Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of NET Release Fails to Reduce Adipose Tissue Inflammation in Mice

Obesity-associated diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, liver disease and cardiovascular diseases are profoundly mediated by low-grade chronic inflammation of the adipose tissue. Recently, the importance of neutrophils and neutrophil-derived myeloperoxidase and neutrophil elastase on the induction of insulin resistance has been established. Since neutrophil elastase and myeloperoxidase are critically involved in the release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), we here hypothesized that NETs may be relevant to early adipose tissue inflammation. Thus, we tested the effect of the Peptidyl Arginine Deiminase 4 inhibitor Cl-amidine, a compound preventing histone citrullination and subsequent NET release, in a mouse model of adipose tissue inflammation. C57BL6 mice received a 60% high fat diet for 10 weeks and were treated with either Cl-amidine or vehicle. Flow cytometry of adipose tissue and liver, immunohistological analysis and glucose and insulin tolerance tests were performed to determine the effect of the treatment and diet. Although high fat diet feeding induced insulin resistance no significant effect was observed between the treatment groups. In addition no effect was found in leukocyte infiltration and activation in the adipose tissue and liver. Therefore we concluded that inhibition of neutrophil extracellular trap formation may have no clinical relevance for early obesity-mediated pathogenesis of the adipose tissue and liver.
La anarquía es lo que los estados hacen de ella: la construcción social de la política de poder

Todas las teorías de relaciones internacionales se basan en teorías sociales de relaciones entre agentes, procesos y estructuras sociales. Las teorías sociales no determinan el contenido de nuestra teoría internacional, pero estructuran las preguntas que nos hacemos sobre la política mundial y nuestros enfoques en las respuestas a esas cuestiones. El principal asunto que se cuestiona en los debates sobre teoría social es el tipo de fundamento que puede ofrecer el conjunto de preguntas y las estrategias de investigación más provechosas para poder explicar los cambios revolucionarios que parecen estar ocurriendo en el sistema internacional desde finales del siglo XX.
Canstatin inhibits hypoxia-induced apoptosis through activation of integrin/focal adhesion kinase/Akt signaling pathway in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts

A hypoxic stress which causes apoptosis of cardiomyocytes is the main problem in the ischemic heart disease. Canstatin, a non-collagenous fragment of type IV collagen α2 chain, is an endogenous anti-angiogenic factor. We have previously reported that canstatin has a cytoprotective effect on cardiomyoblasts. In the present study, we examined the effects of canstatin on hypoxia-induced apoptosis in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts. Cell counting assay was performed to determine a cell viability. Western blotting was performed to detect expression of cleaved casepase-3 and phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and Akt. Immunocytochemical staining was performed to observe a distribution of αv integrin. Hypoxia (1% O2, 48 h) significantly decreased cell viability and increased cleaved caspase-3 expression. Canstatin (10–250 ng/ml) significantly inhibited these changes in a concentration-dependent manner. Cilengitide (1 μM), an αvβ3 and αvβ5 integrin inhibitor, significantly prevented the protective effects of canstatin on cell viability. Canstatin significantly increased phosphorylation of FAK and Akt under hypoxic condition, which were inhibited by cilengitide. LY294002, an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase/Akt pathway, suppressed the canstatin-induced Akt phosphorylation and reversed the protective effects of canstatin. It was observed that hypoxia caused a localization of αv integrin to focal adhesion. In summary, we for the first time clarified that canstatin inhibits hypoxia-induced apoptosis via FAK and Akt pathways through activating integrins in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts.
High Speed Ultra Low Voltage CMOS inverter

In this paper we discuss timing details and performance of the ultra low voltage (ULV) logic style. The ULV logic gates can be utilized to design high speed systems operating at ultra low supply voltages. By imposing offsets to semi-floating-gate nodes the current level may be increased while maintaining a very low supply voltage. The offsets voltages are used to shift the effective threshold voltage of the evaluating transistors. The simulated data presented is obtained using the Spectre simulator provided by Cadence and valid for a 90 nm CMOS process.
Video Compression using SPIHT and SWT Wavelet

In this paper, we present wavelet based video compression algorithms. The motion estimation and compensation, which is an essential part in the compression, is based on segment movements. The proposed work based on wavelet transform algorithm like Set Partitioning In Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) and Stationary Wavelet Transform (SWT). Results of Average value of peak signal to noise ratio PSNR mean squared error (MSE) and comparison chart is obtained using MATLAB. The proposed SPIHT and SWT algorithm achieves very good PSNR values, and MSE which makes the techniques more efficient than the 2-D Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) in the H.264/AVC codec.
EMMPRIN-Targeted Magnetic Nanoparticles for In Vivo Visualization and Regression of Acute Myocardial Infarction

Inhibition of extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation may represent a mechanism for cardiac protection against ischemia. Extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN) is highly expressed in response to acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and induces activation of several matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), including gelatinases MMP-2 and MMP-9. We targeted EMMPRIN with paramagnetic/fluorescent micellar nanoparticles conjugated with the EMMPRIN binding peptide AP-9 (NAP9), or an AP-9 scrambled peptide as a negative control (NAPSC). We found that NAP9 binds to endogenous EMMPRIN in cultured HL1 myocytes and in mouse hearts subjected to ischemia/reperfusion (IR). Injection of NAP9 at the time of or one day after IR, was enough to reduce progression of myocardial cell death when compared to Control and NAPSC injected mice (infarct size in NAP9 injected mice: 32%±6.59 vs Control: 46%±9.04 or NAPSC injected mice: 48%±7.64). In the same way, cardiac parameters were recovered to almost healthy levels (LVEF NAP9 63% ± 7.24 vs Control 42% ± 4.74 or NAPSC 39% ± 6.44), whereas ECM degradation was also reduced as shown by inhibition of MMP-2 and MMP-9 activation. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) scans have shown a signal enhancement in the left ventricle of NAP9 injected mice with respect to non-injected, and to mice injected with NAPSC. A positive correlation between CMR enhancement and Evans-Blue/TTC staining of infarct size was calculated (R:0.65). Taken together, these results point to EMMPRIN targeted nanoparticles as a new approach to the mitigation of ischemic/reperfusion injury.
Variational Inference for Latent Variable Modelling of Correlation Structure

Latent variable models have played an important part in unsupervised learning, where the goal is to capture the structure of some complicated observed data in a set of variables that are somehow simpler. PCA or Factor Analysis, for example, models high dimensional data using lower dimensional and uncorrelated latent variables. The value of the latent variable represents some underlying unobserved explanation of the observation. Often, the latent variables can be interpreted as having some kind of meaning, which is useful for exploratory data analysis. Many models follow the same principle of explaining the value of an observation by mapping from a “simple” latent space to complicated observations. Much work has been done to increase the flexibility of these mappings. The GPLVM (Lawrence and Hyvrinen, 2005), for example, uses a non-linear function with a Gaussian process prior to map from the latent space.
Effect of Anoxia on Carbohydrate Metabolism in Rice Seedlings

The metabolism of carbohydrates was investigated in rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings grown under anoxia. Two phases can be recognized in the utilization of carbohydrates: during the first days of germination under anoxia, the metabolism of sugars is mainly degradative, whereas after the induction of [alpha]-amylase (EC 3.2.1.1) has taken place, the increased presence of glucose and sucrose indicates that both starch degradation and sucrose synthesis operate. The analysis of the enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism indicates that anoxic rice seedlings possess a set of enzymes that allow the efficient metabolism of starch and sucrose to fructose-6-phosphate. We propose that cytosolic sucrose metabolism in anoxic rice seedlings takes place mainly through a sucrose synthase (EC 2.4.1.13) pathway with nucleoside diphosphate kinase (EC 2.7.4.6), allowing the cycling of urydilates needed for the operation of this pathway.
Low cost and light-weight multi-DOF exoskeleton for comprehensive upper limb rehabilitation

To respond to increasing risk of stroke in elderly people, several robotic devices for rehabilitation of upper limb and hand have been developed. The devices for upper limb which are mostly operated in active manner have potential to cause subluxation at shoulder because they constrain natural movement of the shoulder joint (Glenohumeral joint). The devices for hand tends to be too heavy to wear during daily activities because hand has greater degrees of freedom (DOFs) requiring many actuating units. Thus, it is hard to find upper limb devices including both arm and hand devices although upper limb tasks require both functions. Through this paper, we introduce concept and development progress of a low cost and light-weight device which includes both upper arm and hand. This work-in-progress paper aims at reporting the design and evaluation of passive gravity compensating tracker mechanism for shoulder joint which is one of the key parts of the whole upper limb rehabilitation system.
Estimating Demographic Indicators in a Conflict-Affected Population in Eastern Sudan

Abstract Introduction: Although the international community currently is focused on Darfur, it is important that the status of other conflict-affected populations throughout Sudan are not overlooked. For the past decade, the Beja population, located along the Sudan-Eritrea border, has been affected by a conflict that has drawn little attention from the international community. Methods: This study assessed crude mortality rates and other demographic characteristics using a mortality study nested within a nutrition assessment using cluster sampling methods. Results: The crude mortality rate among the Beja population in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-controlled territories between October 2003 and October 2004 was estimated at 1.4/10,000/day (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2–1.6); the under five years of age mortality rate was estimated at 2.7/10,000/day (95% CI: 2.2–3.3). Both of these are elevated rates that exceed the accepted threshold to declare a humanitarian emergency. Conclusions: When considered with recent reports of elevated malnutrition rates, the status of Beja is critical by international standards. Study findings suggest that: (1) nesting demographic objectives into other planned assessments (such as nutrition) are a feasible and cost-effective means for non-governmental organizations to characterize beneficiary populations; and (2) the Beja residing in the NDA-controlled territories are facing elevated mortality and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
POSITIVE SELECTION DRIVES FASTER‐Z EVOLUTION IN SILKMOTHS

Genes linked to X or Z chromosomes, which are hemizygous in the heterogametic sex, are predicted to evolve at different rates than those on autosomes. This “faster‐X effect” can arise either as a consequence of hemizygosity, which leads to more efficient selection for recessive beneficial mutations in the heterogametic sex, or as a consequence of reduced effective population size of the hemizygous chromosome, which leads to increased fixation of weakly deleterious mutations due to genetic drift. Empirical results to date suggest that, while the overall pattern across taxa is complicated, systems with male heterogamy show a faster‐X effect attributable to more efficient selection, whereas the faster‐Z effect in female‐heterogametic taxa is attributable to increased drift. To test the generality of the faster‐Z pattern seen in birds and snakes, we sequenced the genome of the lepidopteran silkmoth Bombyx huttoni. We show that silkmoths experience faster‐Z evolution, but unlike in birds and snakes, the faster‐Z effect appears to be attributable to more efficient positive selection. These results suggest that female heterogamy alone is unlikely to explain the reduced efficacy of selection on vertebrate Z chromosomes. It is likely that many factors, including differences in overall effective population size, influence Z chromosome evolution.
Effects of Plant Genotype and Nitrogen Level on Bacterial Communities in Rice Shoots and Roots

To examine whether microbial community structure differs across rice genotypes, automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) was conducted. Nine cultivars of Oryza sativa ssp. indica or japonica and seven lines of other Oryza species were grown in paddy fields with low, standard, and high levels of N fertilization. Multidimensional scaling plots of bacterial ARISA for aerial parts of rice (shoots) revealed that the structure of shoot bacterial communities was significantly affected by plant genotype (indica or japonica) based on similarity tests, whereas root microbiomes were largely affected by the N fertilization level.
Functional implications of Drosophila insulin-like peptides in metabolism, aging, and dietary restriction

The neuroendocrine architecture and insulin/insulin-like signaling (IIS) events in Drosophila are remarkably conserved. As IIS pathway governs growth and development, metabolism, reproduction, stress response, and longevity; temporal, spatial, and nutrient regulation of dilps encoding Drosophila insulin-like peptides (DILPs) provides potential mechanisms in modulating IIS. Of eight DILPs (DILP1–8) identified, recent studies have furthered our understanding of physiological roles of DILP2, DILP3, DILP5, and DILP6 in metabolism, aging, and responses to dietary restriction (DR), which will be the focus of this review. While the DILP producing IPCs of the brain secrete DILP2, 3, and 5, fat body produces DILP6. Identification of factors that influence dilp expression and DILP secretion has provided insight into the intricate regulatory mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulation of those genes and the activity of each peptide. Studies involving loss-of-function dilp mutations have defined the roles of DILP2 and DILP6 in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, respectively. While DILP3 has been implicated to modulate lipid metabolism, a metabolic role for DILP5 is yet to be determined. Loss of dilp2 or adult fat body specific expression of dilp6 has been shown to extend lifespan, establishing their roles in longevity regulation. The exact role of DILP3 in aging awaits further clarification. While DILP5 has been shown associated with DR-mediated lifespan extension, contradictory evidence that precludes a direct involvement of DILP5 in DR exists. This review highlights recent findings on the importance of conserved DILPs in metabolic homeostasis, DR, and aging, providing strong evidence for the use of DILPs in modeling metabolic disorders such as diabetes and hyperinsulinemia in the fly that could further our understanding of the underlying processes and identify therapeutic strategies to treat them.
Lewis Y regulates signaling molecules of the transforming growth factor β pathway in ovarian carcinoma-derived RMG-I cells

LeY (Lewis Y) is a difucosylated oligosaccharide carried by glycoconjugates on the cell surface. Elevation of LeY is frequently observed in epithelial-derived cancers and is correlated to pathological staging and prognosis. To study the role of LeY on cancer cells, a stably LeY-overexpressing cell line, RMG-I-H, was developed previously by transfection of the α1,2-fucosyltransferase gene, a key enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of LeY, into ovarian carcinoma-derived RMG-I cells. Our studies have shown that LeY is involved in the changes in biological behavior of RMG-I-H cells. However, the mechanism is still largely unknown. In this study, we determined the structural relationship and co-localization between LeY and TβRI/TβRII, respectively, and the potential cellular signaling mechanism was also investigated. We found that both TβRI and TβRII contain the LeY structure, and the level of LeY in TβRI and TβRII in RMG-I-H cells was significantly increased. Overexpression of LeY up-regulates the phosphorylation of ERK, Akt and down-regulates the phosphorylation of Smad2/3. In addition, the phosphorylation intensity was attenuated significantly by LeY monoantibody. These findings suggest that LeY is involved in the changes in biological behavior through TGF-β receptors via Smad, ERK/MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways. We suggest that LeY may be an important composition of growth factor receptors and could be an attractive candidate for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Pattern formation arising from interactions between Turing and wave instabilities

We study pattern formation arising from the interaction of the stationary Turing and wave (oscillatory Turing) instabilities. Interaction and competition between these symmetry-breaking modes lead to the emergence of a large variety of spatiotemporal patterns, including modulated Turing structures, modulated standing waves, and combinations of Turing structures and spiral waves. Spatial resonances are obtained near codimension-two Turing-wave bifurcations. Far from bifurcation lines, we obtain inwardly propagating spiral waves with Turing spots at their tips. We demonstrate that the coexistence of Turing spots and traveling waves is a result of interaction between Turing and oscillatory modes, while the inwardly propagating waves (antispirals) do not require this interaction; they can arise from the wave instability combined with a negative group velocity.
On the weight spectrum of good linear binary codes

The weight spectrum of sequences of binary linear codes that achieve arbitrarily small word error probability on a class of noisy channels at a nonzero rate is studied. We refer to such sequences as good codes. The class of good codes includes turbo, low-density parity-check, and repeat-accumulate codes. We show that a sequence of codes is good when transmitted over a memoryless binary-symmetric channel (BSC) or an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel if and only if the slope of its spectrum is finite everywhere and its minimum Hamming distance goes to infinity with no requirement on its rate growth. The extension of these results to code ensembles in probabilistic terms follows in a direct manner. We also show that the sufficient condition holds for any binary-input memoryless channel.
Allergic asthma — Pathophysiological and pharmacological approach to interdisciplinary multilevel intelligent system research

This work presents an integrated approach to pathophysiological and pharmacological basis of allergic asthma as a blueprint of interdisciplinary multilevel intelligent system research. Intelligent system based healthcare promises improved prevention, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and reduced costs. The aim of this work is to review the pathophysiological and pharmacological basis of these systems, emphasize the need for interdisciplinary multilevel collaboration in order to achieve optimal research results.
Phosphate from the phosphointermediate (EP) of the human red blood cell Na/K pump is coeffluxed with Na, in the absence of external K

This study is concerned with Na/K pump-mediated phosphate efflux that occurs during uncoupled Na efflux in human red blood cells. Uncoupled Na efflux is known to be a ouabain-sensitive mode of the Na/K pump that occurs in the absence of external Nao and Ko. Because this efflux (measured with 22Na) is also inhibited by 5 mM Nao, the efflux can be separated into a Nao-sensitive and a Nao-insensitive component. Previous work established that the Nao-sensitive efflux is actually comprised of an electroneutral coefflux of Na with cellular anions, such as SO4 (as 35SO4). The present work focuses on the Nao-insensitive component in which the principal finding is that orthophosphate (P(i)) is coeffluxed with Na in a ouabain-sensitive manner. This P(i) efflux can be seen to occur, in the absence of Ko, in both DIDS-treated intact cells and resealed red cell ghosts. This efflux of P(i) was shown to be derived directly from the pump's substrate, ATP, by the use of resealed ghosts made to contain both ATP and P(i) in which either the ATP or the P(i) were labeled with, respectively, [gamma-32P]ATP or [32P]H3PO4. (These resealed ghosts also contained Na, Mg, P(i), SO4, Ap5A, as well as an arginine kinase/creatine kinase nucleotide regenerating system for the control of ATP and ADP concentrations, and were suspended usually in (NMG)2SO4 at pH 7.4. ) It was found that 32P was only coeffluxed with Na when the 32P was contained in [gamma-32P]ATP and not in [32P]H3PO4. This result implies that the 32P that is released comes from ATP via the pump's phosphointermediate (EP) without commingling with the cellular pool of P(i). Ko (as K2SO4) inhibits this 32P efflux as well as the Nao-sensitive 35SO4 efflux, with a K0.5 of 0.3-0.4 mM. The K0.5 for inhibition of P(i) efflux by Ko is not influenced by Nao, nor can Nao act as a congenor for Ko in any of the flux reactions involving Ko. The stoichiometry of Na to SO4 and Na to P(i) efflux is approximately 2:1 under circumstances where the stoichiometry of Na effluxed to ATP utilized is 3:1. From these and other results reported, it is suggested that there are two types of uncoupled Na efflux that differ from each other on the basis of their sensitivity to Nao, the source (cellular vs substrate) and kind of anion (SO4 vs P(i)) transported. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Normal aging associated functional alternations in auditory sensory and working memory processing

The purpose of the present study was to determine normal aging associated changes in brain functions during auditory sensory and auditory working memory processing by magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurement. Old and young participants were recruited from data recording. It is found that though there are no significant age associated differences in behavioral performance; normal aging associated brain activations differ between age groups. For brain activations in auditory sensory processing, though both age groups activate the same cortical regions and show a habituation pattern on stimulus rate effects, old participants have larger response magnitude and faster response speed than young participants. For brain activations in auditory working memory, old participants’ brain responses are slower than young participants’ and different cortical areas of two age groups are activated in the same experiment task. The possible underlying mechanisms of these normal aging associated brain responses differences are discussed further. INDEX WORDS: Normal aging, Auditory, Sensory, Working memory, MEG NORMAL AGING ASSOCIATED FUNCTIONAL ALTERNATIONS IN AUDITORY SENSORY AND WORKING MEMORY PROCESSING