Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chronic Arsenic Exposure and Angiogenesis in Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells via the ROS/miR-199a-5p/HIF-1α/COX-2 Pathway

Background: Environmental and occupational exposure to arsenic is a major public health concern. Although it has been identified as a human carcinogen, the molecular mechanism underlying the arsenic-induced carcinogenesis is not well understood. Objectives: We aimed to determine the role and mechanisms of miRNAs in arsenic-induced tumor angiogenesis and tumor growth. Methods: We utilized an in vitro model in which human lung epithelial BEAS-2B cells were transformed through long-term exposure to arsenic. A human xenograft tumor model was established to assess tumor angiogenesis and tumor growth in vivo. Tube formation assay and chorioallantoic membranes assay were used to assess tumor angiogenesis. Results: We found that miR-199a-5p expression levels were more than 100-fold lower in arsenic-transformed cells than parental cells. Re-expression of miR-199a-5p impaired arsenic-induced angiogenesis and tumor growth through its direct targets HIF-1α and COX-2. We further showed that arsenic induced COX-2 expression through HIF-1 regulation at the transcriptional level. In addition, we demonstrated that reactive oxygen species are an upstream event of miR-199a-5p/ HIF-1α/COX-2 pathway in arsenic-induced carcinogenesis. Conclusion: The findings establish critical roles of miR-199a-5p and its downstream targets HIF-1/COX-2 in arsenic-induced tumor growth and angiogenesis. Citation: He J, Wang M, Jiang Y, Chen Q, Xu S, Xu Q, Jiang BH, Liu LZ. 2014. Chronic arsenic exposure and angiogenesis in human bronchial epithelial cells via the ROS/miR-199a-5p/HIF-1α/COX-2 Pathway. Environ Health Perspect 122:255–261; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1307545
Memory for Semantically Related and Unrelated Declarative Information: The Benefit of Sleep, the Cost of Wake

Numerous studies have examined sleep's influence on a range of hippocampus-dependent declarative memory tasks, from text learning to spatial navigation. In this study, we examined the impact of sleep, wake, and time-of-day influences on the processing of declarative information with strong semantic links (semantically related word pairs) and information requiring the formation of novel associations (unrelated word pairs). Participants encoded a set of related or unrelated word pairs at either 9am or 9pm, and were then tested after an interval of 30 min, 12 hr, or 24 hr. The time of day at which subjects were trained had no effect on training performance or initial memory of either word pair type. At 12 hr retest, memory overall was superior following a night of sleep compared to a day of wakefulness. However, this performance difference was a result of a pronounced deterioration in memory for unrelated word pairs across wake; there was no sleep-wake difference for related word pairs. At 24 hr retest, with all subjects having received both a full night of sleep and a full day of wakefulness, we found that memory was superior when sleep occurred shortly after learning rather than following a full day of wakefulness. Lastly, we present evidence that the rate of deterioration across wakefulness was significantly diminished when a night of sleep preceded the wake period compared to when no sleep preceded wake, suggesting that sleep served to stabilize the memories against the deleterious effects of subsequent wakefulness. Overall, our results demonstrate that 1) the impact of 12 hr of waking interference on memory retention is strongly determined by word-pair type, 2) sleep is most beneficial to memory 24 hr later if it occurs shortly after learning, and 3) sleep does in fact stabilize declarative memories, diminishing the negative impact of subsequent wakefulness.
Recent Advances in Physical Post-Harvest Treatments for Shelf-Life Extension of Cereal Crops

As a result of the rapidly growing global population and limited agricultural area, sufficient supply of cereals for food and animal feed has become increasingly challenging. Consequently, it is essential to reduce pre- and post-harvest crop losses. Extensive research, featuring several physical treatments, has been conducted to improve cereal post-harvest preservation, leading to increased food safety and sustainability. Various pests can lead to post-harvest losses and grain quality deterioration. Microbial spoilage due to filamentous fungi and bacteria is one of the main reasons for post-harvest crop losses and mycotoxins can induce additional consumer health hazards. In particular, physical treatments have gained popularity making chemical additives unnecessary. Therefore, this review focuses on recent advances in physical treatments with potential applications for microbial post-harvest decontamination of cereals. The treatments discussed in this article were evaluated for their ability to inhibit spoilage microorganisms and degrade mycotoxins without compromising the grain quality. All treatments evaluated in this review have the potential to inhibit grain spoilage microorganisms. However, each method has some drawbacks, making industrial application difficult. Even under optimal processing conditions, it is unlikely that cereals can be decontaminated of all naturally occurring spoilage organisms with a single treatment. Therefore, future research should aim for the development of a combination of treatments to harness their synergistic properties and avoid grain quality deterioration. For the degradation of mycotoxins the same conclusion can be drawn. In addition, future research must investigate the fate of degraded toxins, to assess the toxicity of their respective degradation products.
Osteoporosis management by geriatricians in the UK.

SIR—Standards have been set in the National Service Frame (NSF) work for older people to reduce the number of falls, fractures and serious injuries, with emphasis being given to the prevention and management of osteoporosis [1]. Prior to publication of the NSF, we undertook a postal survey of geriatricians to determine the management of osteoporosis. Approximately 60% of 730 consultant members of the British Geriatrics Society responded, three-quarters of whom worked in District General Hospitals. One half (53%) of consultants had osteoporosis management guidelines in their hospital and a substantial majority (84%) were aware of the recently published Royal College of Physicians (RCP) guidelines [2]. More than two-thirds of the consultants perceived osteoporosis as a problem of both falls and fragile bones, and all identiWed prior fracture and systemic corticosteroid use as signiWcant factors for suspecting osteoporosis. Interestingly, whilst most (82.0%) had access to bone mineral density (BMD) measurements, a substantial proportion (32%) did not use it in spite of access in the same hospital. A majority (83%) of geriatricians reported carrying out falls assessment in their patients and almost all (95%) initiated treatment for osteoporosis directly. Over 90% of osteoporotic patients were started on a bisphosphonate and/or calcium/vitamin D but only 16% of older patients admitted from institutional care were commenced on calcium and vitamin D. Approximately two-thirds of the physicians used a combination of bisphosphonate with calcium and vitamin D in patients on corticosteroids, while a small but signiWcant number of geriatricians (6%) did not use any anti-osteoporosis agent in such patients. The higher response rate suggests that awareness of osteoporosis has increased substantially since a previous survey undertaken in 1998 prior to the publication of RCP guidelines (response rate 30%) [3]. We conclude that a majority of geriatricians in the UK appear to manage osteoporosis appropriately and that current practice is in keeping with recommendations of the NSF for older people. Areas to be addressed include the potential for wider use of calcium and vitamin D in the house-bound or institutionalised elderly [4] and a greater consensus on the clinical utility of BMD measurements in the elderly population.
Finding Contrast Patterns for Mixed Streaming Data

Contrast set mining identifies patterns in the data that can best distinguish between groups. Most of the existing work focuses on categorical and batch data, and they do not scale well for large datasets. In this work, we focus on finding contrast patterns for mixed (quantitative and categorical) and streaming data. We adapt a discretization methodology, Supervised Dynamic and Adaptive Discretization, to identify meaningful bin boundaries. We then use the discretization result to find contrast patterns on streaming data. In order to achieve this, we identify frequent items and then contrast them to a group of interest. To handle potential concept drift, we propose an update strategy to keep the frequent items relevant. In addition, our algorithm samples feature combinations based on their "sampling" score and user feedback to reduce the search space as well as retrieving more interesting patterns.
Thermal conduction in artificial sapphire crystals at low temperatures I. Nearly perfect crystals

In order to obtain a detailed verification of the theory of thermal conduction in dielectric crystals, measurements have been made on a number of artificial sapphire crystals between 2° and 100° K. In the region of the maximum there are variations in conductivity between crystals from different sources. The highest conductivities measured are about 140 W/cm deg. , which suggests that estimates of several hundred watts for the maxima of ideal sapphire crystals are not unreasonable. At sufficiently low temperatures the conductivity of a very perfect, long crystal with rough surfaces is observed, in agreement with Casimir’s theory of boundary scattering, to be proportional to T3 and to the radius; the phonon mean free path is then nearly equal to the crystal diameter. Imperfect crystals show some anomalous effects. The extension of Casimir’s theory to apply to short specimens has been verified. Perfect crystals with smooth surfaces exhibit some specular reflexion of phonons; a statistical description of the surface is proposed which leads to the observed variation of this effect with temperature and is compatible with the results of interferometric examination of the surface.
Preface Biosensor Technologies

Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2009, “classical” biosensor modalities such as electrochemical or surface plasmon resonance (SPR) continue to be developed. New biosensing technologies and modalities have also been developed, including the use of nanomaterials for biosensors, fiber-optic-based biosensors, genetic code-based sensors, and field-effect transistors and the use of mobile communication device-based biosensors. Although it is impossible to describe the fast-moving field of biosensing in a single publication, this book presents descriptions of methods and uses for some of the basic types of biosensors while also providing the reader a sense of the enormous importance and potential for these devices. In order to present a more comprehensive overview, the book also describes other biodetection technologies. Dr. Leland C Clark, who worked on biosensors in the early 1960s, provided an early reference to the concept of a biosensor by developing an “enzyme electrode” for glucose concentration measurement using the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOD) [2]. Glucose monitoring is essential for diabetes patients, and even today, the most common clinical biosensor technology for glucose analysis is the electrochemical detection method envisioned by Clark more than 50 years ago. Today glucose monitoring is performed using rapid point of care biosensors made possible through advances in electronics that have enabled sensor miniaturization. The newest generation of biosensors includes phone-based optical detectors with high-throughput capabilities.
Electrospun vascular grafts with anti-kinking properties

Abstract One of the major challenges in developing appropriate vascular substitutes is to produce a graft that adapts to the biological and mechanical conditions at the application or implantation site. One approach is the use of tissue engineered electrospun grafts pre-seeded with autologous cells. However, bending stresses during in vivo applications could lead to kinking of the graft which may result in life-threatening stenosis. The aim of this study was to develop an electrospun vascular graft consisting of biodegradable polymers which can reduce or prevent kinking, due to their higher flexibility. In order to improve the bendability of the grafts, various electrospinning collectors were designed using six different patterns. Subsequently, the grafts were examined for scaffold morphology, mechanical strength and bendability. Scaffolds spun on a collector structured with a v-shaped thread (flank angle of 120°) showed a homogenous and reproducible fiber deposition as compared to the unstructured reference sample. The results of the tensile tests were comparable to the unstructured reference sample, supporting the first observation. Studies on bendability were performed using a custom made flow-bending test setup. It was shown that the flow through the v-shaped grafts was reduced to less than 45 % of the reference value even after bending the graft to an angle of 140°. In contrast, the flow through an unstructured graft was reduced to more than 50 % after bending to an angle of 55°. The presented data demonstrate the need for optimizing the bendability of the commonly used electrospun vascular grafts. Using of macroscopic v-shaped collectors is a promising solution to overcome the issue of graft kinking.
Assessing viability and infectivity of foodborne and waterborne stages (cysts/oocysts) of Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp., and Toxoplasma gondii: a review of methods

Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are protozoan parasites that have been highlighted as emerging foodborne pathogens by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. According to the European Food Safety Authority, 4786 foodborne and waterborne outbreaks were reported in Europe in 2016, of which 0.4% were attributed to parasites including Cryptosporidium, Giardia and Trichinella. Until 2016, no standardized methods were available to detect Giardia, Cryptosporidium and Toxoplasma (oo)cysts in food. Therefore, no regulation exists regarding these biohazards. Nevertheless, considering their low infective dose, ingestion of foodstuffs contaminated by low quantities of these three parasites can lead to human infection. To evaluate the risk of protozoan parasites in food, efforts must be made towards exposure assessment to estimate the contamination along the food chain, from raw products to consumers. This requires determining: (i) the occurrence of infective protozoan (oo)cysts in foods, and (ii) the efficacy of control measures to eliminate this contamination. In order to conduct such assessments, methods for identification of viable (i.e. live) and infective parasites are required. This review describes the methods currently available to evaluate infectivity and viability of G. duodenalis cysts, Cryptosporidium spp. and T. gondii oocysts, and their potential for application in exposure assessment to determine the presence of the infective protozoa and/or to characterize the efficacy of control measures. Advantages and limits of each method are highlighted and an analytical strategy is proposed to assess exposure to these protozoa.
A Person‐Centered Approach to Poststroke Care: The COMprehensive Post‐Acute Stroke Services Model

Many individuals who have had a stroke leave the hospital without postacute care services in place. Despite high risks of complications and readmission, there is no standard in the United States for postacute stroke care after discharge home. We describe the rationale and methods for the development of the COMprehensive Post‐Acute Stroke Services (COMPASS) care model and the structure and quality metrics used for implementation. COMPASS, an innovative, comprehensive extension of the TRAnsition Coaching for Stroke (TRACS) program, is a clinician‐led quality improvement model providing early supported discharge and transitional care for individuals who have had a stroke and have been discharged home. The effectiveness of the COMPASS model is being assessed in a cluster‐randomized pragmatic trial in 41 sites across North Carolina, with a recruitment goal of 6,000 participants. The COMPASS model is evidence based, person centered, and stakeholder driven. It involves identification and education of eligible individuals in the hospital; telephone follow‐up 2, 30, and 60 days after discharge; and a clinic visit within 14 days conducted by a nurse and advanced practice provider. Patient and caregiver self‐reported assessments of functional and social determinants of health are captured during the clinic visit using a web‐based application. Embedded algorithms immediately construct an individualized care plan. The COMPASS model's pragmatic design and quality metrics may support measurable best practices for postacute stroke care.
Utilization of Stable Isotope Labeling to Facilitate the Identification of Polar Metabolites of KAF156, an Antimalarial Agent

Identification of polar metabolites of drug candidates during development is often challenging. Several prominent polar metabolites of 2-amino-1-(2-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-((4-fluorophenyl)amino)-8,8-dimethyl-5,6-dihydroimidazo[1,2-a]pyrazin-7(8H)-yl)ethanone ([14C]KAF156), an antimalarial agent, were detected in rat urine from an absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion study but could not be characterized by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) because of low ionization efficiency. In such instances, a strategy often chosen by investigators is to use a radiolabeled compound with high specific activity, having an isotopic mass ratio (i.e., [12C]/[14C]) and mass difference that serve as the basis for a mass filter using accurate mass spectrometry. Unfortunately, [14C]KAF156-1 was uniformly labeled (n = 1–6) with the mass ratio of ∼0.1. This ratio was insufficient to be useful as a mass filter despite the high specific activity (120 μCi/mg). At this stage in development, stable isotope labeled [13C6]KAF156-1 was available as the internal standard for the quantification of KAF156. We were thus able to design an oral dose as a mixture of [14C]KAF156-1 (specific activity 3.65 μCi/mg) and [13C6]KAF156-1 with a mass ratio of [12C]/[13C6] as 0.9 and the mass difference as 6.0202. By using this mass filter strategy, four polar metabolites were successfully identified in rat urine. Subsequently, using a similar dual labeling approach, [14C]KAF156-2 and [13C2]KAF156-2 were synthesized to allow the detection of any putative polar metabolites that may have lost labeling during biotransformations using the previous [14C]KAF156-1. Three polar metabolites were thereby identified and M43, a less polar metabolite, was proposed as the key intermediate metabolite leading to the formation of a total of seven polar metabolites. Overall this dual labeling approach proved practical and valuable for the identification of polar metabolites by LC-MS/MS.
Assessing Hazard Vulnerability, Habitat Conservation, and Restoration for the Enhancement of Mainland China's Coastal Resilience

Worldwide, humans are facing high risks from natural hazards, especially in coastal regions with high population densities. Rising sea levels due to global warming are making coastal communities' infrastructure vulnerable to natural disasters. The present study aims to provide a coupling approach of vulnerability and resilience through restoration and conservation of lost or degraded coastal natural habitats to reclamation under different climate change scenarios. The integrated valuation of ecosystems and tradeoffs model is used to assess the current and future vulnerability of coastal communities. The model employed is based on seven different biogeophysical variables to calculate a natural hazard index and to highlight the criticality of the restoration of natural habitats. The results show that roughly 25% of the coastline and more than 5 million residents are in highly vulnerable coastal areas of mainland China, and these numbers are expected to double by 2100. Our study suggests that restoration and conservation in recently reclaimed areas have the potential to reduce this vulnerability by 45%. Hence, natural habitats have proved to be a great defense against coastal hazards and should be prioritized in coastal planning and development. The findings confirm that natural habitats are critical for coastal resilience and can act as a recovery force of coastal functionality loss. Therefore, we recommend that the Chinese government prioritizes restoration (where possible) and conservation of the remaining habitats for the sake of coastal resilience to prevent natural hazards from escalating into disasters.
Novel stochastic properties of the short-time spectrum for unvoiced pronunciation modeling and synthesis

Stochastic property of speech signal is a fundamental research topic in speech analysis and processing. In this paper, multiple levels of randomness in speech signal are discussed, and the stochastic properties of unvoiced pronunciation are studied in detail, which has not received sufficient research attention before. The study is based on the signals of sustained unvoiced pronunciation captured in the experiments, for which the amplitude and phase values in the short-time spectrum are studied as random variables. The statistics of amplitude for each frequency component is studied individually, based on which a new property of "consistent standard deviation coefficient" is revealed for the amplitude spectrum of unvoiced pronunciation. The relationship between the amplitude probability distributions of different frequency components is further studied, which indicates that all the frequency components have a common prototype of amplitude probability distribution. As an adaptive and flexible probability distribution, the Weibull distribution is adopted to fit the expectation-normalized amplitude spectrum data. The phase distribution for the short-time spectrum is also studied, and the results show a uniform distribution. A synthesis method for unvoiced pronunciation is proposed based on the Weibull distribution of amplitude and uniform distribution of phase, which is implemented by STFT with artificially generated short-time spectrum with random amplitude and phase. The synthesis results have identical quality of auditory perception as the original pronunciation, and have similar autocorrelation as that of the original signal, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed stochastic model of short-time spectrum for unvoiced pronunciation.