Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Intratracheal Administration of Novispirin G10 on a Rat Model of Mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa Lung Infection

ABSTRACT Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection is a major problem for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The biofilm mode of growth of the pathogen makes it highly resistant to antibiotic treatment, and this is especially pronounced with mucoid strains. In this study, novispirin G10, a synthetic antimicrobial peptide patterned loosely on sheep myeloid antimicrobial peptide 29, was tested in a rat model of mucoid P. aeruginosa lung infection. P. aeruginosa NH57388A, a mucoid strain isolated from a CF patient, was mixed with the alginate produced by the bacterium itself and adjusted to a concentration of 1010 CFU/ml. Each rat received 109 CFU of bacteria intratracheally in the left lung to establish lung infection. At 0 and 3 h post P. aeruginosa infection, the treated group of rats received novispirin G10 (0.1 mg/ml, 0.1 ml/rat) intratracheally, whereas the control group received vehicle treatment only. The animals were sacrificed on days 3, 5, 7, and 10 after challenge for evaluation of various parameters. On day 5, 50% of the rats in the treated group had cleared the bacteria from the lungs, whereas in the control group, none of the rats cleared the pathogen (P < 0.03). The average bacterial loads remaining in the lungs of treated rats on days 3 and 5 were more than 170- and 330-fold lower than in the control groups (P < 0.0005 and P < 0.0003). In accordance, the macroscopic and microscopic lung pathology was also significantly milder in the treated group compared to the control group (P < 0.0002). Lung cytokine responses in the treated group were significantly lower than in the control group. The results suggest that novispirin G10 might be useful in treating antibiotic-resistant P. aeruginosa lung infections.
Output-Sensitive Computation of Force-Closure Grasps of a Semi-Algebraic Object

We propose a technique which significantly simplifies the computation of frictionless force-closure grasps of a curved planar part <i>P</i>. We use a colored projection scheme from the three-dimensional wrench space to two-dimensional screens, which allows us to reduce the problem of identifying combinations of arcs and concave vertices of <i>P</i> that admit frictionless force-closure grasps, to colored intersection searching problems in the screens. We show how to combine this technique with existing intersection searching algorithms to obtain efficient, output-sensitive algorithms to compute all force-closure grasps of <i>P</i>, where at most four hard, frictionless point contacts exert exactly four wrenches on <i>P</i>. If the boundary of <i>P</i> consists of <i>n</i> algebraic arcs of constant complexity and <i>m</i> concave vertices, we show how to compute all force-closure grasps with: (1) four contacts along four arcs in <i>O</i>(<i>n</i><sup>8/3</sup>log<sup>1/3</sup><i>n</i>+<i>K</i>) time; (2) four contacts along three arcs in O(n<sup>5/2+ε</sup> + K) time; (3) one contact at a concave vertex and two contacts along two arcs in O(n<sup>2</sup>m<sup>1/2+ε</sup> + K) time; (4) one contact at a concave vertex and two contacts along a single arc in O(nm) or O(n<sup>3/2+ε</sup> + K) time (depending on the size of m); where ε is an arbitrarily small positive constant and K is the output size-that is, the number of combinations of arcs and vertices of each type, that actually admit frictionless force-closure grasps.
Novel low-cost planar probes with broadside apertures for nondestructive dielectric measurement of biological materials at microwave frequencies

Novel planar-type probes were developed to demonstrate the possibility of replacing the existing high-cost open-ended coaxial probes. The planar probes of this study define an aperture on the broadside of the probe body. In this way, the contact area can be maximized and/or customized according to specific medical needs. The probes with various aperture sizes and shapes can also be fabricated simultaneously in a single batch process. Three probes are developed in this paper: a probe combining two laminates, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based probe with a single benzocyclobutene (BCB) layer on a quartz substrate, and another MEMS probe with two BCB layers defined on a silicon substrate. The third probe was specifically designed for monolithic integration with driving circuits on a single substrate. Limitations in the high-frequency performance of the planar probes were carefully studied, and higher order modes and incomplete shielding were found to be the main causes. The measurement results of each probe showed excellent compatibility with those of the open-ended coaxial probe up to almost 40 GHz. The proposed planar-type probes have great potentials for practical medical applications in view of low cost, disposability, and monolithic integration capability with the driving circuits.
Refugia revisited: individualistic responses of species in space and time

Climate change in the past has led to significant changes in species' distributions. However, how individual species respond to climate change depends largely on their adaptations and environmental tolerances. In the Quaternary, temperate-adapted taxa are in general confined to refugia during glacials while cold-adapted taxa are in refugia during interglacials. In the Northern Hemisphere, evidence appears to be mounting that in addition to traditional southern refugia for temperate species, cryptic refugia existed in the North during glacials. Equivalent cryptic southern refugia, to the south of the more conventional high-latitude polar refugia, exist in montane areas during periods of warm climate, such as the current interglacial. There is also a continental/oceanic longitudinal gradient, which should be included in a more complete consideration of the interaction between species ranges and climates. Overall, it seems clear that there is large variation in both the size of refugia and the duration during which species are confined to them. This has implications for the role of refugia in the evolution of species and their genetic diversity.
The mentalizing network orchestrates the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement

Parochial altruism—a preference for altruistic behavior towards ingroup members and mistrust or hostility towards outgroup members—is a pervasive feature in human society and strongly shapes the enforcement of social norms. Since the uniqueness of human society critically depends on the enforcement of norms, the understanding of the neural circuitry of the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement is key, but unexplored. To fill this gap, we measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects had the opportunity to punish ingroup members and outgroup members for violating social norms. Findings revealed that subjects' strong punishment of defecting outgroup members is associated with increased activity in a functionally connected network involved in sanction‐related decisions (right orbitofrontal gyrus, right lateral prefrontal cortex, right dorsal caudatus). Moreover, the stronger the connectivity in this network, the more outgroup members are punished. In contrast, the much weaker punishment of ingroup members who committed the very same norm violation is associated with increased activity and connectivity in the mentalizing‐network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, bilateral temporo‐parietal junction), as if subjects tried to understand or justify ingroup members' behavior. Finally, connectivity analyses between the two networks suggest that the mentalizing‐network modulates punishment by affecting the activity in the right orbitofrontal gyrus and right lateral prefrontal cortex, notably in the same areas showing enhanced activity and connectivity whenever third‐parties strongly punished defecting outgroup members. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of an Orchid Model Plant Candidate: Erycina pusilla Apply in Tropical Oncidium Breeding

Oncidium is an important ornamental plant but the study of its functional genomics is difficult. Erycina pusilla is a fast-growing Oncidiinae species. Several characteristics including low chromosome number, small genome size, short growth period, and its ability to complete its life cycle in vitro make E. pusilla a good model candidate and parent for hybridization for orchids. Although genetic information remains limited, systematic molecular analysis of its chloroplast genome might provide useful genetic information. By combining bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones and next-generation sequencing (NGS), the chloroplast (cp) genome of E. pusilla was sequenced accurately, efficiently and economically. The cp genome of E. pusilla shares 89 and 84% similarity with Oncidium Gower Ramsey and Phalanopsis aphrodite, respectively. Comparing these 3 cp genomes, 5 regions have been identified as showing diversity. Using PCR analysis of 19 species belonging to the Epidendroideae subfamily, a conserved deletion was found in the rps15-trnN region of the Cymbidieae tribe. Because commercial Oncidium varieties in Taiwan are limited, identification of potential parents using molecular breeding method has become very important. To demonstrate the relationship between taxonomic position and hybrid compatibility of E. pusilla, 4 DNA regions of 36 tropically adapted Oncidiinae varieties have been analyzed. The results indicated that trnF-ndhJ and trnH-psbA were suitable for phylogenetic analysis. E. pusilla proved to be phylogenetically closer to Rodriguezia and Tolumnia than Oncidium, despite its similar floral appearance to Oncidium. These results indicate the hybrid compatibility of E. pusilla, its cp genome providing important information for Oncidium breeding.
Secure k-NN query on encrypted cloud database without key-sharing

In cloud computing, secure analysis on outsourced encrypted data is a significant topic. As a frequently used query for online applications, secure k-nearest neighbours k-NN computation on encrypted cloud data has received much attention, and several solutions for it have been put forward. However, most existing schemes assume the query users are fully trusted and all query users know the entire key which is used to encrypt and decrypt data owner's outsourced database. It is constitutionally not feasible in lots of real-world applications. In this paper, we propose a novel secure and practical scheme for preserving data privacy and supporting k-NN query on encrypted cloud data. In the new approach, only limited information about the key of data owner is disclosed to query users, and the data privacy can be protected even when query users leak their knowledge about the key to adversary. Theoretical analysis and experiment results confirm the security and practicality of our scheme.
Combination Strategies to Enhance the Efficacy of Antimicrobial Peptides against Bacterial Biofilms

The great clinical significance of biofilm-associated infections and their inherent recalcitrance to antibiotic treatment urgently demand the development of novel antibiofilm strategies. In this regard, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are increasingly recognized as a promising template for the development of antibiofilm drugs. Indeed, owing to their main mechanism of action, which relies on the permeabilization of bacterial membranes, AMPs exhibit a strong antimicrobial activity also against multidrug-resistant bacteria and slow-growing or dormant biofilm-forming cells and are less prone to induce resistance compared to current antibiotics. Furthermore, the antimicrobial potency of AMPs can be highly increased by combining them with conventional (antibiotics) as well as unconventional bioactive molecules. Combination treatments appear particularly attractive in the case of biofilms since the heterogeneous nature of these microbial communities requires to target cells in different metabolic states (e.g., actively growing cells, dormant cells) and environmental conditions (e.g., acidic pH, lack of oxygen or nutrients). Therefore, the combination of different bioactive molecules acting against distinct biofilm components has the potential to facilitate biofilm control and/or eradication. The aim of this review is to highlight the most promising combination strategies developed so far to enhance the therapeutic potential of AMPs against bacterial biofilms. The rationale behind and beneficial outcomes of using AMPs in combination with conventional antibiotics, compounds capable of disaggregating the extracellular matrix, inhibitors of signaling pathways involved in biofilm formation (i.e., quorum sensing), and other peptide-based molecules will be presented and discussed.
Identify the Semantic Meaning of Service Rules with Natural Language Processing

In cloud manufacturing, manufacturing resources are services that can be looked up and accessed over the Internet. Manufacturing ontologies are used to store the service information. Manufacturers use service rules to control the access to their resources. The rules are normally written in natural language. Thus, they need to be converted to semantic rules that can be understood by the search engine of the manufacturing ontologies. Our previous work investigated converting service rules to semantic rules automatically. However, the scheme is not flexible enough. This paper proposed an improvement to the scheme in our previous work. The proposed scheme allows a wider range of service rules to be converted to semantic rules accurately.
Quantifying complement‐mediated phagocytosis by human monocyte‐derived macrophages

The present study demonstrates that SRBC can be opsonized with untreated human serum such that lysis by active complement components is minimal but sufficient opsonization occurs to permit high rates of complement‐mediated phagocytosis. Phagocytosis of SRBC opsonized with 2% whole human serum by human monocyte‐derived macrophages was quantified in a colourimetric assay. Ingestion of SRBC was shown to occur solely via complement receptors because no phagocytosis was observed when SRBC were coated with heat‐ inactivated human serum, phagocytosis was augmented by the phorbol ester, PMA, and phagocytosis was inhibited by a protein kinase C (PKC)‐specific inhibitor RO 31‐8220. This method was used to demonstrate directly that HIV‐1 infection of human monocyte‐derived macrophages inhibits complement‐mediated phagocytosis and will provide a useful tool for pharmacological investigations on complement‐mediated phagocytosis by adherent macrophages.
Are Underwriting Cycles Real and Forecastable?

Speculative efficiency often requires that future changes in a series cannot be forecast. In contrast, series with a cyclical component would seem to be forecastable with decreases, possibly relative to a trend, during the upper part of the cycle and increases during the lower part. On the basis of autoregressive model (AR) estimates, it is considered that there is strong evidence of cycles in insurance underwriting performance as measured by the premium‐to‐loss ratio. Indeed, a large literature attempts to explain this documented cyclicality. First, we show that the parameter estimates from AR models do not lead to any such inference and that in the contrary, the evidence in the data is consistent with no cyclicality at all. Second, we show that a number of different filters lead to the same conclusion: that there is no evidence of in‐sample or out‐of‐sample predictability in annual insurance underwriting performance in the United States.
Some observations on the synaptic vesicles in the rat's hypothalamus.

The fine structure of the synaptic organization of the hypothalamus has been studied by a few researchers, specially in terms of chemical transmitter (catecholamine etc.) (Iraldi et al., 1963, Ishii, 1971). However, there is great need for further studies of the synaptic pattern for interpretation of neural mechanism of the hypothalamus. In order to obtain the structural evidence of the hypothalamic function, some observations on synaptic bulb in the rat's hypothalamic area are reported by means of different kind of the fixative fluid.
The Prevalence and Incidence of Dementia with Lewy Bodies: a Systematic Review

ABSTRACT Background Population-based prevalence and incidence studies are essential for understanding the societal burden of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Methods The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched to identify publications addressing the incidence and/or prevalence of DLB. References of included articles and prior systematic reviews were searched for additional studies. Two reviewers screened all abstracts and full-text reviews, abstracted data and performed quality assessments. Results Twenty-two studies were included. Incidence rates ranged from 0.5 to 1.6 per 1000 person-years. DLB accounted for 3.2-7.1% of all dementia cases in the incidence studies. Point and period prevalence estimates ranged from 0.02 to 63.5 per 1000 persons. Increasing prevalence estimates were reported with increasing age. DLB accounted for from 0.3 to 24.4% of all cases of dementia in the prevalence studies. Conclusions DLB becomes more common with increasing age and accounts for about 5% of all dementia cases in older populations. RÉSUMÉ Prévalence et incidence de la démence à corps de Lewy : revue systématique du sujet. Contexte: Les études de population sur sa prévalence et son incidence sont essentielles à la compréhension du fardeau social de la démence à corps de Lewy (DCL). Méthodologie: Nous avons identifié les publications sur l’incidence et/ou la prévalence de la DCL dans les bases de données MEDLINE et EMBASE. Nous avons recherché des études supplémentaires dans les articles et les revues systématiques antérieures cités à titre de références. Deux évaluateurs ont examiné tous les résumés et les évaluations de textes intégraux et l’extraction des données, et ils ont évalué la qualité des publications. Résultats: Vingt-deux études ont été incluses. Les taux d’incidence allaient de 0,5 à 1,6 par 1 000 personnes-années. La DCL constituait 3,2 à 7,1% de tous les cas de démence dans les études sur l’incidence. Les estimés de prévalence ponctuelle et par période allaient de 0,02 à 63,5 par 1 000 personnes. Des taux croissants de prévalence étaient rapportés en association avec l’augmentation de l’âge des sujets. La DCL était responsable de 0,3 à 24,4% de tous les cas de démence dans les études de prévalence. Conclusions: La DCL est plus fréquente avec l’âge et constitue environ 5% de tous les cas de démence dans les populations plus âgées.
The correlation of expression levels of HIF-1α and HIF-2α in hepatocellular carcinoma with capsular invasion, portal vein tumor thrombi and patients' clinical outcome.

OBJECTIVES The roles of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and hypoxia-inducible factor-2α in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma have not been fully elucidated. Here, we aim to uncover the relationship between the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients and the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and hypoxia-inducible factor-2α in tumor tissues. METHODS The protein levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and hypoxia-inducible factor-2α were detected by immunohistochemistry on paraffin sections of 126 paired hepatocellular carcinoma tissue and peritumoral tissue samples. The mRNA levels of them were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS High expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α was found in 57.1% (72/126) of tumor specimens, compared with 5.6% (7/126) in peritumoral tissues, while high expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-2α was found in only 13.5% (17/126) of tumors, compared with 47.6% (60/126) of peritumoral tissues. There was high expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α protein in hepatocellular carcinoma tissues closely associated with capsular infiltration and portal vein invasion, and thus lower overall survival and disease-free survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients (P < 0.05). No significant association has been found between the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-2α protein and capsular infiltration, portal vein invasion, overall survival and disease-free survival (P > 0.05). However, patients with high expression of both hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and hypoxia-inducible factor-2α have a significantly worse outcome than patients with low expression of both hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and hypoxia-inducible factor-2α (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The discordant results on expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α and hypoxia-inducible factor-2α suggest that these two proteins are differentially regulated in vivo, thus reflecting distinctive protein expression and stabilization mechanisms. The association between hypoxia-inducible factor-1α expression and unfavorable outcome indicates the importance of using hypoxia-inducible factor-1α as a treatment target in hepatocellular carcinoma.
Influence of Blood Storage Time and Plasma Histamine Levels on the Pattern of Transfusion Reactions

Abstract. The data from 359 transfusion reactions reported over a 3‐year period have been compared with those obtained from 359 matched units given at the same time as the former but not implicated in a reaction. It was found that patients who developed reactions which were not accompanied by a change in body temperature received units with a longer storage time than patients experiencing febrile reactions. In addition it was noted that reactions which included a skin rash also tended to be associated with units stored for longer. In a further prospective assessment plasma histamine levels were measured in a group of 71 patients experiencing ‘anaphylactoid’, febrile and mixed transfusion reactions as well as in individuals in whom blood transfusions did not cause a reaction. The ‘anaphylactoid’ reaction group demonstrated a mean plasma histamine level in excess of 1 ng/ml, whereas mean concentrations below 0.50 ng/ml were recordeα in the other 3 groups. Our data also suggested that in general, more and ‘older’ blood was given to the ‘anaphylactoid’ reactors. The high plasma histamine concentrations could readily contribute to the rash, wheeze and flushing recorded in these individuals. Thus, if a long shelf‐life for stored blood is required, strategies which remove histamine from the unit may be worth considering.