Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Retinol supplementation induces oxidative stress and modulates antioxidant enzyme activities in rat Sertoli cells

Recent intervention studies revealed that supplementation with retinoids resulted in a higher incidence of lung cancer. Recently the causal mechanism has begun to be clarified. We report here that retinol caused cellular oxidative stress and modulated superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities. Retinol (7 μM) significantly increased TBARS, conjugated dienes, and hydroperoxide-initiated chemiluminescence in cultured Sertoli cells. In response to retinol treatment superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities increased. TBARS content and catalase activities were decreased by a free radical scavenger. These findings suggest that retinol may induce oxidative stress and modulate antioxidant enzyme activities in Sertoli cells.
Tissue-Specific Ablation of the LIF Receptor in the Murine Uterine Epithelium Results in Implantation Failure

The cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) is essential for rendering the uterus receptive for blastocyst implantation. In mice, LIF receptor expression (LIFR) is largely restricted to the uterine luminal epithelium (LE). LIF, secreted from the endometrial glands (GEs), binds to the LIFR, activating the Janus kinase–signal transducer and activation of transcription (STAT) 3 (Jak-Stat3) signaling pathway in the LE. JAK-STAT activation converts the LE to a receptive state so that juxtaposed blastocysts begin to implant. To specifically delete the LIFR in the LE, we derived a line of mice in which Cre recombinase was inserted into the endogenous lactoferrin gene (Ltf-Cre). Lactoferrin expression in the LE is induced by E2, and we demonstrate that Cre recombinase activity is restricted to the LE and GE. To determine the requirement of the LIFR in implantation, we derived an additional mouse line carrying a conditional (floxed) Lifrflx/flx gene. Crossing Ltf-Cre mice with Lifrflx/flx mice generated Lifrflx/Δ:LtfCre/+ females that were overtly normal but infertile. Many of these females, despite repeated matings, did not become pregnant. Unimplanted blastocysts were recovered from the Lifrflx/Δ:LtfCre/+ uteri and, when transferred to wild-type recipients, implanted normally, indicating that uterine receptivity rather than the embryo’s competency is compromised. The loss of Lifr results in both the failure for STAT3 to translocate to the LE nuclei and a reduction in the expression of the LIF regulated gene Msx1 that regulates uterine receptivity. These results reveal that uterine expression of the LIFR is essential for embryo implantation and further define the components of the LIF signaling pathway necessary for effective implantation.
Congenital Long and Short QT Syndromes

Congenital long and short QT syndromes are familial arrhythmias characterized by derangement of repolarization and a high risk of sudden cardiac death due to ventricular tachyarrhythmias. With growing understanding of these syndromes in both the medical and lay communities, diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties are increasingly faced by health care providers. Modern genomics has determined the mechanism of arrhythmia induction in these patients, resulting in specific medical therapies and improved risk stratification. This paper reviews the common presentations, genetic etiology, basic evaluation, risk stratification, and therapeutic approach for both syndromes. Particular attention is paid to the effect of the individual syndrome on the cardiac action potential and its correlate the surface 12 lead ECG. In conclusion, patients with long and short QT syndromes are at risk for sudden death, with accurate diagnosis, risk stratification, and resulting appropriate therapy favorably altering their outcome.
RESPIRATORY TRACT VIRAL INFECTIONS IN BONE MARROW TRANSPLANT PATIENTS

Background. Community respiratory viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenovirus, influenza A, influenza B, and the parainfluenza group are frequent causes of respiratory disease in bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients. Material and Methods. During the period from March 1993 to August 1999, 810 samples of respiratory secretions, nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), from 722 patients with upper respiratory infections symptoms at the BMT unit of the Federal University in the state of Paraná, Brazil were evaluated for respiratory virus infection. Results. One hundred thirty‐six (17%) samples were reactive in 62 patients. RSV was found in 30 of 62 (48%), influenza A in 14 of 62 (23%), influenza B in 9 of 62 (15%), parainfluenza group in 7 of 62 (11%), and adenovirus in 2 of 62 (3%) infected patients. The most frequent clinical manifestations were cough and fever. Pneumonia occurred in 19 of 62 (31%) cases. The mortality rate was 23 of 62 (37%), being higher among patients infected with adenovirus and influenza A. Conclusions. Infections in BMT patients occurred during the outbreak period of these viruses in the community, highlighting the need to establish surveillance measures in units with immunocompromised patients in addition to the development of sensitive and rapid diagnostic tests for the detection of these viruses in patients with respiratory symptoms.
ALS precursor finally shaken into fibrils

There is now little doubt that the prime cause of the motor-neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is related to misfolding and aggregation of the metalloenzyme Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1). Yet, SOD1 has turned out remarkably resistant to aggregation under physiological conditions in vitro. Pathologic mutant proteins that are destabilized to the extent that they fail to fold can still be stored at room temperature for long periods of time without notable signs of self-association. To produce SOD1 aggregates one has to resort to more radical measures, such as high temperature at low pH (1, 2), organic solvents (1), or oxidative cross-linking of the protein's solvent-accessible cysteines (3). Because these conditions are different from those in the cell the connection between SOD1 aggregation and ALS has remained elusive; after all, most if not all proteins contain sequences capable of nucleating aggregation (4) and can thus be forced to aggregate in vitro if the conditions are made sufficiently “persuasive. ” In this issue of PNAS, Valentine and collaborators (5) present a new interesting piece to the puzzle by showing that SOD1 can be made to aggregate under conditions that are physiologically relevant. The trick seems to be simply that the solution requires appropriate agitation. After a few hours of this treatment in an orbital shaker at 250 rpm, immature molecules of wild-type SOD1 nucleate into ordered fibrillar structures similar to those observed in classical amyloidoses such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases. For nucleation to occur, however, the protein also needs to be demetallated and without its stabilizing disulfide bridge. Once the seeds are formed the process can recruit more stable SOD1 species for the fibril elongation. Similar results were published independently by Furukawa et al. (6) just a few months ago.
Regulation of the Synthesis and Activity of Ammonia Monooxygenase in Nitrosomonas europaea by Altering pH To Affect NH(inf3) Availability

The obligately ammonia-oxidizing bacterium Nitrosomonas europaea was incubated in medium containing 50 mM ammonium. Changes in the concentration of nitrite, the pH, and the NH(inf4)(sup+)- and NH(inf2)OH-dependent O(inf2) uptake activities of the cell suspension were monitored. The NH(inf4)(sup+)-dependent O(inf2) uptake activity doubled over the first 3 h of incubation and then slowly returned to its original level over the following 5 h. The extent of stimulation of NH(inf4)(sup+)-dependent O(inf2) uptake activity was decreased by lowering the initial pH of the medium. Radiolabeling studies demonstrated that the stimulation of NH(inf4)(sup+)-dependent O(inf2) uptake activity involved de novo synthesis of several polypeptides. Under O(inf2)-limited conditions, the stimulated NH(inf4)(sup+)-dependent O(inf2) uptake activity was stabilized. Rapid, controlled, and predictable changes in this activity could be caused by acidification of the medium in the absence of ammonia oxidation. These results indicate that the NH(inf4)(sup+)-dependent O(inf2) uptake activity in N. europaea is strongly regulated in response to NH(inf3) concentration.
Deregulation of focal adhesion formation and cytoskeletal tension due to loss of A-type lamins

ABSTRACT The nuclear lamina mechanically integrates the nucleus with the cytoskeleton and extracellular environment and regulates gene expression. These functions are exerted through direct and indirect interactions with the lamina's major constituent proteins, the A-type lamins, which are encoded by the LMNA gene. Using quantitative stable isotope labeling-based shotgun proteomics we have analyzed the proteome of human dermal fibroblasts in which we have depleted A-type lamins by means of a sustained siRNA-mediated LMNA knockdown. Gene ontology analysis revealed that the largest fraction of differentially produced proteins was involved in actin cytoskeleton organization, in particular proteins involved in focal adhesion dynamics, such as actin-related protein 2 and 3 (ACTR2/3), subunits of the ARP2/3 complex, and fascin actin-bundling protein 1 (FSCN1). Functional validation using quantitative immunofluorescence showed a significant reduction in the size of focal adhesion points in A-type lamin depleted cells, which correlated with a reduction in early cell adhesion capacity and an increased cell motility. At the same time, loss of A-type lamins led to more pronounced stress fibers and higher traction forces. This phenotype could not be mimicked or reversed by experimental modulation of the STAT3-IL6 pathway, but it was partly recapitulated by chemical inhibition of the ARP2/3 complex. Thus, our data suggest that the loss of A-type lamins perturbs the balance between focal adhesions and cytoskeletal tension. This imbalance may contribute to mechanosensing defects observed in certain laminopathies.
Instrumental means for the control and analysis of gas mixtures based on the use of artificial neural networks

The article deals with the features of creation of tools for monitoring and neuronet identification of complex gasair mixtures using devices such as “electronic nose” equipped with semiconductor gas sensitive sensors in the form of a matrix are considered. The results of experimental studies on the analysis and recognition of various gas mixtures based on the use of artificial neural networks in the processing of streaming signals from a gas sensitive matrix.
Development and Validation of Experimental Protocols for Use of Cardinal Models for Prediction of Microorganism Growth in Food Products

ABSTRACT An experimental protocol to validate secondary-model application to foods was suggested. Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, and Salmonella were observed in various food categories, such as meat, dairy, egg, or seafood products. The secondary model validated in this study was based on the gamma concept, in which the environmental factors temperature, pH, and water activity (aw) were introduced as individual terms with microbe-dependent parameters, and the effect of foodstuffs on the growth rates of these species was described with a food- and microbe-dependent parameter. This food-oriented approach was carried out by challenge testing, generally at 15 and 10°C for L. monocytogenes, E. coli, B. cereus, and Salmonella and at 25 and 20°C for C. perfringens. About 222 kinetics in foods were generated. The results were compared to simulations generated by existing software, such as PMP. The bias factor was also calculated. The methodology to obtain a food-dependent parameter (fitting step) and therefore to compare results given by models with new independent data (validation step) is discussed in regard to its food safety application. The proposed methods were used within the French national program of predictive microbiology, Sym′Previus, to include challenge test results in the database and to obtain predictive models designed for microbial growth in food products.
Population structure and admixture in Cerro Largo, Uruguay, based on blood markers and mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms

Recent studies of the Uruguayan population revealed different amounts of Amerindian and African genetic contributions. Our previous analysis of Afro‐Uruguayans from the capital city of the Department of Cerro Largo showed a high proportion of African genes, and the effects of directional mating involving Amerindian women. In this paper, we extended the analysis to a sample of more than 100 individuals representing a random sample of the population of the whole Department. Based on 18 autosomal markers and one X‐linked marker, we estimated 82% European, 8% Amerindian, and 10% African contributions to their ancestry, while from seven mitochondrial DNA site‐specific polymorphic markers and sequences of hypervariable segment I, we determined 49% European, 30% Amerindian, and 21% African maternal contributions. Directional matings between Amerindian women and European men were detected, but differences involving Africans were not significant. Data about the specific origins of maternal lineages were also provided, and placed in a historical context. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:513–524, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Robust motion estimation for overlapping images via genetic algorithm

We propose a robust method based on genetic algorithm for the estimation of the motion between two successive overlapping images, a classic problem in computer vision. To calculate the motion parameters encoded as a chromosome, we employed roulette wheel selection and total arithmetic crossover and developed a novel adaptive mutation operator. The experimental results show that the normalized registration error of the final solution exhibits a significant improvement over those obtained by direct search approaches to such problems. Also, in contrast to other popular approaches such as the least-squares and Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, the proposed method can escape from local extrema and can potentially produce the global optimum.
Study on the Optimal Design of a Novel Slotless Resolver by FEM

An effective design method of a novel slotless resolver with a variable reluctance rotor is proposed using the finite-element method (FEM). The slotless resolver has an advantage in size, precision, and manufacturing cost over a general slot-type resolver. In designing the slotless resolver, the virtual slot section is introduced to wind the excitation coil, as well as the sin and cos output signal coils. The effective winding methods relative to coil position and coil turns in the virtual slot section are proposed to obtain precise position angle information of the resolver using FEM. To validate the proposed design method, the prototype slotless resolver with winding pattern in a flexible printed circuit board is tested, and the experimental result is compared with the simulation result.
Uncovering the neuroanatomical correlates of cognitive, affective and conative theory of mind in paediatric traumatic brain injury: a neural systems perspective

Abstract Deficits in theory of mind (ToM) are common after neurological insult acquired in the first and second decade of life, however the contribution of large-scale neural networks to ToM deficits in children with brain injury is unclear. Using paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a model, this study investigated the sub-acute effect of paediatric traumatic brain injury on grey-matter volume of three large-scale, domain-general brain networks (the Default Mode Network, DMN; the Central Executive Network, CEN; and the Salience Network, SN), as well as two domain-specific neural networks implicated in social-affective processes (the Cerebro-Cerebellar Mentalizing Network, CCMN and the Mirror Neuron/Empathy Network, MNEN). We also evaluated prospective structure–function relationships between these large-scale neural networks and cognitive, affective and conative ToM. 3D T1- weighted magnetic resonance imaging sequences were acquired sub-acutely in 137 children [TBI: n = 103; typically developing (TD) children: n = 34]. All children were assessed on measures of ToM at 24-months post-injury. Children with severe TBI showed sub-acute volumetric reductions in the CCMN, SN, MNEN, CEN and DMN, as well as reduced grey-matter volumes of several hub regions of these neural networks. Volumetric reductions in the CCMN and several of its hub regions, including the cerebellum, predicted poorer cognitive ToM. In contrast, poorer affective and conative ToM were predicted by volumetric reductions in the SN and MNEN, respectively. Overall, results suggest that cognitive, affective and conative ToM may be prospectively predicted by individual differences in structure of different neural systems—the CCMN, SN and MNEN, respectively. The prospective relationship between cerebellar volume and cognitive ToM outcomes is a novel finding in our paediatric brain injury sample and suggests that the cerebellum may play a role in the neural networks important for ToM. These findings are discussed in relation to neurocognitive models of ToM. We conclude that detection of sub-acute volumetric abnormalities of large-scale neural networks and their hub regions may aid in the early identification of children at risk for chronic social-cognitive impairment.
Fair channel aware packet scheduling algorithm for fast UL HARQ in UTRAN LTE

UTRAN Long Term Evolution is currently under standardization within 3GPP with the aim of providing a spectral efficiency 2 to 4 times higher than its predecessor HSUPA/HSDPA. We propose a fair channel aware search tree based packet scheduling algorithm which schedules based on the metric values designed by proportional allocation scheme. Fairness is provided by the algorithm by choosing the best metric in the search tree. From our simulation we have proved 30–40% power spectral density improvement and 5dbm transmission power improvement for users near the cell boundary. The performance is also shown in terms of scheduled SINR, PRBs (physical resource block) distribution and cell throughput.
Wireless Sensing of Human Respiratory Parameters by Low-Power Ultrawideband Impulse Radio Radar

The simultaneous tracking of the chest respiratory rate and amplitude of human beings using a low-power ultrawideband (UWB) impulse radio signal is investigated for the application of sleep apnea monitoring. The measurement of respiratory amplitude, in addition to the breathing rate, is crucial for sleep apnea assessment which requires, among other things, the accurate estimation of tidal volume per minute. Backscattered UWB impulse radio signals from a human subject are detected in the time domain to calculate the chest displacements in this paper. Since the pulse disposition in time is linearly related to the chest movement, the amplitude of the chest movement can be extracted accurately without calculation approximations normally used in many of the existing methods. The multipeak detection of the pulse disposition method, instead of using only the single pulse peak detection, is also proposed to improve the accuracy of the calculation further. The experiments are carried out on four human subjects with different sizes and genders. The correlation of the chest movements' amplitude and breathing rate between the simultaneously measured results obtained by our method and by the respiratory chest band is very good.
Forecasting Bangladesh's Inflation Using Time Series ARIMA Models

This study summarizes the steps for forecasting Bangladesh’s inflation using Box-Jenkins autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time series model. For forecasting one year ahead consumer price index of Bangladesh a structure for ARIMA forecasting model, where a time series is expressed in terms of past values of itself plus current and lagged values of a ‘white noise’ error term is drawn up. Validity of the model was tested using standard statistical techniques and the best model is proposed on the basis of various diagnostic and selection & evaluation criteria. The findings of the study will provide policy makers a long term perspective of inflation in Bangladesh and assist in adopting proper strategies to contain inflation.
Channel Distortion Modeling for Multi-View Video Transmission Over Packet-Switched Networks

Channel distortion modeling for generic multi-view video transmission remains a unfilled blank, despite that intensive research efforts have been devoted to model traditional 2-D video transmission. This paper aims to fill this blank through developing a recursive distortion model for multi-view video transmission over lossy packet-switched networks. Based on the study on the characteristics of multi-view video coding and the propagating behavior of transmission error due to random frame losses, a recursive mathematical model is derived to estimate the expected channel-induced distortion at both the frame and sequence levels. The model we develop explicitly considers both temporal and inter-view dependencies, induced by motion-compensated and disparity-compensated coding, respectively. The derived model is applicable to all multi-view video encoders using the classical block-based motion-/disparity-compensated prediction framework. Both objective and subjective experimental results are presented to demonstrate that the proposed model is capable of effectively model channel-induced distortion for multi-view video.
Rarebit Perimetry and Frequency Doubling Technology in Patients with Ocular Hypertension

Purpose To test the capability of rarebit perimetry (RP), a recent non-conventional perimetric technique, in detecting early functional damage in subjects with ocular hypertension (OHT) and to compare RP findings with those obtained by frequency-doubling technology (FDT) perimetry. Methods Thirty patients with OHT were matched with 30 healthy subjects. All were tested with RP and FDT. Frequency-doubling technology mean deviation (MD) and pattern standard deviation (PSD), as well as RP mean hit rate (MHR), of the two groups were analyzed. The agreement between the two techniques was tested by Kappa analysis. Results In the OHT group the mean (SD) FDT MD was 0.5 (2.1), the mean (SD) FDT PSD was 4.2 (1.6), and the mean (SD) RP MHR was 81.4 (6.7). In the control group, corresponding values were mean (SD) FDT MD 1.1 (1.4), mean (SD) FDT PSD 3.0 (0.3), mean (SD) RP MHR 96.2 (2.0). The differences between the two groups were not significant for the studied indexes. Eleven (36.6%) out of the 30 OHT eyes had abnormal RP results; 12 (40.0%) eyes had abnormal FDT results. Five (16.6%) eyes had abnormal RP and FDT findings. Only 1 eye (3.3%) in the control group had abnormal RP results and 3 eyes (10.0%) had abnormal FDT results. RP and FDT showed a moderate agreement (Kappa = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.42 to 0.51). Conclusions RP and FDT showed VF defects not shown in standard automated perimetry in the OHT group. This may be indicative of an increased risk in developing glaucoma, even if a gold standard for detecting subtle defects is not currently available. RP has the additional advantage of not requiring any expensive device to be used. The poor agreement between these techniques in identifying eyes with early damage warrants further investigations. Large longitudinal studies are needed before defining the role of RP in early glaucoma diagnosis.