Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vascular Remodeling, Oxidative Stress, and Disrupted PPARγ Expression in Rats of Long-Term Hyperhomocysteinemia with Metabolic Disturbance

Hyperhomocysteinemia, a risk factor for vascular disease, is associated with metabolic syndrome. Our study was aimed at exploring the effect of long-term hyperhomocysteinemia with metabolic disturbances on vascular remodeling. We also studied oxidative stress and expression of PPARγ in the coronary arteriole as a possible mechanism underlying vascular remodeling. Rats were treated with standard rodent chow (Control) or diet enriched in methionine (Met) for 48 weeks. Plasma homocysteine, blood glucose, serum lipids, malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and nitric oxide (NO) levels were measured. Coronary arteriolar and carotid arterial remodeling was assessed by histomorphometric techniques and the expression of PPARγ in vessel wall was investigated. In Met group, an increase in the level of fasting blood glucose, serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, MDA, and NO, a decline in the serum SOD level, and increased collagen deposition in coronary and carotid arteries were found. Moreover, we detected decreased expression of PPARγ in the coronary arterioles in Met group. In summary, our study revealed metabolic disturbances in this model of long-term hyperhomocysteinemia together with vascular remodeling and suggested that impaired oxidative stress, endothelium dysfunction, and decreased PPARγ expression in the vessel wall could be underlying mechanisms.
The D2 Dopamine Receptor Interferes With the Protective Effect of the A2A Adenosine Receptor on TDP-43 Mislocalization in Experimental Models of Motor Neuron Degeneration

The A2A adenosine receptor (A2AR) and D2 dopamine receptor (D2R) are two G-protein-coupled receptors that can form dimers and negatively regulate their partners. TAR DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) is a nuclear protein that has been implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Mislocalization of TDP-43 from the nucleus to the cytoplasm is an early step of TDP-43 proteinopathy. Our previous studies indicated that A2AR is a potential drug target for ALS because treatment with an A2AR agonist (JMF1907; a T1-11 analog) prevents reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced TDP-43 mislocalization in a motor neuron cell line (NSC34) and delays motor impairment in a TDP-43 transgenic ALS mouse model. Here, we set out to assess whether activation of D2R interferes with the beneficial effects of an A2AR agonist on motor neurons. We first demonstrated that A2AR and D2R are both located in motor neurons of mouse and human spinal cords and human iPSC-derived motor neurons. Expression of A2AR and D2R in NSC34 cells led to dimer formation without affecting the binding affinity of A2AR toward T1-11. Importantly, activation of D2R reduced T1-11-mediated activation of cAMP/PKA signaling and subsequent inhibition of TDP-43 mislocalization in NSC34 cells. Treatment with quinpirole (a D2 agonist) blunted the rescuing effect of T1-11 on TDP-43 mislocalization and impaired grip strength in a mouse model of ALS. Our findings suggest that D2R activation may limit the beneficial responses of an A2AR agonist in motor neurons and may have an important role in ALS pathogenesis.
Separate Origins of Ice-Binding Proteins in Antarctic Chlamydomonas Species

The green alga Chlamydomonas raudensis is an important primary producer in a number of ice-covered lakes and ponds in Antarctica. A C. raudensis isolate (UWO241) from Lake Bonney in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, like many other Antarctic algae, was found to secrete ice-binding proteins (IBPs), which appear to be essential for survival in icy environments. The IBPs of several Antarctic algae (diatoms, a prymesiophyte, and a prasinophyte) are similar to each other (here designated as type I IBPs) and have been proposed to have bacterial origins. Other IBPs (type II IBPs) that bear no resemblance to type I IBPs, have been found in the Antarctic Chlamydomonas sp. CCMP681, a putative snow alga, raising the possibility that chlamydomonad IBPs developed separately from the IBPs of other algae. To test this idea, we obtained the IBP sequences of C. raudensis UWO241 by sequencing the transcriptome. A large number of transcripts revealed no sequences resembling type II IBPs. Instead, many isoforms resembling type I IBPs were found, and these most closely matched a hypothetical protein from the bacterium Stigmatella aurantiaca. The sequences were confirmed to encode IBPs by the activity of a recombinant protein and by the matching of predicted and observed isoelectric points and molecular weights. Furthermore, a mesophilic sister species, C. raudensis SAG49.72, showed no ice-binding activity or PCR products from UWO241 IBP primers. These results confirm that algal IBPs are required for survival in icy habitats and demonstrate that they have diverse origins that are unrelated to the taxonomic positions of the algae. Last, we show that the C. raudensis UWO241 IBPs can change the structure of ice in a way that could increase the survivability of cells trapped in the ice.
Influence of inhaled nicotine source on arterial stiffness.

INTRODUCTION Tobacco smoking leads to changes in hemodynamic parameters such as heart rate and systolic or diastolic blood pressure. It has a direct influence on the elasticity of blood vessels and increases arterial stiffness, which can result in development of atherosclerosis. Data show that the nicotine in tobacco smoke probably is responsible for these changes. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) were supposedly a healthier alternative to combustible cigarettes because they imitate a process of cigarettes smoking but generate nicotine aerosol without the toxic substances from tobacco combustion. However, the use of e-cigarettes is still controversial because their toxicity, safety and long term use health impact have not been sufficiently studied. AIM The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in arterial stiffness parameters after smoking a cigarette or e-cigarette use. METHODS Fifteen healthy women, aged 19-25 years old, smoking ≥5 cigarettes per day for at least two years participated in the study. A non-invasive measurement of arterial stiffness parameters - Stiffness Index (SI) and Reflection Index (RI) - was conducted and systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were measured before and after smoking a conventional cigarette as well as use of an e-cigarette. RESULTS Statistically significant changes in the SI and RI were observed before and after smoking of a conventional cigarette [SI: 6.75m/s (6.66 - 6.85, 95% CI) vs 6.56m/s (6.46 - 6.65. 95% CI), p=0.0056; RI: 54.0% (51.5 - 56.7, 95% CI) vs 49.6% (47.5 - 51.8, 95% CI), p=0.010]. The use of e-cigarettes resulted in no statistically significant changes in the SI and RI. After both product use systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate increased but the changes were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS In contrast to conventional cigarette use, the use of electronic cigarettes causes no changes in arterial stiffness. This may indicate lower bioavailability of nicotine from the e-cigarette or an additional effect of other substances present in cigarette smoke but absent in an e-cigarette aerosol.
Management studies using a combination of D‐dimer test result and clinical probability to rule out venous thromboembolism: a systematic review

Summary. Background: While the number of patients with suspected venous thromboembolism (VTE) referred to hospital emergency units increases, the proportion in whom the diagnosis can be confirmed is decreasing. A more efficient but safe diagnostic strategy is needed. Objective: To evaluate the safety of withholding anticoagulant therapy in patients suspected of VTE based on a diagnostic work‐up that combines a clinical decision rule (CDR) with a D‐dimer test result without performing additional diagnostic tests. Patients/methods: We searched Medline (January 1996–December 2004)‐related articles and reference lists of studies in English for prospective clinical studies that managed consecutive patients suspected of VTE and used a D‐dimer assay combined with an explicit CDR or implicit clinical judgment. Results: We identified 11 studies in which 6837 consecutive outpatients suspected of VTE were included. In the combined management studies, the overall rate of thromboembolic events was nine out of 2056 patients (0.44 %, 95% CI 0.2%–0.83%) in whom anticoagulants were withheld based on the D‐dimer result and a low clinical score. Similar results were obtained with qualitative and quantitative D‐dimer tests and with different decision rules. The rate of exclusion varied between 30% and 50% and was highest with a low incidence of VTE among those referred. Conclusion: Withholding anticoagulant treatment in patients suspected of VTE on the basis of a work‐up consisting of a low clinical probability combined with either a qualitative or quantitative D‐dimer test result is safe.
Tissue or blood: which is more suitable for detection of EGFR mutations in non-small cell lung cancer?

Background: Many studies have evaluated the accuracy of EGFR mutation status in blood against that in tumor tissues as the reference. We conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to assess whether blood can be used as a substitute for tumor tissue in detecting EGFR mutations. Methods: Investigations that provided data on EGFR mutation status in blood were searched in the databases of Medline, Embase, Ovid Technologies and Web of Science. The detect efficiency of EGFR mutations in paired blood and tissues was compared using a random-effects model of meta-analysis. Pooled sensitivity and specificity and diagnostic accuracy were calculated by receiver operating characteristic curve. Results: A total of 19 studies with 2,922 individuals were involved in this meta-analysis. The pooled results showed the positive detection rate of EGFR mutations in lung cancer tissues was remarkably higher than that of paired blood samples (odds ratio [OR] = 1.47, p<0.001). The pooled sensitivity and specificity of blood were 0.65 and 0.91, respectively, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.89. Conclusions: Although blood had a better specificity for detecting EGFR mutations, the absence of blood positivity should not necessarily be construed as confirmed negativity. Patients with negative results for blood should decidedly undergo further biopsies to ascertain EGFR mutations.
Disclosure of Voluntary Accounting Ratios by Malaysian Listed Companies

Accounting ratios are believed to be of fundamental importance in financial analysis, and therefore are useful addition to financial reports. This paper examines the reporting of voluntary accounting ratio by Malaysian companies in corporate annual reports. Drawing on agency and signaling theories, this paper explores whether associations exist between company performance and voluntary disclosure of accounting ratios. In particular, associations are tested between the extent of ratio disclosure and company performance (nmaely profitability, liqudity, leverage, and company effiency), size and industry. Six hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2003 annual reports of 100 Malaysian listed companies. This paper provides evidence that the extent of voluntary ratio disclosure is low; and size, industry as well as liquidity significantly influence the reporting of ratios in corporate annual reports. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Tracing Emergent Structure in Self-Organized Citizen Journalism

In citizen journalism, the citizens that used to form the mass audience utilize IT artifacts such as smart phones and social media to inform each other and the broader public. Previous research has highlighted how citizen journalism published on independent web-based platforms can substitute (or complement) traditional news publishing, and illuminated the challenges of integrating elements of citizen journalism into mainstream news organizations. Still, less is known about how self-organized citizen journalism processes emerge and evolve. The paper draws on complexity theory in a detailed analysis of an online forum thread in which users collaboratively investigated and published detailed information about a local murder case. The paper makes two main contributions to the literature on citizen journalism. Firstly, it demonstrates the efficacy of using a complexity perspective. Secondly, it illustrates and theorizes the ways in which IT-based citizen journalism was self-organized via a specific online forum through sequenced interaction themes.
Multifunctional Tannic Acid/Silver Nanoparticle-Based Mucoadhesive Hydrogel for Improved Local Treatment of HSV Infection: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies

Mucoadhesive gelling systems with tannic acid modified silver nanoparticles were developed for effective treatment of herpes virus infections. To increase nanoparticle residence time after local application, semi solid formulations designed from generally regarded as safe (GRAS) excipients were investigated for their rheological and mechanical properties followed with ex vivo mucoadhesive behavior to the porcine vaginal mucosa. Particular effort was made to evaluate the activity of nanoparticle-based hydrogels toward herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1 and 2 infection in vitro in immortal human keratinocyte cell line and in vivo using murine model of HSV-2 genital infection. The effect of infectivity was determined by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, plaque assay, inactivation, attachment, penetration and cell-to-cell assessments. All analyzed nanoparticle-based hydrogels exhibited pseudoplastic and thixotropic properties. Viscosity and mechanical measurements of hydrogels were found to correlate with the mucoadhesive properties. The results confirmed the ability of nanoparticle-based hydrogels to affect viral attachment, impede penetration and cell-to-cell transmission, although profound differences in the activity evoked by tested preparations toward HSV-1 and HSV-2 were noted. In addition, these findings demonstrated the in vivo potential of tannic acid modified silver nanoparticle-based hydrogels for vaginal treatment of HSV-2 genital infection.
Effects of Chicory Leaf Extract on Serum Oxidative Stress Markers, Lipid Profile and Periodontal Status in Patients With Chronic Periodontitis

ABSTRACT Aim: The aim of present study was to evaluate the effects of chicory leaf extract on serum oxidative stress markers, lipid profile, and periodontal status in patients with chronic periodontitis. Methods: In this double-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial 40 patients with chronic periodontitis were allocated to intervention and control groups. The intervention group received a 1-gram chicory leaf methanolic extract capsule twice daily for 8 weeks. In the control group, participants received a placebo capsule (containing 1 gram wheat flour) twice daily for 8 weeks. All participants had nonsurgical periodontal therapy during the study. Anthropometric measurements, dietary intake, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde (MDA), uric acid, lipid profile (total cholesterol [TC], triglycerides [TG], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C], and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C]), and pocket depth (PD) were assessed before and after intervention. Results: The results showed that mean serum TAC, uric acid, and HDL-C increased and mean serum MDA, TG, LDL-C, and TC decreased significantly in the intervention group compared to their baseline and the control group post-intervention. A significant difference was observed in mean PD between the two groups. Conclusion: Chicory leaf extract as an adjunct nutritional approach with nonsurgical periodontal therapy may be helpful in controlling periodontal status.
The MaggLite post-WIMP toolkit: draw it, connect it and run it

This article presents MaggLite, a toolkit and sketch-based interface builder allowing fast and interactive design of post-WIMP user interfaces. MaggLite improves design of advanced UIs thanks to its novel <i>mixed-graph</i> architecture that dynamically combines scene-graphs with interaction-graphs. <i>Scene-graphs</i> provide mechanisms to describe and produce rich graphical effects, whereas <i>interaction-graphs</i> allow expressive and fine-grained description of advanced interaction techniques and behaviors such as multiple pointers management, toolglasses, bimanual interaction, gesture, and speech recognition. Both graphs can be built interactively by sketching the UI and specifying the interaction using a dataflow visual language. Communication between the two graphs is managed at runtime by components we call <i>Interaction Access Points</i>. While developers can extend the toolkit by refining built-in generic mechanisms, UI designers can quickly and interactively design, prototype and test advanced user interfaces by applying the MaggLite principle: "draw it, connect it and run it".
Cytoskeleton dynamics control the first asymmetric cell division in Arabidopsis zygote

Significance In animals and plants, the zygote divides unequally, and the daughter cells inherit different developmental fates to form a proper embryo along the body axis. The cytological events leading to zygote polarization have remained unknown in flowering plants. Here, we report that the two essential components of the cytoskeleton, microtubules and actin filaments, are both disorganized on fertilization and then, arranged to form a transverse ring leading directional cell elongation and longitudinal arrays underlying polar nuclear migration, respectively. These results provide insights into the intracellular dynamics of zygote and the specific roles of cytoskeletons on zygote polarization in flowering plants. The asymmetric cell division of the zygote is the initial and crucial developmental step in most multicellular organisms. In flowering plants, whether zygote polarity is inherited from the preexisting organization in the egg cell or reestablished after fertilization has remained elusive. How dynamically the intracellular organization is generated during zygote polarization is also unknown. Here, we used a live-cell imaging system with Arabidopsis zygotes to visualize the dynamics of the major elements of the cytoskeleton, microtubules (MTs), and actin filaments (F-actins), during the entire process of zygote polarization. By combining image analysis and pharmacological experiments using specific inhibitors of the cytoskeleton, we found features related to zygote polarization. The preexisting alignment of MTs and F-actin in the egg cell is lost on fertilization. Then, MTs organize into a transverse ring defining the zygote subapical region and driving cell outgrowth in the apical direction. F-actin forms an apical cap and longitudinal arrays and is required to position the nucleus to the apical region of the zygote, setting the plane of the first asymmetrical division. Our findings show that, in flowering plants, the preexisting cytoskeletal patterns in the egg cell are lost on fertilization and that the zygote reorients the cytoskeletons to perform directional cell elongation and polar nuclear migration.
Multimedia streaming using D2D in 5G ultra dense networks

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication has been proposed as a promising technique to improve resource utilization in fifth generation (5G) cellular networks by offloading the traffic from backhaul to local direct links. The throughput for delivery of multimedia content can be greatly enhanced by D2D communications, where direct links between pairs of user devices are set up without involving a central base station. In this paper, we propose the scheduling algorithms for effectively sharing the multimedia content using D2D communication. The proposed algorithms ensure the liveness for live video streaming while reducing the stall events for on-demand video streaming. Through extensive simulation, the proposed approaches are shown to provide sizeable gains compared with existing solution.
Text-independent speaker identification using GMM-UBM and frame level likelihood normalization

In this paper, we describe a Gaussian mixture model-universal background model (GMM-UBM) speaker identification system. In this GMM-UBM system, we derive the hypothesized speaker model by adapting the parameters of UBM using the speaker's training speech and a form of Bayesian adaptation. The UBM technique is incorporated into the GMM speaker identification system to reduce the time requirement for recognition significantly. The paper also presents a new frame level likelihood score normalization for adjusting different scores of speaker models to get more robust scores in the final decision. Experiments on the 2000 NIST speaker recognition evaluation corpus show that GMM-UBM and frame level likelihood score normalization yield better performance. Compared to the baseline system, around 31.2% relative error reduction is obtained from the combination of both techniques.
Understanding the Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Men’s Risk Behavior: Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Study

Background Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) remains a critical public health issue among black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), as it is associated with multiple negative outcomes including substance misuse, poor mental health, revictimization, and high-risk sexual behavior. Most CSA research with MSM relies on quantitative assessment that often precludes consideration of cultural variations in how formative sexual experiences are understood and is based on inconsistent or overly restrictive definitions of abuse, and therefore may fail to detect certain abusive experiences (eg, those involving female perpetrators), which can have harmful health consequences if they remain unrecognized. Objective The objective of this study is to overcome existing limitations in the literature by drawing on perspectives of black and Latino MSM and men who have sex with men and women (MSMW), as well as relevant service providers to better understand the role of, and the need to include, sexual abuse histories (eg, CSA) in treatment and counseling settings, with the long-term goal of improving assessment and health outcomes. Methods We will conduct mixed-methods interviews, framed by an intersectionality approach, with 80 black and Latino men (40 MSM and 40 MSMW) in New York City (NYC), exploring appraisals of their formative sexual experiences, including those described as consensual but meeting criteria for CSA. We will also interview 30 local service providers representing substance abuse treatment, mental health care, and HIV prevention and outreach. Results The study was launched in May 2017. Conclusions This formative research will inform testable approaches to assessing and incorporating sexual abuse history into substance abuse treatment and other health and mental health services used by men with such histories.
Outer membrane vesicles in service as protein shuttles, biotic defenders, and immunological doppelgängers

abstract Characterization of host microbial interactions typically occurs on the cellular or protein level. Recently, a more thorough and accurate appreciation of cellular interactions has come into better focus with improved understanding of membrane vesicles (OMV). While OMVs are documented primarily in Gram-negative bacteria, certain Gram-positive species generate these structures, despite the obvious physical limitations of the cell envelope. Here, we briefly review the current understanding of OMVs in content and function, their role in pathogenesis, and the consequences of somatic cell gene expression on these events.