Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interleukin-1beta promotes gastric atrophy through suppression of Sonic Hedgehog.

BACKGROUND & AIMS In both human subjects and rodent models, Helicobacter infection leads to a decrease in Shh expression in the stomach. Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) is highly expressed in the gastric corpus and its loss correlates with gastric atrophy. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that proinflammatory cytokines induce gastric atrophy by inhibiting Shh expression. METHODS Shh-LacZ reporter mice were infected with Helicobacter felis for 3 and 8 weeks. Changes in Shh expression were monitored using beta-galactosidase staining and immunohistochemistry. Gastric acidity was measured after infection, and interleukin (IL)-1beta was quantified by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Mice were injected with either IL-1beta or omeprazole before measuring Shh mRNA expression and acid secretion. Organ cultures of gastric glands from wild-type or IL-1R1 null mice were treated with IL-1beta then Shh expression was measured. Primary canine parietal or mucous cells were treated with IL-1beta. Shh protein was determined by immunoblot analysis. Changes in intracellular calcium were measured by Fura-2. RESULTS All major cell lineages of the corpus including surface pit, mucous neck, zymogenic, and parietal cells expressed Shh. Helicobacter infection reduced gastric acidity and inhibited Shh expression in parietal cells by 3 weeks. IL-1beta produced during Helicobacter infection inhibited gastric acid, intracellular calcium, and Shh expression through the IL-1 receptor. Suppression of parietal cell Shh expression by IL-1beta and omeprazole was additive. IL-1beta did not suppress Shh expression in primary gastric mucous cells. CONCLUSIONS IL-1beta suppresses Shh gene expression in parietal cells by inhibiting acid secretion and subsequently the release of intracellular calcium.
Safety and Toxicity of Individual Antiretroviral Agents in Pregnancy Nucleoside Analogue Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

Prolonged, continuous, high-dose zidovudine administration to adult rodents is associated with the development of nonmetastasizing vaginal squamous tumors in 13 percent of female rodents (at estimated drug concentrations three and 24 times that of human therapeutic exposure in mice and rats, respectively) (1). In rodents, unmetabolized zidovudine is concentrated in urine with reflux into the vaginal vault. Therefore, vaginal tumors could be a topical effect of chronic zidovudine exposure on the vaginal mucosa. The observation that vaginal squamous cell carcinomas were observed in rodents exposed to 20 mg/mL zidovudine intravaginally is consistent with this hypothesis (1). In humans, only metabolized zidovudine is excreted in the urine. No increase in tumors in other organ sites has been seen in adult rodent studies.
Myocardial contrast echocardiography: too much, too soon?

The ability to opacify the central circulation with dense ultrasonic reflectances after the injection of a variety of fluids, so-called contrast echocardiography, was described in 1968 (1). Since that time, the history of contrast echocardiography has been characterized by cycles of enormous expectations and subsequent disappointment. The enthusiasm generated by the initial description of contrast opacification was rapidly blunted by the realization that the contrast effect was removed during transit through the lungs, thereby preventing visualization of the left-sided chambers. Years later, the development of first-generation ultrasound contrast agents that could cross the lungs, such as sonicated serum albumin, promised to completely delineate the left ventricular endocardium on echocardiogram in all patients. However, left ventricular opacification was incomplete or absent in a significant percentage of patients undergoing such contrast studies. Even the demonstration that intracoronary administration of contrast agents could opacify the myocardium in patients and provide important clinical information concerning myocardial viability (2) and the noreflow phenomenon (3) was offset by the difficult logistics of performing the procedure.
Detection of autotrophic verrucomicrobial methanotrophs in a geothermal environment using stable isotope probing

Genomic analysis of the methanotrophic verrucomicrobium “Methylacidiphilum infernorum” strain V4 has shown that most pathways conferring its methanotrophic lifestyle are similar to those found in proteobacterial methanotrophs. However, due to the large sequence divergence of its methane monooxygenase-encoding genes (pmo), “universal” pmoA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers do not target these bacteria. Unlike proteobacterial methanotrophs, “Methylacidiphilum” fixes carbon autotrophically, and uses methane only for energy generation. As a result, techniques used to detect methanotrophs in the environment such as 13CH4-stable isotope probing (SIP) and pmoA-targeted PCR do not detect verrucomicrobial methanotrophs, and they may have been overlooked in previous environmental studies. We developed a modified SIP technique to identify active methanotrophic Verrucomicrobia in the environment by labeling with 13CO2 and 13CH4, individually and in combination. Testing the protocol in “M. infernorum” strain V4 resulted in assimilation of 13CO2 but not 13CH4, verifying its autotrophic lifestyle. To specifically detect methanotrophs (as opposed to other autotrophs) via 13CO2-SIP, a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay specific for verrucomicrobial-pmoA genes was developed and used in combination with SIP. Incubation of an acidic, high-temperature geothermal soil with 13CH4 + 12CO2 caused little shift in the density distribution of verrucomicrobial-pmoA genes relative to controls. However, labeling with 13CO2 in combination with 12CH4 or 13CH4 induced a strong shift in the distribution of verrucomicrobial-pmoA genes towards the heavy DNA fractions. The modified SIP technique demonstrated that the primary methanotrophs active in the soil were autotrophs and belonged to the Verrucomicrobia. This is the first demonstration of autotrophic, non-proteobacterial methanotrophy in situ, and provides a tool to detect verrucomicrobial methanotrophs in other ecosystems.
Optimal Deployment for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Lifetime Expectation Estimation

This paper considers a sensor deployment problem of a hierarchical cluster-based Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), which consists of sensor clusters scattered over a sensing region. We formulated the sensor deployment as a network optimization problem called the OSCDP (Optimum Sensor Cluster Deployment Problem). Given a fixed quantity of total energy power of sensors for deployment and a static routing scheme, the OSCDP aims to determine the amount of energy deployed in each cluster, such that the network lifetime expectation will be maximized. We propose an exact algorithm to provide the optimum solution to the OSCDP. The simulation results show that this solution performed better in prolonging the network lifetime of a WSN, compared to other conventional deployment schemes.
Clinical, Diagnostic, and Therapeutic Aspects of Familial Hypercholesterolemia

Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a common inherited disorder of lipoprotein metabolism. FH is characterized by elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, the presence of tendon xanthomas, and premature cardiovascular disease. The underlying molecular defect of FH consists of mutations in the gene coding for the low-density-lipoprotein-receptor protein, detection of which provides the only unequivocal diagnosis. Although the cause of FH is monogenic, there is wide variation in the onset and severity of atherosclerotic disease in these patients. Additional atherogenic risk factors of environmental, metabolic, and genetic origin are presumed to influence the clinical phenotype in FH. Criteria used to identify individuals with FH include a combination of clinical characteristics, personal and family history of early coronary artery disease, and biochemical parameters. Since the introduction in 1989 of statins, which have been shown to be effective and to delay or prevent the onset of cardiovascular disease, drug treatment of FH has greatly improved. New lipid-lowering agents are presently being developed for clinical use. This review provides an update on the clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia.
The Effects of Conscious Consumerism-Related Parental Role Modeling , Parental Communication , and Social Studies on Children ’ s Socialization as Conscious Consumers

This study investigated the effects of conscious consumerism-related parental role modeling, parental communication with children, and social studies on children’s socialization as conscious consumers. The data were collected from 364 fourth grade students at five public elementary schools in Edirne. In the study, it was found that parental conscious consumer behaviors (role modeling) had significant and positive direct effects on children’s interest in conscious consumerism in social studies, perceived learning about conscious consumerism in social studies, and conscious consumerism levels. Moreover, it had a positive indirect effect on conscious consumerism levels of children through perceived learning about conscious consumerism in social studies. It was also found that parental communication about conscious consumerism with children had significant and positive direct effects on children’s interest in conscious consumerism in social studies and conscious consumerism levels. Children’s perceived learning about conscious consumerism in social studies had also a significant and positive direct effect on their conscious consumerism levels. Interest in conscious consumerism in social studies had a significant and positive direct effect on perceived learning about conscious consumerism in social studies. However, it, not directly, but indirectly and positively affected children’s conscious consumerism levels through perceived learning about conscious consumerism in social studies.
Switch-embedded opamp-sharing MDAC with dual-input OTA in pipelined ADC

A switch-embedded opamp-sharing multiplying digital-to-analogue converter (MDAC) with dual-input-differential-pair operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) is proposed to eliminate the non-resetting and successive-stage crosstalk problems in the conventional opamp-sharing technique. A 10-bit 80 MS/s pipelined analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) is implemented in a 0.18 m CMOS process by using the proposed MDAC. Compared with a traditional opamp-sharing ADC, the measured signal-to-noise ratio is improved from 55.9 to 60.1 dB and the spurious free dynamic range is improved from 66 to 76 dB without any additional power or area consumption or clock phase.
Free Space Optical Communication with OOK and BPSK modulation under different turbulent condition

Free Space Optical (FSO) Communications are able to deliver us to an age of unprecedented bandwidth, low signal attenuation, small space requirements and ultimately low cost. In FSO communications the influence of atmospheric effects can be specified by the attenuation and fluctuations of the transmitted optical power, caused by the atmospheric turbulence. This paper investigate the bit error rate (BER) performance of FSO communication systems employing on-off keying (OOK) and subcarrier binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulation in turbulence regimes from weak to strong, In addition, we try to compare the BER performance of FSO communication systems employing subcarrier BPSK and OOK as modulation technique.
Self-Esteem, Self-Disclosure, Self-Expression, and Connection on Facebook: A Collaborative Replication Meta-Analysis

98 COPYRIGHT 2018 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (SPECIAL ISSUE, VOL. 23, NO. 2/ISSN 2325-7342) Among social network sites, Facebook is a dominant platform that affects the thinking, emotions, behavior, and interactions of its active users, some two billion people worldwide, including 70% of the U.S. population (Facebook, 2017; Fiegerman, 2017; Kemp, 2017). It is therefore important that psychologists better understand how Facebook use is related to psychosocial factors. Indeed, since its advent in 2004, scholars have published over a thousand articles on psychological issues related to Facebook. Forest and Wood (2012) provided one of the first and most highly cited psychological examinations of Facebook use and psychosocial factors. As of December 2017, Elsevier’s Scopus citation metrics show the article has been cited 145 times (12.17
Beyond TFET: Alternative mechanisms for CMOS-compatible sharp-switching devices

Tunneling-based transistors (TFETs) have attracted interest due to their (theoretical) capability of switching more sharply than MOSFETs. However, other mechanisms that take place in SOI devices can provide even more abrupt switching and higher current. We examine the family of emerging TFET-competing devices based on barrier modulation, bipolar amplification and impact ionization. Practical results for devices fabricated in 14-28 nm FDSOI technology will be discussed.
Trust Model Based on Role and Attribute in Cloud Environment

In the light of the problem that the current trust model is mostly role-based trust model, yet this trust model doesn’t take attribute and cross-tenant access into account, which is not suitable to the dynamic multi-tenant cloud environment. In this paper, we propose a trust model based on role and attributes, including subject attributes, resource attributes and environment attributes; and this model includes single-tenant and multi-tenant trust sub-models. Analysis shows that the proposed trust model can resolve the problem that when attributes fulfill the requirements but the users’ or roles’ credibility is low. User Role Assignment and Role Permission Assignment will reduce the security of tenant’s data and trust problem between tenants when the users access tenants. So it can be applied to access control in multi-tenant cloud environment.
Comparative and functional anatomy of the mammalian lumbar spine

As an essential organ of both weight bearing and locomotion, the spine is subject to the conflict of providing maximal stability while maintaining crucial mobility, in addition to maintaining the integrity of the neural structures. Comparative morphological adaptation of the lumbar spine of mammals, especially in respect to locomotion, has however received only limited scientific attention. Specialised features of the human lumbar spine, have therefore not been adequately highlighted through comparative anatomy. Mathematical averages were determined of 14 measurements taken on each lumbar vertebrae of ten mammalian species (human, chimpanzee, orang‐utan, kangaroo, dolphin, seal, Przewalski's horse, cheetah, lama, ibex). The revealed traits are analysed with respect to the differing spinal loading patterns. All examined mammalian lumbar spines suggest an exact accommodation to specific biomechanical demands. The lumbar spine has reacted to flexion in a predominant plane with narrowing of the vertebral bodies in quadrupeds. Torsion of the lumbar spine is withstood by an increase in the transverse distance between the inferior articular processes in the upper lumbar spine in primates, but lower lumbar spine in humans, quadrupeds and the seal. Sagittal zygapophyseal joint areas resist torsion in the seal and humans. Ventral shear is resisted by frontal zygapophyseal joint areas in humans and primates, and dorsal shear by encompassing joints in the ibex. The human fifth lumbar vertebra is remarkable in possessing the largest endplate surface area and the widest distance between the inferior articular processes, as an indicator of the high degree of axial load and torsion in bipedalism. Anat Rec 264:157–168, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
DaemonX: Design, Adaptation, Evolution, and Management of Native XML (and More Other) Formats

The most common applications of the today's IT world are information systems. The problems related to their design and implementation have sufficiently been solved. However, the true problems occur when an IS is already deployed and user requirements change. Currently this situation requires a skilled IT expert who knows all system components and, hence, is able to identify and modify all the affected parts. However, not always we have such an expert, whereas for complex systems it is a very hard and error-prone task. In this paper we introduce DaemonX -- an evolution management framework, which enables to manage evolution of complex applications efficiently and correctly. Using the idea of plug-ins, it enables to model almost any kind of a data format (currently XML, UML, ER, and BPMN). Since it preserves relationships among the modeled constructs, it naturally supports propagation of changes to all related affected parts. We describe the general proposal of the framework and, then, its architecture and implementation.
The Influence of the Enzyme Membrane Thickness on the Response of Amperometric Biosensors

A mathematical model of amperometric biosensors has been developed. The model is based on non-stationary diffusion equations containing a non-linear term related to Michaelis-Menten kinetics of the enzymatic reaction. Using digital simulation, the influence of the thickness of enzyme membrane on the biosensor response was investigated. The digital simulation of the biosensor operation showed the non-monotonous change of the maximal biosensor current versus the membrane thickness at the various maximal enzymatic rates. Digital simulation was carried out using the finite difference technique. Results of the numerical simulation was compared with known analytical solutions. This paper presents a framework for selection of the membrane thickness, ensuring the sufficiently stable sensitivity of a biosensor in a required range of the maximal enzymatic rate.
Volumes of codimension one manifolds and a randomized polynomial-time algorithm for computing the surface volume of a smooth convex body

In this thesis we develop estimates for volumes of smooth boundary manifolds by deriving explicit relations between a heat flow across the surface and its volume. Applying these estimates together with existing results on randomised volume computation and rates of rapidly mixing chains on convex sets, we are able to derive a randomised algorithm for computing the surface volume of a smooth convex body M , that runs in time that is polynomial in the dimension d, a smoothness parameter (the “condition number”) 1/τ and inverse error 1/2. We also include a brief survey of known results related to computing the volume and surface area of a convex body. Chapter 1 The heat flow across codimension one manifolds and their volume
Separation of immunoglobulin M (IgM) essentially free of IgG from serum for use in systems requiring assay of IgM-type antibodies without interference from rheumatoid factor

The proposed method was designed to replace the tedious and difficult separation of immunoglobulin M (IgM) from IgG by sucrose gradient sedimentation. In this method, a 250-microliter portion of serum diluted 20-fold was passed through a small column of quaternary aminoethyl-Sephadex A-50 ion exchanger. IgG was not retained, but additional washes were required to remove all but 5%. A second buffer-eluting fluid recovered an average of 80% of the original IgM in a defined dilution. The entire operation took 15 min. The efficiency of this process was evaluated by the following: (i) radial immunodiffusion measurements of IgG and IgM; (ii) recovery studies of isohemagglutinins; and (iii) demonstrated removal of interference by the rheumatoid factor. The method was applied successfully to distinguish rubella IgM antibody.
Effortless Self‐Control: A Novel Perspective on Response Conflict Strategies in Trait Self‐Control

Self-control is of invaluable importance for well-being. While previous research has focused on self-control failure, we introduce a new perspective on self-control, including the notion of effortless self-control, and a focus on self-control success rather than failure. We propose that effortless strategies of dealing with response conflict (i.e., competing behavioral tendencies) are what distinguishes successful self-controllers from less successful ones. While people with high trait self-control may recognize the potential for response conflict in self-control dilemmas, they do not seem to subjectively experience this conflict as much as people with low self-control. Two strategies may underlie this difference: avoidance of response conflict through adaptive, habitual behaviors, and the efficient downregulating of response conflict. These strategies as well as the role of response conflict are elaborated upon and discussed in the light of existing literature on self-control.
Tamoxifen and chemotherapy for lymph node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

BACKGROUND The B-20 study of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) was conducted to determine whether chemotherapy plus tamoxifen would be of greater benefit than tamoxifen alone in the treatment of patients with axillary lymph node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. METHODS Eligible patients (n = 2306) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups following surgery. A total of 771 patients with follow-up data received tamoxifen alone; 767 received methotrexate, fluorouracil, and tamoxifen (MFT); and 768 received cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, fluorouracil, and tamoxifen (CMFT). The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate disease-free survival, distant disease-free survival, and survival. Reported P values are two-sided. RESULTS Through 5 years of follow-up, chemotherapy plus tamoxifen resulted in significantly better disease-free survival than tamoxifen alone (90% for MFT versus 85% for tamoxifen [P = .01]; 89% for CMFT versus 85% for tamoxifen [P = .001]). A similar benefit was observed in both distant disease-free survival (92% for MFT versus 87% for tamoxifen [P = .008]; 91% for CMFT versus 87% for tamoxifen [P = .006]) and survival (97% for MFT versus 94% for tamoxifen [P = .05]; 96% for CMFT versus 94% for tamoxifen [P = .03]). Compared with tamoxifen alone, MFT and CMFT reduced the risk of ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence after lumpectomy and the risk of recurrence at other local, regional, and distant sites. Risk of treatment failure was reduced after both types of chemotherapy, regardless of tumor size, tumor estrogen or progesterone receptor level, or patient age; however, the reduction was greatest in patients aged 49 years or less. No subgroup of patients evaluated in this study failed to benefit from chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS Findings from this and other NSABP studies indicate that patients with breast cancer who meet NSABP protocol criteria, regardless of age, lymph node status, tumor size, or estrogen receptor status, are candidates for chemotherapy.