Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased intracellular reactive oxygen species in patients with end-stage renal failure: effect of hemodialysis.

BACKGROUND Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in various forms of cellular injury. ROS may cause cell damage and are involved in the pathophysiology of several diseases, including atherosclerosis and chronic inflammation. METHODS Disturbances of intracellular ROS levels were investigated in 28 patients with end-stage renal failure. The intracellular ROS levels were measured in lymphocytes before and after hemodialysis using biocompatible membranes and were compared with those from 11 patients with end-stage renal failure, not yet on renal replacement therapy, and 27 healthy control subjects. ROS levels were measured spectrophotometrically using the intracellular dye dichlorofluorescin diacetate. RESULTS The spontaneous production of ROS was significantly higher in lymphocytes from patients with end-stage renal failure compared with healthy control subjects (P < 0.01). The addition of 100 nmol/L phorbol-myristate-acetate (PMA) produced a significant increase of ROS, both in lymphocytes from patients with end-stage renal failure and healthy control subjects. The PMA-induced ROS increase was significantly higher in lymphocytes from patients with end-stage renal failure compared with healthy control subjects (P < 0.01). In patients with end-stage renal failure, not yet on renal replacement therapy, the PMA-induced ROS was also significantly higher compared with healthy control subjects. The PMA-induced ROS increases were significantly inhibited by catalase, but not by superoxide dismutase or the superoxide dismutase mimetic, tempol. PMA-induced ROS was significantly reduced by tyrphostin A51 in lymphocytes from patients with end-stage renal failure and from healthy control subjects (each P < 0.01), indicating the involvement of a tyrosine kinase-dependent pathway. In patients with end-stage renal failure, the spontaneous and the PMA-induced production of ROS was not significantly different before and after hemodialysis. CONCLUSIONS Regular hemodialysis sessions using biocompatible membranes have no effect on the elevated intracellular ROS in patients with end-stage renal failure.
A 2-km Walking Test for Assessing the Cardiorespiratory Fitness of Healthy Adults

A simple walking test was developed with 159 (females = 80, males = 79) healthy 20-65-year-old subjects. All the subjects first walked the distances of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 km on a flat dirt road. Half of the participants were tested in the laboratory for maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), and the 2-km test was repeated again twice. In a comparison of the three distances, the 2-km test was repeatable, the most preferable subjectively and the most accurate in predicting VO2max. A sex-specific prediction model including walking time, heart rate at the end of the walk, age and body mass index predicted 73-75% of the variance in VO2max (ml.kg-1.min-1) and that with body weight 66-76%, with a standard error of estimate of the order of 9-15% of the mean. The cross-validation of the models yielded reasonable accuracy in obese men and women and in moderately active men, and less accuracy in moderately active women and highly active men. These results suggest that a fast 2-km walk supplemented with simple measurements is a feasible and accurate alternative for determining the cardiorespiratory fitness of healthy adults.
The optical properties of the crystalline lens and their significance

We do not yet have definitive data on the optical structure of the lens, including surface shapes and gradient refractive index distribution. Some data do exist but we need much more data to complete our knowledge of this structure. However, using current and sparse knowledge, we can use mathematical modelling to study the effects of surface shapes and gradient refractive index structure on the Gaussian and aberration properties of the lens. The equations extracted from this modelling show some interesting results, for example, the way the gradient index structure provides some of the refractive power and how this structure possibly predicts a negative spherical aberration of the lens, which is observed in real eyes. This modelling will provide a firm theoretical foundation for analysing more accurate and extensive lenticular shape and refractive index data as they become available.
Regional H2O2 concentration in rat brain after hyperoxic convulsions.

O2 toxicity of the central nervous system (CNS) may be a result of enhanced generation of reactive O2 species such as superoxide and H2O2 at high PO2. In this study, we measured H2O2 production in six regions of the rat brain before and after convulsions induced by hyperbaric hyperoxia (HBO). H2O2 concentration was determined ex vivo using a method based on the H2O2-dependent decline in catalase activity in the presence of the irreversible inhibitor of compound I, 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole. Regional catalase activity in the brain ranged from 0.029 +/- 0.004 to 0.055 +/- 0.004 mumol O2.min-1.micrograms DNA-1 in cerebellum and medulla-pons, respectively. In the presence of aminotriazole, catalase activity declined after HBO-induced convulsions to 26-45% of normoxic values. The rates of inactivation of catalase were used to predict average steady-state values for H2O2 concentration in different brain structures. Estimated H2O2 concentrations during HBO varied from 31 to 51 pM in cerebellum and posterior subcortex and represented increases of 2.2-7.3 times normoxic values. These findings suggest that H2O2 is an important mediator of selective neuronal vulnerability to CNS O2 toxicity.
Tailoring in Vitro Selection for a Picomolar Affinity Human Antibody Directed against Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2 for Enhanced Neutralizing Activity*

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptors have been implicated in promoting solid tumor growth and metastasis via stimulating tumor-associated angiogenesis. We previously identified several fully human neutralizing anti-VEGF receptor 2 (or kinase inserting domain-containing receptor (KDR)) antibodies from a large antibody phage display library. These antibodies bind specifically to KDR, block VEGF/KDR interaction, and inhibit VEGF-induced proliferation of human endothelial cells and migration of KDR+ leukemia cells. Three of these antibodies, interestingly, share an identical heavy chain variable (VH) sequence. In this report, we constructed a new library comprising the single VH paired with the variable light chain (VL) repertoire obtained from the original naïve human library. Initial in vitro selection revealed that the single VH could pair with a number of different VL while retaining its specificity for KDR. However, a consensus VH/VL pair, clone 1121, was identified after three or four rounds of selection by tailoring the stringency of the panning conditions. Clone 1121 showed a >30-fold higher binding affinity to KDR (Kd, 100 pm) because of improvement on both association and dissociation constants and blocked VEGF/KDR interaction with an IC50 of ∼1 nm, compared with that of 3–4 nm for the parent Fab fragments. Further, clone 1121 was more potent in inhibiting VEGF-stimulated KDR phosphorylation in endothelial cells. A binding epitope mapping study on clone 1121 and one of the parent clones, 2C6, demonstrated that both antibodies interacted with the third immunoglobulin domain within the extracellular region of KDR. Several peptide phage display libraries were utilized to further examine the fine binding specificities of the two antibodies. All of the 2C6-binding peptides are cysteine-constrained, whereas clone 1121 binds to both cysteine-constrained and linear peptides. It is noteworthy that most of the 2C6-binding peptides also cross-react with clone 1121, but none of the clone 1121-specific peptides binds to 2C6, indicating that clone 1121 retained part of the original binding epitope(s) of 2C6 while gaining new binding specificity. Taken together, our observation suggests that clone 1121 may have great clinical potential in anti-angiogenesis therapy. It further underscores the efforts to identify antibodies of high affinity for enhanced biological activities.
Conservative, open or percutaneous repair for acute rupture of the Achilles tendon

Purpose. To review the complications and recovery of patients with Achilles tendon rupture managed by percutaneous repair, open repair, and non-operative means in a tertiary referral centre between 2001 and 2003. Methods. The operating theatre register and logbooks of the Consultants were used to identify surgically managed patients, while plaster room records were used for conservatively managed patients. We collated demographic and management details. Results. The number of plaster changes (p < 0.001), median length of time in cast (p < 0.001), and number of outpatient visits (p < 0.05) was greater in conservatively managed patients. We performed no formal statistical analysis given the small numbers. Conservative management was the least expensive and open surgery the most costly modality of management. Percutaneous surgery was approximately a third of the cost of open surgery when performed under local anaesthetic. Conclusion. In our setting, percutaneous repair and conservative management are viable alternatives to open surgery, which carries higher complications rates and was the most costly of the three. Individual patients will have different needs due to their age, occupation, or level of sporting activity.
Do breast-feeding and other reproductive factors influence future risk of rheumatoid arthritis? Results from the Nurses' Health Study.

OBJECTIVE To explore the contribution of female hormonal factors occurring prior to the onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), such as age at menarche, parity, age at first birth, breast-feeding, use of oral contraceptives (OCs), irregular menstrual cycles, and postmenopausal hormone (PMH) use, to the subsequent development of RA in a large female cohort. METHODS We studied female reproductive and hormonal risk factors for RA in a cohort of 121,700 women enrolled in the longitudinal Nurses' Health Study. The diagnosis of incident RA (between 1976 and 2002) in 674 women was confirmed by a connective tissue disease screening questionnaire and blinded medical record review for American College of Rheumatology criteria. Sixty percent of the patients with RA were rheumatoid factor positive. The relationship between potential risk factors, including age, age at menarche, parity, age at first birth, total lifetime history of breast-feeding, use of OCs, and irregular menstrual cycles and the multivariate-adjusted risk of RA was estimated using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS Using a multivariate model that adjusted for age, body mass index, smoking, parity, and other hormonal factors, we observed a strong trend for decreasing risk of RA with increasing duration of breast-feeding (P for trend = 0.001). For women who breast-fed (compared with parous women who did not breast-feed), the risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were as follows: breast-feeding for < or =3 total months, RR 1.0 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.8-1.2); for 4-11 total months, RR 0.9 (95% CI 0.7-1.1); for 12-23 total months, RR 0.8 (95% CI 0.6-1.0); and for > or =24 total months, RR 0.5 (95% CI 0.3-0.8). Very irregular menstrual cycles were associated with an increased risk of RA (RR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0-2.0). Age at menarche < or =10 years was associated with an increased risk of seropositive RA (RR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1-2.4) but not significantly associated with risk of RA. Parity, total number of children, age at first birth, and OC use were not associated with an increased risk of RA in this cohort. CONCLUSION In this large cohort, breast-feeding for >12 months was inversely related to the development of RA. This apparent effect was dose-dependent, with a significant trend toward lower risk with longer duration of breast-feeding. Irregular menstrual cycles and earlier age at menarche increased the risk of RA. Other reproductive hormonal factors were not associated with RA risk.
A robust submap-based road shape estimation via iterative Gaussian process regression

Road shape estimation is important for the safe driving of intelligent vehicles. The common road shape models such as line/parabola, spline and clothoid are lacking of flexibility in various urban traffic scenes. In this paper, a robust road shape model which consists of multiple overlapped submaps is proposed. Each individual submap is represented by a smooth curve generated through Gaussian process(GP). To estimate parameters of a GP submap, a framework involving pre-processing, pose correction, road shape regression and map updating/creating is proposed. Pose correction is achieved by fusion of vehicle motion model and simplified GP-based observation model. Road shape regression is used to extract a coarse road shape. Map updating/creating is used to adapt to the new coming data and generates refined road shape. A robust iterative Gaussian process regression(iGPR) is utilized in both road shape regression and map updating/creating. Extensive experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed method.
A 14-kilodalton inner membrane protein of Vibrio cholerae biotype e1 tor confers resistance to group IV choleraphage infection to classical vibrios

Choleraphage phi 149 differentiates the two biotypes, classical and el tor, of Vibrio cholerae. This phage cannot replicate in V. cholerae biotype el tor cells because the concatemeric DNA intermediates produced are unstable and cannot be chased to mature phage DNA. A V. cholerae biotype el tor gene coding for a 14,000-Da inner membrane protein which destabilizes the concatemeric DNA intermediates by hindering their binding to the cell membrane has been identified. Presumably, a 22,000-Da V. cholerae biotype el tor protein might also have a role in conferring phage phi 149 resistance to cells belonging to the biotype el tor. A nucleotide sequence homologous to the 1.2-kb V. cholerae biotype el tor DNA coding for both the 14,000- and 22,000-Da proteins is present in all strains of classical vibrios but is not transcribed. The nucleotide sequence of the gene coding for the 14,000-Da protein has been determined.
Quantitative Community Fingerprinting Methods for Estimating the Abundance of Operational Taxonomic Units in Natural Microbial Communities

ABSTRACT Molecular fingerprinting techniques offer great promise for analyzing changes in microbial community structure, especially when dealing with large number of samples. However, a serious limitation has been the lack of quantification offered by such techniques since the relative abundances of the identified operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in the original samples are not measured. A quantitative fingerprinting approach designated “qfingerprinting” is proposed here. This method involves serial dilutions of the sample of interest and further systematic fingerprinting of all dilution series. Using the ultimate dilutions for which OTU are still PCR amplifiable and taking into account peak size inaccuracy and peak reproducibility, the relative abundance of each OTU is then simultaneously determined over a scale spanning several orders of magnitude. The approach was illustrated by using a quantitative version of automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA), here called qARISA. After validating the concept with a synthetic mixture of known DNA targets, qfingerprinting was applied to well-studied marine sediment samples to examine specific changes in OTU abundance associated with sediment depth. The new strategy represents a major advance for the detailed quantitative description of specific OTUs within complex communities. Further ecological applications of the new strategy are also proposed.
A 150 kHz–80 MHz BW Discrete-Time Analog Baseband for Software-Defined-Radio Receivers using a 5th-Order IIR LPF, Active FIR and a 10 bit 300 MS/s ADC in 28 nm CMOS

A discrete-time (DT) analog baseband for software-defined-radio (SDR) receivers is presented. A zero-IF baseband signal at the input of a programmable gm is converted to current, which is integrated on a 5th-order DT infinite-impulse response (IIR) low-pass filter with a bandwidth ranging from 150 kHz to 80 MHz. The IIR is followed by a DT amplifier which integrates selected samples to implement active finite-impulse-response (FIR) filtering while simultaneously offering variable-gain amplification. This integration happens on the DAC capacitance of a 2x interleaved 10 bit successive approximation (SAR) ADC, which finally quantizes the filtered signal at a maximum rate of 300 MS/s. The 28 nm prototype achieves +10 dBm IIP3, 2 nV/√Hz input-referred noise and 52 dB gain range while consuming a maximum power of 15 mW.
Modulation classification using convolutional Neural Network based deep learning model

Deep learning (DL) is a powerful classification technique that has great success in many application domains. However, its usage in communication systems has not been well explored. In this paper, we address the issue of using DL in communication systems, especially for modulation classification. Convolutional neural network (CNN) is utilized to complete the classification task. We convert the raw modulated signals into images that have a grid-like topology and feed them to CNN for network training. Two existing approaches, including cumulant and support vector machine (SVM) based classification algorithms, are involved for performance comparison. Simulation results indicate that the proposed CNN based modulation classification approach achieves comparable classification accuracy without the necessity of manual feature selection.
Cholinergic blockade with pirenzepine induces dose‐related reduction in glucose and insulin responses to a mixed meal in normal subjects and non‐insulin dependent diabetics

Summary. objective The aim of the study was to assess the effects of chollnerglc blockade with pirenzepine on glucose and Insulin responses to a mixed meal In normal subjects and patients with non‐insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM). Further, to assess In normal subjects the relative Importance of nocturnal GH suppression by plrenzepine.
Self-association of N-Syndecan (Syndecan-3) Core Protein Is Mediated by a Novel Structural Motif in the Transmembrane Domain and Ectodomain Flanking Region (*)

We expressed domains of the core protein of the transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan N-syndecan (syndecan-3) either individually or as maltose-binding protein fusion proteins. Biochemical characterization of the purified proteins revealed that some of them were capable of self-association and formed stable, noncovalent multimeric complexes. The formation of N-syndecan core protein complexes was also demonstrated in mammalian cells by in situ cross-linking. Identification of structural motifs in the core protein of N-syndecan responsible for the formation of these complexes was accomplished by analyzing a series of constructs comprising different regions of the protein as well as site-directed mutants. Self-association was assayed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, glutaraldehyde cross-linking, and size-exclusion high pressure liquid chromatography. Our results indicated that (i) the transmembrane domain of the N-syndecan core protein was required but not sufficient for the formation of stable complexes; (ii) the minimal amino acid sequence that conferred the ability of the N-syndecan core protein to form multimeric complexes included the last four amino acids (ERKE) of the extracellular domain plus the transmembrane domain; (iii) point mutations that changed the basic residues in this sequence to alanine residues either partially or completely abolished the ability of the N-syndecan core protein to form complexes; and (iv) replacement of conserved glycine residues in the transmembrane domain with leucines abolished complex formation. This property is similar to the oligomerization activity of other transmembrane receptors and suggests that regulated self-association may be important for the biological activity of transmembrane proteoglycans.
Acute toxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticles to the rat olfactory system after intranasal instillation

With the increased applications of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs), the toxicity of ZnO NPs arouses great concerns from the nano community and the general public. In this study, we report the toxicity of ZnO NPs (30 nm) to the rat olfactory system after intranasal instillation revealed by non‐invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI scans were performed on a 4.7‐T scanner at 1, 2, 3 and 7 days post‐exposure, and the histological changes of the rat olfactory epithelium were evaluated. The influences of chemical component and dispersant of the NPs were also investigated. In addition, an olfactory behavior test was performed. The MRI and histological results indicated that ZnO NPs induced significant damages to the olfactory epithelium, including disruption of the olfactory epithelial structures and inflammation. The destruction of mitochondria in epithelial cells was observed under transmission electron microscopy (TEM), suggesting that the possible toxicological mechanism might involve cellular energy metabolic dysfunction. Further, the lesion of the olfactory epithelium disturbed sniffing behaviors of the treated animals. The results suggest that MRI is potentially useful as a screening tool to assess the consequence of occupational exposure of ZnO NPs. Caution should therefore be taken during the use and disposal of ZnO NPs to prevent the unintended public health impacts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
PprA: a novel protein from Deinococcus radiodurans that stimulates DNA ligation

The extraordinary radiation resistance of Deinococcus radiodurans results from the efficient capacity of the bacterium to repair DNA double‐strand breaks. By analysing the DNA damage repair‐deficient mutant, KH311, a unique radiation‐inducible gene (designated pprA) responsible for loss of radiation resistance was identified. Investigations in vitro showed that the gene product of pprA (PprA) preferentially bound to double‐stranded DNA carrying strand breaks, inhibited Escherichia coli exonuclease III activity, and stimulated the DNA end‐joining reaction catalysed by ATP‐dependent and NAD‐dependent DNA ligases. These results suggest that D. radiodurans has a radiation‐induced non‐homologous end‐joining repair mechanism in which PprA plays a critical role.