.
Inducible expression of Mad accelerates growth arrest of serum deprived human glioblastoma cells

Mad is a basic‐helix‐loop‐helix leucine zipper protein that heterodimerizes with Max. Mad: Max heterodimers recognize the same DNA binding sites as Myc: Max heterodimers. However, Myc and Mad are thought to influence transcription and cell proliferation in opposite ways through interaction with Max. While Myc activates transcription and cell proliferation Mad represses these activities (Ayer et. al., Cell 72, 211‐222, 1993). We have constructed an expression vector containing the mad cDNA cloned downstream of an inducible viral promoter. Cell lines carrying the construct were derived by transfection into human glioblastoma cells and the effect of Mad induction on their growth rate was studied. When the cells were cultured in low serum concentrations (0.1%) Mad induction resulted in accelerated growth arrest. These findings are consistent with the proposed growth repression function of the Mad protein.