Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased entry of CD4+ T cells into the Th1 cytokine effector pathway during T-cell division following stimulation in Behcet's disease.

OBJECTIVES To investigate the relationship between the production of Th1/Th2 cytokines and cell kinetics, cell division and proliferation in patients with Behçet's disease (BD). METHODS Peripheral venous blood was drawn from patients with BD (n = 24; 10 patients with active and 14 patients with inactive BD) and normal subjects (n = 22). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated immediately and were cultured with concanavalin A (Con A) followed by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate and ionomycin (PMA+Ion). Intracellular cytokine production of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) (Th1) and IL-4 (Th2) in CD4(+) T cells was determined by flow cytometry. Furthermore, CD4(+) T cells labelled with CFSE [5 (and 6) carboxyfluorescein diacretate, succinimidyl ester] were stimulated and the cells were analysed for entry into the cytokine production effector pathway during cell division in active BD and normal subjects. RESULTS In active BD, enhanced entry into the Th1 response effector pathway of CD4(+) T cells was observed after stimulation with Con A followed by PMA+Ion. Analysis of CD4(+) T cells at an identical cell division number in response to Con A followed by PMA+Ion revealed that IFN-gamma-producing cells were increased in active BD patients compared with normal subjects. These results suggest that the Th1 response of dividing CD4(+) T cells is predominantly operating in active BD. Dividing CD4(+) T cells stimulated with Con A followed by PMA+Ion showed a phenotype of activated effector memory T cells (CD45RA(low), CD45RO(+), CD69(high)). CONCLUSIONS Cell kinetics play a crucial role in Th1 cell differentiation and pathophysiology in BD.
Liver and spleen stiffness and other noninvasive methods to assess portal hypertension in cirrhotic patients: a review of the literature

Portal hypertension (PH) is one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic liver disease. PH measurement is crucial to stage and predict the clinical outcome of liver cirrhosis. Measurement of hepatic vein pressure gradient is considered the gold standard for assessment of the degree of PH; however, it is an invasive method and has not been used widely. Thus, noninvasive methods have been proposed recently. We critically evaluated serum markers, abdominal ultrasonography, and particularly liver and spleen stiffness measurement, which represent the more promising methods to stage PH degree and to assess the presence/absence of esophageal varices (EV). A literature search was carried out on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus for articles and abstracts. The search terms used included ‘liver cirrhosis’, ‘portal hypertension’, ‘liver stiffness’, ‘spleen stiffness’, ‘ultrasonography’, and ‘portal hypertension serum biomarker’. The articles cited were selected on the basis of their relevance to the objective of the review. The results of available studies indicate that individually, these methods have a mild accuracy in predicting the presence of EV, and thus they cannot substitute endoscopy to predict EV. When these tests were used in combination, their accuracy increased. In addition to the PH staging, several serum markers and spleen stiffness measurement can predict the clinical outcome of liver cirrhosis with a good accuracy, comparable to that of hepatic vein pressure gradient. In the future, noninvasive methods could be used to select patients requiring further investigations to identify the best tailored clinical management.
Appropriate excitation/emission wavelengths for fluorometric determination of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances.

mum differences shown in parentheses): sodium and chloride (<1 mmol/ L), potassium and total CO2 (<0.1 mmol/L), glucose (<0.05 mmo)/L), urea nitrogen (<0.11 mmol/L), creatmine (all 0), albumin and total protein (<1 gIL), uric acid (6 .&mol/L), alkaline phosphatate (3 UIL), LI) (2% difference), i-glutamyltransferase (1 U/L), and total bilirubin (1 mgfL). In contrast, the only laboratory test affected by Li-Zn heparin was total Mg, which was increased by a mean of only 0.08 mmol/L. As found by Landt et al. (4), we also note that Li-Zn heparin did not affect total calcium, an effect reported earlier for electrolyte-balanced heparin (2). At present, the direct potentiometric measurements of Ca2, Na, K, pH, Pco2, and P02 represent the large majority of tests that would be ordered on whole blood. The modest bias of 0.08 mmolfL in total Mg results indicates that total magnesium would best not be measured on plasma containing 25 kJ.UIL Li-Zn heparin. However, when magnesium must be measured, a possible option would be to subtract the consistant bias of 0.08 mmol/L from the total Mg result. Since Wilhite et al. (5) reported that zinc heparmn affected another total magnesium method less than it did the dry-slide method, each laboratory should verify the bias of their total Mg method in the presence of 25 kIU/L Li-Zn heparin before subtracting the bias. Li-Zn heparin at 25 kIUIL apparently had no effect on total calcium and no “calcium-dilution” effect at very low or very high concentrations of ionized calcium, findings also noted for electrolyte-balanced heparinized syringes (2, 7). Additionally, in two samples with very low albumin and total protein, the results were similar to results for samples with normal albumin/total protein. Therefore, we found no evidence to indicate that the effect of Li-Zn heparin is altered in any way by whole-blood samples with low protein content (8). Now that ionized magnesium has become available on commercial whole-blood electrolyte analyzers, the effect of Li-Zn heparin needs to be evaluated for its effect on ionized magnesium. Although ionized magnesium is not currently in wide use, the commercial availability of analyzers suggests greater use in coming years. In summary, the Li-Zn heparin appears to have virtually no effect on ionized calcium results. Only total magnesium and possibly amylase were affected slightly. This anticoagulant appears to offer some advantages over electrolyte-balanced heparim (2) and clear advantages over zinc heparin, the use of which should be discontinued (5).
Developmental arrest induced in cleavage stage porcine embryos following microinjection of mRNA encoding Brahma (Smarca 2), a chromatin remodeling protein

Smarca 2 (Brahma) and Smarca 4 (Brahma related gene 1, BRG1) alternatively occupy the catalytic site of SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes. Mammalian embryos undergo a dramatic amount of epigenetic remodeling during cleavage development, which plays key roles in regulating both gene transcription and the developmental potential of the embryo. In order to understand how the epigenetic state of cleavage stage embryos is regulated, it is important to identify the factors that mediate epigenetic changes during cleavage development. In this study we hypothesized that altered expression of Smarca 2 would have profound effects on embryo development. The objectives of this study were to determine the expression pattern of Smarca 2 and determine the effects of Smarca 2 overexpression in cleavage stage parthenogenetic porcine embryos. Smarca 2 transcripts are most abundant in germinal vesicle (GV) stage oocytes and decline progressively during cleavage development. At the blastocyst stage, Smarca 2 transcripts are reduced by 18‐fold (GV stage oocyte vs. blastocyst stage embryo, P < 0.05). Parthenogenetic porcine embryos injected with mRNA encoding wild type human Smarca 2 exhibited a dramatic developmental arrest as compared to noninjected embryos, embryos injected with GFP mRNA, or mRNA encoding a dominant negative version of human Smarca 2 (P < 0.01). This work demonstrates the importance of Smarca 2 containing SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes in preimplantation porcine embryos and how perturbing the amount of Smarca 2 in porcine embryos disrupts cleavage development. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 74: 1262–1267, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Police and Public in the United Kingdom

there is a peculiar quality in the relationship between the police and the public of this country . It is attested by the foreign visitor whose favourable comments on our police are well known, and it is demonstrated in the common every-day instances in which people instinctively consult a policeman when in difficulty or perplexity even of a minor kind. It is not generally disputed that there is a kind of relationship between the policeman and the man in the street in this country which is of the greatest value. This passage has been criticised by Professor Michael Banton, who mentions the high quality and reputation of the Swedish (and probably other Scandinavian) police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and adds 'There are police departments in the United States and probably in many other industrial countries with standards little different from those in Britain'. '
MODELING THE RELEASE OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER BY PHYTOPLANKTON 1

Three models describing dissolved organic matter (DOM) flux and phytoplankton death, each of different levels of complexity, were constructed and tested against experimental data for a cyanobacterium, a chlorophyte, two diatoms, two dinoflagellates, and two prymnesiophytes. The simplest model described only bulk carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) forms of DOM (DOMC and DOMN) and employed a fixed relationship between phytoplankton nutrient status and DOM release and death rate. The most complex model described fractions of DOM as low molecular weight dissolved organic carbon (DOC; saccharides, low molecular weight carbohydrates [DOCs]), low molecular weight nitrogenous material (comprising C and N as DOC associated with low molecular weight compounds containing amino acids and/or nucleic acids [DOCa] and N associated with DOCa [DONa], which included dissolved free amino acids [DFAA]), and more complex materials (DOC associated with high molecular weight compounds typically requiring extracellular degradation prior to uptake or use by microbes [DOCx] and N associated with DOCx [DONx]). It also employed descriptions of DOM flux and cell death related to nutrient status and growth rates. In all instances, material lysed from dead cells contributed to the DOM pool. All three models captured the gross dynamics of the primary data (dissolved inorganic C [DIC], dissolved inorganic N [DIN], particulate organic carbon [POC], particulate organic N [PON], DOC, dissolved organic N [DON]), but there was little or no improvement of the fit with increasing model complexity. However, the simplest models tended to employ excessively high growth rates to compensate for high fixed death rates. While the proportion of newly fixed C being liberated as DOMC (DOCs plus DOCa) increased as nutrient status declined, the actual rate of release typically did not do so and often declined. The most complex model gave predictions for changes in released saccharides and DFAA in keeping with expectations. The major obstacle to future progress is the lack of suitable, mass balanced data sets for further model testing.
Local Kernel Mapping for Object Recognition

This paper proposes a new method, named Local Kernel Mapping (LKM), for object recognition. LKM is proposed to capture the nonlinear local relationship by using the kernel function. Different from traditional kernel methods for feature extraction, the proposed method does not need to reserve the training samples. To testify the effectiveness of LKM, we apply it on Local Binary Pattern (LBP), and the experiment results on palmprint show that LKM can improve the performance of the LBP method.
Epinephrine added to a lumbar epidural infusion of a small‐dose ropivacaine‐fentanyl mixture after arterial bypass surgery of the lower extremities

Background: The addition of epinephrine (2 µg·ml−1) to a thoracic epidural infusion of an opioid‐local anesthetic mixture improves analgesia. Here, we studied whether epinephrine could improve analgesia also at lumbar level, when added to an epidural infusion of a low‐dose ropivacaine‐fentanyl mixture after arterial bypass surgery of the legs.
Functional Food Science in Europe

The goal of the Functional Food Science in Europe (FUFOSE) concerted action was to reach consensus on scientific concepts of functional foods in Europe by using the science base that supports evidence that specific nutrients positively affect physiological functions. The outcome proposes "a working definition" of functional foods: foods can be regarded as functional if they can be satisfactorily demonstrated to affect beneficially one or more target functions in the body, beyond adequate nutritional effects, in a way relevant to an improved state of health and well-being and/or reduction of risk of disease. Functional foods must remain foods and they must achieve their effects in amounts normally consumed in a diet. Evidence from human studies, based on markers relating to biological response or on intermediate endpoint markers of disease, could provide a sound scientific basis for messages and claims about the functional food products. Two types of claims are proposed that relate directly to these two categories of markers: Enhanced function claims (type A) and reduced risk of disease claims (type B). A new EU Concerted Action will start with, and build upon, the principles defined within FUFOSE. This project PASSCLAIM will (i) produce a consensus on principles for the scientific substantiation of health-related claims for food and food components, (ii) select common criteria for how markers should be identified, validated and used in well-designed studies to explore the links between diet and health and (iii) to evaluate critically the existing schemes which assess the scientific substantiation of claims.
Antimicrobial, antitumor and brine shrimp lethality assay of Ranunculus arvensis L. extracts.

To investigate the antitumor activity, brine shrimp lethality assay, antibacterial and antifungal activity of Methanol Extract (ME), Water Extract (WE), Acetone Extract (AE), Chloroform Extract (CE), Methanol-Water Extract (MWE), Methanol-Acetone Extract (MAE), Methanol-Chloroform Extract (MCE) of Ranunculus arvensis (L.). Antitumor activity was evaluated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens (At10) induced potato disc assay. Cytotoxicity was evaluated with brine shrimp lethality assay. Antibacterial activity was evaluated with six bacterial strains including Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, Bordetella bronchiseptica, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Micrococcus luteus and Streptococcus anginosus and antifungal screening was done against five fungal strains including Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumigates, Fusarium solani and Mucor species by using disc diffusion method. Best antitumor activity was obtained with ME and WE, having highest IC50 values 20.27 ± 1.62 and 93.01 ± 1. 33μg/disc. Brine shrimp lethality assay showed LC50 values of AE, MAE and ME were obtained as 384.66 ± 9. 42μg/ml, 724.11 ± 8.01μg/ml and 978.7 ±8.01 μg/ml respectively. WE of R. arvensis revealed weak antimicrobial result against the tested microorganisms. On the other hand, the antifungal activity of the plant extracts was found to be insignificant. These findings demonstrate that extracts of R. arvensis possesses significant antitumor activity. Further extensive study is necessary to assess the therapeutic potential of the plant.
Fast anterograde transport of Herpes Simplex Virus: Role for the amyloid precursor protein of Alzheimer's disease

Anterograde transport of herpes simplex virus (HSV) from its site of synthesis in the neuronal cell body out the neuronal process to the mucosal membrane is crucial for transmission of the virus from one person to another, yet the molecular mechanism is not known. By injecting GFP‐labeled HSV into the giant axon of the squid, we reconstitute fast anterograde transport of human HSV and use this as an assay to uncover the underlying molecular mechanism. HSV travels by fast axonal transport at velocities four‐fold faster (0.9 µm/sec average, 1.2 µm/sec maximal) than that of mitochondria moving in the same axon (0.2 µm/sec) and ten‐fold faster than negatively charged beads (0.08 µm/sec). Transport of HSV utilizes cellular transport mechanisms because it appears to be driven from inside cellular membranes as revealed by negative stain electron microscopy and by the association of TGN46, a component of the cellular secretory pathway, with GFP‐labeled viral particles. Finally, we show that amyloid precursor protein (APP), a putative receptor for the microtubule motor, kinesin, is a major component of viral particles, at least as abundant as any viral encoded protein, while another putative motor receptor, JIP 1/2, is not detected. Conventional kinesin is also associated with viral particles. This work links fast anterograde transport of the common pathogen, HSV, with the neurodegenerative Alzheimer"s disease. This novel connection should prompt new ideas for treatment and prevention strategies.
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in the Risk of Injury Related to the Frequency of Heavy Drinking Occasions.

AIMS To estimate the risk of injury associated with the frequency of heavy drinking days overall and for black, white and Hispanic drinkers in a US sample. METHODS Data are from the 2010 National Alcohol Survey and included 6506 respondents comprising the landline sample. Analyses utilize Cox proportional hazards models with age as the timescale in a retrospective cohort design. Life-course drinking is determined by age of onset and questions on heavy drinking by decade of life. The outcome measure is having had a serious injury at a certain age. Models estimate the risk of injury in relation to heavy drinking in each year controlling for demographics, risk taking and time varying measures of smoking and chronic disease. RESULTS Results indicate that the risk of injury increases with the frequency of heavy drinking days to a hazard ratio of 2.14 (1.45-3.14) for daily heavy drinkers. Risks for white respondents were similar to the overall results but different risk relationships were found for black respondents among whom only daily heavy drinkers had increased risk of 4.09 (2.11-7.93), and for Hispanic respondents where elevated risk was seen among yearly heavy drinkers 2.71 (1.29-5.68), with a similar risk estimate for monthly heavy drinkers but lower and non-significant risks found for more frequent heavy drinking categories. CONCLUSIONS Different risk relationships were found across race/ethnicity groups suggesting elevated risk with less frequent heavy drinking among Hispanic respondents and very high risk from daily heavy drinking among black respondents.
Metabolic engineering strategies for butanol production in Escherichia coli

The global market of butanol is increasing due to its growing applications as solvent, flavoring agent, and chemical precursor of several other compounds. Recently, the superior properties of n‐butanol as a biofuel over ethanol have stimulated even more interest. (Bio)butanol is natively produced together with ethanol and acetone by Clostridium species through acetone‐butanol‐ethanol fermentation, at noncompetitive, low titers compared to petrochemical production. Different butanol production pathways have been expressed in Escherichia coli, a more accessible host compared to Clostridium species, to improve butanol titers and rates. The bioproduction of butanol is here reviewed from a historical and theoretical perspective. All tested rational metabolic engineering strategies in E. coli to increase butanol titers are reviewed: manipulation of central carbon metabolism, elimination of competing pathways, cofactor balancing, development of new pathways, expression of homologous enzymes, consumption of different substrates, and molecular biology strategies. The progress in the field of metabolic modeling and pathway generation algorithms and their potential application to butanol production are also summarized here. The main goals are to gather all the strategies, evaluate the respective progress obtained, identify, and exploit the outstanding challenges.
Liposome contrast agent for CT-based detection and localization of neoplastic and inflammatory lesions in rabbits: validation with FDG-PET and histology.

PURPOSE This study was aimed at assessing the performance of a liposome-based computed tomography (CT) contrast agent to detect tumor and inflammatory lesions in a rabbit model relative to (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose- positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). MATERIALS AND METHODS Nine New Zealand White rabbits were inoculated with a cell suspension obtained from the tumor tissue of a donor rabbit bearing VX2 carcinoma. Spontaneously formed inflammatory lesions were identified in the skeletal muscles of six of the nine animals. The CT liposome agent (185 +/- 37 mg/kg of iodine) was administered intravenously 7 days following tumor inoculation. The PET/CT imaging session took place five days post-liposome contrast administration and 1 h post (18)F-FDG injection (30.3 +/- 5.1 MBq/kg). Approximately 20 h post-imaging, the tumor and inflammatory lesions were excised for histo-pathology assessment. RESULTS Liposome-CT identified the same number of primary tumors as FDG-PET (nine lesions, volumes = 0.07-7.01 cm(3), SUV(max) = 1.5-10.9, HU(mean) = 103.0-140.6). It also detected 25 inflammatory lesions (volumes = 0.01-2.73 cm(3), HU(mean) = 114.5-268.6), while FDG-PET identified seven (volumes = 0.05-1.04 cm(3), SUV(max) = 2.7-7.1). Differences in the mean CT signal (HU(mean)) between the tumor and inflammatory lesions were statistically significant (p < 0.0001). Partial volume adjusted SUV(max) values for the two lesion types calculated from the FDG-PET data set did not yield a significant difference (p > 0.15). CONCLUSION These results demonstrate that liposome-CT can be considered for effective screening of neoplastic and inflammatory diseases, as well as subsequent image-guided biopsy. Moreover, the differential accumulation of the liposomal agent at tumor and inflammatory sites highlights its potential role in increasing the specificity of image-based diagnosis.
Aloe‐emodin suppressed NMDA‐induced apoptosis of retinal ganglion cells through regulation of ERK phosphorylation

A high concentration of glutamate in the vitreous body and optic nerves of the eyes activates N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors and is toxic to retina ganglion cells (RGCs) in glaucomatous patients. Aloe‐emodin sulfates/glucuronides (s/g), the major metabolites of aloe‐emodin, was found to be effective in decreasing NMDA‐induced apoptosis in RGCs. In order to elucidate the mechanisms, an in vitro optic neuropathy model adding NMDA to N18 RGCs was used in this study. The phosphorylation level of extra‐cellular signal‐regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2), c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 kinase (cytokines‐suppressive antiinflammatory drug binding protein kinase) were measured by western blotting and luciferase reporter assay. The results showed that aloe‐emodin metabolites significantly decreased the activation of three major mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinase pathways and the activation of downstream genes in nucleus induced by NMDA, which were verified by the addition of the respective inhibitors. Comparing the effect of the inhibitors of the three MAP kinase pathways, the ERK pathway was found to be the major route of aloe‐emodin metabolites in decreasing the apoptosis of NMDA‐treated RGCs. Besides, cfos rather then cjun was the target downstream gene. Aloe‐emodin emodin metabolites could regulate the phosphorylation of ERK kinases and it was a promising candidate for NMDA‐induced apoptosis of RGCs. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.