Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
D1 and D2 dopamine receptor gene expression in the rat striatum: Sensitive cRNA probes demonstrate prominent segregation of D1 and D2 mRNAS in distinct neuronal populations of the dorsal and ventral striatum

The postsynaptic effects of dopamine in the striatum are mediated mainly by receptors encoded by D1, D2, and D3 dopamine receptor genes. The D1 and D2 genes are the most widely expressed in the caudate‐putamen, the accumbens nucleus, and the olfactory tubercle. Several anatomical studies, including studies using in situ hybridization with oligonucleotide and cDNA probes, have suggested that D1 and D2 receptors are segregated into distinct efferent neuronal populations of the striatum: D1 in substance P striatonigral neurons and D2 in enkephalin striatopallidal neurons. In contrast, on the basis of several in vivo and in vitro studies, other authors have suggested the existence of an extensive colocalization of D1 and D2 in the same striatal neurons. Our study was undertaken in order to analyze in detail the expression of the D1 and D2 receptor genes in the efferent striatal populations, with special reference to the various striatal areas, and to yield insights into the question about D1 and D2 mRNA localization in the striatum. We have, therefore, used highly sensitive digoxigenin‐and 35S‐labeled cRNA probes to address this question. The present results demonstrate that the D1 and D2 receptor mRNAs are segregated, respectively, in substance P and enkephalin neurons in the caudate‐putamen and accumbens nucleus (shell and core) and in the olfactory tubercle (for their largest part). A very small percentage of neurons may coexpress both genes. These results confirm that the D1 and D2 receptor genes are expressed in distinct populations of striatal efferent neurons in the normal adult rat. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Integrated Inverter/Converter Circuit and Control Technique of Motor Drives With Dual-Mode Control for EV/HEV Applications

A new integrated circuit for motor drives with dual-mode control for EV/HEV applications is proposed. The proposed integrated circuit allows the permanent magnet synchronous motor to operate in motor mode or acts as boost inductors of the boost converter, and thereby boosting the output torque coupled to the same transmission system or dc-link voltage of the inverter connected to the output of the integrated circuit. In motor mode, the proposed integrated circuit acts as an inverter and it becomes a boost-type boost converter, while using the motor windings as the boost inductors to boost the converter output voltage. Moreover, a new control technique for the proposed integrated circuit under boost converter mode is proposed to increase the efficiency. The proposed control technique is to use interleaved control to significantly reduce the current ripple and thereby reducing the losses and thermal stress under heavy-load condition. In contrast, single-phase control is used for not invoking additional switching and conduction losses under light-load condition. Experimental results derived from digital-controlled 3-kW inverter/converter using digital signal processing show the voltage boost ratio can go up to 600 W to 3 kW. And the efficiency is 93.83% under full-load condition while keeping the motor temperature at the atmosphere level. These results fully confirm the claimed merits for the proposed integrated circuit.
An MT MRI study of the cervical cord in clinically isolated syndromes suggestive of MS

Cervical cord magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) histograms were obtained from 45 patients at presentation with clinically isolated syndromes (CIS) suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS). The mean values of MTR histogram-derived metrics were not different between CIS patients and healthy control subjects or between patients with and without evidence of disease dissemination in time. Only three patients showed significantly lower cord MTR values than control subjects. These findings suggest the absence of intrinsic structural damage of the cervical cord soon after the onset of CIS suggestive of MS, even in those patients with an early evolution to MS.
The Biomechanical Functions of the Iliolumbar Ligament in Maintaining Stability of the Lumbosacral Junction

The iliolumbar ligament is one of the three lumbopelvic ligaments. Recent study has shown that the ligament is not present at birth and is formed from metaplasia of the quadratus lumborum muscle at the end of the first decade. To study the biomechanical functions of this ligament, an apparatus was developed using linear variable differential transformers. Twenty fresh cadaveric specimens of the lumbosacral pelvis were tested. The flexibility of the intact lumbar segment was studied before and after the ligaments were divided. Flexion of L5 on S1 was mainly controlled by the posterior band and lateral bending by the anterior band of the ligament. When the L5–S1 disc was degenerated, total division of the ligaments reduced extension during loading. Its effect on torsion was not evident from this study.
The amino acid sequence of chicken muscle desmin provides a common structural model for intermediate filament proteins.

The complete amino acid sequence of muscle desmin reported here is the first for an intermediate filament protein. Alignment with partial data available for vimentin, glial fibrillary acid protein, neurofilament 68 K, two wool alpha‐keratins, and a recently described DNA clone covering 90% of an epidermal keratin shows that all seven proteins have extensive homologies and therefore form a complex multigene family, the intermediate filament proteins. The hard alpha‐keratins of wool appear to be a special subset of epithelial keratins. The sequence information reveals, as the dominant structural principle, a rod‐like middle domain arising from several alpha‐helical segments able to form interchain coiled‐coil elements. The proposed helices are separated by short spacers, which like the two terminal domains seem built from non‐alpha‐helical material. Attention is drawn to the sometimes very striking sequence homologies along the rod and the high sequence variability in the terminal domains. Finally, chemical cross‐linking experiments performed on the isolated desmin rod show that intermediate filament structure seems not to be based on triple‐stranded coiled‐coils as currently thought, but rather reflects protofilament units built as a dimer of normal interchain double‐stranded coiled‐coils.
The female 'insulin advantage' in a biracial cohort: results from the Miami Community Health Study.

OBJECTIVE To determine the extent to which gender differences in the rate of insulin-mediated glucose disposal are influenced by differences in body fatness. DESIGN A cross-sectional study of a biracial sample of men and women drawn from a population-based study. SUBJECTS Twenty-five 25-44 year old residents of Dade County, FL. Twenty-five African-Americans (14 men and 11 women) and 28 white, nonHispanics (15 men and 13 women). All participants were free of diabetes mellitus (WHO Criteria). MEASUREMENTS All persons volunteered to undergo a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp procedure to determine the rate of insulin-mediated glucose disposal (insulin sensitivity, M). Several measures of body fatness were quantified and the percentage body fat determined according to published equations. RESULTS Men and women had similar unadjusted M values. Within each gender and ethnic group M was inversely related to percentage body fat (r = -0.55 to -0.84; p < 0.05). After adjustment for percentage body fat, women were more insulin sensitive than men (10.1 vs 5.1 mg/kg/min among African-Americans and 10.1 vs 6.9 mg/kg/min among white, nonHispanics; p < 0.05 for each). When M was expressed per unit of fat free mass, women were still significantly more insulin sensitive than men (p < 0.05 for each ethnic group). In multivariate analyses, gender and percentage body fat were independently related to M in both ethnic groups accounting for 70% of the variance among African-American participants and 34% of the variance among white nonHispanic participants. CONCLUSION The similar M values between men and women despite the higher percent body fat among women indicate that women are more insulin sensitive in muscle tissue than men. This was substantiated when M was normalized for fat free mass. This 'insulin advantage' may be related to the lower risk of coronary disease experienced by women and the loss of this advantage may in part underlie the stronger deleterious effects of diabetes that women suffer.
Linkage of Crohn’s disease to the major histocompatibility complex region is detected by multiple non-parametric analyses

BACKGROUND There is evidence for genetic susceptibility to Crohn’s disease, and a tentative association with tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and HLA class II alleles. AIMS To examine the potential of genetic linkage between Crohn’s disease and the MHC region on chromosome 6p. METHODS TNF microsatellite markers and, for some families, additional HLA antigens were typed for 323 individuals from 49 Crohn’s disease multiplex families to generate informative haplotypes. Non-parametric linkage analysis methods, including sib pair and affected relative pair methods, were used. RESULTS Increased sharing of haplotypes was observed in affected sib pairs: 92% (48/52) shared one or two haplotypes versus an expected 75% if linkage did not exist (p=0.004). After other affected relative pairs were included, the significance level reached 0.001. The mean proportion of haplotype sharing was increased for both concordant affected (π=0.60, p=0.002) and unaffected sib pairs (π=0.58, p=0.031) compared with the expected value (π=0.5). In contrast, sharing in discordant sib pairs was significantly decreased (π=0.42, p=0.007). Linear regression analysis using all three types of sib pairs yielded a slope of −0.38 at p=0.00003. It seemed that the HLA effect was stronger in non-Jewish families than in Jewish families. CONCLUSIONS All available analytical methods support linkage of Crohn’s disease to the MHC region in these Crohn’s disease families. This region is estimated to contribute approximately 10–33% of the total genetic risk to Crohn’s disease.
Reinforcement learning approach for adapting complex agent-based model of evacuation to fast linear model

Nowadays, most coastal regions face a potential risk of tsunami. The evacuation is one of the most effective mitigation procedures. However, there are always the part of evacuees (e.g. the tourist) who lack information of the evacuation map, which motivates us to focus on the problem of optimizing of guidance sign placement for tsunami evacuation. Concretely, we must find out an optimal sign placement in order to have as many evacuees as possible to reach shelters before tsunami arrival. In fact, most studies focus on two approaches: Agent-Based modeling and Equation-Based modeling. Each approach has its own pros and cons. While the Agent-Based modeling introduces an accurate but very slow model, the Equation-Based one provides a very fast but inaccurate model. The idea of this study is that we learn the accurate Agent-Based model and adapt it into very fast Equation-Based model in order to solve the optimizing problem. In this paper, we present clearly two models representing the two approaches and pros and cons of each model. We then propose a reinforcement learning approach for adapting complex Agent-Based model into a very fast Linear Model (representing Equation-Based modeling approach). By experimentation, our proposed approach shows that we can replace a slow complex model by a very fast model with an acceptable level of accuracy in order to solve optimizing problem.
Early phagocytosis of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficient erythrocytes parasitized by Plasmodium falciparum may explain malaria protection in G6PD deficiency.

In population-based studies it has been established that inherited deficiency of erythrocyte (E) glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) confers protection against severe Plasmodium falciparum (P falciparum) malaria. Impaired growth of parasites in G6PD-deficient E in vitro has been reported in some studies, but not in others. In a systematic analysis, we have found that with five different strains of P falciparum (FCR-3, KI, C10, HB3B, and T9/96), there was no significant difference in either invasion or maturation when the parasites were grown in either normal or G6PD-deficient (Mediterranean variant) E. With all of these strains and at different maturation stages, we were unable to detect any difference in the amount of P falciparum-specific G6PD mRNA in normal versus deficient parasitized E. The rate of 14C-CO2 production from D-[1-14C] glucose (which closely reflects intracellular activity of G6PD) contributed by the parasite was very similar in intact normal and deficient E. By contrast, in studies of phagocytosis of parasitized E by human adherent monocytes, we found that when the parasites were at the ring stage (ring-stage parasitized E [RPE]), deficient RPE were phagocytosed 2.3 times more intensely than normal RPE (P = .001), whereas there was no difference when the parasites were at the more mature trophozoite stage (trophozoite-stage parasitized E [TPE]). Phagocytic removal markers (autologous IgG and complement C3 fragments) were significantly higher in deficient RPE than in normal RPE, while they were very similar in normal and deficient TPE. The level of reduced glutathione was remarkably lower in deficient RPE compared with normal RPE. We conclude that impaired antioxidant defense in deficient RPE may be responsible for membrane damage followed by phagocytosis. Because RPE, unlike TPE, are nontoxic to phagocytes, the increased removal by phagocytosis of RPE would reduce maturation to TPE and to schizonts and may be a highly efficient mechanism of malaria resistance in deficient subjects.
REST is a key regulator in brain‐specific homeobox gene expression during neuronal differentiation

Brain‐specific homeobox (Bsx) is specifically expressed at the early embryonic stages during brain development. Several studies show that Bsx plays important roles in brain development; however, the mechanisms of its transcriptional regulation remain to be established. In this study, we show that binding of repressor element silencing transcription factor (REST) to the neuron restrictive silencer element (NRSE) represses Bsx transcription in non‐neuronal P19 cells. The Bsx promoter contains several putative binding sites for transcription factors, including NRSE for REST and the GC box for the transcriptional activator, Sp1. Upon neuronal differentiation of P19 cells with retinoic acid, Bsx gene expression increased, whereas that of the REST gene decreased. Electrophoretic mobility shift analyses demonstrated that recombinant REST proteins bound the NRSE region of the Bsx promoter. In neuronal NS20Y cells, transcriptional activity of the Bsx promoter was decreased upon expression of REST. Moreover, dominant‐negative REST derepressed Bsx transcription in P19 cells. Sp1‐mediated transcriptional activity of the Bsx promoter was attenuated by treatment with mithramycin A, a GC box‐binding drug, but was enhanced upon mutation of NRSE. Co‐immunoprecipitation and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays showed that the Bsx promoter appeared to be modulated by direct interactions between REST and Sp1. The CpG sites of NRSE and GC box were completely unmethylated, signifying no interference of DNA methylation. Our results suggest that binding of REST to NRSE suppresses the Sp1‐mediated activation of Bsx in non‐neuronal cells.
The effects of a sloped ground surface on trunk kinematics and L5/S1 moment during lifting

There are many work environments that require workers to perform manual materials handling tasks on ground surfaces that are not perfectly flat (e.g. in agriculture, construction, and maritime workplaces). These sloped ground surfaces may have an impact on the lifting strategy/technique employed by the lifter, which may, in turn, alter the biomechanical loading of the spine. Describing the changes in kinematics and kinetics of the torso is the first step in assessing the impact of these changes and is the focus of the current research. Subjects' whole-body motions were recorded as they lifted a 10 kg box while standing on two inclined surfaces (facing an upward slope: 10° and 20°), two declined surfaces (facing a downward slope: − 10° and − 20°), and a flat surface (0°) using three lifting techniques (leg lift, back lift and freestyle lift). These data were then used in a two-dimensional, five-segment dynamic biomechanical model (top-down) to evaluate the effect of these slopes on the net moment about the L5/S1 joint. The results of this study showed an interesting interaction effect wherein the net L5/S1 moment was relatively insensitive to changes in slope angle under the back lift condition, but showed a significant effect during the leg lift and freestyle lifting conditions. The results show that under the freestyle lifting condition the peak L5/S1 moment was significantly higher for the inclined surfaces as compared to the flat surfaces (6.8% greater) or declined surfaces (10.0% greater). Subsequent component analysis revealed that both trunk flexion angle and angular trunk acceleration were driving this response. Collectively, the results of this study indicate that ground slope angle does influence the lifting kinematics and kinetics and therefore needs to be considered when evaluating risk of low back injury in these working conditions.
Assessing mental representation of mastoidectomy by a computer-based drawing tool

Abstract Conclusions: This simple computer-based drawing tool provides valid information on mental representation of mastoidectomy at its initial phase. Objective: The aim of this study was to elaborate a simple computer-based drawing tool to assess the mental representation of mastoidectomy. Methods: Twelve trainees in otology (five beginners, seven mid-level) and four otology experts participated in this prospective study. The image of a mastoid was displayed on a screen. All subjects reproduced the movements of mastoidectomy with a pen on a graphic tablet. Movements appeared as gray lines on the image. Surgeons were evaluated before and after a dissection course. The surface of mastoidectomy, perimeter, circularity, and the angle between traces and cavity edges were measured by Image J software. Results: The total surface of mastoidectomy was higher in experts than in mid-level and beginner trainees (respectively 99 ± 6.5%, vs 57 ± 1.5%, and 22 ± 5.6%, p < 0.01 for experts vs beginners and p < 0.05 for experts vs mid-level, ANOVA and Bonferroni). Circularity was also higher in experts than in trainees. After training, total surface and circularity increased. The angle between traces and cavity edges was lower in experts than in trainees and was reduced after training.
Evaluating the utility of ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for postconcussion syndrome following mild traumatic brain injury

The present study investigated the utility of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th edition (ICD-10) diagnostic criteria for postconcussion syndrome (PCS) symptoms by comparing symptom endorsement rates in a group of patients with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) to those of a noninjured control group at one month and three months post-injury. The 110 MTBI patients and 118 control participants were group-matched on age, gender, and education level. Seven of the nine self-reported ICD-10 PCS symptoms differentiated the groups at one month post-injury and two symptoms differentiated the groups at three months post-injury: symptom endorsement rates were higher in the MTBI group at both time periods. Fatiguing quickly and dizziness/vertigo best differentiated the groups at both time periods, while depression and anxiety/tension failed to differentiate the groups at either time period. Collectively, the ICD-10 PCS symptoms accurately classified the MTBI patients at one month post-injury, with the optimal positive test threshold of endorsement of five symptoms coinciding with a sensitivity and specificity of 73% and 61%, respectively. The ICD-10 PCS symptoms were unable to accurately classify the MTBI patients at three months post-injury. (JINS, 2006, 12, 111–118.)
Differences detected in vivo between samples of aflatoxincontaminated peanut meal, following decontamination by two ammonia-based processes

A sample of peanut meal, highly contaminated with aflatoxins, has been subjected to decontamination by two commercial ammonia-based processes. The original contaminated and the two decontaminated meals were fed to rats for 90 days. No lesions associated with aflatoxin-induced hepatocarcinogenesis were detected histologically following feeding with the two detoxified meals. There were, however, clear differences between the two meals in respect of growth rates of the rats. In addition, feeding one of the detoxified meals resulted in hepatic abnormalities detected using novel immunohistochemical reagents. Differences between the two detoxified meals were also indicated by the results of studies using meals ‘spiked’ with [14C]-aflatoxin B1 prior to being subjected to the detoxification processes. The meals differed in the bioavailability of the label. It was concluded that peanut meal where an initial, unacceptable level of contamination with aflatoxins had been reduced by two ammonia-based processes to comparable, acceptable levels, may still have different effects in vivo when incorporated into animal diets.
Mechanism for Endogenously Expressed ApoE Modulation of Adipocyte Very Low Density Lipoprotein Metabolism

Triglyceride-rich lipoproteins distribute energy in the form of fatty acids to peripheral tissues. We have previously shown that the absence of endogenous adipocyte apoE expression impairs adipocyte triglyceride acquisition from apoE-containing triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in vitro and in vivo. Studies were performed to evaluate the mechanism(s) for this impairment. We excluded a role for secreted apoE in accounting for the difference in very low density lipoprotein (VLDL)-induced adipocyte triglyceride accumulation using cross-incubation studies to show that secreted apoE did not enhance triglyceride synthesis in apoE knockout (EKO) adipocytes incubated with apoE-containing VLDL. Subsequent experiments established that both endocytic and lipase-mediated pathways for lipid acquisition from VLDL were impaired in EKO adipocytes. Binding and internalization of VLDL to EKO adipocytes were significantly lower due to decreased expression or redistribution of low density lipoprotein receptor family proteins. An important role for the VLDL receptor for contributing to differences in VLDL binding between wild-type and EKO adipocytes was identified. Lipoprotein lipase-dependent adipocyte lipogenesis was also significantly decreased in EKO adipocytes even though they secreted as much or more lipolytic activity. This decrease was related to impaired fatty acid internalization in EKO cells. Evaluation of potential mechanisms revealed reduced caveolin-1 and plasma membrane raft expression in EKO adipocytes. Increasing caveolin expression in EKO adipocytes increased fatty acid internalization. Our results establish a role for endogenous adipocyte apoE in VLDL-induced adipocyte lipogenesis by impacting both endocytic and lipoprotein lipase-mediated metabolic pathways. Reduced adipocyte apoE expression, for example that accompanying obesity, will suppress adipocyte acquisition of lipid from apoE-containing VLDL.