Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of male tenure and female mate choice on paternity in free‐ranging Japanese macaques

In this study, the paternity of all the infants born in 2002 and 2003 in a free‐ranging Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) group at Arashiyama in Kyoto, Japan, was analyzed in relation to males' age, dominance rank, and tenure and females' mate choice. The fathers of 20 out of 23 infants were determined by DNA analyses. Central adult (high‐ranking) males sired two infants, whereas peripheral adult (low‐ranking) males sired 14 infants. Young males sired only one infant. Among adult males, tenure was the most dominant factor that negatively affected male reproductive success. The mating behavior of females who gave birth was also analyzed. The number of male copulations in the peri‐fertilization period was positively correlated with the number of infants that they sired. Females copulated with central males with a long tenure only when fertilization was unlikely or impossible. The females probably avoided insemination by males with a long tenure and selected males with a shorter tenure as their mating partners during the ovulation period. Am. J. Primatol. 70:62–68, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The influence of injection speed on pain during injection of local anaesthetic

Abstract Study objective: To determine the influence of injection speed on pain during injection of local anaesthetics. Methods: In a blinded randomised study with 36 healthy volunteers, each volunteer received three injections of 4.5 ml lidocaine subcutaneously on the abdomen. The injections were given during 15 seconds (0.3 ml/s), 30 seconds (0.15 ml/s), and 45 seconds (0.1 ml/s). The needle tip remained beneath the skin for 45 seconds during all three injections. Participants rated the pain experienced on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) immediately after each injection. After the last injection, they were asked which injections were the least and most painful. Results: The mean VAS pain score for the 15 seconds injections was 26 (SD = 19), for the 30 seconds injections 24 (SD = 19), and for the 45 seconds injections also 24 (SD = 18) (ns). Eight subjects preferred the 15 seconds injection, 15 preferred the 30 seconds injection, and 10 preferred the 45 seconds injection (ns). Conclusion: It is concluded that varying the injection speed between 0.3 ml/s and 0.1 ml/s has no influence on the pain experienced during subcutaneous injection of 4.5 ml lidocaine.
Platelet microparticles: a new player in malaria parasite cytoadherence to human brain endothelium

Cerebral malaria (CM) is characterized by accumulation of circulating cells within brain microvessels, among which platelets play an important role. In vitro, platelets modulate the cytoadherence of Plasmodium falciparum‐parasitized red blood cells (PRBCs) to brain endothelial cells. Here we show for the first time that platelet microparticles (PMPs) are able to bind to PRBCs, thereby transferring platelet antigens to the PRBC surface. This binding is largely specific to PRBCs, because PMPs show little adherence to normal red blood cells. PMP adherence is also dependent on the P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 variant expressed by PRBCs. PMP binding to PRBCs decreases after neutralization of PRBC surface proteins by trypsin or after treatment of PMPs with a mAb to platelet‐endothelial cell adhesion molecule‐1 (CD31) and glycoprotein IV (CD36). Furthermore, PMP uptake is a dynamic process that can be achieved by human brain endothelial cells (HBECs), inducing changes in the endothelial phenotype. Lastly, PMPs dramatically increase PRBC cytoadherence to HBECs. In conclusion, our study identifies several mechanisms by which PMPs may participate in CM pathogenesis while interacting with both PRBCs and HBECs. PMPs thereby provide a novel target for antagonizing interactions between vascular cells that promote microvascular sludging and blood brain barrier alteration during CM. —Faille, D. , Combes, V. , Mitchell, A. J., Fontaine, A. , Juhan‐Vague, I. , Alessi, M. ‐C. , Chimini, G. , Fusaï, T. , Grau, G. E. Platelet microparticles: a new player in malaria parasite cytoadherence to human brain endothelium. FASEB J. 23, 3449–3458 (2009). www.fasebj. org
Specific Antibody Can Prevent Fungal Biofilm Formation and This Effect Correlates with Protective Efficacy

ABSTRACT One of the most troublesome medical problems today is infection of prosthetic devices with organisms that form polysaccharide biofilms. This combined with increasing antimicrobial drug resistance is making many infectious diseases incurable. Cryptococcus neoformans is a human-pathogenic fungus that has a polysaccharide capsule and can form biofilms in prosthetic medical devices. We developed a system to study cryptococcal biofilm formation in vitro and studied the effect of antibody to the C. neoformans capsular polysaccharide on this process. C. neoformans biofilm formation was dependent on the presence of a polysaccharide capsule and correlated with the ability of capsular polysaccharide to bind the polystyrene solid support. Protective antibodies prevented biofilm formation whereas nonprotective antibodies were not effective. The mechanism of antibody action involved interference with capsular polysaccharide release from the fungal cell. In contrast, lactoferrin, an effector molecule of innate immune mechanisms, was unable to prevent fungal biofilm formation despite its efficacy against bacterial biofilms. Our results suggest a new role of adaptive humoral immunity whereby some antibodies can inhibit biofilm formation by encapsulated organisms. Vaccines that elicit antibody responses to capsular antigens and/or passive transfer of antibodies to microbial polysaccharides may be useful in preventing biofilm formation.
Effects of Aqueous Extract of Garlic ( A llium sativum ) on Blood Parameters in Adult Wistar Rats ( Rattus novergicus )

The biological responses of Allium sativum (Garlic) have been largely attributed stimulation of immune function and reduction of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The effects of Allium sativum on blood cells and platelets was investigated in Wistar rats. The animals (105 – 158 g) were divided into three (3) groups; the Group A served as the control received 1 ml of distilled water, Group B received 3.5 g/kg body weight of garlic juice and Group C received 1 g/kg body weight of garlic juice extracts for 21 days of experimental period. Animals were sacrificed by cervical dislocation 24 hours after the last administration and blood was collected via the retro-orbital route with the aid of a capillary tube, into an EDTA bottle for analysis. The result shows that the juice extracts at various doses significantly (p<0.05) increase the total white blood cell counts, Lymphocyte count, Neutrophils count, also there was a significant (p<0.05) increase in the red blood cell count in rats treated with garlic juice. The packed cell volume of rats treated with garlic extract were significantly (p<0.05) increased. There was no significant (p<0.05) increase in the platelet count, monocytes count, eosinophil count, basophil count of the rats in all groups. Allium sativum affect the amount of circulating blood cells Allium cepa affect the amount of circulating blood cells thus promoting health benefits.
Epithelial proliferative potential of organ cultured corneoscleral rims; implications for allo-limbal transplantation and eye banking

Aims: To determine the epithelial proliferative capacity of organ cultured limbal tissue and correlate this with various donor and eye banking factors. Methods: 24 corneoscleral limbal (CSL) rims left over from penetrating keratoplasty were split in half and set up as in vitro explant cultures. Corneal epithelial proliferative potential (CEPP) was assessed by the number of “cycles” of growth achieved before explants underwent exhaustion and failure to generate an epithelium to subconfluence. The dependence of CEPP on the age of the donor, time of death to enucleation, time of enucleation to organ culture, and time in organ culture in the eye bank was determined. Results: CSL rims were capable of up to four cycles of culture with a wide variation between tissue samples. Of the various factors examined, death to enucleation time was the only statistically significant factor affecting the CEPP (regression coefficient: −0.062 (cycles/hour), CI −0.119 to −0.004, p = 0.037). Time in organ culture had little effect on CEPP. Conclusions: Preselected organ cultured CSL rims from eye banks may offer a viable alternative tissue source for use in allo-limbal transplantation.
Quantitative study of the performance statistics of a WDM system with different channel spacings

We investigate experimentally and theoretically the statistics of optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and Q-factor after 1800 km of propagation with three channel spacings in a typical terrestrial wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) system with a fixed loop polarization-dependent loss (PDL) level of 0.75 dB. Comparisons between measured and simulated results show that fiber drift contributes significantly to the OSNR and Q fluctuations, and decreasing channel spacing reduces the PDL-induced performance fluctuations, but increases the interchannel crosstalk-induced performance fluctuations, especially at the 50-GHz channel spacing. The combination of these factors leads to comparable performance statistics with these channel spacings.
Developing a prognostic index for ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast: Are we there yet?

he management of patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of T the breast has become a major clinical dilemma. In the past, the diagnosis of DCIS was very uncommon but today is much more frequent, particularly in patients who undergo mammographic screening. Although mastectomy for DCIS provides cure rates approaching loo%, this undoubtedly represents overtreatment in a substantial number of patients. Furthermore, it has become increasingly difficult to justify the routine use of mastectomy for patients with DCIS, given that its natural history is uncertain and that breast-conserving therapy is currently used for rhe treatment of many patients with invasive breast cancer. ' Recent studies have clearly suggested that DCIS is not a single disease. Rather, this term encompasses a diverse group of lesions that differ with regard to their clinical presentation, mammographic features, extent and distribution within the breast, histologic characteristics, and biologic markers. Moreover, clinical follow-up studies have indicated that these lesions vary in their propensity to recur or progress to invasive breast cancer. These findings suggest that at least some patients with DCIS, those with a low risk of recurrence or progression, could be adequately treated with breast-conserving therapy (i.e., excision with or without radiation therapy). ' A means to reliably determine which patients with DCIS can be safely treated with excision alone, which patients require radiation therapy after excision, and which patients require mastectomy is a pressing clinical question. Attempts to resolve this issue have focused on the identification of risk factors for local recurrence after breast conserving therapy for DCIS. Previous studies, all but one of which were retrospective, have identified a number of factors that appear to be importan1 in this regard. These include the histologic features of the lesion, the adequacy of the excision, and the size of the lesion. However, the relative importance of these factors in predicting the risk of local recurrence and, in turn, in selecting the appropriate therapeutic option for a given patient is unclear.
Disulfide Bond Formation and Cysteine Exclusion in Gram-positive Bacteria

Most secretion pathways in bacteria and eukaryotic cells are challenged by the requirement for their substrate proteins to mature after they traverse a membrane barrier and enter a reactive oxidizing environment. For Gram-positive bacteria, the mechanisms that protect their exported proteins from misoxidation during their post-translocation maturation are poorly understood. To address this, we separated numerous bacterial species according to their tolerance for oxygen and divided their proteomes based on the predicted subcellular localization of their proteins. We then applied a previously established computational approach that utilizes cysteine incorporation patterns in proteins as an indicator of enzymatic systems that may exist in each species. The Sec-dependent exported proteins from aerobic Gram-positive Actinobacteria were found to encode cysteines in an even-biased pattern indicative of a functional disulfide bond formation system. In contrast, aerobic Gram-positive Firmicutes favor the exclusion of cysteines from both their cytoplasmic proteins and their substantially longer exported proteins. Supporting these findings, we show that Firmicutes, but not Actinobacteria, tolerate growth in reductant. We further demonstrate that the actinobacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum possesses disulfide-bonded proteins and two dimeric Dsb-like enzymes that can efficiently catalyze the formation of disulfide bonds. Our results suggest that cysteine exclusion is an important adaptive strategy against the challenges presented by oxidative environments.
Regression Models Using Fully Discharged Voltage and Internal Resistance for State of Health Estimation of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Accurate estimation of lithium-ion battery life is essential to assure the reliable operation of the energy supply system. This study develops regression models for battery prognostics using statistical methods. The resultant regression models can not only monitor a battery’s degradation trend but also accurately predict its remaining useful life (RUL) at an early stage. Three sets of test data are employed in the training stage for regression models. Another set of data is then applied to the regression models for validation. The fully discharged voltage (V dis ) and internal resistance (R) are adopted as aging parameters in two different mathematical models, with polynomial and exponential functions. A particle swarm optimization (PSO) process is applied to search for optimal coefficients of the regression models. Simulations indicate that the regression models using V dis and R as aging parameters can build a real state of health profile more accurately than those using cycle number, N. The Monte Carlo method is further employed to make the models adaptive. The subsequent results, however, show that this results in an insignificant improvement of the battery life prediction. A reasonable speculation is that the PSO process already yields the major model coefficients.
Throughput-Efficient Channel Allocation Algorithms in Multi-Channel Cognitive Vehicular Networks

Many studies show that the dedicated short range communication band allocated to vehicular communications is insufficient to carry the wireless traffic generated by emerging vehicular applications. A promising bandwidth expansion possibility presents itself through the release of large TV band spectra (i.e., the TV white space spectrum) by the Federal Communications Commission for cognitive access. One primary challenge of the so-called TV white space (TVWS) spectrum access in vehicular networks is the design of efficient channel allocation mechanisms in face of spatial-temporal variations of TVWS channels. In this paper, we address the channel allocation problem for multi-channel cognitive vehicular networks with the objective of system-wide throughput maximization. We show that the problem is an NP-hard non-linear integer programming problem, to which we present three efficient algorithms. We first propose a probabilistic polynomial-time $(1-1/e)$ -approximation algorithm based on linear programming. Next, we prove that the objective function can be written as a submodular set function, based on which we develop a deterministic constant-factor approximation algorithm with a more favorable time complexity. Then, we further modify the second algorithm to improve its approximation ratio without increasing its time complexity. Finally, we show the efficacy of our algorithms through numerical examples.
Surface and site-specific ring-opening metathesis polymerization initiated by dip-pen nanolithography.

Patterned polymeric structures have attracted significant interest for possible applications in the development of sensors, catalysis, and optical devices. Thus far, several strategies, based upon photolithography, electron beam lithography, and microcontact printing have been developed for generating polymer arrays. While useful for many applications, these methods do not allow one to control nanostructure composition in a site-specific manner and, therefore, do not allow one to fabricate complex multicomponent polymer arrays over the nanoto micrometer length scales. Having the capability to generate multicomponent arrays with nanoscopic features could afford one the opportunity to construct and study high-density combinatorial libraries of novel macromolecular systems. Herein, we report a novel approach, based upon dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) and ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), to the fabrication of polymer brush arrays on the nanometer length scale. The combined approach utilizes the attributes of DPN and ROMP for synthesizing high-density polymer brush arrays with control over feature size (on the nanometer length scale), shape, and interfeature distance. Furthermore, the capability of directly delivering monomers through a standard AFM microcantilever will allow one to generate small, but diverse, libraries of nanoscale polymer brushes that comprise large numbers of structurally distinct compounds by assembling many possible combinations of small building monomers containing desired active functionalities. To explore the potential of the combined approach and provide the basis for the studies leading to the design of combinatorial polymer libraries, two complementary routes have been developed for synthesizing arrays of the nanoscale polymer brushes based on DPN and ROMP. Route 1 is an approach based on growing polymers from a DPN-patterned template (Scheme 1). To test the viability of this route, 10(exo-5-norbornen-2-oxy)decane-1-thiol molecules were patterned on a gold substrate by bringing a tip coated with norbornenylthiol in contact with the substrate. The exo isomer rather than the corresponding endo isomer was used to optimize ROMP reactivity. Subsequently, the substrate
Inflammation‐Induced Drug Release by using a pH‐Responsive Gas‐Generating Hollow‐Microsphere System for the Treatment of Osteomyelitis

In the conventional treatment of osteomyelitis, the penetration of antibiotics into the infected bone is commonly poor. To ensure that the local antibiotic concentration is adequate, this work develops an injectable calcium phosphate (CP) cement in which is embedded pH‐responsive hollow microspheres (HMs) that can control the release of a drug according to the local pH. The HMs are fabricated using a microfluidic device, with a shell of poly(d,l‐lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) and an aqueous core that contains vancomycin (Van) and NaHCO3. At neutral pH, the CP/HM cement elutes a negligible concentration of the drug. In an acidic environment, the NaHCO3 that is encapsulated in the HMs reacts with the acid rapidly to generate CO2 bubbles, disrupting the PLGA shells and thereby releasing Van locally in excess of a therapeutic threshold. The feasibility of using this CP/HM cement to treat osteomyelitis is studied using a rabbit model. Analytical results reveal that the CP/HM cement provides highly effective local antibacterial activity. Histological examination further verifies the efficacy of the treatment by the CP/HM cement. The above findings suggest that the CP/HM cement is a highly efficient system for the local delivery of antibiotics in the treatment of osteomyelitis.
Reversible random coil-beta-sheet transition of the Alzheimer beta-amyloid fragment (25-35).

The beta-amyloid protein (39-43 amino acid residues) is the major constituent of the amyloid deposits found in brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease. Using circular dichroism spectroscopy, we have studied the secondary structure and the aggregation of fragment 25-35 of the beta-amyloid protein (beta AP(25-35)OH) under a variety of conditions. beta AP(25-35)OH in solution at pH 4.0 or 5.5 exhibits a concentration-dependent random coil<-->beta-sheet transition. The equilibrium is characterized spectroscopically by an isodichroic point and can be described quantitatively by a simple association model with association constants between 1.8 x 10(4) M-1 (non-cooperative model, nucleation parameter sigma = 1) and 2.9 x 10(4) M-1 (cooperative model, sigma = 0.2). The enthalpy of association is delta H approximately -3 kcal/mol as determined by titration calorimetry. The equilibrium is shifted completely toward beta-structured fibrils at pH 7.4 where the Met-35 carboxyl group is fully charged. In contrast, removal of the charged carboxy terminus by amidation locks the equilibrium in the random coil conformation. Model calculations suggest an antiparallel beta-sheet structure involving residues 28-35 which is stabilized at both ends of the beta-sheet by ion pairs formed between Lys-28 and Met-35. Removal of fibrils via millipore filtration leads to solutions with random coil monomers only. Seeding these solutions with a few fibrils establishes a new random coil<-->beta-sheet equilibrium.
Genetic factors in congenital heart malformation

Congenital heart disease is the commonest malformation in humans and contributes greatly to the burden of disease in infancy. Increasingly, developmental origins are also implicated in heart disease in adults. Significant advances have been made over the past decade in elucidating morphogenetic events of heart formation and their underlying molecular cascades, mostly in animal models. Clinical studies are increasingly successful in quantifying and unraveling genetic factors. This review focuses on recent progress made in understanding the genetic underpinnings of normal and abnormal heart formation and highlights the importance of understanding these mechanisms to improve patient management.
Is low dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids associated with depression?

OBJECTIVE This study examined the association between the dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids and low mood, major depression, and suicide. METHOD A total of 29,133 men ages 50 to 69 years participated in a population-based trial in Finland. The intake of fatty acids and fish consumption were calculated from a diet history questionnaire. Self-reported depressed mood was recorded three times annually, data on hospital treatments due to a major depressive disorder were derived from the National Hospital Discharge Register, and suicides were identified from death certificates. RESULTS There were no associations between the dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids or fish consumption and depressed mood, major depressive episodes, or suicide. CONCLUSIONS Dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids showed no association with low mood level.