Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Progression of diabetic nephropathy.

BACKGROUND Diabetic nephropathy is a major cause of renal failure. The decline in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is highly variable, ranging from 2 to 20, with a median of 12 mL/min/year. The risk factors of losing filtration power (progression promoters) have not been clearly identified. Furthermore, information on optimal arterial blood pressure, glycemic control, and cholesterol levels are lacking. METHODS We measured GFR with (51)Cr-EDTA plasma clearance technique, blood pressure, albuminuria, glycosylated hemoglobin A1c, and serum cholesterol every year for seven years (range 3 to 14 years) in 301 consecutive type 1 diabetic patients with diabetic nephropathy recruited consecutively during 1983 through 1997. Diabetic nephropathy was diagnosed clinically if the following criteria were fulfilled: persistent albuminuria> 200 microg/min, presence of diabetic retinopathy, and no evidence of other kidney or renal tract disease. In total, 271 patients received antihypertensive treatment at the end of the observation period. RESULTS Mean arterial blood pressure was 102 +/- 0.4 (SE) mm Hg. The average decline in GFR was 4.0 +/- 0.2 mL/min/year and even lower (1.9 +/- 0.5 mL/min/year) in the 30 persistently normotensive patients, none of whom had ever received antihypertensive treatment (P < 0.01). A multiple linear regression analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between the decline in GFR and mean arterial blood pressure, albuminuria, glycosylated hemoglobin A(1c), and serum cholesterol during follow-up (R(adj)(2) = 0.29, P < or = 0.001). No threshold level for blood pressure, glycosylated hemoglobin A(1c), or serum cholesterol was demonstrated. A two-hit model with mean arterial blood pressure and glycosylated hemoglobin A(1c) below and above the median values (102 mm Hg and 9.2%, respectively) revealed a rate of decline in GFR of only 1.5 mL/min/year in the lowest stratum compared with 6.1 mL/min/year in the highest stratum (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The prognosis of diabetic nephropathy has improved during the past decades, predominantly because of effective antihypertensive treatment. Genuine normotensive patients have a slow progression of nephropathy. Several modifiable variables have been identified as progression promoters.
Exercise effects on fitness and bone mineral density in early postmenopausal women: 1-year EFOPS results.

PURPOSE To determine the effect of an intense exercise training on physical fitness, coronary heart disease (CHD), bone mineral density (BMD), and parameters related to quality of life in early postmenopausal women with osteopenia. METHODS Fifty-nine fully compliant women (55.1 +/- 3.4 yr) without any medication or illness affecting bone metabolism took part in intensive exercise training (>2 sessions per week); 41 women served as nontraining control. Both groups received calcium and vitamin D (cholecalciferol) up to a maximum of 1500 mg x d(-1) calcium and 500 IU x d(-1) vitamin D. Bone density of the lumbar spine and hip (DXA Hologic QDR 4500), maximum isometric and dynamic strength (Schnell M3, Schnell-Trainer), VO2max (ZAN 600), and quality of life parameters including vasomotor symptoms related to menopause were measured at baseline and after 14 months. RESULTS After 14 months, there were significant differences between exercise and control groups concerning changes of bone density (LS exercise: +1.3%, P < 0.001 vs control: -1.2%, P < 0.001), maximum isometric strength (exercise: +11 to +32% (P < 0.001) vs control: -1.1 to +3.9%), VO2max (exercise: +11% (P < 0.001) vs control: -4% (P < 0.05)), and quality of life parameters (e.g., lower back pain). Dynamic strength (1RM tests) at four exercises, which was assessed in the exercise group only, increased significantly by 15-43% (all P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The intense exercise training program presented here was effective in improving strength, endurance, quality of life parameters, and even BMD in women in their critical early postmenopausal years.
Omalizumab decreases nonspecific airway hyperresponsiveness in vitro

Background: In asthmatic patients, both symptoms and hyperresponsiveness are related to immunoglobulin E (IgE) concentration in serum. The anti‐IgE monoclonal antibody omalizumab improved the control of asthma, but its effect on airway hyperresponsiveness is controversial. Passive sensitization reproduced in vitro a bronchial hyperresponsiveness, an increase in IgE bearing cells, and a mast cell degranulation. This study was designed to examine the effect of omalizumab on passive sensitization‐induced hyperresponsiveness, alterations in IgE positive inflammatory cells and mast cell degranulation within the bronchial wall.
MBPC power control in three-phase inverters for grid-connected applications

In this paper, a model-based predictive control strategy is proposed for three-phase inverters in order to control the power delivered to balanced/linear loads. Contrary to the classical control schemes, the proposed method does not require current proportional-integral controllers or a complex modulation stage. Discrete-time models of the inverter, filter and load are used to predict the future evolution of the load currents for each of the possible switching states. The proposed predictive method chooses a switching state that minimizes the error between the output currents and their references. The feasibility and good behaviour of the proposed method is verified in this work through simulation results. These results are compared with the references obtained by the conventional solution from the dynamic equations of the machine. These results validate the excellent dynamic performance and the efficiency of the proposed method.
Optimization model of the transcutaneous energy transmission system for achieving maximum power transfer capability

Transcutaneous energy transmission (TET) systems have been a topic of intense research. Such systems play an important role in offering the opportunity to provide power to implantable biomedical devices through wireless power transmission. It eliminates the serious infection risk associated with direct cable connections through the skin. Proper performance of the T ET system requires optimization of their electronic component parameters. In this paper, an optimization model is proposed for the preliminary design for two compensated capacitance and two coil inductance. The objective is the power transfer capability of the system. The design variables include the primary and secondary coil inductance. The constrained conditions are peak over-voltage , peak withstand current of the system electronic components and bifurcation phenomenon. This model provides a new and useful tool for determining the compensated capacitance and coil inductance of the TET system. The theoretical analysis is verified by simulated and experimental results. The maximum power transfer capability can be achieved through the optimization solutions in steady-state.
Behaviour of mouse primary spermatocyte nuclei after fusion to enucleated metaphase II oocytes

Primary spermatocytes originating from prepubertal mouse testes were electrofused to metaphase II (MII)-stage oocytes, enucleated either by the conventional micromanipulation method or by chemical treatment with etoposide and cycloheximide. These experiments were followed by assessment of morphological changes in transferred nuclei using light microscopy, by chromosomal analyses and by screening of hybrids for the presence or absence of DNA synthesis using anti-bromodeoxyuridine antibody and immunofluorescence staining of the hybrids. The results show differences between the two types of ooplasts in susceptibility to activation stimuli. However, when activated, both types of ooplasts gave rise to hybrids of similar morphology. From 35.3% to 63% of activated hybrids originating from chemically or microsurgically enucleated oocytes, respectively, contained one large pronucleus in cytoplasm, 62% or 31.6% hybrids from those two groups, respectively, possessed two smaller pronuclei and a few contained three or four pronuclei. No DNA synthesis was detected in any hybrid containing one or more pronuclei. The chromosome spreads of hybrids with premature chromosome condensation (PCC) morphology (before activation) show that most of the hybrids had a diploid (2n) number of chromosomes. The nature and regularity of the cell division cycle in the hybrids are discussed.
Power Adaptive Data Encryption for Energy-Efficient and Secure Communication in Solar-Powered Wireless Sensor Networks

Basic security of data transmission in battery-powered wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is typically achieved by symmetric-key encryption, which uses little energy; but solar-powered WSNs sometimes have sufficient energy to achieve a higher level of security through public-key encryption. However, if energy input and usage are not balanced, nodes may black out. By switching between symmetric-key and public-key encryption, based on an energy threshold, the level of security can be traded off against the urgency of energy-saving. This policy can also reduce the amount of energy used by some nodes in a WSN, since data encrypted using a public-key is simply relayed by intermediate nodes, whereas data encrypted using a symmetric-key must be decrypted and reencrypted in every node on its path. Through a simulation, we compared the use of either symmetric-key or public-key encryption alone with our scheme, which was shown to be more secure, to use energy more effectively, and to reduce the occurrence of node blackouts.
Simvastatin promotes cardiac microvascular endothelial cells proliferation, migration and survival by phosphorylation of p70 S6K and FoxO3a

Restenosis severely limits the overall efficacy of interventions. One of the reasons is the lack of reendothelialization related to inhibition of endothelial cell proliferation and migration since drug is delivered to the luminal surface. Statins can promote angiogenic processes by improving endothelial function, proliferation and migration in cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMECs). This study clarified the effect of simvastatin on Akt/mTOR/p70 S6K and FoxO3a signalling pathways in rat CMECs following pretreated with rapamycin. Rapamycin treatment for 24 h inhibited CMECs' proliferation, migration and NO (nitric oxide) secretion, but with increased cell apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. In contrast, simvastatin pretreatment significantly improved proliferation, migration and NO secretion, and inhibited CMECs' apoptosis and ROS production in rapamycin‐induced CMECs. Western blot assay showed that, after treatment with simvastatin, the phosphorylation of Akt/mTOR/p70 S6K and FoxO3a were up‐regulated in rapamycin‐induced CMECs, which was significantly reversed by pretreatment with LY294002. The data suggest that simvastatin inhibits rapamycin‐induced CMECs dysfunction and apoptosis, probably through activation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR/p70 S6K and mTOR/FoxO3a signalling pathway in a sequential manner and this pathway may be important in some of the pleiotropic effects of statins.
Analysis of Broad-Phase Spatial Partitioning Optimisations in Collision Detection

This paper examines a number of broad-phase optimisations which can be used to improve the performance of collision detection in dynamic simulations. Specific focus is placed on hierarchical spatial partitioning techniques such as the octree, k-d tree and binary space partitioning (BSP) tree. A number of experiments are conducted using this subset of partitioning methods in order to evaluate their comparative performances in a controlled simulation. A generic structure is created and described which is able to implement each of the tree-based partitioning methods as well as a number of variations on some of the methods. This structure is generic in that the partitioning method implemented depends only on the initial hyperplanes passed to it as a parameter. The results of these tests are analysed in order to identify factors which may affect the extent to which each scheme optimises the collision detection process. Factors identified include allowable tree depth and branching factor, the choice of new partitioners in the recursion process, and the application domain of the partitioning scheme. CR Categories: I.3. 15 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling—Object Hierarchies
Can School Income and Racial/Ethnic Composition Explain the Racial/Ethnic Disparity in Adolescent Physical Activity Participation?

OBJECTIVE. Our goal was to determine if racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent boys' and girls' physical activity participation exist and persist once the school attended is considered. METHODS. We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 17007 teens in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Using multivariate linear regression, we examined the association between adolescent self-reported physical activity and individual race/ethnicity stratified by gender, controlling for a wide range of sociodemographic, attitudinal, behavioral, and health factors. We used multilevel analyses to determine if the relationship between race/ethnicity and physical activity varied by the school attended. RESULTS. Participants attended racially segregated schools; ∼80% of Hispanic and black adolescent boys and girls attended schools with student populations that were <66% white, whereas nearly 40% of the white adolescents attended schools that were >94% white. Black and Hispanic adolescent girls reported lower levels of physical activity than white adolescent girls. There were more similar levels of physical activity reported in adolescent boys, with black boys reporting slightly more activities. Although black and Hispanic adolescent girls were more likely to attend poorer schools with overall lower levels of physical activity in girls; there was no difference within schools between black, white, and Hispanic adolescent girls' physical activity levels. Within the same schools, both black and Hispanic adolescent boys had higher rates of physical activity when compared with white adolescent boys. CONCLUSIONS. In this nationally representative sample, lower physical activity levels in Hispanic and black adolescent girls were largely attributable to the schools they attended. In contrast, black and Hispanic males had higher activity levels than white males when attending the same schools. Future research is needed to determine the mechanisms through which school environments contribute to racial/ethnic disparities in adolescent physical activity and will need to consider gender differences in these racial/ethnic disparities.
A novel high-throughput implementation of a partially unrolled SHA-512

A design approach to create small-sized high-speed implementation of the new version of secure hash algorithm is proposed. The resulted design can be easily embedded to operate in HMAC IP cores, providing a high degree of security. The proposed implementation does not introduce significant area penalty, compared to other competitive designs. However the achieved throughput presents an increase compared to commercially available IP cores that range from 48%-1912%
Noradrenaline enhances monocarboxylate transporter 2 expression in cultured mouse cortical neurons via a translational regulation

Regulation of the expression of MCT1 and MCT2, two isoforms of the monocarboxylate transporter (MCT) family, was investigated in primary cultures of mouse cortical neurons. Under basal conditions, both MCT immunoreactivities (IR) were found in the cell soma and dendrites, although IR for MCT1 appeared less bright than for MCT2. Treatment of cultured cortical neurons with 100 μm noradrenaline (NA) led, after a few hours, to a striking enhancement in fluorescence intensity associated with MCT2 IR in the cell soma as well as in dendrites. In contrast, MCT1 IR was not altered by NA treatment. Western blot experiments performed on cultured neurons treated with NA confirmed that MCT2 protein expression was increased. Forskolin and dBcAMP also enhanced MCT2 expression, suggesting the implication of a cAMP‐mediated pathway in the effect of NA. Surprisingly, neither NA, dBcAMP nor forskolin affected MCT2 mRNA expression. Application of cycloheximide, a protein synthesis inhibitor, prevented the enhancement of MCT2 IR, while the mRNA synthesis inhibitor actinomycin D also blocked the effect of NA on MCT2 IR levels. These results suggest that regulation of MCT2 expression in neurons by NA occurs at the translational level despite the requirement for an as yet unknown transcriptional step.
Analysis and design of an LC oscillator-based injection-locked frequency divider

For high frequencies of operation, lowering power supplies and shrinking device sizes, prescalers prove to be a major source of power consumption in modern frequency synthesizers. The use of analog injection-locked frequency dividers (ILFDs) has been considered rather than conventional digital prescalers in order to tackle this problem. In recent years, numerous articles have proposed diverse and sometimes contradictory algorithms for estimating the locking range in these dividers. In this paper, a typical (LC oscillator-based) injection-locked frequency divider is considered. By resorting to nonlinear analysis combined with optimization techniques, we propose a new method to predict accurately and improve (widen) the locking range. In order to support our analysis, we provide SPICE simulations in 0.35-mum CMOS technology.
The Hsp110 Molecular Chaperone Stabilizes Apolipoprotein B from Endoplasmic Reticulum-associated Degradation (ERAD)*

Apolipoprotein B (apoB) is the most abundant protein in low density lipoproteins and plays key roles in cholesterol homeostasis. The co-translational degradation of apoB is controlled by fatty acid levels in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is mediated by the proteasome. To define the mechanism of apoB degradation, we employed a cell-free system in which proteasome-dependent degradation is recapitulated with yeast cytosol, and we developed an apoB yeast expression system. We discovered that a yeast Hsp110, Sse1p, associates with and stabilizes apoB, which contrasts with data indicating that select Hsp70s and Hsp90s facilitate apoB degradation. However, the Ssb Hsp70 chaperones have no effect on apoB turnover. To determine whether our results are relevant in mammalian cells, Hsp110 was overexpressed in hepatocytes, and enhanced apoB secretion was observed. This study indicates that chaperones within distinct complexes can play unique roles during ER-associated degradation (ERAD), establishes a role for Sse1/Hsp110 in ERAD, and identifies Hsp110 as a target to lower cholesterol.
Thermal and behavioral effects of lipopolysaccharide and influenza in interleukin-1 beta-deficient mice.

This study characterized body temperature (Tb), locomotor activity (Act), and feeding behavior under normal conditions and following injection with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or inoculation with live influenza virus of transgenic C57/black mice deficient in interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta). Tb and Act in freely moving mice were measured by biotelemetry. Mice deficient in IL-1 beta had normal circadian rhythm of Tb but were less active than their control counterparts. Mice injected with LPS (2.5 mg/kg i.p.) responded with a prompt decrease of Tb, which lasted approximately 10 h, followed by a fever in which Tb reached a peak at approximately 24 h postinjection. There was no difference between groups in the early drop of Tb after the LPS; however, the 24-h peak of Tb was lower in IL-1 beta-deficient mice. The anorexic effects of LPS and influenza infection were similar in both groups of mice. In mice given influenza virus (17.5 plaque-forming units, median lethal dose), Tb and Act gradually decreased. The fall of Tb was smaller in the transgenic mice. The mice deficient in IL-1 beta displayed a higher mortality rate due to influenza infection than the control mice. We conclude that deficiency in IL-1 beta results in lower fever following the LPS injection and in impairment of the defense response to infection with influenza.
Image indexing using translation and scale-invariant moments and wavelets

Histogram comparison is a popular technique for image indexing. Given a query image, histogram-based techniques can retrieve similar images from a database, which were acquired under similar illumination levels. However, these techniques fail when images are acquired under different illumination conditions. In this paper, we propose two novel histogram-based techniques which are robust to the changes in illumination. First, we propose to employ moments of the image histogram which are invariant to translation and scaling of image gray levels. Secondly, we propose to compare the parameters of histograms of the wavelet subbands for indexing. These parameters are modified appropriately to counter the effect of changes in illumination. The proposed techniques are computationally inexpensive and can be easily integrated within a wavelet-based image coder.
IL‐4 induces proliferation in prostate cancer PC3 cells under nutrient‐depletion stress through the activation of the JNK‐pathway and survivin up‐regulation

Interleukin (IL)‐4 plays a critical role in the regulation of immune responses and has been detected at high levels in the tumor microenvironment of cancer patients where it correlates with the grade of malignancy. The direct effect of IL‐4 on cancer cells has been associated with increased cell survival; however, its role in cancer cell proliferation and related mechanisms is still unclear. Here it was shown that in a nutrient‐depleted environment, IL‐4 induces proliferation in prostate cancer PC3 cells. In these cells, under nutrient‐depletion stress, IL‐4 activates mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPKs), including Erk, p38, and JNK. Using MAP‐signaling‐specific inhibitors, it was shown that IL‐4‐induced proliferation is mediated by JNK activation. In fact, JNK‐inhibitor‐V (JNKi‐V) stunted IL‐4‐mediated cell proliferation. Furthermore, it was found that IL‐4 induces survivin up‐regulation in nutrient‐depleted cancer cells. Using survivin‐short‐hairpin‐RNAs (shRNAs), it was demonstrated that in this milieu survivin expression above a threshold limit is critical to the mechanism of IL‐4‐mediated proliferation. In addition, the significance of survivin up‐regulation in a stressed environment was assessed in prostate cancer mouse xenografts. It was found that survivin knockdown decreases tumor progression in correlation with cancer cell proliferation. Furthermore, under nutrient depletion stress, IL ‐4 could induce proliferation in cancer cells from multiple origins: MDA‐MB‐231 (breast), A253 (head and neck), and SKOV‐3 (ovarian). Overall, these findings suggest that in a tumor microenvironment under stress conditions, IL‐4 triggers a simultaneous activation of the JNK‐pathway and the up‐regulation of survivin turning on a cancer proliferation mechanism. J. Cell. Biochem. 113: 1569–1580, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A peptide-based fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay for Bacillus anthracis lethal factor protease

A fluorescence resonance energy transfer assay has been developed for monitoring Bacillus anthracis lethal factor (LF) protease activity. A fluorogenic 16-mer peptide based on the known LF protease substrate MEK1 was synthesized and found to be cleaved by the enzyme at the anticipated site. Extension of this work to a fluorogenic 19-mer peptide, derived, in part, from a consensus sequence of known LF protease targets, produced a much better substrate, cleaving approximately 100 times more efficiently. This peptide sequence was modified further on resin to incorporate donor/quencher pairs to generate substrates for use in fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based appearance assays. All peptides cleaved at similar rates with signal/background ranging from 9–16 at 100% turnover. One of these substrates, denoted (Cou)Consensus(K(QSY-35)GG)-NH2, was selected for additional assay optimization. A plate-based assay requiring only low nanomolar levels of enzyme was developed for screening and inhibitor characterization.