Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nox1 Redox Signaling Mediates Oncogenic Ras-induced Disruption of Stress Fibers and Focal Adhesions by Down-regulating Rho*

Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by Ras oncogene-induced NADPH oxidase (Nox) 1 is required for Ras transformation phenotypes including anchorage-independent growth, morphological transformation, and tumorigenesity, but the signaling mechanism downstream of Nox1 remains elusive. Rho is known to be a critical regulator of actin stress fiber formation. Nonetheless, Rho was reported to no longer couple to loss of actin stress fibers in Ras-transformed Swiss3T3 cells despite the elevation of Rho activity. In this study, however, we demonstrate that Rho is inactivated in K-Ras-transformed normal rat kidney cells, and that abrogation of Nox1-generated ROS by Nox1 small interference RNAs or diphenyleneiodonium restores Rho activation, suggesting that Nox1-generated oxidants mediate down-regulation of the Rho activity. This down-regulation involves oxidative inactivation of the low molecular weight protein-tyrosine phosphatase by Nox1-generated ROS and a subsequent elevation in the tyrosine-phosphorylated active form of p190RhoGAP, the direct target of the phosphatase. Furthermore, the decreased Rho activity leads to disruption of both actin stress fibers and focal adhesions in Ras-transformed cells. As for Rac1, Rac1 also appears to participate in the down-regulation of Rho via Nox1. Our discovery defines a mediating role of Nox1-redox signaling for Ras oncogene-induced actin cytoskeletal changes.
Classificação por ressonância magnética da degeneração do disco intervertebral

The authors suggest an analysis of the degeneration of intervertebral disks on human cadavers using magnetic resonance imaging. Nine lumbar spines were collected from fresh human cadavers and resonance images were captured. The images were analyzed and classified according to the degeneration grades, with the authors proposing a subdivision of type IV into IV-a and IV-b. Forty-four intervertebral disks were analyzed and authors found the following distribution: 4,5% type I; 40,9% type II; 32% type III and 18% type IV-a. However, the investigators disagreed with the conclusions in 4,5% of the disks. The authors found that the progressive signal lost in the T2-weighted images may be correlated to disk degeneration. Changes found in the magnetic resonance images must be standardized and classified for providing a better understanding.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the environment within the phagosome

Summary: Once across the barrier of the epithelium, macrophages constitute the primary defense against microbial invasion. For most microbes, the acidic, hydrolytically competent environment of the phagolysosome is sufficient to kill them. Despite our understanding of the trafficking events that regulate phagosome maturation, our appreciation of the lumenal environment within the phagosome is only now becoming elucidated through real‐time functional assays. The assays quantify pH change, phagosome/lysosome fusion, proteolysis, lipolysis, and β‐galactosidase activity. This information is particularly important for understanding pathogens that successfully parasitize the endosomal/lysosomal continuum. Mycobacterium tuberculosis infects macrophages through arresting the normal maturation process of the phagosome, retaining its vacuole at pH 6.4 with many of the characteristics of an early endosome. Current studies are focusing on the transcriptional response of the bacterium to the changing environment in the macrophage phagosome. Manipulation of these environmental cues, such as preventing the pH drop to pH 6.4 with concanamycin A, abrogates the majority of the transcriptional response in the bacterium, showing that pH is the dominant signal that the bacterium senses and responds to. These approaches represent our ongoing attempts to unravel the discourse that takes place between the pathogen and its host cell.
Microscopy and Spectroscopy Analysis of Mems Corrosion Used in the Electronics Industry of the Baja California Region, Mexico

© 2012 Badilla et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Microscopy and Spectroscopy Analysis of Mems Corrosion Used in the Electronics Industry of the Baja California Region, Mexico
Risk of anesthesia and surgery in patients with chronic bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Abstract During the years 1967 to 1970, 63,853 patients over 30 years of age received general anesthetics at this institution. Among these, 464 had some form of moderate to severe chronic lung disease; of this group, 33 died from acute respiratory failure or related complications within a nine-week period after operation. During the same years, 4,454 similar patients had spinal or epidural anesthetics, of whom 121 had similar pulmonary diseases; no deaths due to respiratory failure occurred in this group. No clear relationship between death rates and type or duration of anesthesia or increasing age was found. The death rate following operations on the thorax and upper abdomen was twice that observed after operations on other regions. Repeated general anesthetics within a 12 month period were attended by a threefold increase in death rate. Preoperative pulmonary preparation decreased significantly the frequency of postoperative pulmonary complications but had no effect on death rates.
Potential refugia in Taiwan revealed by the phylogeographical study of Castanopsis carlesii Hayata (Fagaceae)

In this study, we examined spatial patterns of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) variation in a total of 30 populations of Castanopsis carlesii Hayata (Fagaceae), a subtropical and temperate tree species, including 201 individuals sampled throughout Taiwan. By sequencing two cpDNA fragments using universal primers (the trnL intron and the trnV‐trnM intergenic spacer), we found a total of 1663 bp and 21 polymorphic sites. These gave rise to a total of 28 cpDNA haplotypes. The level of differentiation among the populations studied was relatively high (GST = 0.723). Two ancestral haplotypes are widely distributed. The Central Mountain Ridge (CMR) of Taiwan represents an insurmountable barrier to the east–west gene flow of C. carlesii. Among the populations studied, three separated populations, at Lienhuachih, Fushan and Lichia, have high nucleotide diversity. Estimates of NST–GST for populations on both sides of the CMR indicate that no phylogeographical structure exists. According to the genealogical tree, number of rare haplotype and population genetic divergence, this study suggests that two potential refugia existed during the last glaciation: the first refugium was located in a region to the north of Hsuehshan Range (HR) and west of the CMR; the second refugium was located in south, especially southeastern Taiwan. In fact, the second refugium happens to be the same as that reported for Quercus glauca. A ‘star‐like’ genealogy is characteristic when all haplotypes rapidly coalesce and is a general outcome of population expansion. The neutrality test and mismatch distribution also suggest demographic expansion recovering from a bottleneck.
The Meaning of Web-Based Communication for Support: From the Patients’ Perspective Within a Hematological Healthcare Setting

Background: Being critically ill with a hematological disease is a challenge, sometimes causing a need for support in the adjustment to the stressful life situation. By providing Web-based communication for support from a nurse, patients get access to an alternative and untraditional way to communicate their issues. Objective: The aim was to describe the meaning of using Web-based communication for support from a patient perspective. Methods: A comprehensive randomized pilot study (n = 30) was conducted, allowing 15 patients in the experimental group to have access to the Web-based communication, to evaluate feasibility. Of these 15 participants, 10 were interviewed, focusing on their experiences. An empirical hermeneutical approach was used and the interpretive analysis focused on the meanings. Results: Web-based communication for support means a space for patients to have their say, consolidation of a matter, an extended caring relationship, access to individual medical assessment, and an opportunity for emotional processing. The main interpretation indicates that the patient’s influence on the communication strengthens according to the asynchronous, faceless, and written communication. The increased, and in some sense constant, access to an individual medical and caring assessment, in turn, implies a feeling of safety. Conclusion: Web-based communication for support seems to have the potential to enhance patients’ participation on their own terms. Implications for Practice: To achieve the possible advantages of Web-based communication for support, nurses must acquire knowledge about caring writing. It requires respect for the patient and articulated accuracy and attention in the response given.
CS 221 Project progress-Light cycle racing in

In this work, we are building agents for the light cycle game inspired by a scene from the movie Tron. In our version of the game, 2 agents (blue and orange) move on a 2D grid. Each of them can move in 4 directions (up, down, left, right). After each move, the previous cell turns into a wall. The game ends when one of the agents moves to a wall cell or if they move to the same cell, in which case the game ends on a draw. The agents are not allowed to stay in the same cell, so at every move empty cells are consumed, which gives an explicit maximum bound on the number of moves before the game is over. In the classic definition of the game, both agents move simultaneously at every step. We decided to play a slightly di↵erent turn-based variant of the game. In this variant, the agents move one after the other. The symmetry is broken because this means that we need to decide who gets to start, which may bring an advantage. Like for chess, we arbitrarily decide that the blue agent gets this advantage. However, we decided to work with this simpler variant of the game so that we could use algorithms like minimax, instead of more complex methods that involve a payo↵ matrix. This formulation does not fundamentally change the problem but makes it more relevant to concepts learned in this class. We will first present some previous work done on this game. We will then briefly describe our formulation of the problem and what engine we used for this project. We then describe a few basic strategies that act as a baseline and evaluate them against each other. After giving intermediate results obtained with a relatively simple minimax agent, we show how some strong game dependent heuristics make a big di↵erence in the performance. Finally, we discuss weaknesses of our agent we developed and how they could be addressed.
A generic topology selection method for analog circuits with embedded circuit sizing demonstrated on the OTA example

We present a new methodology for automatic selection and sizing of analog circuits demonstrated on the OTA circuit class. The methodology consists of two steps: a generic topology selection method supported by a “part-sizing” process and subsequent final sizing. The circuit topologies provided by a reuse library are classified in a topology tree. The appropriate topology is selected by traversing the topology tree starting at the root node. The decision at each node is gained from the result of the part-sizing, which is in fact a node-specific set of simulations. The final sizing is a simulation-based optimization. We significantly reduce the overall simulation effort compared to a classical simulation-based optimization by combining the topology selection with the part-sizing process in the selection loop. The result is an interactive user friendly system, which eases the analog designer's work significantly when compared to typical industrial practice in analog circuit design. The topology selection method and sizing process are implemented as a tool into a typical analog design environment. The design productivity improvement achievable by our method is shown by a comparison to other design automation approaches.
Chicken gizzard 5'-nucleotidase is a receptor for the extracellular matrix component fibronectin.

The smooth muscle cells of chicken gizzard harbor the ectoenzyme 5'-nucleotidase. The purified enzyme was reconstituted into 3H-labeled proteoliposomes which were used as a model to study the association of a membrane protein with fibronectin. We demonstrated that the binding process between proteoliposomes and fibronectin has the qualities of a receptor-ligand interaction, i.e., is saturable and specific. In contrast to the association of fibronectin with integrins, the interaction with 5'-nucleotidase does not require divalent metal ions. Synthetic peptides containing the RGD-sequence or a monoclonal antibody interfering with binding of other receptors to the cell-binding domain of fibronectin did not abolish the interaction with 5'-nucleotidase. This indicates that the RGDS-sequence does not represent the major contact site for the AMPase and that the 5'-nucleotidase belongs to a separate class of fibronectin receptors with distinct properties as compared to the integrins.
Utility of waist circumference percentile for risk evaluation in obese children.

OBJECTIVE Increased waist circumference has been shown to contribute to cardiovascular risk in obese adults. This study was designed to examine whether routinely assessing waist circumference in obese children adds predictive value for the development of diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study on a community sample of 188 apparently healthy obese children 7-11 years, 60% black, 39% male. Anthropometry, fasting lipid profile, oral glucose tolerance test, and magnetic resonance imaging of abdominal fat were done. High waist circumference was defined as > or = 90(th) percentile for age and sex. Statistical analyses were done to examine the relationship between waist circumference and the different cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS Those with a high waist circumference had significantly lower high-density lipoprotein, higher triglycerides, fasting insulin, insulin response to glucose, subcutaneous and visceral abdominal fat than those with a normal waist circumference. Children with a high waist circumference were 3.6 times more likely than those with a normal waist status to have a low high-density lipoprotein level, 3.0 times more likely to have high triglycerides, and 3.7 times more likely to have a high fasting insulin level. CONCLUSIONS Obese children with waist circumference at or above the 90th percentile are at higher risk for dyslipidemia and insulin resistance than obese children with normal waist circumference. These results indicate that routine waist circumference evaluation in obese children may help clinicians identify which obese children are at greater risk of diabetes and other cardiovascular disease.
The estimation of pituitary luteinizing hormone secretion.

ABSTRACT A mathematical model for the estimation of the secretion of hypophyseal hormones incorporating hormone disappearance rate, distribution volume and serum concentration has been developed. With the aid of a computer program, the model was applied for LH to data from normal cycling women, a postmenopausal subject before and after suppressive estradiol treatment, and in a normal man before and after synthetic LRF administration. In this fashion, continuous curves of estimated secretion rates versus time were determined.
Improvement of Fat Suppression and Artifact Reduction Using IDEAL Technique in Head and Neck MRI at 3T

The fat suppression technique is routinely used in clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head and neck to improve tissue or lesion contrast for characterization purposes (1). In head and neck MRI, abrupt changes in contour and density between air and soft tissue make magnetic inhomogeneity and susceptibility artifacts, which present as regions of signal loss and architectural distortion (1, 2). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Received: March 17, 2016 Revised: March 22, 2016 Accepted: March 22, 2016
Medical journalism and authorship in low income countries.

The low scholarly output from low-income nations has attracted a considerable amount of international attention in the last 5 years. The visibility of articles published by authors from low-income nations, demonstrated by citations by other authors, is also limited. In a global world, few publications and limited involvement in the global debate means limited input toward the solution of global and national problems (1), especially if the expected standard is that policy decisions should be based on best evidence, especially published, scrutinized information in journal articles.
Partial Hepatectomy Affects Pancreatic Size and Function in Rats

The effect of partial hepatectomy (62 ± 2% of liver mass) or sham laparotomy on the pancreas was studied in rats. Pancreatic contents of DNA, protein, and digestive enzymes were measured 14 days postoperatively. Pancreatic acini were prepared to study exocrine pancreatic function after hormonal stimulation. Islet hormone release was investigated in the isolated perfused pancreas. Liver regeneration reached 93 ± 1% within 14 days. Water contents in liver and pancreas remained unaltered. Simultaneously, the pancreatic weight increased significantly. Pancreatic enzymes showed a parallel elevation, whereas DNA remained unaffected. Amylase secretion from pancreatic acini was unaltered. Stimulated insulin and somatostatin release from the perfused pancreas were both increased. Plasma cholecystokinin levels were elevated, whereas neurotensin was decreased. Insulin and gastrin remained unchanged. In conclusion, after partial hepatectomy, enhanced cholecystokinin and decreased neurotensin blood levels are suggested to contribute to a hypertrophic effect on the exocrine pancreas and an adaptive regulation of the endocrine gland.
MUSA: A Multi-level Simulation Approach for Next-Generation HPC Machines

The complexity of High Performance Computing (HPC) systems is increasing in the number of components and their heterogeneity. Interactions between software and hardware involve many different aspects which are typically not transparent to scientific programmers and system architects. Therefore, predicting the behavior of current scientific applications on future HPC infrastructures is a challenging task. In this paper we present MUSA, an end-to-end methodology that employs a multi-level simulation infrastructure. By combining different levels of abstraction, MUSA is able to model the communication network, microarchitectural details and system software interactions, providing different trade-offs in terms of simulation cost and accuracy. We compare detailed MUSA simulations with native executions of up to 2,048 cores and find relative errors that are within 10% in the common case. In addition, we use MUSA to simulate up to 16,384 cores and successfully identify scalability bottlenecks due to different factors, e.g. memory contention or load imbalance. We also compare different system configurations, showing how MUSA can help system designers to assess the usefulness of future technologies in next-generation HPC machines.
Forecasting of chaotic time series using RBF neural networks optimized by genetic algorithms

Time series forecasting is an important tool, which is used to support the areas of planning for both individual and organizational decisions. This problem consists of forecasting future data based on past and/or present data. This paper deals with the problem of time series forecasting from a given set of input/output data. We present a hybrid approach for time series forecasting using Radial Basis Functions Neural Network (RBFNs) and Genetic Algorithms (GAs). GAs technique proposed to optimize centers c and width r of RBFN, the weights w of RBFNs optimized used traditional algorithm. This method uses an adaptive process of optimizing the RBFN parameters depending on GAs, which improve the homogenize during the process. This proposed hybrid approach improves the forecasting performance of the time series. The performance of the proposed method evaluated on examples of short-term mackey-glass time series. The results show that forecasting by RBFNs parameters is optimized using GAs to achieve better root mean square error than algorithms that optimize RBFNs parameters found by traditional algorithms.
High-Dose Leptin Activates Human Leukocytes Via Receptor Expression on Monocytes1

Leptin is capable of modulating the immune response. Proinflammatory cytokines induce leptin production, and we now demonstrate that leptin can directly activate the inflammatory response. RNA expression for the leptin receptor (Ob-R) was detectable in human PBMCs. Ob-R expression was examined at the protein level by whole blood flow cytometry using an anti-human Ob-R mAb 9F8. The percentage of cells expressing leptin receptor was 25 ± 5% for monocytes, 12 ± 4% for neutrophils, and 5 ± 1% for lymphocytes (only B lymphocytes). Incubation of resting PBMCs with leptin induced rapid expression of TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA and a dose-dependent production of TNF-α and IL-6 by monocytes. Incubation of resting PBMCs with high-dose leptin (250 ng/ml, 3–5 days) induced proliferation of resting cultured PBMCs and their secretion of TNF-α (5-fold), IL-6 (19-fold), and IFN-γ (2.5-fold), but had no effect on IL-4 secretion. The effect of leptin was distinct from, and additive to, that seen after exposure to endotoxin or activation by the mixed lymphocyte reaction. In conclusion, Ob-R is expressed on human circulating leukocytes, predominantly on monocytes. At high doses, leptin induces proinflammatory cytokine production by resting human PBMCs and augments the release of these cytokines from activated PBMCs in a pattern compatible with the induction of Th1 cytokines. These results demonstrate that leptin has a direct effect on the generation of an inflammatory response. This is of relevance when considering leptin therapy and may partly explain the relationship among leptin, proinflammatory cytokines, insulin resistance, and obesity.
Hybrid pickup project

The project is a collaboration between the “Polo per la Mobilità Sostenibile” (Pomos) and NOZOMI Motor and it is focused on the hybridization of an off-road vehicle, with 2.2 litres four cylinders petrol engine. The aim is to build an hybrid parallel vehicle with only few simple upgrades. Through these we expect to reduce fuel consumption by 25% and the formation of pollutants. This project provides the update of the vehicle, by an Ansaldo AC three-phase asynchronous electric drive, liquid cooled. The AC electric drive can be used with the internal combustion engine, in order to move the rear axle, or without the ICE to allow the use in full electric traction. A control unit provides the interaction of the two engines. Energy storage system is made by KOKAM Li-ion batteries. These are tested in charge and discharge cycles to evaluate their features.