Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CETP expression reverses the reconstituted HDL-induced increase in VLDL

Human data suggest that reconstituted HDL (rHDL) infusion can induce atherosclerosis regression. Studies in mice indicated that rHDL infusion adversely affects VLDL levels, but this effect is less apparent in humans. This discrepancy may be explained by the fact that humans, in contrast to mice, express cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP). The aim of this study was to investigate the role of CETP in the effects of rHDL on VLDL metabolism by using APOE*3-Leiden (E3L) mice, a well-established model for human-like lipoprotein metabolism. At 1 h after injection, rHDL increased plasma VLDL-C and TG in E3L mice, but not in E3L mice cross-bred onto a human CETP background (E3L.CETP mice). This initial raise in VLDL, caused by competition between rHDL and VLDL for LPL-mediated TG hydrolysis, was thus prevented by CETP. At 24 h after injection, rHDL caused a second increase in VLDL-C and TG in E3L mice, whereas rHDL had even decreased VLDL in E3L.CETP mice. This secondary raise in VLDL was due to increased hepatic VLDL-TG production. Collectively, we conclude that CETP protects against the rHDL-induced increase in VLDL. We anticipate that studies evaluating the anti-atherosclerotic efficacy of rHDL in mice that are naturally deficient for CETP should be interpreted with caution, and that treatment of atherogenic dyslipidemia by rHDL should not be combined with agents that aggressively reduce CETP activity.
Intra-Assay Performance Characteristics of Five Assays for Quantification of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 RNA in Plasma

ABSTRACT Three kits (Roche AMPLICOR human immunodeficiency virus type 1 [HIV-1] Monitor, Chiron enhanced-sensitivity bDNA, and Organon Teknika NASBA HIV-1 QT) and two in-house assays (from National Genetics Institute and Baylor College of Medicine) were compared with a blinded panel. The results were evaluated as to intra-assay sensitivity, precision, and ability to detect differences in a dilution series.
Development of a 1500Vdc photovoltaic inverter for utility-scale PV power plants

The increase in size of large-scale photovoltaic plants increases the relative impact of ohmic losses in the dc and ac transmission. On the other hand, the amount of strings also increases, along with the number of combiner boxes and related equipment. This results in increased losses and costs that impose a limit to the competitiveness of PV technology for large power plants. PV plants today are rated at 1000V, which is considered low voltage in IEC and ANSI standards, but in fact, the IEC standard covers up to 1500V in the low voltage category. Going to this maximum voltage will allow for a considerable reduction in current, reducing the system losses on the DC side. On the other hand, a longer string can be achieved, reducing the number of combiner boxes and allowing a rise in the ac voltage. This paper presents the development of a 2.3MW inverter with a maximum DC system voltage of 1500V. A neutral point switch type three-level inverter configuration, so-called T-type three-level inverter, is employed for better conversion efficiency. Simulation results confirm the performance of the 1500V rated inverter.
Adverse events associated with somatostatin analogs in acromegaly

Introduction: In patients with acromegaly, somatostatin analogs (SSA) represent the first choice medical treatment. The long-acting SSA have been found to be effective in controlling growth hormone and IGF-I levels in a high percentage of patients, resulting in an improvement in the quality of life; moreover, these peptide analogs have a proven safety record and are generally well tolerated. Areas covered: The most commonly reported adverse events include injection-site discomfort and erythema, gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, biliary sludge or gallstones, and abnormal glucose metabolism. Most SSA-related adverse events are transient and of mild-to-moderate intensity, and the prevalence of such effects markedly and progressively decreases during treatment, so that treatment discontinuations due to adverse events are rare and commonly related to GI disturbances. Cholelithiasis represents the most serious complication of SSA, but is generally asymptomatic, and has been reported in 3 – 56% of patients. Whereas the effect of SSA on glucose metabolism is still controversial, several pieces of evidence have confirmed a modest and transient negative impact on glucose homeostasis. Also the novel SSA pasireotide has shown a safety profile as expected for a SSA, except for the degree of hyperglycemia. Expert opinion: On the basis of these findings, a close and careful monitoring of gallbladder ultrasound and glucose levels is recommended in patients receiving SSA for medical treatment of acromegaly.
Workplace Ostracism Seen through the Lens of Power

Drawing on approach/inhibition theory of power, we investigated two factors that influence the manner by which victims react to workplace ostracism: the hierarchical status of the ostracizer and the level of an ostracizee’s external social support including family, friends, and significant others. Across an experimental vignette study (Study 1) and a field study (Study 2), we found support for a three-way interaction with felt ostracism, ostracizee external social support, and ostracizer status influencing victims’ organizational citizenship behavior and deviance directed toward other individuals. In addition, felt ostracism and ostracizee external social support interacted to predict turnover intentions. Overall, victims who were ostracized by a legitimate higher-status authority (e.g., manager) and whose external social support network was limited experienced the most negative outcomes across both studies. Our findings suggest that contextual factors both inside and outside the organization jointly impact the way in which individuals react to perceived workplace ostracism. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Incorporation of [3H] uridine by mouse embryos with abnormalities induced by parental hyperthermia.

Albino ICR mice were used in a factorial experiment to study the incorporation of [3 HI uridine by embryos exhibiting abnormal development that was induced by a 24 h exposure of parent mice to an ambient temperature of 34.5#{176}C and 65 percent relative humidity. Embryos recovered from females killed at 64, 72, 88 and 96 h after HCG were pulse-labeled by incubating in culture medium containing [3 HI uridine for either 5 h (two-cell), 90 mm (four-cell), 45 mm (eight-cell), 20 mm (morula), or 10 min (blastocyst). The incorporation of [3I-{Iuridine was examined by autoradiography. Following exposure of the parental female to high temperature approximately 40 percent of the embryos are arrested at the two-cell stage and fail to incorporate [3 HI uridine. An additional 20 percent of the two-cell embryos are only partially affected in that one blastomere is able to undergo a limited number of cleavage divisions. The ‘cleaving’ blastomeres of these embryos demonstrate a distribution of isotope comparable to the blastomeres of normal embryos at the same chronological stages of dvelopment. In contrast, the incorporation of isotope into the ‘arrested’ blastomere, if it occurs, is confined to the nucleus and never assumes the pattern typical of blastomeres at later stages of development. the spermatozoan, allows normal embryonic development during the early cleavage stages. However, the rate of development is retarded at the morula stage although blastulation eventually occurs. A significant proportion of embryos at the 8-cell and morula stages also contain blastomeres which fail to incorporate the isotopic precursor: Consequently, the retardation in embryonic development is preceded by a partial failure to synthesize RNA. These embryos are considered to be responsible for the embryonic mortality that is known to occur at, or shortly after, implantation.
The role of the metal ion in the p21ras catalysed GTP-hydrolysis: Mn2+ versus Mg2+.

GTP and ATP hydrolysing proteins have an absolute requirement for a divalent cation, which is usually Mg2+, as a cofactor in the enzymatic reaction. Other phosphoryl transfer enzymes employ more than one divalent ion for the enzymatic reaction. It is shown here for p21ras, a well studied example of GTP hydrolysing proteins, that the GTP-hydrolysis rate is significantly faster if Mg2+ is replaced by Mn2+, both in the presence or absence of its GTPase-activating protein Ras-GAP. This effect is not due to a different stoichiometry of metal ion binding, since one metal ion is sufficient for full enzymatic activity. To determine the role of the metal ion, the crystal structure of p21(G12P). GppCp complexed with Mn2+ was determined and shown to be very similar to the corresponding p21(G12P). GppCp.Mg2+ structure. Especially the coordination sphere around the metal ions is very similar, and no second metal ion binding site could be detected, consistent with the assumption that one metal ion is sufficient for GTP hydrolysis. In order to explain the biochemical differences, we analysed the GTPase reaction mechanism with a linear free energy relationships approach. The result suggests that the reaction mechanism is not changed with Mn2+ but that the transition metal ion Mn2+ shifts the pKa of the gamma-phosphate by almost half a unit and increases the reaction rate due to an increase in the basicity of GTP acting as the general base. This suggests that the intrinsic GTPase reaction could be an attractive target for anti-cancer drug design. By using Rap1A and Ran, we show that the acceleration of the GTPase by Mn2+ appears to be a general phenomenon of GTP-binding proteins.
Possible emergence of new geminiviruses by frequent recombination.

Although exchange of genetic information by recombination plays a role in the evolution of viruses, the extent to which it generates diversity is not clear. We analyzed genomes of geminiviruses for recombination using a new statistical procedure developed to detect gene conversions. Geminiviruses (family, Geminiviridae) are a group of plant viruses characterized by a genome of circular single-stranded DNA (approximately 2700 nucleotides in length) encapsidated in twinned quasi-isometric particles. Complete nucleotide sequences of geminiviruses were aligned, and recombination events were detected by searching pairs of viruses for sequences that are significantly more similar than expected based on random distribution of polymorphic sites. The analyses revealed that recombination is very frequent and occurs between species and within and across genera. Tests identified 420 statistically significant recombinant fragments distributed across the genome. The results suggest that recombination is a significant contributor to geminivirus evolution. The high rate of recombination may be contributing to the recent emergence of new geminivirus diseases.
ACID-RAIN : ACID Transactions in a Resilient Archive with Independent Nodes

In cloud-scale data centers, it is common to shard data across many nodes, each maintaining a small subset of the data. Although ACID transactions are desirable, architects often avoid them due to performance concerns. We present a novel architecture for support of low-latency high-throughput ACID transactions in a Resilient Archive with Independent Nodes (ACID-RAIN). ACID-RAIN uses logs in a novel way, limiting reliability to a single scalable tier. A large set of independent faultprone nodes form an outer layer that caches the sharded data, backed by a set of independent highly available log services. ACID-RAIN dramatically reduces concurrency conflicts by using prediction to order transactions before they take actions that would lead to an abort. Simulations using the Transactional-YCSB workloads demonstrate scalability and effective contention handling.
Neural Markers of Emotional Face Perception Across Psychotic Disorders and General Population

There is considerable variation in negative and positive symptoms of psychosis, global functioning, and emotional face perception (EFP), not only in schizophrenia but also in other psychotic disorders and healthy individuals. However, EFP impairment and its association with worse symptoms and global functioning have been examined largely in the domain of schizophrenia. The present study adopted a dimensional approach to examine the association of behavioral and neural measures of EFP with symptoms of psychosis and global functioning across individuals with schizophrenia spectrum (SZ; N = 28) and other psychotic (OP; N = 29) disorders, and never-psychotic participants (NP; N = 21). Behavioral and functional MRI data were recorded as participants matched emotional expressions of faces and geometrical shapes. Lower accuracy and increased activity in early visual regions, hippocampus, and amygdala during emotion versus shape matching were associated with higher negative, but not positive, symptoms and lower global functioning, across all participants. This association remained even after controlling for group-related (SZ, OP, and NP) variance, dysphoria, and antipsychotic medication status, except in amygdala. Furthermore, negative symptoms mediated the relationship between behavioral and brain EFP measures and global functioning. This study provides some of the first evidence supporting the specific relationship of EFP measures with negative symptoms and global functioning across psychotic and never-psychotic samples, and transdiagnostically across different psychotic disorders. Present findings help bridge the gap between basic EFP-related neuroscience research and clinical research in psychosis, and highlight EFP as a potential symptom-specific marker that tracks global functioning.
A Variable Temperature Walters Spiral Probe for the Critical Current Measurement of Superconducting Strands

We have developed a probe for the critical current measurements of low temperature superconducting strands at various field, temperature and strain. A 30 cm-long strand sample is soldered on a Walters spiral made of beryllium copper alloy and compressive or tensile axial strain can be applied up to 0.7%. Temperature control ability was tested using a MgB2 wire up to 30 K. Three cernox sensors are attached on a spiral adjacent to the strand and the temperature of the spiral is controlled within plusmn50 mK of target temperature during the critical current measurement up to 80 A. Extensive critical current measurements have been carried out for an internal-tin processed Nb3Sn strand. It was found that the measured field, temperature and strain dependence of the critical current for the internal-tin Nb3Sn strand is in agreement with the recent scaling law based on strong coupling theory of superconductivity.
DAF and movement : 1 Running head : DAF and movement Delayed auditory feedback and movement

It is well known that timing of rhythm production is disrupted by delayed auditory feedback (DAF), and that disruption varies with delay length. We tested the hypothesis that disruption depends on the state of the movement trajectory at the onset of DAF. Participants tapped isochronous rhythms at a rate specified by a metronome while hearing DAF (for piano tones) of differing lengths. Motion capture was used to analyze movement trajectories. Mean Inter-Response Intervals (IRIs) varied as an approximately sinusoidal function of feedback condition, with DAF causing slowed production for shorter delays and speeded production for faster delays. Motion capture analyses revealed that finger velocity at the time of DAF predicted the effect of DAF on mean IRI whereas finger position predicted the variability of IRIs. A second experiment in which participants were instructed to vary the timing of peak finger height confirmed that the effect of DAF on timing variability is directly influenced by the finger trajectory.
Cancer Therapy : Preclinical Nimbolide , a Limonoid Triterpene , Inhibits Growth of Human Colorectal Cancer Xenografts by Suppressing the Proin fl ammatory Microenvironment

Purpose: Extensive research over the past decade has revealed that the proinflammatory microenvironment plays a critical role in the development of colorectal cancer.Whether nimbolide, a limonoid triterpene, can inhibit the growth of colorectal cancer was investigated in the present study. Experimental Design: The effect of nimbolide on proliferation of colorectal cancer cell lines was examined by MTT assay, apoptosis by caspase activation and poly-ADP ribose polymerase cleavage, NF-kB activation by DNA-binding assay, and protein expression by Western blotting. The effect of nimbolide on the tumor growth in vivo was examined in colorectal cancer xenografts in a nude mouse model. Results: Nimbolide inhibited proliferation, induced apoptosis, and suppressed NF-kB activation and NF-kB–regulated tumorigenic proteins in colorectal cancer cells. The suppression of NF-kB activation by nimbolide was caused by sequential inhibition of IkB kinase (IKK) activation, IkBa phosphorylation, and p65 nuclear translocation. Furthermore, the effect of nimbolide on IKK activity was found to be direct. In vivo, nimbolide (at 5 and 20 mg/kg body weight), injected intraperitoneally after tumor inoculation, significantly decreased the volume of colorectal cancer xenografts. The limonoid-treated xenografts exhibited significant downregulation in the expression of proteins involved in tumor cell survival (Bcl2, Bcl-xL, c-IAP-1, survivin, and Mcl-1), proliferation (c-Myc and cyclin D1), invasion (MMP-9, ICAM-1), metastasis (CXCR4), and angiogenesis (VEGF). The limonoid was found to be bioavailable in the blood plasma and tumor tissues of treated mice. Conclusions:Our studies provide evidence that nimbolide can suppress the growth of human colorectal cancer throughmodulation of the proinflammatory microenvironment. Clin Cancer Res; 19(16); 4465–76.
A Data-Driven Approach for Design Knowledge Extraction of Synchronous Reluctance Machines Using Multi-Physical Analysis

Using a data-driven approach, this paper provides electromagnetic, structural, acoustic, and thermal guidelines for designing synchronous reluctance machines. Design spaces of different rotor geometries are created and simulated using finite element packages to evaluate the self- and mutual-correlation of different physical performances, such as average torque, torque ripple, efficiency, power factor, saliency ratio, sound pressure level, mechanical stress, and average winding temperature. Then, a statistical analysis is conducted to extract knowledge and guidelines for relating the design and objective spaces. It is demonstrated that not all the objectives must be incorporated into the design process since some of them are non-conflicting. Hence, a motor designer can numerically evaluate which design variables should be changed and by how much in order to fulfill the design specifications. Multiple designs are selected based on different multi-physical requirements. Useful guidelines for selecting the appropriate motor speed and voltage ratings are proposed while considering structurally reliable designs.
Matrilysin (MMP-7) Inhibition of BMP-7 Induced Renal Tubular Branching Morphogenesis Suggests a Role in the Pathogenesis of Human Renal Dysplasia

Congenital renal dysplasia (RD) is a severe form of congenital renal malformation characterized by disruption of normal renal development with cyst formation, reduced or absent nephrons, and impaired renal growth. The authors previously identified that matrilysin (matrix metalloproteinase–7) was overexpressed in a microarray gene expression analysis of human RD compared to normal control kidneys. They now find that active matrilysin gene transcription and protein synthesis occur within dysplastic tubules and epithelial cells lining cysts in human RD by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Similar staining patterns were seen in obstructed kidneys of pouch opossums that show histological features similar to that of human RD. In vitro, matrilysin inhibits formation of branching structures in mIMCD-3 cells stimulated by bone morphogenetic protein–7 (BMP-7) but does not inhibit hepatocyte growth factor–stimulated branching. BMP-7 signaling is essential for normal kidney development, and overexpression of catalytically active matrilysin in human embryonic kidney 293 cells reduces endogenous BMP-7 protein levels and inhibits phosphorylation of BMP-7 SMAD signaling intermediates. These findings suggest that matrilysin expression in RD may be an injury response that disrupts normal nephrogenesis by impairing BMP-7 signaling.
Evaluation of innovative strategies in the organization of Primary Health Care.

OBJECTIVE To compare the performance of Primary Care Units according to the implementation of new arrangements and strategies in primary care and mental health. METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES Evaluative research with triangulation of methods and theoretical framework of critical hermeneutics, carried out at six Primary Care Units of the two most populous health districts of the city of Campinas (Southeastern Brazil) in 2007. The Primary Care Units were analyzed according to clinical resolution, articulation between the primary care and mental health networks and implementation of health promotion strategies. Two groups were defined by cluster analysis: one with higher and another one with lower degree of implementation of the actions. The groups were compared based on the improvement in clinical follow-up, given by the occurrence of cerebral vascular accident; evaluation of dispensation of psychiatric medicines; focal groups with workers, users and community health agents; and interviews with users and relatives. Inclusive and participatory research strategies were employed. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS There were no pure models, but a mosaic of organizational proposals. Positive advances were identified in the group with higher implementation of innovative strategies in relation to better integration of the community agents in the Units' teams; to the workers' and agents' perception of improvement in the assistance; and to the facility for referrals and assistance of mental health cases. The difficulties identified in both groups were: communication among the levels of care and within the teams, in the implementation of matrix support, and incipient health promotion actions. CONCLUSIONS The development and implementation of mechanisms to fix professionals in Primary Care in large cities are necessary. The community health agents are fundamental to perform the territorial work proposed by the Family Health Strategy, using mechanisms to integrate the community health agents into the healthcare teams in order to counterbalance the tendency to isolation. The researched arrangements proved to be potent to produce this integration.