Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autophagy and Liver Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Liver ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury occurs during liver resection, liver transplantation, and hemorrhagic shock. The main mode of liver cell death after warm and/or cold liver I-R is necrosis, but other modes of cell death, as apoptosis and autophagy, are also involved. Autophagy is an intracellular self-digesting pathway responsible for removal of long-lived proteins, damaged organelles, and malformed proteins during biosynthesis by lysosomes. Autophagy is found in normal and diseased liver. Although depending on the type of ischemia, warm and/or cold, the dynamic process of liver I-R results mainly in adenosine triphosphate depletion and in production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), leads to both, a local ischemic insult and an acute inflammatory-mediated reperfusion injury, and results finally in cell death. This process can induce liver dysfunction and can increase patient morbidity and mortality after liver surgery and hemorrhagic shock. Whether autophagy protects from or promotes liver injury following warm and/or cold I-R remains to be elucidated. The present review aims to summarize the current knowledge in liver I-R injury focusing on both the beneficial and the detrimental effects of liver autophagy following warm and/or cold liver I-R.
Circuit Loading in Radio-Frequency Current Measurements: The Insertion Impedance of the Transformer Probes

Considerable inaccuracy can be introduced in RF current measurements through loading effects from the transformer-type RF current probes. A physical model, which consists of a lumped impedance in series with the flow of the current under measurement, is obtained. The correlation between the loading (insertion) impedance and the geometrical and physical characteristics of the probe is clearly described through formulas that are useful for design purposes. The model is compared with those existing in the technical literature, and the main differences are highlighted and discussed. The theoretical predictions are experimentally confirmed. A direct application of the concepts discussed here to the improvement of the accuracy of the V/I -type vector impedance measurements is also shown. This paper is an extended version of the work by Carobbi and Millanta, including a more detailed description of mathematical derivations and experimental results and an updated list of references.
increased resistance toward irreversible inactivation Lysine acetylation can generate highly charged enzymes with data

This paper reports that the acetylation of lysine e-NH3 + groups of a-amylase—one of the most important hydrolytic enzymes used in industry—produces highly negatively charged variants that are enzymatically active, thermostable, and more resistant than the wild-type enzyme to irreversible inactivation on exposure to denaturing conditions (e.g., 1 h at 90°C in solutions containing 100-mM sodium dodecyl sulfate). Acetylation also protected the enzyme against irreversible inactivation by the neutral surfactant TRITON X-100 (polyethylene glycol p-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)phenyl ether), but not by the cationic surfactant, dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB). The increased resistance of acetylated aamylase toward inactivation is attributed to the increased net negative charge of a-amylase that resulted from the acetylation of lysine ammonium groups (lysine e-NH3 + ! e-NHCOCH3). Increases in the net negative charge of proteins can decrease the rate of unfolding by anionic surfactants, and can also decrease the rate of protein aggregation. The acetylation of lysine represents a simple, inexpensive method for stabilizing bacterial a-amylase against irreversible inactivation in the presence of the anionic and neutral surfactants that are commonly used in industrial applications.
An investigation into the practical implications of grammar ambiguity in RNA secondary structure prediction

A context-free grammar G (henceforth abbreviated to “grammar”) is a 4-tuple (N,V, P, S) consisting of the following components: a finite set N of non-terminal variables, a finite set V of terminal variables that is disjoint from N , a finite set P of production rules, mapping non-terminal variables to a series of non-terminals and terminals, and a distinguished symbol S ∈ N that is the start symbol. Beginning with the start symbol, following production rules, a ‘string’ of terminal variables is produced (if this exists). A grammar might be represented as follows.
High levels of Wilms' tumor gene (wt1) mRNA in acute myeloid leukemias are associated with a worse long-term outcome.

The tumor suppressor gene wt1 (Wilms' tumor gene) encodes for a zinc finger DNA-binding protein with predominantly transcription repressing properties. Because wt1 has been shown to be expressed in the vast majority of patients with acute myeloid leukemias (AML), we investigated the relevance of wt-1 mRNA expression regarding prognosis and possible prediction of relapse during follow-up. Totally bone marrow-derived blasts of 139 AML patients (129 newly diagnosed AML patients, 22 AML patients again in first relapse, and 10 AML patients analyzed primarily in first relapse) were studied for wt1 mRNA expression. Seventy-seven patients were analyzed for wt1 mRNA expression during follow-up. wt1-specific reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed and the amplification product was visually classified as not, weakly, moderately, or strongly amplified, as described previously. PCR products were quantitated by competitive PCR using a shortened homologous wt1 construct standard in representative cases. The expression of wt1 transcripts was correlated to age, French-American-British (FAB) subtype, phenotype, karyotype, and long-term survival. wt1 mRNA was detectable in 124 of 161 (77%) samples at diagnosis and in first relapse. wt1 expression was independent from age, antecedent myelodysplastic syndrome or FAB subtype, with the exception of a significant difference in M5 leukemias showing wt1 transcripts in only 40% (P = .0025). There was no correlation between the level of wt1 mRNA and response to treatment or the prognostic groups defined by the karyotype. Concerning long-term survival, patients with high levels of wt1 had a significantly worse overall survival (OS) than those with not detectable or low levels. The 3-year OS for all newly diagnosed AMLs was 13% and 38% (P = .038), respectively, and 12% and 43% (P = .014) for de novo AMLs. The difference was more distinct in patients less than 60 years of age. During follow-up, all patients achieving complete remission became wt1 negative. Reoccurrence of wt1 transcripts predicted relapse. The data indicate that high expression of wt1 mRNA is associated with a worse long-term prognosis.
ON THE INVERSE MAPPING CLASS MONOIDS

Braid groups and mapping class groups have many features in common. Similarly to the notion of inverse braid monoid, inverse mapping class monoid is defined. It concerns surfaces with punctures, but among given n punctures, several can be omitted. This corresponds to braids where the number of strings is not fixed. In the paper we give the analogue of the Dehn–Nilsen–Baer theorem, propose a presentation of the inverse mapping class monoid for a punctured sphere and study the word problem. This shows that certain properties and objects based on mapping class groups may be extended to the inverse mapping class monoids. We also give analogues of Artin presentation with two generators.
Differential Relevance of NF-κB and JNK in the Pathophysiology of Hemorrhage/Resususcitation-Induced Liver Injury after Chronic Ethanol Feeding

Background Chronic ethanol (EtOH) abuse worsens pathophysiological derangements after hemorrhagic shock and resuscitation (H/R) that induce hepatic injury and strong inflammatory changes via JNK and NF-κB activation. Inhibiting JNK with a cell-penetrating, protease-resistant peptide D-JNKI-1 after H/R in mice with healthy livers ameliorated these effects. Here, we studied if JNK inhibition by D-JNKI-1 in chronically EtOH-fed mice after hemorrhagic shock prior to the onset of resuscitation also confers protection. Methods Male mice were fed a Lieber-DeCarli diet containing EtOH or an isocaloric control (ctrl) diet for 4 weeks. Animals were hemorrhaged for 90 min (32 ± 2 mm Hg) and randomly received either D-JNKI-1 (11 mg/kg, intraperitoneally, i. p.) or sterile saline as vehicle (veh) immediately before the onset of resuscitation. Sham animals underwent surgical procedures without H/R and were either D-JNKI-1 or veh treated. Two hours after resuscitation, blood samples and liver tissue were harvested. Results H/R induced hepatic injury with increased systemic interleukin (IL)-6 levels, and enhanced local gene expression of NF-κB-controlled genes such as intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and matrix metallopeptidase (MMP)9. c-Jun and NF-κB phosphorylation were increased after H/R. These effects were further increased in EtOH-fed mice after H/R. D-JNKI-1 application inhibited the proinflammatory changes and reduced significantly hepatic injury after H/R in ctrl-fed mice. Moreover, D-JNKI-1 reduces in ctrl-fed mice the H/R-induced c-Jun and NF-κB phosphorylation. However, in chronically EtOH-fed mice, JNK inhibition did not prevent the H/R-induced hepatic damage and proinflammatory changes nor c-Jun and NF-κB phosphorylation after H/R. Conclusions These results indicate, that JNK inhibition is protective only in not pre-harmed liver after H/R. In contrast, the pronounced H/R-induced liver damage in mice being chronically fed with ethanol cannot be prevented by JNK inhibition after H/R and seems to be under the control of NF-κB.
Large Robust Games

With many semi-anonymous players, the equilibria of simultaneous-move games are extensively robust. This means that the equilibria survive even if the simultaneous-play assumption is relaxed to allow for a large variety of extensive modifications. Such modifications include sequential play with partial and differential revelation of information, commitments, multiple revisions of choices, cheap talk announcements, and more. Copyright The Econometric Society 2004.
Energy efficient joint chunk and power allocation for chunk-based multi-carrier cognitive radio networks

This paper investigates the problem of energy efficient resource allocation in a chunk-based multi-carrier cognitive radio (CR) network. Chunk-based resource allocation is adopted where subcarriers are grouped into chunks to be allocated to the secondary users (SUs). The objective is to maximize the energy efficiency of the CR network while also satisfying the transmit power constraint as well as the interference power constraint for protecting the primary user (PU). For this, based on Dinkelbach method and dual optimization method, an efficient iterative algorithm is proposed. The impacts of the interference power constraint, the transmit power constraint, number of subcarriers within the chunk and the channel coherence bandwidth on the performance of the proposed algorithm are examined by simulations. It is shown that the proposed algorithm not only converges fast but also achieves almost the same performance as the exhaustive search algorithm does. It is also shown that the performance of the proposed algorithm significantly improves compared to the max-sum-rate algorithm and the equal power allocation algorithm especially for large transmit power and interference power limits. In addition, it is shown that the proposed algorithm achieves higher energy efficiency with less number of subcarriers within the chunk.
Experimental Oral Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease to Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus)

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids, remains prevalent in North American elk, white-tailed deer and mule deer. A natural case of CWD in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) has not been reported despite potential habitat overlap with CWD-infected deer or elk herds. This study investigates the experimental transmission of CWD from elk or white-tailed deer to reindeer by the oral route of inoculation. Ante-mortem testing of the three reindeer exposed to CWD from white-tailed deer identified the accumulation of pathological PrP (PrPCWD) in the recto-anal mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (RAMALT) of two reindeer at 13.4 months post-inoculation. Terminal CWD occurred in the two RAMALT-positive reindeer at 18.5 and 20 months post-inoculation while one other reindeer in the white-tailed deer CWD inoculum group and none of the 3 reindeer exposed to elk CWD developed disease. Tissue distribution analysis of PrPCWD in CWD-affected reindeer revealed widespread deposition in central and peripheral nervous systems, lymphoreticular tissues, the gastrointestinal tract, neuroendocrine tissues and cardiac muscle. Analysis of prion protein gene (PRNP) sequences in the 6 reindeer identified polymorphisms at residues 2 (V/M), 129 (G/S), 138 (S/N) and 169 (V/M). These findings demonstrate that (i) a sub-population of reindeer are susceptible to CWD by oral inoculation implicating the potential for transmission to other Rangifer species, and (ii) certain reindeer PRNP polymorphisms may be protective against CWD infection.
Practical Concerns for Scalable Synchronization

With the advent of multi-core chips and simultaneous multithreading technologies, high degrees of parallelism will soon become the norm for both small- and large-scale systems. Operating systems for such highly parallel environments require efficient syn chronization. Unfortunately, the everincreasing overhead of synchronization instructions on modern CPUs has made such efficiency difficult to achieve. This paper evaluates the performance of synchronization strategies on modern CPU architectures. We show that synchronization instructions can be a thousand times more expensive than normal instructions and that formerly scalable synchronization strategies now perform very poorly. We then evaluate several state-of-the-art solutions that c ombine copy-based update and deferred reclamation to allow lock-free concurrent reading. These solutions exhibit different update management and reclamation strategies, each of which performs well, but offers a unique trade-off between performance, memory consumption, and complexity. We present an experimental evaluation of these strategies, focusing primarily on the read- mostly scenarios common in operatingsystem kernels, and discuss the impact of potential future changes in CPU architecture.
Structuring politics: The rules of the game: The logic of health policy-making in France, Switzerland, and Sweden

Explaining change is a central problem for institutional analysis. If institutions are purported to have a kind of staying power, then how can the same institutions explain both stability and change? If institutions limit the scope of action that appears possible to different actors, why can they sometimes escape these constraints? This essay uses the case of national health insurance politics to show how institutions can explain both policy stability and policy change. The key to the analysis is a break with "correlational" thinking. Rather than analyzing policy-making in terms of correlations between policy inputs (such as demands from various social groups or past policy legacies) and policy outputs (such as specific pieces of legislation) the strength of institutional analysis is to show why policy inputs and policy outputs may be linked together in different ways in different political systems.
Cyclooxygenase inhibition and cardiovascular risk.

Over the past several months clinicians have been confronted at an escalating rate with reports describing the risks of COX-2 inhibitors (coxibs). Information on this class of drugs appears not only in traditional medical journals and textbooks, but also on the Web sites of regulatory agencies, professional societies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.1–9 An unusual, but noteworthy, aspect of the state of affairs is the high rate of reporting new findings and opinions (at times voiced in a strident tone) in the lay press.10–13 Understandably, patients are concerned about the potential risks associated with their antiinflammatory medications, and now, either spontaneously or in response to a public health warning, call their healthcare professional with questions or arrive for an office visit armed with publicly accessed information they wish to discuss. Owing to the widespread use of antiinflammatory drugs and the fact that the reported risks are cardiovascular in nature, we offer the readers of Circulation this special article. Our goals are to provide an overview of the relevant biology and pharmacology, to synthesize the data on the cardiovascular risks associated with antiinflammatory medications, to offer suggestions on strategies for prescribing these medications, and to make observations on the regulatory and research implications of the data and their interpretation. Eicosanoids are oxidized derivatives of the polyunsaturated long-chain fatty acids, arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid, that serve many roles in cardiovascular biology and disease. Eicosanoid biosynthesis can be initiated by release of arachidonic acid from membrane phospholipids by lipases (predominantly of the phospholipase A2 type) (Figure 1). Once mobilized, arachidonic acid is oxygenated into eicosanoids along the following 4 pathways: (1) prostaglandin (PG) endoperoxide synthase (cyclooxygenase [COX]), (2) lipoxygenase (LO), (3) P450 epoxygenase, and (4) (nonenzymatic) isoprostane synthesis. Details of the pharmacology of products of the LO, epoxygenase, and isoprostane pathways, …
An RNA-Seq Analysis of Grape Plantlets Grown in vitro Reveals Different Responses to Blue, Green, Red LED Light, and White Fluorescent Light

Using an RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) approach, we analyzed the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and physiological behaviors of “Manicure Finger” grape plantlets grown in vitro under white, blue, green, and red light. A total of 670, 1601, and 746 DEGs were identified in plants exposed to blue, green, and red light, respectively, compared to the control (white light). By comparing the gene expression patterns with the growth and physiological responses of the grape plantlets, we were able to link the responses of the plants to light of different spectral wavelengths and the expression of particular sets of genes. Exposure to red and green light primarily triggered responses associated with the shade-avoidance syndrome (SAS), such as enhanced elongation of stems, reduced investment in leaf growth, and decreased chlorophyll levels accompanied by the expression of genes encoding histone H3, auxin repressed protein, xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/hydrolase, the ELIP protein, and microtubule proteins. Furthermore, specific light treatments were associated with the expression of a large number of genes, including those involved in the glucan metabolic pathway and the starch and sucrose metabolic pathways; these genes were up/down-regulated in ways that may explain the increase in the starch, sucrose, and total sugar contents in the plants. Moreover, the enhanced root growth and up-regulation of the expression of defense genes accompanied with SAS after exposure to red and green light may be related to the addition of 30 g/L sucrose to the culture medium of plantlets grown in vitro. In contrast, blue light induced the up-regulation of genes related to microtubules, serine carboxypeptidase, chlorophyll synthesis, and sugar degradation and the down-regulation of auxin-repressed protein as well as a large number of resistance-related genes that may promote leaf growth, improve chlorophyll synthesis and chloroplast development, increase the ratio of chlorophyll a (chla)/chlorophyll b (chlb), and decrease the ratio of carbohydrates to proteins in plants. Although exposure to red and green light seems to impose “shade stress” on the plantlets, growth under blue light is comparable to growth observed under white or broad-spectrum light.
Premedication with dexmedetomidine in pediatric patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Premedication is important in pediatric anesthesia. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the role of dexmedetomidine as a premedicant for pediatric patients. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials comparing dexmedetomidine premedication with midazolam or ketamine premedication or placebo in children. Two reviewers independently performed the study selection, quality assessment and data extraction. The original data were pooled for the meta-analysis with Review Manager 5. The main parameters investigated included satisfactory separation from parents, satisfactory mask induction, postoperative rescue analgesia, emergence agitation and postoperative nausea and vomiting. Thirteen randomized controlled trials involving 1190 patients were included. When compared with midazolam, premedication with dexmedetomidine resulted in an increase in satisfactory separation from parents (RD = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.30, p = 0.003) and a decrease in the use of postoperative rescue analgesia (RD = -0.19, 95% CI: -0.29 to -0.09, p = 0.0003). Children treated with dexmedetomidine had a lower heart rate before induction. The incidence of satisfactory mask induction, emergence agitation and PONV did not differ between the groups. Dexmedetomidine was superior in providing satisfactory intravenous cannulation compared to placebo. This meta-analysis suggests that dexmedetomidine is superior to midazolam premedication because it resulted in enhanced preoperative sedation and decreased postoperative pain. Additional studies are needed to evaluate the dosing schemes and long-term outcomes of dexmedetomidine premedication in pediatric anesthesia.
A sedimentological analysis of the siliciclastic fraction in pliocene core sediments from Bowers Ridge, Bering Sea (IODP Exp 323)

A SEDIMENTOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE SILICICLASTIC FRACTION IN PLIOCENE CORE SEDIMENTS FROM BOWERS RIDGE, BERING SEA (IODP EXP 323) by Melinda J. Tanner The analysis and interpretation of sediment cores constitutes an important data record that can be used to evaluate paleoclimatic conditions and changes over time. The causes for the cooling trend that began in the Eocene, and its intensification with the onset of North Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG), remain under debate. Using sediment core samples from Site U1341 in the Bering Sea, the principal goal of this thesis was to examine the record at 1.9-4.2 Ma, using sedimentologic tools to interpret the siliciclastic fraction and ascertain whether and which portion is due to ice-related input. Previous research estimates the onset to begin at 2.75 Ma by using IRD occurrence and a sharp decline in opal accumulation (Haug et al., 2005). A reevaluation of this critical period will be important for gaining a better understanding of the onset of NHG. In this study, over 200 samples from 1.9-4.2 Ma were used to study the onset of NHG. The > 250 μm siliciclastic mass accumulation rates (MAR) for the samples indicate an initial increase in abundance between 3.3 and 3.6 Ma before decreasing between 2.7 and 3.2 Ma. Another increase in abundance was observed between 2.7 Ma and the end of the record at 1.9 Ma. The provenance, composition, and surface texture features of quartz were also analyzed. It is uncertain whether the first occurrence of > 250 μm siliciclastics was the result of icerelated processes or from other mechanisms like local re-sedimentation from Bowers Ridge. The implications of both possibilities were evaluated.
Multispectral LANDSAT images segmentation using neural networks and multi-experts approach

The application of a combined segmentation method using the Canny-Deriche filter and a multi layer perceptron neural network is considered. The segmentation of five LANDSAT spectral bands is conducted. Obtained segmented images are combined using a multi experts approach in order to improve the segmentation quality and to preserve the land cover regions. <<ETX>>