Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Extracellular Nitric Oxide Release Mediates Soluble Guanylate Cyclase-Independent Vasodilator Action of Spermine NONOate: Comparison with Other Nitric Oxide Donors in Isolated Rat Femoral Arteries

Nitric oxide (NO) and NO donors exhibit actions that are not entirely mediated by soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC). The site of NO release may influence the involvement of sGC-independent effects. Here we use spermine NONOate (SPER/NO) to release NO extracellularly, compared with other NO donors. Isolated rat femoral arteries were perfused luminally and perfusion pressure monitored. Vessels were contracted with phenylephrine (2–14 &mgr;M) in the presence of an NO synthase inhibitor (Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester; 20 &mgr;M). Vasodilator responses to NO donors were assessed before and after perfusion of an sGC inhibitor (1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one; ODQ; 20 &mgr;M), NO scavengers (hemoglobin; Hb & hydroquinone; HQ), and a superoxide generator (duroquinone; DQ). ODQ (20 &mgr;M) abolished the vasodilator responses to glyceryl trinitrate (10−8–10−3 M), and sodium nitroprusside (10−8–10−4 M), which release NO intracellularly. ODQ (20 &mgr;M) attenuated, but failed to abolish, the vasodilator responses to SPER/NO (10−6–10−3 M). ODQ abolished responses to S-nitrosoglutathione and S-nitroso-N-valeryl-D-penicillamine (10−8–10−4 M), but a small residual vasodilatation remained in response to 10−3 M. In the presence of ODQ, the remaining vasodilatation to SPER/NO was all but abolished by scavengers of extracellular NO (Hb; 10 &mgr;M, HQ; 100 &mgr;M). Superoxide generation (DQ; 100 &mgr;M) also attenuated ODQ-resistant vasodilatation. The data suggest that, in rat femoral arteries, NO donors that are capable of releasing extracellular NO cause vasodilatation that is only partially mediated by sGC. Lack of augmentation of sGC-independent effects by superoxide suggests that they are not mediated by peroxynitrite.
Self-synthesis based super-resolution for a natural image

In this paper, we propose self-synthesis based super-resolution algorithm for natural images. The proposed method analyzes the property of the natural image and focuses on the self-similarity of natural objects. Structure and texture components are extracted from the self-image and synthesized on the interpolated image with matching weights to restore the self-similarity of interpolated image. Then, the synthesized image is compensated with MAP estimator to prevent artifacts. Experimental results show that the proposed method gives more natural texture in terms of human perception.
Research on design and optimization of municipal pipe networks wireless monitoring system

A wireless monitoring system consisted by microcomputer MSP430F149 processors and CC1100 wireless modules is developed as to meet the requirements of the development of modern municipal pipe networks. Emphases of this paper are placed on strive to attain technical breakthrough of the optimization of wireless communication protocols, the optimal design of soft ware and communication protocols, and finally, the feasibility and reliability of the outcomes is tested through practical experiments. The results show that the system realizes automated real-time monitoring, and it embraces merits of timeliness, high efficiency, low energy consumption, low cost, accuracy, convenience, etc.
A nano-ampere current reference circuit and its temperature dependence control by using temperature characteristics of carrier mobilities

We have developed a nano-ampere CMOS current reference circuit that is tolerant to threshold voltage variations. This paper describes the circuit and its temperature dependence control technique for ultra-low power LSIs. Because the generated current increases with temperature, we propose a temperature dependence control architecture for a reference current by using the different temperature characteristics of “electron” and “hole” mobilities. Experiment results demonstrated that the circuit can generate a temperature compensated reference current of 9.95 nA and that the temperature dependence of the output reference current can be controlled by using the different temperature dependences of electron and hole mobilities. The temperature dependence controllability was 8.57 pA/˚C·bit and its total current dissipation was 68.1 nA.
Genetic Immunization Converts the Trypanosoma cruzi B-Cell Mitogen Proline Racemase to an Effective Immunogen

ABSTRACT Trypanosoma cruzi is the etiologic agent of Chagas' disease. Acute T. cruzi infection results in polyclonal B-cell activation and delayed specific humoral immunity. T. cruzi proline racemase (TcPRAC), a T. cruzi B-cell mitogen, may contribute to this dysfunctional humoral response. Stimulation of murine splenocytes with recombinant protein (rTcPRAC) induced B-cell proliferation, antibody secretion, interleukin-10 (IL-10) production, and upregulation of CD69 and CD86 on B cells. Marginal zone (MZ) B cells are more responsive to T-cell-independent (TI) rTcPRAC stimulation than are follicular mature (FM) B cells in terms of proliferation, antibody secretion, and IL-10 production. During experimental T. cruzi infection, TcPRAC-specific IgG remained undetectable when responses to other T. cruzi antigens developed. Conversely, intradermal genetic immunization via gene gun (GG) delivered TcPRAC as an immunogen, generating high-titer TcPRAC-specific IgG without B-cell dysfunction. TcPRAC GG immunization led to antigen-specific splenic memory B-cell and bone marrow plasma cell formation. TcPRAC-specific IgG bound mitogenic rTcPRAC, decreasing subsequent B-cell activation. GG immunization with rTcPRAC DNA was nonmitogenic and did not affect the generation of specific IgG to another T. cruzi antigen, complement regulatory protein (CRP). These data demonstrate the utility of genetic immunization for the conversion of a protein mitogen to an effective antigen. Furthermore, coimmunization of TcPRAC with another T. cruzi antigen indicates the usefulness of this approach for multivalent vaccine development.
From motion capture to interactive virtual worlds: towards unconstrained motion-capture algorithms for real-time performance-driven character animation

This dissertation takes performance-driven character animation as a representative application and advances motion capture algorithms and animation methods to meet its high demands. Existing approaches have either coarse resolution and restricted capture volume, require expensive and complex multi-camera systems, or use intrusive suits and controllers. For motion capture, set-up time is reduced using fewer cameras, accuracy is increased despite occlusions and general environments, initialization is automated, and free roaming is enabled by egocentric cameras. For animation, increased robustness enables the use of low-cost sensors input, custom control gesture definition is guided to support novice users, and animation expressiveness is increased. The important contributions are: 1) an analytic and differentiable visibility model for pose optimization under strong occlusions, 2) a volumetric contour model for automatic actor initialization in general scenes, 3) a method to annotate and augment image-pose databases automatically, 4) the utilization of unlabeled examples for character control, and 5) the generalization and disambiguation of cyclical gestures for faithful character animation. In summary, the whole process of human motion capture, processing, and application to animation is advanced. These advances on the state of the art have the potential to improve many interactive applications, within and outside virtual reality.
Effect of an efflux pump inhibitor on the MIC of nalidixic acid for Acinetobacter baumannii and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia clinical isolates.

The results show that this inhibitor only affects the MIC of nalidixic acid, while the MIC of ciprofloxacin did not change. In 45% of the A. baumannii clinical isolates the MIC of nalidixic acid decreased at least eight-fold in the presence of this compound, while the MIC decreased in only 18% of the S. maltophilia clinical isolates (Table). The results obtained show that this efflux pump inhibitor affects A. baumannii such that the only MIC changes observed were those of nalidixic acid. The prevalence of strains of S. maltophilia in which the MIC of nalidixic acid was affected by this inhibitor was very low in comparison with A. baumannii. As well as these two quinolones, we tested the MIC of norfloxacin for some strains of the two species, in the presence and the absence of MC 207,110, and did not find any change in the MIC of this fluoroquinolone for any of the strains tested. These results indicate that A. baumannii possesses an efflux pump that is
Alginate drug delivery systems: application in context of pharmaceutical and biomedical research

Abstract Alginates are natural polymers widely used in the food industry because of their biocompatible, biodegradable character, nontoxicity and easy availability. The bioadhesive character of alginates makes them useful in the pharmaceutical industry as well. The application areas of sodium alginate-based drug delivery systems are many and these systems can be formulated as gels, matrices, membranes, nanospheres, microspheres, etc. Worldwide researchers are exploring possible applications of alginates as coating material, preparation of controlled-release drug delivery systems such as microspheres, beads, pellets, gels, fibers, membranes, etc. In the present review, such applications of alginates are discussed.
Neuroscience-Based Lie Detection: The Urgent Need for Regulation

“Illustration” or “map” are among the most frequently used words for translating the Chinese character tu, a graphic representation of any phenomenon that can be pictured in life and society, whether in traditional China or elsewhere. Investigations of the early role of tu in Chinese culture first set out to answer questions about who produced tu, the background of its originator, and the originator's purpose. How were pictures conceptualized? Interpreted? In examining tu, Chinese scholars stressed the relational aspect of tu and shu (writing) to answer both these questions, as well as to the importance of not robbing an image of its overall beauty and life with too much graphic detail. In the West, specific concepts of technical or scientific illustrations did not exist before the Renaissance. With the coming of that age, technical illustration became a specific branch of knowledge and activity, with its own specific goals and ends.
Predictive value of Ki67 and p53 in locally advanced rectal cancer: correlation with thymidylate synthase and histopathological tumor regression after neoadjuvant 5-FU-based chemoradiotherapy.

AIM To investigate the predictive value of Ki67 and p53 and their correlation with thymidylate synthase (TS) gene expression in a rectal cancer patient cohort treated according to a standardized recommended neoadjuvant treatment regimen. METHODS Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded pre-therapeutical tumor biopsies (n = 22) and post-therapeutical resection specimens (n = 40) from patients with rectal adenocarcinoma (clinical UICC stage II/III) receiving standardized neoadjuvant 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) based chemoradiotherapy were studied for Ki67 and p53 expression by immunohistochemistry and correlated with TS mRNA expression by quantitative TaqMan real-time PCR after laser microdissection. The results were compared with histopathological tumor regression according to a standardized semiquantitative score grading system. RESULTS Responders (patients with high tumor regression) showed a significantly lower Ki67 expression than non-responders in the pre-therapeutical tumor biopsies (81.2% vs 16.7%; P < 0.05) as well as in the post-therapeutical resection specimens (75.8% vs 14.3%; P < 0.01). High TS mRNA expression was significantly correlated with a high Ki67 index and low TS mRNA expression was significantly correlated with a low Ki67 index in the pre-therapeutical tumor biopsies (corr. coef. = 0.46; P < 0.01) as well as in the post-therapeutical resection specimens (corr. coef. = 0.40; P < 0.05). No significant association was found between p53 and TS mRNA expression or tumor regression. CONCLUSION Ki67 has, like TS, predictive value in rectal cancer patients after neoadjuvant 5-FU based chemoradiotherapy. The close correlation between Ki67 and TS indicates that TS is involved in active cell cycle processes.
Chemokines and their receptors: orchestrating a fine balance between health and disease

Chemokines are a family of small, structurally related proteins that may participate in immune and inflammatory responses through the chemoattraction and activation of leukocytes. These chemotactic cytokines mediate their effects by binding to the seven transmembrane domain superfamily of receptor proteins. Besides their role in leukocyte trafficking, chemokines and their receptors have been found to be implicated in a number of inflammatory and infectious diseases. Chemokines also appear to have beneficial effects involving tissue repair or tumor progression, angiogenesis, hematopoiesis, and antimicrobial mechanisms. These have recently been found to be involved in coordinating the cellular communication in the central nervous system as well. Based on these findings, chemokines agonists and antagonists targeted against chemokines and their receptors have the potential to become therapeutically important in the treatment of various diseases. This review explores the role of the chemokine system in the pathophysiology of diseases and their potential as targets for therapy.
Synthesis, Biological, and Computational Evaluation of Substituted 1‐(2‐Methoxyphenyl)‐4‐(1‐phenethylpiperidin‐4‐yl)piperazines and 1‐(2‐Methoxyphenyl)‐4‐[(1‐phenethylpiperidin‐4‐yl)methyl]piperazines as Dopaminergic Ligands

Sixteen new 1‐(2‐methoxyphenyl)‐4‐(1‐phenethylpiperidin‐4‐yl)piperazines and 1‐(2‐methoxyphenyl)‐4‐[(1‐phenethylpiperidin‐4‐yl)methyl]piperazines were synthesized to be used as probes for mapping the dopamine D2 receptor (D2DAR) arylpiperazine binding site. All compounds were evaluated for their affinity toward D2DAR in an in vitro competitive displacement assay. The most active one was 1‐(2‐methoxyphenyl)‐4‐{[1‐(3‐nitrophenethyl)piperidin‐4‐yl]methyl}piperazine (25) with an affinity of Ki = 54 nM. Docking analysis was conducted on all herein described compounds, whereas molecular dynamic simulation was performed on ligand 25 to establish its mode of interaction with D2DAR. Two possible docking orientations are proposed; the one with a salt bridge between the piperidine moiety and Asp114 of D2DAR is more stable.
An environment for energy consumption analysis of cache memories in SoC platforms

The tuning of cache architectures in platforms for embedded systems applications can dramatically reduce energy consumption. The existing cache exploration environments constrain the designer to analyze cache energy consumption on single processor systems and worse, systems that are based on a single processor type. In this paper is presented the PCacheEnergyAnalyzer environment for energy consumption analysis of cache memory on SoC platforms. This is a powerful energy analysis environment that combines the use of efficient tools to provide static and dynamic energy consumption analysis, the flexibility to support the architecture exploration of cache memories on platforms that are not bound to a specific processor, and fast simulation techniques. The proposed environment has been integrated into the SoC modeling framework PDesigner, providing a user-friendly graphical interface allowing the integrated modeling and cache energy analysis of SoCs. The PCacheEnergyAnalyzer has been validated with four applications of the Mediabench suite benchmark.
Children's and Adults' Recall of Television and Print News in Children's and Adult News Formats

Experiments comparing television and print news have shown that children learn most from television, whereas adults learn most from print. An experiment was conducted in which both 96 children (5th and 6th graders) and 96 adults (university students) were presented with a sequence of five news stories, either in their original televised form or in a printed version. Half of the participants were presented with stories taken from a children's news program (high audiovisual redundancy), whereas the other participants were exposed to corresponding stories adopted from an adult news program (low audiovisual redundancy). Results indicated that both children and adults learned most from television stories when presented in a children's news format, whereas the recall advantage of television disappeared when adult news stories were involved. The results suggest that the correspondence between verbal and visual content of television stories is decisive for the relative effectiveness of television and print.
HOST‐PLANT SWITCHES AND THE EVOLUTION OF CHEMICAL DEFENSE AND LIFE HISTORY IN THE LEAF BEETLE GENUS OREINA

Insect‐plant interactions have played a prominent role in investigating phylogenetic constraints in the evolution of ecological traits. The patterns of host association among specialized insects have often been described as highly conservative, yet not all specialized herbivorous insect lineages display the same degree of fidelity to their host plants. In this paper, we present an estimate of the evolutionary history of the leaf beetle genus Oreina. This genus displays an amazing flexibility in several aspects of its ecology and life history: (1) host plant switches in Oreina occurred between plant families or distantly related tribes within families and thereby to more distantly related plants than in several model systems that have contributed to the idea of parallel cladogenesis; (2) all species of the genus are chemically defended, but within the genus a transition between autogenous production of defensive toxins and sequestration of secondary plant compounds has occurred; and (3) reproductive strategies in the genus range from oviparity to viviparity including all intermediates that could allow the gradual evolution of viviparity. Cladistic analysis of 18 allozyme loci found two most parsimonious trees that differ only in the branching of one species. According to this phylogeny estimate, Oreina species were originally associated with Asteraceae, with an inclusion of Apiaceae in the diet of one oligophagous species and an independent switch to Apiaceae in a derived clade. The original mode of defense appears to be the autogenous production of cardenolides as previously postulated; the additional sequestration of pyrrolizidine alkaloids could have either originated at the base of the genus or have arisen three times independently in all species that switched to plants containing these compounds. Viviparity apparently evolved twice in the genus, once without matrotrophy, through a retention of the eggs inside the female's oviducts, and once in combination with matrotrophy. We hypothesize that the combination of autogenous defense and a life history that involves mobile externally feeding larvae allowed these beetles to switch host plants more readily than has been reported for highly conservative systems.
The effect of system characteristics on very-short-term load forecasting

Over the past three decades, the number of papers published on Load Forecasting (LF) has increased exponentially, largely due to the advance of Artificial-Intelligence/Machine Learning techniques. Most research has focused on short-term load forecasting (STLF), hours or days in advance. The rise of the Smart Grid and Microgrid concepts require load demand control at shorter lead times, at a resolution of minutes, leading to the need for Very Short Term Load Forecasting (VSTLF). There is not a significant body of research on this topic. Additionally, attention needs to be paid to small power systems, far smaller than those studied in most of the literature. Previous work has used statistical techniques to characterize power systems and studied univariate methods for accurate VSTLF. This study builds upon the previous research and investigates the relationship between system characteristics and the achievable VSTLF accuracy. The results presented here are based on study and simulated forecasting of three years' worth of real load data obtained from the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO).
Whole-body-MRI with DWIBS for detecting distant metastases in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: a feasibility study

Poster: "ECR 2013 / C-2415 / Whole-body-MRI with DWIBS for detecting distant metastases in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: a feasibility study" by: "D. P. Noij, E. J. Boerhout, I. C. Pieters - Van den Bos, E. F. I. Comans, D. E. Oprea-Lager, R. Reinhard, R. de Bree, J. A. Castelijns; Amsterdam/NL"
Outbreak of Mycobacterium mucogenicum Bloodstream Infections among Patients with Sickle Cell Disease in an Outpatient Setting

Objective. To study an outbreak of Mycobacterium mucogenicum bloodstream infections in an outpatient setting. Design. Outbreak investigation and retrospective chart review. Setting. University outpatient clinic. Patients. Patients whose blood cultures tested positive for M. mucogenicum in May or June 2008. Methods. An outbreak investigation and a review of infection control practices were conducted. During the process, environmental culture samples were obtained. Isolates from patients and the environment were genotyped with the DiversiLab typing system to identify the source. Chart reviews were conducted to study the management and outcomes of the patients. Results. Four patients with sickle cell disease and implanted ports followed in the same hematology outpatient clinic developed blood cultures positive for M. mucogenicum. A nurse in the clinic had prepared intravenous port flushes on the sink counter, using a saline bag that was hanging over the sink throughout the shift. None of the environmental cultures grew M. mucogenicum except for the tap water from 2 rooms, 1 of which had a faucet aerator. The 4 patient isolates and the tap water isolate from the room with the aerator were found to have greater than 98.5% similarity. The subcutaneous ports were removed, and patients cleared their infections after a course of antibiotic therapy. Conclusion. The source of the M. mucogenicum bacteremia outbreak was identified by genotyping analysis as the clinic tap water supply. The preparation of intravenous medications near the sink was likely an important factor in transmission, along with the presence of a faucet aerator.
Using network analysis to evaluate success factors for new product development

Although new product development (NPD) is dynamic and complex in nature, it still needs to be designed and managed. Applying systems thinking helps R&D managers to design their engineering organization and to improve engineering performance. However, no meta-analysis of NPD success factors has focused on causal networks between identified factors. Thus, network analysis was applied within a multiple case study context. Results indicate that success factors trying to explain new product development success are highly interrelated. Using two network analysis approaches, it was possible to build several clusters based on the functional roles of the factors. First, factors were ranked due to their degree of activeness. Second, the overall system contribution of each factor was determined. The results help R&D managers to identify patterns of system behavior and key variables, which are essential to increase engineering performance.