Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New light shed on fluid formation in the seminiferous tubules of the rat

In this study the effects of perfusing isolated seminiferous tubules of the testes are reported for the first time. Initial perfusion studies (fast rate perfusion) resulted in gross morphological damage to the seminiferous tubules. The recorded transepithelial potential (Vt) was close to 0 mV. Slow perfusion rates eliminated morphological damage to the perfused tubules. These tubules exhibited a Vt of −5.4 ± 1.8 mV which was significantly different (P < 0.0001) from tubules that were perfused at a fast rate. Additional non‐perfusion electrophysiological experiments (oil‐gap and agar probe techniques) provided the confirmation that tubules not morphologically compromised produced a higher Vt which was not statistically different (P < 0.0001) from slowly perfused tubules. A revised hypothesis on fluid secretion is postulated. In brief, that the seminiferous tubule is solely responsible for the production of its luminal fluid. This hypothesis is contrary to the long standing ‘Tuck’ hypothesis which suggested that the source of luminal fluid in the seminiferous tubule originated from secretions of Sertoli cells as well as from distal testicular structures, e.g. the rete testis.
Accessible DNA and Relative Depletion of H3K9me2 at Maize Loci Undergoing RNA-Directed DNA Methylation[W][OPEN]

Only a small fraction of the maize genome undergoes RNA-directed DNA methylation and, for several characteristics, the chromatin in these areas resembles euchromatin more than heterochromatin. RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) in plants is a well-characterized example of RNA interference-related transcriptional gene silencing. To determine the relationships between RdDM and heterochromatin in the repeat-rich maize (Zea mays) genome, we performed whole-genome analyses of several heterochromatic features: dimethylation of lysine 9 and lysine 27 (H3K9me2 and H3K27me2), chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, and small RNAs; we also analyzed two mutants that affect these processes, mediator of paramutation1 and zea methyltransferase2. The data revealed that the majority of the genome exists in a heterochromatic state defined by inaccessible chromatin that is marked by H3K9me2 and H3K27me2 but that lacks RdDM. The minority of the genome marked by RdDM was predominantly near genes, and its overall chromatin structure appeared more similar to euchromatin than to heterochromatin. These and other data indicate that the densely staining chromatin defined as heterochromatin differs fundamentally from RdDM-targeted chromatin. We propose that small interfering RNAs perform a specialized role in repressing transposons in accessible chromatin environments and that the bulk of heterochromatin is incompatible with small RNA production.
Reduced Abundance of Butyrate-Producing Bacteria Species in the Fecal Microbial Community in Crohn's Disease

Background: The global alteration of the gut microbial community (dysbiosis) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). However, bacterial species that characterize dysbiosis in IBD remain unclear. In this study, we assessed the alteration of the fecal microbiota profile in patients with Crohn's disease (CD) using 16S rRNA sequencing. Summary: Fecal samples from 10 inactive CD patients and 10 healthy individuals were subjected to 16S rRNA sequencing. The V3-V4 hypervariable regions of 16S rRNA were sequenced by the Illumina MiSeq™II system. The average of 62,201 reads per CD sample was significantly lower than the average of 73,716 reads per control sample. The genera Bacteroides, Eubacterium, Faecalibacterium and Ruminococcus significantly decreased in CD patients as compared to healthy controls. In contrast, the genera Actinomyces and Bifidobacterium significantly increased in CD patients. At the species level, butyrate-producing bacterial species, such as Blautia faecis, Roseburia inulinivorans, Ruminococcus torques, Clostridium lavalense, Bacteroides uniformis and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii were significantly reduced in CD patients as compared to healthy individuals (p < 0.05). These results of 16S rRNA sequencing were confirmed in additional CD patients (n = 68) and in healthy controls (n = 46) using quantitative PCR. The abundance of Roseburia inulinivorans and Ruminococcus torques was significantly lower in C-reactive protein (CRP)-positive CD patients as compared to CRP-negative CD patients (p < 0.05). Key Message: The dysbiosis of CD patients is characterized by reduced abundance of multiple butyrate-producing bacteria species.
An Unbounded Frequency Detection Mechanism for Continuous-Rate CDR Circuits

A continuous-rate clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit with unbounded frequency detection mechanism is proposed herein. The unbounded frequency detection mechanism combines the digital quadricorrelator frequency detection and subharmonic tone frequency detection techniques. By adopting the unbounded frequency detector, this reference-less CDR circuit has no locking range limitation and provides an automatically bidirectional frequency detection characteristic. In addition, the CDR circuit can detect the frequency-hopping information without an additional transmitted control signal. Based on the proposed frequency detection methodology, a proof-of-concept CDR circuit is implemented to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed design.
INTELLIGENT MOTION DETECTION AND TRACKING SYSTEM

The rapid development in the field of digital image processing made motion detection and tracking an attractive research topic. Until recent years, real-time video applications were inapplicable due to the expense computational time. An intelligent method to analyze the motion in a stream video line using the methods of background subtraction, temporal differencing, and optical flow, methods are proposed. The new method solves the computational time problem by using a reliable technique that is called Fast Pixels Selection. A low cost tracking system is proposed. This tracking system consist of camera, PC, motor and data acquisition card. This system is designed to detect and track any moving target automatically.
A family of genes related to a new expression site-associated gene in Trypanosoma equiperdum

Two genes, belonging to a new expression site-associated gene family of six to eight members in Trypanosoma equiperdum and Trypanosoma brucei, have been cloned from a T. equiperdum variant. One of them, called ESAG-9c, is contained in the 1.78-C expression site and is found just upstream of the 5' barren region. The other one, called ESAG-9u, is unique in the family, is not telomere linked, and apparently is not expression site related. A 2-kb poly(A)+ mRNA is detected with probes for this ESAG-9 family in all T. equiperdum variants examined. By using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques, it has been possible to distinguish between ESAG-9c and ESAG-9u and to show that ESAG-9c is transcribed in an expression site-specific manner. However, ESAG-9u (or another gene in the family having identical characteristics) is transcribed in all variants, regardless of the expression site used by these variants. Thus, this ESAG-9 family contains at least one gene that is under expression site control but might have other genes that are not. The function of these ESAG-9 genes is unknown. Transcripts homologous to ESAG-9 were detected in T. brucei bloodstream forms but not in procyclics.
Smoking or Quitting during Pregnancy

Current and future social factors associated with smoking habits during pregnancy were assessed. Data on maternal smoking, social background and the family's development during the 21 years after delivery were gathered for a prospective longitudinal cohort study of 12068 pregnant women and their children in Northern Finland in 1966 and for a second birth cohort of 9 362 mothers in 1985–86. The prevalence of smoking before pregnancy was 22% in the 1966 cohort (29% in 1985–86). 12% (18%) of the women continued smoking throughout their pregnancy. The following background factors were mainly associated with the mother's smoking and/or continuing during pregnancy in both cohorts when mother's age, parity, place of residence and social class were standardized: mother's age under 23, parity two or more, low social class, urban dwelling, unmarried, gainful employment and heavy smoking. The follow-up responses after 14 and 21 years, respectively, were mostly more favourable among the non-smoking mothers and those who quit smoking during pregnancy — e.g. stable family structure, child's smoking and drinking habits and application for intermediate education. Smoking throughout pregnancy or quitting of smoking late in pregnancy were associated with undesirable future development of the child and family in most of these aspects.
Late immunoneutralization of procalcitonin arrests the progression of lethal porcine sepsis.

BACKGROUND Procalcitonin (ProCT) is becoming increasingly recognized as a mediator as well as a marker of sepsis. Serum ProCT concentrations rise soon after induction of sepsis and remain elevated over a prolonged period of time. In contrast, many pro-inflammatory cytokines, e.g., tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1beta), rise and decline early in the course of sepsis. Researchers have improved survival in animal models of sepsis by prophylactically blocking IL-1beta and TNF-alpha with immunotherapy, but therapeutic treatment has been less successful in clinical trials. We hypothesized that the sustained elevation of ProCT in the serum would allow for effective therapeutic immunoneutralization of this peptide late in the course of sepsis. METHODS Lethal polymicrobial sepsis was induced in 10 castrated, male Yorkshire pigs by intraabdominal spillage of cecal contents (1 gm/kg) and intraabdominal instillation of 2 x 10(11) cfu of a toxigenic strain of E. coli (O18:K1:H7). The treated group (n = 5) received an intravenous infusion of purified rabbit antiserum to the aminoterminus of porcine ProCT. The control group (n = 5) received nonreactive, purified rabbit IgG. The purified antiserum was infused to all animals 3 h after the induction of sepsis, at which time very severe physiologic dysfunction was manifest, and many of the animals appeared to be preterminal. Physiologic and metabolic parameters were measured until death or for 15 h after induction of sepsis, at which time all surviving animals were euthanized. RESULTS Therapeutic immunoneutralization of serum ProCT improved most measured physiologic and metabolic parameters in septic pigs. Specifically, there was a significant increase in mean arterial pressure, urine output and cardiac index in all animals treated with ProCT antibody. Serum creatinine was significantly lower in treated animals. Although acidosis was not as severe in treated animals, as indicated by higher pH values and lower lactate concentrations, these results did not achieve statistical significance. Significantly, 11 h after the induction of sepsis there was 100% mortality in the control group while only one animal in the treated group expired. CONCLUSION The prolonged elevation of ProCT concentrations in sepsis allows neutralization of this peptide to be effective during the course of this disorder. These findings suggest that immunoneutralization of ProCT may be a useful treatment in clinical situations where sepsis is already fully established.
On virtual agents that regulate each other's emotions

To endow virtual agents with more believable affective behavior, it is important to provide them not only the capability to generate and regulate their own emotions, but also the ability to reason about the emotion regulation processes of the agents around them. As a step in this direction, this paper introduces a computational model for a Theory of Emotion Regulation (ToER), which combines the notions of Theory of Mind (ToM) and emotion regulation. This model has been implemented and tested using the modeling language LEADSTO, and found to show the expected behaviour. In addition, a virtual environment application has been developed, which is inhabited by agents that are equipped with the model for ToER. A first evaluation indicates that the model indeed enables the virtual agents to show more realistic affective behavior. A preliminary version of this article appeared in: Proceedings of the Eighth IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Intelligent Agent Technology, IAT'08.
Relationship between cloud droplet effective radius and cloud top height for deep convective clouds in CloudSat data product

Recent researches suggest that reduced cloud droplet effective radius by aerosol causes clouds to invigorate. The number of researches by observation data is still small and limited to tropical regions. To investigate this hypothesis, relationship between cloud droplet effective radius and cloud top height is examined globally by using CloudSat data product. The results show significant negative correlation between cloud droplet radius and cloud top height. This relationship is found to exist in the 2 m temperature range as low as 0–10 degree Celsius, which indicates that invigoration exists outside of tropical regions. The validity of the hypothesis that extra latent energy released by delayed phase change is also investigated from the aspect of temperature dependence. However, the results showed no dependence on 2 m temperature.
Characterization and expression of a glycoprotein encoded by the Epstein-Barr virus BamHI I fragment

Computer-assisted analysis of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) open reading frame BILF2 (B95-8 nucleotides 150,525 to 149,782) predicts that it codes for a membrane-bound glycoprotein. [3H]glucosamine labeling of cells infected with vaccinia virus recombinants that expressed the BILF2 open reading frame revealed several diffuse species of glycoproteins of around 80,000 and 55,000 daltons. A monoclonal antibody derived from spleens of mice immunized with EBV immunoprecipitated the EBV-derived protein made by the vaccinia virus recombinants and also precipitated a late envelope glycoprotein with a mobility of 78,000 to 55,000 from EBV-producing cells. N-Glycanase treatment of the immunoprecipitated BILF2 product from EBV-producing cells resulted in a polypeptide of 28 kilodaltons, closely agreeing with the predicted molecular mass for the unmodified BILF2 gene product. Western (immuno-) blots using recombinant infected cells as a source of antigen showed that the majority of EBV-seropositive individuals have a serum antibody response to the BILF2-encoded gp78/55.
An empirical approach to calculate short and long term energy storage needs of an electricity system

The share of renewable energies on the net electricity consumption is rising rapidly all over the world and governmental goals of a full renewable electricity supply by 2050 are getting more and more common. Especially intermittent, non-controllable energy sources like wind and sun will play a significant role to reach these targets. The fluctuating nature of these two energy carriers will pose some mature problems to energy supply systems. Solving these problems will be one of the mayor challenges in the next decades. With an installed amount of non-controllable power that exceeds the yearly peak load, situations will occur with a surplus of energy that can be rejected, exported or stored. This paper deals with an empirical approach to estimate the future energy storage needs from an electricity system point of view. The energy storage needs will further be divided into short and long term energy storage.
Control system for autonomous medical nanorobots

Medical science is improving day by day with the blessings of new scientific discoveries. New precious and automated procedures are being discovered on a regular basis. Such a new discovery is the idea of self guided nanorobots. Nanorobot is a very promising tool for future medicine, medical technology and procedures. Artificially intelligent nanorobots can be made which will be able to repair tissues, clean blood vessels and airways, transform our physiological capabilities, and even potentially counteract the aging process [1]. Scientists around the world are working on this excellent field of nanorobotics especially on Alzheimer disease and cancer treatments [2]. Many researchers are also working on nanomanipulation, nanopositioning and also on the nano-level control systems [3, 4]. In this paper we are going to propose a nanorobotic control system which can repair damaged nervous system and give solution to a disease called dymyelination. This paper describes an innovative approach for the development of nanorobots that use neural network for medical target identification which is in this case the damaged nuerons. The nanorobots operate in an environment with nerve signals carrying nerve impulses, then find the neuron that is suffering the loss of myelin sheath and deliver myelin sheath there. Our work addresses the possible applications of such nanorobots and presenting a control system for their autonomous movement.
Blood pressure and pulse wave velocity values in the institutionalized elderly aged 80 and over: baseline of the PARTAGE study

Objective The aim of the longitudinal study PARTAGE (predictive values of blood pressure and arterial stiffness in institutionalized very aged population) was to determine the predictive value of blood pressure (BP) and arterial stiffness for overall mortality, major cardiovascular events and cognitive decline in a large population of institutionalized patients aged 80 and over. In the study herein, we present the baseline data values of this study. Methods A total of 1130 patients were recruited (878 women), living in French and Italian nursing homes. Clinical and 3-day self-measurements of BP were conducted. Aortic and upper limb pulse wave velocity were obtained using a PulsePen tonometer. Results Of this population, 76% of women and 60% of men had a known hypertension and over 91% of the patients were under antihypertensive treatment; 51% of the treated hypertensive patients were well controlled (systolic BP <140 mmHg). No significant differences were found between clinical and self-measured BP. With age, there was an increase in pulse pressure (P < 0.001) due to a decrease in diastolic BP (P < 0.001), without any increase in systolic BP. Aortic but not peripheral pulse wave velocity significantly increased with age (P < 0.005). Conclusion Baseline values obtained herein demonstrate that elderly patients living in nursing homes present hemodynamic characteristics which are different to those described in community-living elderly populations, and indicate the interest of assessing, in longitudinal studies, the role of BP and arterial stiffness in morbidity and mortality in this population.
Dynamic obstacle avoidance path planning

This paper proposes an image-based parallel lines distance measurement system (IBPLDMS), which is capable of executing an obstacle-detection and obstacle-avoidance path planning in a dynamic environment. The proposed IBPLDMS contains an image processing unit and an obstacle-avoidance unit. The image processing unit preprocesses captured images for an obstacle-avoidance task, in which the images are processed by the procedures of the grayscale transform, image morphologies, canny edge detection, connected-component labeling, and Hough transform. According to the definition of standard parallel lines, the obstacle-avoidance path for robots can be determined in the real time. Note that for the proposed IBPLDMS, only one webcam and the definition of the standard parallel lines are necessary for preparing for the setup. From the experimental results, we prove the proposed method is effective.
Ambulatory physician care for musculoskeletal disorders in Canada.

OBJECTIVE To examine patterns of ambulatory physician visits for musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in Canada. METHODS Physician claims data from 7 provinces were analyzed for ambulatory visits made by adults age >or= 15 years to primary care physicians and specialists (all medical specialists, rheumatologists, internists, all surgical specialists, orthopedic surgeons) for MSD (arthritis and related conditions, bone disorders, back disorders, ill defined symptoms) during fiscal year 1998-99. Person-visit rates and total and mean number of visits to all physicians for MSD were calculated by condition group. The percentages of patients with MSD seeing physicians of different specialties were also calculated. Provincial data were combined to calculate national estimates. RESULTS Over 15.5 million physician visits were made for MSD during 1998-99. About 24% of Canadians made at least one physician visit for MSD: 16% for arthritis and related conditions, 2% for bone disorders, 7% for back disorders, and 6% for ill defined symptoms. Person-visit rates for MSD varied by province, were highest among older Canadians, and were greater for women than men. Primary care physicians were commonly seen, particularly for back disorders. Consultation with surgical and medical specialists was less common and varied by province and by condition. CONCLUSION MSD place a significant burden on Canada's ambulatory healthcare system. As the population ages, there will be an escalating demand for care. Careful planning will be required to ensure that those affected have access to the care they require. A limitation in using administrative data to examine health service utilization is that MSD diagnostic codes require validation.
Comparison of High Definition with Standard White Light Endoscopy for Detection of Dysplastic Lesions During Surveillance Colonoscopy in Patients with Colonic Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background:Dysplasia in colonic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is often multifocal and flat. High-definition (HD) colonoscopy improves adenoma detection rates by improving the ability to detect subtle mucosal changes. The utility of HD colonoscopy in dysplasia detection in patients with IBD has not been reported so far. We aimed to compare the yield of dysplastic lesions detected by standard definition (SD) white light endoscopy with HD endoscopy. Methods:A retrospective cohort study of patients with long-standing (>7 years) colonic IBD undergoing surveillance colonoscopy at Nottingham University Hospital was studied between September 2008 and February 2010. Details of diagnosis, duration of disease, and outcomes of the colonoscopy were collected from the endoscopy database, electronic patient records, and patient notes. Results:There were 160 colonoscopies (101 ulcerative colitis [UC] and 59 Crohn's disease [CD]) in the SD group and 209 colonoscopies (147 UC and 62 CD) in the HD group. The groups were well matched for all demographic variables. Thirty-two dysplastic lesions (27 on targeted biopsy) were detected in 24 patients in the HD group and 11 dysplastic lesions (six on targeted biopsy) were detected in eight patients the SD group. The adjusted prevalence ratio of detecting any dysplastic lesion and dysplastic lesion on targeted biopsy was 2.21 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09–4.45) and 2.99 (95% CI 1.16–7.79), respectively, for HD colonoscopy. Conclusions:HD colonoscopy improves targeted detection of dysplastic lesions during surveillance colonoscopy of patients with colonic IBD in routine clinical practice. Randomized controlled studies are required to confirm these findings.