Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Abnormality of Nonesterified Fatty Acid Metabolism in Diabetes Mellitus

The nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) fraction of plasma, with its exceedingly rapid turnover,2 appears to be a major link in the transport of fatty acids from depots to liver and peripheral tissues.4 In normal subjects, plasma NEFA concentration falls sharply after an injection of insulin, paralleling the fall of blood glucose. On the other hand, feeding of glucose or injection of glucagon causes the two components to vary in opposite directions: Blood glucose rises while NEFA falls.6 Apparently the common denominator responsible for reduction of NEFA in these two situations is an increased utilization of glucose promoted by insulin or by an input of extra glucose in the presence of adequate endogenous insulin. Diabetic subjects show an abnormally prolonged elevation of blood sugar after a glucose load and a reduced capacity to burn carbohydrate or synthesize fat. The present studies indicate that control of NEFA concentration is likewise abnormal in diabetes. Disturbances of fat metabolism have long been recognized in diabetes, and indeed continue to cause the majority of deaths. Before insulin was available, ketosis, arising from incomplete combustion of fatty acids, was the main hazard. The defects of lipid metabolism in diabetes are now more chronic, but no less lethal. About half of the diabetics in one recent series died from coronary occlusion, and among the entire group, the great majority showed arteriosclerosis. As further evidence of faulty fat metabolism, xanthomata and fatty liver are frequently associated with diabetes, and obesity may be the forerunner of the disease. Hyperlipemia, mainly an increased concentration of the triglyceride plus phospholipid fractions in plasma of fasting subjects, occurs frequently in diabetics, especially those in poor control. In one series, studied before the availability of insulin, blood fat was found to be increased almost as consistently as blood glucose
Phenotypic, Genotypic, and Antimicrobial Characteristics of Streptococcus halichoeri Isolates from Humans, Proposal To Rename Streptococcus halichoeri as Streptococcus halichoeri subsp. halichoeri, and Description of Streptococcus halichoeri subsp. hominis subsp. nov., a Bacterium Associated with Hu

ABSTRACT Phenotypic, genotypic, and antimicrobial characteristics of six phenotypically distinct human clinical isolates that most closely resembled the type strain of Streptococcus halichoeri isolated from a seal are presented. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA, rpoB, sodA, and recN genes; comparative whole-genome analysis; conventional biochemical and Rapid ID 32 Strep identification methods; and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were performed on the human isolates, the type strain of S. halichoeri, and type strains of closely related species. The six human clinical isolates were biochemically indistinguishable from each other and showed 100% 16S rRNA, rpoB, sodA, and recN gene sequence similarity. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis revealed 98.6% similarity to S. halichoeri CCUG 48324T, 97.9% similarity to S. canis ATCC 43496T, and 97.8% similarity to S. ictaluri ATCC BAA-1300T. A 3,530-bp fragment of the rpoB gene was 98.8% similar to the S. halichoeri type strain, 84.6% to the S. canis type strain, and 83.8% to the S. ictaluri type strain. The S. halichoeri type strain and the human clinical isolates were susceptible to the antimicrobials tested based on CLSI guidelines for Streptococcus species viridans group with the exception of tetracycline and erythromycin. The human isolates were phenotypically distinct from the type strain isolated from a seal; comparative whole-genome sequence analysis confirmed that the human isolates were S. halichoeri. On the basis of these results, a novel subspecies, Streptococcus halichoeri subsp. hominis, is proposed for the human isolates and Streptococcus halichoeri subsp. halichoeri is proposed for the gray seal isolates. The type strain of the novel subspecies is SS1844T = CCUG 67100T = LMG 28801T.
Towards an improved model of dynamics for speech recognition and synthesis

This thesis describes the research on the use of non-linear formant trajectories to model speech dynamics under the framework of a multiple-level segmental hidden Markov model (MSHMM). The particular type of intermediate-layer model investigated in this study is based on the 12-dimensional parallel formant synthesiser (PFS) control parameters, which can be directly used to synthesise speech with a formant synthesiser. The non-linear formant trajectories are generated by using the speech parameter generation algorithm proposed by Tokuda and colleagues. The performance of the newly developed non-linear trajectory model of dynamics is tested against the piecewise linear trajectory model in both speech recognition and speech synthesis. In speech synthesis experiments, the 12 PFS control parameters and their time derivatives are used as the feature vectors in the HMM-based text-to-speech system. The human listening test and objective test results show that, despite the low overall quality of the synthetic speech, the non-linear trajectory model of dynamics can significantly improve the intelligibility and naturalness of the synthetic speech. Moreover, the generated non-linear formant trajectories match actual formant trajectories in real human speech fairly well. The \(\char{cmmi10}{0x4e}\)-best list rescoring paradigm is employed for the speech recognition experiments. Both context-independent and context-dependent MSHMMs, based on different formant-to-acoustic mapping schemes, are used to rescore an \(\char{cmmi10}{0x4e}\)-best list. The rescoring results show that the introduction of the non-linear trajectory model of formant dynamics results in statistically significant improvement under certain mapping schemes. In addition, the smoothing in the non-linear formant trajectories has been shown to be able to account for contextual effects such as coarticulation.
In vivo electroporetic transfer of bcl‐2 antisense oligonucleotide inhibits the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in rats

To investigate the potential use of a bcl‐2 antisense oligonucleotide for therapy against hepatocellular carcinoma, we examined the effects of the electroporetic transfer of a bcl‐2 antisense oligonucleotide on rat hepatocarcinogenesis induced by N‐nitrosomorpholine (NNM). Sprague–Dawley rats were given water containing 175 mg/l NNM for 8 weeks and received intraperitoneal injections of a bcl‐2 antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotide, a sense oligonucleotide or a scrambled sequence oligonucleotide encapsulated in empty liposomes, at a dose of 150 μg oligonucleotide/kg body weight, every 4 weeks. One hour after injection, in vivo electroporation was performed on the liver to achieve selective transfer of the oligonucleotides. By week 16, the rats that had received the bcl‐2 antisense oligonucleotide had significantly fewer and smaller precancerous liver lesions positive for glutathione‐S‐transferase (placental type), and a significantly lower incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in the electroporation zone than rats that had received the sense or the scrambled oligonucleotides. Moreover, the bcl‐2 antisense oligonucleotide significantly increased the apoptotic indices in foci, neoplastic nodules and in hepatocellular carcinomas. The expression of bcl‐2 mRNA also decreased, and 3′‐fragments of bcl‐2mRNA produced by cleavage at the antisense target site were detected in rat liver. Mean cellular fluorescence in the liver increased with higher doses of fluorescein‐isothiocyanate‐labeled antisense or sense oligonucleotides. Our results show that the electroporetic transfer of bcl‐2 antisense oligonucleotide can inhibit rat hepatocarcinogenesis. Int. J. Cancer 85:260–266, 2000. ©2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparative efficacies of ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin alone or in combination with fosfomycin in experimental endocarditis induced by multidrug-susceptible and -resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The in vivo efficacy of ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin alone or in combination with fosfomycin was evaluated in experimental aortic valve endocarditis induced in 133 rabbits by a multidrug-susceptible or multidrug-resistant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Therapy was initiated early (12 h after infection), when bacterial counts in aortic valve vegetations were relatively low, or late (48 h after infection), when vegetations contained a larger inoculum. Antibodies were administered as a continuous 24-h intravenous infusion. Mean steady-state levels of ciprofloxacin (64 mg/kg), pefloxacin (64 mg/kg), and fosfomycin (300 mg/kg) in serum were 2.5, 4.2, and 63.9 mg/liter, respectively. For the multidrug-susceptible strain, all regimens except pefloxacin alone significantly reduced the number of CFU per gram of vegetation versus controls, whether treatment was performed early or late. For the multidrug-resistant strain, none of the regimens showed differences from untreated controls, except ciprofloxacin-fosfomycin, which significantly reduced bacterial counts in vegetations compared with controls when therapy was begun early (4.1 +/- 1.1 log10 CFU/g of vegetation; P < 0.001 versus the control). These data suggest that combination of fosfomycin with ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin is more effective than ciprofloxacin or pefloxacin alone for the therapy of severe infections caused by multidrug-susceptible P. aeruginosa.
The restaurant at the end of the random walk: recent developments in the description of anomalous transport by fractional dynamics

Fractional dynamics has experienced a firm upswing during the past few years, having been forged into a mature framework in the theory of stochastic processes. A large number of research papers developing fractional dynamics further, or applying it to various systems have appeared since our first review article on the fractional Fokker–Planck equation (Metzler R and Klafter J 2000a, Phys. Rep. 339 1–77). It therefore appears timely to put these new works in a cohesive perspective. In this review we cover both the theoretical modelling of sub- and superdiffusive processes, placing emphasis on superdiffusion, and the discussion of applications such as the correct formulation of boundary value problems to obtain the first passage time density function. We also discuss extensively the occurrence of anomalous dynamics in various fields ranging from nanoscale over biological to geophysical and environmental systems.
A neural network model for the mechanism of selective attention in visual pattern recognition

When a complex figure consisting of two or more patterns is presented, we, as human beings, can selectively concentrate on these patterns one at a time, and recognize individual patterns in turn. At the same time, we can separate a component of the pattern being recognized, and extract it from the rest of the figure. Even if one of the patterns on which we are concentrating contains noise or defects, we can recall a complete pattern from which the noise and the defects have been eliminated. It is not necessary for perfect recall that the stimulus pattern be identical in shape to the pattern which we learned. Even though the pattern is distorted in shape or changed in size, we can recognize it and eliminate defects by interpolation. During the process of interpolation, we make full use of even slight traces in the defective parts of the pattern on which we are selectively concentrating, and recall the perfect original pattern. A model which performs this function of the human brain, that is, of the function of the selective concentration in visual pattern recognition, is proposed, and its behavior is demonstrated by computer simulation. The model consists of a hierarchical neural network which has efferent connections between cells.
Visualizing Underwater Environments Using Multifrequency Sonar

This article introduces seabed visualization by describing three case studies that use a high-speed, multifrequency, continuous scan sonar called the Seabed Visualization System. The case studies involve: modeling a harbour wall in Holland, permitting a virtual inspection of the harbour environment; visualizing a sunken military vessel, the SS Richard Montgomery; and visualizing underwater pipelines in Easington, England.
Comparison of Grid Code Requirements with Wind Turbine in China and Europe

A research on differences of latest Grid Code requirements for wind farm integration between China and selected EU countries are conducted. The similarities and differences of these Grid Codes in the aspects of active power/frequency control, reactive power/voltage control and fault ride-through capability are compared. The main causes of these differences are investigated and the author tried to predict the future trend of regulations.
Selective agonists and antagonists for 5‐hydroxytryptamine receptor subtypes, and interactions with yohimbine and FG 7142 using the elevated plus‐maze test in the rat

The effects of some 5‐HT receptor ligands were investigated on measures of anxiety in an elevated plus‐maze test in the rat. Quipazine (2 and 4 mg kg−1), a non‐specific 5‐HT agonist and ritanserin (0ṁ25‐10 mg kg−1), a 5‐HT2 receptor antagonist displayed anxiogenic profiles by reducing both of the measures of anxiety used in this test. Two 5‐HT1A receptor ligands, buspirone (4 and 8 mg kg−1) and ipsapirone (2.5‐10 mg kg−1) and the 5‐HT1 agonist, RU 24969 (0ṁ1875‐1ṁ5 mg kg−1) significantly reduced only the percentage of time spent on the open arms. (‐)‐Propranolol (5 and 10 mg kg−1), a 5‐HT1 receptor antagonist significantly reduced only the percentage of entries made onto the open arms. Metergoline (4 mg kg−1), a non‐specific 5‐HT antagonist displayed anxiolytic effects in this test by increasing both measures of anxiety. The 5‐HT1A receptor agonist, 8‐OH‐DPAT (0ṁ0625‐0dependent manner in25 mg kg−1) had no effect on either of the measures of anxiety. The results from the non‐specific ligands (quipazine and metergoline) are consistent with the theory that a reduction in 5‐HT function reduces anxiety. However, in spite of their more selective effects on 5‐HT receptors the results in this test from the more specific ligands are not consistent with a strong involvement of any single receptor subtype. The interaction studies with yohimbine and FG 7142 (β‐carboline‐3‐carboxylate methylamide) provided no clear evidence for a major role of 5‐HT pathways in the mediation of their anxiogenic effects.
The current biology of resistin

Obesity and noninsulin‐dependent diabetes mellitus are globally epidemic. Insulin resistance is a major contributor to the pathogenesis of type II diabetes and plays a role in numerous other metabolic disorders including hypertension, dyslipidaemia and atherosclerosis. Obesity, in particular visceral adiposity, is positively correlated with insulin resistance. Although this correlation between adiposity and insulin resistance is well established in human beings as well as in rodent models, the mechanisms involved in obesity‐related insulin resistance are not fully defined. One mechanism is that factors secreted from adipocytes can affect peripheral insulin resistance. One candidate for such a factor is resistin, an adipocyte‐secreted hormone that impairs glucose homeostasis and insulin action in the mouse. This review will summarize our current understanding of resistin and will attempt to provide a framework for future study of its role in rodent and human physiology.
Improved Wavelet Neural Network to Predict Blast Furnace Gas Production in Iron and Steel Enterprises

Byproduct gas is an important secondary energy, which is the crux in the reduction of emission and energy consumption in the iron and steel industries. Due to the high emission rate of blast furnace gas, effective prediction of gas productions significance to the gas scheduling for saving energy and reducing emission. In this paper, dynamic incremental learning is introduced into the wavelet neural network to form an improved wavelet neural network. It is proposed to predict the dynamic occurrence of blast furnace gas after deeply analyzed current situation of byproduct gas in steel enterprises. By using this method to a real industrial problem, it can be seen that the improved wavelet neural network has a smaller relative error and higher prediction accuracy, comparing with the simple gradient descent learning method.
The power and promise of RNA‐seq in ecology and evolution

Reference is regularly made to the power of new genomic sequencing approaches. Using powerful technology, however, is not the same as having the necessary power to address a research question with statistical robustness. In the rush to adopt new and improved genomic research methods, limitations of technology and experimental design may be initially neglected. Here, we review these issues with regard to RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq). RNA‐seq adds large‐scale transcriptomics to the toolkit of ecological and evolutionary biologists, enabling differential gene expression (DE) studies in nonmodel species without the need for prior genomic resources. High biological variance is typical of field‐based gene expression studies and means that larger sample sizes are often needed to achieve the same degree of statistical power as clinical studies based on data from cell lines or inbred animal models. Sequencing costs have plummeted, yet RNA‐seq studies still underutilize biological replication. Finite research budgets force a trade‐off between sequencing effort and replication in RNA‐seq experimental design. However, clear guidelines for negotiating this trade‐off, while taking into account study‐specific factors affecting power, are currently lacking. Study designs that prioritize sequencing depth over replication fail to capitalize on the power of RNA‐seq technology for DE inference. Significant recent research effort has gone into developing statistical frameworks and software tools for power analysis and sample size calculation in the context of RNA‐seq DE analysis. We synthesize progress in this area and derive an accessible rule‐of‐thumb guide for designing powerful RNA‐seq experiments relevant in eco‐evolutionary and clinical settings alike.
Cosmic-Ray Muon Tracker in CLEO III

Cosmic-ray muons trigger events that are devoid of experimental wealth. Using information from the muon chamber, it was hypothesized that an algorithm could be developed that would be able to reconstruct muon trajectories to determine whether or not the event was triggered falsely. This was shown to be true if a few assumptions were made about the muons and geometry of the muon chambers. The algorithm developed shows that muon trajectories could be reconstructed, which makes implementation of a similar muon tracking program into Level 3 a feasible goal.
Combining precession electron diffraction data with X-ray powder diffraction data to facilitate structure solution

Information derived from precession electron diffraction (PED) patterns can be used to advantage in combination with high-resolution X-ray powder diffraction data to solve crystal structures that resist solution from X-ray data alone. PED data have been exploited in two different ways for this purpose: (1) to identify weak reflections and (2) to estimate the phases of the reflections in the projection. The former is used to improve the partitioning of the reflection intensities within an overlap group and the latter to provide some starting phases for structure determination. The information was incorporated into a powder charge-flipping algorithm for structure solution. The approaches were first developed using data for the moderately complex zeolite ZSM-5, and then tested on TNU-9, one of the two most complex zeolites known. In both cases, including PED data from just a few projections facilitated structure solution significantly.
CSF tau is related to apolipoprotein E genotype in early Alzheimer's disease

We quantified microtubule-associated protein tau in CSF (CSF tau) using ELISA assay in 168 subjects: 81 patients with clinically diagnosed early Alzheimer's disease (AD), 43 patients with other dementia, 11 Down's syndrome patients, and 33 nondemented neurologic control subjects. Multivariate ANOVA showed an effect on diagnostic group (p < 0.01) and apolipoprotein E (apoE) allele (p < 0.005) on CSF tau. Comparison between diagnostic groups showed higher CSF tau levels in AD than in the control group (p < 0.001). However, CSF tau values in the non-AD dementia group did not differ significantly from those of AD patients or neurologic control subjects. Tau levels were increased(p < 0.005) in AD patients with apolipoprotein E ϵ4 allele, a well-characterized risk factor of AD, compared with AD patients without ϵ4 allele, and the highest values were found in AD patients with two ϵ4 alleles. These increased levels of CSF tau may indicate pronounced neuronal degeneration and neurofibrillar pathology at the early stage of AD in patients carrying the ϵ4 allele. This study shows that the current ELISA test for CSF tau is not sensitive and specific enough to distinguish early AD from other dementias and indicates that in the interpretation of CSF tau analysis as a diagnostic tool, the apoE genotype should also be taken into account.
Human infection with monkeypox virus: laboratory investigation of six cases in West Africa.

Between September 1970 and May 1971 six cases of human infection with monkeypox virus were identified in three West African countries-Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria. Four of the cases were confirmed by viral isolation, and two were diagnosed on epidemiological and serological evidence. Poxvirus strains isolated from the four cases were indistinguishable from reference monkeypox strains (Copenhagen and Utrecht), and all were easily differentiated from variola and vaccinia viruses. The isolated strains produced small necrotic haemorrhagic pocks on CAM, grew well at 39.0 degrees C, formed large plaques in Vero cell cultures, showed markedly more virulence for chick embryos and mice than do variola strains, and produced large necrotic haemorrhagic local lesions with generalized illness and florid secondary exanthem when inoculated into rabbit skin.The finding of smallpox-like illness in humans resulting from infection with a poxvirus of lower animal origin serves to emphasize the importance of thorough epidemiological and laboratory evaluation of all suspect smallpox cases occurring in areas where smallpox has been or is about to be eradicated.
Mania following temporal lobectomy

Objective: To determine clinical and diagnostic variables that predict the development of mania after temporal lobectomy for treatment of refractory epilepsy. Methods: From a large surgical database, 16 patients with new-onset mania after temporal lobectomy were identified. Mania patients were frequency matched for age, gender, and laterality of surgery to 16 temporal lobectomy patients with no postoperative mood disorder. These groups were compared on pre- and postoperative clinical and diagnostic data with each other and with 30 patients with depression after temporal lobectomy. Posthoc analyses compared mania and depression groups with the general surgical database matched for gender and laterality of surgery. Results: Preoperative evaluations in postoperative mania patients, in particular EEG, were more likely to yield findings of brain dysfunction localizing to the hemisphere contralateral to temporal lobectomy. Right temporal lobectomy was more common in the postoperative mania group. Duration of manic episodes was usually transient, and all but one case remitted within 1 year after onset. In comparison with the control group, mania and depression groups had a higher likelihood for preoperative generalized tonic–clonic seizures and lack of seizure freedom following surgery. Conclusions: A limitation of this study was the relatively small number of patients. Despite this, clinical features that distinguish patients at risk for postoperative mania from those with depression and those with no psychiatric illness include bihemispheric abnormalities, in particular bitemporal EEG activity, and right temporal lobectomy.