Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Helicobacter hepaticus Infection on the Chronic Toxicity and Carcinogenicity of Triethanolamine in B6C3F1 Mice

Helicobacter hepaticus (H. hepaticus) infection causes hepatitis and increased hepatocellular neoplasms in male mice; although females are also infected, liver lesions are not typically expressed. In the 1990s, B6C3F1 mice from some chronic National Toxicology Program (NTP) studies were found to be infected with H. hepaticus. In these studies, there was hepatitis in many of the males, and there were more hepatocellular neoplasms in control males compared to studies with uninfected mice. In one of these studies, increased hepatocellular neoplasms at the high doses in male and female mice exposed topically to triethanolamine (TEA) provided the only evidence of carcinogenic activity. This study was repeated in mice free of H. hepaticus.However, the NTP mouse production colony and the diet differed between studies; these differences were the result of NTP programmatic decisions. In repeat study males, although control incidences were similar between studies, exposure did not result in increased hepatocellular neoplasms. In repeat study females, the control incidence of hepatocellular neoplasms was half that observed in the initial study, and these neoplasms were increased over controls at all doses. These data suggest that in the initial study, H. hepaticusinfluenced the induction of hepatocellular neoplasms in males, but not in females.
Effect of altering automatic exposure control settings and quality reference mAs on radiation dose, image quality, and diagnostic efficacy in MDCT enterography of active inflammatory Crohn's disease.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of our study was to determine whether the MDCT enterography dose can be reduced by changing automatic exposure control (AEC) setting and quality reference milliampere-seconds (mAs) without altering subjective image quality or efficacy in active inflammatory Crohn's disease. SUBJECTS AND METHODS This is a prospective study of 2,310 MDCT enterography procedures performed using 16- and 64-MDCT in three cohorts (original, intermediate, and final dose levels). For 16-MDCT, the original and intermediate dose level quality reference mAs was 200, and weight-based (1 pound [0.45 kg] = 1 mAs) for the final dose level. For 64-MDCT, the original dose level quality reference mAs was 260; the mAs was 220 for intermediate and weight-based for the final dose level. For the intermediate and final dose levels, AEC was changed from strong to weak increase for obese and weak to strong decrease for slim patients. Demographic data and volume CT dose index (CTDI(vol)) were analyzed. Three readers evaluated the cases for image quality and efficacy differentiating normal from active inflammatory Crohn's disease. RESULTS For 16-MDCT, CTDI(vol) decreased from 12.82 to 10.14 mGy and 10.14 to 8.7 mGy between original to intermediate and intermediate to final dose levels. For 64-MDCT, the CTDI(vol) decreased from 15.72 to 11.42 mGy and 11.42 to 9.25 mGy between original to intermediate and intermediate to final dose levels. Images were rated suboptimal or nondiagnostic more often in the intermediate dose level (p < 0.05) but not in the final. There was no reduction in diagnostic efficacy as measured by area under the ROC curve (p > 0.1443 except for one comparison with one reader). CONCLUSION Substantial dose reduction can be achieved using weight-based quality reference mAs and altering AEC settings without affecting diagnostic efficacy in active inflammatory Crohn's disease of the terminal ileum. However, subjective image quality can be compromised at these dose settings, depending on radiologist preference.
Gonadotropin and Gonadal Steroid Release in Response to a Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonist in Gqα and G11α Knockout Mice.

In this study, we used mice lacking the G11alpha [G11 knockout (KO)] or Gqalpha gene (Gq KO) to examine LH release in response to a metabolically stable GnRH agonist (Buserelin). Mice homozygous for the absence of G11alpha and Gqalpha appear to breed normally. Treatment of (5 wk old) female KO mice with the GnRH agonist Buserelin (2 microg/100 microl, sc) resulted in a rapid increase of serum LH levels (reaching 328 +/- 58 pg/25 microl for G11 KO; 739 +/- 95 pg/25 microl for Gq KO) at 75 min. Similar treatment of the control strain, 129SvEvTacfBr for G11 KO or the heterozygous mice for Gq KO, resulted in an increase in serum LH levels (428 +/- 57 pg/25 microl for G11 KO; 884 +/- 31 pg/25 microl for Gq KO) at 75 min. Both G11 KO and Gq KO male mice released LH in response to Buserelin (2 microg/100 microl of vehicle; 363 +/- 53 pg/25 microl and 749 +/- 50 pg/25 microl 1 h after treatment, respectively). These values were not significantly different from the control strain. In a long-term experiment, Buserelin was administered every 12 h, and LH release was assayed 1 h later. In female G11 KO mice and control strain, serum LH levels reached approximately 500 pg/25 microl within the first hour, then subsided to a steady level (approximately 100 pg/25 microl) for 109 h. In male G11 KO mice and in control strain, elevated LH release lasted for 13 h; however, LH levels in the G11 KO male mice did not reach control levels for approximately 49 h. In a similar experimental protocol, the Gq KO male mice released less LH (531 +/- 95 pg/25 microl) after 13 h from the start of treatment than the heterozygous male mice (865 +/- 57 pg/25 microl), but the female KO mice released more LH (634 +/- 56 pg/25 microl) after 1 h from the start of treatment than the heterozygous female mice (346 +/- 63 pg/25 microl). However, after the initial LH flare, the LH levels in the heterozygous mice never reached the basal levels achieved by the KO mice. G11 KO mice were less sensitive to low doses (5 ng/per animal) of Buserelin than the respective control mice. Male G11 KO mice produced more testosterone than the control mice after 1 h of stimulation by 2 microg of Buserelin, whereas there was no significant difference in Buserelin stimulated testosterone levels between Gq KO and heterozygous control mice. There was no significant difference in Buserelin stimulated estradiol production in the female Gq KO mice compared with control groups of mice. However, female G11 KO mice produced less estradiol in response to Buserelin (2 microg) compared with control strain. Although there were differences in the dynamics of LH release and steroid production in response to Buserelin treatment compared with control groups of mice, the lack of complete abolition of these processes, such as stimulated LH release, and steroid production, suggests that these G proteins are either not absolutely required or are able to functionally compensate for each other.
Progressive Increase of T1 Signal Intensity of the Dentate Nucleus on Unenhanced Magnetic Resonance Images Is Associated With Cumulative Doses of Intravenously Administered Gadodiamide in Patients With Normal Renal Function, Suggesting Dechelation

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to assess the association between the serial number of gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations and the signal hyperintensity of the dentate nucleus on unenhanced T1-weighted images in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and those with brain metastases (BMs). Materials and MethodsA group of 38 patients with MS and 37 patients with BM who had undergone at least 2 consecutive enhanced MRI examinations in our institution were examined for this retrospective observational study. The average T1 signal intensity of the dentate nuclei and the pons was obtained, and the dentate nuclei–to-pons (DNP) signal intensity ratio was calculated. These values were compared between patients with less than 6 and 6 enhanced MRI scans or more (eMRI). Relative changes of the DNP were plotted against the number of enhanced MRI scans (eMRIn). ResultsA progressive increase in the T1 signal intensity of the DNP ratio was observed both in the MS group and in the BM group. The DNP ratios of the last eMRI scans in the subgroup of patients with 6 eMRI scans or more were significantly higher than those of the first eMRI scan in the MS group (P < 0.001) and in the BM group (P < 0.01). Relative changes of the DNP showed a positive correlation with the eMRIn with a Spearman &rgr; of 0.96 (P < 0.001) in the MS group and that of 0.88 (P < 0.001) in the BM group. Curve regression analyses of the relative change of DNP ratios showed linear models to best fit the data with r2 of 0.89 in the MS group and r2 of 0.74 in the BM group. ConclusionsOur study shows that the increase in the unenhanced T1 signal intensity has a linear relationship with the eMRIn in patients with MS and BM. Indeed, we estimated a linear regression model to fit the progressive increase in T1 signal intensity of the dentate nucleus after multiple enhanced MRI scans. This finding suggests substantial dechelation of gadodiamide in patients with normal renal function, raising further concerns regarding the stability of this agent. Further comparative studies with other gadolinium chelates, specifically both linear and macrocyclic, are strongly recommended.
Identifying HIV associated neurocognitive disorder using large-scale Granger causality analysis on resting-state functional MRI

We investigate the applicability of large-scale Granger Causality (lsGC) for extracting a measure of multivariate information flow between pairs of regional brain activities from resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) and test the effectiveness of these measures for predicting a disease state. Such pairwise multivariate measures of interaction provide high-dimensional representations of connectivity profiles for each subject and are used in a machine learning task to distinguish between healthy controls and individuals presenting with symptoms of HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND). Cognitive impairment in several domains can occur as a result of HIV infection of the central nervous system. The current paradigm for assessing such impairment is through neuropsychological testing. With fMRI data analysis, we aim at non-invasively capturing differences in brain connectivity patterns between healthy subjects and subjects presenting with symptoms of HAND. To classify the extracted interaction patterns among brain regions, we use a prototype-based learning algorithm called Generalized Matrix Learning Vector Quantization (GMLVQ). Our approach to characterize connectivity using lsGC followed by GMLVQ for subsequent classification yields good prediction results with an accuracy of 87% and an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of up to 0.90. We obtain a statistically significant improvement (p<0.01) over a conventional Granger causality approach (accuracy = 0.76, AUC = 0.74). High accuracy and AUC values using our multivariate method to connectivity analysis suggests that our approach is able to better capture changes in interaction patterns between different brain regions when compared to conventional Granger causality analysis known from the literature.
Two‐photon excitation and emission spectra of the green fluorescent protein variants ECFP, EGFP and EYFP

Two‐photon (TP) excitation (820–1150 nm) and emission (280–700 nm) spectra for the fluorescent proteins (FPs) ECFP 3 , EGFP 3 and EYFP 3 produced in human tumour cells were recorded. TP excitation spectra of pure and highly enriched samples were found to be more differentiated in comparison with their one‐photon (OP) spectra. They exhibited more pronounced main and local maxima, which coincided among different purity grades within small limits. TP and OP emission spectra of pure and enriched samples were identical. However, in crude samples, excitation was slightly blue‐shifted and emission red‐shifted. The data indicate that both OP and TP excitation routes led to the same excited states of these molecules. The emission intensity is dependent on the pH of the environment for both types of excitation; the emission intensity maximum can be recorded in the alkaline range. Reconstitution of emission intensity after pH quenching was incomplete, albeit that the respective spectral profiles were identical to those prequenching. When emission data were averaged over the whole range of excitation, the resulting emission profile and maximum coincided with the data generated by optimal excitation. Therefore, out‐of‐maximum excitation, common practice in TP excitation microscopy, can be used for routine application.
The metabolic syndrome and total and cardiovascular disease mortality in middle-aged men.

CONTEXT The metabolic syndrome, a concurrence of disturbed glucose and insulin metabolism, overweight and abdominal fat distribution, mild dyslipidemia, and hypertension, is associated with subsequent development of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Despite its high prevalence, little is known of the prospective association of the metabolic syndrome with cardiovascular and overall mortality. OBJECTIVE To assess the association of the metabolic syndrome with cardiovascular and overall mortality using recently proposed definitions and factor analysis. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study, a population-based, prospective cohort study of 1209 Finnish men aged 42 to 60 years at baseline (1984-1989) who were initially without CVD, cancer, or diabetes. Follow-up continued through December 1998. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Death due to coronary heart disease (CHD), CVD, and any cause among men with vs without the metabolic syndrome, using 4 definitions based on the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). RESULTS The prevalence of the metabolic syndrome ranged from 8.8% to 14.3%, depending on the definition. There were 109 deaths during the approximately 11.4-year follow-up, of which 46 and 27 were due to CVD and CHD, respectively. Men with the metabolic syndrome as defined by the NCEP were 2.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-7.2) to 4.2 (95% CI, 1.6-10.8) times more likely and, as defined by the WHO, 2.9 (95% CI, 1.2-6.8) to 3.3 (95% CI, 1.4-7.7) times more likely to die of CHD after adjustment for conventional cardiovascular risk factors. The metabolic syndrome as defined by the WHO was associated with 2.6 (95% CI, 1.4-5.1) to 3.0 (95% CI, 1.5-5.7) times higher CVD mortality and 1.9 (95% CI, 1.2-3.0) to 2.1 (95% CI, 1.3-3.3) times higher all-cause mortality. The NCEP definition less consistently predicted CVD and all-cause mortality. Factor analysis using 13 variables associated with metabolic or cardiovascular risk yielded a metabolic syndrome factor that explained 18% of total variance. Men with loadings on the metabolic factor in the highest quarter were 3.6 (95% CI, 1.7-7.9), 3.2 (95% CI, 1.7-5.8), and 2.3 (95% CI, 1.5-3.4) times more likely to die of CHD, CVD, and any cause, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality are increased in men with the metabolic syndrome, even in the absence of baseline CVD and diabetes. Early identification, treatment, and prevention of the metabolic syndrome present a major challenge for health care professionals facing an epidemic of overweight and sedentary lifestyle.
Effects of emotional stimuli on working memory processes in male criminal offenders with borderline and antisocial personality disorder

Abstract Objective. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the influence of concurrently presented emotional stimuli on cognitive task processing in violent criminal offenders primarily characterized by affective instability. Methods. Fifteen male criminal offenders with antisocial and borderline personality disorder (ASPD and BPD) and 17 healthy controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a working memory task with low and high working memory load. In a second experimental run, to investigate the interaction of emotion and cognition, we presented emotionally neutral, low, or high salient social scenes in the background of the task. Results. During the memory task without pictures, both groups did not differ in general task performance and neural representation of working memory processes. During the memory task with emotional background pictures, however, ASPD-BPD subjects compared to healthy controls showed delayed responses and enhanced activation of the left amygdala in the presence of emotionally high salient pictures independent of working memory load. Conclusions. These results illustrate an interaction of emotion and cognition in affective instable individuals with enhanced reactivity to emotionally salient stimuli which might be an important factor regarding the understanding of aggressive and violent behaviour in these individuals.
A 210–227 GHz Transmitter With Integrated On-Chip Antenna in 90 nm CMOS Technology

This paper presents a transmitter operating in the 210-227 GHz in 90 nm CMOS, based on a Colpitts VCO. The third harmonic of the generated VCO fundamental signal is coupled to an on-chip dipole antenna. A simplified model is presented for the operation and the design of the circuit, which compares well with simulated and measured results. The transmitter achieves an EIRP of +1.8 dBm at 217 GHz and directivity of about +10 dBi. The circuit consumes 128 mW of DC power and an area of 0.53 mm2.
Spatiotemporal slabs in order to improve performance in 2D FDTD

Among the techniques widely used in CEM (Computational Electromagnetics), the FDTD method (Finite-Difference Time Domain) is one of the most demanding in computational resources. Despite the computing power available today on a personal computer, industry demands the analysis of large and complex models to be used in several electromagnetic applications. The algorithm of the FDTD method is based on the Yee cell. The Yee cell is a space-time discretization of Maxwell's equations. The performance of the FDTD method is limited by the bandwidth of the traditional algorithm. When describing the dynamics of Maxwell equations through slabs or spatiotemporal macro-cells larger than the Yee cell, the re-use of calculated fields is increased. In consequence, the performance of traditional FDTD algorithm is also increased.
Receptor‐mediated internalization and degradation of urokinase is caused by its specific inhibitor PAI‐1.

The receptor for urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) has been previously shown not to internalize its ligand, but rather to focalize its activity at the cell surface, allowing a regulated cell surface plasmin dependent proteolysis. The receptor in fact binds the proenzyme pro‐uPA and allows its very efficient conversion to the active two chains form. Receptor bound active uPA can also interact with its specific type 1 inhibiror (PAI‐1) which is therefore able to inhibit the cell surface plasmin formation. In this paper we show that the uPA‐PAI‐1 complex bound to the uPA receptor is internalized and degraded. U937 cells were incubated at 4 degrees C with labeled uPA‐PAI‐1 (and other ligands), the temperature then raised to 37 degrees C and the fate of the ligand followed for 3 h thereafter. The uPA‐PAI‐1 complex was internalized into the cells (i.e. could not be dissociated by acid treatment) and thereafter degraded (i.e. appeared in the supernatant in a non TCA‐precipitable form). Other ligands (free uPA, ATF and DFP‐treated uPA) were not internalized nor degraded. The degradation of the uPA‐PAI‐1 complex is preceded by internalization and is inhibited by chloroquine, an inhibitor of lysosomal protein degradation. These data suggest the existence of a cellular cycle of uPA. After synthesis pro‐uPA is secreted, bound to the receptor and activated to two chain uPA. On the surface, uPA can activate surface bound plasminogen to produce surface bound plasmin. In the presence of PAI‐1 uPA activity is inhibited and plasmin production interrupted, while the uPA‐PAI‐1 complex is internalized and degraded.
An ErChen and YinChen Decoction Ameliorates High-Fat-Induced Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis in Rats by Regulating JNK1 Signaling Pathway

ErChen and YinChen decoction (ECYCD) is an effective traditional Chinese medicine and has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), with good curative effects. However, the specific mechanisms underlying these effects are unclear. In this study, we determined the efficacy of ECYCD in a high-fat diet-induced NASH rat model, established by 8-week administration of a high-fat diet. ECYCD was administered daily for 4 weeks, after which the rats were euthanized. The results demonstrated that ECYCD ameliorated high-fat diet-induced NASH, as evidenced by decreased liver indexes, reduced hepatic lipid deposition and liver injury, lower serum biochemistry markers (including low-density lipoprotein), and reduced HOMA-IR scores. Moreover, levels of free fatty acids, tumor necrosis factor, and malondialdehyde were decreased, whereas glutathione was increased in the liver. Serum high-density lipoprotein was also increased in the liver, and ECYCD regulated the c-Jun N-terminal kinase 1 (JNK1) signaling pathway by decreasing the levels of JNK1 protein, JNK1 mRNA, activator protein- (AP-) 1 protein, AP-1 mRNA, and phospho-insulin receptor substrate- (IRS-) 1ser307 and increasing phopsho-PKBser473 levels. These results suggested that ECYCD could ameliorate high-fat diet-induced NASH in rats through JNK1 signaling. ECYCD may be a safe therapeutic option for the treatment of NASH.
An extension to Fisher Linear Semi-Discriminant analysis for Speaker Diarization

The Fisher Linear Semi-Discriminant Analysis is used in Speaker Diarization to project acoustic features into a discriminant and lower dimensional space. Given that such analysis uses short segments to estimate the scatter matrices, the projection could be improved by using longer segments (i.e., more information). Since a change of speaker is more likely to occur during periods of non-speech, we propose to use segments of speech produced by the boundaries estimated from a voice activity detection method based on Hidden Markov Models. Using datasets from the NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluations, we show that the estimated segments provide a better scatter matrices for the analysis. The results show a relative improvement of 21% in the Speaker Error Time on the Switchboard corpus used in the evaluations.
A smoking cessation counsellor: should every hospital have one?

The study was performed in order to ascertain the sustained smoking cessation rate in hos pital patients who received a structured programme of advice and support from a counsel lor and to estimate the cost-effectiveness of such an intervention. Hospital in-patients and out-patients were referred by their physician/surgeon to the smoking cessation counsellor who provided advice to reinforce that of the doctor and gave support by repeated follow-up sessions, weekly in the first month and thereafter at three, six and twelve months. Of 1,155 patients referred to the counsellor, 114 (13%) failed to keep the first appointment and 348 (30%) attended for advice on one occasion only. Among the latter, the self-reported sus tained cessation rate at one year was 5%. In the 663 patients who participated in the pro gramme the validated (expired air CO) 12-month, sustained cessation rate was 21%. Allowing 7.5% success rate among patients receiving a physician's advice only, the cost of each additional success achieved as a result of the programme is £851 and the cost per life year saved is between £340 and £426. Assuming that after one year's abstinence relapse rates are relatively small, this represents a sound investment in the light of the cost of treating patients with smoking-related illnesses and compares favourably with other smoking cessa tion strategies and health care interventions.