Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endogenous GABA release from rat striatal slices: Effects of the GABAB receptor antagonist 2‐hydroxy‐saclofen

The reproducibility of endogenous GABA release evoked by multiple periods of electrical field stimulation was examined in rat striatal slices. In these experiments, NO‐328 was used to block GABA uptake, and evoked GABA release (overflow) was completely Ca2+ dependent. A seemingly invariant observation in these experiments was that spontaneous GABA release (outflow) progressively decreased as a function of superfusion time and that GABA overflow decreased 25–30% in response to the second of two periods of stimulation (S2/S1 ratios = 0.70 to 0.75). The attenuation of GABA release was not explained by the amount of GABA lost to the superfusion buffer (fractional release), direct depletion of releasable pools of GABA, or slice viability. Furthermore, the decreases in GABA release were not dependent on stimulation frequency (5–15 Hz) or the absolute amount of GABA evoked by electrical stimulation. However, the GABAB receptor antagonist 2‐hydroxy‐saclofen (2‐OH‐saclofen; 316 μM) not only enhanced GABA overflow, when superfused throughout both periods of stimulation, but also resulted in S2/S1 ratios of unity. When 2‐OH‐saclofen was superfused throughout the second stimulation period only, GABA overflow was almost two‐fold greater than that evoked by the initial period of stimulation (2‐OH‐saclofen‐free). In addition, these S2 responses were ∼30% greater than S1 responses that were observed when 2‐OH‐saclofen was present throughout the entire superfusion period. These results indicate that activation of GABAB receptors was involved in the progressive attenuation of GABA release and further emphasize that GABAB receptors play an important role in modulating endogenous GABA release from striatal slices. © Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Economic evaluation comparing From Home To Operation same day admission and preoperative admission one day prior to the surgery process : a randomized, controlled trial of laparoscopic cholecystectomy*

ABSTRACT Objective: A novel preoperative procedure From Home To Operation (FHTO) seeks to combat increasing operation and infection rates. This is the first prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing the cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of FHTO and conventional ward procedures for standardized Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (LC). Research design and methods: During 12/2004–7/2005, 47 patients with symptomatic gallstones were randomized to receive LC in the FHTO (28 patients) or in a conventional manner (19 patients) in a Finnish hospital setting. The 15D quality of life tool was administered at the baseline and 1 month after. Main outcome measures: A stochastic approach over a month interval for hospital costs, length of postoperative stay, infection rate and Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALY) was employed. Results: Baseline group characteristics were similar. The mean health care costs with FHTO (1695 EUR) were significantly lower ( p < 0.001) than in the conventional arm (2234 EUR). The number of patients discharged on the first postoperative day was 27 (96.4%) and 15 (78.9%) with two (7.1%) infections in the FHTO and four (21.1%) in the conventional arm. A difference in QALYs gained (0.0174; p = 0.030) favouring FHTO was observed. According to a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve, the probability of FHTO being cost-effective was 99%. The results were robust to probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: FHTO can introduce substantial cost savings and have a positive impact on both clinical measures and quality of life. Studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to assess whether conventional ward procedure can be a source of infections, which can be avoided with FHTO. Clinical Trial Registry: ICJME-qualified registry of the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (number 217849).
No evidence for survival selection on carotenoid‐based nestling coloration in great tits (Parus major)

In several vertebrate species evidence supports the hypothesis that carotenoid‐based coloration of adults has evolved due to sexual selection. However, in some birds already the nestlings display carotenoid‐based coloration. Because the nestling's body plumage is typically moulted before the first reproductive event, sexual selection cannot explain the evolution of these carotenoid‐based traits. This suggests that natural selection might be the reason for its evolution. Here we test whether the carotenoid‐based nestling coloration of great tits (Parus major) predicts survival after fledging. Contrary to our expectation, the carotenoid‐based plumage coloration was not related to short‐ nor to long‐term survival in the studied population. Additionally, no prefledging selection was detectable in an earlier study. This indicates that the carotenoid‐based coloration of nestling great tits is currently not under natural selection and it suggests that past selection pressures or selection acting on correlated traits may have led to its evolution.
The German Transregional Collaborative Research Centre ‘Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy – Molecular Pathogenesis and Therapy’

Objectives: This report focuses on the design and methods of the 3-centre clinical study of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre ‘Inflammatory Cardiomyopathy – Molecular Pathogenesis and Therapy’, which aims to establish a comprehensive research registry on the diagnostics, therapy and disease outcomes of patients with inflammatory cardiomyopathy (CMi). The study goals are to investigate specific disease sub-entities and to develop standardised strategies for diagnostics and treatment. Methods: All consecutive patients with clinically suspected CMi, post-myocarditic cardiomyopathy and acute myocarditis are included in the research registry. Cardiopulmonary functional tests, clinical and patient data are obtained at baseline and subsequent readmission appointments and are linked to allow for prospective follow-up. Co-morbidities, quality of life, health- related behaviour and sociodemographic variables are ascertained using uniform self-administered questionnaires. Present Status: By May 2008, 2,061 cases had been included in the research registry (1,300 data-sets completed). At registration, 335 patients were diagnosed with CMi. The mean age was 50 ± 13 years and the mean ejection fraction was 39.9 ± 15.8%. Conclusions: The broad range of the acquired molecular-biological, histological, immunohistological, clinical and patient data makes this the most comprehensive research registry on patients with CMi to date.
Gene Expression of CYP1A1 and its Possible Clinical Application in Thyroid Cancer Cases.

BACKGROUND Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, and exact causes remain unknown. The role of CYP450 1A1 (CYP1A1) in cancer initiation and progression has been investigated. The aim of this work was to analyze, for the first time, CYP1A1 gene expression and its relationship with several clinicopathological factors in Mexican patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Realtime PCR analysis was conducted on 32 sets of thyroid tumors and benign pathologies. Expression levels were tested for correlations with clinical and pathological data. All statistical analysis were performed using GraphPad Prism version 3.0 software. RESULTS We found that female gender was associated with thyroid cancer risk (P<0.05). A positive relationship was identified between CYP1A1 mRNA levels and the presence of chronic disease, alcohol use, tumor size, metastasis and an advanced clinical stage (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that CYP1A1 gene expression could be used as a marker for thyroid cancer.
Quantifying ligand–receptor interactions for gorge-spanning acetylcholinesterase inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

There is a need for continued development of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors that could prolong the life of acetylcholine in the synaptic cleft and also prevent the aggregation of amyloid peptides associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The lack of a 3D-QSAR model which specifically deconvulates the type of interactions and quantifies them in terms of energies has motivated us to report a CoRIA model vis-à-vis the standard 3D-QSAR methods, CoMFA and CoMSIA. The CoRIA model was found to be statistically superior to the CoMFA and CoMSIA models and it could efficiently extract key residues involved in ligand recognition and binding to AChE. These interactions were quantified to gauge the magnitude of their contribution to the biological activity. In order to validate the CoRIA model, a pharmacophore map was first constructed and then used to virtually screen public databases, from which novel scaffolds were cherry picked that were not present in the training set. The biological activities of these novel molecules were then predicted by the CoRIA, CoMFA, and CoMSIA models. The hits identified were purchased and their biological activities were measured by the Ellman’s method for AChE inhibition. The predicted activities are in unison with the experimentally measured biological activities.
limmaGUI: A graphical user interface for linear modeling of microarray data

SUMMARY limmaGUI is a graphical user interface (GUI) based on R-Tcl/Tk for the exploration and linear modeling of data from two-color spotted microarray experiments, especially the assessment of differential expression in complex experiments. limmaGUI provides an interface to the statistical methods of the limma package for R, and is itself implemented as an R package. The software provides point and click access to a range of methods for background correction, graphical display, normalization, and analysis of microarray data. Arbitrarily complex microarray experiments involving multiple RNA sources can be accomodated using linear models and contrasts. Empirical Bayes shrinkage of the gene-wise residual variances is provided to ensure stable results even when the number of arrays is small. Integrated support is provided for quantitative spot quality weights, control spots, within-array replicate spots and multiple testing. limmaGUI is available for most platforms on the which R runs including Windows, Mac and most flavors of Unix. AVAILABILITY http://bioinf.wehi. edu.au/limmaGUI.
Genetic polymorphisms of antioxidant enzymes as risk factors for oxidative stress-associated complications in preterm infants

Abstract We aimed to identify specific polymorphisms of genes encoding for superoxide dismutase (SOD) 1 (cytoplasmic Cu/ZnSOD), SOD2 (mitochondrial MnSOD), SOD3 (extracellular Cu/ZnSOD) and CAT in a cohort of preterm infants and correlate their presence to the development of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). We carried out a retrospective study to evaluate the allele frequency and the genotype distribution of polymorphisms of SODs and CAT in a population of preterm neonates (n = 152) with a gestational age ≤ 28 weeks according to the presence or absence of RDS, BPD, IVH and ROP. Moreover, we evaluated through the haplotype reconstruction analysis whether combinations of the selected polymorphisms are related to the occurrence of RDS, BPD, IVH and ROP. We found that rs8192287 SOD3 polymorphism is an independent protective factor for all grade IVH, while rs4880 and rs5746136 SOD2 polymorphisms are associated with a lower gestational age (rs4880, rs5746136) and birth weight (rs4880). Haplotypes reconstruction showed that SOD1 (GG) decreased the risk of RDS, IVH and ROP; SOD2 (GT) increased the risk of BPD and decreased the risk of RDS, IVH and ROP; SOD3 (TGC) decreased the risk of BPD and IVH; and 4) CAT (CTC) decreased the risk of RDS. The rs8192287 SOD3 polymorphism is per se an independent predictor of a decreased risk of developing IVH. Different SOD2 polymorphisms are associated per se with a lower gestational age and/or birth weight, and haplotypes of SOD1, SOD3 and CAT genes may be independent protecting or risk markers for prematurity complications.
Synergistic fibroblast optimization based improved reinforcement learning for intelligent assistive device

Without any human assistance, safe mobility and location identification are the two primary challenges faced by visually impaired people in the surrounding area. The affordable, reliable, robust and intelligence based assistive device is needful to blind persons for object detection and obstacle avoidance during movement. The objective of this paper is to propose a novel classical Q-learning (CQL) algorithm based intellectual walking stick prototype, using Synergistic Fibroblast Optimization (SFO) for visually impaired people. SFO algorithm is applied to choose the optimal Q-values stored in Q-table that significantly improve the learning ability of CQL for solving object detection, obstacle avoidance and location identification in complex and dynamic environments. The proposed model is able to provide effective decisions to visually challenged people as voice messages, to take safety navigational directions, based on the sensor information obtained by interacting with the environment. The prototype is exposed to learn the obstacle avoidance experience with a large volume of real time data instances collected in various real world situations, and optimized learning scheme is constructed using derived control policy. The proposed conceptual framework demonstrates an excellent generalization performance and accurate results which mean that the prototype has the capability to fulfill object detection, location identification and obstacle avoidance tasks efficiently in uncertainty environments.
Analysis of interferon mRNA in human fibroblast cells induced to produce interferon.

The levels of interferon mRNA as a function of interferon induction by poly(rI) . poly(rC) in human fibroblast cells were determined by RNA hybridization using a cloned beta interferon cDNA and by translation in Xenopus oocytes. Whereas previous studies analyzed mixtures of interferons, the availability of the cloned beta interferon cDNA and the antiserum to purified beta interferon enabled us to focus on the expression of only one class (beta) of interferon genes. The induction of interferon synthesis depends primarily on the accumulation of interferon beta mRNA in the cells, and the interferon beta mRNA rapidly disappears several hours after its appearance in the cytoplasm. No detectable interferon beta mRNA sequences are present in uninduced cells. The degradation of interferon beta mRNA in the induced cells requires ongoing protein synthesis; accumulation of interferon beta mRNA was observed in the continuous presence of cycloheximide. The interferon beta mRNA detected at the early stages of induction is 1100 nucleotides long and its size progressively decreases with time. By both the hybridization and the translational assay in Xenopus oocytes, only one size of interferon beta mRNA and one species of beta interferon could be identified.
Scatter free imaging for the improvement of breast cancer detection in mammography

In mammography, the reduction of scattered x-rays is vital due to the low contrast or small dimension of the details that are searched for. The typical method of doing so in current conventional mammography is the anti-scatter grid. The disadvantage of this method is the absorption of a proportion of the primary beam and therefore an increase in dose is required to compensate for the loss of counts. An alternative method is proposed, using quasi-monochromatic beams and a pixellated spectroscopic detector. As Compton-scattered x-rays lose energy in the scattering process, they are detected at a lower energy in the spectrum. Therefore the spectrum can be windowed around the monochromatic energy peak, removing the scattered x-rays from the image. The work presented here shows contrast improvement of up to 50% and contrast to noise ratio improvements of around 20% for scatter free imaging in comparison to full spectrum imaging. Contrast improvements of around 45% were found when comparing scatter free images to conventional polychromatic imaging for both the low contrast test object and the Rachel anthropomorphic breast phantom.
Competitive coevolutionary algorithm for robust multi-objective optimization: The worst case minimization

Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) problems might be subject to many modeling or manufacturing uncertainties that affect the performance of the solutions obtained by a multi-objective optimizer. The decision maker must perform an extra step of sensitivity analysis in which each solution should be verified for its robustness, but this post optimization procedure makes the optimization process expensive and inefficient. In order to avoid this situation, many researchers are developing Robust MOO, where uncertainties are incorporated in the optimization process, which seeks optimal robust solutions. We introduce a coevolutionary approach for robust MOO, without incorporating robustness measures neither in the objective function nor in the constraints. Two populations compete in the environment, one representing solutions and minimizing the objectives, another representing uncertainties and maximizing the objectives in a worst case scenario. The proposed coevolutionary method is a coevolutionary version of MOEA/D. The results clearly suggest that these competing co-evolving populations are able to identify robust solutions to multi-objective optimization problems.
The Construction Method of Knowledge Discovery Theory System Based on Cognitive

The mainstream of development in knowledge discovery is researching on new high-performance and high- scalability mining algorithm. In fact, the research of process model and inner mechanism is more important, which have got enough attention. This paper proposed a new independent knowledge discovery system framework, which combines those three elements: algorithm, model and mechanism. In essence, it derives the systematic method from the general algorithms. Experimental results and researches show that this research can resolve some realistic problems such as timely knowledge databases maintaining and so on; by exposing the essence, regularity and complexity of KD, it would react on the mainstream, and become one available route of constituting the KD theory system.
Fabrication of silver nanoparticles by Phoma glomerata and its combined effect against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus

Aims: We report extracellular synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag‐NPs) from Phoma glomerata and its efficacy against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bacteria exhibiting resistance to various antibiotics showed remarkable sensitivity, when used in combination of antibiotics and Ag‐NPs.
Allogeneic Umbilical Cord Blood Red Cell Concentrates: An Innovative Blood Product for Transfusion Therapy of Preterm Infants

Background: Preterm infants often receive blood transfusions early in life. In this setting, umbilical cord blood (UCB) might be safer than adult blood (A) with respect to infectious and immunologic threats. Objectives: To evaluate, as a first objective, the feasibility of fulfilling transfusion needs of preterm infants with allogeneic UCB red blood cell (RBC) concentrates and, as a secondary objective, to assess the safety of allogeneic cord blood transfusions. Methods: At the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the UNICATT Cord Blood Bank of ‘A. Gemelli' Hospital in Rome, a prospective study was carried out over a 1-year period, enrolling newborns with gestational age ≤30 weeks and/or birth weight ≤1,500 g requiring RBC transfusions within the first 28 days of life. At first transfusion, patients were assigned to receive UCB-RBCs or A-RBCs depending on the availability of ABO-Rh(D)-matched UCB-RBC units. The same regimen (UCB-RBC or A-RBC units) was thereafter maintained, unless ABO-Rh(D)-matched UCB-RBC units were not available. Results: Overall, 23 UCB-RBC units were transfused to 9 patients; the requests for UCB-RBC units were met in 45% of patients at the first transfusion and in 78% at the subsequent transfusions. At a median follow-up of 57 days (range 6-219), no acute or delayed transfusion-related adverse events occurred. Hematocrit gain after transfusion and time intervals between transfusions were similar in the UCB-RBC and A-RBC group, as well. Conclusions: Transfusing allogeneic UCB-RBC units in preterm infants appears a feasible and safe approach, although the transfusion needs of our study population were not completely covered. More data are necessary to validate this novel transfusion practice. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel
Structural and Functional Analysis of the Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 Binding Motif in the Somatomedin B Domain of Vitronectin*

Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) binds to the somatomedin B (SMB) domain of vitronectin (VN), a domain present in at least seven other proteins. In this study, we investigate the PAI-1 binding activity of these SMB homologs and attempt to more specifically localize the PAI-1 binding site within this domain. SMBVN and several of its homologs were expressed in Escherichia coli, purified, and tested for PAI-1 binding activity in a competitive ligand binding assay. Although recombinant SMBVN was fully active in this assay, none of the homologs bound to PAI-1 or competed with VN for PAI-1 binding. These inactive homologs are structurally related to SMBVN, having 33-45% sequence identity and containing all 8 cysteines at conserved positions. Thus, homolog-scanning experiments were conducted by exchanging progressively larger portions of the NH2- or COOH-terminal regions of active SMBVN with the corresponding regions of the inactive homologs. These experiments revealed that the minimum PAI-1-binding sequence was present in the central region (residues 12-30) of SMBVN. Alanine scanning mutagenesis further demonstrated that each of the 8 cysteines as well as Gly12, Asp22, Leu24, Try27, Tyr28, and Asp34 were critical for PAI-1 binding and were required to stabilize PAI-1 activity. These results indicate that the PAI-1 binding motif is localized to residues 12-30 of SMBVN and suggest that this motif is anchored in the active conformation by disulfide bonds.
Effects of Annealing and Nanoparticle Doping on Electrical Properties of ${\rm MgB}_{2}$ Bulks Grown by Reactive Mg Liquid Infiltration Technique

A comparative study of the electron transport properties of MgB<sub>2</sub> bulk samples was performed aimed at addressing the role of annealing as well as of SiC and Zn doping on sample anisotropy and band conduction parameters. Samples were produced by Reactive Mg Liquid Infiltration (RLI) technique in boron powder preforms. Both irreversibility (<i>B</i> <sub>irr</sub>) and upper critical fields (<i>B</i> <sub>c2</sub>) are enhanced by doping procedure. In all samples the <i>B</i> <sub>c2</sub> anisotropy factor (gamma), evaluated by analyzing the <i>B</i> <sub>irr</sub> and <i>B</i> <sub>c2</sub> temperature dependence in the framework of the current percolation model proposed by Eisterer <i>et</i> <i>al</i>. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 247002 (2003)], decreases at increasing temperature, and it is reduced by SiC and Zn doping-induced defects. Accordingly, in both annealed and doped samples the pi -band diffusivity, obtained by fitting the <i>B</i> <sub>c2</sub> dependence on temperature within the two-band model formulated by Gurevich [Phys. Rev. B 67, 184515 (2003)], is higher than the sigma-band one. A decrease of the more anisotropic sigma-band diffusivity was also found in the doped samples.