Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protective effect of celastrol on myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury

Objective: Celastrol, a major active constituent of Tripterygium wilfordii, has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer effects. However, whether celastrol can exert protective effect on myocardial ischemia–reperfusion injury (MIRI) is unknown. The aim of this study was to test the protective effect of celastrol on MIRI and elucidate its underlying mechanism. Methods: Cardiomyocytes (H9c2 cells) were subjected to hypoxia for 8 h followed by reoxygenation for 4 h to create hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) model, an in vitro MIRI model. Celastrol was added to the medium 60 min before the H/R process. Cell viability was detected using MTT assay. Myocardial injury was evaluated by measuring lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase MB isoenzyme (CK-MB) activity. Changes in mRNA and protein expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, and nuclear factor-KB (NF-KB) were measured with RT-qPCR assay and western blot analysis. Results: Results showed that low-dose celastrol (20 and 50 nM) treatment significantly increased cell viability and decreased LDH and CK-MB activity in the condition of H/R, but high-dose celastrol (200 and 400 nM) resulted in extra injury to cardiomyocytes. Moreover, treatment with 50 nM celastrol significantly downregulated mRNA and protein expression of TNF-α and IL-1β. Meanwhile, NF-KB mRNA and protein in the nucleus were also correspondingly reduced. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that low-dose celastrol could prevent MIRI in cardiomyocytes by inhibiting the activation of NF-KB, and celastrol may be a potential therapeutic agent for preventing MIRI.
Robust Hinfty Control for Networked Systems With Random Packet Losses

In this paper, the robust H infinity control problem is considered for a class of networked systems with random communication packet losses. Because of the limited bandwidth of the channels, such random packet losses could occur, simultaneously, in the communication channels from the sensor to the controller and from the controller to the actuator. The random packet loss is assumed to obey the Bernoulli random binary distribution, and the parameter uncertainties are norm-bounded and enter into both the system and output matrices. In the presence of random packet losses, an observer-based feedback controller is designed to robustly exponentially stabilize the networked system in the sense of mean square and also achieve the prescribed H infinity disturbance-rejection-attenuation level. Both the stability-analysis and controller-synthesis problems are thoroughly investigated. It is shown that the controller-design problem under consideration is solvable if certain linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are feasible. A simulation example is exploited to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed LMI approach.
Species identification of coagulase-negative staphylococcal isolates from blood cultures

Coagulase-negative staphylococci generally are not fully identified, are called Staphylococcus epidermidis, and are considered contaminants when isolated from blood cultures. In a cancer hospital during 6 months, 46 patients had multiple blood cultures (mean, 3.1) which yielded coagulase-negative staphylococci. Species identification of these showed that 10 of the 46 (22%) were not S. epidermidis. Similarly, 96 coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from only one of multiple blood cultures from patients and thought to be skin contaminants were identified. Of 96 of the staphylococci, 14 (16%) of the latter group were not S. epidermidis. Species found included S. haemolyticus, S. hominis, S. warneri, S. simulans, and S. xylosus. Eight isolates of these species were methicillin resistant, and all eight were mannitol fermenters. The results suggest that these species invasively infect cancer patients with the same frequency at which the species colonize. No one species was identified as being more pathogenic than the others. Routine species identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci from blood cultures of cancer patients contributed little to management except to occasionally distinguish multiple-episode culture contamination by different species from sustained bacteremia with the same species.
Speckle reduction in echocardiography by temporal compounding and anisotropic diffusion filtering

Echocardiography is a medical imaging technique based on ultrasound signals that is used to evaluate heart anatomy and physiology. Echocardiographic images are affected by speckle, a type of multiplicative noise that obscures details of the structures, and reduces the overall image quality. This paper shows an approach to enhance echocardiography using two processing techniques: temporal compounding and anisotropic diffusion filtering. We used twenty echocardiographic videos that include one or three cardiac cycles to test the algorithms. Two images from each cycle were aligned in space and averaged to obtain the compound images. These images were then processed using anisotropic diffusion filters to further improve their quality. Resultant images were evaluated using quality metrics and visual assessment by two medical doctors. The average total improvement on signal-to-noise ratio was up to 100.29% for videos with three cycles, and up to 32.57% for videos with one cycle.
SigM-Responsive Genes of Bacillus subtilis and Their Promoters

ABSTRACT Promoters of nine Bacillus subtilis genes (bcrC, yacK, ydaH, yfnI, yjbD, ypbG, ypuA, yraA, and ysxA), all responsive to artificially induced increases in the stress-responsive extracytoplasmic function sigma factor, SigM, were mapped by rapid amplification of cDNA ends-PCR. The resulting promoter consensus suggests that overlapping control by SigX or SigW is common.
Central auditory dysfunction as a harbinger of Alzheimer dementia.

OBJECTIVE To confirm that central auditory dysfunction (CAD) may be a precursor to the onset of Alzheimer dementia (AD). DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Research study center. PARTICIPANTS Two hundred seventy-four volunteers from a dementia surveillance cohort were followed up for as long as 4 years after undergoing complete audiometric assessment. Twenty-one received a consensus diagnosis of AD after a hearing test. INTERVENTION The following 3 central auditory tests were performed: the Dichotic Sentence Identification, the Dichotic Digits, and the Synthetic Sentence Identification With Ipsilateral Competing Message. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES A new diagnosis of AD using the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Diseases and Stroke-Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders Association criteria at a consensus conference. RESULTS The mean scores on each CAD test were significantly poorer in the incident dementia group. Cox proportional hazards models with age as the time scale were used to estimate the hazard ratio for incident dementia based on CAD test results. After adjusting for educational level, the hazard ratio for incident dementia in people with severe CAD based on a Dichotic Sentence Identification in free report mode of less than 50% was 9.9 (95% confidence interval, 3.6-26.7). CONCLUSIONS Central auditory dysfunction is a precursor to AD. We recommend evaluation with CAD tests in older adults who report hearing difficulty. Those with severe CAD should receive a modified rehabilitation program and be considered for referral for neurologic evaluation.
ENPP1 K121Q Genotype Not Associated with Coronary Artery Calcification in Korean Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background Ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase-1 (ENPP1) generates inorganic pyrophosphate, a solute that serves as an essential physiological inhibitor of calcification. Inactivating mutations of ENPP1 are associated with generalized calcification in infancy and an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We hypothesized that the ENPP1 K121Q variant may be associated with increased coronary artery calcification in T2DM patients. Methods The study subjects were aged 34 to 85 years and showed no evidence of clinical cardiovascular disease prior to recruitment. A total of 140 patients with T2DM were assessed for their coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores and ENPP1 K121Q polymorphisms were identified. Results The prevalence of subjects carrying the KQ genotype was 12.9% (n = 18). There were no 121QQ homozygotes. Patients with the KQ genotype did not show a significantly higher CAC score (122 vs. 18; P = 0.858). We matched each patient with the KQ genotype to a respective control with the KK genotype by gender, age, and duration of diabetes. When compared to matched controls, we observed no significant difference in CAC score (P = 0.959). Conclusions The ENPP1 K121Q polymorphism does not appear to be associated with coronary artery calcification in patients with T2DM.
Breaking a time-and-space barrier in constructing full-text indices

Suffix trees and suffix arrays are the most prominent full-text indices, and their construction algorithms are well studied. It has been open for a long time whether these indices can be constructed in both O(n log n) time and O(n log n)-bit working space, where n denotes the length of the text. In the literature, the fastest algorithm runs in O(n) time, while it requires O(n log n)-bit working space. On the other hand, the most space-efficient algorithm requires O(n)-bit working space while it runs in O(n log n) time. This paper breaks the long-standing time-and-space barrier under the unit-cost word RAM. We give an algorithm for constructing the suffix array which takes O(n) time and O(n)-bit working space, for texts with constant-size alphabets. Note that both the time and the space bounds are optimal. For constructing the suffix tree, our algorithm requires O(n log/sup /spl epsi//n) time and O(n)-bit working space for any 0 < /spl epsi/ < 1. Apart from that, our algorithm can also be adopted to build other existing full-text indices, such as Compressed Suffix Tree, Compressed Suffix Arrays and FM-index. We also study the general case where the size of the alphabet A is not constant. Our algorithm can construct a suffix array and a suffix tree using optimal O(n log |A|)-bit working space while running in O(n log log |A|) time and O(n log/sup /spl epsi//n) time, respectively. These are the first algorithms that achieve 0(n log n) time with optimal working space, under a reasonable assumption that log |A| = o(log n).
Comparison of Deep Sedation With General Anesthesia in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Mitral Valve Repair

Background Percutaneous edge‐to‐edge mitral valve repair (PMVR) has become an established treatment option for mitral regurgitation in patients not eligible for surgical repair. Currently, most procedures are performed under general anesthesia (GA). An increasing number of centers, however, are performing the procedure under deep sedation (DS). Here, we compared patients undergoing PMVR with GA or DS. Methods and Results A total of 271 consecutive patients underwent PMVR at our institution between May 2014 and December 2016. Seventy‐two procedures were performed under GA and 199 procedures under DS. We observed that in the DS group, doses of propofol (743±228 mg for GA versus 369±230 mg for DS, P<0.001) and norepinephrine (1.1±1.6 mg for GA versus 0.2±0.3 mg for DS, P<0.001) were significantly lower. Procedure time, fluoroscopy time, and dose area product were significantly higher in the GA group. There was no significant difference between GA and DS with respect to overall bleeding complications, postinterventional pneumonia (4% for GA versus 5% for DS), or C‐reactive protein levels (361±351 nmol/L for GA versus 278±239 nmol/L for DS). Significantly fewer patients with DS needed a postinterventional stay in the intensive care unit (96% for GA versus 19% for DS, P<0.001). Importantly, there was no significant difference between DS and GA regarding intrahospital or 6‐month mortality. Conclusions DS for PMVR is safe and feasible. No disadvantages with respect to procedural outcome or complications in comparison to GA were observed. Applying DS may simplify the PMVR procedure.
Analyzing Methods of the Relation between Concepts based on a Concept Hierarchy

Data objects are usually organized hierarchically, and the relations between them are analyzed based on a corresponding concept hierarchy. The relation between data objects, for example how similar they are, are usually analyzed based on the conceptual distance in the hierarchy. If a node is an ancestor of another node, it is enough to analyze how close they are by calculating the distance vertically. However, if there is not such relation between two nodes, the vertical distance cannot express their relation explicitly. This paper tries to fill this gap by improving the analysis method for data objects based on hierarchy. The contributions of this paper include: (1) proposing an improved method to evaluate the vertical distance between concepts; (2) defining the concept horizontal distance and a method to calculate the horizontal distance; and (3) discussing the methods to confine a range by the horizontal distance and the vertical distance, and evaluating the relation between concepts. Keywords—Concept Hierarchy, Horizontal Distance, Relation Analysis, Vertical Distance
Enhanced recognition memory in grapheme-color synaesthesia for different categories of visual stimuli

Memory has been shown to be enhanced in grapheme-color synaesthesia, and this enhancement extends to certain visual stimuli (that don't induce synaesthesia) as well as stimuli comprised of graphemes (which do). Previous studies have used a variety of testing procedures to assess memory in synaesthesia (e.g., free recall, recognition, associative learning) making it hard to know the extent to which memory benefits are attributable to the stimulus properties themselves, the testing method, participant strategies, or some combination of these factors. In the first experiment, we use the same testing procedure (recognition memory) for a variety of stimuli (written words, non-words, scenes, and fractals) and also check which memorization strategies were used. We demonstrate that grapheme-color synaesthetes show enhanced memory across all these stimuli, but this is not found for a non-visual type of synaesthesia (lexical-gustatory). In the second experiment, the memory advantage for scenes is explored further by manipulating the properties of the old and new images (changing color, orientation, or object presence). Again, grapheme-color synaesthetes show a memory advantage for scenes across all manipulations. Although recognition memory is generally enhanced in this study, the largest effects were found for abstract visual images (fractals) and scenes for which color can be used to discriminate old/new status.
[Effect of sildenafil on nocturnal penile tumescence].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of sildenafil on nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT). METHODS Thirty-five patients with erectile dysfunction (ED), 28 cases of organic ED and 7 cases of psychogenic ED, were treated with sildenafil 100 mg before bedtime. The NPT of the patients was observed by using NEVA. RESULTS Erectile function significantly improved in the 28 cases of organic ED (P < 0.05), but not in the 7 cases of psychogenic ED (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION Sildenafil can improve NPT of organic ED patients without sexual stimulation.
The Mechanism of Calcium-Induced Inhibition of Muscle Fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase and Destabilization of Glyconeogenic Complex

The mechanism by which calcium inhibits the activity of muscle fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase) and destabilizes its interaction with aldolase, regulating glycogen synthesis from non-carbohydrates in skeletal muscle is poorly understood. In the current paper, we demonstrate evidence that Ca2+ affects conformation of the catalytic loop 52–72 of muscle FBPase and inhibits its activity by competing with activatory divalent cations, e.g. Mg2+ and Zn2+. We also propose the molecular mechanism of Ca2+-induced destabilization of the aldolase–FBPase interaction, showing that aldolase associates with FBPase in its active form, i.e. with loop 52–72 in the engaged conformation, while Ca2+ stabilizes the disengaged-like form of the loop.
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Is Associated with Age-Related Decline in Hippocampal Volume

Hippocampal volume shrinks in late adulthood, but the neuromolecular factors that trigger hippocampal decay in aging humans remains a matter of speculation. In rodents, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) promotes the growth and proliferation of cells in the hippocampus and is important in long-term potentiation and memory formation. In humans, circulating levels of BDNF decline with advancing age, and a genetic polymorphism for BDNF has been related to gray matter volume loss in old age. In this study, we tested whether age-related reductions in serum levels of BDNF would be related to shrinkage of the hippocampus and memory deficits in older adults. Hippocampal volume was acquired by automated segmentation of magnetic resonance images in 142 older adults without dementia. The caudate nucleus was also segmented and examined in relation to levels of serum BDNF. Spatial memory was tested using a paradigm in which memory load was parametrically increased. We found that increasing age was associated with smaller hippocampal volumes, reduced levels of serum BDNF, and poorer memory performance. Lower levels of BDNF were associated with smaller hippocampi and poorer memory, even when controlling for the variation related to age. In an exploratory mediation analysis, hippocampal volume mediated the age-related decline in spatial memory and BDNF mediated the age-related decline in hippocampal volume. Caudate nucleus volume was unrelated to BDNF levels or spatial memory performance. Our results identify serum BDNF as a significant factor related to hippocampal shrinkage and memory decline in late adulthood.
Basic Science for the Clinical Electrophysiologist Short QT Syndrome : From Bench to Bedside

Short QT syndrome (SQTS) is an inheritable primary electric disease of the heart characterized by abnormally short QT intervals on the ECG and an increased propensity to develop atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias.1–3 It is a relatively recent addition to the list of inherited channelopathies responsible for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in individuals with structurally normal hearts. Cases of SQTS have been reported with presentation as early as in the first year of life, suggesting that it could be one of the etiologies underlying sudden infant death syndrome.4 SQTS was first described as a new clinical entity by Gussak et al in 2000.1 The familial nature and arrhythmic potential of the disease was further highlighted by Gaita et al.5 They described 6 patients of SQTS in 2 unrelated European families with strong family history of sudden death in association with short QT intervals on the ECG. Since its initial introduction in 2000, significant progress has been made in defining the clinical, genetic,6 and ionic basis of the disease as well as approaches to therapy. The purpose of this review is to summarize the available data concerning SQTS from bench to bedside.
Elevated α1-Antitrypsin Is a Risk Factor for Arterial Ischemic Stroke in Childhood

α1-antitrypsin (α1-AT) is a physiological inhibitor of activated protein C (APC) and therefore decreased APC activity. APC itself causes an anticoagulant effect by inactivating factors Va and VIIIa. The present case-control study was performed to evaluate the role of the elevated α1-AT concentration in pediatric patients with ischemic stroke (IS). α1-AT concentrations were measured along with established prothrombotic risk factors 6–12 months after the acute thrombotic onset in 81 Caucasian children with IS aged 1 month to 18 years. The cutoff values defined as age-dependent 90th percentiles were obtained from 229 healthy controls. Median (range) values of α1-AT were significantly higher in patients compared with control subjects [122.0 mg/dl (61.4–224.0) vs. 114.0 mg/dl (66.8–156.0); p = 0.016]. In addition, 14 of the 81 patients (17.3%) compared with 10 of the 162 controls (6.2%) had α1-AT concentrations above the 90th age-dependent percentiles (p = 0.012). Multivariate analysis performed in a 1:2 matched case-control setting adjusted for the presence of established prothrombotic risk factors showed a significantly increased odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for patients with elevated α1-AT >90th percentiles and IS (OR/CI: 4.0/1.64–9.92; p = 0.0024). Data shown here give evidence that total α1-AT concentrations above the 90th age-dependent percentiles independently increase the risk of IS 4.0-fold in Caucasian children.
Self-healing of cracks in cement paste affected by additional Ca2+ ions in the healing agent

Cracks in reinforced concrete provide preferential access for aggressive substances into the concrete. Therefore, the corrosion of reinforcement bars is accelerated. Besides, carbonation, sulfate attack, and alkali–silicate reaction take place deep inside the concrete. Fortunately, from previous experiments, it was found that cracks in concrete can be healed with water and Ca is a main chemical element of the reaction products of self-healing. However, the ion concentrations in water can be various depending on the sources of water. There is still a lack of information on the effect of ion concentrations on self-healing. In this article, the effect of Ca2+ ions on self-healing was investigated experimentally. Ca(OH)2 was added into water as a healing agent. Self-healing behavior of cracks with saturated Ca(OH)2 solution was explored and compared with that with distilled water. In order to gain deeper insight into the mechanism, the reaction products of self-healing were characterized by energy-dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. In addition, the filling fraction of cracks as a function of time was determined by means of backscattered electron image analysis. The efficiency of self-healing induced by saturated Ca(OH)2 solution was evaluated and compared with that with distilled water.
THz pulse reconstruction

A method of post-detection signal processing is described that removes the effects of water vapour, system echoes and propagation dispersion from the recorded signals of a pulsed THz system. The processed signal shows the response the sample would produce to a chosen form of input pulse, well localised in time and free from after-runners. The method requires recording a reference signal subject to all the undesired effects that affect the sample signal. Experimental results are presented for pulses transmitted and reflected by layered structures.