Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of spleen colonies derived from mice with mutations at the w locus

Mice with mutations at the W locus have a hemopoietic stem cell defect characterized by an apparent deficiency of spleen colony forming cells (CFU‐S). In the present report, we provide evidence that mutant cells form colonies and we compare the characteristics of the colonies derived from mutant and normal cells. To perform the colony‐derivation studies, marrow cells were transferred into lethally irradiated congenic hosts that differed from the donors in the ubiquitous genetic marker, glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI‐1). Donor GPI‐1 comprised over 50% of the marker in the host spleen and marrow by 12 days post injection, regardless of whether the donor was mutant or normal. To characterize the colonies, serially sectioned host spleens were examined microscopically. Colonies are present by 8 days post‐transplantation regardless of donor genotype, but mutant colonies are distinctly different from normal colonies. The proportion of blast and granulocyte colonies is always greater in W/Wv than in +/+ recipients. Unlike the W/Wv donors, the +/+ donors generate primarily erythrocyte colonies at 8, 10, and 14 days and mixed colonies at 12 days post‐injection. Colonies from the mutant mice are generally smaller but visible colonies do appear by 12 days. The results are consistent with the notion that the anemia in W/Wv mice is caused by the early restriction of differentiating cells to a non‐erythrocyte lineage accompanied by the delayed amplification of mutant hemopoietic cells. Whether this means erythrocyte‐committed cells are absent or are present but unable to respond to the appropriate cytokines is not possible to determine from the current experiments.
Enalapril in the prevention of restenosis following intracoronary intervention in a swine model

BackgroundRestenosis following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty continues to be a major limitation of the procedure. To test whether an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor may reduce restenosis, this study utilized an atherosclerotic, stented, Hanford miniature swine model of restenosis. MethodsEach animal first was started on an atherogenic diet and had balloon abrasion of the left anterior descending and right coronary arteries. Four months later, balloon-mounted coil stents were placed into the abraded coronary arteries of each animal. Twenty-four animals then were randomly assigned to one of two groups: enalapril, and control. The enalapril group received 50 mg orally twice daily starting 1 week before intracoronary stenting. ResultsFollow-up 2 months later revealed angiographie stenosis in the control group of 30% ±13%/25% ±10% (left anterior descending/right coronary artery) versus 37% ± 9%/20% ±11% in the enalapril group (P=not significant). The change in minimal lumen diameter from immediately after stenting to follow-up was not significantly different between control and enalapril groups. Area stenosis and maximal intimai thickness obtained by morphometric analysis were also compared, and the mean percentage area stenosis for the control group was 39 ±12%/31% ±16% and for enalapril 36% ± 14%/35% ±19%. The maximal intimai thickness in the control group was 573 urn ± 204 um/605 um ± 266 μm and in the enalapril group 530 um ± 220 μm/424 um ± 237 μm. There was no statistical difference. ConclusionsEnalapril fails to reduce restenosis in this animal model.
Scattering Analysis of Nonperiodic Composite Metallic and Dielectric Structures Using Synthetic Functions

A synthetic basis functions method (SBFM) is used to analyze scattering properties of nonperiodic composite metallic and dielectric structures. Specifically, the model of targets hidden in jungles is analyzed here. We first propose a new approach on synthetic functions’ construction. It constructs synthetic functions for PEC bodies and dielectric bodies independently in a mixed problem. Then, we theoretically explain that the new constructing method can decrease computational complexity and memory cost of synthetic functions’ expansion coefficients matrix compared to traditional ways. Moreover, the approach can be used to analyze nonperiodic mixed structures in an efficient way. Finally, effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed approach are validated by both simulating and measured results.
Characterization of a Cardiorenal-like Syndrome in Aged Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

Cardiorenal syndrome involves disease and dysfunction of the heart that leads to progressive renal dysfunction. This study investigated the relationship between cardiac and renal disease in 91 aged chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility by evaluation of the medical histories, metabolic parameters, functional measurements of the cardiovascular system, clinical pathology, and histopathology focused on the heart and kidney. Cardiac fibrosis was the most frequent microscopic finding in 82 of 91 animals (90%), followed by glomerulosclerosis with tubulointerstitial fibrosis in 63 of 91 (69%). Cardiac fibrosis with attendant glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis was observed in 58 of 91 animals (63%); there was a statistically significant association between the 2 conditions. As the severity of cardiac fibrosis increased, there was corresponding increase in severity of glomerulosclerosis with tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Altered metabolic, cardiovascular, and clinical pathology parameters indicative of heart and kidney failure were commonly associated with the moderate to severe microscopic changes, and concurrent heart and kidney failure were considered the cause of death. The constellation of findings in the chimpanzees were similar to cardiorenal syndrome in humans.
Metabolic syndrome is strongly associated with chronic subclinical inflammation in patients achieving optimal low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels in secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

BACKGROUND The dual goals of low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and C-reactive protein (CRP) reduction are important for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. However, the relevant factors of subclinical inflammation in patients with optimal LDL-C were not clearly demonstrated. This study sought to test the hypothesis that the metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with subclinical inflammation in patients achieving optimal LDL-C. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 227 Japanese subjects with a prior history of ischemic heart disease and optimal LDL-C (LDL-C <100 mg/dl) were enrolled. When compared with patients with low CRP (<0.1 mg/dl), those with a high CRP (> or =0.1 mg/dl) had a significantly higher prevalence of visceral obesity, elevated triglyceride, lower high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), hypertension, impaired fasting glucose, and a higher prevalence of MetS. A linear relationship between an increase in number of MetS components and CRP was observed (trend, p<0.001). In multivariate logistic analysis, visceral obesity (odds ratio 6.54; 95% confidence interval 2.99-14.3), low HDL-C (2.78; 1.09-7.12) and impaired fasting glucose (6.72; 3.30-13.7), and MetS (10.4; 5.18-20.7) were associated with higher CRP. CONCLUSIONS MetS is well associated with higher CRP concentrations in patients who achieved optimal LDL-C levels.
Over‐expression of hsp70 confers tumorigenicity to mouse fibrosarcoma cells

Over‐expression of the major heat‐shock protein hsp70 in WEHI‐S tumor cells renders them resistant to the cytotoxic effects of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). To study the significance of this resistance in vivo, the tumorigenic potential of WEHI‐S cells transfected with human hsp70 in sense and anti‐sense orientation was investigated in athymic and in normal syngenic mice. A striking correlation was observed between the level of hsp70 expression and tumorigenicity in athymic mice. Hsp70 expression rendered WEHI cells tumorigenic also in normal mice, but higher numbers of cells were required for tumor formation than in athymic mice. Over‐expression of hsp70 in WEHI‐S cells did not enhance their anchorage‐dependent growth in vitro or their ability to form colonies in soft agar. The hsp70‐transfected cells exhibited greatly increased resistance against killing by murine natural cytotoxic cells and macrophages in vitro. A similar tumorigenic phenotype could also be induced independently of hsp70 by prolonged culture of WEHI‐S cells with TNF. These results suggest that over‐expression of hsp70 increases the tumorigenic potential of WEHI‐S cells in mice, by allowing these cells to escape from the early TNF‐mediated anti‐tumor immune surveillance.
Chapter 14 Discovery of Structural Motifs Using Protein Structural Alphabets and 1 D Motif-Finding Methods

Although the increasing number of available 3D proteins structures has made a wide variety of computational protein structure research possible, yet the success is still hindered by the high 3D computational complexity. Based on 3D information, several 1D protein structural alphabets have been developed, which can not only describe the global folding structure of a protein as a 1D sequence, but can also characterize local structures in proteins. Instead of applying computationally intensive 3D structure alignment tools, we introduce an approach that combines standard 1D motif detection methods with structural alphabets to discover locally conserved protein motifs. These 1D structural motifs can characterize protein groups at different levels, e.g., families, super families, and folds in SCOP, as group features.
Complete chaos synchronization of six-term Sundarapandian chaotic systems with exponential nonlinearity via active and adaptive control

Recently, a new six-term 3-D chaotic system with an exponential nonlinearity was discovered (Sundarapandian, 2013). This novel chaotic system has two saddle focus nodes and hence they are unstable. The maximal Lyapunov exponent (MLE) for the six-term Sundarapandian chaotic system was found as 3.2827 and the Lyapunov dimension of the Sundarapandian chaotic system was found as DL = 2.1668. Complete synchronization of chaotic systems deals with the problem of asymptotically synchronizing the states of a pair of chaotic systems called as master and slave systems with the help of controllers attached to the slave system. Complete synchronization of chaotic systems has applications in many engineering areas such as secure communications, secure data encryption, cryptosystems, etc. This paper addresses the design of active and adaptive feedback controllers for completely synchronizing the states of identical six-term Sundarapandian chaotic systems with exponential nonlinearity. Active controllers are used when the system parameters a, b and c are available for measurement and the synchronization result is established using Lyapunov stability theory. Numerical simulations using MATLAB have been shown to demonstrate the proposed active and adaptive synchronization results for the novel chaotic system discussed in this paper.
LDA Merging and Splitting With Applications to Multiagent Cooperative Learning and System Alteration

To adapt linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to real-world applications, there is a pressing need to equip it with an incremental learning ability to integrate knowledge presented by one-pass data streams, a functionality to join multiple LDA models to make the knowledge sharing between independent learning agents more efficient, and a forgetting functionality to avoid reconstruction of the overall discriminant eigenspace caused by some irregular changes. To this end, we introduce two adaptive LDA learning methods: LDA merging and LDA splitting. These provide the benefits of ability of online learning with one-pass data streams, retained class separability identical to the batch learning method, high efficiency for knowledge sharing due to condensed knowledge representation by the eigenspace model, and more preferable time and storage costs than traditional approaches under common application conditions. These properties are validated by experiments on a benchmark face image data set. By a case study on the application of the proposed method to multiagent cooperative learning and system alternation of a face recognition system, we further clarified the adaptability of the proposed methods to complex dynamic learning tasks.
Mammary tuberculosis: report on 52 cases

Fifty two cases of tuberculosis of the breast encountered over a 15 year period and accounting for 3% of all breast lesions are reported. The classic presentation was a breast lump with associated sinus in 39%, isolated breast lump in 23%, sinus without lump in 12%, and tender nodularity in 23% of the patients. Associated axillary lymphadenopathy was found in 41%. Diagnosis was confirmed by fine needle aspiration cytology or histology in all the cases and antitubercular therapy formed the mainstay of treatment.
Effect of chlorhexidine whole-body bathing on hospital-acquired infections among trauma patients.

OBJECTIVE To demonstrate whether daily bathing with cloths impregnated with 2% chlorhexidine gluconate will decrease colonization of resistant bacteria and reduce the rates of health care-associated infections in critically injured patients. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of data collected 6 months before and after institution of a chlorhexidine bathing protocol. SETTING A 12-bed intensive care unit in a level I trauma center. PATIENTS Two hundred eighty-six severely injured patients underwent daily chlorhexidine bathing during the 6-month intervention; 253 patients were bathed without chlorhexidine prior to the intervention. INTERVENTIONS Daily chlorhexidine bathing. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES Rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), bloodstream infection, and colonization with resistant organisms (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] or Acinetobacter species). RESULTS Baseline patient and injury characteristics were similar between cohorts. Patients receiving chlorhexidine baths were significantly less likely to acquire a catheter-related bloodstream infection than comparators (2.1 vs 8.4 infections per 1000 catheter-days, P = .01). The incidence of VAP was not affected by chlorhexidine baths (16.9 vs 21.6 infections per 1000 ventilator-days in those with vs those without chlorhexidine baths, respectively, P = .30). However, patients who received chlorhexidine baths were less likely to develop MRSA VAP (1.6 vs 5.7 infections per 1000 ventilator-days, P = .03). The rate of colonization with MRSA (23.3 vs 69.3 per 1000 patient-days, P < .001) and Acinetobacter (1.0 vs 4.6 per 1000 patient-days, P = .36) was significantly lower in the chlorhexidine group than in the comparison group. CONCLUSIONS Daily bathing of trauma patients with cloths impregnated with 2% chlorhexidine gluconate is associated with a decreased rate of colonization by MRSA and Acinetobacter and lower rates of catheter-related bloodstream infection and MRSA VAP.
Equal levels of gp120 retention and neutralization resistance of phenotypically distinct primary human immunodeficiency virus type 1 variants upon soluble CD4 treatment

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) variants passaged in T-cell lines, often called laboratory isolates, are potently neutralized by soluble CD4 (sCD4), whereas primary HIV-1 variants are highly resistant to sCD4 neutralization. Previously, it was demonstrated that the domain from V1 to V3 of the HIV-1 gp120 molecule contains one of the major determinants of sCD4 neutralization sensitivity, and the same region has also been implicated as influencing syncytium-inducing (SI) capacity and T-cell-line tropism. To determine possible differences in sCD4 neutralization sensitivity between phenotypically distinct primary HIV-1 variants, a panel of non-syncytium-inducing (NSI) and SI HIV-1 variants was studied. Primary NSI and SI HIV-1 variants appeared to be equally resistant to sCD4 neutralization. Consistent with this observation, sCD4 did not induce gp120 shedding from either primary NSI or SI HIV-1 variants at 37 degrees C. Thus, it is not the potential of certain primary HIV-1 variants to infect T-cell lines but rather their adaptation to T-cell lines that is reflected in specific properties of the viral envelope which influence sCD4 neutralization sensitivity.
CCR5 Antagonists: Host-Targeted Antiviral Agents for the Treatment of HIV Infection, 4 Years on

The chemokine coreceptor 5 (CCR5) antagonists are antiretroviral agents with an extracellular, host-targeted mechanism of action against HIV. Maraviroc, the first-in-class CCR5 antagonist, received regulatory approval in 2007, becoming the first oral antiretroviral from a new class in more than 10 years. Other compounds in this class are in various stages of clinical development. In 2005, we reviewed the limited clinical data then available on CCR5 antagonists. In this follow-up review, we revisit the field and assess the clinical and virological data that have emerged in the 4 years since, with particular reference to maraviroc for which the most comprehensive data currently exist.
Royal College surgical objectives of urologic training: A survey of faculty members from Canadian training programs.

INTRODUCTION According to the Royal College objectives of training in urology, urologic surgical procedures are divided as category A, B and C. We wanted to determine the level of proficiency required and achieved by urology training faculty for Royal College accreditation. METHODS We conducted a survey that was sent electronically to all Canadian urology training faculty. Questions focused on demographics (i.e., years of practice, geographic location, subspecialty, access to robotic surgery), operating room contact with residents, opinion on the level of proficiency required from a list of 54 surgical procedures, and whether their most recent graduates attained category A proficiency in these procedures. RESULTS The response rate was 43.7% (95/217). Among respondents, 92.6% were full timers, 21.1% practiced urology for less than 5 years and 3.2% for more than 30 years. Responses from Quebec and Ontario formed 69.4% (34.7% each). Of the respondents, 37.9% were uro-oncologists and 75.7% reported having access to robotic surgery. Sixty percent of faculty members operate with R5 residents between 2 to 5 days per month. When respondents were asked which categories should be listed as category A, only 8 procedures received 100% agreement. Also, results varied significantly when analyzed by sub-specialty. For example, almost 50% or more of uro-oncologists believed that radical cystectomy, anterior pelvic exenteration and extended pelvic lymphadenectomy should not be category A. The following procedures had significant disagreement suggesting the need for re-classification: glanular hypospadias repair, boari flap, entero-vesical and vesicovaginal fistulae repair. Overall, more than 80% of faculty reported that their recent graduating residents had achieved category A proficiency, in a subset of procedures. However, more than 50% of all faculty either disagreed or were ambivalent that all of their graduating residents were Category A proficient in several procedures. CONCLUSIONS There is sufficient disagreement among Canadian urology faculty to suggest another revision of the current Royal College list of category A procedures.
Conformational modeling of elastin tetrapeptide Boc-Gly-Leu-Gly-Gly-NMe by molecular dynamics simulations with improvements to the thermalization procedure.

Molecular Dynamics Simulations (MD) at Constant-Temperature or Constant-total Energy for the conformational Global-Minimum (GM) of elastin tetrapeptide Boc-Gly-Leu-Gly-Gly-NMe have been performed. The thermalization problem concerning the initial state of Constant-Temperature MD has been solved developing two effective strategies. In the first one, the run starts from the room-temperature state reached by Molecular Dynamics Simulated Annealing (SA). In the second one, one starts from the annealed-state at low-temperature and performs a long constant-low-temperature run until the initial conformer is perfectly equilibrated. Then, the low-temperature equilibrated-state is used as initial state for MD at room-temperature. heuristic criteria on order to define the onset of steady-state have been established monitoring the hystories of collective parameters (e.g., the total energy, temperature, end-to-end distance, etc.) and their amplitude fluctuations. Moreover, the equilibrium between the system and the heat bath is verified analyzing the total linear momentum conservation by the time evolution of center mass velocity. The slow drift of total energy during Constant-total Energy MD has been corrected using a loose coupling between the system and the heat bath. Moreover, we have verified that the roto-translational motions do not affect significantly the properties of molecular vibrations. The librations of peptide unit inside the type II beta-turn [Gly1]C = 0 . HN[Gly4], previously detected, were confirmed. Large -Gly-Gly- chain motions were identified and modeled as fluctuations occurring between the tetratepeptide GM and the saddle-point corresponding to the transition state of the conversion toward the extended-chain conformation. All these peptide motions could contribute to the elasticity mechanism of elastin.
Design and use of peptide‐based antibodies decreasing superoxide production by mitochondrial complex I and complex II

Mitochondria are the major source of reactive oxygen species. Both complex I and complex II mediate O 2•− production in mitochondria and host reactive protein thiols. To explore the functions of the specific domains involved in the redox modifications of complexes I and II, various peptide‐based antibodies were generated against these complexes, and their inhibitory effects were subsequently measured. The redox domains involved in S‐glutathionylation and nitration, as well as the binding motif of the iron–sulfur cluster (N1a) of the complexes I and II were utilized to design B‐cell epitopes for generating antibodies. The effect of antibody binding on enzyme‐mediated O 2•− generation was measured by EPR spin trapping. Binding of either antibody AbGSCA206 or AbGSCB367 against glutathione (GS)‐binding domain to complex I inhibit its O 2•− generation, but does not affect electron transfer efficiency. Binding of antibody (Ab24N1a) against the binding motif of N1a to complex I modestly suppresses both O 2•− generation and electron transfer efficiency. Binding of either antibody Ab75 or Ab24 against nonredox domain decreases electron leakage for O 2•− production. In complex II, binding of antibody AbGSC90 against GS‐binding domain to complex II marginally decreases both O 2•− generation and electron transfer activity. Binding of antibody AbY142 to complex II against the nitrated domain modestly inhibits electron leakage, but does not affect the electron transfer activity of complex II. In conclusion, mediation of O 2•− generation by complexes I and II can be regulated by specific redox and nonredox domains. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers (Pept Sci) 96: 207–221, 2011.