Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New Associated Structures of the Anterior Flagella of Giardia duodenalis

Abstract Giardia duodenalis is a protozoan parasite that causes intestinal disorders. The trophozoites present four pairs of flagella. Here we further analyze the structural organization of the anterior flagella associated structures of G. duodenalis. High resolution scanning electron microscopy of detergent-extracted trophozoites revealed novel aspects of the interaction of the anterior flagella axonemes with the marginal plates. Images of the marginal plates showed that it was located in the anterior region of the parasite, above the crossing point of the anterior flagella axonemes toward the periphery of the cell. Two well distinguished structures were seen associated with the anterior flagella. The first one corresponds to the “dense rods”, located just below the axoneme. The second one is a system of filaments located in the upper portion of the flagellum, facing the marginal plates and connecting these two structures. The thickness of the filaments is around 18 nm and they are spaced at intervals of 4–32 nm (average 18 nm). The length of the filaments may vary from 33 to 240 nm. We suggest that this filamentous structure of Giardia may help the dynamics and behavior of the anterior flagella of trophozoites during protozoan motility and adhesion, providing favorable conditions for the establishment of parasitism.
Epidemiological time series studies of PM2.5 and daily mortality and hospital admissions: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Short-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter (particles with a median aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5)) air pollution has been associated with adverse health effects. Existing literature reviews have been limited in size and scope. Methods We conducted a comprehensive, systematic review and meta-analysis of 110 peer-reviewed time series studies indexed in medical databases to May 2011 to assess the evidence for associations between PM2.5 and daily mortality and hospital admissions for a range of diseases and ages. We stratified our analyses by geographical region to determine the consistency of the evidence worldwide and investigated small study bias. Results Based upon 23 estimates for all-cause mortality, a 10 µg/m3 increment in PM2.5 was associated with a 1.04% (95% CI 0.52% to 1.56%) increase in the risk of death. Worldwide, there was substantial regional variation (0.25% to 2.08%). Associations for respiratory causes of death were larger than for cardiovascular causes, 1.51% (1.01% to 2.01%) vs 0.84% (0.41% to 1.28%). Positive associations with mortality for most other causes of death and for cardiovascular and respiratory hospital admissions were also observed. We found evidence for small study bias in single-city mortality studies and in multicity studies of cardiovascular disease. Conclusions The consistency of the evidence for adverse health effects of short-term exposure to PM2.5 across a range of important health outcomes and diseases supports policy measures to control PM2.5 concentrations. However, reasons for heterogeneity in effect estimates in different regions of the world require further investigation. Small study bias should also be considered in assessing and quantifying health risks from PM2.5.
Subcarrier Reliability Aware Soft-Decision LDPC Code in CO-OFDM Systems

We propose a subcarrier reliability aware low-density parity-check (SRA-LDPC) soft-decision coding scheme for coherent optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CO-OFDM) systems. The SRA-LDPC code takes consideration of varying signal-to-noise ratio performance among different OFDM subcarriers. At the SRA-LDPC encoder, flexible forward error correction is applied to different ranges of subcarriers. At the decoder, the algorithm keeps track of noise variance of each subcarrier and utilizes such variance for decoding. Our proposed algorithm is substantiated in a 120-Gb/s CO-OFDM system where near-dc noise originated from the local oscillator is detrimental to the system performance. The experimental results show that the SRA-LDPC code is effective in combating near-dc noise and enhancing the receiver sensitivity.
The deleterious effects of exogenous angiotensin I and angiotensin II on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Angiotensin II is well known to have a cardiotoxic effects. However, it is still unclear whether exogenous angiotensin I or angiotensin II has a deleterious effect on myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury. To examine this deleterious effects, we administered angiotensin I and angiotensin II to perfused hearts before ischemia, and measured creatine kinase (CK) release and cardiac function during subsequent reperfusion. Wistar Kyoto rats were used and the hearts were perfused by the Langendorff technique at a constant flow (10 ml/min). Seven hearts were perfused for 20 min and then subjected to 15 min of global ischemia (Control). In the experimental groups, during the 5 min before ischemia, we administered 100 ng/ml angiotensin I (Ang I; n = 9), 1 microgram/ml enalaprilat (ACEI; n = 5), both agents (ACEI + Ang I) (n = 6), or 10 ng/ml angiotensin II (Ang II; n = 6). The perfusates were then sampled to measure angiotensin II. After 15 min of ischemia, the hearts were reperfused with control perfusate. Throughout the 20 min of reperfusion, the effluent was collected to measure cumulative CK release. Angiotensin I increased coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) by 32 +/- 4 mmHg, however, the angiotension converting enzyme inhibitor inhibited the increase of CPP by angiotension I (11 +/- 1 mmHg) (p < 0.01). The contents of angiotensin II in the effluent in Ang I and Ang I + ACEI were 11.5 +/- 1.9 ng/ml and 4.0 +/- 0.5 ng/ml (p < 0.01). After 20 min of reperfusion, the left ventricular developed pressure was unchanged in all of the groups. CPP was also unchanged by ischemia in all of the groups. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Mort subite et complexes moléculaires des canaux ioniques cardiaques

L'activite electrique cardiaque est le resultat du fonctionnement de multiples canaux ioniques responsables des differents courants. L'alteration d’origine genetique de certains de ces canaux, ou de leurs partenaires regulateurs est responsable de troubles du rythme conduisant a la mort subite. I. Le canal Nav1. 5 : par une approche gene candidat, le variant R222Q de Nav1. 5 a ete identifie chez les individus atteints d’une arythmie cardiaque nouvellement decrite, la tachycardie multifocale automatique du Purkinje. L'etude fonctionnelle de ce variant montre un gain de fonction du canal Nav1. 5 qui, introduite dans un modele multicellulaire informatique, provoque de fortes modifications de l'activite electrique des cellules de Purkinje a l'origine d'extrasystoles ventriculaires. II. Le canal Cav1. 2 : le criblage d'une cohorte de patients atteints du syndrome du QT court a permis d'identifier le variant A223P du canal Cav1. 2 chez un patient. Le propositus presente, en plus du variant A223P, des variants heterozygotes composites du transporteur de la carnitine OCTN2. L'etude fonctionnelle du variant A223P a permis de mettre en evidence une perte de fonction du canal Cav1. 2. Il reste cependant a comprendre le mecanisme mis en jeu et l'implication de la deficience en carnitine dans ce syndrome. III. La proteine DPPX : le sequencage du genome d'un propositus atteint du syndrome de Brugada a permis d'identifier le variant T501M de la proteine DPPX. Cette proteine est une des sous-unites regulatrices du canal Kv4. 3. A ce stade de l'etude, la caracterisation fonctionnelle de ce variant n'a pas permis de mettre en evidence son eventuelle implication physiopathologique.
La enfermedad de Alzheimer como factor de riesgo psicosomático para los cuidadores familiares de enfermos crónicos discapacitados

El compendio de distresores a que esta sometida la persona encargada del cuidado de un familiar enfermo cronico discapacitado, supone la presentacion de gran cantidad de dolencias de orden biopsicosocial, encuadradas en la disciplina Enfermedades Psicosomaticas. El presente estudio trato de identificar si la Enfermedad de Alzheimer EA del receptor de los cuidados anade riesgos de dolencias psicosomaticas en el cuidador.
Bicarbonate‐induced alkalosis augments cellular acetyl group availability and isometric force during the rest‐to‐work transition in canine skeletal muscle

Increasing blood bicarbonate content has long been cited as a potential mechanism to improve contractile function. We investigated whether sodium bicarbonate‐induced metabolic alkalosis could positively affect force development during the rest‐to‐work transition in ischaemic skeletal muscle. Secondly, assuming it could, we investigated whether bicarbonate could augment acetyl group availability through the same equilibrium reaction as sodium acetate pre‐treatment and whether this underpins, at least in part, its ergogenic effect. Multiple biopsy samples were obtained from the canine gracilis muscle during 5 min of electrically evoked ischaemic contraction, which enabled the determination of the time course of acetyl group accumulation, substrate utilisation, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex activation and tension development in animals treated with saline (control; n = 6) or sodium bicarbonate (n = 5). Treatment with bicarbonate elevated acetylcarnitine content above the control level at rest (P < 0.05), but at no time point during subsequent contraction. The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex was activated following 40 s of contraction in both groups, with no differences existing between treatments at any time point. The requirement for ATP resynthesis from non‐oxygen‐dependent routes was no different between groups at any time point during contraction. No difference in peak twitch force production existed between groups. However, at 3 min of stimulation, tension development was better maintained in the bicarbonate group (P < 0.05), being ∼20% greater than control following 5 min of contraction (P < 0.05). The results demonstrate, for the first time, that bicarbonate can augment acetyl group availability prior to contraction, independent of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex activation, but cannot influence the requirement for non‐oxidative ATP re‐synthesis during subsequent contraction. It would appear, therefore, that the bicarbonate‐induced improvement in muscle tension development was probably mediated through the metabolic alkalosis and not via the increased availability of acetyl groups within the cell.
Meaning and therapeutic potential of microbial recognition of host glycoconjugates

The microbe–host interface is currently in focus because of attempts to develop infection therapy in humans based on either natural receptor saccharide (respiratory and gastrointestinal disease) or sophisticated sialic acid analogues designed from crystal structures (influenza). Most of the known host receptors for microbes are glycoconjugates, and the diversity and selectivity of host tissue glycosylation allow for the tropism of infections. However, among the many binding specificities detected so far, the biological role has been proven only in a few infectious model systems. The existence of multiple specificities of a single microbe is both a complicating factor and a challenge, requiring expanded research with a special demand on glycoscience.
Accuracy of an enzyme immunoassay for the detection of Helicobacter pylori in stool specimens in the diagnosis of infection and posttreatment check-up

OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of a newly developed enzyme immunoassay for Helicobacter pylori-specific antigen detection in stools (HpSA) compared to other standardized diagnostic techniques such as histology (H), rapid urease test (RUT) and 13C-urea breath test (UBT) to diagnose H. pylori infection and to evaluate its usefulness in determining H. pylori status after treatment.METHODS:One hundred eighty-eight patients referred to our department for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy were included. H. pylori infection was confirmed in all patients by HpSA test in stools, RUT, UBT, and H. Patients were defined as positive for H. pylori if RUT and UBT or H were positive. A total of 142 symptomatic patients received eradication treatment and were reassessed 6 wk after therapy; for 70 of these patients, stool samples were also collected at 24 h and 6 months after finishing eradication treatment. In the posttreatment follow-up, UBT was used as gold standard.RESULTS:The sensitivity of HpSA test for the diagnosis of H. pylori infection using a cut-off value of 0.130 was 89.5% and its specificity 77.8%. This specificity was lower than that obtained with UBT, H, and RUT. In the early follow-up the sensitivity of HpSA test was null. At 6 weeks and at 6 months post-treatment its sensitivity was 70.4% and 50% and its specificity was 81.6% and 79.3%, respectively.CONCLUSIONS:The HpSA stool test, using a cut-off value of 0.130, may be useful for the primary diagnosis of H. pylori infection, with sensitivity similar to that obtained with other standard tests, but with less specificity. HpSA test is not useful for early monitoring of treatment efficacy. At 6 wk and at 6 months posttreatment, HpSA test lacks accuracy as compared to UBT for evaluating the outcome of the eradication treatment.
E-Commerce Architecture Based on Web3D, Web2.0 & SSH

To address the serious problems in e-commerce based on traditional 2D image-word, the author introduced Web3D, Flex and SSH technologies into e-commerce, presented “3D Virtual Reality & Flex” Web architecture for e-commerce, researched mechanisms of their architectures, and implemented their integration and communication & interaction: Flex and Struts2 via XML, Flex and Spring & Hibernate via BlazeDS, Flex and Web3D via JavaScript. The practice has shown that the integrated Web architecture based on Web3D, Flex and SSH is effective and valuable for e-commerce.
A test bed for insect-inspired robotic control

Flying insects are remarkable examples of sophisticated sensory-motor control systems. Insects have solved the fundamental challenge facing the field of mobile robots: robust sensory-motor mapping. Control models based on insects can contribute much to the design of robotic control systems. We present our work on a preliminary robotic control system inspired by current behavioural and physiological models of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We designed a five-degrees-of-freedom robotic system that serves as a novel simulation/mobile robot hybrid. This design has allowed us to implement a fly-inspired control system that uses visual and mechanosensory feedback. Our results suggest that a simple control scheme can yield surprisingly robust fly-like robotic behaviour.
Glucose control in diabetes

Diabetes is a worldwide disease. Epidemiological data indicates that the degree and duration of hyperglycaemia is associated with the microvascular and macrovascular complications of disease. Glycated haemoglobin at baseline is a significant predictor of retinopathy, as well as proteinuria, amputation and survival. Intensive blood glucose control with either sulphonylureas, metformin or insulin substantially decreases the risk of microvascular complications. There are no thresholds within the diabetic range of blood glucose for risk of microvascular complications. To reduce risk, we should aim for normal blood glucose levels. Mortality correlates with several parameters of glucose control, but notably with the coefficient of variation of fasting glucose, a marker of glucose instability. Postprandial hyperglycaemia is also another independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. Glucose sensors have considerable potential for monitoring changes in blood glucose concentration. Protein glycation is widespread and glycation of haemoglobin (HbA1c) probably reflects level of glycation of other proteins. Levels of advanced glycation end products could be valuable in assessing the risk of progression to diabetic complications. The fact that a glycated protein, the glycated haemoglobin, is now widely used to estimate glucose control in diabetes emphasizes the importance of the impact of ambient blood glucose on protein levels, structure and function on the clinical outcome of diabetes. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fate mapping the avian epiblast with focal injections of a fluorescent-histochemical marker: ectodermal derivatives.

A microinjection technique is described for fate mapping the epiblast of avian embryos. It consists of injecting the epiblast of cultured blastoderms with a fluorescent-histochemical marker, examining rhodamine fluorescence at the time of injection in living blastoderms, and assaying for horseradish peroxidase activity in histological sections obtained from the same embryos collected 24 h postinjection. Our results demonstrate that this procedure routinely marks cells, allowing their fates to be determined and prospective fate maps to be constructed. Two such maps are presented for ectodermal derivatives of the epiblast: one for late stages of Hensen's node progression (stages 3c through 4) and one for early stages of node regression (stages 4 + through 5). These new maps have six significant features. First, they show that regardless of whether the node is progressing or regressing, the flat neural plate extends at least 300 microns cranial to, 300 microns bilateral to and 1 mm caudal to the center of Hensen's node. Second, they confirm our previous fate mapping studies based on quail/chick chimeras. Namely, they show that the prenodal midline region of the epiblast forms the floor of the forebrain and the ventrolateral part of the optic vesicles as well as MHP cells (i.e., mainly wedge-shaped neurepithelial cells contained within the median hinge point of the bending neural plate); in contrast, paranodal and postnodal regions contribute L cells (i.e., mainly spindle-shaped neurepithelial cells constituting the lateral aspects of the neural plate). Third, they reveal a second source of MHP cells, Hensen's node, verifying previous studies of others based on tritiated thymidine labeling. Fourth, they demonstrate, in contrast to studies of other based on vital staining, carbon marking, and chorioallantoic grafting but in accordance with our previous studies based on quail/chick chimeras, that the cells contributing to the four craniocaudal subdivisions of the neural tube (i.e., forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord) are not yet spatially segregated from one another at the flat neural plate stage, although more cranial neural plate cells tend to form more cranial subdivision and more caudal cells tend to form more caudal subdivisions. Thus, single injections routinely mark multiple neural tube subdivisions. Probable reasons for the discrepancy between our present results and the previous results of others is discussed. Fifth, they suggest that cells contributing to the surface ectoderm and neural plate are not yet completely spatially segregated from one another at the flat neural plate stage, particularly in caudal postnodal regions. Sixth, they delineate the locations of the otic placodes. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Hospitalization Rates Among Dialysis Patients During Hurricane Katrina

Abstract Introduction Dialysis centers struggled to maintain continuity of care for dialysis patients during and immediately following Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the US Gulf Coast in August 2005. However, the impact on patient health and service use is unclear. Problem The impact of Hurricane Katrina on hospitalization rates among dialysis patients was estimated. Methods Data from the United States Renal Data System were used to identify patients receiving dialysis from January 1, 2001 through August 29, 2005 at clinics that experienced service disruptions during Hurricane Katrina. A repeated events duration model was used with a time-varying Hurricane Katrina indicator to estimate trends in hospitalization rates. Trends were estimated separately by cause: surgical hospitalizations, medical, non-renal-related hospitalizations, and renal-related hospitalizations. Results The rate ratio for all-cause hospitalization associated with the time-varying Hurricane Katrina indicator was 1.16 (95% CI, 1.05-1.29; P = .004). The ratios for cause-specific hospitalization were: surgery, 0.84 (95% CI, 0.68-1.04; P = .11); renal-related admissions, 2.53 (95% CI, 2.09-3.06); P < . 001), and medical non-renal related, 1.04 (95% CI, 0.89-1.20; P = .63). The estimated number of excess renal-related hospital admissions attributable to Katrina was 140, representing approximately three percent of dialysis patients at the affected clinics. Conclusions Hospitalization rates among dialysis patients increased in the month following the Hurricane Katrina landfall, suggesting that providers and patients were not adequately prepared for large-scale disasters. Howard D, Zhang R, Huang Y, Kutner N. Hospitalization rates among dialysis patients during Hurricane Katrina. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2012;27(4):1-5.
Upstream regions of the human cardiac actin gene that modulate its transcription in muscle cells: presence of an evolutionarily conserved repeated motif

Transfection into cultured cell lines was used to investigate the transcriptional regulation of the human cardiac actin gene. We first demonstrated that in both human heart and human skeletal muscle, cardiac actin mRNAs initiate at the identical site and contain the same first exon, which is separated from the first coding exon by an intron of 700 base pairs. A region of 485 base pairs upstream from the transcription initiation site of the human cardiac actin gene directs high-level transient expression of the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene in differentiated myotubes of the mouse C2C12 muscle cell line, but not in mouse L fibroblast or rat PC-G2 pheochromocytoma cells. Deletion analysis of this region showed that at least two physically separated sequence elements are involved, a distal one starting between -443 and -395 and a proximal one starting between -177 and -118, and suggested that these sequences interact with positively acting transcriptional factors in muscle cells. When these two sequence elements are inserted separately upstream of a heterologous (simian virus 40) promoter, they do not affect transcription but do give a small (four- to fivefold) stimulation when tested together. Overall, these regulatory regions upstream of the cap site of the human cardiac actin gene show remarkably high sequence conservation with the equivalent regions of the mouse and chick genes. Furthermore, there is an evolutionarily conserved repeated motif that may be important in the transcriptional regulation of actin and other contractile protein genes.