Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Regulation of the Cell Wall Integrity Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Pathway in Budding Yeast by the Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases Ptp2 and Ptp3

ABSTRACT Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are inactivated by dual-specificity and protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) in yeasts. InSaccharomyces cerevisiae, two PTPs, Ptp2 and Ptp3, inactivate the MAPKs, Hog1 and Fus3, with different specificities. To further examine the functions and substrate specificities of Ptp2 and Ptp3, we tested whether they could inactivate a third MAPK, Mpk1, in the cell wall integrity pathway. In vivo and in vitro evidence indicates that both PTPs inactivate Mpk1, but Ptp2 is the more effective negative regulator. Multicopy expression of PTP2, but not PTP3, suppressed growth defects due to the MEK kinase mutation, BCK1-20, and the MEK mutation,MKK1-386, that hyperactivate this pathway. In addition, deletion of PTP2, but not PTP3, exacerbated growth defects due to MKK1-386. Other evidence supported a role for Ptp3 in this pathway. Expression of MKK1-386 was lethal in the ptp2Δ ptp3Δ strain but not in either single PTP deletion strain. In addition, the ptp2Δ ptp3Δ strain showed higher levels of heat stress-induced Mpk1-phosphotyrosine than the wild-type strain or strains lacking either PTP. The PTPs also showed differences in vitro. Ptp2 was more efficient than Ptp3 at binding and dephosphorylating Mpk1. Another factor that may contribute to the greater effectiveness of Ptp2 is its subcellular localization. Ptp2 is predominantly nuclear whereas Ptp3 is cytoplasmic, suggesting that active Mpk1 is present in the nucleus. Last, PTP2 but not PTP3 transcript increased in response to heat shock in a Mpk1-dependent manner, suggesting that Ptp2 acts in a negative feedback loop to inactivate Mpk1.
Oncogenes modulate cell sensitivity to apoptosis induced by glucose deprivation.

BACKGROUND Increased glucose uptake is characteristic of many tumours and transformed cells and, consequently, glucose deprivation would be expected to differentially affect cancer cell survival and growth. In this study we investigated whether specific oncogenes sensitise cells to apoptosis induced by glucose deprivation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Oncogene-transformed 32D cells were deprived of glucose with or without IL-3 and [3H]2-deoxyglucose uptake measured. Apoptosis was determined by AnnexinV/propidium iodide staining, cell cycle distribution was analysed and MYC expression determined by Western blotting. RESULTS v-Hras and to some extent v-src and v-abl enhanced apoptosis induced by glucose deprivation in the presence of IL-3 but attenuated apoptosis in its absence. In contrast, bcr-abl was highly protective against glucose deprivation-induced apoptosis for 72 hours in the presence and absence of IL-3, while bcl-2 was mildly protective in the presence of IL-3. With strongly transforming oncogenes, c-MYC expression correlated with cell sensitivity to apoptosis induced by glucose deprivation. CONCLUSION Oncogenes vary markedly in their ability to protect cells from apoptosis following glucose deprivation and, in some situations, promote apoptosis.
Understanding the role of family on sexual-risk decisions of young women: A systematic review

Abstract Girls and young women are at high risk of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Many research studies suggest that the family plays an important role in young women's sexual-risk decisions. We conducted a systematic review of qualitative research studies to understand how and to what extent the family influences young women's sexual-risk decisions and sexual-risk behaviour. Systematic literature searches were carried out on eight electronic databases, relevant websites and references of reviews on the topic. Eleven qualitative studies were included in the synthesis. We identified seven major themes across the studies and categorised the themes into three main areas: (1) dynamics of family processes; (2) parental attitudes towards sexuality and gender and (3) daughters' internalisation of parental attitudes. The findings suggest scope for future research and development of HIV interventions for young women. Future qualitative studies in non-western contexts that focus on other family members other than parents would be beneficial to fill gaps in the research.
Direct factor Xa inhibitor edoxaban: from bench to clinical practice

Edoxaban is a direct factor Xa inhibitor and has become the fourth direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) approved for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) and for treatment and secondary prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE). This review provides an overview of the key characteristics of edoxaban and clinical evaluation program leading to regulatory approval. Approval for AF and VTE treatment was based on large phase III randomized controlled trials that showed that edoxaban reduces the risk of bleeding compared with warfarin and provides similar protection against thromboembolism. Edoxaban is the second once-daily DOAC, is tested in a reduced dose for patients with a moderate renal impairment, body weight of ≤60 kg or concomitant use of p-glycoprotein inhibitors and thereby is a valuable addition to the therapeutic arsenal of modern anticoagulation. For AF regulatory approval in the USA is limited to patients with a creatinine clearance of 15–95 ml/min. Another limitation is the need for initial parenteral anticoagulation with heparin in treatment of acute VTE.
Stem Cell Homing Factor, CCL7, Expression in Mouse Models of Stress Urinary Incontinence

Objectives Animal models of vaginal distention (VD) have demonstrated increased expression of chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 7 (CCL7) In this study, we investigated the expression of CCL7 in mice models of simulated birth trauma–induced urinary incontinence using VD and pudendal nerve transection (PNT). Methods Forty-nine mice were divided into 6 groups: VD, sham VD, PNT, sham PNT, anesthesia, and age-matched controls. The urethra, vagina, and rectum were harvested for the expression of CCL7 immediately or 24 hours after assigned procedure. Venous sampling for quantification of serum CCL7 was also performed. An analysis of variance model was used to compare the relative expression of CCL7 in each group. Results Urethral CCL7 expression in the VD group was significantly higher than control group after 24 hours (P < 0.01). There was no difference in the urethral CCL7 expression in PNT, sham PNT, sham VD, or anesthesia groups compared with the controls. No statistically significant difference was noted in the vaginal and rectal expression of CCL7 between any of the groups except for sham PNT. Statistically significant differences were noted in the serum CCL7 expression in the VD, PNT, and sham PNT (P < 0.01 in all) groups after 24 hours compared with the control group. Conclusions This study demonstrates overexpression of urethral CCL7 after VD but not PNT. This suggests that nerve injury does not contribute to the CCL7 overexpression. The overexpression of CCL7 in the serum of mice after VD suggests a translational potential where CCL7 measurement could be used as a surrogate for injury after delivery.
Contrast-enhanced MR angiography of peripheral arteries including pedal vessels at 1.0 T: feasibility study with dedicated peripheral angiography coil.

PURPOSE To prospectively determine feasibility of contrast material-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) angiography of the peripheral arteries from distal aorta to pedal arteries with a 1.0-T system and a dedicated phased-array coil. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twenty-seven patients with peripheral arteriosclerotic occlusive disease underwent contrast-enhanced MR angiography with an automatic moving-table technique. In addition, lower-leg and pedal arteries were examined without table movement (hybrid technique). Two radiologists independently reviewed MR angiograms to assess image quality and grade stenosis in 13 segments per leg. Each was blinded to patients' clinical data. Twenty-five of the patients also underwent conventional angiography. Stenosis grade at conventional angiography was assessed by two radiologists in consensus. Interobserver variability for stenosis grade at MR angiography was calculated with Cohen kappa test. Specificity and sensitivity of MR angiography in detection of stenosis of more than 50% and occlusion were calculated for both observers. The study was approved by the local ethics committee. RESULTS In 14 of the 27 patients, hybrid technique was superior to moving-table technique because there was less venous overlap (11 patients), fewer motion artifacts (one patient), or both (two patients). In nine patients, there was no difference between techniques; in four patients, moving-table technique was superior. Stenosis grade was analyzed in 698 segments with MR angiography and in 638 segments with both conventional and MR angiography. Kappa analysis of interobserver agreement with MR angiography yielded a score of 0.84. For the 638 segments evaluated with both conventional and MR angiography, observers 1 and 2 assigned same grade of stenosis with both modalities in 558 and 555 segments, respectively. Sensitivity for stenoses greater than 50% and occlusion was 94.4% and 91.1% for observers 1 and 2, respectively, and specificity was 90.6% and 91.3%. More distal runoff vessels were shown with MR angiography in seven cases and with conventional angiography in two cases. CONCLUSION Contrast-enhanced MR angiography of the peripheral vessels with a 1.0-T system and dedicated peripheral angiography coil is feasible, and in some cases, it provides additional information compared with conventional angiography.
A systematic investigation of 16 cases of neonaticide.

OBJECTIVE Neonaticide, or infant murder on the day of birth, is often preceded by denial of pregnancy. The preponderance of case reports of neonaticide describes a pattern of pregnancy denial, dissociation, and ego disorganization. The author systematically investigated the clinical characteristics of 16 women charged with homicide in the United States after alleged neonaticides. METHOD The women received a psychiatric evaluation and were administered the Dissociative Experiences SCALE: RESULTS Nearly all of the women reported similar precipitants and symptoms, including depersonalization, dissociative hallucinations, and intermittent amnesia at delivery. CONCLUSIONS The characteristics of the women in the study were similar to those reported in the literature on neonaticide. The existence of this common pattern suggests that treatment strategies can be designed for women at risk for neonaticide.
Development of Porous Alginate-Based Scaffolds Covalently Cross-Linked through a Peroxidase-Catalyzed Reaction

Porous scaffolds are important in tissue engineering. We developed porous scaffolds from the hydrogels of an alginate derivative bearing phenolic hydroxyl groups. The hydrogels were prepared using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) to catalyze the cross-linking between the phenolic hydroxyl groups. A porous structure with a pore size of approx. 200 μm was developed through simultaneous water-extraction and ionic cross-linking by calcium ions by soaking frozen hydrogels in the mixture of ethanol and CaCl2 solution at –20°C. Due to the existence of the covalent cross-links developed through the enzymatic reaction, the porous form had a higher stability from a loss of cross-linked calcium ions than that obtained from non-modified sodium alginate (Na-Alg). The porous specimen developed from the hydrogel obtained with 10 U/ml HRP and 10 mM H2O2 showed about 1.5-times greater repulsion forces than those detected for the porous specimen obtained from Na-Alg toward compressions. No harmful effects of the enzymatically cross-linked specimens were detected on the growth and morphology of the entrapped cells: cells in the enzymatically cross-linked specimens showed almost the same growth profile and morphology with those in the porous specimen obtained from Na-Alg.
Interactions between “What” and “When” in the Auditory System: Temporal Predictability Enhances Repetition Suppression

Neural activity in the auditory system decreases with repeated stimulation, matching stimulus probability in multiple timescales. This phenomenon, known as stimulus-specific adaptation, is interpreted as a neural mechanism of regularity encoding aiding auditory object formation. However, despite the overwhelming literature covering recordings from single-cell to scalp auditory-evoked potential (AEP), stimulation timing has received little interest. Here we investigated whether timing predictability enhances the experience-dependent modulation of neural activity associated with stimulus probability encoding. We used human electrophysiological recordings in healthy participants who were exposed to passive listening of sound sequences. Pure tones of different frequencies were delivered in successive trains of a variable number of repetitions, enabling the study of sequential repetition effects in the AEP. In the predictable timing condition, tones were delivered with isochronous interstimulus intervals; in the unpredictable timing condition, interstimulus intervals varied randomly. Our results show that unpredictable stimulus timing abolishes the early part of the repetition positivity, an AEP indexing auditory sensory memory trace formation, while leaving the later part (∼>200 ms) unaffected. This suggests that timing predictability aids the propagation of repetition effects upstream the auditory pathway, most likely from association auditory cortex (including the planum temporale) toward primary auditory cortex (Heschl's gyrus) and beyond, as judged by the timing of AEP latencies. This outcome calls for attention to stimulation timing in future experiments regarding sensory memory trace formation in AEP measures and stimulus probability encoding in animal models.
Immunohistochemical reactions for fibroblast growth factor receptor in arteries of patients with moyamoya disease.

The cause of moyamoya disease remains unknown, and pathophysiological mechanisms remain uncertain. Basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is a pluripotent polypeptide that has been shown to play roles in angiogenesis, tumorigenesis and many other processes. In a previous study, we demonstrated immunohistochemically that the amount of basic FGF was increased above normal in the superficial temporal artery (STA) of patients with moyamoya disease. To clarify the function of basic FGF in moyamoya disease, we have performed an immunohistochemical study of the STA using a polyclonal antihuman FGF receptor antibody and also have tested immunohistochemical reactions for basic FGF. Twelve surgical specimens of the STA from patients with moyamoya disease were studied. Twelve specimens of the STA from skin flaps of patients with other neurological diseases were also investigated for comparison. The sections of the STA from patients with moyamoya disease showed dense and strong FGF receptor and basic FGF immunoreactivity in endothelial cells, in cells scattered in the thickened intima, and in smooth muscle cells in the media. In contrast, the sections of the STA of control patients showed faint basic FGF immunoreactivity. The statistical analysis revealed a significant difference of basic FGF immunoreactivity between moyamoya disease and other neurological diseases (chi 2 = 23; P = 0.0001). Moderately intense FGF receptor immunoreactivity was observed in most control patients. However, the statistical analysis revealed a significant difference of FGF receptor immunoreactivity between moyamoya disease and other neurological diseases (chi 2 = 13.382; P = 0.0012). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A Retrospective Review of the Effect of COX-2 Inhibitors on Blood Pressure Change

The objective of this study was to compare the difference between celecoxib and rofecoxib on blood pressure change. A retrospective review of medical records where the mean blood pressure in a 90-day period before and after start of the cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitors, celecoxib, and rofecoxib was compared. Data were abstracted from 249 patient records, of which 109 were included. The mean systolic blood pressures at baseline were comparable at 134.14 mm Hg and 134.05 mm Hg for the celecoxib (n = 52) and rofecoxib groups (n = 57), respectively (P = NS). A nonsignificant decrease in systolic blood pressure was observed for the celecoxib group (−1.15 mm Hg), while a statistically significant increase in systolic blood pressure was seen in the rofecoxib group (4.76 mm Hg, P = 0.044). The mean diastolic blood pressures at baseline were not significantly different between the two groups, and changes in the postperiod were also not statistically different compared with baseline values. The average total daily dose of COX-2 inhibitor was 219.2 mg for celecoxib and 25.23 mg for rofecoxib. A post hoc analysis of patients aged 65 years and older showed that the mean systolic blood pressure in the rofecoxib group increased by 7.37 mm Hg (P = 0.016), while there was an insignificant decrease for the celecoxib group (−1.94 mm Hg). This study showed that there were no significant changes in blood pressure after celecoxib initiation. While in the rofecoxib group, there was a significant increase in systolic blood pressure with an even greater increase for patients aged 65 years and older.
Fish in the Classroom: A Survey of the Use of Aquaponics in Education

School gardens and demonstration farms are exciting avenues for experiential learning in education. Aquaponics, the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, is an attractive educational tool because systems are self-contained ecosystems that allow teachers and students to explore a wide range of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics. The aim of this study was to characterize the use of aquaponics in education in the United States (US) using an online survey. One hundred respondents who completed the survey were engaged with aquaponics education and met the inclusion criteria for the study. Thirty-six percent of respondents worked for primary and secondary schools, 53% represented colleges or universities, and 11% worked for vocational or trade schools. Respondents reported the subjects taught, target audiences, number of participating students or visitors, and the resources and funding used by their organizations. Respondents used aquaponics to engage students in a variety of STEM subjects. In total, respondents and their institutions engaged an estimated range of 12,320 to 50,250 participants per year in aquaponics education. The typical school invested $1,000 to $4,999 US dollars (USD) in their aquaponics facility during the previous year, with a combined total of $1.4 to $6.6 million USD invested by all academic institutions. Aquaponics is an emerging educational tool, and there is a need for continued collaboration, technical support, and training for educators from universities and aquaculture education and research centers in the US and other countries.
Integration through services in the tool and die making industry in high wage countries

The tool and die making industry is located on the critical path in the production industry between its customers in product development and in mass production. An increasingly competitive global production environment has eliminated the traditional advantage in tool quality of high wage countries. This requires the tool and die making industry in high wage countries to achieve differentiation through quick and reliable processes to enable on-time mass production for their customers. The quickness and the reliability can be increased significantly by offering specific services to integrate the customer at the interface with product development and mass production. Latest study results of the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) at RWTH Aachen University on value creation networks show that the tool and die making industry in high wage countries has identified the potential of integration through services, but is not able to realize this potential with the customer yet. To bridge the gap between the status quo in the industry and the demand for integration through services, solutions have to be developed. This paper addresses this demand and illustrates three generic tool and die making companies that master the integration through services and achieve differentiation against global competition.
Modelling of flood prediction system using hybrid NNARX and Extended Kalman Filter

Floods occurrences are the most hated environmental hazard around the world. This is due to floods threaten human life and furthermore affected the economy of the involved country. In Malaysia, floods are usually due to the season monsoon and heavy rains that causing flash floods usually in urban area. Therefore, it is a must for researchers around the world to find a solution in solving this problem. A reliable and practical flood prediction model is in needs to predict flood occurrence ahead of time. Thus, this paper proposed the modelling of flood prediction model using NNARX (Neural Network Autoregressive with Exogenous Input) and hybrid NNARX with EKF (Extended Kalman Filter). The area of study was Klang River. The model was developed using real-time SCADA data that were acquired from the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Malaysia. The model development was based on flood water level data in meter from 6 Feb. to 21 Nov. 2010. Modelling made used of 120 samples data, model validation using 78 samples data and model testing using 170 samples. The model performance of the NNARX-EKF hybrid model showed much better result than the NNARX model.
Posttransplant Lymphoproliferative Disorders after Renal Transplantation in the United States in Era of Modern Immunosuppression

Background. Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) still represent a major preoccupation after renal transplantation, even in the most recent years. Methods. We analyzed the incidence, risk, and prognostic factors of PTLD in a cohort of kidney recipients using the United States Renal Data System. Results. Among 25,127 Medicare patients transplanted between 1996 and 2000, 344 developed a PTLD defined as a non-Hodgkin lymphoma (1.4%). History of pretransplant malignancy (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR]=3.54, CI 2.31–5.43), younger age (AHR=1.91, CI 1.18–3.1), fewer HLA matches (AHR=1.32, CI 1.1–1.59) and treatment by ATG (AHR=1.55, CI 1.2–1.99) and OKT3 (AHR=1.37, CI 1–1.76), especially if given for rejection therapy were associated with an increased risk of PTLD. Mycophenolate and azathioprine were associated with a lower risk of PTLD (AHR=0.6, CI 0.47–0.78 and AHR=0.66, CI 0.46–0.95, respectively). IL2-receptor inhibitors and sirolimus did not modify the risk of PTLD. Patients without induction therapy treated with tacrolimus were at greater risk of lymphoma than those treated with new formulations of cyclosporine and those treated with antimetabolites (mycophenolate and azathioprine) have a lower risk of PTLD than those without. Patients with PTLD had poor survival (64% vs. 80% at 5 years). Older age, pretransplant malignancy and OKT3 were risk factors for death whereas treatment with mycophenolate was associated with a better survival (AHR=0.49, CI=0.28–0.82). Conclusions. Our study highlights the contribution of patient history and immunosuppression in the risk of PTLD in the era of modern immunosuppression.