Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MELOXICAM­PVP­SLS TERNARY DISPERSION SYSTEMS: IN­VITRO AND IN­VIVO EVALUATION

Meloxicam, a non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory agent is widely used as a first line drug in symptomatic relief of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. One of the major problems with this drug is its low solubility in biological fluids, which results into poor bioavailability after oral administration. Therefore ternary dispersions of meloxicam were prepared using hydrophilic carrier polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and solubilizer sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) to increase its aqueous solubility ternary dispersions of meloxicam in PVP were prepared using 32 factorial design with PVP and SLS as independent variables while maintaining the amount of meloxicam (150mg) and the ratio of lactose and micro crystalline cellulose (4:1) constant. The methods used for the preparation of these dispersions were physical mixing, co‐grinding and solvent evaporation technique. The prepared dispersions were evaluated in terms of drug content, wettability, In‐vitro drug release study and screened dispersions were evaluated for In‐vivo anti‐inflammatory activity. The drug content of the prepared dispersions was found to be in the range of 98% ‐ 100% indicating the application of the present methods for the preparation of tee nary dispersions with high content uniformity. Absence of significant drug‐carrier interaction was confirmed by IR data. In‐vitro release profiles of all dispersions were comparatively evaluated and also studied against pure meloxicam. Faster dissolution was exhibited by ternary dispersion (S3) containing meloxicam (150 mg), PVP (250mg), SLS (75mg) and lactose : MCC 3gm (4:1) prepared by solvent evaporation method. The best – fit model indicating the mechanism of drug release from the formulation showing the highest release was found to be first order release (r=0.9916, b=1.9977, a=0.0160). The efficacy was evaluated by anti‐ inflammatory activity on albino rats using carrageenan induced rat paw edema model. Formulation S3 showed 87% edema inhibition at 1 hr. Formulations studied remained stable during stability studies. The increase in dissolution rate of meloxicam by ternary dispersion technique may be due to increase wettability and hydrophilic nature of carrier.
Arterial baroreceptor denervation impairs long-term regulation of arterial pressure during dietary salt loading.

Experiments were performed to examine the contribution of arterial baroreceptors to long-term regulation of mean arterial pressure (MAP) during changes in dietary salt intake. Normotensive Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to either sinoaortic denervation (SAD; n= 8) or Sham surgery ( n = 6) and instrumented 1 wk later with radiotelemetry transmitters for continuous minute-to-minute monitoring of MAP and heart rate (HR) over the 8-wk protocol. Rats consumed three levels of dietary NaCl: 0.4% NaCl ( week 1), 4.0% NaCl ( weeks 2-4), and 8.0% NaCl ( weeks 5-7). Rats returned to a 0.4% NaCl diet during the eighth week of the experiment. During week 1 (0.4% NaCl), there were no differences between Sham and SAD groups for 24-h averages of MAP or HR. However, by the third week of 4.0% NaCl, 24-h MAP was elevated significantly from baseline in SAD (10 ± 2 mmHg) but not Sham (1 ± 1 mmHg) rats. By the end of the third week of 8.0% NaCl diet, 24-h MAP was elevated 15 ± 2 mmHg above control in SAD rats compared with a 4 ± 1 mmHg increase in Sham rats ( P < 0.05). Hourly analysis of the final 72 h of each level of dietary salt revealed a marked effect of dietary NaCl on MAP in SAD rats, particularly during the dark cycle. MAP increased ∼20 and 30 mmHg in SAD rats over the 12-h dark cycle for 4.0 and 8.0% NaCl diets, respectively. In contrast, increased dietary NaCl had no effect on MAP during any phase of the light or dark period in Sham rats. These data support the hypothesis that arterial baroreceptors play a critical role in long-term regulation of MAP under conditions of altered dietary salt intake. Finally, hourly analysis of MAP revealed that the majority of the hypertensive response to increased NaCl occurs during the dark cycle in SAD rats. Hence, previous investigations may have underestimated the magnitude of the hypertensive response to increased dietary NaCl in animals with baroreceptor dysfunction.
State Measurement Error-to-State Stability Results Based on Approximate Discrete-Time Models

Digital controller design for nonlinear systems may be complicated by the fact that an exact discrete-time plant model is not known. One existing approach employs approximate discrete-time models for stability analysis and control design and ensures different types of closed-loop stability properties based on the approximate model and on specific bounds on the mismatch between the exact and approximate models. Although existing conditions for practical stability exist, some of which consider the presence of process disturbances, input-to-state stability (ISS) with respect to state-measurement errors and based on approximate discrete-time models has not been addressed. In this paper, we thus extend existing results in two main directions: 1) we provide ISS-related results, where the input is the state measurement error; and 2) our results allow for some specific varying-sampling-rate scenarios. We provide conditions to ensure semiglobal practical ISS, even under some specific forms of varying sampling rate. These conditions employ Lyapunov-like functions. We illustrate the application of our results on numerical examples, where we show that a bounded state-measurement error can cause a semiglobal practically stable system to diverge.
Characteristics of Pulmonary Vascular Remodeling in a Novel Model of Shunt-Associated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Background Establishing a shunt-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) model in mice would be of great scientific value, but no such models have been reported to date. Here, we established a shunt-associated PAH in mice to investigate the characteristics of pulmonary vascular remodeling, which provides a new platform for the in-depth study of PAH associated with congenital heart disease (CHD). Material/Methods Eighty mice were randomly divided into the heavy shunt group (n=32), the small shunt group (n=32), the sham operation group (n=8), and the control group (n=8). The septum of the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava was cut directly to create a heavy abdominal aortocaval shunt. Pulmonary artery pressure, right ventricular hypertrophy index, and lung tissue morphology were evaluated in the 4th, 6th, 8th, and 12th weeks in the shunt groups. Results Shunt-associated PAH by abdominal aortocaval shunt in mice was successfully established. The shunt patency rate was significantly higher in the heavy shunt group. Significant differences were observed between the heavy shunt group and other groups in terms of pulmonary artery pressure and the right ventricular hypertrophy index. Tissue sections revealed a thickened pulmonary intimal layer and muscular layer and stenosis of the lumen in the shunt groups. Immunofluorescent assay results showed significant proliferations of PAH smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells, consistent with the clinical pulmonary vascular remodeling seen in human patients with severe PAH. Conclusions Shunt-associated PAH established by directly cutting the septum between the abdominal aorta and inferior vena cava is a stable and reliable model for research on PAH associated with CHD.
Increasing body image flexibility in a residential eating disorder facility: Correlates with symptom improvement

ABSTRACT Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of changes in body image psychological flexibility over the course of treatment on various outcome variables. Method: Participants included 103 female, residential patients diagnosed with an eating disorder. Pretreatment and posttreatment data were collected that examined body image psychological flexibility, general psychological flexibility, symptom severity, and other outcome variables. Results: Changes in body image psychological flexibility significantly predicted changes in all outcome measures except for obsessive-compulsive symptoms after controlling for body mass index, depression, and anxiety. Additionally, these results were maintained after controlling for general psychological flexibility, contributing to the incremental validity of the BI-AAQ. Discussion: This study suggests that changes in body image psychological flexibility meaningfully predict changes in various treatment outcomes of interest, including eating disorder risk, quality of life, and general mental health. Findings indicate that body image psychological flexibility might be a viable target for eating disorder treatment.
Addition of Ezetimibe to statins for patients at high cardiovascular risk: Systematic review of patient‐important outcomes

Ezetimibe is widely used in combination with statins to reduce low-density lipoprotein. We sought to examine the impact of ezetimibe when added to statins on patient-important outcomes. Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, and CENTRAL were searched through July, 2016. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ezetimibe combined with statins versus statins alone that followed patients for at least 6 months and reported on at least one of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular deaths, non-fatal myocardial infarctions (MI), and non-fatal strokes were included. Pairs of reviewers extracted study data and assessed risk of bias independently and in duplicate. Quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. We conducted a narrative review with complementary subgroup and sensitivity analyses. IMPROVE-IT study enrolled 93% of all patients enrolled in the 8 included trials. Our analysis of the IMPROVE-IT study results showed that in patients at high risk of cardiovascular events, ezetimibe added to statins was associated with i) a likely reduction in non-fatal MI (17 fewer/1000 treated over 6 years, moderate certainty in evidence); ii) a possible reduction in non-fatal stroke (6 fewer/1000 treated over 6 years, low certainty); iii) no impact on myopathy (moderate certainty); iv) potentially no impact on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular death (both moderate certainty); and v) possibly no impact on cancer (low certainty). Addition of ezetimibe to moderate-dose statins is likely to result in 17 fewer MIs and possibly 6 fewer strokes/1000 treated over 6 years but is unlikely to reduce all-cause mortality or cardiovascular death. Patients who place a high value on a small absolute reduction in MI and are not adverse to use of an additional medication over a long duration may opt for ezetimibe in addition to statin therapy. Our analysis revealed no increased specific harms associated with addition of ezetimibe to statins.
Nb-Doped Hematite Nanorods for Efficient Solar Water Splitting: Electronic Structure Evolution versus Morphology Alteration

In this study, Nb-doped α-Fe2O3 nanorod photoanodes were prepared via a facile solution-based process by directly adding NbCl5 in the aqueous solution. The morphology and electronic structure of Nb-doped α-Fe2O3 films depended strongly on the dopant concentrations. Compared with the undoped sample, the optimal Nb-doped α-Fe2O3 film showed an approximately 4-fold photocurrent increase under solar light at 1.0 V versus Ag/AgCl, and the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency was increased by 2.5 times, reaching 13.7 % at 350 nm and 1.23 V versus RHE. The enhancement in PEC activity, as induced by moderate Nb doping, was attributed to the increased charge carrier density for promoted charge transfer ability as well as the smaller nanorod diameter for shortened charge transfer distance. However, superfluous Nb dopants would destroy the nanorod structure and greatly reduce the thickness of α-Fe2O3 films, leading to poor optical absorption and thus decreased photoelectrochemical performance.
Structural properties of rat mesenteric small arteries after 4-wk exposure to elevated or reduced blood flow.

We determined the structure of mesenteric small arteries after chronic elevation and chronic reduction of blood flow. In 6-wk-old rats, we ligated second-order side branches of every other first-order side branch of the superior mesenteric artery. This persistently reduced blood flow (-90%) in the vessels feeding into the ligated trees and elevated blood flow (+80%) in the nonligated mesenteric artery side branches. Four weeks after surgery, vessels that had been exposed to high blood flow (HF) or low blood flow (LF) and vessels from sham-operated rats (Sham) were isolated and mounted in a pressure myograph system. At an intraluminal pressure of 100 mmHg, the internal diameter at rest was larger in HF (533 ± 23 μm) and smaller in LF (262 ± 14 μm) than in Sham vessels (427 ± 15 μm). Also, wall and media cross-sectional areas were larger in HF and smaller in LF than in Sham vessels (media: 22 ± 1, 11 ± 2, and 16 ± 1 × 103μm2, respectively), but circumferential wall stress did not differ among groups. DNA content was significantly increased in HF vessels (+100%) and was not modified in LF vessels. Maximal vasoconstrictions elicited by high potassium or norepinephrine were slightly increased in HF vessels but were reduced by 50% in LF vessels. Thus chronic changes in blood flow give rise to structural changes that normalize circumferential wall stress. Elevated blood flow resulted in outward hypertrophic remodeling involving hyperplasia. Reduced blood flow resulted in inward hypotrophic remodeling accompanied by hyporeactivity of the arterial smooth muscle.
Query processing in database systems

Introducing a new hobby for other people may inspire them to join with you. Reading, as one of mutual hobby, is considered as the very easy hobby to do. But, many people are not interested in this hobby. Why? Boring is the reason of why. However, this feel actually can deal with the book and time of you reading. Yeah, one that we will refer to break the boredom in reading is choosing query processing in database systems as the reading material.
Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in PM2.5 in Zhejiang Province

The spatiotemporal characteristics and human health risks of 12 heavy metals (Al, As, Be, Cd, Cr, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, Se, and Tl) in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Zhejiang Province were investigated. The annual average PM2.5 concentration was 58.83 µg/m3 in 2015 in Zhejiang. Element contents in PM2.5 varied greatly with the season and locations. Al, Pb, and Mn were the most abundant elements among the studied metal(loid)s in PM2.5. The non-carcinogenic risks of the 12 elements through inhalation and dermal contact exposure were lower than the safe level for children and adults. However, there were potential non-carcinogenic risks of Tl, As, and Sb for children and Tl for adults through ingestion exposure. The carcinogenic risks from As, Be, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Ni through inhalation exposure were less than the acceptable level (1 × 10−4) for children and adults. Pb may carry a potential carcinogenic risk for both children and adults through ingestion. More attention should be paid to alleviate non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks posed by particle-bound toxic elements through ingestion exposure.
RAPToR: A Resampling Algorithm for Pseudo-Polar based Tomographic Reconstruction

We propose a stable and fast reconstruction technique for parallel-beam (PB) tomographic X-ray imaging, relying on the discrete pseudo-polar (PP) Radon transform. Our main contribution is a resampling method, based on modern sampling theory, that transforms the acquired PB measurements to a PP grid. The resampling process is both fast and accurate, and in addition, simultaneously denoises the measurements, by exploiting geometrical properties of the tomographic scan. The transformed measurements are then reconstructed using an iterative solver with total variation (TV) regularization. We show that reconstructing from measurements on the PP grid, leads to improved recovery, due to the inherent stability and accuracy of the PP Radon transform, compared with the PB Radon transform. We also demonstrate recovery from a reduced number of PB acquisition angles, and high noise levels. Our approach is shown to achieve superior results over other state-of-the-art solutions, that operate directly on the given PB measurements. The proposed method can benefit fan-beam and/or cone-beam projections by coupling it with a rebinning process.
Carbachol-induced actin reorganization involves Gi activation of Rho in human airway smooth muscle cells.

To determine whether M2 muscarinic receptors are linked to the monomeric G protein Rho, we studied the effect of carbachol on actin reorganization (stress fiber formation) in cultured human airway smooth muscle cells that expressed mainly M2 muscarinic receptors by dual- fluorescence labeling of filamentous (F) and monomeric (G) actin. F-actin was labeled with FITC-labeled phalloidin, and G-actin was labeled with Texas Red-labeled DNase I. Carbachol stimulation induced stress fiber formation (increased F-actin staining) in the cells and increased the F- to G-actin ratio 3.6 ± 0.4-fold (mean ± SE; n = 5 experiments). Preincubation with pertussis toxin, Clostridium C3 exoenzyme, or tyrosine kinase inhibitors reduced the carbachol-induced increase in stress fiber formation and significantly decreased the F- to G-actin ratio, whereas a mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor, a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor, and a protein kinase C inhibitor were without effect. This study demonstrates that in cultured human airway smooth muscle cells, muscarinic-receptor activation induces stress fiber formation via a pathway involving a pertussis-sensitive G protein, Rho proteins, and tyrosine phosphorylation.
Transparency through Contextual Privacy Statements

Privacy policies are the state of the practice technique to achieve data transparency. However, they have a variety of issues in practice: They are presented in a non-prominent way, are typically quite lengthy, and not written in the users’ language. Additionally, they are quite abstract, as privacy policies are generic documents that do not relate to the current activity of the user but give a high level overview on the overall system. In this paper, we present our idea of "contextual privacy statements" that overcome the shortcomings of state of the practice privacy policies. Instead of having one generic privacy policy that has to fit every use case and every user group, contextual privacy statements provide concrete information about privacy and data protection in a specific use case or activity. We aim for better understandability of privacy policies, resulting in an increased transparency and user acceptance.
Phase modulation due to crystal diffraction by ptychographic imaging

M. Civita,1 A. Diaz,2 R. J. Bean,1,3 A. G. Shabalin,4,5 O. Yu. Gorobtsov,4 I. A. Vartanyants,4,6 and I. K. Robinson1,7,* 1London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College, London, WC1H 0AH, United Kingdom 2Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland 3European XFEL GmbH, 22869 Schenefeld, Germany 4Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, 22607 Hamburg, Germany 5University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA 6National Research Nuclear University, 115409 Moscow, Russia 7Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
Enhancer talk.

Enhancers are short noncoding segments of DNA (100-1000 bp) that control the temporal and spatial activity of genes in an orientation-independent manner. They can be separated from their target genes by large distances and are thus known as distal regulatory elements. One consequence of the variability in the distance separating enhancers and their target promoters is that it is difficult to determine which elements are involved in the regulation of a particular gene. Moreover, enhancers can be found in clusters in which multiple regulatory elements control expression of the same target gene. However, little is known about how the individual elements contribute to gene expression. Here, we describe how chromatin conformation promotes and constraints enhancer activity. Further, we discuss enhancer clusters and what is known about the contribution of individual elements to the regulation of target genes. Finally, we examine the reliability of different methods used to identify enhancers.
Hybrid-denovo: a de novo OTU-picking pipeline integrating single-end and paired-end 16S sequence tags

Abstract Background Illumina paired-end sequencing has been increasingly popular for 16S rRNA gene-based microbiota profiling. It provides higher phylogenetic resolution than single-end reads due to a longer read length. However, the reverse read (R2) often has significant low base quality, and a large proportion of R2s will be discarded after quality control, resulting in a mixture of paired-end and single-end reads. A typical 16S analysis pipeline usually processes either paired-end or single-end reads but not a mixture. Thus, the quantification accuracy and statistical power will be reduced due to the loss of a large amount of reads. As a result, rare taxa may not be detectable with the paired-end approach, or low taxonomic resolution will result in a single-end approach. Results To have both the higher phylogenetic resolution provided by paired-end reads and the higher sequence coverage by single-end reads, we propose a novel OTU-picking pipeline, hybrid-denovo, that can process a hybrid of single-end and paired-end reads. Using high-quality paired-end reads as a gold standard, we show that hybrid-denovo achieved the highest correlation with the gold standard and performed better than the approaches based on paired-end or single-end reads in terms of quantifying the microbial diversity and taxonomic abundances. By applying our method to a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) data set, we demonstrated that hybrid-denovo captured more microbial diversity and identified more RA-associated taxa than a paired-end or single-end approach. Conclusions Hybrid-denovo utilizes both paired-end and single-end 16S sequencing reads and is recommended for 16S rRNA gene targeted paired-end sequencing data.
Increased FNDC5 is associated with insulin resistance in high fat‐fed mice

FNDC5/irisin, has recently been identified as a novel protein that stimulates the “browning” of white adipose by inducing thermogenesis via increased uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). We tested the hypothesis that high fat diet‐induced prediabetic mice would exhibit increased FNDC5 and this effect would be attenuated by chronic exercise. C57BL/6 mice were randomized into three groups for the 4 week intervention: Standard diet (Std, n = 12), High fat diet (HF, n = 14), or High fat diet and free access to a running wheel (HFEX, n = 14). Body weight, glucose, insulin, and the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR) were greater in HF compared to Std and HFEX after the 4 week intervention. In support of our hypothesis, FNDC5 was higher in HF in both skeletal muscle and adipose compared to Std and was lower in adipose only in HFEX compared to HF mice. Following the same pattern, PGC‐1α was significantly higher in HF compared to Std in skeletal muscle and significantly lower in HFEX compared to HF in adipose. UCP1 was significantly lower in HFEX versus Std (in skeletal muscle) and versus HF (in adipose). HOMA‐IR was significantly correlated with FNDC5 protein levels in adipose. Increased FNDC5 in adipose and skeletal muscle may be a compensatory mechanism to offset high fat diet‐induced weight gain and insulin resistance by increasing energy expenditure.