Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Insulin Secretion with the Effect of Loureirin B through KATP Channel–Dependent Pathway

The development of new diabetes drugs continues to be explored. Loureirin B, a flavonoid, extracted from Dracaena cochinchinensis, has been confirmed to increase insulin secretion and decrease blood glucose levels. For understanding the mechanism, a series of experiments had been employed based on computational methods and cell experiments. The insulin secretion significantly increased with the incubation of 0. 01μM loureirin B for 4 hours. The viability of Ins-1 cells showed no significant difference with the treatment of loureirin B. Through computational methods, we hypothesized that loureirin B could interacts with KATP channels to promote insulin secretion. In cell experiments, it could be found that the current of KATP channel of Ins1 cells was inhibited by the effect of loureirin B. After then, the voltage-dependent calcium channels were activated, the increase of Cx43 protein expression might mediate the Ca2+ to the intracellular. In summary, it could be concluded that loureirin B promoted insulin secretion mainly through inhibiting KATP current, the influx of Ca2+ to the Intracellular and the expression of Cx43.
Efficient intracellular retrotransposition of an exogenous primate retrovirus genome

The foamy virus (FV) subgroup of Retroviridae reverse transcribe their RNA (pre‐)genome late in the replication cycle before leaving an infected cell. We studied whether a marker gene‐transducing FV vector is able to shuttle to the nucleus and integrate into host cell genomic DNA. While a potential intracellular retrotransposition of vectors derived from other retroviruses was below the detection limit of our assay, we found that up to 5% of cells transfected with the FV vector were stably transduced, harboring 1 to ∼10 vector integrants. Generation of the integrants depended on expression of functional capsid, reverse transcriptase and integrase proteins, and did not involve an extracellular step. PCR analysis of the U3 region of the 5′ long terminal repeat and determination of proviral integration sites showed that a reverse transcription step had taken place to generate the integrants. Co‐expression of a mutated envelope allowing particle egress and avoiding extracellular infection resulted in a significantly increased rescue of cells harboring integrants, suggesting that accumulation of proviruses via intracellular retrotransposition represents an integral part of the FV replication strategy.
Genetic derepression of a developmentally regulated lipopolysaccharide antigen from Rhizobium leguminosarum 3841

Monoclonal antibody AFRC MAC 203 recognizes a developmentally regulated lipopolysaccharide antigen in Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841. Transposon-induced mutants that constitutively expressed MAC 203 antigen were isolated. These strains were morphologically normal, showed no gross abnormalities in lipopolysaccharide size distribution on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels, and induced normal nitrogen-fixing nodules. However, the mutants lacked lipopolysaccharide epitopes recognized by another rat monoclonal antibody, AFRC MAC 281, suggesting that the corresponding epitopes may be interconverted or share a common precursor. In conjugational crosses, the transposon insertion associated with both the loss of MAC 281 antigen and the constitutive expression of MAC 203 antigen showed linkage to the chromosomal rif allele. A derivative of strain 3841 with a deletion spanning the nod-fix region of the symbiotic plasmid showed no altered expression pattern for MAC 203 antigen, suggesting that the relevant genetic determinants map to genomic sites that are not associated with nifA or any known genes on the symbiotic plasmid.
A trial of three regimens to prevent tuberculosis in Ugandan adults infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Uganda-Case Western Reserve University Research Collaboration.

BACKGROUND Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) greatly increases the risk of reactivation tuberculosis. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of three preventive-therapy regimens in a setting where exposure to tuberculosis is common. METHODS We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 2736 HIV-infected adults recruited in Kampala, Uganda. Subjects with positive tuberculin skin tests (induration, > or =5 mm) with purified protein derivative (PPD) were randomly assigned to one of four regimens: placebo (464 subjects), isoniazid daily for six months (536), isoniazid and rifampin daily for three months (556), or isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamide daily for three months (462). Subjects with anergy (0 mm induration in reaction to PPD and candida antigens) were randomly assigned to receive either placebo (323 subjects) or six months of isoniazid (395). The medications were dispensed monthly and were self-administered. RESULTS Among the PPD-positive subjects, the incidence of tuberculosis in the three groups that received preventive therapy was lower than the rate in the placebo group (P=0.002 by the log-rank test). The relative risk of tuberculosis with isoniazid alone, as compared with placebo, was 0.33 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.14 to 0.77); with isoniazid and rifampin, 0.40 (0.18 to 0.86); and with isoniazid, rifampin, and pyrazinamide, 0.51 (0.24 to 1.08). Among the subjects with anergy, the relative risk of tuberculosis was 0.83 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.34 to 2.04) with isoniazid as compared with placebo. Side effects were more common with the multidrug regimens, and particularly with the regimen containing pyrazinamide. Survival did not differ among the groups, but the subjects with anergy had a higher mortality rate than the PPD-positive subjects. CONCLUSIONS A six-month course of isoniazid confers short-term protection against tuberculosis among PPD-positive, HIV-infected adults. Multidrug regimens with isoniazid and rifampin taken for three months also reduce the risk of tuberculosis.
Image Recognition and Tracking Algorithm Based on PID Fuzzy Control

Video surveillance systems with image recognition and image tracking capabilities have a wide range of applications in the field of city protection, social security and public safety. In this paper, based on the analysis of image detection and tracking principles proposed image recognition based PID fuzzy control and tracking algorithm. First, the image on the basis of the gray-scale image acquired by the video processor, the binary processing, and then through the expansion operation of mathematical morphology the candidate region of the image recognition, and then the final image region obtained through the vertical positioning and horizontal positioning of the region Finally, through the PID control algorithm it is the image of the track. Simulation results show that the PID fuzzy control-based image recognition and tracking algorithm in the image of the vehicle license plate image recognition and tracking performance and good practicability.
Evidence that the Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 ICP0 Protein Does Not Initiate Reactivation from Latency In Vivo

ABSTRACT The stress-induced host cell factors initiating the expression of the herpes simplex virus lytic cycle from the latent viral genome are not known. Previous studies have focused on the effect of specific viral proteins on reactivation, i.e., the production of detectable infectious virus. However, identification of the viral protein(s) through which host cell factors transduce entry into the lytic cycle and analysis of the promoter(s) of this (these) first protein(s) will provide clues to the identity of the stress-induced host cell factors important for reactivation. In this report, we present the first strategy developed for this type of analysis and use this strategy to test the established hypothesis that the herpes simplex virus ICP0 protein initiates reactivation from the latent state. To this end, ICP0 null and promoter mutants were analyzed for the abilities (i) to exit latency and produce lytic-phase viral proteins (initiate reactivation) and (ii) to produce infectious viral progeny (reactivate) in explant and in vivo. Infection conditions were manipulated so that approximately equal numbers of latent infections were established by the parental strains, the mutants, and their genomically restored counterparts, eliminating disparate latent pool sizes as a complicating factor. Following hyperthermic stress (HS), which induces reactivation in vivo, equivalent numbers of neurons exited latency (as evidenced by the expression of lytic-phase viral proteins) in ganglia latently infected with either the ICP0 null mutant dl1403 or the parental strain. In contrast, infectious virus was detected in the ganglia of mice latently infected with the parental strain but not with ICP0 null mutant dl1403 or FXE. These data demonstrate that the role of ICP0 in the process of reactivation is not as a component of the switch from latency to lytic-phase gene expression; rather, ICP0 is required after entry into the lytic cycle has occurred. Similar analyses were carried out with the ΔTfi mutant, which contains a 350-bp deletion in the ICP0 promoter, and the genomically restored isolate, ΔTfiR. The numbers of latently infected neurons exiting latency were not different for ΔTfi and ΔTfiR. However, ΔTfi did not reactivate in vivo, whereas ΔTfiR reactivated in ∼38% of the mice. In addition, ICP0 was detected in ΔTfiR-infected neurons exiting latency but was not detected in those neurons exiting latency infected with ΔTfi. We conclude that while ICP0 is important and perhaps essential for infectious virus production during reactivation in vivo, this protein is not required and appears to play no major role in the initiation of reactivation in vivo.
An Integrated Analysis of the Progression of Cell Responses Induced by Permanent Focal Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion in the Rat

Defining the chronology and severity of cell damage in an evolving lesion after ischemia is important for understanding the underlying mechanisms in the development of therapeutic intervention. In the present study, we used a combination of histological and immunocytochemical methods to evaluate cell responses from 30 min to 48 h after permanent occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO) in the rat. Specific immunocytochemical markers clearly revealed acute early responses in neurons (neurofilament protein 200), astrocytes (glial fibrillary acidic protein), and microglia/macrophages (OX-42 and ED-1) such as enlarged, convoluted neuronal processes, and disintegration of glia. Progressive topographic changes in the developing lesion, pinpointed by immunolabeling, indicated the severity and extension of the cell damage. Proliferation and hypertrophy of astrocytes and microglia around the infarct, and contralaterally, occurred 24-48 h after MCAO and coincided with mass necrosis and infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages into the core. These observations corroborate the suggestion that the inflammatory process is involved in the progression of the infarct.
Blunted Response of Growth Hormone to Clonidine and Apomorphine in Endogenous Depression

We measured the growth hormone (GH) response to clonidine (an alpha-2-adrenergic agonist) and to apomorphine (a dopaminergic agonist) in 15 major endogenous and 15 minor depressive in-patients matched for gender and age. Results showed a significantly smaller GH response in the major depressives to both Clonidine (P<0.01) and apomorphine (P<0.001). No significant difference existed between the two groups with regard to changes in blood pressure and pulse rate during either test. While major depressives showed a trend toward smaller sedative side-effects than minor depressives after Clonidine, they showed significantly smaller sedative and gastro-intestinal side-effects after apomorphine. No significant correlation was present either in the major depressive or in the minor depressive group between the GH responses following Clonidine and apomorphine challenges. These results support the hypothesis of both noradrenergic and dopaminergic neurotransmitter disturbances in major depression, with individual variability with regard to those biochemical anomalies.
Decision making approach using ontologies: Application on sacred texts

This paper is an approach on decision-making to be applied on ontologies; aims at analyzing the ontologies that represent knowledge of Islamic legislative sources in order to help decision makers as to El-fatwa. We are interested in studying the works which had already been done on that field to shed light on what exists and what can be reused.
Provision of a Panel of Anti‐Toxoplasma‐Negative Blood Donors

Abstract. Toxoplasma gondii has been reported to cause complications only in immunosuppressed patients receiving leucocyte transfusion, when severe acute toxoplasmosis has been reported with associated mortality. At the North London Blood Transfusion Centre (NLBTC) we have screened 392 plasmapheresis donors (using toxoreagent latex agglutination test manufactured by Eiken) to provide a panel of blood donors negative for antibody to toxoplasma for seronegative recipients. A toxoplasma‐negative panel of donors would only be required for those rare instances when granulocyte concentrates are indicated for transfusion of seronegative recipients. The toxoreagent test classified the 392 blood donors as 36% positive, 23% weakly reactive and 41% negative; these negative sera were retested with toxoreagent and 17% of them reacted weakly but none were positive. The toxoreagent ‘weakly‐reactive’ sera (all of which were Sabin‐Feldman dye test negative) can probably best be accounted for by the exacting screening conditions under which we operated to ensure seronegativity in our special donor panel. 40% of the antibody‐positive donors were female and 34% male. Seropositivity increased with age.
Guiding Movements with Internal Representations: A Reach-and-Grasp Task

Abstract We investigated participants' ability to use internal representations of the environment to guide prehensile movements, when visual feedback was not available. Reaching and grasping performed with concurrent visual feedback was compared to conditions in which participants actively formed spatial images and passively encoded images from visually presented information. Movement times, the proportion of time spent after peak velocity and peak apertures, were greater when concurrent visual feedback was unavailable. Movement times increased as a function of premovement occlusion length, with passively encoded images resulting in shorter movement durations than actively formed images. The findings indicated that participants adapted their movement trajectories to compensate for the degradation of stored spatial information, when concurrent visual feedback was not available.
Community-Commerce Brokering Arena for Opportunistic Cloud Services Offerings

—Community clouds are formed when a cloud infrastructure is created to support the needs of multiple, independent service consumers that have shared concerns. Such infrastructures may allow member organizations to share resources on an opportunistic basis, i.e., one entity may provide services to the other members during off-peak times, and may in turn consume services from other members. Thus each member provides permanent or transient services according to their competencies and excess. This paper sets forth a conceptual architecture, examines the opportunities offered by such systems, and initiates a conversation on the business implications.
Public Financial Management and Health Service Delivery: A Literature Review

This chapter provides a summary review of the existing academic literature, both theoretical and empirical, on the contributions of public financial management (PFM) systems and reforms to improving the effectiveness of health service delivery based on a literature review conducted by Goryakin et al . (2017). We consider both population health indicators as well as more proximate process indicators related to health system performance. The existing literature is limited and only 53 articles are reviewed, divided across three subthemes: first, “system quality” studies, on the impact of PFM quality and good governance generally; second, “health system strengthening” studies, including articles on medium-term expenditure frameworks (MTEFs), reforms related to budget transparency and participatory budgeting and decentralization; third, studies on the impact of donor-related reforms such as the introduction of sector-wide approaches (SWAps). The theoretical literature predicts that high-quality PFM systems will have a positive impact on various dimensions of performance; whereas evidence from empirical studies is more limited,
Prevalence and correlates of aortic root dilatation in patients with essential hypertension: relationship with cardiac and extracardiac target organ damage

Objective To assess the prevalence of aortic root dilatation in a large cohort of uncomplicated hypertensive patients and to evaluate the relations of aortic root size to different markers of cardiac and extracardiac target organ damage (TOD). Methods A total of 3366 untreated and treated essential hypertensive patients (mean age, 53 ± 12 years) consecutively attending our out-patient hypertension clinic and included in the Evaluation of Target Organ Damage in Hypertension (an observational ongoing registry of hypertension-related TOD) were considered for this analysis. All patients underwent routine examinations, 24-h urine collection for microalbuminuria, echocardiography and carotid ultrasonography. Results Aortic root dilatation, defined by the sex-specific echocardiographic criteria of 40 mm in men and 38 mm in women, was present in 8.5% of men and in 3.1% of women. Compared with 3160 patients with normal aortic size, the group of 206 patients with an enlarged aortic root was older, had higher diastolic blood pressure values and included a greater fraction of subjects under antihypertensive treatment, with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy, carotid intima–media thickening, plaques and microalbuminuria was significantly higher in patients with aortic root dilatation. According to a logistic regression analysis, left ventricular hypertrophy, carotid atherosclerosis, overweight and metabolic syndrome were the main independent and potentially modifiable predictors of aortic root dilatation in the whole hypertensive population as well as in untreated and treated hypertensive patients separately. Conclusions Our study shows that hypertensive patients with aortic root enlargement have more pronounced alterations in cardiac structure and geometry as well as in carotid artery morphology compared with those without the enlargement. Aortic root dilatation therefore appears to be a useful marker of high cardiovascular risk related to TOD. Whether this alteration independently predicts cardiovascular morbidity remains to be proven.
Tissue microarray profiling in human heart failure

Tissue MicroArrays (TMAs) are a versatile tool for high‐throughput protein screening, allowing qualitative analysis of a large number of samples on a single slide. We have developed a customizable TMA system that uniquely utilizes cryopreserved human cardiac samples from both heart failure and donor patients to produce formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded sections. Confirmatory upstream or downstream molecular studies can then be performed on the same (biobanked) cryopreserved tissue. In a pilot study, we applied our TMAs to screen for the expression of four‐and‐a‐half LIM‐domain 2 (FHL2), a member of the four‐and‐a‐half LIM family. This protein has been implicated in the pathogenesis of heart failure in a variety of animal models. While FHL2 is abundant in the heart, not much is known about its expression in human heart failure. For this purpose, we generated an affinity‐purified rabbit polyclonal anti‐human FHL2 antibody. Our TMAs allowed high‐throughput profiling of FHL2 protein using qualitative and semiquantitative immunohistochemistry that proved complementary to Western blot analysis. We demonstrated a significant relative reduction in FHL2 protein expression across different forms of human heart failure.
Condition-based monitoring and prognostic health management of electric machine stator winding insulation

A comprehensive diagnostic and prognostic method is introduced for assessing the condition of stator winding insulation and predicting its failure time. A diagnostic method is developed by building an analytical model of the stator winding. Degradation is simulated by altering the permittivity and conductivity of the insulation in a finite element model simulation and changing the analytical model accordingly. The diagnostic method is performed with an oscilloscope and other common hardware. A prognostic method is introduced which is used to predict the remaining useful life of the insulation based on fitting insulation current measurements to an exponential decay model. The diagnostic method is verified with the analytical model for multiple levels of degradation and experimentally for the healthy case. The prognostic method is verified with simulated degradation data.
Host–pathogen interactions: the seduction of molecular cross talk

Bacterial pathogens have evolved two major strategies to colonise the intestinal epithelium. Adherent microorganisms bind to the apical pole of the intestinal epithelium, whereas invasive microorganisms disrupt and invade the epithelium. Recognition of the genetic bases of bacterial pathogenicity and analysis of the molecular cross talks established between pathogens and their mammalian target cells have illuminated this diversity of interactions. We have compared the strategies of enteroinvasive pathogens, with emphasis on bacterial species such as Shigella, Yersinia, and Salmonella, that represent paradigms of interaction. Cross talks leading to alteration of the epithelial cell actin cytoskeleton appear as a recurrent theme during entry and dissemination into epithelial cells. Other cross talks alter the trafficking of cellular vesicles and induce changes in the intracellular compartment in which they reside, thus creating niches favourable to bacterial survival and growth. Finally, a variety of strategies also exist to deal with other components of the epithelial barrier, such as macrophages. Pro-phagocytic, anti-phagocytic, and pro-apoptotic processes appear to be of particular importance.
Registration of Durum Wheat Germplasm Lines with Combined Mutations in SBEIIa and SBEIIb Genes Conferring Increased Amylose and Resistant Starch.

Durum wheat [Triticum turgidum L. subsp. durum (Desf.) Husn. ], used in pasta, couscous, and flatbread production, is an important source of starch food products worldwide. The amylose portion of the starch forms resistant starch complexes that resist digestion and contribute to dietary fiber. Increasing the amount of amylose and resistant starch in wheat by mutating the STARCH BRANCHING ENZYME II (SBEII) genes has potential to provide human health benefits. Ethyl methane sulfonate mutations in the linked SBEIIa and SBEIIb paralogs were combined on chromosomes 2A (SBEIIa/b-A; Reg. No. GP-968, PI 670159), 2B (SBEIIa/b-B; Reg. No. GP-970, PI 670161), and on both chromosomes (SBEIIa/b-AB; Reg. No. GP-969, PI 670160) in the tetraploid wheat cultivar Kronos, a semidwarf durum wheat cultivar that has high yield potential and excellent pasta quality. These three double and quadruple SBEII-mutant lines were compared with a control sib line with no SBEII mutations in two field locations in California. The SBEIIa/b-AB line with four mutations showed dramatic increases in amylose (average 66%) and resistant starch (average 753%) relative to the control. However, the SBEIIa/b-AB line also showed an average 7% decrease in total starch and an 8% decrease in kernel weight. The release by the University of California-Davis of the durum wheat germplasm combining four SBEIIa and SBEIIb mutations will accelerate the deployment of these mutations in durum wheat breeding programs and the development of durum wheat varieties with increased resistant starch.