Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioassays of follicle stimulating hormone.

With the availability of these highly sensitive in vitro assays, measurement of bio-FSH in serum and urine becomes possible. Clinical studies have been done to investigate the role of bioactive FSH in different physiological and pathological conditions. There are however problems with these assays. All the assays required cell-culture facility and technique. In general they are technically demanding, expensive, and cumbersome. Both the GAB and SAB will take 5 working days for a technician to process 15-20 samples at multiple dilutions. Both assays rely on primary cultures of cells. Different pituitary FSH standards had been used for the validation of these biological assays. It had been previously demonstrated that pituitary and urinary gonadotropin preparations and standards exhibit different B/I ratios because of the marked heterogeneity of the gonadotropins. Comparing samples with standards of varying B/I ratios and bio-FSH activity makes the data difficult to interpret. In addition, in the GAB, rat FSH (FSH-I-6) and ovine FSH (NIH-S-15) are equipotent, but in the in vivo Steelman-Pohley assay, rat FSH is 5 times more potent than the ovine preparation. Similarly for the SAB, the NIH-hFSH-3 preparation was more potent than the NIH-hFSH-2 preparation, although the reverse was the case when biopotencies were stimulated by the Steelman-Pohley assays. This clearly demonstrates that both the GAB and SAB are in vitro bioassays and do not fully reflect in vivo activity. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Differential improvement in survival among patients with AIDS after the introduction of HAART

Abstract We explored changes in the survival of patients with AIDS (PWA) according to the availability of antiretroviral drugs (1994–2002). We tested whether changes in the hazard ratio of progression to death (HR) have been homogeneous among various groups of PWA. We included 4158 PWA diagnosed in Paris, notified to the French National Surveillance Institute by 2002. Four calendar periods were defined: monotherapy (1994–95), bitherapy-HAART transition (1996), early HAART (1997–99), late HAART (2000–October 2002). HR were calculated with Cox models, including the calendar period, modelled as a time dependent covariate. Models were stratified by age, transmission category, CD4 cell count, and AIDS-defining illnesses (ADI) group. Cumulative survival at 60 months increased from 44.0% (before July 1996) to 75.6% (after July 1996) and median survival increased from 31.9 months to >76 months. Adjusted HR reached a minimum in the late HAART period (HR 0.22, 95% CI: 0.19–0.26). No difference in the decrease of the HR has been found by age. HR decreased and was marked during the late HAART period across all HIV transmission categories, including intravenous drug use. HR decreased significantly for all ADIs groups, including tumours. Among PWA diagnosed with tuberculosis, the HR decreased significantly only in the late HAART period. HR decrease was stronger for PWA with a CD4 cell count ≤200/mm3. Substantial improvements in survival after the introduction of HAART were found for all PWA but varied by specific ADIs and the degree of immunosuppression.
Transcriptional control of innate lymphoid cells

Cells that belong to the family of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) not only form a first line of defense against invading microbes, but also play essential roles in tissue remodeling and immune pathology. Rorγt+ ILCs, producing the cytokines IL‐22 and IL‐17, include lymphoid tissue inducer (LTi) cells which are critical for the formation of lymphoid structures. Recently another ILC subset has been identified, which is dependent on RORα for its development and is dedicated to the production of the Th2 cytokines IL‐5 and IL‐13. These ILCs have been termed type 2 ILCs. All ILC subets are considered to belong to the same family that also includes natural killer cells because they all rely on the common γ‐chain (γc) of the IL‐2 receptor for their development and function, share a lymphoid morphology and depend on the transcriptional repressor Id2 for their development. Other transcription factors, including Notch, and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in RORγt+ ILCs and GATA3 in type 2 ILCs, also play roles in the development, survival, and function of these ILC subpopulations. Here we review the current knowledge with regard to the transcription factors involved in the development and functions of ILCs.
Relationships between High Oxygen Extraction Fraction in the Acute Stage and Final Infarction in Reversible Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion: An Investigation in Anesthetized Baboons with Positron Emission Tomography

Studies in humans suggest that regions that show maximal increases in brain oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) in the hours following an ischemic episode are those most vulnerable for infarction and are often, although not always, associated with the final site of infarction. To clarify this issue, we followed the hemodynamic and metabolic characteristics of regions with an initially maximally increased OEF and compared them with the ultimately infarcted region in an experimental stroke model. Positron emission tomography (PET) was used to obtain functional images of the brain prior to and following reversible unilateral middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in 11 anesthetized baboons. To model early reperfusion, the clips were removed 6 h after occlusion. Successive measurements of regional CBF (rCBF), regional CMRO2 (rCMRO2), regional cerebral blood volume, and regional OEF (rOEF) were performed during the acute (up to 2 days) and chronic (>15 days) stage. Late magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans (coregistered with PET) were obtained to identify infarction. Reversible MCAO produced an MRI-measurable infarction in 6 of 11 baboons; the others had no evidence of ischemic damage. Histological analysis confirmed the results of the MRI investigation but failed to show any evidence of cortical ischemic damage. The lesion was restricted to the head of the caudate nucleus, internal capsule, and putamen. The infarct volume obtained was 0.58 ± 0.31 cm3. The infarcts were situated in the deep MCA territory, while the area of initially maximally increased OEF was within the cortical mantle. The mean absolute rCBF value in the infarct region of interest (ROI) was not significantly lower than in the highest-OEF ROI until 1–2 days post-MCAO. Cerebral metabolism in the deep MCA territory was always significantly lower than that of the cortical mantle; decreases in CMRO2 in the former region were evident as early as 1 h post-MCAO. In the cortical mantle, the rOEF was initially significantly higher than in the infarct-to-be zone. Subsequently, the OEF declined in both regions. The differences in the time course of changes in CMRO2 and OEF between these two regions, with the eventually infarcted area showing earlier metabolic degradation and in turn decline in OEF, presumably underlie their different final outcomes. In conclusion, following MCAO, the region that shows an early maximal increase in the OEF is both topographically and physiologically distinct from the region with final consolidated infarction if reperfusion is allowed at 6 h. This high OEF, although indicative of a threatened condition, is not an indicator of inescapable consolidated infarction and is thus a situation in which therapy could be envisaged. Whether or not it is at risk of infarction and thus constitutes one target for therapy remains to be seen.
Study of negative feedback amplifier circuit based on Multisim

This paper makes a simulation study on negative feedback amplifier circuit performance by model building of negative feedback amplifier circuit based on Multisim. The results show that ac negative feedback improving the Performances of circuit, such as a log-gain stability, signal-to-noise ratio, nonlinear distortion and bandpasswidth etc‥
Evaluation of rotor position effect on stator diagnostic based on surge voltage test

One of the most common causes of induction motor damage is turn insulation failure of stator windings. This failure may come from the undetected turn insulation degradation. Surge test is able to detect early this degradation. However, most of surge test is conducted without using rotor for a reason that the test result is more valid. In this paper, a diagnostic tool based on surge voltage was designed and applied to the tested induction motor to analyse how significant the rotor position affects the result of surge test, such as value of error area ratio (EAR) and zero crossing time of surge wave. There were two schemes tested during surge test, i.e. induction motor with rotor and without rotor. The variations of rotor position angle were also performed. In order to simulate some turn fault conditions on the stator windings, the external taps were given to the stator windings of induction motor. The result revealed that the value of EAR and the zero crossing time of surge wave were clearly different between the induction motor with rotor and without rotor for the same short circuit condition. Moreover, the zero crossing time showed a repetition for rotor position angle with a multiple of four.
Effects of Increased Reporting Frequency on Nonprofessional Investors' Earnings Predictions

ABSTRACT: More frequent financial reporting has been a topic of debate for many years. However, little evidence exists about the possible effects of more frequent reporting on investors' decision making. Using a between-subjects experiment, this study analyzes how altering the timing or frequency of earnings reports—weekly, as opposed to quarterly, reports—affects the accuracy and dispersion of earnings predictions by nonprofessional investors. This is important, since regulators have identified nonprofessionals as a significant audience for financial reports. I hypothesize and find that more frequent reporting results in less accurate predictions and greater variance, particularly when a strong seasonal pattern exists. Finally, investors in the more-frequent reporting condition self-reported that they were more influenced by older historical data—suggesting primacy effects—while those in the less-frequent reporting condition self-reported that they were more influenced by the newer historical data, sugge.
Expression of GATA and POU transcription factors during the development of the planktotrophic trochophore of the polychaete serpulid Hydroides elegans

The expression of transcription factors with endodermal and mesodermal roles in bilaterians is characterized during the development of Hydroides elegans, a serpulid polychaete with planktotrophic trochophore. GATA 4/5/6 is expressed in endodermal and mesodermal precursors during embryogenesis and in the midgut of trochophore larvae. HeGATA1/2/3a is expressed in animal hemisphere blastomeres 1d121 and 1d122, in dorsal ectoderm and in 4d endomesodermal derivatives that maintain their expression in trochophore larvae. HeGATA1/2/3b is not expressed during embryogenesis, but in several regions of the larva during postembryonic development. During very early gastrulation, Brn1/2/4 is first expressed in cells associated with the prospective oral/foregut side of the blastopore, and during larval development in 4d blastomere descendants. Comparison with orthologs in other metazoans suggests ancestral expression of GATA4/5/6 in the midgut of the last common ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes. The conserved expression of Brn1/2/4 in the foregut precursors of Hydroides and sea urchins suggests an ancestral role in patterning the tripartite gut of planktotrophic larvae. Broader analysis of these and other regulatory genes reveals variability of developmental gene expression among polychaetes with lecithotrophic larvae, suggesting that they are evolutionarily derived from polychaetes with planktotrophic larvae.
Colorless Sulfur Bacteria, Beggiatoa spp. and Thiovulum spp., in O2 and H2S Microgradients

The interactions between colorless sulfur bacteria and the chemical microgradients at the oxygen-sulfide interface were studied in Beggiatoa mats from marine sediments and in Thiovulum veils developing above the sediments. The gradients of O2, H2S, and pH were measured by microelectrodes at depth increments of 50 μm. An unstirred boundary layer in the water surrounding the mats and veils prevented microturbulent or convective mixing of O2 and H2S. The two substrates reached the bacteria only by molecular diffusion through the boundary layer. The bacteria lived as microaerophiles or anaerobes even under stirred, oxic water. Oxygen and sulfide zones overlapped by 50 μm in the bacterial layers. Both compounds had concentrations in the range of 0 to 10 μmol liter−1 and residence times of 0.1 to 0.6 s in the overlapping zone. The sulfide oxidation was purely biological. Diffusion calculations showed that formation of mats on solid substrates or of veils in the water represented optimal strategies for the bacteria to achieve a stable microenvironment, a high substrate supply, and an efficient competition with chemical sulfide oxidation. The continuous gliding movement of Beggiatoa cells in mats or the flickering motion of Thiovulum cells in veils were important for the availability of both O2 and H2S for the individual bacteria.
Metabolism of progesterone in the chick oviduct: relation to the progesterone receptor and biological activity.

The in vitro metabolism of progesterone was studied using the chick oviduct, a known target tissue for progesterone action. Tissue was pulsed with 3H-progesterone at 0 C and then incubated at 37 C for varying periods of time. Following incubation, the tissue was homogenized and subjected to differential centrifugation. Cytosol and nuclear protein preparations were analyzed by density gradient centrifugation which separated specific and nonspecific progesterone-binding proteins. The pattern of progesterone metabolites associated with specific binding proteins clearly differed from the patterns associated with nonspecific binding proteins, those metabolites that were not bound to protein, and those found in the incubation medium, the latter three patterns being essentially the same. The pattern of progesterone metabolites associated with oviduct cytosol proteins from diethylstilbestrol-stimulated immature chicks was in marked contrast to the pattern found when unstimulated chicks were used. The principal me.
Deferiprone: New Insight

Abstract: Recent results from independent studies suggest that deferiprone is more cardioprotective than deferoxamine. Patients on long‐term treatment with deferiprone have a better myocardial magnetic resonance imaging pattern and less chance to develop a new cardiac disease or worsen an existing one. Most of these observations are retrospective and require confirmation from randomized controlled trials. Other new observations regard the effects of combining the two chelators. Most results indicate an additional effect on iron excretion and a significant reduction of the time required to mitigate severe iron overload and to reverse clinical heart disease. Again, these data require confirmation, as they were mostly obtained on individual cases or small groups of patients treated with a wide range of combinations of the two chelators, but the univocity of results is impressive. After many years of controversy, deferiprone is emerging as a useful oral iron chelator that enhances the chances for the patient to have optimal treatment. Well‐designed and ‐conducted studies will help in answering the questions still open.
Crystal Structure of Hemoglobin Protease, a Heme Binding Autotransporter Protein from Pathogenic Escherichia coli*

The acquisition of iron is essential for the survival of pathogenic bacteria, which have consequently evolved a wide variety of uptake systems to extract iron and heme from host proteins such as hemoglobin. Hemoglobin protease (Hbp) was discovered as a factor involved in the symbiosis of pathogenic Escherichia coli and Bacteroides fragilis, which cause intra-abdominal abscesses. Released from E. coli, this serine protease autotransporter degrades hemoglobin and delivers heme to both bacterial species. The crystal structure of the complete passenger domain of Hbp (110 kDa) is presented, which is the first structure from this class of serine proteases and the largest parallel β-helical structure yet solved.
Suppression of Rat Deoxycorticosterone‐Salt Hypertension by Kallikrein‐Kinin System

Brown Norway kininogen-deficient rats had very low levels of plasma kininogens and lower levels of plasma prekallikrein, compared with those of normal rats of the same strain. Systolic blood pressure, determined by the tail-cuff method, of 5-week-old kininogen-deficient rats (106±0.4 mm Hg, n=l) and the rate of systolic blood pressure increase with age were not different from those in normal rats. Weekly injections of deoxycorticosterone acetate (5 mg/kg s.c) with 1% sodium chloride solution in drinking water after uninephrectomy at 7 weeks of age caused a gradual increase in the blood pressure of normal rats, reaching a plateau at 18 weeks of age, whereas that of deficient rats rose rapidly to 158 ±6 mm Hg 2 weeks after the start of treatment and continued to increase slightly, becoming significantly higher than normal rats at 8, 9,10,11, and 12 weeks of age (p<0.05 or 0.01). The levels of urinary prokallikrein and active kallikrein were slightly higher in deficient rats before deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt treatment but were not significantly increased after this treatment, whereas these levels in normal rats were increased 3.6- and 4.7-fold by this treatment Urinary free kinin, collected from the ureter in untreated deficient rats, was below the detection limit The plasma level of low molecular weight kininogen, the substrate of glandular kallikrein, was decreased in normal rats during the treatment Continuous subcutaneous injection of aprotinin by an osmotic pump to normal rats induced significant increase in blood pressure. These results indicate that glandular kallikrein may play a suppressive role in deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertension.
CADICS-cyclic analog-to-digital converter synthesis

CADICS is a technology-independent synthesis tool for generating complete netlists and layouts for CMOS cyclic analog-to-digital converters from a set of specifications. The program is capable of synthesizing A/D converters which have a broad range of sampling rate, resolution (up to 12 bits plus sign bit), and silicon area, and performance comparable to a manual approach without using any standard cell libraries. At higher resolutions provisions for internal self-calibration or capacitor trim array are included automatically. <<ETX>>
Big Data Pre-Processing: Closing the Data Quality Enforcement Loop

In the Big Data Era, data is the core for any governmental, institutional, and private organization. Efforts were geared towards extracting highly valuable insights that cannot happen if data is of poor quality. Therefore, data quality (DQ) is considered as a key element in Big data processing phase. In this stage, low quality data is not penetrated to the Big Data value chain. This paper, addresses the data quality rules discovery (DQR) after the evaluation of quality and prior to Big Data pre-processing. We propose a DQR discovery model to enhance and accurately target the pre-processing activities based on quality requirements. We defined, a set of pre-processing activities associated with data quality dimensions (DQD's) to automatize the DQR generation process. Rules optimization are applied on validated rules to avoid multi-passes pre-processing activities and eliminates duplicate rules. Conducted experiments showed an increased quality scores after applying the discovered and optimized DQR's on data.
Interactions between the amino-terminal domains of MHC class II molecules have a profound effect on serologic and T cell recognition: an analysis using recombinant HLA-DR/H-2E molecules.

A series of transfected L cell lines were generated expressing the products of wild-type or recombinant HLA-DR1/H-2Ek beta-chain-encoding genes paired to DR alpha or E alpha. The recombinant genes were created by reciprocal exchange of the gene segments encoding the amino (NH2)-terminal and carboxy (COOH)-terminal halves of the beta 1 domain and the beta 2 domain. The majority of the serologic determinants, predicted from the genetic composition of the class II dimers, were expressed indicating that no gross conformational changes were induced by the creation of the interspecies recombinant molecules. Subtle conformational variation was detected by the anti-H-2Eb,k,s mAb Y17. Epitope expression was dependent on the presence of the E alpha-chain and NH2-terminal sequence from the beta 1 domain of H-2Ek. Substitution of DR1 sequence in either region led to loss of recognition by Y17. This pattern of reactivity maps the Y17 epitope either to the E alpha-chain or to an exposed sequence on the fourth strand of the beta sheet of the beta 1 domain. If the Y17 epitope is located on the E alpha-chain this raises the interesting possibility that the conformation of this chain, which is invariant by sequence, may vary according to the beta-chain with which it is coexpressed. The ability of the recombinant class II dimers to present Ag to the pigeon cytochrome c-specific, H-2Ek-restricted T cell hybridoma 2B4 was assessed. Transfected L cells expressing E beta k paired to E alpha or DR alpha presented Ag with equal efficiency, and the beta 2 domain of H-2Ek could be substituted with the equivalent region from DR1 without any loss of response. Wild-type DR1 failed to function as a restriction element, however, substitution of the COOH-terminal portion of the beta 1 domain with the equivalent sequence from H-2Ek was sufficient to produce a partial recovery of Ag recognition. Cells expressing a recombinant beta 1 domain comprising the COOH-terminal sequence from H-2Ek and the NH2-terminal sequence from DR1 presented Ag when paired to DR alpha but failed to do so when paired to E alpha. This indicates that a subtle conformational disturbance caused by mismatching of the NH2-terminal region of the beta-chain and the alpha-chain can have pronounced effects on T cell recognition. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Dolutegravir and neuropsychiatric adverse events: a continuing debate.

We read with great interest the series of letters regarding dolutegravir-related neuropsychiatric adverse events (NP-AE) [1–4]. We report, here, our experience in a French cohort, to add on the current debate. Data were obtained from electronic records of patients attending HIV services at Paris Seine-Saint-Denis Hospitals. We extracted data of patients who initiated dolutegravir and who discontinued the drug because of adverse events, focusing on NP-AE. We compared patients who received dolutegravir-containing regimens with and without abacavir. We used Pearson x test for statistical analysis.