Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formulation and In Vitro Evaluation of Ufasomes for Dermal Administration of Methotrexate

Dermal drug delivery system that is required to localizes methotrexate (MTX) in the synovial joint is needed to treat inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The present investigation aims at exploring the potential of fatty acid vesicles for the topical delivery of methotrexate. Vesicles were prepared by film hydration method using oleic acid as a fatty acid principal component. Developed vesicles were characterized for size, size distribution, shape, in vitro release, pH dependent, and storage stability. Interaction between MTX and oleic acid was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. The MTX amount permeated through rat skin was three- to fourfold higher using oleic acid compared to those from plain drug solution or carbopol gel. At the end of the skin permeation assay using ufasomes, up to 50% of the administered dose was found in the skin. These results suggest that methotrexate encapsulated in oleic acid vesicles may be of value for the topical administration of MTX in the treatment of psoriasis.
Requirements for Minus-Strand Transfer Catalyzed by Rous Sarcoma Virus Reverse Transcriptase

ABSTRACT We have examined the specific minus-strand transfer reactions that occur after the synthesis of minus strong-stop DNA and nonspecific strand switching on homopolymeric poly(rA) templates with different types of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) reverse transcriptases. Three different types of reverse transcriptases can be isolated from virions of RSV: heterodimeric αβ and homodimeric α and β. The mechanism of minus-strand transfer was examined using a model primer-template substrate corresponding to the 5′- and 3′-terminal RNA regions of the RSV genome. The results reveal that the RNase H activity of RSV reverse transcriptases is required for minus-strand transfer. Less than 2% of strand transfer of the extended product is detectable with RNase H-deficient enzymes. We could show that the α homodimer lacking the integrase domain can perform strand transfer almost as efficiently as the αβ and αPol heterodimers. In contrast, the activities of β and Pol for minus-strand transfer are reduced. Furthermore, a two- to fivefold increase in minus-strand transfer activities was observed in the presence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 nucleocapsid protein.
Analysis of repair and mutagenesis of chromium-induced DNA damage in yeast, mammalian cells, and transgenic mice.

Chromium (Cr) is a widespread environmental contaminant and a known human carcinogen. We have used shuttle vector systems in yeast, mammalian cells, and transgenic mice to characterize the mutational specificity and premutational DNA damage induced by Cr(VI) and its reduction intermediates in order to elucidate the mechanism by which Cr induces mutations. In the yeast system, treatment of vector-containing cells with Cr(VI) results in a dose-dependent increase in mutations in the SUP4-o target gene of the vector; mutagenesis is enhanced in an apn-1 yeast mutant, deficient in the capacity to repair oxidative-type DNA damage. In vector-containing mammalian cells, treatment with Cr(VI) also results in a dose-dependent increase in mutations in the vector target gene supF. The Cr-induced mutations in supF occurred mostly at G:C base pairs and were widely distributed across the gene, a pattern similar to those observed with ionizing radiation or hydrogen peroxide. These results support the hypothesis that Cr(VI)-induced oxidative-type DNA damage is responsible for Cr mutagenesis in the cell. Recently these studies were extended into the Big Blue transgenic mouse system in which Cr-induced mutagenesis was observed in the lung, the target organ for Cr carcinogenesis in humans. Analysis of the spectrum of these mutations will test whether Cr mutagenesis occurs by similar mechanisms in the intact animal as in cell culture systems and yeast. ImagesFigure 2Figure 3
Kalman Filtering Over a Packet-Dropping Network: A Probabilistic Perspective

We consider the problem of state estimation of a discrete time process over a packet-dropping network. Previous work on Kalman filtering with intermittent observations is concerned with the asymptotic behavior of E[Pk], i.e., the expected value of the error covariance, for a given packet arrival rate. We consider a different performance metric, Pr[Pk ¿ M], i.e., the probability that Pk is bounded by a given M. We consider two scenarios in the paper. In the first scenario, when the sensor sends its measurement data to the remote estimator via a packet-dropping network, we derive lower and upper bounds on Pr[Pk ¿ M]. In the second scenario, when the sensor preprocesses the measurement data and sends its local state estimate to the estimator, we show that the previously derived lower and upper bounds are equal to each other, hence we are able to provide a closed form expression for Pr[Pk ¿ M]. We also recover the results in the literature when using Pr[Pk ¿ M] as a metric for scalar systems. Examples are provided to illustrate the theory developed in the paper.
Urban women’s use of rural-based health care services: The case of Igbo women in Aba city, Nigeria

This study addresses the quest for rural-based health care services among women in urban Nigeria relying on a large qualitative database obtained from 63 Igbo women living in Aba, Nigeria. Results indicate that urban Igbo women of different socioeconomic and demographic characteristics utilize the services of different rural-based health care providers—indigenous healers, traditional birth attendants (TBAs), faith/spiritual, western-trained doctors and nurses as well as chemist shopkeepers—for conditions ranging from infertility, through child birthing and abortions, to swollen body, epilepsy, bone setting, and stubborn skin diseases. Major attractions to rural-based therapists were the failure of urban-based health services to provide cure, perceived mystical nature of conditions, need to conceal information on therapeutic progress and/or the nature of specific disease conditions, belief in rural-based therapists’ ability to cure condition, and affordability of the services of rural-based health care providers. Findings underscore the critical implications of service characteristics, cultural beliefs, and the symbolic content of place(s) for care seekers’ patterns of resort. We suggest that need exists for policies and programs aimed at making health care services in urban Nigeria more responsive to care seekers’ socioeconomic and cultural sensitivities, integrating informal health care providers into Nigeria’s health care system, and strengthening public health education in Nigeria.
IMPACTO DOS INVESTIMENTOS DO PAC EM MINAS GERAIS: EFEITOS SOBRE CRESCIMENTO E DESIGUALDADE

The Brazilian federal government has recently set out plans encompassing detailed public expenditure programs and targets on infra-structure investment (PAC, Programa de Aceleracao do Crescimento). We investigate the sectoral, regional and national economic consequences of the PAC in Minas Gerais. Our modeling encompasses much detail. Firstly, we use a large-scale multi-regional CGE model of Brazil. The model is both bottom-up and top-down: bottom-up for Brazil's 27 states, and top-down for Brazil's 558 microrregions. Despite the high level of regional disaggregation, the level of sectoral disaggregation is also high, at 36 sectors. Secondly, we model the PAC in detail, considering each of the 9 sets of expenditure programs under the 2008-11 plan. We find that the PAC can have strong impacts in Minas Gerais, but can contribute to a increase in regional inequality in the state in long run.
Ex Vivo and In Vivo Gene Delivery to the Brain

This unit describes methods for grafting genetically modified cells for ex vivo delivery of specific genes into the rat brain and direct delivery of transgenes to brain cells in vivo using recombinant viral vectors. These methods assess the function of a gene in the brain. The ex vivo approach of gene transfer to the nervous system depends on genetic manipulation of cells in vitro prior to grafting of the cells into the brain to enable production of a transgene at physiologically significant levels for a long period of time. This unit also includes procedures for transcardial perfusion to fix the tissue prior to analysis of expression and for sectioning of brains by use of a freezing sledge microtome. Thionine staining of tissue sections is also described.
Structural styles in the Zagros Simple Folded Zone, Iran

Arabia–Eurasia convergence is achieved in the NW Zagros by a combination of shortening on NW–SE-trending folds and thrusts, mainly in the Simple Folded Zone, and by right-lateral strike-slip on the NW–SE-trending Main Recent Fault. A balanced and restored cross-section across this part of the range indicates c. 49 km of shortening. This probably occurred since c. 5 Ma, providing an estimate of the long-term shortening rate across the Simple Folded Zone of c. 10 mm a−1. The geometries of exposed structures suggest both basement thrusts and thin-skinned décollement levels, with major folds possibly nucleated above basement faults. Fold geometries indicate several décollement horizons; shale units are candidates, as well as evaporites in the Neogene, Mesozoic, Lower Palaeozoic and upper Proterozoic successions. The SE part of the Simple Folded Zone deforms by north–south shortening on broadly east–west-trending folds and thrusts. The link between these regions occurs via a set of fault blocks c. 400 km wide in total, each bounded by north–south right-lateral faults. Incremental changes in the strike of some of the folds occur across these right-lateral faults, with more east–west orientations to the east.
Regenerative tree growth: Binary self-similar continuum random trees and Poisson--Dirichlet compositions

We use a natural ordered extension of the Chinese Restaurant Process to grow a two-parameter family of binary self-similar continuum fragmentation trees. We provide an explicit embedding of Ford's sequence of alpha model trees in the continuum tree which we identified in a previous article as a distributional scaling limit of Ford's trees. In general, the Markov branching trees induced by the two-parameter growth rule are not sampling consistent, so the existence of compact limiting trees cannot be deduced from previous work on the sampling consistent case. We develop here a new approach to establish such limits, based on regenerative interval partitions and the urn-model description of sampling from Dirichlet random distributions.
A Counterexample to the Smoothness of the Solution to an Equation Arising in Fluid Mechanics

We analyze the equation coming from the Eulerian-Lagrangian description of fluids. We discuss a couple of ways to extend this notion to viscous fluids. The main focus of this paper is to discuss the first way, due to Constantin. We show that this description can only work for short times, after which the “back to coordinates map” may have no smooth inverse. Then we briefly discuss a second way that uses Brownian motion. We use this to provide a plausibility argument for the global regularity for the Navier-Stokes equations.
Ultra wideband planar bandpass filter with dual notch behavior

In this paper a planar ultrawide band bandpass filter with dual notched behavior is proposed. This filter is designed using interdigital finger structure on planar configuration. This interdigital finger resonator is providing us the ultrawide band with two notches one at 5.65GHz and other is at 7.15GHz. As WLAN and few satellites communication systems interfere with UWB radio system. The filter is compact in size with dimension 17 × 17 × 1 mm3 with the ground plane. For designing the proposed structure FR-4 substrate of thickness 1 mm and with Dielectric constant 4.9 is used. The electromagnetic simulation software, computer simulation technology microwave studio (CST MWS) is used for the simulation and analysis of the designed structure. The working frequency of UWB filter is 3.1 to 10.6GHz and rejecting the frequencies 5.65GHz and 7.15GHz. The insertion loss of first notch band is -17dB and for second notched band insertion loss is -15dB.
Homozygous inactivation of CHEK2 is linked to a familial case of multiple primary lung cancer with accompanying cancers in other organs

In clinical practice, there are a number of cancer patients with clear family histories, but the patients lack mutations in known familial cancer syndrome genes. Recent advances in genomic technologies have enhanced the possibility of identifying causative genes in such cases. Two siblings, an elder sister and a younger brother, were found to have multiple primary lung cancers at the age of 60. The former subsequently developed breast cancer and had a history of uterine myoma. The latter had initially developed prostate cancer at the age of 59 and had a history of colon cancer. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping revealed that ∼10% of the genomes were homozygous in both patients. Exome sequencing revealed nonsynonymous mutations in five genes in the runs of homozygosity: CHEK2, FCGRT, INPP5J, MYO18B, and SFI1. Evolutionary conservation of primary protein structures suggested the functional importance of the CHEK2 mutation, p.R474C. This mutation altered the tertiary structure of CHK2 by disrupting the salt bridge between p.R474 and p.E394. No such structural changes were observed with the other mutated genes. Subsequent cell-based transfection analysis revealed that CHK2 p.R474C was unstable and scarcely activated. We concluded that the homozygous CHEK2 variant was contributory in this case of familial cancer. Although homozygous inactivation of CHEK2 in mice led to cancers in multiple organs, accumulation of additional human cases is needed to establish its pathogenic role in humans.
Virtualization and Virtual Data Management for Field Data Sensing

High-data-rate sensing and processing in the field are important for emerging applications in intelligent transportation, surveillance, and environmental management. For these systems, virtualization and virtual data management bring the benefits of easy deployment, flexible control, and strong data containment. Despite limited resources in the field, we show that optimized virtualization support can realize nearnative performance for data-intensive sensing workloads. To further reduce storage and network I/O costs, we present new virtual storage deduplication mechanisms that identify duplicates in continuous sensing workloads at low CPU and memory uses. Finally, we support efficient encryption of sensor-captured and derived data in a virtual disk through storage versioning and deduplication. Our Xen-based system prototype is deployed on an Intel Atom-equipped device (below 7 W). We experimented with realistic field workloads and data streams for vehicle traffic analysis, face detection, and motion capture. Measurements show that the virtualization incurs no more than 8% CPU overhead. Additional data deduplication and encryption lead to a total of below 18% CPU cost and 0.1 W power use. Our I/O saving mechanisms reduce Flash I/O writes by up to 33% and save VM installation/upgrade network I/O by 3 to 10 times. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation grants CNS-1217372, CNS-1239423, and CCF-1255729, and by a Google Research Award.
Edge continuity of infrared image for ground scene

The edge information of infrared image for ground scene is an important means to express the contour of object and match MWIR and visible image. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to analyze the edge continuity of the entire scene quantitatively. In order to investigate the mutual relationship between edge continuity and matching performance, a great deal of MWIR and visible aerial image sequences are selected from rural and factory district scenes in the different time of a day quantitatively. According to the experimental results, conclusions can be made that the edge continuity is proportional to the correlation peak value, and inversely proportional to the registration error for the same scene.
Effects of solution mining of salt on wetland hydrology as inferred from tree rings

Radial growth and concentrations of selected elements within rings were studied in white pine (Pinus strobus) trees from a wetland in central New York approximately 5 km north of a salt‐solution mining field that operated from 1889 to 1988. Trees seemingly document three sequential episodes of mine‐induced alterations of groundwater discharge irrigating the wetland during the 100‐year period. The radial growth of trees established before the onset of mining declined abruptly in the early 1890s and remained suppressed until about 1960, as did growth of numerous other trees that became established after the onset of mining. Suppressed pre‐1960 radial growth coincided with the interval that surface water was injected into the saltbeds, suggesting that losses of injected water to the bedrock and/or unconsolidated deposits increased groundwater flow into the wetland. An abrupt and sustained enhancement of radial growth beginning about 1960 indicates that the wetland became drier, and thus more conducive to tree growth, when injection practices were discontinued in the late 1950s despite the continued pumping of brine. Following the cessation of mining in the late 1980s, head pressures again increased in the upper valley, driving chloride‐enriched flow northward along regional bedding‐plane fractures and into the wetland. Large concentrations of chloride were detected within the most recently formed rings of some trees. As the result of chloride‐enriched irrigation, the radial growth of some trees declined, and some trees died. Thus trees have preserved evidence of a century of hydrologic alterations, unobtainable by other means, where the effects of brine mining have not been documented previously.
Effect of Intravitreal Ranibizumab in the Treatment of Peripapillary Choroidal Neovascularisation

Intravitreal ranibizumab therapy is widely used in treatment of subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) in age-related macular degeneration. We wanted to study the effect of intravitreal ranibizumab therapy in peripapillary CNV. A prospective recording of treatment outcomes in twelve eyes (12 patients) with peripapillary CNV with intravitreal injections of ranibizumab was performed. The patients received a series of 3 injections 4–6 weeks apart, and then a new ophthalmic examination was made including OCT and further therapy was given if the peripapillary CNV was still active. Nine patients had idiopathic peripapillary CNV, and in 3 patients it was associated to age-related macular degeneration. Followup had to be at least 6 months. The mean follow-up time was 15.9 (range 9–27) months and the mean number of injections 6.2 (3–10). In 10 patients treatment had resulted in an inactivation of the peripapillary CNV, but 3 of them had reactivation, while 2 patients had no inactivation. Currently, 5 patients are continuous to receive treatment. VA improved in 10 patients. Intravitreal ranibizumab therapy appears to be effective in patients with peripapillary CNV, but in some cases there is repeated reactivation or continuous activity of the peripapillary CNV.
The economics of Third World national parks : issues of tourism and environmental management

Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Atemporal Problem of the Buffer Area 3. The Intertemporal Problem of the Buffer Area 4. The Effects of Economic Activity in the Buffer Area on the National Park 5. The Tourist Problem: The Demand for Wildlife Viewing 6. The Supply of Wildlife-Viewing Services 7. Value of a National Park and Cost-Benefit Decision-Making 8. An Eco-development Plan for a Greater National Park 9. Conclusions Index
Bleomycin Sensitivity in Escherichia coli is Medium-Dependent

Bleomycin (BLM) is a glycopeptide antibiotic and anti-tumor agent that targets primarily the furanose rings of DNA and in the presence of ferrous ions produces oxidative damage and DNA strand breaks. Escherichia coli cells growing in broth medium and exposed to low concentrations of BLM contain double-strand breaks and require homologous recombination to survive. To a lesser extent, the cells also require the abasic (AP) endonucleases associated with base excision repair, presumably to repair oxidative damage. As expected, there is strong induction of the SOS system in treated cells. In contrast, E. coli cells growing in glucose or glycerol minimal medium are resistant to the lethal action of BLM and do not require either homologous recombination functions or AP-endonucleases for survival. DNA ligase activity, however, is needed for cells growing in minimal medium to resist the lethal effects of BLM. There is weak SOS induction in such treated cells.
Manipulability Optimization of Redundant Manipulators Using Dynamic Neural Networks

For solving the singularity problem arising in the control of manipulators, an efficient way is to maximize its manipulability. However, it is challenging to optimize manipulability effectively because it is a nonconvex function to the joint angles of a robotic arm. In addition, the involvement of an inversion operation in the expression of manipulability makes it even hard for timely optimization due to the intensively computational burden for matrix inversion. In this paper, we make progress on real-time manipulability optimization by establishing a dynamic neural network for recurrent calculation of manipulability-maximal control actions for redundant manipulators under physical constraints in an inverse-free manner. By expressing position tracking and matrix inversion as equality constraints, physical limits as inequality constraints, and velocity-level manipulability measure, which is affine to the joint velocities, as the objective function, the manipulability optimization scheme is further formulated as a constrained quadratic program. Then, a dynamic neural network with rigorously provable convergence is constructed to solve such a problem online. Computer simulations are conducted and show that, compared to the existing methods, the proposed scheme can raise the manipulability almost 40% on average, which substantiates the efficacy, accuracy, and superiority of the proposed manipulability optimization scheme.
An LMI-based stability analysis for adaptive controllers

We develop a Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) tool for analyzing the stability and performance of adaptive controllers that employ σ-modification. The formulation involves recasting the error dynamics composed of the tracking error and the weight estimator error into a linear parameter varying form. We show how stability, convergence rate, domain of attraction, and the transient and steady state behavior of the adaptive control system can be analyzed using the developed LMI tool. It is guaranteed that less conservative estimates for the convergence rate and the size of the ultimate bound for the tracking error are obtained compared to the standard analysis in the literature.