Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aortic pulse wave velocity and arterial wave reflections predict the extent and severity of coronary artery disease in chronic kidney disease patients.

BACKGROUND Increased aortic stiffness markers - aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (AIx) - are powerful predictors of survival in ESRD patients - well-recognized for the high prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and unusually high PWV and AIx. Recently, decreased aortic compliance has been shown to be predictive of primary coronary events in hypertensive patients with normal renal function. We aimed to explore relationships between arterial stiffness and CAD in cohorts of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). METHODS AND RESULTS 46 patients with chronic kidney disease (33 males, aged 55.7+/- 13.2 years, 20 on dialysis, 18 post renal transplantation, and 8 with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) between 10 and 25 ml/min) underwent coronary angiography for the assessment of CAD. PWV and aortic AIx were determined from pulse waveform analysis of arterial waveforms recorded by applanation tonometry using a SphygmoCortm device. The atherosclerosis burden score was calculated by adding the percentage luminal reduction of the most severe lesion in each artery. Patients with normal angiograms had significantly less arterial stiffness (as reflected by both a lower PWV=8.42+/-1.53 m/s and a lower AIx=17.9+/-5.55 %) compared with the 35 subjects with evidence of obstructive coronary disease at angiography (PWV=9.21+/-1.15 m/s and AIx=23.4+/-5.4 %, P<0.05 for both). Moreover, as more coronary vessels were affected, PWV and AIx increased proportionally. Based on receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis mean PWV levels showed an optimal cut-off point at 8.35 m/s (sensitivity=0.77; specificity=0.60), while mean AIx levels showed an optimal cut-off point at 17% (sensitivity=0.87; specificity=0.70). There was a statistically significant linear relationship between the atherosclerosis burden and both measures of arterial stiffness: PWV (r=0.31, p=0.007) and AIx (r=0.46, p=0.003). Independent predictors for the arterial stiffness parameters in this CKD population (multiple stepwise regression analysis) were age (r=0.69 for PWV and r=0.62 for AIx), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) (for AIx, p<0.0001). CONCLUSION This study provides the first direct evidence in a cross-sectional investigation that PWV and AIx are related to the extent of coronary obstruction in CKD patients.
Lack of a Functional Alternative Complement Pathway Ameliorates Ischemic Acute Renal Failure in Mice 1

Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury of the kidney is a common cause of acute renal failure (ARF) and is associated with high morbidity and mortality in the intensive care unit. The mechanisms underlying I/R injury are complex. Studies have shown that complement activation contributes to the pathogenesis of I/R injury in the kidney, but the exact mechanisms of complement activation have not been defined. We hypothesized that complement activation in this setting occurs via the alternative pathway and that mice deficient in complement factor B, an essential component of the alternative pathway, would be protected from ischemic ARF. Wild-type mice suffered from a decline in renal function and had significant tubular injury, particularly in the outer medulla, after I/R. We found that factor B-deficient mice (fB−/−) developed substantially less functional and morphologic renal injury after I/R. Furthermore, control wild-type mice had an increase in tubulointerstitial complement C3 deposition and neutrophil infiltration in the outer medulla after I/R, whereas fB−/− mice demonstrated virtually no C3 deposition or neutrophil infiltration. Our results demonstrate that complement activation in the kidney after I/R occurs exclusively via the alternative pathway, and that selective inhibition of this pathway provides protection to the kidneys from ischemic ARF.
Resistance to Co-Occurring Phages Enables Marine Synechococcus Communities To Coexist with Cyanophages Abundant in Seawater

Recent reports documenting very high viral abundances in seawater have led to increased interest in the role of viruses in aquatic environments and a resurgence of the hypothesis that viruses are significant agents of bacterial mortality. Synechococcus spp. , small unicellular cyanobacteria that are important primary producers at the base of the marine food web, were used to assess this hypothesis. We isolated a diverse group of Synechococcus phages that at times reach titers of between 103 and 104 cyanophages per ml in both inshore and offshore waters. However, despite their diversity and abundance, we present evidence in support of the hypothesis that lytic phages have a negligible effect in regulating the densities of marine Synechococcus populations. Our results indicate that these bacterial communities are dominated by cells resistant to their co-occurring phages and that these viruses are maintained by scavenging on the relatively rare sensitive cells in these communities.
The Social Benefits of Gambling

Gambling has significant social benefits as a form of recreation and entertainment. Moreover, people from all walks of life want to enjoy their freedom and that includes the right to do what they want with their own money. Regulators should take note that, in addition to intruding on gamblers' liberties, prohibitions undermine individual responsibility.
14-3-3β Binds to Big Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase 1 (BMK1/ERK5) and Regulates BMK1 Function*

Big mitogen-activated kinase 1 (BMK1/ERK5) is a member of the MAPK family activated by growth factors that mediates cell growth and survival. Previous data show that BMK1 can be activated by steady laminar flow and is atheroprotective by preventing endothelial cells from undergoing apoptosis. The primary structure of BMK1 is distinct from other MAPK members by virtue of a unique long C-tail, suggesting specific mechanisms of regulation. To characterize regulatory mechanisms for BMK1 function, we identified binding proteins by yeast two-hybrid analysis. Among these proteins, the scaffolding protein 14-3-3 was identified. BMK1 bound to 14-3-3β in vitro and in vivo as demonstrated by glutathione S-transferase (GST)-14-3-3β fusion protein pull-down assays and coimmunoprecipitation. Phosphorylation of BMK1 was most likely required for this interaction. GST-14-3-3β pull-down assays using truncated constructs of BMK1 and site-directed BMK1 mutants demonstrated that the interaction requires serine 486 within the C terminus of BMK1. BMK1 bound to 14-3-3β basally, and the interaction was greatly abrogated when BMK1 was activated. The interaction of 14-3-3β and BMK1 inhibited kinase activities stimulated by constitutively active (CA)-MEK5 and epidermal growth factor. Mutation of serine 486 (BMK1-S486A) prevented the interaction with 14-3-3β and enhanced BMK1 activity upon epidermal growth factor stimulation. These data demonstrate an inhibitory function for 14-3-3β binding to BMK1 and show that serine 486 phosphorylation represents a novel regulatory mechanism for BMK1.
Appraisal of excess calories as a factor in the causation of disease.

The ingestion of a diet higher in caloric content than is required for energy needs leads to energy storage; this is accomplished by the deposition of triglycerides in adipose tissue. There is no clear evidence that the metabolic burden of excess calories is in any way hazardous to health except insofar as it leads to weight gain and eventually to obesity. Some studies show that a high caloric intake coupled with physical exertion that is sufficiently increased to maintain energy balance may be more beneficial to health than is a lower caloric intake balanced by a reduction in physical activity. Caloric intake and physical activity are so interrelated that it is impossible to gauge the effects of one independently of the other.
Co-Opting Revolution in the Post-Revolutionary Age - Revolution as Embedded Counter-Culture in Swedish Finance

From the 1980s and onwards, markets have been prime movers in an individualist, market-liberal transformation, and now take part in the every-day life of the general public. Similar to economic development, also personal identity has become fuelled by consumption. Production and work turn more peripheral vis-a-vis the self-project. Instead of the process of production, objects of consumption, in which to express one’s individuality become situated at the centre of business-life. Consumers with values of expressive individualism view seemingly non-conformist products as attractive. Swedish finance is here analysed as a formerly conservative sector of business that because of an increasingly focus on speed opens up to notions of counter-culture and even revolution.
Variant Frequency in Flap Production

Abstract This study examined the distribution of allophonic variants [t], [I] or [U], of medial /t/ using a corpus of conversational speech. We utilized a large conversational speech database to generate statistics about the frequency of occurrence of medial flaps. Results confirmed the prevalence of flapping in American English. Low frequency words showed a redistribution of variants from [U] to [t] compared to dominant flapping in high frequency words. A similar redistribution of variant production occurred for morphologically complex words (e.g. dirty) compared with morphologically simple words (e.g. water). A second analysis examining vowel length prior to medial /t/ and medial /d/ showed that, while both stops were pronounced as a flap, the vowel preceding medial /d/ tended to the longer. These results were discussed in reference to potential processes in recognizing spoken words.
DisSent: Sentence Representation Learning from Explicit Discourse Relations

Learning effective representations of sentences is one of the core missions of natural language understanding. Existing models either train on a vast amount of text, or require costly, manually curated sentence relation datasets. We show that with dependency parsing and rule-based rubrics, we can curate a high quality sentence relation task by leveraging explicit discourse relations. We show that our curated dataset provides an excellent signal for learning vector representations of sentence meaning, representing relations that can only be determined when the meanings of two sentences are combined. We demonstrate that the automatically curated corpus allows a bidirectional LSTM sentence encoder to yield high quality sentence embeddings and can serve as a supervised fine-tuning dataset for larger models such as BERT. Our fixed sentence embeddings achieve high performance on a variety of transfer tasks, including SentEval, and we achieve state-of-the-art results on Penn Discourse Treebank's implicit relation prediction task.
Protein Kinase A-Induced Phosphorylation of the p65 Subunit of Nuclear Factor-κB Promotes Schwann Cell Differentiation into a Myelinating Phenotype

Axon–Schwann cell interactions are critical for myelin formation during peripheral nerve development and regeneration. Axonal contact promotes Schwann cell precursors to differentiate into a myelinating phenotype, and cAMP-elevating agents can mimic this; however, the mechanisms underlying this differentiation are poorly understood. We demonstrated previously that the transcription factor nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is required for myelin formation by Schwann cells (Nickols et al., 2003), although how it is activated during this process remained to be determined. Here, we report that culturing Schwann cells with sensory neurons results in the activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), and this kinase phosphorylates the p65 subunit of NF-κB at S276. The phosphorylation was also induced in cultured Schwann cells by treatment with forskolin, dibutyryl-cAMP, or by overexpression of a catalytic subunit of PKA, and this increased the transcriptional activity of NF-κB. In developing perinatal rat sciatic nerve, the kinetics of p65 phosphorylation at S276 paralleled that of PKA and NF-κB activation. To elucidate the role of p65 phosphorylation in myelin formation, we overexpressed an S276A mutant of p65 in cultured Schwann cells, which blocked PKA-mediated transcriptional activation of NF-κB. When the Schwann cells expressing the mutant were cocultured with sensory neurons, there was a 45% reduction in the number of myelinated fibers relative to controls, demonstrating a requirement for p65 phosphorylation by PKA during myelin formation.
Role of the subcellular localization of ALK tyrosine kinase domain in neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) is a receptor tyrosine kinase essentially and transiently expressed in specific areas of the developing central and peripheral nervous systems. We previously demonstrated that a membrane-bound and constitutively active form of the ALK protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) domain induced the neuron-like differentiation of PC12 cells through specific activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) pathway. Its PTK domain had been originally identified in a nucleo-cytosolic and constitutively active transforming protein, NPM-ALK. Downstream targets involved in oncogenic proliferation and survival processes have been proposed to include phospholipase Cγ (PLCγ), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase)/AKT, STAT 3/5 and Src. We therefore postulated that activation of specific signaling pathways leading to differentiation or proliferation can be differently controlled depending on the subcellular localization of ALK PTK domain. To increase knowledge of its physiological role in the nervous system, we focused in the present study on the influence of its subcellular localization on neuronal differentiation. To achieve this goal, we characterized biological responses and transduction pathways in PC12 cells elicited by various constructs encoding membrane-bound (through transmembrane or myristyl sequences) or cytosolic ALK-derived proteins. In order to control the activation of their PTK domain, we used an inducible dimerization system. Here, we demonstrate that membrane attachment of the ALK PTK domain, in PC12 cells, is crucial for initiation of neurite outgrowth and proliferation arrest through a decrease of DNA synthesis. Furthermore, we show that this differentiation process relies on specific and sustained activation of ERK 1/2 proteins. By contrast, activation of the cytosolic form of this domain fails to induce MAP kinase activation and cell differentiation but promotes a PI 3-kinase/AKT-dependant PC12 cell proliferation. These data indicate that subcellular localization of the ALK PTK domain was a determinant for the control and specificity of downstream transduction cascades and was crucial for deciding the fate to which the neuronal cell will be committed.
Bacteria-mediated hypoxia functions as a signal for mosquito development

Significance Mosquitoes are important insects because several species transmit pathogens as adults that cause disease in humans and other vertebrates. One approach for control is preventing immature mosquitoes from developing into adults. Immature-stage mosquitoes require gut bacteria to develop, but the mechanisms underlying this dependence are unknown. Here, we identify cytochrome bd oxidase as a bacterial product involved in mosquito development. We also show that bacteria-mediated reduction of oxygen levels in the digestive tract of larvae serves as a signal for molting. These findings provide the first evidence that aerobic respiration by bacteria plays an essential role in mosquito development. This information can also potentially be used to develop tools for disabling the growth of larval mosquitoes into adults. Mosquitoes host communities of microbes in their digestive tract that consist primarily of bacteria. We previously reported that several mosquito species, including Aedes aegypti, do not develop beyond the first instar when fed a nutritionally complete diet in the absence of a gut microbiota. In contrast, several species of bacteria, including Escherichia coli, rescue development of axenic larvae into adults. The molecular mechanisms underlying bacteria-dependent growth are unknown. Here, we designed a genetic screen around E. coli that identified high-affinity cytochrome bd oxidase as an essential bacterial gene product for mosquito growth. Bioassays showed that bacteria in nonsterile larvae and gnotobiotic larvae inoculated with wild-type E. coli reduced midgut oxygen levels below 5%, whereas larvae inoculated with E. coli mutants defective for cytochrome bd oxidase did not. Experiments further supported that hypoxia leads to growth and ecdysone-induced molting. Altogether, our results identify aerobic respiration by bacteria as a previously unknown but essential process for mosquito development.
What Changes Energy Consumption, and for How Long? New Evidence from the 2001 Brazilian Electricity Crisis

There is little evidence from impact evaluation studies of ambitious residential energy conservation programs, especially in developing countries. In this paper, I investigate the short- and long-term impacts of the most ambitious electricity conservation program to date. This was an innovative program of private incentives and conservation appeals implemented by the Brazilian government in 2001-2002 in response to supply shortages of over 20%. I find that the program reduced average electricity consumption per customer by 25% over a nine-month period in affected areas. Importantly, the program reduced consumption by 12% in the long run. Such persistent effects, which arose mostly from behavioral adjustments, may substantially improve the cost-effectiveness of ambitious conservation programs. Finally, I show that a price elasticity estimated out-of-crisis would have to be increased fivefold to rationalize conservation efforts by the private incentives alone. Appeals to social preferences likely amplify consumers' responsiveness in times of crisis.
LASIK vs LASEK vs PRK: Advantages and indications

The advent of the excimer laser as an intrument for use in reshaping the corneal stroma was a great step forward in refractive surgery. Laser energy can be delivered on the stromal surface in the photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) procedure or deeper on the corneal stroma by the means of a lamellar surgery in which a flap is created with the microkeratome in the laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) procedure. LASIK is currently the dominant procedure in refractive surgery. The main advantage of LASIK over PRK is related to maintaining the central corneal epithelium. This increases comfort during the early post-operative period, allows for rapid visual recovery, and reduces the wound healing response. Reduced wound healing correlates with less regression for high corrections and a lower rate of complications such as significant stromal opacity (haze). PRK, however, remains as an excellent option for mild to moderate corrections, particularly for cases associated with thin corneas, recurrent erosions, or a predisposition for trauma (Martial arts, military, etc.). Recently, a modification of PRK, laser subepithelial keratomileusis (LASEK), was introduced. In the LASEK procedure, an epithelial flap is created and replaced after the ablation. The benefits, if any, of the creation of an epithelial flap compared to traditional PRK are not fully appreciated. Advocates of LASEK suggest that there is less discomfort in the early postoperative period, faster visual recovery, and less haze compared to standard PRK for correction of similar levels of refractive error. Additional long-term clinical studies, along with laboratory research, will be crucial to validate these potential advantages of LASEK procedure.
Dynamic Loss Inclusion in the Jiles–Atherton (JA) Hysteresis Model Using the Original JA Approach and the Field Separation Approach

Magnetic materials exhibit non-linear, hysteretic, and dynamic characteristics due to presence of classical eddy and anomalous losses. Various dynamic models based on the original Jiles-Atherton (JA) approach have been reported in the literature but they show a physical uncertainty about their energy considerations. These models show some non-physical situations in the form of vertical lengthening of hysteresis loops. This paper presents two inverse dynamic models based on the JA approach and the field separation theory. It explains the energy aspects of the JA model and suggests an alternative approach based on the field separation for inclusion of dynamic losses. Comparisons of performances of the two models on measured dynamic hysteresis loops for non-oriented and grain-oriented materials are given. The model based on the field separation theory is shown to give physically correct loop shapes for both materials.
Application of wavelet noise cancellation and interleaving techniques in image transmission system over mobile fast-fading channels

This paper employs the four-state Markov models as the long-bursting error probability models over mobile fast-fading channels. The (2, 1, 7) convolutional codes with Viterbi (1971) decoding and the wavelet noise cancellation are combined as a new error-correcting scheme, whose performance in an image communication system over mobile fast-fading channels is researched.
T2*-Correction in Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Glioblastoma From a Half Dose of High-Relaxivity Contrast Agent

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the arterial input function (AIF) and tissue enhancement time curve (tissue function [TF]) obtained after the administration of a half-dose gadobenate dimeglumine (0.05-mmol/kg body weight [bw]) compared with a full dose (0.1-mmol/kg bw) of a standard-relaxivity contrast agent. Methods We enrolled 40 adult patients with glioblastoma in an interindividual comparative study. Patients were randomized to 1 of the 2 study arms: 20 patients received 0.1-mmol/kg bw of gadoterate; the other 20 patients received 0.05-mmol/kg bw of gadobenate. The patients underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging examinations. Arterial input function, tissue enhancement time curve (TF), tumor transfer rate (Ktrans), and tumor extracellular-extravascular volume fraction (Ve) were calculated for each patients. Averaged AIF, TF, Ktrans, and Ve of both groups were compared. Results A significant difference (P = 0.001) between the peak AIF values obtained with the 2 different gadolinium-based contrast agents was observed. No difference was found between TFs (P = 0.35). Comparison on kinetic parameters revealed a significant difference for Ktrans (P = 0.047) but no difference for Ve (P = 0.74). Conclusions The administration of half dose of the high-relaxivity contrast agent gadobenate is effective in improving AIF by reducing T2*-shortening effects on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and ensuring at the same time an adequate signal enhancement in tumor tissue. The use of 0.05-mmol/kg bw of gadobenate not only is feasible but also can lead to a better estimation of Ktrans based on a more accurate AIF assessment.