Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resveratrol inhibits PDGF receptor mitogenic signaling in mesangial cells: role of PTP1B

Mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis is associated with overactive PDGF receptor signal transduction. We show that the phytoalexin resveratrol dose dependently inhibits PDGF‐induced DNA synthesis in mesangial cells with an IC50 of 10 µM without inducing apoptosis. Remarkably, the increased SIRT1 deacetylase activity induced by resveratrol was not necessary for this inhibitory effect. Resveratrol significantly blocked PDGF‐stimulated c‐Src and Akt kinase activation, resulting in reduced cyclin D1 expression and attenuated pRb phosphorylation and cyclin‐dependent kinase‐2 (CDK2) activity. Furthermore, resveratrol inhibited PDGFR phosphorylation at the PI 3 kinase and Grb‐2 binding sites tyrosine‐751 and tyrosine‐716, respectively. This deficiency in PDGFR phosphorylation resulted in significant inhibition of PI 3 kinase and Erk1/2 MAPK activity. Interestingly, resveratrol increased the activity of protein tyrosine phosphatase PTP1B, which dephosphorylates PDGF‐stimulated phosphorylation at tyrosine‐751 and tyrosine‐716 on PDGFR with concomitant reduction in Akt and Erk1/2 kinase activity. PTP1B significantly inhibited PDGF‐induced DNA synthesis without inducing apoptosis. These results for the first time provide evidence that the stilbene resveratrol targets PTP1B to inhibit PDGFR mitogenic signaling. —Venkatesan, B. , Ghosh‐Choudhury, N. , Das, F. , Mahimainathan, L. , Kamat, A. , Kasinath, B. S. , Abboud, H. E. , Choudhury, G. G. Resveratrol inhibits PDGF receptor mitogenic signaling in mesangial cells: role of PTP1B. FASEB J. 22, 3469–3482 (2008)
Efficacy of Second Line Antiepileptic Drugs in the Treatment of Patients with Medically Refractive Complex Partial Seizures

Summary: The efficacy of second‐line antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) was evaluated in the treatment of 66 patients with complex partial seizures who had previously failed first‐line AEDs. Methsuximide, valproate, or clorazepate had eliminated seizures in 11% of the patients at the end of the study. However, these good results deteriorated on longer follow‐up and were not expected to be permanent. It is recommended that suitable patients with partial epilepsy be referred for surgical evaluation after failing the first‐line AEDs, and that second‐line AEDs be reserved for nonsurgical candidates.
Reduction of coherent artefacts in super‐resolution fluorescence localisation microscopy

Super‐resolution localisation microscopy techniques depend on uniform illumination across the field of view, otherwise the resolution is degraded, resulting in imaging artefacts such as fringes. Lasers are currently the light source of choice for switching fluorophores in PALM/STORM methods due to their high power and narrow bandwidth. However, the high coherence of these sources often creates interference phenomena in the microscopes, with associated fringes/speckle artefacts in the images. We quantitatively demonstrate the use of a polymer membrane speckle scrambler to reduce the effect of the coherence phenomena. The effects of speckle in the illumination plane, at the camera and after software localisation of the fluorophores, were characterised. Speckle phenomena degrade the resolution of the microscope at large length scales in reconstructed images, effects that were suppressed by the speckle scrambler, but the small length scale resolution is unchanged at ∼30 nm.
Longitudinal dissociation within the posterior AV nodal input of the rabbit: a substrate for AV nodal reentry.

BACKGROUND Longitudinal dissociation of an anatomic pathway into 2 electrophysiologically distinct pathways has been hypothesized as a basis for localized AV nodal reentry and supraventricular arrhythmias. METHODS AND RESULTS Extracellular bipolar and intracellular microelectrodes were used to record activation in the superfused rabbit AV junction. A subset of rabbit hearts (n=19 of 72) demonstrated dissociation of the posterior AV nodal input into >/=2 functional pathways. Antegrade AH conduction was maintained by a pathway just inferior to the tendon of Todaro. Rate-dependent conduction block was observed in a second pathway just superior to the tricuspid annulus, allowing retrograde activation of the distal portion of the inferior posterior AV nodal input and leading to the formation of apparent "dead-end" pathways. The superior (antegrade) and inferior (retrograde) pathways were separated by a band of well-polarized but poorly excitable transitional cells. Additional decreases in the atrial cycle length progressively increased the AH interval, further delaying retrograde activation of the inferior pathway, and progressively moved the site of conduction block in the inferior pathway proximally, thus extending the length of the retrograde conduction pathway and allowing circus movement within the transitional cells of the posterior AV nodal connection. CONCLUSIONS Longitudinal dissociation within the posterior AV nodal input can give rise to localized reentry and AV nodal reentrant tachycardia.
Phosphoinositide regulation of inward rectifier potassium (Kir) channels

Inward rectifier potassium (Kir) channels are integral membrane proteins charged with a key role in establishing the resting membrane potential of excitable cells through selective control of the permeation of K+ ions across cell membranes. In conjunction with secondary anionic phospholipids, members of this family are directly regulated by phosphoinositides (PIPs) in the absence of other proteins or downstream signaling pathways. Different Kir isoforms display distinct specificities for the activating PIPs but all eukaryotic Kir channels are activated by PI(4,5)P2. On the other hand, the bacterial KirBac1.1 channel is inhibited by PIPs. Recent crystal structures of eukaryotic Kir channels in apo and lipid bound forms reveal one specific binding site per subunit, formed at the interface of N- and C-terminal domains, just beyond the transmembrane segments and clearly involving some of the key residues previously identified as controlling PI(4,5)P2 sensitivity. Computational, biochemical, and biophysical approaches have attempted to address the energetic determinants of PIP binding and selectivity among Kir channel isoforms, as well as the conformational changes that trigger channel gating. Here we review our current understanding of the molecular determinants of PIP regulation of Kir channel activity, including in context with other lipid modulators, and provide further discussion on the key questions that remain to be answered.
Activity of the tetrapyrrole regulator CrtJ is controlled by oxidation of a redox active cysteine located in the DNA binding domain

CrtJ from Rhodobacter capsulatus is a regulator of genes involved in the biosynthesis of haem, bacteriochlorophyll, carotenoids as well as structural proteins of the light harvesting‐II complex. Fluorescence anisotropy‐based DNA‐binding analysis demonstrates that oxidized CrtJ exhibits ∼ 20‐fold increase in binding affinity over that of reduced CrtJ. Liquid chromatography electrospray tandem ionization mass spectrometric analysis using DAz‐2, a sulfenic acid (–SOH)‐specific probe, demonstrates that exposure of CrtJ to oxygen or to hydrogen peroxide leads to significant accumulation of a sulfenic acid derivative of Cys420 which is located in the helix–turn–helix (HTH) motif. In vivo labelling with 4‐(3‐azidopropyl)cyclohexane‐1,3‐dione (DAz‐2) shows that Cys420 also forms a sulfenic acid modification in vivo when cells are exposed to oxygen. Moreover, a Cys420 to Ala mutation leads to a ∼ 60‐fold reduction of DNA binding activity while a Cys to Ser substitution at position 420 that mimics a cysteine sulfenic acid results in a ∼ 4‐fold increase in DNA binding activity. These results provide the first example where sulfenic acid oxidation of a cysteine in a HTH‐motif leads to differential effects on gene expression.
Learning cross-lingual information with multilingual BLSTM for speech synthesis of low-resource languages

Bidirectional long short-term memory (BLSTM) based speech synthesis has shown great potential in improving the quality of the synthetic speech. However, for low-resource languages, it is difficult to obtain a high quality BLSTM model. BLSTM based speech synthesis can be viewed as a transformation between the input features and the output features. We assume that the input and output layers of BLSTM are language-dependent while the hidden layers can be language-independent if trained properly. We investigate whether sufficient training data of another language (auxiliary) can benefit the BLSTM training of a new language (target) that has only limited training data. In this paper, we propose 1) a multilingual BLSTM that shares hidden layers across different languages and 2) a specific training approach that can best utilize the training data from both the auxiliary and target languages. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The multilingual BLSTM can learn the cross-lingual information, and can predict more accurate acoustic features for speech synthesis of the target language than the monolingual BLSTM that is trained with only the data from the target language. Subjective test also indicates that multilingual BLSTM outperforms the monolingual BLSTM in generating higher quality synthetic speech.
Reliability and Processing Effects of Bandgap Engineered SONOS (BE-SONOS) Flash Memory

The reliability properties of BE-SONOS (Lue et al., 2005) are extensively studied. BE-SONOS employs a multi-layer O1/N1/O2/N2/O3 stack, where O1/N1/O2 serves as a bandgap engineered tunneling barrier that provides an efficient hole tunneling erase but eliminates the direct tunneling leakage. BE-SONOS can overcome the fundamental limitation of the conventional SONOS, for which fast erase speed and good data retention cannot be simultaneously achieved. This work provides a comprehensive understanding of the reliability of BE-SONOS. Various processes to form the critical O1/N1/O2 barrier, the trapping layer (N2), and the top blocking oxide (O3) are investigated. The results of this work provide design and processing guidelines for optimizing the performance and reliability of BE-SONOS flash memory devices.
Performance analysis and a proposed improvement for the IEEE 802.15.4 contention access period

IEEE 802.15. 4-2003 (2003) was introduced to address the market need for connecting low-rate devices in a wireless personal area network (WPAN). A slotted CSMA/CA medium access control (MAC) protocol is defined in the standard to coordinate the channel access of a large number of wireless devices. In this paper, we propose a novel Markov chain for IEEE 802.15. 4 MAC, which faithfully captures all the essential features of the protocol, and thus can provide valuable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of this multiple access scheme. The evaluation reveals that the double carrier sensing mechanism specified in 802.15. 4 MAC is not an optimal design, and a slight modification in the protocol can result in further performance improvement in terms of throughput, delay and energy efficiency
Low abundances of heavy elements in the solar outer layers: comparisons of solar models with helioseismic inversions

Context: Recent solar photospheric abundance analyses have led to a significant reduction of the metal abundances compared to the previous determinations. (Z/X)S is 30% smaller, down to 0.0165. The solar models computed with standard opacities and diffusion processes using these new abundances give poor agreement with helioseismic inversions for the sound-speed profile, the surface helium abundance, and the convective zone depth. Aims: We attempt to obtain a good agreement between helioseismic inversions and solar models that present the "old mixture" in the interior and new chemical composition in the convective zone. To reach this result, we assume an undermetallic accretion at the beginning of the main sequence. Methods: We compute solar models with the Toulouse-Geneva Evolution Code, in which we simulate an undermetallic accretion in the early stages of the main sequence, in order to obtain the new mixture in the outer convective zone. We compare the sound-speed profile, the convective zone depth, and the surface helium abundance with those deduced from helioseismology. Results: The model with accretion but without any mixing process inside is in better agreement with helioseismology than the solar model with the new abundances throughout. There is, however, a spike under the convective zone which reaches 3.4%. Furthermore, the convective zone depth and the surface helium abundance are too low. Introducing overshooting below the convective zone allows us to recover the good convective zone radius and the addition of rotation-induced mixing and tachocline allows us to reconcile the surface helium abundance. But in any case the agreement of the sound-speed profile with helioseismic inference is worse than obtained with the old abundances.
Performance Flexibility upon Multi-level Quality of Service, Based on Communications Systems Reconfigurability

Software defined radio (SDR) is a key development environment for future wireless communication systems. This attractive technology opens the way for lots of evolutions in applications, mainly in the field of service-on-demand. Quality of service (QoS) upon user satisfactory is being inherently included in forthcoming wireless standardizations. In this paper, we apply the SDR methodology on parts of the Global System for Mobile communications, and the Code Division Multiple Access CDMA Interim Standard IS-95 to suggest levels of QoS related to performance. We show results achieved by this approach in effectively utilizing the hardware resources with a guarantee of the suitable performance.
Influence of Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Group B Streptococcus on Gut Microbiota in the First Month of Life

Objectives: The effect of intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) for group B Streptococcus (GBS) on bacterial colonization of the infant's gut has not been investigated extensively. We aimed to evaluate the effect of IAP on gut microbiota in healthy term infants, also exploring the influence of type of feeding. Methods: Healthy term infants, whose mothers had been screened for GBS in late gestation, were divided into 2 groups: infants born to GBS-positive mothers who had received IAP versus controls. Neonatal fecal samples were collected at 7 and 30 days of life; DNA was extracted, and quantification of selected microbial groups (Lactobacillus spp, Bifidobacterium spp, and Bacteroides fragilis group) was performed by real-time PCR. Results: A total of 84 infant–mother pairs were recruited. Bifidobacteria count was significantly lower in the IAP group at 7 days of life (median [interquartile range] 6.01 Log colony-forming unit per gram [5.51–6.98] vs 7.80 [6.61–8.26], P = 0.000). No differences in Bifidobacteria count at 30 days or in Lactobacilli and B fragilis counts at any time point were documented. Furthermore, at 7 days of life, infants who had not received IAP and were exclusively human milk–fed had higher counts of Bifidobacteria. Regardless of IAP treatment, infants fed exclusively human milk had higher Lactobacillus spp counts both at 7 and 30 days of life. Conclusions: IAP alters gut microflora by reducing the count of Bifidobacteria, which is further affected in infants receiving formula feeding. Whether these alterations could have long-term consequences on health and disease requires further investigation.
Obesity: A Potential Pandemic for the 21st Century among the Youths in Zimbabwe

Background: Obesity is now reported as an epidemic in many developed countries, and it is an emerging public health concern in developing, transitional, and newly developed countries. The incidence of obesity increases during adolescence and persists into adulthood and becomes irreversible. In addition to biological causes like inheritance, cultural factors (such as dietary knowledge, attitudes and behaviours), socio-demographic factors may also play a central role in the etiology of obesity. The aim of the study was to describe young adults’ knowledge and perceptions about obesity, with a focus on comprehensibility and meaningfulness of obesity in their daily lives and its health implications. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive design was used with 96 participants aged 18 - 35 years. The respondents’ body mass indices (BMI) were calculated from self-reported weights and heights. Descriptive analytical, statistical methods were used for data analysis. Results: The youths had good knowledge about obesity, its causes and associated complications. Generally, negative attitudes toward obesity were reported. Some perceived obesity as the ideal body image among today’s youths while others perceived obesity as something that was beyond their control. Identified knowledge gaps were in the area of obesity and nutrition knowledge, food preferences and implications to health. Knowledge deficit about obesity might lead to poor health-related behaviours with its associated complications. Conclusion: There is a need to intensify community-focused health education as a preventive strategy to empower the youths to take charge of their health and change their perceptions about obesity.
Design of a PD Position Control based on the Lyapunov Theory for a Robot Manipulator Flexible-Link

We propose the design of a PD position control for a one link flexible manipulator. This paper is based in development the scheme control using the theory Lyapunov, where the existence, unicity and asymptotic behavior of the equilibrium point is defined inside workspace of the robot manipulator, furthermore we are presenting a detailed mathematical development based in the dynamics of the robot, we proved that finding a Kp and Kv constants such as the controller converge to unique solutions. The workspace of the robot manipulator is defined in the x-y plane, with rotational joints under gravity force. The mathematical model considers the link as beam the Euler-Bernoulli. The Lagrange-Euler equation have been used to obtained generalized equation of movement and the method Assumed-Modes for modelling the transversal deformation of the beam in any point and to identify the position of the end-effector.
Oscillating and pulsed gradient diffusion magnetic resonance microscopy over an extended b‐value range: Implications for the characterization of tissue microstructure

Oscillating gradient spin‐echo (OGSE) pulse sequences have been proposed for acquiring diffusion data with very short diffusion times, which probe tissue structure at the subcellular scale. OGSE sequences are an alternative to pulsed gradient spin echo measurements, which typically probe longer diffusion times due to gradient limitations. In this investigation, a high‐strength (6600 G/cm) gradient designed for small‐sample microscopy was used to acquire OGSE and pulsed gradient spin echo data in a rat hippocampal specimen at microscopic resolution. Measurements covered a broad range of diffusion times (TDeff = 1.2–15.0 ms), frequencies (ω = 67–1000 Hz), and b‐values (b = 0–3.2 ms/μm2). Variations in apparent diffusion coefficient with frequency and diffusion time provided microstructural information at a scale much smaller than the imaging resolution. For a more direct comparison of the techniques, OGSE and pulsed gradient spin echo data were acquired with similar effective diffusion times. Measurements with similar TDeff were consistent at low b‐value (b < 1 ms/μm2), but diverged at higher b‐values. Experimental observations suggest that the effective diffusion time can be helpful in the interpretation of low b‐value OGSE data. However, caution is required at higher b, where enhanced sensitivity to restriction and exchange render the effective diffusion time an unsuitable representation. Oscillating and pulsed gradient diffusion techniques offer unique, complementary information. In combination, the two methods provide a powerful tool for characterizing complex diffusion within biological tissues. Magn Reson Med 69:1131–1145, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Minimum Wages and Firm Profitability

Although there is a large literature on the economic effects of minimum wages on labour market outcomes (especially employment), there is hardly any evidence on their impact on firm performance. This is surprising: minimum wages appear to have a significant impact on wages, but only a limited impact on jobs, so it is natural to imagine there must be a stronger impact on other aspects of firm behaviour. In this paper we consider the impact of minimum wages on firm profitability by exploiting the introduction of a minimum wage to the UK labour market in 1999. We use pre-policy information on the distribution of wages to construct treatment and comparison groups and implement a difference in differences approach. We show evidence that firm profitability was significantly reduced (and wages significantly raised) by the minimum wage introduction. This emerges from separate analyses of two distinct types of firm level panel data (one on firms in a very low wage sector, UK residential care homes, and a second on firms across all sectors). Interestingly, we find no evidence that the profitability reductions resulted in increases in firm exit, so our findings may be consistent with redistribution of quasi-rents towards low wage employees.
Microsporidia and human infections

Protozoa of the phylum Microspora are obligate intracellular pathogens that are being detected with increasing frequency in humans, especially in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Organisms from four genera have been reported to date, and serological data suggest the occurrence of latent infections. Sources of human infections are not known, but microsporidia are widespread in lower vertebrates and invertebrates. There is no known treatment. Study of the disease in mammals suggests that infection often will be clinically silent, that intact T-cell-mediated host defenses are required for resistance, and that serious clinical disease may occur under circumstances in which extensive parasite replication can occur.
2-D arterial wall motion imaging using ultrafast ultrasound and transverse oscillations

Ultrafast ultrasound is a promising imaging modality that enabled, inter alia, the development of pulse wave imaging and the local velocity estimation of the so-called pulse wave for a quantitative evaluation of arterial stiffness. However, this technique only focuses on the propagation of the axial displacement of the artery wall, and most techniques are not specific to the intima-media complex and do not take into account the longitudinal motion of this complex. Within this perspective, this paper presents a study of two-dimensional tissue motion estimation in ultrafast imaging combining transverse oscillations, which can improve motion estimation in the transverse direction, i.e., perpendicular to the beam axis, and a phase-based motion estimation. First, the method was validated in simulation. Two-dimensional motion, inspired from a real data set acquired on a human carotid artery, was applied to a numerical phantom to produce a simulation data set. The estimated motion showed axial and lateral mean errors of 4.2 ± 3.4 μm and 9.9 ± 7.9 μm, respectively. Afterward, experimental results were obtained on three artery phantoms with different wall stiffnesses. In this study, the vessel phantoms did not contain a pure longitudinal displacement. The longitudinal displacements were induced by the axial force produced by the wall's axial dilatation. This paper shows that the approach presented is able to perform 2-D tissue motion estimation very accurately even if the displacement values are very small and even in the lateral direction, making it possible to estimate the pulse wave velocity in both the axial and longitudinal directions. This demonstrates the method's potential to estimate the velocity of purely longitudinal waves propagating in the longitudinal direction. Finally, the stiffnesses of the three vessel phantom walls investigated were estimated with an average relative error of 2.2%.