Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased citrullinated glial fibrillary acidic protein in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis

In this study, we demonstrate that grossly unaffected white matter from secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SP‐MS) patients is heavily citrullinated, as compared to normal white matter from control patients. Citrullination was most pronounced at plaque interfaces and was shown to colocalize with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)‐immunoreactivity using dual color immunofluorescence. In contrast, the plaques themselves weakly stained for citrullinated proteins compared to control white matter and usually contained a blood vessel with surrounding astrocytes that were positive both for citrullinated proteins and GFAP. In SP‐MS brain samples, but not in normal brains, long fibers of colocalized GFAP‐ and citrullinated proteins extended into the gray matter. Increased numbers of astrocytes containing citrullinated proteins and GFAP were also present at the junction between the gray and white matter in SP‐MS brains. Western blot analysis of acidic brain proteins from nonplaque‐containing white matter showed upregulation of multiple citrullinated GFAP proteins in SP‐MS brains as compared to controls. Our results demonstrate that increased amounts of citrullinated GFAP are present in SP‐MS brains, but also shows that these proteins are present in areas of MS brains that were grossly normal appearing. These data raise the possibility that citrullination of GFAP contributes to the pathophysiology of MS. J. Comp. Neurol. 473:128–136, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Sporadic Occurrence of Completely Lateralized Vertex Sharp Transients of Sleep Is a Normal Phenomenon: A Retrospective, Blinded, Case-Control Study

Purpose: Vertex sharp transients (VSTs) of sleep often lateralize to the left or right frontocentral regions and can be mistaken as epileptiform. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of completely lateralized VSTs in pediatric-aged individuals and to assess their significance by comparing cohorts with and without epilepsy. The authors hypothesized that completely lateralized VSTs are normal and occur with similar frequencies in patients with and without epilepsy. Methods: The authors conducted a retrospective, blinded, case-control study comparing completely lateralized VSTs within a 5-minute EEG sleep epoch between cohorts of 100 patients with epilepsy and 100 age- and gender-matched controls. Results: The number of patients with completely lateralized VSTs was not significantly different between cases (62%) and controls (65%) (P = 0.66). The median number of completely lateralized VSTs was small but not significantly different between cases (median 3) and controls (median 4) (P = 0.11). The presence of completely lateralized VSTs in cases (generalized vs. focal epilepsy) was not significantly different (P > 0.95). Conclusions: This is the first systematic study of the prevalence and significance of completely lateralized VSTs of sleep. This study provides class III evidence that completely lateralized VSTs, occurring in a sporadic fashion, are a normal phenomenon and should not be confused with epileptiform discharges.
Eight-Week Return to Play Following Latarjet Shoulder Reconstruction in an Australian Football Player: A Case Report.

INTRODUCTION Anterior shoulder dislocation is a common injury in many sports, resulting in extended time lost from play with an extremely high recurrence rate in young athletes playing a high-risk sport. Latarjet shoulder reconstruction is a common surgical procedure used to prevent subsequent dislocation with an expected rehabilitation time frame of between 4 and 6 months before return to play. CASE DESCRIPTION A 21-year-old male Australian football player experienced 2 left-sided shoulder dislocations before undergoing a left Latarjet shoulder reconstruction. He was assessed clinically and with magnetic resonance imaging, which revealed significant tearing of the anterior labrum. The authors theorized that maximal glenohumeral stability occurs after bony healing of the coracoid onto the glenoid at 6 weeks. The patient then underwent an 8-week structured and graduated rehabilitation program aimed at preventing loss of shoulder range of motion, muscle, and functional capacity and returned to play at 8 weeks postinjury with no complications or recurrence at 12-month follow-up. DISCUSSION This is the first time an 8-week rehabilitation following Latarjet shoulder reconstruction has been reported. In athletes with anterior glenohumeral dislocation who require accelerated return to play, a Latarjet reconstruction with an 8-week rehabilitation protocol may be considered.
A membrane-associated β-catenin/Oct4 complex correlates with ground-state pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells

The maintenance of pluripotency in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) relies on the activity of a transcriptional network that is fuelled by the activity of three transcription factors (Nanog, Oct4 and Sox2) and balanced by the repressive activity of Tcf3. Extracellular signals modulate the activity of the network and regulate the differentiation capacity of the cells. Wnt/β-catenin signaling has emerged as a significant potentiator of pluripotency: increases in the levels of β-catenin regulate the activity of Oct4 and Nanog, and enhance pluripotency. A recent report shows that β-catenin achieves some of these effects by modulating the activity of Tcf3, and that this effect does not require its transcriptional activation domain. Here, we show that during self-renewal there is negligible transcriptional activity of β-catenin and that this is due to its tight association with membranes, where we find it in a complex with Oct4 and E-cadherin. Differentiation triggers a burst of Wnt/β-catenin transcriptional activity that coincides with the disassembly of the complex. Our results establish that β-catenin, but not its transcriptional activity, is central to pluripotency acting through a β-catenin/Oct4 complex.
Bacterial Population of a Two-Phase Anaerobic Digestion Process Treating Effluent of Cassava Starch Factory

Different groups of microorganisms in a two-phase anaerobic system were enumerated to evaluate the prevalence of specific groups and species. Total and fecal coliforms showed similar values both in acidogenic and methanogenic reactors. The fecal streptococci were 4-fold higher in the acidogenic reactor, when compared with those of the methanogenic reactor. As expected, no methane forming or sulfate reducing bacteria were found in the acidogenic reactor. The populations of methanogenic bacteria were dominated by a mixed population of straight to curved rods and multicellular filaments which strongly resembled members of the genus Methanosaeta. Seven prevalent species of facultative anaerobic gram-negative bacteria were identified as Previdencia alcalifacienciens, Providencia rettgeri, Enterobacter cloaceae, Citrobacter freundii, Klebsiella oxytoca, Proteus pennri and Yersinia enterocolitica. The species Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Stenotrophomonas maltophila and Acinotobacter iwoffi, were the most frequently isolated glucose non-fermenting gram-negative bacilli. Among these species, only P. aeruginosa was present in high number in each sample.
Long-Term MRI Changes in Brain After Pediatric Open Heart Surgery

We performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on the brain and neurologic examinations on 23 children after open heart surgery for congenital heart disease. Twenty children also had psychometric assessments. Examinations were performed at a mean age of 66 months (range, 26 to 180 months). Age at operation was less than 1 month in 43% and more than 6 months in 45%. Abnormal scans were found in 17 (74%) and showed diffuse findings consistent with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, with or without areas of cortical infarction; focal cortical infarction alone; and (in one patient) callosal agenesis and abnormal neuronal migration. Normal IQ and neurologic examinations were found in all six of those who had a normal MRI, and five of six children with changes consistent with focal cortical infarction without diffuse change had a normal neurologic examination. Cerebral palsy and mental retardation was common in the group with diffuse abnormality (in eight of nine children), and this was more likely to occur in those who underwent prolonged (> 45 minutes) hypothermic circulatory arrest and operation during early infancy (P = .004). Focal cortical findings without diffuse changes were more likely in those who underwent open heart surgery without hypothermic circulatory arrest and were older than 6 months at operation, and these children were less likely to have frank neurodevelopmental sequelae. Thus, in our population, focal cortical lesions were common after open heart surgery, and, in addition, diffuse brain abnormality on MRI plus neurologic sequelae were common after prolonged hypothermic circulatory arrest. (J Child Neurol 1994;9:390-397).
Efficiency, robustness, and fairness of suboptimal RA algorithms for MIMO-OFDMA systems

Due to their lower complexity that make them affordable for practical applications, suboptimal MIMO-OFDMA downlink resource allocation (RA) algorithms have attracted significant attention. In this paper, a novel suboptimal RA algorithm is introduced and shown to achieve higher efficiency performance in comparison with other existing techniques. RA algorithms that are robust against CSIT imperfections, are favorable. The effect of erroneous CSIT on average sum rate of the proposed algorithm is investigated and shown to be superior to the existing schemes. Finally, fairness performance of the proposed RA algorithm is investigated and shown to achieve a remarkable performance.
Using Biometric Verification to Estimate Identification Performance

We show how to estimate identification performance for arbitrary gallery size from an ROC curve. The method presented can: (1) estimate an alarm curve; (2) give rank 1 dependence on gallery size; and (3) estimate a CMC curve. We show that the method assumes consistently normalized scores, with normalization the degree of freedom defining the connection between identification and verification. A measure to quantify normalization consistency is defined. Examples are given using both fingerprint and face databases. Further examples are based on the results given in the FRVT 2002 evaluation report.
[Ultrastructural characteristics of gap junctions in human glial brain tumors].

AIM to conduct an electron microscopic study of intercellular communication in the samples of gemistocytic astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, and glioblastoma. MATERIAL AND METHODS Surgically resected tumor tissue fragments were fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde solution, afterfixed in 1% OsO4 solution, dehydrated, and embedded in epoxy resin. Ultrathin sections were examined using a Jem 1011 electron microscope (Jeol, Japan). RESULTS Solitary and closely spaced gap junctions (GJs) formed by the thin processes that have the ultrastructure of an astroglial processes were identified in the astrocytoma samples. In this case, chemical synapses were noted to be completely absent in gemistocytic astrocytoma and glioblastoma. The identified GJs had a small length and deformed nexuses. The oligodendroglioma samples exhibited intact astroglial processes around the chemical synapses; however, interglial GJs were not found. CONCLUSION The investigation showed the presence of intercellular GJs with some ultrastructural differences in the samples of low- and high-grade astroglial tumors. According to current data, astrocytomic GJs are able to create a stable self-sustaining network that promotes tumor progression and provides resistance to a therapeutic intervention. At the same time, the noticeable reduction in the number of GJs, which is most pronounced in the oligodendroglioma sample, can accelerate tumor cell migration into the surrounding parenchyma. The investigation of GJs should be, of course, continued using a group of a larger number of glial tumors to confirm the intercellular communication features revealed in this study.
F'-coded, temperature-sensitive lambda cI857 repressor gene for easy construction and regulation of lambda promoter-dependent expression systems

We describe the construction and properties of an F' factor which carries the temperature-sensitive cI857 allele of the repressor gene of coliphage lambda and which lacks the lambda cro function. This episome can easily be transferred to any F- and F' Escherichia coli strain, thus facilitating the construction and regulation of lambda promoter-dependent expression systems without the use of defective prophages.
Storing, Tracking, and Querying Provenance in Linked Data

The proliferation of heterogeneous Linked Data on the Web poses new challenges to database systems. In particular, the capacity to store, track, and query provenance data is becoming a pivotal feature of modern triplestores. We present methods extending a native RDF store to efficiently handle the storage, tracking, and querying of provenance in RDF data. We describe a reliable and understandable specification of the way results were derived from the data and how particular pieces of data were combined to answer a query. Subsequently, we present techniques to tailor queries with provenance data. We empirically evaluate the presented methods and show that the overhead of storing and tracking provenance is acceptable. Finally, we show that tailoring a query with provenance information can also significantly improve the performance of query execution.
Interleukin-6 Family of Cytokines Mediate Angiotensin II-induced Cardiac Hypertrophy in Rodent Cardiomyocytes*

This study was designed to investigate whether angiotensin II induces the interleukin (IL)-6 family of cytokines in cardiac fibroblasts and, if so, whether these cytokines can augment cardiac hypertrophy. Angiotensin II increased IL-6, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and cardiotrophin-1 mRNA by 6.5-, 10.2-, and 2.0-fold, respectively, but did not affect IL-11, ciliary neurotrophic factor, or oncostatin M in cardiac fibroblasts. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay revealed that angiotensin II-stimulated conditioned medium from cardiac fibroblasts contained 9.3 ng/ml IL-6 at 24 h, which was 24-fold higher than the control. It phosphorylated gp130 and STAT3 in cardiomyocytes, which was reduced with RX435 (anti-gp130 blocking antibody). It increased [3H]phenylalanine uptake and cell area by 44% and 86% in cardiomyocytes compared with mock medium. RX435 suppressed these increases by 26% and 38%, while TAK044 (endothelin-A/B-R blocker) suppressed them by 52% and 52%, respectively. Antisense oligonucleotides against LIF and cardiotrophin-1 blocked their up-regulation, and attenuated the conditioned medium-induced increase in [3H]phenylalanine uptake by 21% and 13%, respectively. The combination of antisense oligonucleotides to LIF and cardiotrophin-1 decreased their uptake by 33%. These results indicated that angiotensin II induced IL-6, LIF, and cardiotrophin-1 in cardiac fibroblasts, and that these cytokines, particularly LIF and cardiotrophin-1, activated gp130-linked signaling and contributed to angiotensin II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy.
Neural connections of the “visual wulst” of the avian telencephalon. Experimental studies in the pigeon (Columba livia) and owl (Speotyto cunicularia)

Retinal fibers in both the pigeon and owl terminate in a multi‐nucleate complex of the dorsal thalamus, including the nuclei lateralis anterior, dorsolateralis‐anterior, dorsolateralis anterior, pars lateralis et pars magnocellularis, and collectively designated the nucleus opticus principalis thalami (OPT). Efferent projections of OPT were traced with the Fink‐Heimer method into the ipsilateral lateral forebrain bundle, and via the dorsal supraoptic decussation, into the contralateral lateral forebrain bundle. OPT projections terminate within an elevation, or “Wulst” on the dorsum of the telencephalon. The Wulst is a multilaminate structure containing a deep lying layer of large cells the hyper‐striatum dorsale (HD), a dispersed cell layer — the hyperstriatum intercalatus suprema (HISm), a granule cell layer or nucleus intercalatus hyperstriatum accessorium (IHA), an overlying hyperstriatum accessorium (HA) consisting of a broad layer of medium sized neurons, and an overlying fibro‐molecular layer. Each of these laminae are particularly well developed in the owl, where the granule cell layer is divisible into inner and outer bands (IHAex and IHAint). The projections of OPT terminate in the HD, HISm and IHA. A homotopic projection was also found in the contralateral Wulst. The pattern of termination was similar in both the pigeon and the owl, though the pattern of distribution was more apparent in the owl with its massive OPT and Wulst. Medial, nonvisual, thalamic cell groups in the pigeon (nuclei dorsolateralis pars medialis and dorso‐medialis anterior) also project bilaterally upon the Wulst, but terminate in a more medial, nonvisual and cytologically different, portion of HD. The projections of the medial thalamic nuclei did not overlap with those of OPT and appear to be a separate functional system of still undetermined nature.
Decreased synthesis and delayed processing of sulfated glycoproteins by cells from human polycystic kidneys.

BACKGROUND In polycystic kidney disease, there is progressive distention of tubules and remodeling of an altered extracellular matrix. Recent findings indicate a defect(s) in the synthesis, post-translational modification, cellular transport, and extracellular matrix incorporation of proteoglycans in PKD that may have a fundamental role in its pathogenesis. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Pulse-chase techniques and quantitative autoradiography were used to investigate in vitro the de novo synthesis and the kinetics of intracellular transport and extracellular matrix assembly of sulfated glycoproteins by epithelial cells from normal human kidneys (NK) and from cysts of autosomal dominant polycystic kidneys (ADPKD). NK and ADPKD cell monolayers were pulsed with [35S]sulfate for 150 min and chased for four intervals between 15 and 120 min. RESULTS In ADPKD versus NK cells there was a significant reduction in the de novo synthesis of sulfated glycoproteins and, during the chase, a marked prolongation of the disappearance time for cellular sulfated glycoproteins. Transport kinetics revealed a substantial delay in processing and release of these macromolecules by the Golgi apparatus in ADPKD cells. During the chase, kinetics for the cellular transport of sulfated glycoproteins by secretory vesicles and their assembly into extracellular matrix were comparable in ADPKD and NK cells. However, the percentage of total sulfated glycoproteins incorporated into the matrix of ADPKD versus NK cell monolayers was notably diminished. CONCLUSIONS The findings indicate that in ADPKD versus NK cell monolayers, synthesis of sulfated glycoproteins is impaired, processing of sulfated glycoproteins by the Golgi apparatus is prolonged, and assembly of these macromolecules into the extracellular matrix is reduced. These alterations may have a fundamental role in the pathogenesis of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.
Energy-efficient algorithm to improve the performance of wireless data broadcasting

In this paper, we propose a fast data access scheme concurrently supporting energy saving protocol that constructs the broadcast channels according to the access frequency of each type of message in order to improve energy efficiency in mobile devices. The pinwheel scheduling algorithm presented in this paper is used to organize all types of messages in the broadcast channels in the most symmetrical distribution in order to reduce both the tuning and access time. The results show that the proposed mechanism is capable improving both the tuning and access time due to the presence of skewness in the access distribution among the disseminated messages. When the number of message types increase, both the tuning and access time can be further improved as long as a small number of broadcast channels are added.
The relationship between mean platelet volume with metabolic syndrome in obese individuals

The metabolic syndrome is closely associated with atherosclerotic risk factors and increased mortality. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is an indicator of platelet activation which also shows a close relationship with cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlates of metabolic syndrome, its components and MPV adjusted for obesity in a large population study. A total of 2298 individuals with a mean age of 50 (age range 18–92) were interviewed. Nine hundred and twenty obese participants, who had BMI 30 kg/m2 or more, further evaluated for the presence of metabolic syndrome. Five hundred and thirteen [396 women (70.2%)] had metabolic syndrome and the rest 407 individuals [324 women (79.6%)] served as the control group. The BMI, SBP, DBP, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, visceral fat, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, and triglyceride was higher significantly in metabolic syndrome group (P = 0.002 for BMI and P < 0.001 for the others). No significant difference was observed between groups regarding low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, white blood cells, platelet counts, MPV, hematocrit and hemoglobin (P > 0.05 for all). The presence of metabolic syndrome and its components do not constitute a difference in MPV values in obese patients with a BMI 30 kg/m2 or more.
Large-area microelectrode arrays for recording of neural signals

To understand the neural code, that the retina uses to communicate the visual scene to the brain, large-area microelectrode arrays are needed to record retinal signals simultaneously from many recording sites. This will give a valuable insight into how large biological neural networks (such as the brain) process information, and may also be important in the development of a retinal prosthesis as a potential cure for some forms of blindness. We have used the transparent conductor indium tin oxide to fabricated electrode arrays with approximately 500 electrodes spaced at 60 /spl mu/m. The fabrication procedures include photolithography, electron-beam lithography, chemical etching and reactive-ion etching. These arrays have been tested electrically using impedance measurements over the range of frequencies important when recording extracellular action potentials (0.1-100kHz). The data has been compared to a circuit model of the electrode/electrolyte interface. One type of array (512 electrodes) behaves as theory would dictate and exhibits an impedance of 200 k/spl Omega/ at 1kHz. The other array (519 electrodes) has an impedance of 350 k/spl Omega/ at this frequency, which is higher than predicted by the models. This can perhaps be attributed to the difference in fabrication techniques. The 512-electrode array has been coupled to low-noise amplification circuitry and has recorded signals from a variety of retinal tissues. Example in vitro recordings are shown here.