Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LncRNA ADPGK-AS1 promotes pancreatic cancer progression through activating ZEB1-mediated epithelial–mesenchymal transition

ABSTRACT Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of ADP dependent glucokinase antisense RNA 1 (ADPGK-AS1)/ miR-205-5p/ zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) on PC cells. Methods: Differentially expressed lncRNAs and miRNAs in pancreatic cancer (PC) were identified by microarray analysis. In silico ceRNA analysis was conducted to find out the interactions among lncRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was utilized to examine the expression of miR-205-5p and lncRNA ADPGK-AS1 in PC and non-cancerous cells. The association between miR-205-5p and ADPGK-AS1 as well as miR-205-5p and ZEB1 was determined by dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. After manipulating the expression of ADPGK-AS1, mir-205-5p and ZEB1 in PANC-1 and SW-1990 cells, cell proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis were respectively confirmed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, transwell assay and TUNEL. Western blot was applied to examine the expression of Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition-related proteins. In vivo experiment was conducted to further determine the effect of miR-205-5p/ZEB1 on tumorigenic ability of PC cells. Results: MiR-205-5p was low-expressed while ZEB1 and ADPGK-AS1 were high-expressed in PC tissues and cells compared with the normal. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay proved that ADPGK-AS1 could directly target miR-205-5p and miR-205-5p could directly target ZEB1 3′UTR. The expression of MiR-205-5p was negatively correlated with proliferation, migration and invasion, and positively correlated with apoptosis rate of PC cells, while ZEB1 and ADPGK-AS1 had an inversed effect. Further in vitro and in vivo investigation indicated that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) could be restrained by miR-205-5p through targeting ZEB1. ADPGK-AS1 strongly promoted the tumorigenesis via downregulating miR-205-5p expression and induced the EMT process in vivo. Conclusion: ADPGK-AS1 inhibited miR-205-5p and therefore promoted PC progression through activating ZEB1-induced EMT.
A neural biomarker, the error‐related negativity, predicts the first onset of generalized anxiety disorder in a large sample of adolescent females

OBJECTIVE An increased neural response to making mistakes has emerged as a potential biomarker of anxiety across development. The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential elicited when people make mistakes on simple laboratory-based reaction time tasks that has been associated with risk for anxiety. This study examined whether the ERN prospectively predicted the first onset of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) over 1.5 years in adolescent girls. METHODS The sample included 457 girls between the ages of 13.5 and 15.5 years, with no history of GAD. At baseline, the ERN was measured using a flankers task. Psychiatric history of the adolescent and biological parent was assessed with diagnostic interviews, and the adolescent completed a self-report questionnaire regarding anxiety symptoms. Approximately 1.5 years later, adolescents completed the same interview. RESULTS An increased neural response to errors at baseline predicted first-onset GAD over 1.5 years. The ERN was a significant predictor independent of other prominent risk factors, including baseline anxiety and depression symptoms and parental lifetime psychiatric history. Jointly the ERN and social anxiety symptoms provided the greatest power for predicting first-onset GAD. CONCLUSIONS This study provides evidence for the utility of the ERN as a biomarker of risk for GAD during a key developmental period.
Silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator using a highly-efficient L-shape PN junction

We demonstrate a silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator with L-shaped PN junctions to improve the modulation efficiency. The L-shape doping profile of the PN junction is obtained through multiple ion implantations with proper dose and energy. The depletion region of the PN junction has a strong overlap with the waveguide optical mode, resulting in improved modulation efficiency. We optimize the doping conditions to get a balanced performance in terms of modulator efficiency, insertion loss, and bandwidth. The measurement of the fabricated modulator reveals that the π phase shift voltage is 2.6 V for a 3-mm-long modulation arm. The modulation efficiency thus is Vπ·Lπ = 0.78 V·cm. The static extinction ratio is about 30 dB. The on-chip insertion loss is around 8.1 dB at zero bias. The EE 3-dB bandwidth is beyond 30 GHz at -2 V DC bias. Modulation of 32 Gb/s on-off keying (OOK) and binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) signals is successfully achieved.
Hormonal responses from concentric and eccentric muscle contractions.

UNLABELLED Intense resistance exercise can acutely increase testosterone (T), free testosterone (FT), and growth hormone (GH) concentrations, but there are few investigations concerning acute endocrine responses to concentric (CON) and eccentric (ECC) contractile actions. PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to compare acute anabolic hormonal responses to bouts of dynamic CON and ECC contractions from multiple exercises at the same absolute load. METHODS Ten young men (age: 24.7 +/- 1.2 yr, weight: 85.45 +/- 24.2 kg, and height: 178 +/- 0.2 cm) completed two trials in counterbalanced fashion consisting of only CON or ECC contractions at the same absolute workload. Subjects performed four sets of 12 repetitions of bench press, leg extension, military press, and leg curl at 80% of a 10-repetition maximum with 90-s rest periods. Blood samples were collected pre-, post-, and 15-min postexercise. RESULTS There were significant increases in GH, T, and FT and lactate for both trials, but only GH and lactate were greater for the CON trial. CONCLUSION CON exercise increases GH concentrations to a much greater extent than ECC exercise at the same absolute load, and it is likely that greater GH responses were related to intensity rather than mode of contraction. Also, CON and ECC dynamic contraction trials at the same absolute workload elicited similar small but significant increases in T and FT, indicating that the greater metabolic stress produced by during the CON trial did not affect these hormone responses.
Analyzing the Effect of Cosmetic Essence by Independent Component Analysis for Skin Color Images

Measurement of melanin distribution is required to evaluated during the process of developing cosmetic essences. However, exact measurement of the melanin distribution is very difficult because it is affected by other pigmentations. In this paper, the decrease of melanin component is analyzed by extracting the melanin distribution from digital color images. The independent component analysis (ICA) is used to extract the melanin component from the color images. The ICA is a technique that extracts the original signals from mixtures of many independent sources without prior information on the sources and the process of the mixture. This paper shows that proposed method is effective to observe the change of the melanin distribution without influence of other pigmentations.
High costs of infection: Alphavirus infection reduces digestive function and bone and feather growth in nestling house sparrows (Passer domesticus)

Increasingly, ecoimmunology studies aim to use relevant pathogen exposure to examine the impacts of infection on physiological processes in wild animals. Alphaviruses are arthropod-borne, single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses (“arboviruses”) responsible for millions of cases of human illnesses each year. Buggy Creek virus (BCRV) is a unique alphavirus that is transmitted by a cimicid insect, the swallow bug, and is amplified in two avian species: the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and the cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota). BCRV, like many alphaviruses, exhibits age-dependent susceptibility where the young are most susceptible to developing disease and exhibit a high mortality rate. However, alphavirus disease etiology in nestling birds is unknown. In this study, we infected nestling house sparrows with Buggy Creek virus and measured virological, pathological, growth, and digestive parameters following infection. Buggy Creek virus caused severe encephalitis in all infected nestlings, and the peak viral concentration in brain tissue was over 34 times greater than any other tissue. Growth, tissue development, and digestive function were all significantly impaired during BCRV infection. However, based on histopathological analysis performed, this impairment does not appear to be the result of direct tissue damage by the virus, but likely caused by encephalitis and neuronal invasion and impairment of the central nervous system. This is the first study to examine the course of alphavirus diseases in nestling birds and these results will improve our understanding of age-dependent infections of alphaviruses in vertebrate hosts.
Pressure Dependence Of The Strength Of Magnesite Deforming By Low Temperature Plasticity, Diffusion Creep, Or Dislocation Creep

iii Recent experiments by Holyoke et al. [2014] indicate that magnesite is weak compared to olivine possibly, leading to strain localization into magnesite-bearing horizons of downgoing subducting slabs, and causing intermediate depth (200 – 400 km) deep focus earthquakes (DFE). However, they did not determine the pressure dependence of the strength of magnesite. In order to determine the pressure dependence of magnesite deforming by low temperature plasticity (LTP) mechanisms (kinking and dislocation glide), diffusion creep, and dislocation creep, I deformed two natural magnesite aggregates (d ~ 3 and 80 μm) over a wide range of pressures (Peff = 0.76 – 7.5 GPa) at strain-rates of ~ 10-5/s and at temperatures T = 500, 750, and 900 °C, respectively. Triaxial deformation experiments were conducted in the D-DIA at Beamline 6-BMB at the Advanced Photon source at Argonne National Lab and in the Griggs apparatus at the University of Akron. Differential stresses in all sets of experiments increase with increasing pressure. Microstructures in experiments performed on fine-grained magnesite at 500 °C include flattened, angular grains, which were slightly reduced in size; microstructures in experiments performed on fine-grained magnesite at 750 °C include rounded grains, increased porosity and four-grain junctions; and microstructures in experiments performed on coarse-grained magnesite at 900 °C include elongated grains, patchy undulatory extinction, and recrystallized grains at grain boundaries. Based on these results and results obtained by Holyoke et al. [2014], the pressure dependence or activation volume, (V*) = 33.8 (±1), 2.2 (±0.7), and 10.3 (±2)*10-6 m3/mol, for LTP, diffusion creep, and dislocation creep, respectively. With the addition of the influence
Atherosclerosis of the carotid bulb is associated with the severity of orthostatic hypotension in non-diabetic adult patients: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT Background: The carotid bulb has a high density of baroreceptors that play an important role in maintaining blood pressure. We hypothesized that atherosclerosis of the carotid bulb would reflect the severity of orthostatic hypotension more accurately than would atherosclerosis of other carotid artery segments. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 198 non-diabetic adults. We measured the cardio-vascular ankle index as an index of arterial stiffness, intima-media thickness in each carotid artery segment (internal carotid artery, carotid bulb, distal and proximal portions, respectively, of the common carotid artery) as a measure of atherosclerosis, and heart rate variability as a measure of cardiac autonomic function. The sit-to-stand test was used to assess severity of orthostatic hypotension. Results: Intima-media thickness of the carotid bulb was correlated with orthostatic systolic blood pressure change (r = −0.218, p = 0.002), cardio-ankle vascular index (r = 0.365, p < 0.001) and heart rate variability parameters. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that among all of the segments, only intima-media thickness of the carotid bulb was an independent predictor of orthostatic systolic blood pressure change (p = 0.022). Conclusion: Atherosclerosis of the carotid bulb was associated with severity of orthostatic hypotension, arterial stiffening and cardiac autonomic dysfunction than that of other carotid artery segments.
Scalable Approach for Extrusion and Perfusion of Tubular, Heterotypic Biomaterials

Soft material tubes are critical in the vasculature of mammalian tissues, forming networks of blood vessels and airways. Homogeneous and heterogeneous hydrogel tubes were extruded in a one-step process using a three layer microfluidic device. Co-axial cylindrical flow of crosslinking solutions and an alginate matrix is generated by a radial arrangement of microfluidic channels at the device’s vertical extrusion outlet. The flow is confined and begins a sol-gel transition immediately as it extrudes at velocities upwards of 4 mm/s. This approach allows for predictive control over the dimensions of the rapidly formed tubular structures for outer diameters from 600 μm to 3 mm. A second microfluidic device hosts tube segments for controlled perfusion and pressurization using a reversible vacuum seal. On-chip tube deflection is observed and modeled as a measure of material compliance and circumferential elasticity. I anticipate applications of these devices for perfusion cell culture of cell-laden hydrogel tubes.
Observation of strongly nonquadratic homogeneous upconversion in Er/sup 3+/-doped silica fibers and reevaluation of the degree of clustering

From careful studies of the 1530-nm fluorescence decay, we obtain the rate of energy transfer upconversion as a function of the inverted population for a series of nine highly Er-doped silica fibers (with concentrations from 0.3 to 8.6/spl middot/10/sup 25/ Er/sup 3+/-ions per m/sup 3/). The results demonstrate that the slow component (microsecond to millisecond scale) of the upconversion, usually referred to as the homogeneous upconversion, is clearly nonquadratic in its dependence on the inverted population, contrary to previous assumptions in the literature. In a second part, we present a new detailed model for energy transfer upconversion, permitting-to our knowledge for the first time-calculation of the rate of migration accelerated upconversion for any given spatial distribution of Er/sup 3+/-ions. We demonstrate that the results from the decay measurements may be explained with this model. Next, we review the results from a CW green fluorescence detection experiment for the determination of the degree of clustering, which was previously performed on five of the nine fibers. We find accordance between these results and our model, with parameters consistent with those needed to fit the results of the decay experiment, and we arrive at a new conclusion about the nature of clustering.
OmcB, a c-Type Polyheme Cytochrome, Involved in Fe(III) Reduction in Geobacter sulfurreducens

ABSTRACT Microorganisms in the family Geobacteraceae are the predominant Fe(III)-reducing microorganisms in a variety of subsurface environments in which Fe(III) reduction is an important process, but little is known about the mechanisms for electron transport to Fe(III) in these organisms. The Geobacter sulfurreducens genome was found to contain a 10-kb chromosomal duplication consisting of two tandem three-gene clusters. The last genes of the two clusters, designated omcB and omcC, encode putative outer membrane polyheme c-type cytochromes which are 79% identical. The role of the omcB and omcC genes in Fe(III) reduction in G. sulfurreducens was investigated. OmcB and OmcC were both expressed during growth with acetate as the electron donor and either fumarate or Fe(III) as the electron acceptor. OmcB was ca. twofold more abundant under both conditions. Disrupting omcB or omcC by gene replacement had no impact on growth with fumarate. However, the OmcB-deficient mutant was greatly impaired in its ability to reduce Fe(III) both in cell suspensions and under growth conditions. In contrast, the ability of the OmcC-deficient mutant to reduce Fe(III) was similar to that of the wild type. When omcB was reintroduced into the OmcB-deficient mutant, the capacity for Fe(III) reduction was restored in proportion to the level of OmcB production. These results indicate that OmcB, but not OmcC, has a major role in electron transport to Fe(III) and suggest that electron transport to the outer membrane is an important feature in Fe(III) reduction in this organism.
MyD88 as a therapeutic target for inflammatory lung diseases

ABSTRACT Introduction: Myeloid differentiation primary response protein 88 (MyD88) is a critical adaptor protein involved in Toll-like and IL-1 receptor family signaling controlling innate immune responses and inflammation. Genetic deletion of MyD88 function results in profound suppression of inflammation and reduced resistance of the host to pathogens indicating non-redundant roles of MyD88. The TIR domain is critical for MyD88 dimerization and signaling for TLR and IL-1R family receptor. Areas covered: Emerging evidence suggests that chemical disruption of the TIR domain attenuates cell activation and inhibits in vivo MyD88-dependent inflammation. We review the development of MyD88 dimerization disruptors as a novel therapeutic approach of respiratory diseases with a focus on COPD. Expert opinion: There is a proof of concept that therapeutic targeting of MyD88 is feasible and first preclinical data are highly promising. This opens a great opportunity to treat exacerbations of COPD and other chronic respiratory diseases. However, extensive preclinical investigations and risk analyses are required with carefully evaluation of reduced host resistance and opportunistic infections.
Lack of Association Between the 8-oxoguanine DNA Glycosylase Gene Ser 326 Cys Polymorphism and Gastric Cancer : Evidence from a Meta-Analysis

According to a recent survey, gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most frequent malignancies in Asian countries (Long et al., 2010). It is generally believed that GC is a multifactorial disorder influenced by multiple genes and environmental factors such as diet, smoking, drinking, and Helicobacter pylori infection (Crew and Neugut, 2004). Since some people are more susceptible to GC than others, it is essential to explain this inter-individual difference in susceptibility or resistance to this cancer. However, although great hope was expressed in genome-wide association studies to unlock the genetic underpinnings of GC, the results from such research have told us little (Yoshida et al., 2010). Therefore, evaluation candidate genes or loci still attracts widespread research interest. The human 8-oxoguanine glycosylase 1 (OGG1) gene (chromosome 3p26), as a member of the base-excision repair pathway, is regarded as a logical candidate for involvement in the underlying cause of cancer (Collins and Gaivão, 2007), with its expressed protein actively removing the directly 8-hydroy-2-deoxyguanine (8OHdG) from DNA. In particular, an exonic polymorphism,
Electrical and Optical Performance of Silicon Solar Cells Using Plasmonics Indium Nanoparticles Layer Embedded in SiO 2 Antireflective Coating

In this study, we demonstrate the photovoltaic performance enhancement of silicon solar cell by means of plasmonics indium nanoparticles (In-NPs) layer embedded in SiO 2 antireflective coating (ARC). The optical reflectance, external quantum efficiency, and photovoltaic current-voltage are measured and compared. Impressive conversion efficiency enhancement of 35.94% for the cell with double In-NPs layers ARC, 34.77% for the cell with single In-NPs layer ARC, and 26.67% for the cell with a pure Si O2 ARC were obtained which is compared to the reference cells. Besides, the gain in absolute efficiency of 1.26-1.52% for the cells with In-NPs ARC was higher than that of the cell with a pure SiO 2 ARC, due to the contribution of plasmonics scattering of In-NPs.
Expression of Indian Hedgehog, Parathyroid Hormone‐Related Protein, and Their Receptors in the Postnatal Growth Plate of the Rat: Evidence for a Locally Acting Growth Restraining Feedback Loop After Birth

A locally acting growth restraining feedback loop has been identified in the murine embryonic growth plate in which the level of parathyroid hormone‐related peptide (PTHrP) expression regulates the pace of chondrocyte differentiation. To date, it is largely unknown whether this feedback loop also regulates the pace of chondrocyte differentiation in the growth plate after birth. We therefore characterized the spatio‐temporal expression of Indian hedgehog (IHH), PTHrP, and their receptors in the postnatal growth plate from female and male rats of 1, 4, 7, and 12 weeks of age. These stages are representative for early life and puberty in rats. Using semiquantitative reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) on growth plate tissue, IHH and components of its receptor complex, patched (PTC) and smoothened (SMO), PTHrP and the type I PTH/PTHrP receptor messenger RNA (mRNA) were shown at all ages studied irrespective of gender. Using in situ hybridization, IHH, PTHrP, and PTH/PTHrP receptor mRNA were detected in prehypertrophic and hypertrophic chondrocytes in both sexes during development. In addition, especially in the younger age groups, faint expression of PTH/PTHrP receptor mRNA also was shown in stem cells and proliferative chondrocytes. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the observations made with in situ hybridization, by showing the presence of IHH, PTC, PTHrP, and PTH/PTHrP receptor protein in prehypertrophic and hypertrophic chondrocytes. In addition, staining for hedgehog, PTC, and PTHrP also was observed in growth plate stem cells. No differences in staining patterns were observed between the sexes. Furthermore, no mRNA or protein expression of the mentioned factors was detected in the perichondrium. Our data suggest that in contrast to the proposed feedback loop in the early embryonic growth plate, which requires the presence of the perichondrium, a feedback loop in the postnatal growth plate can be confined to the growth plate itself. In fact, two loops might exist: (1) a loop confined to the transition zone and early hypertrophic chondrocytes, which might in part be autocrine and (2) a loop involving the growth plate stem cells.