Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental study of recombinant eukaryotic expression vector of human eNOS in ECV304.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Gene transfer with recombinant non-viral vectors encoding vasodilator proteins, such as endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), maybe a preferential choice in gene therapy of artery restenosis following angioplasty, stent or anastomosis. However, the transfection rate of a non-viral vector, the harmful effects of eNOS transfection on endothelial cells (EC) and the control release of nitric oxide (NO) have been controversial. We designed the eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1-eNOS to study the regulated expression of eNOS (in the presence of various chemical agents) and to evaluate the exogenous NO effect on EC proliferation in vitro. METHODS The full-length human eNOS cDNA was inserted into the EcoRI cloning site of the pcDNA3.1 expression plasmid and the eNOS direction was tested by restriction enzyme digestion with XhoI to construct recombinant pcDNA3.1-eNOS. After co-transfection of pcDNA3.1-eNOS with pcDNA3.0-EGFP mediated by cationic liposomes into Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (ECV304), the transfection rate and the effect on ECV304 proliferation were calculated by fluorescence microscopy and flowcytometry. eNOS mRNA and protein were detected by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and immunofluorescence, respectively. The eNOS activity, NO release and changes of the relevant cells growth curve were assessed after treating the transfected cells with four independent factors including ie Ca2+, L-arginine (L-Arg), Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA) and N-nitro-L-arginine methylester (L-NAME). In addition, we examined the non-transfected cells status by isolated sodium nitroprusside (SNP) treatment. RESULT eNOS cDNA was inserted into pcDNA3.1 in the proper direction. RT-PCR analysis showed that pcDNA3.1-eNOS transfected cells could express eNOS mRNA. The rate of eNOS transfection was 39.6 +/- 3.4%. Immunofluorescence staining displayed that subcellular localisation of eNOS was most prominent in plasma membrane and perinuclear regions of the cell. The eNOS activity of eNOS transfected cells had not increased significantly, whereas, in the presence of Ca2+, L-Arg, EDTA, and L-NAME, the eNOS activity was 96.98 +/- 13.47, 32.57 +/- 6.39, 11.63 +/- 3.02, 15.56 L 7.34 U/ml respectively and the NO level was 55.34 +/- 11.19, 9.43 +/- 4.51, 2.63 +/- 1.41, 3.73 +/- 1.65 mmol/L, respectively. Meanwhile, the growth curves of EC shifted. SNP also had obvious growth-inhibiting effects on the cells. Together, the ECV304 growth curve went downward in a NO concentration-dependent manner. CONCLUSION Eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1-eNOS was constructed successfully with the ability to express human eNOS mRNA and protein in EC effectively. The activity of eNOS in EC could be regulated by certain exogenous factors. Ca2+ was an important factor promoting NO release and excess NO had a cytotoxic effect on EC in vitro. Controlled release of NO in vivo and polygenic measurements might be considered in more clinical gene therapy studies.
Nonlinear Dynamic Control of Irregular Cardiac Rhythms

Since the pioneer work of “Controlling Cardiac Chaos” by Garfinkel et al.,1 a number of theoretical and experimental studies have been performed to control irregular cardiac rhythms using various nonlinear dynamic control methods.2-9 Most of the methods stemmed from the seminal work of Ott, Grebogi, and York (OGY) entitled “Controlling Chaos,”10 in which aperiodic oscillations were converted to periodic oscillations. The OGY controlling method takes advantage of a property of dynamical chaos—there is an unstable equilibrium state embedded in the chaotic attractor that can be detected using the measured data set without knowing the system (Fig. 1A). By learning the properties of this unstable equilibrium state, one can design an algorithm to control the chaotic behavior by stabilizing this state with tiny feedback perturbations to one accessible system parameter. In this issue of the Journal, Jordan and Christini11 propose a simple cardiac-specific strategy, called adaptive diastolic interval (DI) control, to control action potential duration (APD) alternans. Specifically, they utilized a rate-dependent relation
The transcriptional activation domain of varicella-zoster virus open reading frame 62 protein is not conserved with its herpes simplex virus homolog

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) open reading frame 62 (ORF62) encodes an immediate-early protein that transactivates expression of VZV, herpes simplex virus (HSV), and cellular genes in transient expression assays. VZV ORF62 is homologous to HSV ICP4 and pseudorabies virus immediate-early (IE180) proteins. All three viral proteins have conserved DNA binding domains that recognize similar sites in their corresponding promoters. Here, we show that the transcriptional activation domain of ORF62 is located near the amino terminus of the protein and is not conserved with the activation domain of ICP4. A 161-amino-acid activation domain of ORF62 activates transcription to a level comparable to that of the potent HSV VP16 activation domain; much of the activity is contained in the first 90 amino acids of ORF62. Deletion of the activation domain from full-length ORF62 markedly reduced transactivating activity. These experiments indicate that while VZV ORF62 and HSV ICP4 have conserved amino acid sequences, including their DNA binding domains, the transcriptional activation domains are poorly conserved.
Intermittent tamsulosin therapy in men with lower urinary tract symptoms.

PURPOSE We investigated in what is to our knowledge the first prospective study the safety and efficacy of intermittent tamsulosin therapy in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was performed between January 2001 and February 2003 in 140 patients. In phase 1 of this study patients received 1, 0.4 mg tamsulosin capsule daily for 3 months and were reevaluated after 3 months. At this assessment uroflowmetry, International Prostate Symptom Score and ultrasonographic estimation of residual urine were determined. In phase 2 responders to tamsulosin therapy were then randomized into 1 of 3 groups, namely group 1--continued 4 mg tamsulosin once daily every day, group 2--0.4 mg tamsulosin once daily every other day and group 3--discontinued tamsulosin. Efficacy assessments were done again at 4, 12 and 24 weeks. RESULTS There were no statistically differences among the patients in groups 1 and 2 at 6 months for International Prostate Symptom Score, maximum or average urine flow, or residual urine. Differences between patients in groups 1 and 3 were statistically significant at 6 months. Differences between patients in groups 2 and 3 were also statistically significant at 6 months for these parameters. CONCLUSIONS Tamsulosin at a dose of 0.4 mg once daily and 0.4 mg once daily every other day for lower urinary tract symptoms provide comparable improvements in urinary flow and symptoms. Each treatment was well tolerated.
Time-Restricted Feeding Alters the Innate Immune Response to Bacterial Endotoxin

An important entraining signal for the endogenous circadian clock, independent of light, is food intake. The circadian and immune systems are linked; forced desynchrony of the circadian clock via nighttime light exposure or genetic ablation of core clock components impairs immune function. The timing of food intake affects various aspects of the circadian clock, but its effects on immune function are unknown. We tested the hypothesis that temporal desynchrony of food intake alters innate immune responses. Adult male Swiss Webster mice were provided with food during the night, the day, or ad libitum for 4 wk, followed by administration of LPS prior to the onset of either the active phase (zeitgeber time [ZT]12: Experiment 1) or the inactive phase (ZT0: Experiment 2). Three hours after LPS administration, blood was collected, and serum was tested for bacteria-killing capacity against Escherichia coli, as a functional assay of immune function. Additionally, cytokine expression was examined in the serum (protein), spleen, and hypothalamus (mRNA). Day-fed mice suppressed bacteria-killing capacity and serum cytokine responses to LPS during the active phase (ZT12). Night-fed mice increased bactericidal capacity, as well as serum and hypothalamic mRNA responses of certain proinflammatory cytokines during the active phase. Only day-fed mice enhanced serum cytokine responses when LPS challenge occurred during the inactive phase (ZT0); this did not result in enhanced bactericidal capacity. These data suggest that mistimed feeding has functional relevance for immune function and provide further evidence for the integration of the circadian, metabolic, and immune systems.
Human Factors issues for Interaction with Bio-Inspired Swarms

Robotic systems composed of a large number of entities, often called robot swarms, are envisioned to play an increasingly important role in applications such as search, rescue, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations. Nowadays, many mobile robots that are deployed for such applications are still tele-operated by a single or multiple operators. While these platforms are individually very capable, the development of cheaper hardware allows the consideration of swarm systems composed of many more robots but with each individual being far less powerful. Examples from biology indicate that such systems can be collectively more powerful than any individual robot within the team and also more than many larger, more sophisticated individual robots. Enabling a human to control such bio-inspired systems is a considerable challenge due to the limitations of each individual robot and the sheer number of robots that need to be coordinated to successfully complete a mission. Autonomous algorithms provide an opportunity to mitigate some of the complexity an operator faces in controlling such swarms, but it is not clear either (a) which tasks will ultimately need to be executed by the operator rather than by the swarm, or (b) what kinds of interactions would be needed.
Modelling Growth Curves in a Nondescript Italian Chicken Breed: an Opportunity to Improve Genetic and Feeding Strategies

Growth, known as the relation between liveweight and age, is explained mathematically by functions that have parameters with biological meaning. These parameters are used to describe growth pattern over time and to estimate the expected weight of animals at specific ages. Animal growth generally follows a sigmoidal pattern and several nonlinear functions have been used to describe it. This study was carried out to estimate the parameters of logistic, Gompertz and Richards growth curve models in a nondescript chicken breed population from southern Italy to determine the goodness of fit. Male and female birds were weighed weekly starting from two to twenty-four weeks of age. Based on our dataset, chickens showed a slow-growth pattern. All the growth functions evaluated were easily fitted to the observed data by nonlinear regression; our findings showed that Gompertz model fitted liveweight data very well both for male and female birds being the best model for studying the growth of our animals. Nevertheless, the four-parameter Richards function provided also a good fit of the data. Success in studying the growth characteristics of our nondescript chicken breed will contribute to define appropriate feeding regimens and to develop selection programme.
Sepsis-associated encephalopathy and its differential diagnosis

Sepsis is often complicated by an acute and reversible deterioration of mental status, which is associated with increased mortality and is consistent with delirium but can also be revealed by a focal neurologic sign. Sepsis-associated encephalopathy is accompanied by abnormalities of electroencephalogram and somatosensory-evoked potentials, increased in biomarkers of brain injury (i.e., neuron-specific enolase, S-100 &bgr;-protein) and, frequently, by neuroradiological abnormalities, notably leukoencephalopathy. Its mechanism is highly complex, resulting from both inflammatory and noninflammatory processes that affect all brain cells and induce blood-brain barrier breakdown, dysfunction of intracellular metabolism, brain cell death, and brain injuries. Its diagnosis relies essentially on neurologic examination that can lead one to perform specific neurologic tests. Electroencephalography is required in the presence of seizure; neuroimaging in the presence of seizure, focal neurologic signs or suspicion of cerebral infection; and both when encephalopathy remains unexplained. In practice, cerebrospinal fluid analysis should be performed if there is any doubt of meningitis. Hepatic, uremic, or respiratory encephalopathy, metabolic disturbances, drug overdose, withdrawal of sedatives or opioids, alcohol withdrawal delirium, and Wernicke’s encephalopathy are the main differential diagnoses of sepsis-associated encephalopathy. Patient management is based mainly on controlling infection, organ system failure, and metabolic homeostasis, at the same time avoiding neurotoxic drugs.
Market-Based Price-Risk Management for Coffee Producers

Coffee is characterised by high levels of price fluctuation, which exposes coffee producers to price risk. Coffee is widely traded in international commodity futures markets. This offers scope for producers to mange their price risk by hedging on these markets. The hedging mechanism proposed is based on the use of put options. The paper uses historical data of actual coffee put options contracts to estimate the costs of the mechanism; the benefits are inferred from field evidence. It emerges that the costs are relatively low, the benefits outweighing the costs for most producers. The paper then looks at the operational feasibility of the mechanism for producers and compares it with other hedging mechanisms. The mechanisms differ in their strengths and weaknesses; their choice largely depending on their viability in individual coffee producing countries.
'Cheese Makers Are Always Women': Gendered representations of farm life in the agricultural press

Drawing upon the 'Farmlife' pages of Farmers' Weekly, the most significant farming publication in the UK, this article assesses the ways in which gender identities in farming are represented in text and images. Lead articles from 1976 and 1996 issues of 'Farmlife' are taken as the research focus to determine how representations have altered in line with restructuring of the agricultural industry. Reference is made to Connell's notions of hegemonic masculinity and emphasised femininity to inform the analysis about the ways in which these gender identities are (re)produced through the British farming media. A simple typology is derived from the articles, which assists in revealing a remarkable degree of consistency in the portrayal of gender identities over time. Case studies reveal that hegemonic masculinity and emphasised femininity are perpetuated through the farming media, but in increasingly subtle and fragmented ways. The limitations of Connell's conceptualisation are revealed, particularly in its ability to accommodate multiple constructions of femininity. Suggestions are made for research that investigates the consumers of these media products.
Soil pH trends in a sagebrush meadow and Ponderosa pine ecosystem

1. The acidification effect of Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) needles on soil pH was tested by sampling and measuring pH of soil in areas with ponderosa pine needle litter and without. 2. A total of three depth classes for five samples in each category of pine needles present and absent were collected and analyzed. 3. Statistical analysis of pH data did not indicate statistically significant differences between depth classes and presence or absence of pine needles. 4. A comparison with other studies indicates that there are inconsistent trends in different ecosystems with pH and soil depth. 5. Synthesis. Multiple factors such as human influence, mineral composition, and decomposing litter can acidify soil while mineral balance and fire act as buffering agents. A comparison of the pH of soil at different depths with the presence and absence of ponderosa pine needle litter found no statistically significant differences. The study still recommends continuous monitoring of soil pH given the human factors and park management which may contribute to acidification of soil in Ponderosa State Park.
Multi-machine fuzzy logic excitation and governor stabilizers design using genetic algorithms

In this paper, we have extended to the multimachine case our developed control model for SMIB stability improvement previously published. This model implements the fuzzy stabilizer in excitation and/or in turbine Governor systems (FLCE, FLCG and FLCEG). The optimal adjustment of the fuzzy logic controllers using genetic algorithm is carried out. Results obtained by nonlinear simulation using Matlab/Simulink of a multimachine system show the effectiveness of using both fuzzy controllers to exciter (FLCE) and to governor (FLCG) at the same time (FLCEG) for large and small disturbances.
Impact of brief or extended exercise training on the benefit of a dyspnea self-management program in COPD.

PURPOSE To evaluate the differences in the long-term outcomes of dyspnea, exercise performance, health-related quality of life, and health resource utilization following a dyspnea self-management program with 3 different "doses" of supervised exercise. PATIENTS AND METHODS In a prospective, randomized, single-blind, 1-year trial, patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (N = 103; age 66 +/- 8, females 57; FEV1 44.8% +/- 14% predicted) were randomly assigned to either: (1) Dyspnea self-management program (DM); (2) DM plus 4 supervised exercise sessions (DM-exposure); or (3) DM plus 24 supervised exercise sessions (DM-training). The dyspnea self-management program included individualized education and demonstration of dyspnea self-management strategies, an individualized home walking prescription, and biweekly nurse telephone calls. Outcomes were measured at baseline and every 2 months for 1 year. RESULTS The DM-training group had significantly greater improvements in dyspnea during incremental treadmill test and in exercise performance on the incremental and endurance treadmill tests at 6 and 12 months compared with the other 2 groups. Dyspnea with activities of daily living and self-reported physical functioning significantly improved for all groups over time. The dose-response relationship between supervised exercise and improvement in dyspnea present at 2 months was not sustained over the year. CONCLUSION Consistent with previous findings from evaluation studies of pulmonary rehabilitation programs, the greater number of supervised exercise training sessions improved laboratory dyspnea and performance more than the other two doses of exercise. In the long term, the improvement in dyspnea with activities of daily living and physical functioning was similar for all 3 groups.
A Low-Power Low-Noise Decade-Bandwidth Switched Transconductor Mixer With AC-Coupled LO Buffers

In this paper, a modified switched transconductor mixer structure is proposed to realize a low-power, low-noise, and wideband mixer, in which, a transconductor stage with fixed dc operating point is switched by the ac-coupled local oscillator (LO) signal. In this way, only a small LO signal is required to turn the transconductor ON and OFF, and thus a low-power LO buffer can be used to achieve wideband down-conversion. To further expand the bandwidth, the inductive peaking technique is used at the RF port to eliminate the capacitive loading effect resulted from the input transistors. As the noise power from LO stage appears in common mode at the mixer output, good noise performance is realized, too. Additionally, output distortion-cancellation IF buffer is added to facilitate the testing. Fabricated in the 0.13- $\mu \text{m}$ CMOS process, 15.5–17.5-dB gain and 4–5.2-dB noise figure are achieved in 1–10-GHz bandwidth. The mixer core consumes a low power of 8.3 mW from 1.5-V supply, and the whole chip consumes 22.3 mW, including the IF buffer. The active chip area is less than 0.2 mm2.
Inhibition of cellular and systemic inflammation cues in human bronchial epithelial cells by melanocortin-related peptides: mechanism of KPV action and a role for MC3R agonists.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Chemokine signaling from airway epithelium regulates macrophage recruitment to the lung in inflammatory diseases such as asthma. This study investigates the mechanism by which the α-melanocyte stimulating hormone-derived tripeptide, KPV, and the agonist of the dominant melanocortin receptor in airway epithelium (MC3R), γ-melanocyte stimulating hormone (γ-MSH), suppress inflammation in immortalised human bronchial airway epithelium. METHODS TNFα and rhino syncitial virus (RSV)-evoked nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) signaling was measured in immortalised human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE14o-) in response to KPV and γMSH. Cellular and systemic inflammatory signaling was measured by NFκB reporter gene and chemokine (IL8, eotaxin) secretion, respectively. RESULTS KPV and γMSH evoked a dose-dependent inhibition of NFκB, matrix metalloproteinase-9 activity, IL8 and eotaxin secretion. The KPV effect was associated with its nuclear import, IκBα stabilisation and suppressed nuclear translocation of YFP-tagged p65RelA. Competition assays revealed an interaction between KPV and the Imp-α3 binding site on p65RelA which may involve blockade of the importin-α armadillo domain 7 and 8. In contrast, the γMSH anti-inflammatory effect required MC3R whose apical expression occurred in epithelium distributed along the length of the respiratory tree in vivo. CONCLUSION KPV and γMSH respectively suppress NFκB signalling in airway epithelium by: i) inhibition of p65RelA nuclear import and, ii) epithelial MC3R activation. Melanocortin peptides therefore provide a robust mechanism for targeting airway inflammation in lung disease.
Iterative least squares estimators in nonlinear image restoration

The concept of iterative least squares estimation as applied to nonlinear image restoration is considered. Regarding the convergence analysis of nonlinear iterative algorithms, the potential of the global convergence theorem (GCT) is explored. The theoretical analysis is performed on a general class of nonlinear algorithms, which defines a signal-dependent linear mapping of the residual. The descent properties of two normed functions are considered. Furthermore, a procedure for the selection of the iteration parameter is introduced. The steepest descent (SD) iterative approach for the solution of the least squares optimization problem is introduced. The convergence properties of the particular algorithm are readily derived on the basis of the generalized analysis and the GCT. The factors that affect the convergence rate of the SD algorithm are thoroughly studied. In the case of the SD algorithm, structural modifications are proposed, and two hybrid-SD algorithms attain convergence in a more uniform fashion with respect to their entries. In general, the algorithms achieve larger convergence rates than the conventional SD technique. >