Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The PTEN inhibitor bisperoxovanadium enhances myelination by amplifying IGF‐1 signaling in rat and human oligodendrocyte progenitors

Oligodendrocytes (OLGs) produce and maintain myelin in the central nervous system (CNS). In the demyelinating autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis, OLGs are damaged and those remaining fail to fully remyelinate CNS lesions. Therefore, current therapies directed to restrain the inflammation process with approaches that protect and reconstitute oligodendrocyte density would be essential to pave the way of myelin repair. A critical signal for oligodendrocytes is insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1), which promotes their development and ultimately myelin formation. PTEN inhibits the phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling, a convergence downstream pathway for growth factors such as IGF‐1. In this report, we temporarily inhibited PTEN activity by treating rat and human oligodendrocyte progenitors (OLPs) cultured alone or with dorsal root ganglion neurons (DRGNs) with bisperoxovanadium (phen). Our findings show that phen potentiates IGF‐1 actions by increasing proliferation of OLPs in a concentration‐dependent manner, and caused a sustained and time‐dependent activation of the main pathways: PI3K/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and MEK/ERK. At low concentrations, IGF‐1 and phen stimulated the differentiation of rat and human OLPs. Concordantly, the PTEN inhibitor together with IGF‐1 robustly augmented myelin basic protein accumulation in rat newborn and human fetal OLGs co‐cultured with DRGNs in a longer timeframe by promoting the elaboration of organized myelinated fibers as evidenced by confocal microscopy. Thus, our results suggest that a transient suppression of a potential barrier for myelination in combination with other therapeutic approaches including growth factors may be promising to improve the functional recovery of CNS injuries. GLIA 2013;62:64–77
Los peces como indicadores de la calidad ecológica del agua

Aquatic ecosystem degradation in several developed countries has led to defining new generation water quality guidelines. These include biological components such as fish, which are considered as tools for monitoring, characterizing and defining water quality in rivers and lakes. This paper briefly presents the main applications of fish as indicators of sustainable use of water in hydrological basins. Firstly, a conceptual framework is presented for introducing the paper. Secondly, a description of diversity indices, species richness, taxonomic guilds and multimetric indices is given, along with their applications, advantages and drawbacks. Thirdly, the main practical considerations for setting up effective monitoring programs are summarized. These include pilot surveys, reference sites, the scale of study and landscape heterogeneity. Finally, challenges and perspectives of using fish as indicators in Mexico are identified.
Expression of TGFbeta2 but not TGFbeta1 correlates with the deposition of scar tissue in the lesioned spinal cord.

Transforming growth factor-betas (TGFbetas) are implicated in fibrotic pathologies. TGFbeta1 and -beta2 expression is increased around the glial/fibrotic scar in the injured brain. Moreover, local injection of TGFbeta antagonists into cerebral wounds reduces glial scarring. Here, we monitored expression of TGFbeta1 and -beta2 mRNA and protein in the spinal cord after transection of the dorsal funiculi. Levels of TGFbeta1 mRNA were most elevated over the acute inflammatory phase, while TGFbeta2 mRNA levels were raised locally about the wound, particularly in astrocytes and neovascular endothelial cells, over the subacute period of scarring. TGFbeta protein production also increased after injury. Both TGFbeta1 and TGFbeta2 were found in hematogenous inflammatory cells, while TGFbeta1 was also neuron-associated, and high levels of TGFbeta2 were localized to multiple cell types in the wound, including reactive astrocytes, during the period of glial/collagen scar formation. The cellular localization and temporal pattern of expression of TGFbeta after spinal cord injury suggest that TGFbeta1 modulates the inflammatory and neuronal responses, while TGFbeta2 regulates glial/collagen scarring.
New Coronal Caries in Older Adults: Implications for Prevention

To characterize the extent and severity of coronal caries among older US adults and document their need for prevention interventions, we systematically reviewed studies on coronal caries incidence, increment, and attack rate. We abstracted six studies and calculated summary measures using a random-effects model (95% confidence interval [95%CI]). We tested for heterogeneity and identified associated factors by examining the correlation between outcome measures and baseline population risk and study characteristics. We re-calculated summary measures after adjusting outcomes that netted out examiner reversals. Incidence and increment varied significantly by study. Adjusting studies for netting out examiner reversals reduced heterogeneity significantly. Annual attack rate among adjusted North American studies was 1.4 surfaces per 100 surfaces (95%CI = 1.0–1.9), or approximately 1 new carious surface per person per year. These rates are equal to or higher than those in children and indicate a need for caries-prevention services.
A Systematic Design Strategy for Antagonistic Joints Actuated by Artificial Muscles

Characterization, modeling, and control of pneumatic artificial muscles is typically demonstrated in an antagonistic architecture. There are many conflicting design constraints when designing these systems, resulting in many different styles of testing apparatus. A novel, systematic design methodology is proposed to improve these architectural constraints and describe the envelope of possible system outputs in terms of displacement and torque/force. It is founded upon a mathematical expression of actuator-model convolution. The proposed systematic antagonistic design by convolution (SADC) method involves three steps. First, model the workspace capability of each fluidic muscle. Second, devise the physical layout of the antagonistic apparatus by convolution, which investigates the structure for output workspace dexterity. Finally, establish trajectories and control, which is left to the application engineer. This method reduces the focus on the actuator capability, and instead represents a general method to approach system-level specification and design. The new SADC methodology facilitates design for a larger symmetric force capability. It is demonstrated for two cases, a symmetric and an asymmetric antagonistic system. It contributes a new pathway to explore optimization of antagonistic workspace symmetry at a system level and aids the engineer in visualizing architectural tradeoffs. It is independent of the application's control methodology and can be modified to examine alternative cost functions that require optimization.
An expanded evaluation of the relationship of four alleles to the level of response to alcohol and the alcoholism risk.

BACKGROUND Alcoholism is a complex, genetically influenced disorder the cause of which may be better understood through the study of genetically influenced phenotypes that mediate the risk. One such intermediate phenotype is the low level of response (LR) to alcohol. This project used a case-control approach to search for genes that may contribute to LR. METHODS Data were available from alcohol challenges at approximately age 20 and regarding the development of alcohol use disorders over the subsequent 20 years for 85 men, including 40 reported in a previous genetic analysis. LR was evaluated using oral consumption of 0.75 ml/kg of alcohol, after which changes in subjective feelings of intoxication and body sway were measured. Alcohol abuse and dependence were diagnosed by DSM-III-R criteria through structured interviews administered to both the participant and an informant (usually the spouse) 10, 15, and 20 years after initial testing. Four polymorphisms were evaluated, including the serotonin transporter HTTLPR promoter ins/del, GABAAalpha6 Pro385Ser, NPY Leu7Pro, and catalase 262C>T. Two of these, HTTLPR and GABAAalpha6 Pro385Ser, had been previously associated with LR and alcoholism in a preliminary study. RESULTS The HTTLPR L allele was significantly related to both the LR and alcoholism in an allele-dosage (stepwise) manner. Furthermore, the association remained when L alleles were subdivided into recently reported functional subtypes: the lowest LR was associated with genotypes correlated with the highest serotonin transporter expression. The GABAAalpha6 Ser385 allele showed a nonsignificant trend for association to a low LR, as had been previously observed, although the Ser385 allele is uncommon, and only 18 heterozygotes were in the current group. However, the six men with both LL and Pro385/Ser385 genotypes had the lowest LR, and each had developed alcoholism during follow-up. Neither NPY nor catalase was associated with either LR or alcoholic outcomes, although the sample did not have sufficient power for definitive conclusions. CONCLUSIONS This report strengthens the support for a relationship between the HTTLPR L and GABAAalpha6 Ser385 alleles to low alcohol LR and to alcoholism in a prospectively studied cohort evaluated for LR in young adulthood and before the onset of alcohol dependence.
Approximate QR-based algorithms for recursive nonlinear least squares estiamtion

—This paper proposes new approximate QR-based algorithms for recursive nonlinear least squares (NLS) estimation. Two QR decomposition-based recursive algorithms are introduced based on the classical Gauss-Newton (GN) and Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithms in nonlinear unconstrained optimization or least squares problems. Instead of using the matrix inversion formula, recursive QR decomposition is employed, which is known to be numerically more stable in finite wordlength implementation. A family of p -A-QR-LS algorithms is then proposed to solve the LS problem resulting from the linearization of the NLS problem. It achieves different complexity-performance tradeoffs by retaining different number of diagonal plus off-diagonals (denoted by an integer p ) of the triangular factor of the augmented data matrix. Simulation results on identifying a nonlinear perceptron are provided to illustrate the principle of the new algorithms.
Adaptive synchronization of nonlinearly stochastically coupled networks with two types of time-varying delays

In this paper, a general model of nonlinearly stochastically coupled network with two types of time-varying delays is proposed. The network model is subject to stochastic disturbance described by Wiener process in the nonlinear coupling term. The two types of time-varying delays are the system delay in the nodes dynamics and the coupling delay between nodes. By employing the stochastic It differential formula and the LaSalle's invariant principle of the stochastic differential equation, several sufficient criteria are deduced to ensure the synchronization in mean square for the whole nonlinearly stochastically coupled network. The presented adaptive controller for the network synchronization is rather simple in form which is useful for future practical engineering design. A numerical simulation is given to show the effectiveness of the theoretical result.
Synthesis of the Cooling Pathways Optimal Layout for MRI Split Gradient Coils

Magnetic resonance imaging systems are sensitive to heating: hot spots can lead to a degradation of the image quality and system failure. Gradient coils are required to produce highly uniform and fast switching magnetic fields in order to spatially encode samples within a volume. When optimizing for heating and power loss there is a tradeoff for ideal magnetic performance. This paper investigates an automatic design procedure for gradient coil cooling systems which allows a strict relation between gradient coil design, performed through different criteria power and energy oriented, and its optimal cooling layout. Power and energy optimized split gradient coils are both cooled using an optimized layout based on a Dijkstra’s algorithm approach. Both systems see a large reduction in temperature values allowing the magnetically optimized coil to be used despite its increased power loss. This method can help ensure gradient coils can be optimized primarily for magnetic performance while keeping excess heating under control.
Cumulative delivery rate in an in vitro fertilization program with a single embryo transfer policy

Objective. To investigate the cumulative delivery rate for women completing three fresh embryo transfer cycles or giving birth after the first or second transfer cycle in an in vitro fertilization program with a single embryo transfer (SET) policy. Setting. Privately run infertility clinic in southern Sweden (Skåne region). Population. Four hundred fifty‐three consecutive, unselected public patients beginning an ovum pick‐up cycle between July 2002 and June 2004. Method. Retrospective, observational study. Main outcome measure: Cumulative delivery rates. Results. Of 370 women who completed the study with up to three fresh ET cycles (90% SETs), 244 women (66%) progressed to delivery. Among the deliveries were three sets of twins (1%), one dizygotic. Cumulative delivery rates showed significant differences relative to age <36 (71%) and ≥36 years (47%), and delivery rates relative to rank of ET cycle (first and second vs. third ET cycle – 35, 34, and 21% delivery rates, respectively). Conclusions. The 66% cumulative delivery rate is in accordance with rates in similar observational studies and in estimation studies, in which predominantly two embryos were used for transfer. The multiple delivery rate was low. We suggest that repeated SET cycles can be implemented on a large scale even in a primarily unselected patient population without compromising the outcome.
Vowel onset point based variable frame rate analysis for speech recognition

The consonant and transition regions around the vowel onset point hear important contextual cues for distinguishing between different classes of consonant vowel units. It is important to model these regions for improved speech recognition rates. Conventional fixed frame rate analysis does not distinguish between the different regions of the speech signal. In this paper we detail an approach to emphasize the consonant and transition regions in speech sounds using a variable frame rate, anchored around the vowel onset point. The usefulness of this technique is demonstrated on an isolated consonant-vowel recognition task for Indian languages.
Cascade heterogeneous face sketch-photo synthesis via dual-scale Markov Network

ABSTRACT Heterogeneous face sketch-photo synthesis is an important and challenging task in computer vision, which has widely applied in law enforcement and digital entertainment. According to the different synthesis results based on different scales, this paper proposes a cascade sketch-photo synthesis method via dual-scale Markov Network. Firstly, Markov Network with larger scale is used to synthesise the initial sketches and the local vertical and horizontal neighbour search (LVHNS) method is used to search for the neighbour patches of test patches in training set. Then, the initial sketches and test photos are jointly entered into smaller scale Markov Network. Finally, the fine sketches are obtained after cascade synthesis process. Extensive experimental results on various databases demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method compared with several state-of-the-art methods.
Age of menopause and impact of climacteric symptoms by geographical region

Objective To describe differences in the age of onset of menopause and in the prevalence of climacteric symptoms in different geographical areas. Design Systematic review of published data on onset of menopause and symptoms in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. Methods We identified publications by searching electronic databases, including MEDLINE (1966–October 2009) and EMBASE (1975–October 2009). Primary search criteria were age of menopause and climacteric symptoms. A sensitive analysis that excluded papers without full data was performed. Results The median age at menopause in Europe ranges from 50.1 to 52.8 years, in North America from 50.5 to 51.4 years, in Latin America from 43.8 to 53 years, and in Asia from 42.1 to 49.5 years. The frequency of vasomotor symptoms varies widely depending on the geographical region, selection of criteria, and method of symptom identification. The prevalence of such symptoms ranges from 74% of women in Europe, 36–50% in North America, 45–69% in Latin America and 22–63% in Asia, as reported in different, large, epidemiological studies. Conclusion There are wide geographical differences in the prevalence of menopausal symptomatology and some differences in the age of onset of menopause. Both in Asia and Latin America, women of poorer socioeconomic status have significantly earlier onset of menopause. Within a geographical region, there are ethnic differences in menopause symptoms. Given differences in study methodologies, firm conclusions are not possible. However, regional differences in age at menopause and in climacteric symptoms are important to acknowledge and lay the foundation for an informed approach to the management of menopause and an understanding of its impact on women's health in the different regions of the world.
Nitric oxide coordinates development of genomic instability in realization of combined effect with ionizing radiation.

UNLABELLED The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of environmental nitrogen oxides or natural nitric oxide (NO) donors to modify free radicals ba-lance and development of genomic instability alone or in combination with ionizing radiation. METHODS Genotoxicity and cytogenetic abnormalities were assessed in vitro in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) isolated from healthy humans or in vivo in rats PBL. Human PBL were treated with physiologically relevant NO donor - S-Nitrosoglutathione and X-ray irradiation. The inhalation treatment of animals with NO was carried out in chamber with purified gaseous NO mixed inside with air. Levels of S-Nitrosohemoglobin and methemoglobin in the blood were assessed with electron paramagnetic resonance. The total level of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in PBL was determined fluorometrically, and serum levels of reactive oxygen species was determined by spectrophotometric assay. DNA damages were assessed by alkaline single-cell gel electrophoresis. The frequency of chromosomal aberrations in human PBL measured with the conventional cytogenetic assay in metaphase cells on short-term (52 h) and long-term (72 h) cultures. RESULTS Environmental nitrogen oxides or release of NO from stable complexes with biomolecules (such as S-Nitrosothiols) intensified generation of free radicals, DNA damage and development of genomic instability alone or in combination with ionizing radiation. Treatment of PBL by S-Nitrosoglutathione caused prevalent induction of chromatid type but irradiation - chromosome aberrations. The dose dependence of chromatid-type aberrations observed in human PBL after combined influence of S-Nitrosoglutathione and ionizing radiation indicates a crucial role of NO in the formation of chromosomal instability. CONCLUSION NO can deregulate free radicals balance resulted in genotoxic effect, posttranslational modification of repair enzymes and thus coordinated development of genomic instability and increase of cancer risk.
Effectiveness of tax and price policies in tobacco control

Objective Over 20 experts on economics, epidemiology, public policy and tobacco control were asked by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to evaluate the strength of the available evidence on the effects of tax and price policies to prevent and reduce tobacco use. Methods Draft papers presenting and assessing the evidence on the following topics were developed by the experts in an 8-month period prior to the meeting: tobacco industry pricing strategies and tax related lobbying; tax, price and aggregate demand for tobacco; tax, price and adult tobacco use, use among young people and use among the poor; tax avoidance and tax evasion; and the economic and health impact of tobacco taxation. Subsequently, papers were peer reviewed, revised and resubmitted for final discussion at a 6-day meeting at IARC in Lyon, France, where a consensus evaluation of 18 concluding statements using the pre-established criteria of the IARC Cancer Prevention Handbooks took place. Studies published (or accepted for publication) in the openly available scientific literature were the main source of evidence for the review and evaluation; other types of publications were included when appropriate. Results In support of 12 of the 18 conclusions, the experts agreed that there was sufficient evidence of effectiveness of increased tobacco excise taxes and prices in reducing overall tobacco consumption and prevalence of tobacco use and improvement of public health, including by preventing initiation and uptake among young people, promoting cessation among current users and lowering consumption among those who continue to use. For the remaining six concluding statements the evidence was strong (four statements) or limited (two statements). Conclusions The evidence presented and assessed in IARC Handbook volume 14 documents the effectiveness of tax and price policies in the control of tobacco use and improvement of public health.
Synthesis and antiviral evaluation of fluorinated acyclo-nucleosides and their phosphoramidates

ABSTRACT A novel series of tetrafluoro and hexafluoro acyclic nucleosides and their phosphoramidates were successfully prepared from commercially available 2,2,3,3-tetrafluoro-1,4-butanediol and 2,2,3,3,4,4-hexafluoro-1,5-pentanediol in four to six steps. Their ability to block HIV, HCV, HSV-1, and HBV replication along with their cytotoxicity toward HepG2, human lymphocyte, CEM, and Vero cells was assessed.
Fabrication of phase-shifted long-period fibre grating using electric-arc technique

We propose and experimentally demonstrate the fabrication of long period gratings on the SMF using the electric-arc technique. By monitoring the transmission spectrum of the LPG, a deep notch over 16 dB was achieved within the operation wavelength band. Exploiting the point by point inscription method, π-phase-shift LPFG was achieved with a bandpass centered within two big notches. The proposed method has many advantages such as compact structure, cost-effective.
Human papillomavirus transmission and cost-effectiveness of introducing quadrivalent HPV vaccination in Denmark

Objectives: The objective of this study was to simulate human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in a heterosexual population and subsequently analyze the incremental costs and effects of introducing a vaccination program against HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 in Denmark compared with screening alone. Methods: The analysis was performed in two phases. First, an agent-based transmission model was developed that described the HPV transmission without and with HPV vaccination. Second, an analysis of the incremental costs and effects was performed. The results of prevalence estimates of HPV, genital warts, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN1–3), and cervical cancer in the model simulations before and after introduction of HPV vaccination were extrapolated to the Danish population figures. Incremental costs and effects were then estimated. Future costs and effects were discounted. Results: Cost-effectiveness ratios for annual vaccination of 12-year-old girls, with a vaccination rate of 70 percent without a catch-up program, were estimated at approximately €1,917 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY, 3 percent discount rate) and €10,846/QALY (5 percent discount rate), given a 62-year time horizon. Conclusions: A vaccination program would incur extra vaccination costs but would save treatment costs and improve both quality of life and survival.