Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intestinal barrier: An interface between health and disease

Abstract The intestine constitutes the largest interface between a person and his or her environment, and an intact intestinal barrier is thus essential in maintaining health and preventing tissue injury and several diseases. The intestinal barrier has various immunological and non‐immunological components. The epithelial barrier is one of the most important non‐immunological components. Hyperpermeability of this barrier is believed to contribute to the pathogenesis of several gastrointestinal disorders including inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease and food allergy. Hence, assessing barrier integrity is of the utmost importance. One of the more quantitative gauges for this assessment is transepithelial permeability of various molecular probes, among which sugars are commonly used. Measures of intestinal permeability might also be useful as markers for assessment of prognosis and follow up in various gastrointestinal disorders. The present article is a review of the normal and abnormal functioning of the intestinal barrier, the diseases that can result from loss of barrier integrity, and some promising agents and strategies for restoring barrier normality and integrity.
Neuropsychological Concomitants of Calculation Skills in College Students Referred for Learning Difficulties

The contributions of 3 conceptual domains from a theoretical model of math skill (Geary, 1993) were examined in a large sample of college students referred for assessment of possible learning disorders. Measures were chosen from a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, and from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, to represent each of the 3 domains (semantic retrieval, executive-procedural, and visuospatial). The proposed model was examined using structural equation modeling (LISREL), and factors representing the 3 latent domains were derived. The domains of semantic retrieval and executive-procedural skills together accounted for approximately 17% of the variance in calculation skills. The domain of visuospatial skills failed to account for significant incremental variance.
Drosophila Crumbs prevents ectopic Notch activation in developing wings by inhibiting ligand-independent endocytosis

Many signalling components are apically restricted in epithelial cells, and receptor localisation and abundance is key for morphogenesis and tissue homeostasis. Hence, controlling apicobasal epithelial polarity is crucial for proper signalling. Notch is a ubiquitously expressed, apically localised receptor, which performs a plethora of functions; therefore, its activity has to be tightly regulated. Here, we show that Drosophila Crumbs, an evolutionarily conserved polarity determinant, prevents Notch endocytosis in developing wings through direct interaction between the two proteins. Notch endocytosis in the absence of Crumbs results in the activation of the ligand-independent, Deltex-dependent Notch signalling pathway, and does not require the ligands Delta and Serrate or γ-secretase activity. This function of Crumbs is not due to general defects in apicobasal polarity, as localisation of other apical proteins is unaffected. Our data reveal a mechanism to explain how Crumbs directly controls localisation and trafficking of the potent Notch receptor, and adds yet another aspect of Crumbs regulation in Notch pathway activity. Furthermore, our data highlight a close link between the apical determinant Crumbs, receptor trafficking and tissue homeostasis. Summary: In developing Drosophila wings, the apical determinant Crumbs stabilises the Notch receptor on apical membranes via direct interaction between their extracellular domains.
Bulimia nervosa: treatment and short-term outcome

Synopsis Fifty-six bulimia nervosa patients were treated by means of a behavioural approach and followed for at least one year after completion or dropping out of treatment. Outcome was encouraging in about half of the patients and several psychiatric indicators, such as duration of illness and response to treatment, were identified. The significance of the findings and unresolved methodological issues are discussed.
Effect of fatiguing maximal voluntary contraction on excitatory and inhibitory responses elicited by transcranial magnetic motor cortex stimulation

Vertex transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) elicited tibialis anterior motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and silent periods (SPs) that were recorded during and following isometric maximal volitional contraction (MVC). During MVC in 6 healthy subjects, MEP amplitudes in the exercised muscle showed an increasing trend from an initial value of 4539 ± 809 μV (mean ± SE) to 550 ± 908 μV (P < 0.13) while force and EMG decreased (P < 0.01). Also, SP duration increased from 165 ± 37 ms to 231 ± 32 ms (P < 0.01). Thus, during a fatiguing MVC both excitatory and inhibitory TMS‐induced responses increased. TMS delivered during repeated brief 10% MVC contractions before and after a fatiguing MVC in 5 subjects, showed no change in MEP amplitude but SP duration was prolonged after MVC. This SP prolongation was focal to the exercised muscle. Silent periods recorded after pyramidal tract stimulation were unchanged following the MVC. These results suggest that MEP and SP might have common sources of facilitation during an MVC and that inhibitory mechanisms remain focally augmented following a fatiguing MVC. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
A new class of electric discharges in clouds of negatively charged water droplets

We have observed unusual plasma formations (UPFs) in artificial clouds of charged water droplets using a high-speed infrared camera operating in conjunction with a high-speed visible-range camera. Inferred plasma parameters were close to those of long-spark leaders observed in the same experiments, while the channel morphology was distinctly different from that of leaders, so that UPFs can be viewed as a new type of in-cloud discharge. These formations can occur in the absence of spark leaders and appear to be manifestations of collective processes building, essentially from scratch, a complex hierarchical network of interacting channels at different stages of development (some of which are hot and live for milliseconds). We believe that the phenomenon should commonly occur in thunderclouds and might give insights on the missing link in the still poorly understood lightning initiation process.
Self-report, personality and autonomic system modulation in response to empathic conflictual versus non conflictual situation

The present study integrated three different measures of emotional empathic behaviour in a social context: verbal self-report measures (empathic response, emotional involvement, emotional significance, and valence), autonomic response (skin conductance, SCR, and heart rate, HR), and personal response to empathic scale (BEES). Thirty-five younger adults were presented with different interpersonal scene types (co-operation, non-co-operation, conflict, neutral). Different empathic sensitivity to these interpersonal situations was tested, since we hypothesised self-report on empathy, emotional involvement and valence varied as a function of interpersonal context. As supposed, self-report measures of empathy and autonomic measures were found to be related: SCR and HR increased in response to conflictual and non-co-operative situations. Moreover, high empathic subjects were more responsive (on both self-report and autonomic response) to empathy-related situations than low empathic subjects. The convergence of these multidimensional measures are discussed: emotional components of empathy are elucidated in relation to self-report, autonomic modulation, and personality trait variation.
Effect of Stator Winding Connection of Five-Phase Induction Machines on Torque Ripples Under Open Line Condition

One of the main challenges in designing high-power drive systems is the quality of the developed torque. High-torque-ripple magnitudes result in serious vibration and acoustic noise problems that affect the lifetime of a drive train. Multiphase machines intrinsically offer the torque with higher quality and are also being promoted for their high fault tolerant capability when compared with their three-phase counterparts. During open-phase conditions, the induced nonfundamental sequence current components have a detrimental effect on the machine performance especially under open-loop control. Although optimal current control is usually employed to ensure certain optimization criterion, such as minimizing torque ripples, optimizing flux distribution, or minimizing copper loss, are met, it usually entails a sophisticated current controller. This paper studies the effect of a stator winding connection of a five-phase induction machine on the induced torque ripples. Two possible connections, namely, star and pentagon connections are compared under healthy as well as fault conditions with one-line open. The comparison is conducted using both finite-element simulation and experimental results using a 1.5-Hp five-phase prototype induction machine. The comparison shows that the pentagon connection reduces the machine-induced torque ripples and improves the overall machine performance under fault conditions.
Comparative Analysis on the Performance of Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) Classification Algorithms

There is range of AI Algorithms used in data mining to determine the hidden or unknown information in a datasets. AI techniques are wide and too many to mention and most of these techniques have their own subfields. This paper determines the accuracy and duration of two AI classification algorithms: Bayesian network (naive Bayes) and neural network (multilayer perceptron). This is important because the application of such techniques in Data mining has been studied extensively since 1950s (1). This paper analyses the result of iris dataset from UCI machine learning repository using Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (Weka). The two algorithms were used in explorer window to determine and compare the classifier errors and time taken to build the model and also to compare the Error rate of each algorithm in experimenter window. It is observed from the results that naïve Bayes runs faster but produce high error rate and low accuracy while Neural Network [Multilayer perceptron] is more desirable in Data mining although it takes longer training time, however it gives low error rate and high accuracy.
Epigenetic modification of α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase enhances cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer

Although cisplatin is one of the most effective antitumor drugs for ovarian cancer, the emergence of chemoresistance to cisplatin in over 80% of initially responsive patients is a major barrier to successful therapy. The precise mechanisms underlying the development of cisplatin resistance are not fully understood, but alteration of DNA methylation associated with aberrant gene silencing may play a role. To identify epigenetically regulated genes directly associated with ovarian cancer cisplatin resistance, we compared the expression and methylation profiles of cisplatin-sensitive and -resistant human ovarian cancer cell lines. We identified α-Nacetylgalactosaminidase (NAGA) as one of the key candidate genes for cisplatin drug response. Interestingly, in cisplatin-resistant cell lines, NAGA was significantly downregulated and hypermethylated at a promoter CpG site at position +251 relative to the transcriptional start site. Low NAGA expression in cisplatin-resistant cell lines was restored by treatment with a DNA demethylation agent, indicating transcriptional silencing by hyper-DNA methylation. Furthermore, overexpression of NAGA in cisplatin-resistant lines induced cytotoxicity in response to cisplatin, whereas depletion of NAGA expression increased cisplatin chemoresistance, suggesting an essential role of NAGA in sensitizing ovarian cells to cisplatin. These findings indicate that NAGA acts as a cisplatin sensitizer and its gene silencing by hypermethylation confers resistance to cisplatin in ovarian cancer. Therefore, we suggest NAGA may be a promising potential therapeutic target for improvement of sensitivity to cisplatin in ovarian cancer.
Obese Yeast: Triglyceride Lipolysis Is Functionally Conserved from Mammals to Yeast*

Storage and degradation of triglycerides are essential processes to ensure energy homeostasis and availability of precursors for membrane lipid synthesis. Recent evidence suggests that an emerging class of enzymes containing a conserved patatin domain are centrally important players in lipid degradation. Here we describe the identification and characterization of a major triglyceride lipase of the adipose triglyceride lipase/Brummer family, Tgl4, in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Elimination of Tgl4 in a tgl3 background led to fat yeast, rendering growing cells unable to degrade triglycerides. Tgl4 and Tgl3 lipases localized to lipid droplets, independent of each other. Serine 315 in the GXSXG lipase active site consensus sequence of the patatin domain of Tgl4 is essential for catalytic activity. Mouse adipose triglyceride lipase (which also contains a patatin domain but is otherwise highly divergent in primary structure from any yeast protein) localized to lipid droplets when expressed in yeast, and significantly restored triglyceride breakdown in tgl4 mutants in vivo. Our data identify yeast Tgl4 as a functional ortholog of mammalian adipose triglyceride lipase.
Brefeldin A exerts differential effects on anaplastic lymphoma kinase positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma and classical Hodgkin lymphoma cell lines

To obtain further insights into the biological differences of anaplastic lymphoma kinase positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALK+ ALCL) and classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), we screened microbial culture filtrates to search for compounds that would exert a significantly greater effect on the viability of ALK+ ALCL cell lines compared to HL cell lines and identified Brefeldin A (BFA) as a suitable candidate. BFA inhibited phosphorylation of ALK and its downstream molecule, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), one of the central pathways for the survival of ALK+ ALCL cells. In HL cell lines BFA did not affect CD30 expression or constitutive nuclear factor (NF)‐κB activity, both of which are critical for HL cell survival. BFA induced disruption of the Golgi apparatus in ALK+ ALCL cell lines, which was accompanied by a decrease in active ADP‐ribosylation factor 1 (ARF1), whereas BFA had no significant effect on these parameters in HL cell lines. These results add extra insights into the biological distinction between ALK+ ALCL and HL cells and highlight the Golgi apparatus as a target for the treatment of ALK+ ALCL.
Secretory TRAIL-Armed Natural Killer Cell–Based Therapy: In Vitro and In Vivo Colorectal Peritoneal Carcinomatosis Xenograft

Since its discovery in 1995, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has sparked growing interest among oncologists due to its remarkable ability to induce apoptosis in malignant human cells, but not in most normal cells. However, one major drawback is its fast clearance rate in vivo. Thus, the development of an alternative means of delivery may increase the effectiveness of TRAIL-based therapy. In this study, we developed a secretory TRAIL-armed natural killer (NK) cell–based therapy and assessed its cytotoxic effects on colorectal cancer cells and its tumoricidal efficacy on colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis xenograft. We generated genetically modified NK cells by transduction with a lentiviral vector consisting of a secretion signal domain, a trimerization domain, and an extracellular domain of the TRAIL gene. These NK cells secreted a glycosylated form of TRAIL fusion protein that induced apoptotic death. Intraperitoneally, but not intravenously, injected NK cells effectively accumulated at tumor sites, infiltrated tumor tissue, induced apoptosis, and delayed tumor growth. These results shed light on the therapeutic potential of genetically engineered NK cells to treat peritoneal carcinomatosis. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(7); 1591–601. ©2016 AACR.
A coordinated charging strategy for PV-Assisted charging station of electric vehicles based on charging service price

This paper presents a coordinated charging strategy based on time-of-use (TOU) charging service price, which is aimed at improving the utilization of photovoltaic (PV) and reducing the peak load of the station. Firstly, the price response model of drivers is introduced. Then the optimal model of charging load is constructed with the constraint of transformer capacity and property of periods. Particle swarm optimization is adopted to get division results of coordinated charging periods, as well as optimal solution of TOU price. Finally, simulations are done to verify the optimal strategy and a comparison between this strategy and an existing strategy is made. The results show that the proposed strategy can greatly improve the utilization of photovoltaic and reduce the peak load by TOU charging service price. Meanwhile, the optimization results of optimal load distribution are better than that of average load distribution.
Early Secondary Neurologic Deterioration After Blunt Spinal Trauma: A Review of the Literature.

OBJECTIVES The objectives were to review published reports of secondary neurologic deterioration in the early stages of care after blunt spinal trauma and describe its nature, context, and associated risk factors. METHODS The authors searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases for English-language studies. Cases were included meeting the criteria age 16 years or older, nonpenetrating trauma, and experiencing neurologic deterioration during prehospital or emergency department (ED) care prior to definitive management (e.g., discharge, spinal clearance by computed tomography, admission to an inpatient service, or surgical intervention). Results were qualitatively analyzed for characteristics and themes. RESULTS Forty-one qualifying cases were identified from 12 papers. In 30 cases, the new deficits were apparently spontaneous and were not detected until routine reassessment. In 12 cases the authors did attribute deterioration to temporally associated precipitants, seven of which were possibly iatrogenic; these included removal of a cervical collar, placement of a halo device, patient agitation, performance of flexion/extension films, "unintentional manipulation," falling in or near the ED, and forced collar application in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Thirteen cases occurred during prehospital care, none of them sudden and movement-provoked, and all reported by a single study. CONCLUSIONS Published reports of early secondary neurologic deterioration after blunt spinal trauma are exceptionally rare and generally poorly documented. High-risk features may include altered mental status and ankylosing spondylitis. It is unclear how often events are linked with spontaneous patient movement and whether such events are preventable.
New technique for capturing images containing invisible depth information on objects using brightness modulated light

We present a new technique for capturing images where depth information on an object is invisibly and simultaneously embedded in its 2-D image when its image is taken with a camera. An object is illuminated by light that contains invisible information whose characteristics change depending on depth; therefore, the images of objects captured with a camera also invisibly contain such information. This invisible information on depth can be extracted by appropriate image processing from the captured image of the object. Images taken with this technique can be treated as conventional 2-D images because the image format is for conventional 2-D images. 3-D images can also be constructed by abstracting depth information embedded in the image. We carried out experiments including a subjective test and confirmed that the projected pattern could be embedded in the captured image invisibly and its frequency component, from which the depth information on the object can be obtained, could be read out from the captured image. Moreover, we demonstrate that the depth map on a captured image of a practical scene can be obtained using this frequency component although it can now only be applied to scenes with simple configurations such as foregrounds and backgrounds.
Do Customer Acquisition Cost, Call Usage and Customer Retention Matter in the Wireless Industry?

The paper studies the valuation role of financial and non-financial information by examining a rich set of proprietary performance measures for the wireless communication industry during the period 1997-2004. We utilize a structural approach which links marketing fundamentals of customer acquisition cost, customer retention and call usage to financial performance and valuation. We provide evidence suggesting that customer acquisition cost positively affects retention rates and that both customer acquisition cost and call usage are important indicators of profitability. In addition, customer acquisition cost and customer retention are shown to be positively associated with firm value. Notwithstanding these findings, although the wireless communication industry is characterized by rapid pace of technological and commercial change, fundamental accounting numbers are found to be value relevant on a stand alone basis.
Risk Factors That Increase Mortality After Living Donor Liver Transplantation

Background. Female liver to male recipient is a well-accepted risk factor for graft loss in cadaveric liver transplantation. However, gender matching is infeasible because of an insufficient number of available donors. No studies have been performed on the role of gender in the field of living donor liver transplantation. This report investigates the effect of gender mismatch on the outcome of living donor liver transplantation. Methods. A total of 335 patients and donors were classified into four groups according to the following gender combinations: male donor to male recipient group (n=104), male donor to female recipient group (n=120), female donor to male recipient (FM) group (n=59), and female donor to female recipient group (n=52). Patient and graft survival were compared among the groups. We performed a multivariable analysis to identify the factors associated with patient mortality. Results. The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year patient survival rates in the FM group were 80.6%, 66.8%, 61.8%, and 47.7%, respectively. The FM group showed significantly shorter patient survival compared with the other three groups. Independent risk factors for patient mortality were: FM group (P=0.006), pretransplant diabetes mellitus (P=0.001), and a model for end-stage liver disease score more than or equal to 20 (P=0.004). Conclusions. Male recipients of transplants from female donors, pretransplant diabetes mellitus, and a model for end-stage liver disease score more than or equal to 20 have poor survival rates.
Epidemiology of intestinal colonization by members of the family Enterobacteriaceae highly resistant to erythromycin in a hematology-oncology unit

Intestinal colonization by highly erythromycin-resistant members of the family Enterobacteriaceae was surveyed for 4 years in a hematology-oncology unit. Fifty-four of 555 patients (9.7%) were colonized, each with a different strain. The incidence of intestinal carriage was not correlated with erythromycin consumption in the ward but was strongly associated with individual exposure to erythromycin.