Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevention of Restenosis after Percutaneous Coronary Interventions: The Medical Approach

Summary Restenosis following successful percutaneous coronary revascularization continues to represent a major problem limiting the clinical efficacy of this procedure. The underlying mechanisms of restenosis are comprised of a combination of effects from vessel recoil, negative vascular remodeling, thrombus formation and neointimal hyperplasia. Indeed, there are important interactions among all of these mechanisms. For example, neointimal hyperplasia is stimulated by growth factors, which are released by local thrombi and the injured arterial segment itself, and act to enhance the expression of other growth-regulating proteins, in particular “second messengers“, proto-oncogenes and other cell cycle controlling proteins. This results in an inflammatory and myofibroproliferative response, which may worsen vessel narrowing caused by recoil and result in the formation of a clinically significant restenotic lesion. A multitude of pharmacologic trials have been conducted in an attempt to prevent restenosis, but most have demonstrated little benefit. Studies in smaller numbers of patients have suggested a potential benefit for several classes of agents, including: 1) the antiproliferatives, angiopeptin, trapidil and tranilast; 2) selective elimination or alteration of proliferating cells; 3) enhancement of natural growth inhibitors; and 4) signal transduction blockade or inhibition of the gene expression for various growth-stimulating proteins. Finally, there have been advances in related areas, including development of antithrombotic catheters, novel polymers, and more efficient methods for transferring genes into the vessel wall. All of these offer the possibility of delivering agents (drugs, genes, or antisense oligonucleotides) locally at the site of intervention in a way that may optimize antiproliferative effects while minimizing systemic effects – ultimately leading to a more specific inhibition of the restenosis process.
Laws and symmetry

Introduction Part I: Are there laws of nature? What are the laws of nature? Ideal science: David Lewis's account of laws Necessity, worlds, and chance Universals: Laws grounded in nature Part II: Belief as rational but lawless: Inference to the best explanation: Salvation by Laws? Towards a new epistemology What if there are no laws? A manifesto Part III: Symmetry as guide to theory: Introduction to the Semantic approach Symmetry arguments in science and metaphysics Symmetries guiding modern science Part IV: Symmetry and the illusion of logical probability: Indifference: The symmetries of probability Symmetries of probability kinematics Notes Bibliography Index
Physical disgust, germ aversion and antifat attitudes: the mediational effect of perceived controllability of weight

Antifat attitudes refer to stereotyping based on people’s weight. A potential explanation for the strong negative attitudes toward obese individuals relates to people’s emotional reactions. In this study, conducted with 373 female students, it is suggested that physical disgust, germ aversion and perceived controllability of weight play a central role in explaining the individual differences that exist in antifat attitudes. Our results showed a positive relationship between physical disgust and germ aversion. Additionally, it has been found a positive correlation between physical disgust and perceived controllability of weight. Furthermore, a positive relationship between antifat attitudes, physical disgust and germ aversion was found. Finally, perceived controllability of weight was positively related with antifat attitudes. The path analysis conducted showed the mediational effect of perceived controllability of weight in the relationship between physical disgust and antifat attitudes. Finally, it is discussed the results in the frame of antifat attitudes literature.
Performance evaluation of OFDMA femtocells link-layers in uncontrolled deployments

The rapidly increasing use of smart phones with Internet access or data connectivity solutions for laptops is putting the infrastructure of cellular operators under stress. Both the number of devices and the bandwidth requirement are increasing. Indoor usage is also becoming prominent. One envisioned solution is the use of so-called femtocells. Femtocells are portable and low-cost base-stations for in-home usage. They are deployed by endusers and are connected to the operator network by a digital subscriber line (DSL), cable modem or optical fiber connection. The femtocells are operated along with the macrocell in a typical two-tier network structure. The regular base stations operate in one tier and the femtocells operate in the other tier. In a shared spectrum configuration, the uncontrolled deployment and loose control of the femtocells generate challenging interference management scenarios. With extensive simulations, we perform an evaluation of several femtocell to femtocell interference scenarios and one macrocell to femtocell scenario. We focus on typical 4G cases, with an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer and full frequency reuse. Our results show that without any interference management, system performance is significantly degraded and that complete outages occur in specific cases.
Identification of various medically important Candida species in clinical specimens by PCR-restriction enzyme analysis

A single primer pair amplifying a cytochrome P-450 lanosterol-14 alpha-demethylase (L1A1) gene fragment that encodes a highly conserved region was used to detect yeast DNA in clinical specimens. Positive PCR products were obtained from genomic DNAs of Candida albicans, C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis, C. guilliermondii, C. krusei, C. (Torulopsis) glabrata, and C. kefyr. No human, bacterial, or parasitic DNA was amplified. The sensitivity was evaluated for C. albicans genomic DNA by using various DNA concentrations (200 pg to 2 fg). The amplified DNAs of Candida species with unknown P-450 L1A1 gene sequences were subcloned and sequenced. Identification at the species level was achieved by digestion of the PCR products with different restriction enzymes. A specific restriction enzyme analysis pattern was determined for each species investigated. Subsequently, we used PCR to detect specific yeast DNA directly with clinical specimens such as blood and bronchoalveolar lavage specimens. After appropriate treatment, the specimens were processed by PCR and the results were compared with those obtained by traditional diagnostic procedures such as cultures and serology. Although preliminary, the PCR results seem to correlate well, at least for blood, with those of antigen detection assays and traditional blood cultures, with a better and earlier detection of candidemia.
Burnout and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Prospective Study of 8838 Employees

Objective Burnout is a negative affective state consisting of emotional exhaustion, physical fatigue, and cognitive weariness symptoms. This study was designed to evaluate prospectively the association between burnout and coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence and to test the possibility that this association is nonlinear. Methods Participants were 8838 apparently healthy employed men and women, aged 19 to 67 years, who came for routine health examinations at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. They were followed up for 3.4 years on average. Burnout was measured by the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. CHD incidence was defined as a composite of acute myocardial infarction, diagnosed ischemic heart disease, and diagnosed angina pectoris. Results During follow-up, we identified 93 new cases of CHD. Baseline levels of burnout were associated with an increased risk of CHD, after adjustment for various risk factors (hazard ratio = 1.41; 95% confidence interval = 1.08–1.85). In addition, we observed a significant threshold effect of burnout on CHD incidence. Participants who scored high on burnout (scores in the upper quintile of the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure scores distribution) had a higher risk (hazard ratio = 1.79; 95% confidence interval = 1.05–3.04) of developing CHD on follow-up compared with others. Conclusions Burnout is an independent risk factor for future incidence of CHD. Individuals with high levels of burnout (upper quintile) have a significantly higher risk of developing CHD compared with those with low levels of burnout. Abbreviations CI = confidence interval CHD = coronary heart disease IHD = ischemic heart disease SMBM = Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure BMI = body mass index ECG = electrocardiogram LDL = low-density lipoprotein
Protein and nuclear changes in pig eggs at fertilization

The nuclear restructuring that occurs between insemination and full pronuclear formation in pig eggs is accompanied by posttranslational changes to specific egg proteins. Sperm penetration begins in vitro at 3 hr postinsemination (hpi). By 5 hr, decondensing sperm heads and anaphase II plates are observed in 50% of eggs, and, by 8 hpi, both male and female pronuclei have formed. Three consistent changes to the pattern of newly synthesised proteins are triggered in this period; they affect the 46K, 25K, and 22K polypeptides. Changes are also triggered in the 180–200K polypeptides and in the 14K polypeptides, but these are highly variable. The same changes in the prefertilization pattern were observed when prelabelled eggs were used and new protein synthesis was suppressed. The first and most abrupt change involves the apparent catabolic elimination of a group of 46K unphosphorylated polypeptides (pl 7.3–6.4), whose synthesis was greatest before germinal vesicle breakdown but declined slowly in the final phase of maturation, then declined precipitously after activation. Ageing (beyond maturation) also leads to the disappearance of these polypeptides. The progressive disappearance of a set of 25K polypeptides and the concomitant appearance of a dominant 22K polypeptide is the most characteristic fertilization‐induced modification to porcine egg proteins. These modifications begin within 1 hr of sperm penetration or activation, are specific to the pig, and involve heavily phosphorylated polypeptides (25K, pl 6.7–6.0) whose synthesis is begun in the early metaphase I stage. Dual ([35S] and [32P]) labelling, protein blocking experiments, and use of alkaline phosphatase suggest that dephosphorylation selectively affects these 25K polypeptides and is mainly or wholly responsible for converting them (completely within 6 hr) to a single, new (22K, pl 7.6) species that is positively charged. The 25K/22K polypeptide modification has a close temporal relationship with the formation of the male and female pronuclei.
The modulation transfer function and signal-to-noise ratio of different digital filters: a technical approach.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to illustrate the influence of digital filters on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and modulation transfer function (MTF) of digital images. The article will address image pre-processing that may be beneficial for the production of clinically useful digital radiographs with lower radiation dose. METHODS Three filters, an arithmetic mean filter, a median filter and a Gaussian filter (standard deviation (SD) = 0.4), with kernel sizes of 3 × 3 pixels and 5 × 5 pixels were tested. Synthetic images with exactly increasing amounts of Gaussian noise were created to gather linear regression of SNR before and after application of digital filters. Artificial stripe patterns with defined amounts of line pairs per millimetre were used to calculate MTF before and after the application of the digital filters. RESULTS The Gaussian filter with a 5 × 5 kernel size caused the highest noise suppression (SNR increased from 2.22, measured in the synthetic image, to 11.31 in the filtered image). The smallest noise reduction was found with the 3 × 3 median filter. The application of the median filters resulted in no changes in MTF at the different resolutions but did result in the deletion of smaller structures. The 5 × 5 Gaussian filter and the 5 × 5 arithmetic mean filter showed the strongest changes of MTF. CONCLUSIONS The application of digital filters can improve the SNR of a digital sensor; however, MTF can be adversely affected. As such, imaging systems should not be judged solely on their quoted spatial resolutions because pre-processing may influence image quality.
Epidermal growth factor‐dependent enhancement of invasiveness of squamous cell carcinoma of the breast

Factors that promote the aggressiveness of squamous cell carcinoma of the breast are not well understood. To examine the involvement of cell motility and the mechanism of this behavior, a squamous cell carcinoma cell line of the breast (HBC9) was established from a metastatic lymph node of a Japanese woman. HBC9 expressed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), but was negative for Her2 or Her3.The invasive ability of HBC9 was compared with that of four breast ductal carcinoma cell lines by Matrigel invasion assay. EGF stimulation induced the formation of surface protrusions and cell migration in HBC9 cells, and significantly increased the number of cells migrating through the Matrigel. The invasive ability of HBC9 was compared with other cell lines of breast carcinoma; it was much greater than that of MCF‐7, BT474, or HBC5, but did not differ significantly from that of MDA‐MB‐231. Observation of the surface protrusions of HBC9 by confocal laser microscopy revealed co‐localization of Arp2 and N‐WASP with actin polymerization, detected by visualization with phalloidin, indicating that the protrusions induced by EGF were invadopodia. In HBC9 cells, cortactin also co‐localized with the N‐WASP/Arp2/3 complex in the protrusions. Immunohistochemistry of 12 cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the breast revealed expression of cortactin and EGFR in all of them, and this was confirmed by western blotting in two cases. These results suggest that EGF‐dependent enhancement of cell motility by formation of invadopodia associated with cortactin is a cause of the clinical aggressiveness of squamous cell carcinoma of the breast.
Coordinated voltage control via distributed model predictive control

Over the past decades many voltage collapse incidents have occurred, caused by uncoordinated interactions of local controllers, following a major disturbance in electric power system operating closer and closer to their safety limits. Currently most voltage control schemes are rule-based and only rely on local measurements. However the availability of wide-area phasor measurements (WAMS/PMU) suggests that the risk of voltage collapse could be reduced by coordinating control actions in neighboring control regions of the network. This paper shows how distributed model predictive control (MPC) can be used in order to design such a coordinating controller. Local control agents carry out an on-line optimization by comparing the plant behavior over a finite window in time, for different possible switching sequences of the local tap changing transformer (LTC). The evolution of the plant behavior is obtained by a fast Modelica simulation of the hybrid systems model, using information on the tap switching sequences that neighboring control regions are planning to implement on their LTCs. Through simulation of a 12-bus power system this paper shows that the distributed MPC controllers can prevent, or at least postpone, voltage collapse in circumstances where classical uncoordinated controllers fail. The required communication exchange is very limited, making practical applications feasible. However extensions to larger systems will require consideration of modeling abstractions of neighboring control regions, so as to keep the simulation time for each local decision maker short.
Activation of Caspase-2 in Apoptosis*

Members of the CED-3/interleukin-1β-converting enzyme (ICE) protease (caspase) family are synthesized as proforms, which are proteolytically cleaved and activated during apoptosis. We report here that caspase-2 (ICH-1/NEDD-2), a member of the ICE family, is activated during apoptosis by another ICE member, a caspase-3 (CPP32)-like protease(s). When cells are induced to undergo apoptosis, endogenous caspase-2 is first cleaved into three fragments of 32–33 kDa and 14 kDa, which are then further processed into 18- and 12-kDa active subunits. Up to 50 μm N-acetyl-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-aldehyde (DEVD-CHO), a caspase-3-preferred peptide inhibitor, inhibits caspase-2 activation and DNA fragmentation in vivo, but does not prevent loss of mitochondrial function, while higher concentrations of DEVD-CHO (>50 μm) inhibit both. In comparison, although the activity of caspase-3 is very sensitive to the inhibition of DEVD-CHO (<50 nm), inhibition of caspase-3 activation as marked by processing of the proform requires more than 100 μmDEVD-CHO. Our results suggest that the first cleavage of caspase-2 is accomplished by a caspase-3-like activity, and other ICE-like proteases less sensitive to DEVD-CHO may be responsible for activation of caspase-3 and loss of mitochondrial function.
Perinatal Loss and Parental Distress After the Birth of a Healthy Infant

PURPOSEDetermine whether levels of depressive symptoms and current stress related to prior perinatal loss differ from similar prenatal evaluations after the birth of a subsequent healthy full-term infant and investigate differences in depressive symptoms in the postpartum period among parents with and without a history of perinatal loss. PARTICIPANTSSeventy-four of the original 206 parents who participated in an earlier prenatal study agreed to participate at follow-up and were divided into 2 groups (38 parents with a history of perinatal loss and 36 parents with no prior losses). METHODS AND DESIGNA 2-wave, 2-group comparative design was used. Both mothers and fathers were recruited for this study. Surveys were completed via telephone interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, t tests and Pearson correlations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESThe Impact of the Event Scale (IES) is broadly used to evaluate the continuing influence of a past stressful life event. In the current study, the items were anchored to the traumatic event of perinatal loss. The IES contains 2 subscales: Intrusion and Avoidance. Cronbach's alphas for the current study were . 80 (total scale), . 85 (Intrusion subscale), and . 69 (Avoidance subscale). The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) is used to identify the duration and frequency of depressive symptoms experienced by the respondent during the previous week. The Cronbach's alpha for the current study was . 92. PRINCIPLE RESULTSThere was a significant overall decrease in depressive symptoms after the birth of a healthy infant for fathers but not for mothers with prior perinatal losses. Nevertheless, approximately one third of the mothers with a history of loss continued to report CES-D scores that placed them at high risk for depression. There also was a significant decrease in stress related to the prior loss for both mother and fathers. The greater the stress associated with the prior loss, the greater were parents' depressive symptoms after birth. In contrast to the prenatal assessment, there were no significant differences in levels of depressive symptoms between the loss and nonloss groups at the postnatal assessment. CONCLUSIONSThe stress associated with perinatal loss, although diminished after the subsequent birth of a healthy infant compared with that during pregnancy, remained high for many parents, especially mothers. Neonatal nurses need to continue to evaluate parents with a history of perinatal loss for ongoing psychological distress after the birth of a subsequent healthy infant.
Plantacyanin Plays a Role in Reproduction in Arabidopsis1

Plantacyanins belong to the phytocyanin family of blue copper proteins. In the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome, only one gene encodes plantacyanin. The T-DNA-tagged mutant is a knockdown mutant that shows no visible phenotype. We used both promoter-β-glucuronidase transgenic plants and immunolocalization to show that Arabidopsis plantacyanin is expressed most highly in the inflorescence and, specifically, in the transmitting tract of the pistil. Protein levels show a steep gradient in expression from the stigma into the style and ovary. Overexpression plants were generated using cauliflower mosaic virus 35S, and protein levels in the pistil were examined as well as the pollination process. Seed set in these plants is highly reduced mainly due to a lack of anther dehiscence, which is caused by degeneration of the endothecium. Callose deposits occur on the pollen walls in plants that overexpress plantacyanin, and a small percentage of these pollen grains germinate in the closed anthers. When wild-type pollen was used on the overexpression stigma, seed set was still decreased compared to the control pollinations. We detected an increase in plantacyanin levels in the overexpression pistil, including the transmitting tract. Guidance of the wild-type pollen tube on the overexpression stigma is disrupted as evidenced by the growth behavior of pollen tubes after they penetrate the papillar cell. Normally, pollen tubes travel down the papilla cell and into the style. Wild-type pollen tubes on the overexpression stigma made numerous turns around the papilla cell before growing toward the style. In some rare cases, pollen tubes circled up the papilla cell away from the style and were arrested there. We propose that when plantacyanin levels in the stigma are increased, pollen tube guidance into the style is disrupted.
Alterations in binding activity of T cell transcription factor CD28 responsive element binding complex (CD28RC) following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation

Abstract: The CD28 responsive element binding complex (CD28RC) has an important role in transducing CD28/B7 costimulatory signals. Using electrophoretic mobility‐shift assay (EMSA), we have analyzed the binding activity of CD28RC in the mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) obtained from the patients before and after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo‐BMT). The binding activity of CD28RC was low in MLCs using PBMC from patients without acute GVHD and it was also low in MLCs using PBMC from patients without chronic GVHD (cGVHD). In contrast, this activity in patients with cGVHD was estimated to be high. The relative values of CD28RC in comparison with third party MLCs were significantly higher in MLCs using PBMC from patients with cGVHD than those in MLCs using PBMC from patients without GVHD (0.55±0.31 versus 0.23±0.12, respectively, n=10, p=0.05). IL‐2 concentrations in the MLC medium from patients without GVHD were undetectable; however, a detectable level of IL‐2 was present in MLC medium from a patient with extensive cGVHD. These data were interpreted to suggest that the CD28 costimulatory pathway was specifically activated against recipient antigen in allo‐BMT patients with GVHD. In other words, it was suggested that the CD28 costimulatory pathway was specifically suppressed in allo‐BMT patients without GVHD, and this suppression might contribute immunological tolerance after allo‐BMT.