Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Basolateral Amygdala Cdk5 Activity Mediates Consolidation and Reconsolidation of Memories for Cocaine Cues

Cocaine use and relapse involves learned associations between cocaine-associated environmental contexts and discrete stimuli and cocaine effects. Initially, these contextual and discrete cues undergo memory consolidation after being paired with cocaine exposure. During abstinence, cocaine cue memories can undergo memory reconsolidation after cue exposure without the drug. We used a conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure in rats to study the role of neuronal protein kinase cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) in consolidation and reconsolidation of cocaine cue memories. We found that the expression of cocaine CPP in drug-free tests 1 d after CPP training (four pairings of 10 mg/kg cocaine with one context and four pairings of saline with a different context) increased Cdk5 activity, and levels of the Cdk5 activator p35 in basolateral but not central amygdala. We also found that basolateral (but not central) amygdala injections of the Cdk5 inhibitor β-butyrolactone (100 ng/side) immediately (but not 6 h) after cocaine–context pairings during training prevented subsequent cocaine CPP expression. After training, acute basolateral (but not central) amygdala β-butyrolactone injections immediately before testing prevented the expression of cocaine CPP; this effect was also observed on a second test performed 1 d later, suggesting an effect on reconsolidation of cocaine cue memories. In support, basolateral β-butyrolactone injections, given immediately (but not 6 h) after a single exposure to the cocaine-paired context, prevented cocaine CPP expression 1 and 14 d after the injections. Results indicate that basolateral amygdala Cdk5 activity is critical for consolidation and reconsolidation of the memories of cocaine-associated environmental cues.
The technique of measuring thrombin generation with fluorogenic substrates: 3. The effects of sample dilution

Summary Assessing the clotting function inevitably brings about dilution of plasma. With the existing techniques of thrombin generation (TG) measurement, dilution ranges from 2:3 to 1:8. However, the possibility that dilution alters procoagulant and anticoagulant pathways differently has not been examined. We investigated the effects of dilution on the thrombin generation process and found that the anticoagulant pathways are far more affected by dilution than the procoagulant pathways. That is, when prothrombin and antithrombin concentrations are kept constant, dilution of plasma does not significantly affect tissue factor (TF)-driven thrombin generation. We demonstrate that dilution of plasma slows down the inhibitory activity of tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI) to a greater extent when compared with the down regulation by diluting procoagulant factors. Dilution of plasma has also a negative effect on the participation of the anti-haemophiliac factors VIII and IX in TG driven by contact activation or low TF concentration. We also investigated the effect of dilution on the participation of the anticoagulant system that consists of thrombomodulin, protein C and protein S (APC system). We found that plasma dilution causes a loss of sensitivity towards TM and APC. Furthermore, at high dilutions (> 1:12) a second wave of prothrombinase-activity was observed that could be attributed to the suppression of protein S-dependent inhibition. In conclusion, the mechanism of TG is profoundly disturbed by plasma dilution. As a consequence, the less a plasma sample is diluted, the better a TG experiment represents the physiological process.
Alginate-poly(amino acid) extrusion printed scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

Abstract Alginate is the most commonly explored biomaterial used for extrusion printing though it provides limited cell-material interactions. Thus, bioink functionality is improved by blending with poly(amino acid) polymers at low ratios for extrusion bioprinting. Poly-l-lysine (PLL) and poly(glutamic acid) (PGA) affected the shapes of extruded constructs, with best accuracies obtained for an alginate:PGA ratio of 1:5. Both modifications showed increase in cell proliferation and adhesion as printed constructs over pure alginate. Osteoblast cell culture showed PGA scaffolds to effect a dose-dependent increase in alizarin red, demonstrating a facile method to obtain 3 D plotted constructs for bone tissue engineering. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Heterotrophic Compensation: A Possible Mechanism for Resilience of Coral Reefs to Global Warming or a Sign of Prolonged Stress?

Thermally induced bleaching has caused a global decline in corals and the frequency of such bleaching events will increase. Thermal bleaching severely disrupts the trophic behaviour of the coral holobiont, reducing the photosynthetically derived energy available to the coral host. In the short term this reduction in energy transfer from endosymbiotic algae results in an energy deficit for the coral host. If the bleaching event is short-lived then the coral may survive this energy deficit by depleting its lipid reserves, or by increasing heterotrophic energy acquisition. We show for the first time that the coral animal is capable of increasing the amount of heterotrophic carbon incorporated into its tissues for almost a year following bleaching. This prolonged heterotrophic compensation could be a sign of resilience or prolonged stress. If the heterotrophic compensation is in fact an acclimatization response, then this physiological response could act as a buffer from future bleaching by providing sufficient heterotrophic energy to compensate for photoautotrophic energy losses during bleaching, and potentially minimizing the effect of subsequent elevated temperature stresses. However, if the elevated incorporation of zooplankton is a sign that the effects of bleaching continue to be stressful on the holobiont, even after 11 months of recovery, then this physiological response would indicate that complete coral recovery requires more than 11 months to achieve. If coral bleaching becomes an annual global phenomenon by mid-century, then present temporal refugia will not be sufficient to allow coral colonies to recover between bleaching events and coral reefs will become increasingly less resilient to future climate change. If, however, increasing their sequestration of zooplankton-derived nutrition into their tissues over prolonged periods of time is a compensating mechanism, the impacts of annual bleaching may be reduced. Thus, some coral species may be better equipped to face repeated bleaching stress than previously thought.
Epigenetic Modifications in Essential Hypertension

Essential hypertension (EH) is a complex, polygenic condition with no single causative agent. Despite advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of EH, hypertension remains one of the world’s leading public health problems. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that epigenetic modifications are as important as genetic predisposition in the development of EH. Indeed, a complex and interactive genetic and environmental system exists to determine an individual’s risk of EH. Epigenetics refers to all heritable changes to the regulation of gene expression as well as chromatin remodelling, without involvement of nucleotide sequence changes. Epigenetic modification is recognized as an essential process in biology, but is now being investigated for its role in the development of specific pathologic conditions, including EH. Epigenetic research will provide insights into the pathogenesis of blood pressure regulation that cannot be explained by classic Mendelian inheritance. This review concentrates on epigenetic modifications to DNA structure, including the influence of non-coding RNAs on hypertension development.
Recent Development of Graphitic Carbon Nitride-Based Photocatalyst for Environmental Pollution Remediation

Globalization today has helped fuel the global socioeconomic growth of the world and reshaping the growth of the industries. While the development had been remarkable, the rapid rise of industrialization had provoked the sustainable chain of diversity which is reflected by rising pollution level, particularly on the water pollution. On account of the cutting edge of water security issue, engineering photocatalytic material remains crucial in finding new ways to combat the challenge of water pollution through photocatalytic pollutants degradation while at the same time acts as the frontlines for energy conversion and environmental protection. To date, graphitic carbon nitride, g-C 3 N 4 had emerged as a promising material of interest in photocatalytic application due to its appealing characteristics such as excellent optical properties and high physiochemical and thermal stability. This chapter will comprehensively discuss an insight into the most recent progress in synthesis, properties and the photocatalytic application of g-C 3 N 4 , particularly in environmental pollution remediation. Special emphasis is also placed on the most recent strategies for enhancing the photocatalytic performance of the g-C 3 N 4 photocatalyst. Finally, the future directions and perspectives will be presented.
Development of new IL28B genotyping method using Invader Plus assay

IL28B polymorphism is associated with the response to pegylated interferon‐α with ribavirin (PEG‐IFN‐α/RBV) treatment in chronic hepatitis C patients. As a genotyping assay for IL28B single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in clinical practice, the Invader Plus assay was developed. The accuracy, intra‐assay, inter‐assay precision, and the limit of detection of the Invader Plus assay were evaluated. Two SNPs (rs8099917 and rs12979860) associated with IL28B were genotyped by the Invader Plus and TaqMan assay in 512 Japanese patients. In comparison with direct sequencing, the Invader Plus assay showed 99% accuracy in rs8099917 and 100% accuracy in rs12979860. Intra‐assay and inter‐assay precision were sufficient to use in clinical practice and the detection limit was 1ngDNA/assay. Genotyping by rs8099917 showed that 361 (71%), 144 (28%) and seven (1%) of the patients were major homozygous, heterozygous and minor homozygous types, respectively. Five of the 512 cases (1%) had haplotype differences, but none showed differences between the two genotyping methods. For patients with HCV genotype 1, the prevalence of responders in the major homozygous type was 83.3%, and that of non‐responders in the minor heterozygous/homozygous type was 72.5%. A convenient IL28B genotyping method using the Invader Plus assay could be useful to predict the treatment outcome in clinical practice.
Chest physiotherapy for acute wheezing episodes: an inappropriate interpretation of the first trial in outpatient infants

subgroup analysis that grouped patients according to their wheezing history could have shown positive effects in chest physiotherapy. Another aspect is the degree of concordance between the physiotherapists who applied the techniques and the doctors that performed the assessments, as the training level of each professional is an important factor and could interfere with the results. Concordance was not evaluated in the study being discussed. Finally, it is known that chest physiotherapy produces post-treatment effects for up to 24 h (3). For this reason, it is surprising that the authors expect good resultswith only one session lasting an hour. There are important questions that must be asked, such as what happened between the second hour and the seventh day or the 28th day? Did all the patients follow the appropriate treatment during this period? Did they only have an isolated therapeutic session? To summarise, the study tries to evaluate an inappropriate protocol in a misdiagnosed group of patients. This could lead to a misinterpretation of the results, by introducing an important bias that implies wrong conclusions.
Worldwide Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Literature Review Including Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND Although fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) affect communities worldwide, little is known about its prevalence. The objective of this study was to provide an overview of the global FASD prevalence. METHODS We performed a search in multiple electronic bibliographic databases up to August 2015, supplemented with the ascendancy and descendancy approach. Studies were considered when published in English, included human participants, and reported empirical data on prevalence or incidence estimates of FASD. Raw prevalence estimates were transformed using the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation so that the data followed an approximately normal distribution. Once the pooled prevalence estimates, 95% confidence intervals and prediction intervals were calculated based on multiple meta-analyses with transformed proportions using random effects models, these estimates were transformed back to regular prevalence rates. Heterogeneity was tested using Cochran's Q and described using the I(2) statistic. RESULTS Among studies that estimated prevalence in general population samples, considerable differences in prevalence rates between countries were found and therefore separate meta-analyses for country were conducted. Particularly high-prevalence rates were observed in South Africa for fetal alcohol syndrome (55.42 per 1,000), for alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (20.25 per 1,000), and FASD (113.22 per 1,000), For partial fetal alcohol syndrome high rates were found in Croatia (43.01 per 1,000), Italy (36.89 per 1,000), and South Africa (28.29 per 1,000). In the case of alcohol-related birth defects, a prevalence of 10.82 per 1,000 was found in Australia. However, studies into FASD exhibited substantial heterogeneity, which could only partly be explained by moderators, most notably geography and descent, in meta-regressions. In addition, the moderators were confounded, making conclusions as to each moderator's relevance tentative at best. CONCLUSIONS The worldwide pooled prevalence estimates are higher than assumed so far, but this was largely explained by geography and descent. Furthermore, prevalence studies varied considerably in terms of used methodology and methodological quality. The pooled estimates must therefore be interpreted with caution and for future research it is highly recommended to report methodology in a more comprehensive way. Finally, clear guidelines on assessing FASD prevalence are urgently needed, and a first step toward these guidelines is presented.
Does Sustained Lung Inflation at Birth Improve Outcome of Preterm Infants at Risk for Respiratory Distress Syndrome?

Background: Sustained lung inflation (SLI) applied at birth has been demonstrated to lead to clearance of lung fluid and achievement of a precocious functional residual capacity in animal studies. Objectives: To verify if the application of SLI in preterm infants at birth may reduce the need for mechanical ventilation and improve their respiratory outcome. Methods: We prospectively studied 89 infants with respiratory distress (gestational age (GA) 28.1 ± 2.2 weeks) treated at birth with a SLI (25 cm H2O, sustained for 15 s) in addition to AAP recommendations versus a historical control group (n = 119; GA 28.1 ± 2.0 weeks) treated without SLI with the same device (controlled positive end-expiratory pressure of 5 cm H2O). Results: The SLI group had less need for (51 vs. 76%, p < 0.0001) and shorter duration of mechanical ventilation (5 ± 11 vs. 11 ± 19 days, p = 0.008), a more frequent occurrence of exclusive nasal continuous airway pressure support (49 vs. 24%, p < 0.0001) and INtubation-SURfactant-Extubation (INSURE) treatment (16 vs. 3%, p = 0.01), less need for surfactant (45 vs. 61%, p = 0.027) and postnatal steroids (10 vs. 25%, p = 0.01), a shorter duration of oxygen therapy (21 ± 27 vs. 31 ± 31 days, p = 0.016), and, finally, a lower occurrence of bronchopulmonary dysplasia in survivors (7 vs. 25%, p = 0.004). Multiple regression analysis showed that 23–27 weeks of GA and birth weight <750 g increased the risk of mechanical ventilation, while a clinical risk index for babies (CRIB) score <3 as well as INSURE strategy and SLI treatment in the delivery room decreased it. Conclusions: The application of a SLI at birth in preterm infants with respiratory distress may decrease the need for mechanical ventilation without inducing evident adverse effects.
Epitranscriptional regulation of cardiovascular development and disease

Development, homeostasis and responses to stress in the heart all depend on appropriate control of mRNA expression programmes, which may be enacted at the level of DNA sequence, DNA accessibility and RNA‐mediated control of mRNA output. Diverse mechanisms underlie promoter‐driven transcription of coding mRNAs and their translation into protein, and the ways in which sequence alteration of DNA can make an impact on these processes have been studied for some time. The field of epigenetics explores changes in DNA structure that influence its accessibility by transcriptional machinery, and we are continuing to develop our understanding of how these processes modify cardiac RNA production. In this topical review, we do not focus on how DNA sequence and methylation, and histone interactions, may alter its accessibility, but rather on newly described mechanisms by which some transcribed RNAs may alter initial transcription or downstream processing of other RNAs, involving both short non‐coding RNAs (microRNAs) and long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Here we present examples of how these two classes of non‐coding RNAs mediate widespread effects on cardiac transcription and protein output in processes for which we use the broad term ‘epitranscriptional regulation’ and that are complementary to the DNA methylation and histone modification events studied by classical epigenetics.
Multiplexing Gain of Variable-Rate MIMO Systems

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) have a potential to approach the channel capacity. We analyze the multiplexing gain of variable-rate (VR) MIMO systems in a generic framework and derive a sufficient and necessary condition for a VR MIMO system to achieve any given multiplexing gain. A pragmatic way of predicting the multiplexing gain of a VR MIMO system based on the component modulation modes is obtained
Electrospun nanostructured chitosan–poly(vinyl alcohol) scaffolds: a biomimetic extracellular matrix as dermal substitute

Electrospinning is a versatile technique to make biomimetic and nanostructured scaffolds for skin tissue engineering. In this study we have electrospun and characterized chitosan (C)–poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) blend nanofibers as dermal substitutes and compared with 2D C–PVA films. The in vitro characterization of the C–PVA nanofibers and 2D films were evaluated using mouse 3T3 fibroblast cells and our results demonstrated that the cells adhered and proliferated on the surface of C–PVA nanofibers. In our animal studies, the implantation of C–PVA nanofibers along with topical administration of growth factor R-Spondin 1 on full thickness wounds created on rats showed 98.6% wound closure after two weeks post-surgery. The catalase and superoxide dismutase activity of the healing tissue was significantly higher in the groups treated with topical administration of growth factor and C–PVA nanofibers (p < 0.05). Thus these C–PVA nanofibers along with novel growth factor are promising new biomaterials that could be used as dermal substitutes for accelerated wound healing.
What is the source of low back pain?

Aims: Determining the source of low back pain (LBP) is still controversial. This study was designed to determine the source of LBP and its relations with age and gender. Settings and Design: A retrospective chart review at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran. Materials and Methods: A total of 1,125 patients were evaluated to determine the sources of their LBP with physical examinations, imaging, injections, and other laboratory examinations, if needed. The patients were divided into five groups based on their ages. Frequencies of the sources of pain were assessed in the five age groups, and the assessments were done separately by gender. Statistical Analysis Used: Independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), chi-square test. Results: The patients enrolled in this study consisted of 527 males (46.8%) and 598 females (53.2%). The frequencies of the sources of pain were, in descending order, spine (689, 61.2%), no cause found (163, 14.5%), spine with sacroiliac joint (SIJ) (72, 6.4%), spine with hip (65, 5.8%), SIJ (60, 5.3%), hip (44, 3.9%), spine along with hip and SIJ (20, 1.8%), hip with SIJ (8, 0.7%), and other diseases (4, 0.4%). There were significant statistical differences between the genders and mean ages for different sources (P = 0.03 and 0.000, respectively). Conclusions: This study showed that the spine was the main source of LBP in all age groups. Physicians should always be alert for other sources in middle-aged and older patients. Future studies with long-term follow-up for determining the benefits of treatments are warranted.
Integer sorting in O(n/spl radic/(log log n)) expected time and linear space

We present a randomized algorithm sorting n integers in O(n/spl radic/(log log n)) expected time and linear space. This improves the previous O(n log log n) bound by Anderson et al. (1995). As an immediate consequence, if the integers are bounded by U, we can sort them in O(n/spl radic/(log log U)) expected time. This is the first improvement over the O (n log log U) bound obtained with van Emde Boas' data structure. At the heart of our construction, is a technical deterministic lemma of independent interest; namely, that we split n integers into subsets of size at most /spl radic/n in linear time and space. This also implies improved bounds for deterministic string sorting and integer sorting without multiplication.
Molecular Mechanisms of Toxicity of Silver Nanoparticles in Zebrafish Embryos

Silver nanoparticles cause toxicity in exposed organisms and are an environmental health concern. The mechanisms of silver nanoparticle toxicity, however, remain unclear. We examined the effects of exposure to silver in nano-, bulk-, and ionic forms on zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio) using a Next Generation Sequencing approach in an Illumina platform (High-Throughput SuperSAGE). Significant alterations in gene expression were found for all treatments and many of the gene pathways affected, most notably those associated with oxidative phosphorylation and protein synthesis, overlapped strongly between the three treatments indicating similar mechanisms of toxicity for the three forms of silver studied. Changes in oxidative phosphorylation indicated a down-regulation of this pathway at 24 h of exposure, but with a recovery at 48 h. This finding was consistent with a dose-dependent decrease in oxygen consumption at 24 h, but not at 48 h, following exposure to silver ions. Overall, our data provide support for the hypothesis that the toxicity caused by silver nanoparticles is principally associated with bioavailable silver ions in exposed zebrafish embryos. These findings are important in the evaluation of the risk that silver particles may pose to exposed vertebrate organisms.