Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recognition of a Single hsp‐60 Epitope by an Entire Subset of γδ T Lymphocytes

We can conclude that a large subset of gamma delta cells, present in both murine newborn thymus and in adult spleen, respond to the stress protein, hsp60. hsp60 seems to be stimulatory whether it is derived from a foreign pathogen such as mycobacteria, or whether it originates from the mouse's own cells. The gamma delta cells that respond to this antigen bear very similar receptors, all expressing V gamma 1 and most expressing V delta 6, although their junctional variations indicate that not all members of the subset stem from clonal expansion of only one or a few cells. The hsp60-reactive subset has not at this time been shown to "home" to an epithelial location, in contrast to other known gamma delta cell subsets, and may rather carry out its functions while in circulation. Whether the hsp60 antigen requires a "presenting" molecule remains at this point unclear, but because the gamma delta cells all respond to a synthetic peptide representing an epitope of hsp60, presentation is implied. Human gamma delta cells that respond to PPD from mycobacteria, as do the mouse hsp60-reactive gamma delta cells, have also been described, many as members of a major subset in peripheral blood, although only rarely have these been reported to respond to mycobacterial hsp60. The antigenic source in PPD for these cells has not yet been determined, but as for the mouse, a low molecular weight peptide appears to be sufficient for stimulation (P. Brennan and R. Modlin, personal communication). The PPD-reactive gamma delta cells, when their receptors have been characterized, have been found to express a V gamma 9+ chain. Some evidence indicates that these cells can also recognize self hsp60; hence, in several ways, this human subset has characteristics similar to the mouse hsp60-reactive subset. Perhaps gamma delta cells that respond to hsp60 play an important role, in both mice and humans, in the detection of transformed self cells or cells containing intracellular pathogens, that escape detection by alpha beta T cells.
Presence of Multiple “Helicobacter heilmannii” Strains in an Individual Suffering from Ulcers and in His Two Cats

ABSTRACT Circumstantial evidence suggests that “Helicobacter heilmannii” infection is an example of zoonosis. The presence of “H. heilmannii” strains in a human subject with acute gastric erosions, in his two cats, and in two unrelated cats was analyzed, and the genetic relatedness of the human and feline strains was assessed. A 580-bp, PCR-amplified sequence of “H. heilmannii” urease B gene (ureB) obtained from biopsies from the human subject and his two cats was restricted withAluI and cloned for sequencing. Analysis of the restriction fragment length polymorphism of the ureB-amplified product suggested the presence of different individual “H. heilmannii” strains in the cats and of three distinct strains in the human subject. One of the “H. heilmannii”ureB sequences amplified from the human subject’s biopsies was identical to that derived from one of his cats. The degree of similarity between the other “H. heilmannii” human and feline nucleotide sequences was higher than 97%. Most of the base substitutions were conservative. We conclude that human and animal “H. heilmannii” strains are closely related and that humans can be infected by more than one “H. heilmannii” strain, as has been observed for Helicobacter pylori.
Prognostic impact of MUM1 expression by immunohistochemistry on primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma can be classified into two prognostically distinct subgroups with germinal center B-cell-like (CG) and activated B-cell-like (post-CG) characteristics, based on CD10, BCL-6, and MUM1 expression. We performed a retrospective analysis of the clinical variables of 37 patients with primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma and the expression of BCL-6 and MUM1 in 22 patients with available tissue. The median age was 30 years, and 70% of the patients were female. BCL-6 and MUM1 were expressed in 64% and 45% of cases, respectively. Five-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were 47% and 81%, respectively. In univariate analysis, complete response (p = 0.0001), radiation therapy (p = 0.01), International Prognostic Index (p = 0.001), and MUM1 expression (p = 0.002) correlated with OS. For this group of patients with homogeneous clinical characteristics, response to initial chemotherapy and MUM1 expression were associated with prognosis.
Modulation of thyroid hormone receptor silencing function by co-repressors and a synergizing transcription factor

We have found that the thyroid hormone receptor (T3R) functionally synergizes with the CCCTCbinding factor (CTCF). CTCF is a highly conserved zinc-finger protein that has been connected with multiple functions in gene regulation including chromatin insulator activity, transcriptional enhancement and silencing as well as tumour suppression. A specific property of CTCF is that some of the binding sites are found in the vicinity of T3R-binding sites. Interestingly, both factors synergize in repression as well as in activation. T3R-mediated repression has been shown to involve co-repressors such as the silencing mediator for retinoic acid and thyroid hormone receptor (SMRT), N-CoR or Alien. These co-repressors in turn have been found to interact with Sin3A. Until now, the mechanisms by which CTCF synergizes with T3R in transcriptional repression has not been determined. Here we show that CTCF comprises autonomous silencing domains that mediate transcriptional repression when tethered to a promoter sequence. At least one of
Microelectromechanical Resonator Characterization Using Noncontact Parametric Electrostatic Excitation and Probing

A noncontact electrostatic probing technique using a scanning probe microscopy cantilever is shown to actuate and detect the resonant behavior of a micromachined resonator. The method is capable of characterizing a resonator with resonant frequency much greater than that of the cantilever. The coupled oscillator model developed for this system describes the resonant response of the test resonator as detected through the probe, including the fourth-power dependence on the probe drive voltage. The veracity of this model is demonstrated through comparison with experimental data obtained from a test resonator with a resonant frequency ten times greater than the resonant frequency of the probe cantilever. This technique yields a straightforward determination of the resonant frequency and quality factor of a micromachined resonator, avoiding limitations due to optical interference and any reliance on a supporting circuitry.
Breast tumour detection by two microwave antenna principles

A comparison between breast tumour detection with a traditional lossy coupling medium based system and a system without coupling medium is performed, by numerical modelling and experimentally. While a system with lossy coupling medium offers surface wave reduction and protection from surrounding sources and obstacles it also demands good permittivity matching of the coupling medium to the breast tissue under investigation, as well as a high performance measurement system with a dynamic range exceeding 100 dB. The system without coupling medium offers possible direct detection of inhomogeneities with transmission losses of about 50…60 dB. The proposed contacting antenna system however needs further development in order to reduce stray fields and adoption to realistic breast tissue properties.
Integration of hydrological observations into a Spatial Data Infrastructure under a Sensor Web environment

Various sensors connected to the World Wide Web are used to obtain real-time hydrological observations. Thus, real-time management and utilization of such distributed in situ observations in the cyber-physical environment becomes possible. A Sensor Observation Service (SOS) chaining Web Feature Service (WFS) method is proposed to integrate geographical reference observation data collected by a hydrological Sensor Web into a virtual globe. This method hides the complexity of a series of information and service models in the Sensor Web realm to enable the integration of heterogeneous distributed hydrological data sources into a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI). The core components – a dynamic schema transformer and automatic information extractor – were designed and implemented. The SOS schema is matched to WFS schema that uses the schema transformer dynamically. The information extractor extracts and serves features automatically, conforming to standard SOS operations for observation retrieval and insertion. Feasibility experiments conducted on the Jinsha River tested this proposed method. Results show that the proposed approach allows the integration of SOS servers into legacy applications that have a higher degree of availability within many SDIs. However, this is accompanied with the drawback that only a limited part of the SOS functionality is available to clients.
Rule-based Person Name Recognition for Xinjiang Minority Languages

Xinjiang multi-nationality name entity recognition is an important part in multi-language processing. In this paper, we analyze the patterns of Uighur and Kazak person names, and perform the name identity recognition using rule-based approach. We also propose and implement the rules for Uighur and Kazak word segmentation.
Body mass and exercise variable relationships to lactate derived from gravity-independent devices.

INTRODUCTION Historically, exercise performance outcomes may be predicted with anthropometric variables such as body mass. To assess body mass and resistance exercise (REX) performance variable correlations to blood lactate values, subjects performed five different workouts on two devices that do not employ gravitational resistance. One device uses flywheels to impose a low-speed high-resistance exercise stimulus while the other, dubbed a Dual Performance Device (DPD), has a sled mounted on a very low friction track to enable high-speed low-resistance repetitions. METHODS Subjects (n = 18) performed 3 leg press workouts on the flywheel ergometer (FE), which entailed: 1) a 3-set 10-repetition protocol with concentric and eccentric actions; or 2) the same set-repetition paradigm with concentric-only actions; or 3) a 6-set 10-repetition protocol of concentric-only actions. DPD workouts, done by a separate (n = 22) group, involved 2 workouts each composed exclusively of tonic or phasic seated knee and hip extensor repetitions. Multivariate regression was employed, with post-exercise and delta (post/ pre) blood lactate values as criterion measures. RESULTS While body mass and performance values from FE workouts were weakly correlated to the criterion measures, body mass and average power (AP) variables from DPD tonic workouts explained 99% of the post-exercise and delta[BLa-] variance and yielded two prediction equations: post-REX blood lactate' = 0.06 + 11.21(AP) + -11.53(body mass), delta blood lactate' = 0.03 + 11.83(AP) + -12.00(body mass). CONCLUSIONS Results were most likely due to differences in central command requirements for each exercise device.
Effectiveness of herbal medicine (Rokumigan and Hachimijiogan) for fatigue or loss of energy in patients with partial remitted major depressive disorder

Abstract Some patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not show remission of their depressive symptomatology. We investigated the efficacy of Rokumigan (TJ‐87) and Hachimijiogan (TJ‐7) in 20 patients with prolonged partial remitted MDD associated with fatigue or loss of energy. In these 20 patients, TJ‐7 or TJ‐87 was added to the previous regimen for 4 weeks. Six patients were ‘much improved’, six were ‘minimally improved’ (responders), and eight showed ‘no change’ (non‐responders), on the Clinical Global Impression Global Improvement scale. All responders had Shofuku‐fujin (tenderness or weakness of the lower abdomen). In conclusion, we experienced 12 outpatients with prolonged partial remitted MDD with fatigue or loss of energy, which was successfully treated with TJ‐87 or TJ‐7.
Artifact-Free Despeckling of SAR Images Using Contourlet

Contourlets have been attracting increasing attention in despeckling of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images in recent years. However, contourlets produce undesirable artifacts while despeckling. This letter presents a novel contourlet-based regularization method to remove speckle without introducing extra artifacts. In this method, a nonlocal regression function is constructed for the regularization term through patch weighting on the contourlet reconstruction. Moreover, by employing the intrinsic dependence of contourlet coefficients, a parameterized shrinkage algorithm is proposed to resolve the contourlet reconstruction. This contourlet despeckling method enables significant elimination of speckle and resultant artifacts with well-protected strong scatters and structures of the scene. Experiments demonstrate such superiority on real SAR images.
Inhibition of polo-like kinase 1 leads to the suppression of osteosarcoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of primary bone cancer in children and adolescents. Treatment options for osteosarcoma may include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Unfortunately, many patients eventually relapse, resulting in an unsatisfactory outcome. The serine/threonine-specific polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) is a kinase that plays an important role in mitosis and the maintenance of genomic stability. PLK1 has been found to be highly expressed in the malignant cells of osteosarcoma. Here, we describe the in-vitro and in-vivo effects of BI 2536, a small-molecule inhibitor of PLK1, which through inhibiting PLK1 enzymatic activity, causes mitotic arrest and eventually induces cancer cell apoptosis. In this study, we show that the PLK1 inhibitor, BI 2536, inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in two-dimensional and three-dimensional cultures of osteosarcoma cell lines, KHOS and U-2OS. A proliferation assay performed both in two-dimensional and three-dimensional culture showed that the growth of both cell lines was inhibited by BI 2536. Cell cycle analysis showed that the cells treated with BI 2536 were mainly arrested in the G2/M phase. Immunofluorescence and western blotting analysis confirmed that the administration of BI 2536 led to significant decrease of PLK1 and Mcl-1 protein expression levels in dose-dependent and time-dependent manners. Furthermore, BI 2536-induced apoptosis in the osteosarcoma cell lines was shown by poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage and caspase assay. Finally, in mouse osteosarcoma xenografts, BI 2536-treated mice had significantly smaller tumors compared with the control mice. These findings offer evidence of the potential role for targeting PLK1 in osteosarcoma therapy.
Consciousness as a guide to personal persistence

Mentalistic (or Lockean) accounts of personal identity are normally formulated in terms of causal relations between psychological states such as beliefs, memories, and intentions. In this paper we develop an alternative (but still Lockean) account of personal identity, based on phenomenal relations between experiences. We begin by examining a notorious puzzle case due to Bernard Williams, and extract two lessons from it: first, that Williams's puzzle can be defused by distinguishing between the psychological and phenomenal approaches, second, that so far as personal identity is concerned, it is phenomenal rather than psychological continuity that matters. We then consider different ways in which the phenomenal approach may be developed, and respond to a number of objections. That with which the consciousness of this present thinking thing can join itself, makes the same person, and is one self with it, and with nothing else; and so attributes to itself and owns all the actions of that thing, as its own, as far as that consciousness reaches, and no farther; as every one who reflects will perceive. Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding [II.xxvii. 17]
Effects of a Western-style diet high in cholesterol and saturated faton the rabbit exocrine pancreas

Abstract: Despite the well-known cardiovascular effects of an atherogenic diet, there are no data relating to its effect on the exocrine pancreas. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the consequences of this eating pattern on the exocrine pancreas. Twelve New Zealand rabbits were randomised to one of two dietary groups, control group (C) and hypercholesterolemic (HCHOL), that were fed for 50 days with a standard chow or a diet containing 95.7% standard chow, 3% lard, and 1.3% cholesterol, respectively. Pancreatic enzyme activity, cholesterol, and membrane fatty acids were determined by established methods. The activity of pancreatic lipase (6.46 ± 0.948 vs. 1.40 ± 0.460; P < 0.05), colipase (8.93 ± 2.138 vs. 2.36 ± 0.512; P < 0.05), and chymotrypsin (18.54 ± 3.125 vs. 9.69 ± 1.363; P < 0.05) were greater in group HCHOL than in group C. The HCHOL diet increased monounsaturated fatty acids and decreased saturated fatty acids in pancreatic plasma membranes compared with the standard chow. These results suggest a homeostatic adaptation of the pancreas to an atherogenic diet and a greater resistance to the development of lesions than exists in other organs. Further studies are needed, given the lack of research on this issue.
ABLE: An Automated Bacterial Load Estimator for the Urinoculture Screening

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are very common in women, babies and the elderly. The most frequent cause is a bacterium, called Escherichia Coli, which usually lives in the digestive system and in the bowel. Infections can target the urethra, bladder or kidneys. Traditional analysis methods, based on human expertsâ evaluation, are typically used to diagnose UTIs, an error prone and lengthy process, whereas an early treatment of common pathologies is fundamental to prevent the infection spreading to kidneys. This paper presents an image based Automated Bacterial Load Estimator (ABLE) system for the urinoculture screening, that provides quick and traceable results for UTIs. Infections are accurately detected and the bacterial load is evaluated through image processing techniques. First, digital color images of the Petri dishes are automatically captured, and cleaned from noisily elements due to laboratory procedures, then specific spatial clustering algorithms are applied to isolate the colonies from the culture ground and, finally, an accurate evaluation of the infection severity is performed. A dataset of 499 urine samples has been used during the experiments and the obtained results are fully discussed. The ABLE system speeds up the analysis, grants repeatable results, contributes to the process standardization, and guarantees a significant cost reduction.
Structural heterogeneity and productivity of a tall fescue pasture grazed rotationally by cattle at four stocking densities

The spatial heterogeneity in the structure and the productivity of the vegetation was examined in a tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) pasture rotationally grazed at four stocking densities in the Pampean region of Argentina. The examined pasture was grazed at the stocking densities of 3.6, 4.6, 5.6 and 6.6 animals ha ‐1 with a two-paddock 14-day rotational grazing system. Spatial distribution of plant height was examined as well as the percentages of short patch area (heavily utilized patches) or tall patch area (areas ungrazed or lightly defoliated). In addition, biomass, growth rate and relative growth rate were assessed for both short and tall patches. Grazing generated patchiness in vegetation structure and growth at all stocking densities. Increased stocking density caused an increase in the percentage of the short patch area in the paddocks. Short patches had relatively less live biomass than tall ones, but their relative growth rate was 31% higher than that of tall patches (0.021 ± 0.007 vs 0.016 ± 0.005 g DM g DM ‐1 day ‐1 ). The increase in stocking density enlarged the proportion of short patch areas with higher relative growth rate. The relative growth rate (average between short and tall patches) of the two highest stocking densities was 61.7% higher than that of the low stocking density treatments (0.023 ± 0.006 vs 0.014 ± 0.004 g DM g DM ‐1 day ‐1 ). Although the growth rate of the short patches did not exceed the value of the tall patches, the high value of relative growth rate appeared to indicate a higher photosynthetic capacity of the short patches. Moreover, live biomass did not decrease during the experimental period even in the short patch areas showing that, in the particular conditions of our study, overgrazing did not occur at the range of the stocking density examined.
STEM CELLS AND REGENERATION mTOR regulates brain morphogenesis by mediating GSK 3 signaling

Balanced control of neural progenitor maintenance and neuron production is crucial in establishing functional neural circuits during brain development, and abnormalities in this process are implicated in many neurological diseases. However, the regulatory mechanisms of neural progenitor homeostasis remain poorly understood. Here, we show that mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is required for maintaining neural progenitor pools and plays a key role in mediating glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) signaling during brain development. First, we generated and characterized conditional mutant mice exhibiting deletion of mTOR in neural progenitors and neurons in the developing brain using Nestin-cre and Nex-cre lines, respectively. The elimination of mTOR resulted in abnormal cell cycle progression of neural progenitors in the developing brain and thereby disruption of progenitor self-renewal. Accordingly, production of intermediate progenitors and postmitotic neurons were markedly suppressed. Next, we discovered that GSK3, a master regulator of neural progenitors, interacts with mTOR and controls its activity in cortical progenitors. Finally, we found that inactivation ofmTORactivity suppresses theabnormal proliferationof neural progenitors inducedby GSK3 deletion. Our findings reveal that the interaction betweenmTOR andGSK3 signaling plays an essential role in dynamic homeostasis of neural progenitors during brain development.
New comparative ultrasound biomicroscopic findings between fellow eyes of acute angle closure and glaucomatous eyes with narrow angle.

PURPOSE To compare morphometric features between fellow acute primary angle-closure (APAC) eyes and glaucomatous or suspect eyes with narrow angle (NA). METHODS Fellow eyes of 30 patients with unilateral APAC and 30 with NA were evaluated by ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) under light and dark conditions. UBM parameters such as anterior chamber depth (ACD), angle opening distance at 250 microm/500 microm from the scleral spur (AOD250/AOD500), trabecular ciliary process distance (TCPD) and iris-lens contact distance (ILCD) were measured in the superior (SQ) and inferior (IQ) quadrants. RESULTS Significant differences between APAC fellow and NA eyes were found in ACD, P<0.001; AOD250 at SQ and IQ, P<0.001; AOD500 at SQ and IQ, P<0.001; TCPD light, P=0.010 and TCPD dark at SQ, P=0.031; and TCPD light at IQ, P=0.010. Significant differences between light and dark examinations of APAC fellow eyes were found in ILCD (P=0.009) at SQ and ILCD at IQ (P=0.006), and of NA eyes in ILCD at SQ (P=0.047) and ILCD at IQ (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS APAC fellow eyes have a more crowded anterior segment and shallower ACD than NA eyes. ILCD decreases in both groups when the illumination conditions change from light to dark.