Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for a nonretinal pathway of light to the pineal gland of newborn rats.

The pineal gland of rats is markedly affected by exposure of the animals to varying periods of light and darkness. After maintenance of adult rats in continuous lighting, there is a significant decrease in pineal gland weight' and in the enzymatic capacity of the pineal gland to synthesize melatonin,2 and an increase in the activity of the serotonin-synthesizing enzyme, 5-hydroxytryptophan decarboxylase, in the pineal gland.3-5 These effects of light exposure are abolished by bilateral orbital enucleation.3-7 Circadian, or 24-hr rhythms, have been demonstrated in the content of serotonin in the rat pineal gland8 and in the activity of the melatonin-forming enzyme.9 The pineal content of serotonin is maximal at about 1 P.M. (lights on from 5 A.M. to 7 P.M.), and declines rapidly after the lights are turned off to reach a trough at about 11 p.M. 8 We found'0 11 that this rhythm appears to be endogenous, since it persists in blinded animals and in rats kept in continuous darkness for up to 2 weeks. However, the nocturnal decline in pineal serotonin content can be prevented if illumination is extended an additional 4 hr to 11 p.M. 8 11 Additional light exposure does not prevent the nocturnal decline in pineal serotonin in adult rats subjected to bilateral orbital enucleation, indicating that this effect required intact retinae. " Intact retinae appear to be required for lighting information to influence most endocrine'2' 13 and circadian systems in mammals. "'14 However, Ganong et al."5 have found that measurable amounts of light can penetrate the skull to the brains of mammals, without the intervention of the eyes. Other workers have obtained evidence suggesting that light can directly affect hypothalamic neurons-in the duck'6 and rat. '7 The present work was undertaken to study the development of the circadian rhythm in pineal gland serotonin content in newborn rats and its control by environmental lighting. Experiments were designed to examine the possibility that lighting information might influence the pineal gland by an extraretinal route in newborn rats. Methods. -Sprague-Dawley rats, both male and female, of varying ages were maintained with their mothers under diurnal lighting conditions in clear plastic cages at a constant temperature of 250C for at least 3 days prior to experimental treatment. An overhead fluorescent lamp provided about 110-150 ft-c of illumination at the level of the cages. Unless otherwise noted, lights were kept on from 5 A.M. to 7 P.M. daily. Rats were killed by anesthesia with chloroform at 1 P.M. and 11 P.M. Pineal glands were removed immediately, placed on paper towels impregnated with cold, isotonic saline, and weighed on a 25-mg Roller Smith balance. Two pineal glands were used for serotonin assay. After weighing, the pineal glands were homogenized in 0.5 ml of ice-cold 0.01 N hydrochloric acid with a conical ground-glass homogenizer and frozen. Serotonin assays were performed on the following day by the method of Snyder et al. 18
Comparison of electromyographic responses for the superficial quadriceps muscles: Cycle versus knee‐extensor ergometry

The purpose of this study was to compare the electromyographic (EMG) amplitude and mean power frequency (MPF) versus power output relationships for the three superficial quadriceps muscles during incremental cycle (CE) and knee‐extensor (KE) ergometry in the same subjects. Eight men performed incremental CE and KE tests to exhaustion. Surface EMG signals were recorded simultaneously from the vastus lateralis (VL), rectus femoris (RF), and vastus medialis (VM). Polynomial regression analyses on a subject‐by‐subject basis indicated that the relationship between EMG amplitude versus power output was best‐fit with either a linear, quadratic, or cubic model for CE, whereas the relationship was best‐fit with a linear model for all subjects for the KE test. No consistent relationship was found for EMG MPF within subjects and between muscle groups for CE or KE. Compared with CE, however, the EMG amplitude during KE exercise was, on average, approximately 87% and 30% higher for the RF and VM muscles, respectively. These results suggest that KE exercise may be a better mode of examining EMG amplitude in the quadriceps muscle during incremental exercise than traditional CE. Muscle Nerve, 2009
Acoustic and Perceptual Study of Cantonese Tones Produced by Profoundly Hearing-Impaired Adolescents

Objective: This study investigated five acoustic parameters of fundamental frequency (f0), one related to average f0 level and four related to change of f0 (f0 change) over four consecutive quarters of the vocalic segment, for their roles as acoustic correlates to the perception of Cantonese lexical tones produced by profoundly hearing-impaired speakers. Design: Speakers were 20 Cantonese adolescents, 10 of whom had normal-hearing (mean age = 13;05); the other 10 were profoundly hearing-impaired (mean age = 13;05). The hearing-impaired speakers were selected on the basis of the criterion of being prelingually deaf; they showed pure-tone average thresholds of 90 dB HL or more in the better ear at 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 kHz. Twenty-four consonant-vowel Cantonese words made up four sets of words that minimally contrasted in the six contrastive Cantonese tones. The words were read by the speakers once in random order. Listeners were 10 final-year speech therapy students who were asked to identify the Cantonese tones. The f0 of each syllable (tone) was measured at five consecutive positions of the vocalic segment (initial, 25%, 50%, 75%, final). Discriminant analysis was used to determine how average f0 and f0 change accounted for both the production of intended tones and the perception of correctly identified tones. Results: Average f0 and f0 change over the second half of the vocalic segment were reliable acoustic and perceptual correlates of tones produced by control speakers. By contrast, for hearing-impaired speakers, production of intended tones were not reliably distinguished by average f0 or f0 change. Furthermore, listeners mainly relied on f0 change over the second half of the vocalic segment for the distinction between tone 25 and level tones (55, 33, and 22) produced by hearing-impaired speakers. Conclusions: Average f0 and f0 change over the second half of the vocalic segment are important cues for accurate identification of Cantonese tones produced by speakers with normal-hearing. By contrast, these cues are less reliable for perceiving tones produced by profoundly hearing-impaired speakers.
Plasma Cortisol and Depression in Pathological Gamblers

Basal serum cortisol and dexamethasone suppression test (DST) results were studied in 21 pathological gamblers who varied on the Beck Depression Inventory and selected scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, which had previously been shown to be related to depression in gamblers. All subjects were suppressors on the DST. There was a significant relationship between fluctuation in 08.00 h and 16.00 h basal cortisol levels and the psychological measures, suggesting a subtype of pathological gambler with potential clinical significance.
Variability in energy cost and walking gait during race walking in competitive race walkers.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to examine the variability of energy cost (Cw) and race walking gait after a 3-h walk at the competition pace in race walkers of the same performance level. METHODS Nine competitive race walkers were studied. In the same week, after a first test of VO2max determination, each subject completed two submaximal treadmill walks (6 min length, 0% grade, 12 km X h(-1) speed) before and after a 3-h overground test completed at the individual competition speed of the race walker. During the two submaximal tests, subjects were filmed between the 2nd and the 4th min, and physiological parameters were recorded between the 4th and the 6th min. RESULTS Results showed two trends. On the one hand, we observed a significant and systematic increase in energy cost of walking (mean deltaCw = 8.4%), whereas no variation in the gait kinematics prescribed by the rules of race walking was recorded. On the other hand, this increase in metabolic energy demand was accompanied by variations of different magnitude and direction of stride length, of the excursion of the heel and of the maximal ankle flexion at toe-off among the race walkers. CONCLUSION These results indicated that competitive race walkers are able to maintain their walking gait with exercise duration apart from a systematic increase in energy cost. Moreover, in this form of locomotion the effect of fatigue on the gait variability seems to be an individual function of the race walk constraints and the constraints of the performer.
Retrospective Evaluation of the Female Patients with Breast Cancer: Western Black Sea Region, Unicentered, Clinical Data of Oncology

Breast cancer is the most common female cancer in the world wide with 30% of all women cancer and second most common cause of cancer death in women. Oncology department of Bulent Ecevit University Faculty of Medicine is the only cancer center in western part of Black Sea region. We investigated retrospectively our data of women breast cancer between the period of 2000 and 2010 in this region. The mean age of the study population was 49.90 ± 12 years and mean follow-up time was 4 ± 2 years. The distribution of patients by the age, 25% or patients under 40 years old, 32% between the 40-50 years old and 43% of them over the 50 years old. 92.6% of the patients were presented with a palpable mass. The most common type of breast cancer was invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) in 312 patients (80%). Prognosis of the study population; 309 patients (80%) are surviving without any disease. Sixty-six patients (17%) had progression, 7 of 390 patients (1,8%) had local recurrence and 15 patients (3.8%) died. While the breast cancer is one of the most commonly seen solid organ tumors in Black Sea region and, based on the literature, no significant differences were observed for prognostic factors, longer life expectancy of the patients with advanced stage disease may be attributed to higher number of patients with hormonal positivity and therapy adherence.
A 1-V 24-GHz 17.5-mW phase-locked loop in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process

A 1-V 24-GHz 17.5-mW fully integrated phase-locked loop employing a transformer-feedback voltage-controlled oscillator and a stacked divide-by-2 frequency divider for low voltage and low power is presented. Implemented in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process and operated at 24 GHz with a 1-V supply, the PLL measures in-band phase noise of -106.3 dBc at a frequency offset of 100 kHz and out-of-band phase noise of -119.1 dBc/Hz at a frequency offset of 10 MHz. The PLL dissipates 17.5 mW and occupies a core area of 0.55 mm/sup 2/.
Direct Synthesis Technique for Dual-Passband Filters: Superposition Approach

In this brief, a technique is proposed for the synthesis of dual-passband filters. Different from conventional techniques based on low-pass prototype, the technique in this brief can directly synthesize filters in bandpass form. Each passband of the filters can be accurately and separately designed, and then, their characteristic functions are superposed to obtain the final characteristic function for the dual-passband filters to be synthesized. Network matrix derived from this technique is physically meaningful, while coupling matrices derived by conventional techniques can be considered as its low-pass approximation. The proposed technique is simple and fast.
Speech bandwidth extension method using speech recognition and speech synthesis

In this paper, we propose two kinds of novel speech bandwidth extension methods based on a speech recognition, a speech synthesis and a speech signal processing technique. In the proposed methods, the lost speech component by bandlimiting is generated with the technique of a speech recognition, a speech synthesis, and a speech signal processing by using the bandlimited speech information. For evaluating both proposed methods, we conducted the subjective and objective evaluation experiments. The experimental results shows the effectiveness of both proposed methods about the extension feeling of bandwidth. However, the evaluation of the speech quality became a not good result. Our problem is an improvement of the speech quality of the proposed method in the future.
Gadd45α does not modulate the carboplatin or 5‐fluorouracil‐induced apoptosis in human papillomavirus‐positive cells

Gadd45α is shown to be induced by a wide spectrum of DNA‐damaging agents and implicated in negative regulation of cell growth by causing G2‐M arrest or induction of apoptosis. In the present study, we explored the involvement of p53 in the promoter activation of Gadd45α as well as the role of Gadd45α in carboplatin (Carb) or 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU)‐induced apoptosis in human papillomavirus virus (HPV)‐positive HEp‐2 and HeLa cells. We report that Carb or 5‐FU upregulate Gadd45α and p53 in both these cells. Transient transfection of chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT)‐reporter construct driven by Gadd45α promoter clearly indicated that Gadd45α upregulation was mediated through activation of its promoter. Inhibition of p53 function by dominant‐negative‐p53 expression partially suppressed the activation of Gadd45α promoter. Further, the induction of apoptosis was assessed by detection of poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage by Western blot analysis. Inhibition of upregulated Gadd45α expression by antisense expression vector did not modulate the Carb or 5‐FU‐induced apoptosis. Overall, we conclude that Gadd45α promoter activation partially depends on p53 function in HPV‐positive cells. Moreover, Gadd45α protein does not modulate Carb or 5‐FU‐induced apoptosis in these cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 100: 1191–1199, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Discrete-time counterparts of the RL and RC multipliers

The use of multipliers is an important technique for absolute stability analysis. In continuous-time the RL and RC multipliers preserve the positivity of memoryless and monotone nonlinearities. We classify their discrete-time counterparts and analyse their phase properties. The classification of the discrete-time multipliers is richer than that of their continuous-time counterparts; their phase properties are less flexible.
Ca2+-Dependent Protein Kinase11 and 24 Modulate the Activity of the Inward Rectifying K+ Channels in Arabidopsis Pollen Tubes[W]

Two Ca2+-dependent protein kinases (CPK11 and CPK24) mediate the Ca2+-dependent regulation of inward K+ channels in Arabidopsis pollen tubes and negatively regulate tube growth. CPK11 phosphorylates CPK24 as part of a kinase cascade that transduces the Ca2+ signal and regulates Shaker pollen inward K+ channel activity. This study provides insight into the Ca2+-dependent regulation of K+ channels. Potassium (K+) influx into pollen tubes via K+ transporters is essential for pollen tube growth; however, the mechanism by which K+ transporters are regulated in pollen tubes remains unknown. Here, we report that Arabidopsis thaliana Ca2+-dependent protein kinase11 (CPK11) and CPK24 are involved in Ca2+-dependent regulation of the inward K+ (K+in) channels in pollen tubes. Using patch-clamp analysis, we demonstrated that K+in currents of pollen tube protoplasts were inhibited by elevated [Ca2+]cyt. However, disruption of CPK11 or CPK24 completely impaired the Ca2+-dependent inhibition of K+in currents and enhanced pollen tube growth. Moreover, the cpk11 cpk24 double mutant exhibited similar phenotypes as the corresponding single mutants, suggesting that these two CDPKs function in the same signaling pathway. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation and coimmunoprecipitation experiments showed that CPK11 could interact with CPK24 in vivo. Furthermore, CPK11 phosphorylated the N terminus of CPK24 in vitro, suggesting that these two CDPKs work together as part of a kinase cascade. Electrophysiological assays demonstrated that the Shaker pollen K+in channel is the main contributor to pollen tube K+in currents and acts as the downstream target of the CPK11-CPK24 pathway. We conclude that CPK11 and CPK24 together mediate the Ca2+-dependent inhibition of K+in channels and participate in the regulation of pollen tube growth in Arabidopsis.
Phase I population pharmacokinetics of irofulven

Our aim was to develop a population pharmacokinetic model for irofulven and to assess covariates that might affect irofulven pharmacokinetics. Irofulven was administered by 5- or 30-min i.v. infusion to cancer patients during a phase I study. Blood samples were collected over 4 h. Plasma samples were analyzed to quantitate irofulven by high-performance liquid chromatography. Population pharmacokinetic analysis was performed using a non-linear mixed effects modeling program, MP2. Fifty-nine patients were available for pharmacokinetic analysis. Irofulven plasma concentration–time profiles were best described by a two-compartment pharmacokinetic model. Clearance and central volume of distribution were not significantly influenced by individual characteristics, i.e. body weight (BW), body surface area (BSA), age and gender. Final parameter estimates of clearance and central volume of distribution were 616 l/h and 37 l, respectively, resulting in a very short terminal half-life of less than 10 min. A relatively high level of variability was observed in irofulven pharmacokinetics, which was mainly due to a significant residual variability, 39%. For a 30-min irofulven infusion, the optimal sampling schedule for clearance estimation using the Bayesian method was the three time points 0.35–0.45, 0.80 and 1–1.2 h from the beginning of a 30-min infusion. We conclude that after i.v. infusion of irofulven, plasma clearance was high and not dependent upon patient age, gender, BSA or BW.
Related factors for worsening renal function following percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) in patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis

Abstract Purpose: To identify candidates for PTRA in terms of the preservation of renal function, we herein evaluated factors that caused worsening renal function (WRF) after PTRA. Methods: We evaluated 92 patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (mean age 70.7 ± 8.4 years). WRF was defined as a ≥0.3 mg/dL increase in creatinine levels after PTRA compared to before PTRA. Results: A total of 92 patients exhibited non-WRF 83 (90.2%), WRF 9 (9.8%). Significant differences were observed in serum creatinine levels between two groups both before (non-WRF 1.34 ± 0.49 versus WRF 1.70 ± 0.68 mg/dL, p = 0.0462) and after PTRA (non-WRF 1.31 ± 0.43 versus WRF 2.42 ± 1.12 mg/dL, p < 0.0001). Patients with WRF had higher comorbidity rate of diabetes mellitus (DM) (non-WRF 31.3% versus WRF 66.7%, p = 0.0345) and proteinuria (non-WRF 27.7% versus WRF 66.7%, p = 0.0169), and had higher systolic blood pressure (non-WRF 143.6 ± 18.7 versus WRF 157.1 ± 19.9 mmHg, p = 0.0436), higher plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels, and larger left atrial and left ventricular end-diastolic dimensions before PTRA. Patients with WRF had a higher rate of taking diuretics (non-WRF 27.7% versus WRF 66.7%, p = 0.0169) after PTRA. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that comorbidity of DM was an independent related factor for WRF (comorbidity of DM, yes: OR 31.0, 95% CI 2.44–1024.62, p = 0.0055). Conclusions: Comorbidity of DM, coexisting of proteinuria, high creatinine level, high blood pressure, high BNP levels, and large left atrial and ventricular dimensions were related to WRF after PTRA in patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis.
Validation of Intracranial Area as a Surrogate Measure of Intracranial Volume When Using Clinical MRI

Background and Purpose: We sought to determine whether mid‐sagittal intracranial area (ICA) is a valid surrogate of intracranial volume (ICV) when using retrospective data with relatively thick (6‐7 mm) sagittal slices. Methods: Data were retrospectively analyzed from 47 subjects who had two MRI scans taken at least nine months apart. Twenty‐three subjects had manual segmentation of ICV on the T2‐weighted sequence for comparison. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for intraobserver, interobserver, and intraobserver scan‐rescan comparisons were 0.96, 0.97 and 0.95. Pearson correlation coefficients between ICV and ICA, averaging the cumulative 1, 2, 3, and 4 most midline slices, were 0.89, 0.94, 0.93, and 0.95. There was a significant marginal increase in explained variance of ICV by measuring two, rather than one, slices (P= 0.001). Conclusions: These data suggest that ICA, even measured without high‐resolution imaging, is a reasonable substitute for ICV.
Soft Error Sensitivity Evaluation of Microprocessors by Multilevel Emulation-Based Fault Injection

Estimation of soft error sensitivity is crucial in order to devise optimal mitigation solutions that can satisfy reliability requirements with reduced impact on area, performance, and power consumption. In particular, the estimation of Single Event Transient (SET) effects for complex systems that include a microprocessor is challenging, due to the huge potential number of different faults and effects that must be considered, and the delay-dependent nature of SET effects. In this paper, we propose a multilevel FPGA emulation-based fault injection approach for evaluation of SET effects called AMUSE (Autonomous MUltilevel emulation system for Soft Error evaluation). This approach integrates Gate level and Register-Transfer level models of the circuit under test in a FPGA and is able to switch to the appropriate model as needed during emulation. Fault injection is performed at the Gate level, which provides delay accuracy, while fault propagation across clock cycles is performed at the Register-Transfer level for higher performance. Experimental results demonstrate that AMUSE can emulate soft error effects for complex circuits including microprocessors and memories, considering the real delays of an ASIC technology, and support massive fault injection campaigns, in the order of tens of millions of faults within acceptable time.
Harris-SIFT Descriptor for Video Event Detection Based on a Machine Learning Approach

Video data is becoming increasingly important in many commercial and scientific areas with the advent of applications such as digital broadcasting, video-conferencing and multimedia processing tools, and with the development of the hardware and communications infrastructure necessary to support visual applications. The objective of this work is to propose a method for event detection in a video stream. We combine Harris-SIFT descriptor with motion information in order to detect human actions in video. We tested our method in KTH database and compared it to space-time interest points (STIP) descriptor. The results obtained achieved similar results to the STIP method.