Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of in vitro preconditioning responses of isolated pig and rabbit cardiomyocytes: effects of a protein phosphatase inhibitor, fostriecin.

Calcium tolerant pig and rabbit cardiomyocytes were isolated using retrograde aortic perfusion of nominally calcium-free collagenase. Preconditioning protocols used 1 or 3x10-min episodes of ischemic pelleting or pre-incubation with 100 micro M adenosine, followed by a 15-min post-incubation and 180-240-min ischemic pelleting. Control cells were incubated and washed in parallel with the experimental groups. Injury was assessed by determination of cell morphology, trypan blue permeability following osmotic swelling, lactate and HPLC analysis of adenine nucleotides. Preconditioned pig cardiomyocytes had a reduced rate of ischemic contracture, but protection occurred without conservation of ATP. Preconditioned rabbit cardiomyocytes were protected without significant changes in rates of ischemic contracture or ATP depletion. Incubation of ischemic cells with the protein phosphatase inhibitor, fostriecin, at PP2A-selective concentrations (0.1-10 micro M), mimicked preconditioning in both rabbit and pig cardiomyocytes. In rabbits, the KATP channel blocker, 5-hydroxydecanoate (5-HD), did not block preconditioning or fostriecin protection. In the pig, 5-HD blocked both preconditioning and fostriecin protection, with return of the rates of ischemic contracture to control. However, 5-HD was an effective blocker of protection only in early ischemia. Fostriecin mimicked preconditioning in the rabbit and the early responses of the preconditioned pig. Preconditioning appears associated with protein phosphorylation in both the rabbit and the pig, but major pathways leading to protection may differ in the two species.
Combining Independent Component Analysis and Backpropagation Neural Network for ECG Beat Classification

We propose a method that uses independent component analysis (ICA) and backpropagation neural network to classify electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. In this study, ICA is used to extract important features from ECG signals. A backpropagation neural network follows to classify the input ECG beats into one of eight beat types. The independent components are calculated from the training ECG beats and serve as the ICA bases of the system. The ECG beat samples are then projected on the bases to build the ICA features for different beat types. The features based on ICA and the time interval between successive ECG beats are constituted into a feature vector and serve as inputs to the backpropagation neural network. In the study, 9800 QRS samples, including eight different ECG types, were extracted from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database for experiments. Half of the samples were used in the training phase and the other half in the testing phase. The experiments showed an impressive highest accuracy of 98.37% under the condition that only 23 independent components were used. The results demonstrate the capability of the proposed method in the computer-aided diagnosis of heart diseases based on ECG signals
Construction of isogenic urease-negative mutants of Helicobacter pylori by allelic exchange

Isogenic urease-negative mutants of Helicobacter pylori were constructed by allelic replacement. A region of cloned H. pylori DNA containing the structural urease genes (ureA and ureB) was disrupted by insertion of a mini-Tn3-Km transposon. Electrotransformation of H. pylori cells with kanamycin-ureB-disrupted derivative plasmids resulted in isolation of kanamycin-resistant H. pylori transformants. Competence for electrotransformation appeared to be restricted to certain wild-type H. pylori isolates; only 1 isolate (of 10 tested) was consistently transformed. Two of the kanamycin-resistant H. pylori transformants were further studied and shown to be urease negative. Southern hybridization analyses demonstrated that the urease-negative mutants had been constructed by allelic exchange involving simultaneous replacement of the ureB gene with the kanamycin-ureB-disrupted copy and loss of the vector. Immunoblot studies of whole-cell extracts of the isogenic ureB mutants with anti-H. pylori sera indicated the absence of a polypeptide with an apparent molecular mass of 61 kDa; thus, the mutants no longer synthesized the UreB product. Generation of stable, genetically engineered urease mutants of H. pylori will be useful for addressing the role of urease in the pathogenesis of H. pylori infection.
Cellular uptake disguises action of L‐glutamate on N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptors: With an appendix: Diffusion of transported amino acids into brain slices

1 Pharmacological properties of the guanosine 3′5′‐cyclic monophosphate (cyclic GMP) responses to excitatory amino acids and their analogues were compared in slices and dissociated cells from the developing rat cerebellum maintained in vitro. The intention was to determine the extent to which cellular uptake might influence the apparent properties of receptor‐mediated actions of these compounds. 2 In slices, the potencies of the weakly (or non‐) transported analogues, N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) and kainate (KA) (EC50 = 40 μM each) were higher than those of the transported amino acids, D‐ and L‐aspartate (EC50 = 250 μM and 300 μM) and D‐ and L‐glutamate (EC50 = 540 μM and 480 μM). Quisqualate (up to 300 μM) failed to increase cyclic GMP levels significantly. The sensitivity of agonist responses to the NMDA receptor antagonist, DL‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovalerate (APV), was in the order NMDA > L‐aspartate > L‐glutamate, KA. 3 In dissociated cells, L‐glutamate was 280 fold more potent (calculated EC50 = 1.7 μM). L‐ and D‐aspartate (calculated EC50 = 13 μM) and D‐glutamate (EC50 = 130 μM) were also more effective than in slices. The potencies of NMDA and KA were essentially unchanged. Responses to NMDA, L‐glutamate and L‐aspartate under these conditions were equally sensitive to inhibition by APV but the response to KA remained relatively resistant to this antagonist. 4 The implications of these results are that, in slices, cellular uptake is responsible for (i) the dose‐ response curves to L‐glutamate, L‐ and D‐aspartate bearing little or no relationship to the true (or relative) potencies of these amino acids; (ii) the potency of APV towards the actions of transported agonists acting at NMDA receptors being reduced and (iii) a differential sensitivity to APV of responses to L‐glutamate and L‐aspartate being created, the consequence being that a potent action of L‐glutamate on NMDA receptors is disguised. 5 These conclusions are supported by theoretical considerations relating to the diffusion of transported amino acids into brain slices, as elaborated in the Appendix.
Estimates of variability for somatic cell count measurements in the Iowa dairy industry.

The SCC collected from 15 instruments in 12 laboratories were used to quantify accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility in the Iowa dairy industry. For each of three trials, milk was sampled at the morning milking from 30 different Holsteins in the Iowa State University herd. Identified samples and unidentified duplicates were provided for each participating instrument. Mean SCC was 418,000 cells/ml, and mean SCC for duplicates ranged from 9000 to 3,966,000. Accuracy for a set of 30 duplicates was lowest for trial 1 (CV = 16.4%) and highest for trial 2 (CV = 7.6%). Intraclass correlations estimated repeatability and were . 99 for all but one instrument. Coefficients of variation for repeatability (weighted mean = 11.4%) were similar to estimates for accuracy (weighted mean = 11.0%), but reproducibility was considerably lower (30.0%). Samples were classified by SCC as very low, < 125,000; low, 125,000 to 249,000; medium, 250,000 to 500,000; and high, > 500,000. Repeatability for high samples was higher than repeatability for very low SCC samples; coefficient of variation for high SCC samples was 6.8% but was > 25.0% for samples with < 500,000 cells. Repeatability was within standards set by the industry, but current procedures for quality control may not adequately address reproducibility.
Executive function deficits and glutamatergic protein alterations in a progressive 1‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydropyridine mouse model of Parkinson's disease

Changes in executive function are at the root of most cognitive problems associated with Parkinson's disease. Because dopaminergic treatment does not necessarily alleviate deficits in executive function, it has been hypothesized that dysfunction of neurotransmitters/systems other than dopamine (DA) may be associated with this decrease in cognitive function. We have reported decreases in motor function and dopaminergic/glutamatergic biomarkers in a progressive 1‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) Parkinson's mouse model. Assessment of executive function and dopaminergic/glutamatergic biomarkers within the limbic circuit has not previously been explored in our model. Our results show progressive behavioral decline in a cued response task (a rodent model for frontal cortex cognitive function) with increasing weekly doses of MPTP. Although within the dorsolateral (DL) striatum mice that had been given MPTP showed a 63% and 83% loss of tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine transporter expression, respectively, there were no changes in the nucleus accumbens or medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Furthermore, dopamine‐1 receptor and vesicular glutamate transporter (VGLUT)−1 expression increased in the mPFC following DA loss. There were significant MPTP‐induced decreases and increases in VGLUT‐1 and VGLUT‐2 expression, respectively, within the DL striatum. We propose that the behavioral decline following MPTP treatment may be associated with a change not only in cortical–cortical (VGLUT‐1) glutamate function but also in striatal DA and glutamate (VGLUT‐1/VGLUT‐2) input. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Mind Bomb-2 Is an E3 Ligase for Notch Ligand*

The zebrafish gene, mind bomb (mib), encodes a protein that positively regulates of the Delta-mediated Notch signaling. It interacts with the intracellular domain of Delta to promote its ubiquitination and endocytosis. In our search for the mouse homologue of zebrafish mind bomb, we cloned two homologues in the mouse genome: a mouse orthologue (mouse mib1) and a paralogue, named mind bomb-2 (mib2), which is evolutionarily conserved from Drosophila to human. Both Mib1 and Mib2 have an E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in their C-terminal RING domain and interact with Xenopus Delta (XD) via their N-terminal region. Mib2 is also able to ligate ubiquitin to XD and shift the membrane localization of Delta to intracellular vesicles. Importantly, Mib2 rescues both the neuronal and vascular defects in the zebrafish mibta52b mutants. In contrast to the functional similarities between Mib1 and Mib2, mib2 is highly expressed in adult tissues, but almost not at all in embryos, whereas mib1 is abundantly expressed in both embryos and adult tissues. These data suggest that Mib2 has functional similarities to Mib1, but might have distinct roles in Notch signaling as an E3 ubiquitin ligase.
Reduced network modeling of WECC as a market design prototype

California's administration, legislature, and energy regulators have adopted aggressive targets for renewable energy, which will result in profound changes in markets and system operations as the resource portfolio shifts from heavy reliance on natural gas as a fuel for electric generation to intermittent, often remote resources. As part of determining workable modeling approaches as changes in market design are considered, this paper examines the necessary level of detail for modeling unit commitment. This study utilizes a 240-bus model as a realistic test system for the California and WECC market. Demand response and energy storage technologies are important contributors to the flexibility that will be needed in future markets, and provide an illustration of this analysis.
Fault tolerance for highly available internet services: concepts, approaches, and issues

Fault-tolerant frameworks provide highly available services by means of fault detection and fault recovery mechanisms. These frameworks need to meet different constraints related to the fault model strength, performance, and resource consumption. One of the factors that led to this work is the observation that current fault-tolerant frameworks are not always adapted to existing Internet services. In fact, most of the proposed frameworks are not transport-level- or session-level-aware, although the concerned services range from regular services like HTTP and FTP to more recent Internet services such as multimodal conferencing and voice over IP. In this work we give a comprehensive overview of fault tolerance concepts, approaches, and issues. We show how the redundancy of application servers can be invested to ensure efficient failover of Internet services when the legitimate processing server goes down.
Transformation of different phenotypic types of human bone marrow T‐lymphocytes by htlv‐1

Fresh bone marrow mononuclear leukocytes were used as a target for infection by human T‐cell leukemia‐lymphoma virus subgroup 1 (HTLV‐1) by co‐cultivation with virus‐positive cell lines. The lines were established from T‐cell leukemia‐lymphoma patients or HTLV‐1‐transformed human umbilical cord‐blood T cells. Clumps of transformed cells became visible by 2–3 weeks after infection and developed at a high frequency (>90%) in the bone marrow samples used. Stimulation of target cells with lymphocyte mitogens facilitated this process but was not absolutely required. Unlike fresh or cultured cells from HTLV‐1‐positive adult leukemia‐lymphoma patients and HTLV‐1‐transformed cord‐blood T cells, which usually have an OKT 4/leu 3a surface phenotype, the transformed bone marrow cells frequently fell into one of three categories based on their reactivity with cell‐specific monoclonal antibodies. These included populations of cells that were predominantly; (1) OKT 4/leu 3a‐positive, (2) OKT 8/leu 2a‐positive, and (3) cells expressing neither phenotype. Fresh bone marrow provided a rapid and efficient system for the assessment of HTLV‐1 infection. The type of bone marrow cells transformed in vitro suggests that HTLV‐1 can infect several subsets of T lymphocytes, possibly including immature cells or that these cells can undergo phenotypic modulation.
Multiuser Joint Task Offloading and Resource Optimization in Proximate Clouds

Proximate cloud computing enables computationally intensive applications on mobile devices, providing a rich user experience. However, remote resource bottlenecks limit the scalability of offloading, requiring optimization of the offloading decision and resource utilization. To this end, in this paper, we leverage the variability in capabilities of mobile devices and user preferences. Our system utility metric is a measure of quality of experience (QoE) based on task completion time and energy consumption of a mobile device. We propose a heuristic offloading decision algorithm (HODA), which is semidistributed and jointly optimizes the offloading decision, and communication and computation resources to maximize system utility. Our main contribution is to reduce the problem to a submodular maximization problem and prove its NP-hardness by decomposing it into two subproblems: 1) optimization of communication and computation resources solved by quasiconvex and convex optimization and 2) offloading decision solved by submodular set function optimization. HODA reduces the complexity of finding the local optimum to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(K^{3})$</tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$K$</tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of mobile users. Simulation results show that HODA performs within 5% of the optimal on average. Compared with other solutions, HODA's performance is significantly superior as the number of users increases.
Tn916-induced mutations in the hemolysin determinant affecting virulence of Listeria monocytogenes

A genetic determinant essential for hemolysin production by Listeria monocytogenes has been inactivated by insertion of transposon Tn916 into L. monocytogenes DNA. The transposon was transferred by means of conjugation of a streptomycin-resistant L. monocytogenes recipient strain with Streptococcus faecalis CG110 on membrane filters. Among the tetracycline-resistant transconjugants, mutants were detected which had lost hemolytic activity. When tested in a mouse model, these mutants appeared to have lost the virulence that characterizes the parental strain. An extracellular protein of 58,000 apparent molecular weight was eliminated in the nonhemolytic mutants. In some of the mutants, the decrease in the production of the 58,000-dalton protein was accompanied by the production of a new protein of 49,000 apparent molecular weight. Hemolytic revertants regained the hemolytic phenotype and virulence and produced the extracellular protein that characterizes the recipient strain. Hybridization studies with Tn916 DNA indicated that the transposon is present in EcoRI and HindIII fragments of the nonhemolytic mutants. Single copies of Tn916 were detected in the chromosomal DNA of two of the three nonhemolytic mutants that were studied in detail. In hemolytic, tetracycline-sensitive revertants Tn916 appeared to be completely excised from the chromosome.
Manifestations of small bowel disease in pediatric Crohn's disease on magnetic resonance enterography

Background: We report the manifestations of Crohn's disease (CD) observed on magnetic resonance enterography (MRE) in a pediatric population at the time of CD diagnosis. Methods: MRE of 95 consecutive pediatric patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) examined in 2006–2009 were retrospectively analyzed, with documentation of findings based on type and location of the small bowel (SB) disease. Results: In all, 51 were boys and 44 girls. 54 had CD, 31 non‐CD IBD, and 10 no IBD. The most common site of SB involvement in CD was the terminal ileum seen in 29 (53.7%) patients, followed by ileum in 10 (18.5%) and jejunum in 9 (16.7%) patients. Solitary jejunal inflammation (3.7%), SB stenoses (1.9%), fistula formation (0.95%), and abscess (0.95%) were much less common. Perienteric lymphadenopathy was seen in 30 (55.6%) patients and fatty proliferation in 9 (16.7%). The most common manifestation of SB inflammation was increased contrast enhancement of bowel wall (93.5%), thickening of the bowel wall (90.3%), and derangement of bowel shape with saccular formations (25.8%). Conclusions: MRE in the pediatric population often demonstrates increased contrast uptake, bowel wall thickening, and perienteral lymphadenopathy in CD. More chronic small bowel changes seen commonly in adults and solitary jejunal involvements are less commonly seen. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2012;)
A multicenter clinical trial on the use of complexed prostate specific antigen in low prostate specific antigen concentrations.

PURPOSE The determination of complexed prostate specific antigen (cPSA) has been suggested to be promising for prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis. In a multicenter trial we evaluate the diagnostic use of PSA forms in the low total PSA (tPSA) range. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 283 white men with and 417 without PCa and tPSA concentrations between 0 and 6 ng/ml were retrospectively analyzed. All 700 untreated subjects underwent a multisector needle biopsy of the prostate. The Elecsys analyser 1010 (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) was used for determination of tPSA and free PSA. Determination of cPSA and tPSA was performed using immunoassays of the Bayer Immuno 1 system (Bayer Diagnostics, Tarrytown, New York). RESULTS Receiver operating characteristics analyses for discrimination between cases with and without PCa were performed. The areas under the curves (AUC) for cPSA, tPSA and free-to-total PSA (f/tPSA) showed no significant differences in the tPSA ranges of 0 to 6 (700 cases), 0 to 4 (510) and 0.5 to 2.5 ng/ml (253). Within the tPSA range of 2.5 to 4 ng/ml (230 cases) the AUC for cPSA (0.61) was significantly larger than that for tPSA (Roche 0.51, Bayer 0.54) but did not differ from the AUC of f/tPSA (Roche). On the basis of the cutoffs for 95% specificity or sensitivity, no significant increase in corresponding sensitivity or specificity was found between tPSA with cPSA. CONCLUSIONS In the tPSA range of less than 4 ng/ml no improvement in diagnostic accuracy was shown between cPSA with tPSA or the ratio of f/tPSA. The search for a useful marker in the low PSA range must continue.
A set-theoretic control architecture for constrained switching systems

In this paper, we investigate the problem of designing a switched compensator for a plant switching amongst a finite family of constrained linear time invariant configurations. We assume that switching is governed by a pre-defined switching rule which prescribes that any information pertaining to the time or state dependency of the switching event is unavailable to the controller side. The novelty of the proposed approach relies on its capability to jointly use Command Governor features and one-step ahead controllable set sequences in order to online manage admissible switching occurrences. To this end, the model transition dwell time concept is exploited in order to formally define the conditions under which switching command governor architectures can be safely activated.
Occupational injury and absence from work among African American, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White workers in the national longitudinal survey of youth.

OBJECTIVES We examined how race and ethnicity influence injury and illness risk and number of days of work missed as a result of injury or illness. METHODS We fit logistic regression and negative binomial regression models using generalized estimating equations with data from 1988 to 2000 on currently employed African American, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. RESULTS Occupational factors-having a blue-collar occupation, working full-time, having longer tenure, working 1 job versus 2, and working the late shift-were associated with increased odds of an occupational injury or illness. Although racial/ethnic minority workers were no more likely than Whites to report an occupational injury or illness, they reported missing more days of work. African American and Hispanic men missed significantly more days of work than non-Hispanic White men, and African American women missed significantly more days of work than non-Hispanic White women. CONCLUSIONS Factors associated with occupational health are multifaceted and complex. Our findings suggest that race/ethnicity influences the duration of work absence owing to injury or illness both indirectly (by influencing workers' occupational characteristics) and directly (by acting independently of occupational factors).