Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exaggerated pulmonary hypertension with monocrotaline in rats susceptible to chronic mountain sickness.

Hilltop (H) strain Sprague-Dawley rats are more susceptible to chronic mountain sickness than are the Madison (M) strain rats. It is unclear what role pulmonary vascular remodeling, polycythemia, and hypoxia-induced vasoconstriction play in mediating the more severe pulmonary hypertension that develops in the H rats during chronic hypoxia. It is also unclear whether the increased sensitivity of the H rats to chronic mountain sickness is specific for a hypoxia effect or, instead, reflects a general propensity toward the development of pulmonary hypertension. Monocrotaline (MCT) causes pulmonary vascular remodeling and pulmonary hypertension. We hypothesized that the difference in the pulmonary vascular response to chronic hypoxia between H and M rats reflects an increased sensitivity of the H rats to any pulmonary hypertensive stimuli. Consequently, we expected the two strains to also differ in their susceptibility to MCT-induced pulmonary hypertension. Pulmonary arterial pressures in conscious H and M rats were measured 3 wk after a single dose of MCT, exposure to a simulated high altitude of 18,000 ft (barometric pressure = 380 mmHg), and administration of a single dose of saline as a placebo. The H rats had significantly higher pulmonary arterial pressures and right ventricular weights after MCT and chronic hypoxia than did the M rats. The H rats also had more pulmonary vascular remodeling, i.e., greater wall thickness as a percentage of vessel diameter, after MCT and chronic hypoxia than did the M rats. The H rats had significantly lower arterial PO2 than did the M rats after MCT, but the degree of hypoxemia was mild [arterial PO2 of 72.5 +/- 0.8 (SE) Torr for H rats vs. 77.4 +/- 0.8 Torr for M rats after MCT]. The H rats had lower arterial PCO2 and larger minute ventilation values than did the M rats after MCT. These ventilatory differences suggest that MCT caused more severe pulmonary vascular damage in the H rats than in the M rats. These data support the hypothesis that the H rats have a general propensity to develop pulmonary hypertension and suggest that differences in pulmonary vascular remodeling account for the increased susceptibility of H rats, compared with M rats, to both MCT and chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension.
Are Human and Mouse Satellite Cells Really the Same?

Satellite cells are quiescent cells located under the basal lamina of skeletal muscle fibers that contribute to muscle growth, maintenance, repair, and regeneration. Mouse satellite cells have been shown to be muscle stem cells that are able to regenerate muscle fibers and self-renew. As human skeletal muscle is also able to regenerate following injury, we assume that the human satellite cell is, like its murine equivalent, a muscle stem cell. In this review, we compare human and mouse satellite cells and highlight their similarities and differences. We discuss gaps in our knowledge of human satellite cells, compared with that of mouse satellite cells, and suggest ways in which we may advance studies on human satellite cells, particularly by finding new markers and attempting to re-create the human satellite cell niche in vitro.
Case-based adaptation for product formulation

The fact that case-based reasoning (CBR) adaptation in design domains is knowledge-intensive is one of the major factors that has limited the industrial application of CBR systems. Nevertheless, inductive techniques can ease the adaptation knowledge acquisition bottleneck by enabling useful knowledge to be elicited from the case-base (CB). Application of neural networks that use the knowledge available in the CB to (i) generate a desired mapping from differences between a query and retrieved cases, (ii) to minimise those differences and hence (iii) to adapt retrieved cases so that an optimal solution to a query is found is studied in this paper. This adaptation method is suitable for CBR systems that use numerical-valued attributes for describing a case.
Maintaining Cognitive Function in Alzheimer Disease: How Effective are Current Treatments?

Cognitive impairment, a core feature of Alzheimer disease (AD), is highly correlated with functional decline and caregiver time. Over 12 months, patients with mild-to-moderate AD deteriorate by 5–6 points from baseline on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog). Stabilizing cognitive decline is, therefore, an important treatment outcome in AD. Cognitive deficits are thought to result in part from central cholinergic impairment, which provides the rationale for the enhancement of cholinergic neurotransmission as a treatment approach for AD. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition has, to date, produced the most promising outcomes in clinical trials. Galantamine appears to be novel among marketed agents in that it inhibits AChE and modulates cholinergic nicotinic receptors, perhaps increasing neurotransmission via both mechanisms. Long-term effects of AChE inhibitors and galantamine on ADAS-cog scores of patients with mild-to-moderate AD have been studied in placebo controlled trials as well as open-extension studies that followed randomized, double-blind studies for up to 6 months. Conventional AChE inhibitors (rivastigmine and donepezil) have maintained ADAS-cog baseline scores for up to 40 weeks in open extension studies, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores for up to 52 weeks in a placebo-controlled study. The mean ADAS-cog score of galantamine-treated patients did not change from baseline at 12 months (6 months double-blind study followed by 6 months open-label extension), suggesting that cognitive function had been maintained. These results suggest that cholinergic treatments, including galantamine, may stabilize cognitive decline of AD patients. This outcome is likely to make an important difference to patients and caregivers.
Principles of Plant Physiology

This book is a summation of discussions on the control of renal function by the pituitary and adrenal cortex. The data on these subjects are presented by outstanding authorities and the conclusions drawn from the data are criticized by representatives of many ancillary fields. In this way the perspectives of several scientific disciplines and specialties are brought to bear on renal function. The book is well organized and yet the "give and take" of the discussions is preserved. The studies of the effects of ACTH and cortisone on renal function will be of particular interest to the clinician. The role of the pituitary will be of greater interest to the research worker and advanced student. The bibliographies which are appended to the chapters add greatly to the utility of the book. Having had reason lately to browse through a number of plant physiology texts, the reviewer notes that this book is a well-developed example of a style of textbook writing which is encountered more and more. One may recognize, at least among works on plant physiology, two different approaches: one, universal in treatises and advanced texts, introduces and formulates the concepts required in the field, develops them, and cites the experimental evidence for the various theories related to these concepts. Some elementary texts use this plan; the authors apparently hope that the student can be guided through the mass of details and that he will be led to a more searching and thorough attitude towards the subject and its complications. In the other general approach, which is used by the authors of this book, the material is digested, and each topic is developed from one particular point of view, somewhat like a theorem. This treatment intends to impress the student with the basic patterns, upon which he can elaborate. One is reminded of the texts of theoretical physics which lead one along in a conversational style to regions of comparative difficulty, and then exact payment, in the form of time and effort, for the apparent simplicity, by the "problems" at the ends of chapters. Perhaps the references (after each chapter) in this plant physiology text are in this category. The choice of references appeals to this reviewer; because they are practically all books or review articles they should also please the student, who is assumedly pressed for time. The authors state that this book is a pedagogical effort, designed for …
A novel SIC-PIC iterative detector with turbo code under multipath Rayleigh fading MIMO channel

In the multiinput multioutput (MIMO) wireless communication system, especially in the V-BLAST, the received signal vectors detection is the crucial part that impacts the system performance. This paper introduces a new V-BLAST detector that can gain more diversity gain. This detector utilizes the successive interference canceling (SIC) and parallel interference canceling (PIC), during the iteration of SIC and PIC, turbo code is used to guarantee the reliability of PIC. Compared with other detection algorithm, this new iterative detector can enhance the receive diversity. This paper simulates the algorithm with OFDM modulation under multipath Rayleigh MIMO channel. From the simulation results, the system performance can be improved and the complexity of this iterative detector is very low.
High-level Expression of Pig Liver Thioltransferase (Glutaredoxin) in Escherichia coZi*

We report the first high-level expression of a mammalian thioltransferase (glutaredoxin) in Escherichia coli. A NcoI site (CCATGG) was introduced into the cDNA encoding pig liver thioltransferase (glutaredoxin) by site-directed mutagenesis, in which the first G of the original sequence, GCATGG, was replaced by a C. The altered cDNA was cloned into an expression vector, plasmid pKK233-2, between the unique iVco1 and Hi&III sites and expressed in E. coli JM105 at a high level (8% of total soluble protein) after 6 h of isopropyl-B-D-thiogalactopyranoside induction. The soluble and unfused product was measured by the thioltransferase thiol-disulfide exchange assay and immunoblotting analysis. The recombinant enzyme was purified to a single band as judged by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing. The amino acid composition of the expressed enzyme agreed with that of the known sequence of pig liver thioltransferase (glutaredoxin). Nterminal sequence analysis revealed that unlike the native pig liver protein which is N-acetylated, the recombinant enzyme was unblocked at the N terminus (alanine). Various kinetic properties of the recombinant enzyme with regard to the exchange reaction were identical with those of the native enzyme.
Cosmic-Ray Energy Changes in the Heliosphere. II. The Effect on K-Capture Electron Secondaries

Recent accurate measurements of the cosmic-ray intensity ratio 51V/51Cr below 1 GeV nucleon-1 provide a powerful new tool to study cosmic-ray modulation in the heliosphere. This paper describes how energy changes during this modulation process influence this ratio. In particular, our model includes acceleration at the solar wind termination shock, and we find that this mechanism significantly enhances the 51V/51Cr ratio at 1 AU. It is also shown that this acceleration makes the ratio more sensitive to the form of local low-energy interstellar spectra, below ~100 MeV nucleon-1, than without it. Specifically, this acceleration provides an independent confirmation of the consensus that low-energy spectra should be flatter than their high-energy power-law forms.
Genotoxicity of pesticide mixtures present in the diet of the French population

Consumers may be simultaneously exposed to several pesticide residues in their diet. A previous study identified the seven most common pesticide mixtures to which the French population was exposed through food consumption in 2006. The aim of this study was to investigate if the seven mixtures are potentially cytotoxic and genotoxic and if so, whether compounds in a same mixture have a combined effect. The cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of the seven mixtures were investigated with a new assay (γ‐H2AX) using four human cell lines (ACHN, SH‐SY5Y, LS‐174T, and HepG2). Mixtures were tested at equimolar concentrations and also at concentrations reflecting their actual proportion in the diet. Irrespective of the cell line tested, parallel cytotoxicity of the seven mixtures was observed. Only one mixture was genotoxic for the HepG2 cells at concentrations = 3 μM in equimolar proportion and at 30 μM in actual proportion. Caspase 3/7 activity, the comet assay, and reactive oxygen species production were also investigated using the same mixture and HepG2 cells. Our results suggest that pesticide metabolites from the mixture generated by HepG2 cells were responsible for the observed damage to DNA. Among the five compounds in the genotoxic mixture, only fludioxonil and cyprodinil were genotoxic for HepG2 cells alone at concentrations = 4 and 20 μM, respectively. Our data suggest a combined genotoxic effect of the mixture at low concentrations with a significantly higher effect of the mixture of pesticides than would be expected from the response to the individual compounds. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Robust speech recognition based on spectro-temporal processing

In this thesis, novelle spectro-temporal feature extraction techniques are evaluated for enhancing the robustness of automatic speech recognition systems (ASR) in adverse acoustical conditions. Recent physiological and psychoacoustical findings indicate that spectro-temporal processing plays an important role in human speech perception. Therefore, sigma-pi cells and Gabor filter functions are investigated as secondary feature extraction methods based on spectro-temporal representation. Especially the Gabor features are versatile enough to include cepstral features and purely temporal filtering as special cases, while additionally aiming at combined spectro-temporal modulations. A data driven feature selection method is applied for feature set optimization. For small vocabularies, both types of features are shown to increase the robustness of ASR systems. Sigma-pi cells also allow for estimating the speech-to-noise ratio of an input signal solely based on low spectro-temporal modulation. The Gabor based Tandem feature sets increase the performance of the Qualcomm-ICSI-OGI system for the Aurora task, when concatenating the two streams.
Construction and properties of a temperature-sensitive mutation in the gene for the bacteriophage SPO1 DNA-binding protein TF1

The Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage SPO1 encodes the DNA-binding protein TF1, a homolog of the ubiquitous type II DNA-binding proteins that are components of bacterial chromatin. The known three-dimensional structure of a related protein was used in devising a scheme of site-directed mutagenesis that led to the creation of a temperature-sensitive mutation in the TF1 gene. At the nonpermissive temperature, this mutation disrupted the temporal regulation of viral protein synthesis and processing, altered the kinetics of accumulation of at least one viral transcript, and prohibited the production of infective progeny phage. We suggest that TF1 function is required to shut off the expression of several early-middle and middle viral genes and that TF1 plays a role in phage head morphogenesis. Spontaneous second-site mutations of the temperature-sensitive mutant TF1 allele that suppressed its associated phenotypes were analyzed. These suppressor mutations conferred greater amino acid sequence homology with the type II DNA-binding protein from the thermophile Bacillus stearothermophilus.
Phonetic mismatch negativity predicts verbal memory deficits in schizophrenia

Deficits in auditory sensory memory at the electrophysiological level as indexed by mismatch negativity and those in auditory verbal memory at the neuropsychological level have been independently demonstrated in previous studies of schizophrenia. We predicted a specific association between these indices in schizophrenia. Mismatch negativities elicited by change in tone duration and phoneme duration were recorded in 23 schizophrenia patients, who were also evaluated for auditory verbal memory and executive function. Lower amplitude of mismatch negativity under the phoneme-duration condition was significantly associated with worse verbal memory. Phoneme-duration mismatch negativity was not correlated with executive function, nor was tone-duration mismatch negativity correlated with verbal memory. These results suggest that electrophysiological auditory sensory memory dysfunction underlies the basis for neuropsychological auditory verbal memory deficits in schizophrenia.
CNP overexpression induces aberrant oligodendrocyte membranes and inhibits MBP accumulation and myelin compaction

2′,3′‐cyclic nucleotide 3′‐phosphodiesterase (CNP) is highly enriched in myelin‐forming cells where it is concentrated at the cytoplasmic side of all surface membranes except those of compact myelin. Previous studies have provided evidence that CNP is functionally involved in migration or expansion of membranes during myelination. This hypothesis is supported, in part, by the production of aberrant myelin membranes in transgenic mice that have a 6‐fold increase in CNP expression. In addition, many myelin lamellae in these CNP‐overexpressing mice lacked major dense lines (MDLs). The purpose of the present study was to determine if CNP overexpression altered: (1) oligodendrocyte and myelin membrane production during early stages of myelination, and (2) the ultrastructural distribution of CNP and myelin basic protein (MBP) in myelin membranes. We identified aberrant membrane expanses that extended from premyelinating oligodendrocyte processes, the periaxonal membrane, and the contact point between oligodendrocyte processes and myelin internodes. Myelin membranes without MDLs were deficient in MBP and enriched in CNP. These data support a functional role for CNP during oligodendrocyte membrane expansion and indicate, for the first time, that CNP may help target MBP to compact myelin. J. Neurosci. Res. 50:238–247, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Review of the Safety and Efficacy of Moringa oleifera

Moringa oleifera leaves, seeds, bark, roots, sap, and flowers are widely used in traditional medicine, and the leaves and immature seed pods are used as food products in human nutrition. Leaf extracts exhibit the greatest antioxidant activity, and various safety studies in animals involving aqueous leaf extracts indicate a high degree of safety. No adverse effects were reported in association with human studies. Five human studies using powdered whole leaf preparations of M. oleifera have been published, which have demonstrated anti‐hyperglycemic (antidiabetic) and anti‐dyslipidemic activities. These activities have been confirmed using extracts as well as leaf powders in animal studies. A rapidly growing number of published studies have shown that aqueous, hydroalcohol, or alcohol extracts of M. oleifera leaves possess a wide range of additional biological activities including antioxidant, tissue protective (liver, kidneys, heart, testes, and lungs), analgesic, antiulcer, antihypertensive, radioprotective, and immunomodulatory actions. A wide variety of polyphenols and phenolic acids as well as flavonoids, glucosinolates, and possibly alkaloids is believed to be responsible for the observed effects. Standardization of products is an issue. However, the results of published studies to date involving M. oleifera are very promising. Additional human studies using standardized extracts are highly desirable. © 2015 The Authors Phytotherapy Research Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Geotagged US Tweets as Predictors of County-Level Health Outcomes, 2015-2016

Objectives To leverage geotagged Twitter data to create national indicators of the social environment, with small-area indicators of prevalent sentiment and social modeling of health behaviors, and to test associations with county-level health outcomes, while controlling for demographic characteristics. Methods We used Twitter’s streaming application programming interface to continuously collect a random 1% subset of publicly available geo-located tweets in the contiguous United States. We collected approximately 80 million geotagged tweets from 603 363 unique Twitter users in a 12-month period (April 2015-March 2016). Results Across 3135 US counties, Twitter indicators of happiness, food, and physical activity were associated with lower premature mortality, obesity, and physical inactivity. Alcohol-use tweets predicted higher alcohol-use-related mortality. Conclusions Social media represents a new type of real-time data that may enable public health officials to examine movement of norms, sentiment, and behaviors that may portend emerging issues or outbreaks-thus providing a way to intervene to prevent adverse health events and measure the impact of health interventions.
Autosomal recessive variations of TBX6, from congenital scoliosis to spondylocostal dysostosis

Proximal 16p11.2 microdeletions are recurrent microdeletions with an overall prevalence of 0.03%. In patients with segmentation defects of the vertebra (SDV), a burden of this microdeletion was observed with TBX6 as a candidate gene for SDV. In a published cohort of patients with congenital scoliosis (CS), TBX6 haploinsufficiency was compound heterozygous with a common haplotype. Besides, a single three‐generation family with spondylocostal dysostosis (SCD) was reported with a heterozygous stop‐loss of TBX6. These observations questioned both on the inheritance mode and on the variable expressivity associated with TBX6‐associated SDV. Based on a national recruitment of 56 patients with SDV, we describe four patients with variable SDV ranging from CS to SCD associated with biallelic variations of TBX6. Two patients with CS were carrying a proximal 16p11.2 microdeletion associated with the previously reported haplotype. One patient with extensive SDV was carrying a proximal 16p11.2 microdeletion associated with a TBX6 rare missense change. One patient with a clinical diagnosis of SCD was compound heterozygous for two TBX6 rare missense changes. The three rare variants were affecting the chromatin‐binding domain. Our data illustrate the variable expressivity of recessive TBX6 ranging from CS to SCD.
Scalable Spice Modeling of Integrated Power LDMOS Device Using a Cell-Based Building Block Approach

This paper illustrates a scalable Spice modeling method for an integrated power LDMOS device based on a multi-cell array structure. Depending on the location in the array (corner, edge, inner), three different types of cells were identified to have distinct electrical characteristics. Each cell type was modeled independently and was treated as a building block for the final scalable model. The three building block models could be relatively accurately generated because they were required to fit only one cell with fixed channel length and width. By combining the three building blocks, a scalable Spice model was created.
Effect of milling process on functional properties of legumes.

This study demonstrated the effect of milling processing (screw crushing, hammer milling and jet milling) on functional properties, such as antioxidant capacity, total phenolic content and resistant starch content of three legumes (broad beans, black soybeans and green beans). The results showed that broad beans possessed the highest antioxidant capacity and resistant starch content. Black soybeans had the highest total phenolic content. Different milling processes changed the functional properties of samples (p<0.05) depending on the particle size of the flour and the volume of the flush air operation. The grinding process, producing a smaller particle size and lower volume of flush air had higher functional properties than the others processes. Therefore, hammer milling was more suitable for grinding to obtain a higher antioxidant capacity, total phenolic and resistant starch content compared to the other process.