Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative Evaluation of Lesion Enhancement Using 1 M Gadobutrol vs. 2 Conventional Gadolinium Chelates, All at a Dose of 0.1 mmol/kg, in a Rat Brain Tumor Model at 3 T

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to compare the differences in contrast enhancement using 0.1 mmol/kg body weight 1 M gadobutrol versus 2 standard gadolinium chelates, both formulated at 0.5 M, (gadopentetate dimeglumine and gadoterate meglumine) in a standardized rat brain glioma model at 3 T. Materials and Methods:A total of 19 rats were evaluated, divided into 2 groups. Group 1 (n = 10) was examined using gadobutrol and gadopentetate dimeglumine and group 2 (n = 9) was examined using gadobutrol and gadoterate meglumine. The time between the intraindividual injections was at least 24 hours and contrast agent injections were performed in a randomized order. All agents were applied at a dose of 0.1 mmol/kg body weight.Image acquisition was performed using a T1-weighted 2D TSE technique (repetition time/echo time (TE) 500/16, FA 180°) with an acquisition time of 1:47 minutes:seconds. At a field-of-view of 75 × 75 mm2 and a matrix size of 320 × 320, a voxel size of 0.2 × 0.2 × 2.0 mm3 was achieved. Data acquisition was performed before and at 5 consecutive time points every 2 minutes after contrast agent injection. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of tumor and normal contralateral brain as well as contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) measurements were performed using region of interest analysis. Results:The increase in tumor contrast enhancement, ranged between 19.6% and 35.9% for gadobutrol versus gadopentetate dimeglumine (group 1) and between 23.2% and 27.8% for gadobutrol versus gadoterate meglumine (group 2). Overall, CNR was statistically significantly higher for gadobutrol in both groups (P < 0.0001). CNR values for gadobutrol were 25.5 ± 8.2 in group 1 and 27.1 ± 8.3 in group 2 with respective CNR values for gadopentetate dimeglumine of 18.6 ± 5.6 and gadoterate meglumine of 19.2 ± 5.3. At each acquired time point mean values of tumor SNR were higher for gadobutrol (group 1: SNRmean range from 78.7–89.1 vs. 74.3–80.8; group 2: SNRmean range from 79.9–88.9 vs. 74.2–80.8). Tumor SNR was statistically significant different at all measured time points in group 2 (P < 0.05). In group 1, the difference of tumor SNR was also statistically significant for the gadobutrol/gadopentetate dimeglumine comparison (P < 0.05) with exception of time point at 9 minutes postcontrast (P = 0.07). Conclusion:The results of this study show significantly higher brain tumor SNR and CNR postcontrast for gadobutrol compared with gadopentetate dimeglumine and gadoterate meglumine at 3 T. Injecting the same gadolinium chelate dose on a weight basis, tumor mean SNR gains were superior for gadobutrol at all acquired postcontrast time points. This result with gadobutrol may facilitate better brain tumor detection in the presence of blood–brain barrier disruption.
ATP-Mediated Killing of Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin Within Human Macrophages Is Calcium Dependent and Associated with the Acidification of Mycobacteria-Containing Phagosomes1

We previously demonstrated that extracellular ATP stimulated macrophage death and mycobacterial killing within Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-infected human macrophages. ATP increases the cytosolic Ca2+ concentration in macrophages by mobilizing intracellular Ca2+ via G protein-coupled P2Y receptors, or promoting the influx of extracellular Ca2+ via P2X purinoceptors. The relative contribution of these receptors and Ca2+ sources to ATP-stimulated macrophage death and mycobacterial killing was investigated. We demonstrate that 1) ATP mobilizes Ca2+ in UTP-desensitized macrophages (in Ca2+-free medium) and 2) UTP but not ATP fails to deplete the intracellular Ca2+ store, suggesting that the pharmacological properties of ATP and UTP differ, and that a Ca2+-mobilizing P2Y purinoceptor in addition to the P2Y2 subtype is expressed on human macrophages. ATP and the Ca2+ ionophore, ionomycin, promoted macrophage death and BCG killing, but ionomycin-mediated macrophage death was inhibited whereas BCG killing was largely retained in Ca2+-free medium. Pretreatment of cells with thapsigargin (which depletes inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate-mobilizable intracellular stores) or 1,2-bis-(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N, N, N′,N′-tetraacetic acid acetoxymethyl ester (an intracellular Ca2+ chelator) failed to inhibit ATP-stimulated macrophage death but blocked mycobacterial killing. Using the acidotropic molecular probe, 3-(2,4-dinitroanilino)-3′-amino-N-methyl dipropylamine, it was revealed that ATP stimulation promoted the acidification of BCG-containing phagosomes within human macrophages, and this effect was similarly dependent upon Ca2+ mobilization from intracellular stores. We conclude that the cytotoxic and bactericidal effects of ATP can be uncoupled and that BCG killing is not the inevitable consequence of death of the host macrophage.
CNS neurons express two distinct plasma membrane electron transport systems implicated in neuronal viability

Trans‐plasma membrane electron transport is critical for maintaining cellular redox balance and viability, yet few, if any, investigations have studied it in intact primary neurons. In this investigation, extracellular reduction of 2,6‐dichloroindophenol (DCIP) and ferricyanide (FeCN) were measured as indicators of trans‐plasma membrane electron transport by chick forebrain neurons. Neurons readily reduced DCIP, but not FeCN unless CoQ1, an exogenous ubiquinone analog, was added to the assays. CoQ1 stimulated FeCN reduction in a dose‐dependent manner but had no effect on DCIP reduction. Reduction of both substrates was totally inhibited by ε‐maleimidocaproic acid (MCA), a membrane‐impermeant thiol reagent, and slightly inhibited by superoxide dismutase. Diphenylene iodonium, a flavoenzyme inhibitor, completely inhibited FeCN reduction but had no affect on DCIP reduction, suggesting that these substrates are reduced by distinct redox pathways. The relationship between plasma membrane electron transport and neuronal viability was tested using the inhibitors MCA and capsaicin. MCA caused a dose‐dependent decline in neuronal viability that closely paralleled its inhibition of both reductase activities. Similarly capsaicin, a NADH oxidase inhibitor, induced a rapid decline in neuronal viability. These results suggest that trans‐plasma membrane electron transport helps maintain a stable redox environment required for neuronal viability.
[Stressful life events, health symptoms, social support and coping in early adolescents].

Numerous research reports have substantiated the role of stressful life events in relation to the onset of health changes. The relationship tends to hold across different age groups. Theoretically, adolescence has been considered a developmental crisis period of great stress, impoverished coping skills and high vulnerability to biological, social and psychological demands. The research problem addressed by this study was to examine the relationships between stressful life events and health symptom patterns, and the effect of two variables, coping and social support, theoretically considered to mediate the relationship between stress and health symptoms in adolescents. The following five hypotheses were tested in this research: 1. Health symptoms are positively related to stressful life events in adolescents, 2. Health symptoms are negatively related to coping in adolescents, 3. Health symptoms are negatively related to social support in adolescents, 4. When coping is controlled, the relationship between health symptoms and stressful life events will decrease, and 5. When social support is controlled, the relationship between health symptoms and stressful life events will increase. The study subjects consisted of 1090 high school students of the metropolitan city of Seoul. The following sampling procedure was used: 1. Of the 169 high schools in nine school administrative districts in the city, a proportional sample of ten schools was selected. 2. One class from each of the freshman and sophomore was randomly selected and all the students who were in the sampled class were used as the study sample. The study was limited to freshman and sophomore adolescents, aged 15 to 18 (mean = 16.6). Of the 1090 subjects 688 (63%) were boys and 402 (37%) were girls. An Adolescent Inventory of Stressful Life Events, a Health Symptom Questionnaire and an Adolescent Coping Inventory were adapted for this study. The Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire was utilized to collect the data on perceived social support. Five high school teachers in the areas of school health and counselling reviewed the items of each questionnaire for content validity. A pilot study was undertaken to ascertain reliability. Fifty three high school students responded to the questionnaires and gave their opinions on the items. For stressful life events, health symptoms, coping, and social support, the Cronbach's alpha's on the study were . 70, . 94, . 77, and . 76, respectively. Research assistants attended all the sampled classes with the school proctor to explain the purpose and procedures of the study to the students. The questionnaires along with a ballpoint pen were distributed to the students who were asked to complete each item. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
A communication-efficient distributed algorithm for solving linear algebraic equations

This paper proposes a communication-efficient distributed algorithm for solving linear algebraic equations of the form Ax = b among a network of m > 1 agents. Each agent knows only a subset of the rows of the partitioned matrix [A b] and recursively updates its estimate of a solution by utilizing information received only from its neighbors. Neighbor relations are characterized by a time-dependent undirected graph. To reduce communication costs at each iteration, each agent broadcasts the entries of its estimate in a cyclic manner, instead of broadcasting the entire vector of its estimate. It is shown that for any matrix A and vector b for which the equation has at least one solution and any repeatedly jointly connected sequence of neighbor graphs, the algorithm causes all agents' estimates to converge to the same solution to Ax = b under appropriate assumption. An asynchronous version of the algorithm is also proposed in which each agent independently updates its estimate at times determined by its own clock. It is not assumed that the agents' clocks are synchronized or that the event times at which any one agent updates its estimate are evenly spaced. It is shown that in the absence of transmission delays, convergence to the same solution occurs even if the cycle with which each agent broadcasts the entries of its estimate is not consistent with the cycles of its neighbors.
Neuropsychiatric Effects of Guanfacine in Children With Mild Tourette Syndrome: A Pilot Study

The objective of this study was to evaluate the neuropsychiatric effects of the alpha-2a adrenergic agonist guanfacine in children with Tourette syndrome (TS). Twenty-four children with TS participated in a 4-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of guanfacine. Tic severity, neuropsychologic functioning, and parent ratings of behavior were evaluated pre- and post-treatment. The sample had mild tic severity and subtle neuropsychologic dysfunction pretreatment. Post-treatment, patients receiving guanfacine were rated by parents as significantly improved (compared to placebo) on one measure of executive function (parent-rated metacognition). Improvement on tic severity, performance-based neuropsychologic measures, and all other parent ratings were not significantly better than placebo. At a moderate dose and short-term treatment duration, guanfacine did not provide significant neuropsychiatric benefits in this group of children with mild TS.
A voxel-based morphometry study of regional gray and white matter correlate of self-disclosure

Self-disclosure is an important performance in human social communication. Generally, an individual is likely to have a good physical and mental health if he is prone to self-disclosure under stressful life events. However, as for now, little is known about the neural structure associated with self-disclosure. Therefore, in this study, we used voxel-based morphometry to explore regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and white matter volume (rWMV) associated with self-disclosure measured by the Jourard Self-disclosure Questionnaire in a large sample of college students. Results showed that individual self-disclosure was significantly and positively associated with rGMV of the left postcentral gyrus, which might be related to strengthen individual’s ability of body feeling; while self-disclosure was significantly and negatively associated with rGMV of the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which might be involved in increased positive emotion experience seeking (intrinsically rewarding). In addition, individual self-disclosure was also associated with smaller rWMV in the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL). These findings suggested a biological basis for individual self-disclosure, distributed across different gray and white matter areas of the brain.
On the validity of two-dimensional models for radiation of optical sources in stratified media

We present a unified analytical closed-form expression for the radiation patterns of 2D line sources and 3D point dipoles embedded in a general multi-layered configuration. While the former are simplified model sources used usually as a preliminary analytical step, the latter have been shown experimentally to reproduce the electromagnetic behaviour of elementary (molecular) optical sources. Analyzing the unified expression, derived using a decomposition of the point dipoles into current elements producing pure transverse electric (TE) or transverse magnetic (TM) fields, we show that measured TE-polarized radiation patterns of realistic 3D electric point dipoles exactly matches the TE-polarized radiation patterns of the model 2D electric line sources, if normalized appropriately. Moreover, we discuss the differences between the TM-polarized emission of the 2D and 3D sources, and provide a clear physical interpretation via the unified expression. These results specify the precise relations between the 2D and 3D models, thus providing intuition as well as guidelines for proper usage of simplified 2D results for analysis of realistic 3D optical systems.
Plasma amino acid concentrations throughout normal pregnancy and early stages of intrauterine growth restricted pregnancy

Objectives: Assessment of maternal plasma amino acids during normal gestation and in early stages of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). Study design: Plasma amino acid concentrations were measured in: (1) non-pregnant women (n = 7); (2) normal pregnant women in the first (n = 13), second (n = 17) and third (n = 12) trimester; and (3) pregnant women in the first trimester with later development of IUGR (n = 8). Amino acid levels were quantified by electrochemical detection in a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system. Results: The levels of most essential and non-essential amino acids changed markedly in the first trimester during normal pregnancy and thereafter remained almost constant. In the first trimester of IUGR, a number of both essential and non-essential amino acids were significantly different from those observed in normal pregnancies, with values more similar to those observed in non-pregnant women. Conclusions: Levels of most maternal amino acids decrease and some increase during early gestation reflecting a metabolic adaptation that occurs in normal pregnancies. Pregnancies that later develop IUGR show a lack of these adaptations for a significant number of both essential and non-essential amino acids, suggesting a lack of adaptation.
Effects of muscle damage induced by eccentric exercise on muscle fatigue.

PURPOSE The present study was designed to determine to what extent muscle damage induced by repetitive eccentric exercise with maximal voluntary effort (ECC) affects the time course of central and peripheral fatigue during sustained maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). METHODS Ten healthy male volunteers were asked to perform brief (control MVC) and sustained MVC (fatigue test of 60 s in duration) with elbow flexion before and 2 and 4 d after ECC. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied to the motor cortex to determine changes in voluntary activation (VA), the size of the motor evoked potential (MEP), and length of electromyographic (EMG) silencing. The ratio of the root mean square value for the surface EMG of the biceps brachii and exerted force within 50 ms before TMS was also calculated (RMS/F). RESULTS In two subjects, no significant changes in MVC and muscle soreness were seen after ECC so that their data was excluded from further analysis. Control MVC and muscle soreness was significantly decreased and increased, respectively, 2 and 4 d after ECC compared with that before ECC (P < 0.001). During the fatigue test, VA, which was determined by a phasic increase in the twitch force after TMS, significantly decreased 2 and 4 d after ECC compared with that beforehand (P < 0.01). In addition, the RMS/F was significantly increased 2 and 4 d after ECC (P < 0.001). Although the degree of facilitation of the MEP was significantly increased (P < 0.05), the length of EMG silencing was less affected by ECC. CONCLUSIONS Muscle damage and/or muscle soreness induced by repetitive eccentric exercise with maximal effort may be a strong modifier of central and peripheral fatigue during sustained MVC.
Evolvable systems on reconfigurable architecture via self-aware adaptive applications

Self-adaptive applications are capable of changing their behavior thousands of times per second to autonomically find a way to accomplish given goals despite working in an unpredictable environment whose conditions can vary continuously. In this work we propose an evolvable system that runs self-adaptive applications on top of a heterogeneous system consisting of a general purpose processor and a reconfigurable device. Self-adaptive techniques enable an effective runtime exploration of a rich design space at the intersection of hardware and software and prove how their adoption can improve applications' ability to meet given performance goals. The operating system running on top of the heterogeneous system is responsible for providing self-adaptive capabilities. It answers applications' requests for functionality by choosing at runtime the best suiting implementation with respect to the given constraints and the environment. We designed and developed an evolvable system exploiting self-adaptive techniques by running a customized version of GNU/Linux and a set of self-adaptive applications on top of a heterogeneous system featuring a multi-core processor, i.e., an Intel Core i7, and a reconfigurable device, i.e., a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA-based board.
Using proteomics to identify preprocedural risk factors for contrast induced nephropathy

Contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) is the third leading cause of hospital acquired acute kidney injury (AKI). We conducted a cross‐sectional study in children undergoing elective cardiac catheterization to determine if there is a distinct preprocedural urinary proteomic profile in subjects who subsequently develop CIN. Of 90 patients enrolled, AKI due to CIN (defined as a 50% or greater increase in serum creatinine) occurred in 10 participants by the 24 h postcontrast time point. Seven patients who did not develop AKI served as age and gender matched controls. SELDI‐TOF‐MS was performed using ProteinChips with different chromatographic surfaces. A 4480 Da biomarker displayed significantly greater peak intensities on three chromatographic surfaces (p = 0.02–0.001) in control patients at time = 0 with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.89–0.99. This biomarker was identified as the 41 amino acid (a.a.) variant of human beta‐defensin‐1. Another biomarker of 4631 Da was found to have a significantly greater peak intensity (p = 0.03) in AKI patients at time = 0, with an AUC of 0.84. Thus, the presence of a 4631 Da peptide, as well as the absence of the 41 a.a. variant of human beta‐defensin‐1 in the preprocedural urine, may prove to be useful biomarkers for the early prediction of CIN.
Rapid and specific hypomethylation of enhancers in endothelial cells during adaptation to cell culturing

ABSTRACT Epigenetics, including DNA methylation, is one way for a cell to respond to the surrounding environment. Traditionally, DNA methylation has been perceived as a quite stable modification; however, lately, there have been reports of a more dynamic CpG methylation that can be affected by, for example, long-term culturing. We recently reported that methylation in the enhancer of the gene encoding the key fibrinolytic enzyme tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) was rapidly erased during cell culturing. In the present study we used sub-culturing of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) as a model of environmental challenge to examine how fast genome-wide methylation changes can arise. To assess genome-wide DNA methylation, the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip was used on primary, passage 0, and passage 4 HUVECs. Almost 2% of the analyzed sites changed methylation status to passage 4, predominantly displaying hypomethylation. Sites annotated as enhancers were overrepresented among the differentially methylated sites (DMSs). We further showed that half of the corresponding genes concomitantly altered their expression, most of them increasing in expression. Interestingly, the stroke-related gene HDAC9 increased its expression several hundredfold. This study reveals a rapid hypomethylation of CpG sites in enhancer elements during the early stages of cell culturing. As many methods for methylation analysis are biased toward CpG rich promoter regions, we suggest that such methods may not always be appropriate for the study of methylation dynamics. In addition, we found that significant changes in expression arose in genes with enhancer DMSs. HDAC9 displayed the most prominent increase in expression, indicating, for the first time, that dynamic enhancer methylation may be central in regulating this important stroke-associated gene.
Three-Dimensional Strain Model for Various Kinds of $\hbox{Nb}_{3}\hbox{Sn}$  Wires

The three-dimensional strain dependence of the superconducting property for an internal-tin Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn wire was investigated, because three-dimensional strains are necessary to understand the strain effect of superconducting properties for Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn wires. The three-dimensional strain dependence of <i>B</i><sub>c2</sub> and residual strains were measured by the strain gauge method and neutron diffraction, experimentally. As a result, the three-dimensional strain model based on the experimental results for bronze route Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn wires explained the strain dependence of superconducting properties for an internal-tin Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn wire. We found that the strain effect of <i>B</i><sub>c2</sub> for bronze route and internal-tin Nb<sub>3</sub>Sn wires are expressed by three-dimensional strain model.