Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Policy Issues for the Development and Use of Biomarkers in Health

The OECD is a unique forum where governments work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to coordinate domestic and international policies. The Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry leads the OECD's work on knowledge-based sources of economic and social growth and, more specifically, on the translation of science, technology and knowledge into innovation. Application of biomarkers in the field of human health is improving our understanding of disease, and will provide new knowledge of disease mechanisms and processes providing a means for improved health management through the earlier diagnosis of disease and the delivery of more efficacious and safer therapies. This report examines the current economic, regulatory, and health care context in which biomarkers are being developed and identifies the barriers which may slow or block the uptake and diffusion of biomarker-based technologies in the clinical setting. The report presents several policy options which could foster biomarker research, discovery, development, commercialisation and uptake in clinics. A number of scientific, economic, regulatory and governance challenges need to be addressed if biomarker applications are to be incorporated into clinical practice. The report draws on discussions that took place at a workshop entitled, " Policy Issues for the Development and Use of Biomarkers in Health " , held in Hinxton, United Kingdom in 2008 (under the auspices of the OECD Working Party on Biotechnology), as well as analytical work before and after: We are very grateful to all the consultants and experts who graciously contributed their time and knowledge to this project. We also would like to thank the delegates of the OECD Working Party on Biotechnology and the Task Force on Biomedicine and Health Innovation for their contributions and guidance. Contents Executive summary 5 Chapter 1. Biomarkers: An overview of the opportunities and challenges 7 Introduction 7 Reaping the benefits of biomarkers 7 The genomics revolution 8 Application of biomarkers in evidence-based, personalised medicine 9 Towards a new health care paradigm: opportunities and challenges 12 Chapter 2. Managing biomarker knowledge: generation and sharing 15 A new wave of networking infrastructures 15 …
Overexpression and purification of recombinant lysozyme from Agrius convolvuli expressed as inclusion body in Escherichia coli

Abstract Amongst the various antimicrobial peptides, lysozyme plays a central role in initiating and maintaining the antibacterial defense response of insect. Here we propose the biosynthesis and refolding of recombinant lysozyme in Escherichia coli expressed in inclusion body form. The Agrius lysozyme gene was amplified using gene specific primers and then ligated into the pGEX-4T-1 vector, which contained the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene as a fusion partner. A recombinant lysozyme was expressed in E. coli Rosetta cells using a pGEX-4T-1 expression vector, and the fusion protein was induced by ioporpyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). The recombinant protein produced as an inclusion body was resolubilized in solubilization buffer, and the resultant solution was dialyzed in refolding buffer. After thrombin cleavage, the recombinant lysozyme was purified by ion exchange chromatography and reverse phase chromatography. The recombinant lysozyme was subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis and immunoreactivity against the anti-Agrius lysozyme was observed by western blot analysis of this protein. The recombinant lysozyme displayed antibacterial activity against Bacillus megaterium and Micrococcus luteus, which was confirmed by the inhibition zone assay.
Therapeutic effect of oral Zinc preparation on infantile diarrhea

Objective To observe the therapeutic effect of oral Zinc preparation on infantile diarrhea. Methods A total of 220 cases of diarrhea were divided randomly into two groups. All the children received conventional therapy, and the treatment group received Zinc preparation orally in addition. Then the effect of two groups was compared. Results The total efficacy rates of two groups were 94.6% and 81.5% respectively. The time of recovery was (2.62 ± 0.79) days and(4.15 ± 2.12)days respectively. There was a significant difference between two groups (P<0.01). Conclusions Infantile diarrhea being adjunetively treated with Zinc preparation orally can markedly increase the. cured rate, shorten the recovery time, and there is an important clinical significance. Key words: Zinc; Diarrhea; Children
Apoptosis of human gastric adenocarcinoma cells induced by β-ionone

AIM:To investigate the effect of β-ionone on the growth and apoptosis of gastric adenocarcinoma cell line SGC-7901.METHODS: Using M-IT, fluorescence dye (Hoechst-33258),transmission electron microscopy and the TUNEL assay,we examined growth and apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells treated with β-ionone at various concentrations (i.e. 25, 50, 100 and 200μmol/L) for 24h,48h.RESULTS:The growth of SGC-7901 cells was inhibited by β-ionone. Seven days after treatment with β-ionone at four concentrations, the inhibition rates were 12.04%, 30.59%,78.25% and 94.15%, respectively. The IC50 value of β-ionone for SGC-7901 cells was estimated to be 89μmol/L.The apoptotic morphology was demonstrated in SGC-7901 cells treated with β-ionone by Hoechst-33258 staining and electron microscopy. Apoptosis was also shown in β-iononetreated SGC-7901 cells by the TUNEL assay.CONCLUSION:β-ionone can inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells.However, the mechanism needs to be further investigated.
Prevalencia de deficiencia de hierro y de anemia por deficiencia de hierro en adolescentes embarazadas del noroeste de México, 2007-2008

: Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) remains a word public health problem, particularly in children and child-bearing-age women. Iron demands need to be covered by adolescent women due to the increased physical growing, menstruation, pregnancy and fetal growing tissues at this life stage. This study was proposed to investigate the prevalence of iron deficiency and IDA in pregnant adolescent women from Northwestern Mexico. Participated 186 women under 19 years old during the first or second trimester of pregnancy who attended the local health institutions in Hermosillo Sonora. Questionnaires and 24 hr recalls were administered to collect socioeconomic and dietary information respectively. Hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit, ferritin and eritrocytic protoporphyrin were measured. Hb and ferritin values were used to categorize the recruited women into normal (37.4%), iron deficient (55.5%) and IDA (7.1%) groups. Six and seven women showed moderated and light anemia status in the IDA group. Fe and fiber intake and weeks of pregnancy were associated with the biochemical indicators of iron at least in two women groups. The high percentage of iron deficient women in this study is demanding the identification and attention of maternal factors and food habits that are risk of iron deficiency in pregnant women.
CHITOSAN AND ITS HYDROLYSATE AT TOBACCO-Phytophthora parasitica INTERACTION

Chitosan is the non-acetylated derivative from chitin, a polymer of N-acetyl-glucosamine that is extracted from crustacean exoskeleton. Both polymers as well as their oligomers protect several species of plants against fungal diseases by means of the induction of histological and biochemical defensive mechanisms that stop pathogen advance in the plant. In our work a chitosan preparation was carried out by means of basic desacetylation of chitin of pharmaceutical quality. Afterwards, chitosan was exhaustively hydrolyzed with a commercial enzymatic preparation (celluclast) to obtain small-sized oligomers. Chitosan polymer and its hydrolysate were studied regarding their potentialities to in- duce systemic resistance in tobacco plants by means of assays under controlled conditions where the capacity of both elicitors was determined for the induction of resistance markers (chitinase, glucanase and PAL activities) and in the hydrolysate case, its capacity to induce tobacco plantlet protection against the invasion of pathogen Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae was also tested. Results demonstrated an induction of chitinase and glucanase activities by chitosan at the concentrations of 50 and 500 mg.L -1 , much higher in the case of the topmost concentration of the elicitor. Tobacco plantlet protection against Ppn was also observed when plants were treated through the roots with the enzymatic hydrolysate at the concentrations between 5 and 500 mg.L -1 with an induction of differentiated PAL and β 1-3 glucanase response during plant exposition to the pathogen.
Bird species richness and diversity in relation to vegetation in Bavi National Park, Vietnam

ABSTRACT I studied the relationships between bird community and vegetation in Bavi National Park, Vietnam, during August and September 2004. Bird species richness and bird species diversity were correlated to physiognomic variables of the tree layer, in particular canopy closure and tree basal area. Shrub layer characteristics and floristics, expressed here as tree species richness and tree species diversity, were less correlated to bird species richness and diversity.
Clinical study of the influential factors related to the comorbidity types in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Objective To investigation the effect of gender, family parenting style,school education style, the subtype of ADHD to the comorbidity types of attention deficithyperactivity disorder(ADHD). Method Using the Vanderbilt ADHD Rating Scales and self-designed questionnaire diagnosised 224 ADHD children (male 205,female 19) in out-patient clinic, definited their clinical subtype and comorbidity. Through the rating scales to screen for the information about their family parenting styles and school education styles. According to their comorbidity type, they were divided into four groups:pure ADHD group(n=118), ADHD+ internalizing disorders (anxiety/depression) group(n=10),ADHD+ externalizing disorders (ODD/CD)(n=89),ADHD+ internalizing disorders+ externalizing disorders(n=7). Results The probability of comorbidity externalizing disorders in ADHD-CT children was 4.76 times(partial regression coefficient=1.58,P＜0.05) as in ADHD-PI children, and 6.25 times(partial regression coefficient=1.83,P＜0.05) as in ADHD-PI children. The probability of comorbidity externalizing disorders in ADHD children who received positive family parenting style was 2.01 times(partial regression coefficient=0.7,P＜0.05) as in children who received negative family parenting style.Conclusion ADHD-CT children have higher risk of co-existi externalizing disorders than ADHD-PI and ADHD-HI children. The ADHD children who received negative family parenting style have higher risk to have Externalizing disorders. Key words: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; Comorbidity; Influential factors; Child
Genetic Diversity and Molecular Genetics of Ornamental Plant Species

ABSTRACT It is estimated that Plant Kingdom has over half of million species including unicellular organisms, bryophytes, seedless vascular taxa and seed plants on the earth. Among them, approximately the half of the species are flowering plants. Especially, many flowering species of industrial importance belong to Anthophyta (=angiosperms), which contains around 50,000 in monocots and 200,000 species in dicots, respectively. Including the agriculturally important species for food and feed, only about thirty out of thousands of species, are heavily invested for R&D for agricultural and/or industrial uses. Particularly speaking about flower and ornamental plants, there is not much inputs in terms of critical mass and efforts compared with the industrial outcomes and benefits using them. The importance of the plant genetic resources is not only in the number of the available species, but also in the genetic diversity existing in each species, which could provide the precious genetic bases for the flower improvement by breeding and for flexibility in conservation. Only on a small number of such flower and ornamental species, genetic diversity has been estimated at in situ and ex situ collections with a limited number of different traits. Recent development on the molecular markers and specific statistical approaches, especially PCR-based ones with multivariate analyses, are making it possible to assess more preciously the intraspecific and interspecific genetic variation. A progress has been demonstrated even on the species with difficult using of conventional measurements for estimating genetic variation. Consequently, these tools should alleviate pitfalls in conservation and utilization. Genetic variation created with chromosome manipulation such by polyploidy, aneuploidy, cytoplasmic-nuclear substitutions and transposable elements, has been provided unique characteristics in flower breeding. What is more, findings from the plant molecular biology make the flowers further improved with the use of the modern biotechnology. Genetic engineering with the specific alteration of the primary and/or secondary biosynthetic pathways could make more variations in flower appearance, and increase marketable values and the quality and quantity of metabolites for medical and cosmetic uses.
Public views on forest management: value orientation and forest dependency as indicators of diversity

Abstract Classifying communities as forest dependent based on economic indicators implies that residents of these communities share a utilitarian view of forest management whereby resource extraction and economic benefits are the primary focus. In this study, we test this hypothesis by examining the relationship between forest dependency, value orientation, and views on forest management. Data were collected by mail survey from 1521 residents of the Province of New Brunswick, Canada, in 2007. We classify respondents based on levels of forest dependency of their area of residence and their forest value orientation. We examine variation in beliefs about forest management, goals of forest management, and public involvement across levels of forest dependency and forest value orientation. Results showed some differences among residents from regions with different levels of forest dependence. Considerably greater variation, however, occurred among forest value orientation clusters. This study suggests that rega.
The Categorization of Objects With Uniform Texture at Superordinate and Living/Non-living Levels in Infants: An Exploratory Study

Human infants can categorize objects at various category levels (e.g., as a dog, animal, or living thing). It is crucial to understand how infants learn about the relationships between objects. This study investigated whether 4- to 11-month-old infants can categorize modeled objects at superordinate and living/non-living levels. In this experiment, we presented modeled objects with a uniform texture constructed by a 3D printer in animal, vegetable/fruit, vehicle, and tool categories and measured the time taken to examine novel categories. We investigated infants’ categorization abilities using familiarization/novelty-preference tasks and their pre-linguistic development based on information from their parents. The analyses examined whether infants dedicated more examination time to objects in the new category at superordinate and living/non-living levels for each month of age. The results revealed that the examination time among 4- and 5-month-olds was at chance levels for both superordinate and living/non-living levels, while at 7 months, they showed high preference for the novel category at both category levels. For the superordinate level, the strength of response to living objects increased with linguistic development, while the strength of response to non-living objects did not depend on linguistic development. This indicates that the superordinate-level categorization of living objects depends on both perceptual information and linguistic ability. For the living/non-living level, the examination time for non-living objects increased with linguistic development. This implies that the recognition of non-living objects may depend on the development of object knowledge. The current study suggests that infants can recognize categories at an abstract level before the acquisition of linguistic representations while the category levels that infants can categorize objects are different for living/non-living objects. This may imply that infants learn the concepts of living/non-living via different mechanisms.
Nature Reappraisers, Benefits for the Environment: A Model Linking Cognitive Reappraisal, the “Being Away” Dimension of Restorativeness and Eco-Friendly Behavior

In the last decades, an increasingly prominent role has been given to the motivational factors that can promote pro-environmental behavior. In this contribution, we focus on the role of the individual’s ability to shape the emotions originating from nature in engaging in pro-environmental behavior. In particular, we expect that an emotion regulation strategy as cognitive reappraisal should positively predict pro-environmental behavior, through enhanced perceived restorativeness attributed to the natural environment in terms of the experience of “being away. ” One-hundred and fifteen visitors to an urban park (Parco Nord Milano) filled out a questionnaire including measures of cognitive reappraisal, the experience of “being away,” and pro-environmental behavior while in the park. Results confirmed that cognitive reappraisal was positively and significantly related to pro-environmental behavior. Importantly, the indirect effect of cognitive reappraisal on pro-environmental behavior through the experience of “being away” was significant. Findings suggest the importance of implementing interventions aimed at promoting the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal to enhance the experience of “being away” and, thus, sustain pro-environmental behavior.
Multifaceted functions of Rab23 on primary cilium and Hedgehog signaling-mediated granule cell proliferation

Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) signaling from the primary cilium drives cerebellar granule cell precursor (GCP) proliferation. Mutations of hedgehog (Hh) pathway repressors could cause medulloblastoma, the most prevalent and malignant childhood brain tumor that arises from aberrant GCP proliferation. We demonstrate that brain-specific knockout of a Shh pathway repressor Rab23 in mice caused mis-patterning of cerebellar folia and elevated GCP proliferation during early development, but with no prevalent occurrence of medulloblastoma at adult stage. Strikingly, Rab23-depleted GCPs exhibited up-regulated basal level of Shh pathway activities despite reduced ciliation, and were desensitized against stimulations by Shh and Smoothened (Smo) agonist in primary GCP culture. These results illustrate dual functions of Rab23 in repressing the basal level of Shh signaling, while facilitating Shh signal transduction via Shh/Smo on primary cilium. Collectively, our findings unravel instrumental roles of Rab23 in GCP proliferation and ciliogenesis. Rab23’s potentiation of Shh signaling pathway through the primary cilium and Smo, suggests a potential new therapeutic for Smo/primary cilium-driven medulloblastoma. Author Summary C.H. H conceived, designed, lead, and performed all in vitro and in vivo experiments, analyzed data and wrote the manuscript. W.Y performed QPCR experiments and primary GCP cultures and analyzed data. E.L. G conceived and directed the study.
Sleep loss disrupts hippocampal memory consolidation via an acetylcholine- and somatostatin interneuron-mediated inhibitory gate

Sleep loss profoundly disrupts consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memory. To better characterize effects of learning and sleep loss on the hippocampal circuit, we quantified activity-dependent phosphorylation of ribosomal subunit S6 (pS6) across the dorsal hippocampus of mice. We find that pS6 in enhanced in the dentate gyrus (DG) following single-trial contextual fear conditioning (CFC), but is reduced throughout the hippocampus after brief sleep deprivation (SD) – a manipulation which disrupts contextual fear memory (CFM) consolidation. To characterize cell populations with activity affected by SD, we used translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP)-seq to identify cell type-specific transcripts on pS6 ribosomes after SD vs. sleep. Cell type-specific enrichment analysis (CSEA) of these transcripts revealed that hippocampal somatostatin-expressing (Sst+) interneurons, and cholinergic and orexinergic inputs to hippocampus, are selectively activated after SD. We used TRAP targeted to hippocampal Sst+ interneurons to identify cellular mechanisms mediating SD-driven Sst+ interneuron activation. We next used pharmacogenetics to mimic the effects of SD, selectively activating hippocampal Sst+ interneurons while mice slept in the hours following CFC. We find that activation of Sst+ interneurons is sufficient to disrupt CFM consolidation, by gating activity in surrounding pyramidal neurons. Pharmacogenetic inhibition of cholinergic input to hippocampus from the medial septum (MS) promoted CFM consolidation and disinhibited neurons in the DG, increasing pS6 expression. This suggests that state-dependent gating of DG activity is mediated by cholinergic input during SD. Together these data provide evidence for an inhibitory gate on hippocampal information processing, which is activated by sleep loss.
Delta-band Cortical Tracking of Acoustic and Linguistic Features in Natural Spoken Narratives

Speech contains rich acoustic and linguistic information. During speech comprehension, cortical activity tracks the acoustic envelope of speech. Recent studies also observe cortical tracking of higher-level linguistic units, such as words and phrases, using synthesized speech deprived of delta-band acoustic envelope. It remains unclear, however, how cortical activity jointly encodes the acoustic and linguistic information in natural speech. Here, we investigate the neural encoding of words and demonstrate that delta-band cortical activity tracks the rhythm of multi-syllabic words when naturally listening to narratives. Furthermore, by dissociating the word rhythm from acoustic envelope, we find cortical activity primarily tracks the word rhythm during speech comprehension. When listeners’ attention is diverted, however, neural tracking of words diminishes, and delta-band activity becomes phase locked to the acoustic envelope. These results suggest that large-scale cortical dynamics in the delta band are primarily coupled to the rhythm of linguistic units during natural speech comprehension.