Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inflammatory bowel disease reveals the kinase activity of KSR 1

Kinase suppressor of Ras-1 (KSR1) is a recently identified member of the EGFR–Ras–Raf-1–MAPK signaling pathway. A new study demonstrates that KSR1 protects intestinal epithelium from TNF-α–induced apoptosis, abrogating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (see the related article beginning on page 1272). Since its discovery, there has been disagreement as to whether KSR1 possesses intrinsic kinase activity. Using transgenic mouse models and genetically modified mouse colon epithelial cells, Polk and coworkers show that the kinase activity of KSR1 is off in normal colon epithelial cells, becoming activated only at the onset of IBD. They also provide strong evidence that KSR1 kinase activity is essential for anti-apoptotic protection of the intestinal epithelium. These new data in support of KSR1 as a kinase highlight an ongoing debate as to whether KSR1 does indeed serve as a specific kinase in transphosphorylating and transactivating c-Raf–1 toward MEK1.
Prevention of bronchopulmonary dysplasia

The clinical syndrome of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants results primarily from an arrest of lung vascular and alveolar development. The most likely mediators are proinflammatory cytokines that are induced by antenatal exposure to infection, postnatal ventilation, and oxygen exposure. New epidemiologic data suggest that attempts to avoid intubation and ventilation are the best ways to avoid severe BPD. The claim that one ventilation technique is better than another remains unconvincing, and any strategy that maintains the lung open and minimizes tidal volumes probably will be helpful. More adverse effects of postnatal steroids are being recognized. New insights into the pathophysiology of BPD and a new emphasis on minimizing ventilation and ventilator-mediated injury should improve outcomes for very preterm infants.
Quantitative microbial risk assessment of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in well water from a native community of Mexico

Cryptosporidium and Giardia are gastrointestinal disease-causing organisms transmitted by the fecal–oral route, zoonotic and prevalent in all socioeconomic segments with greater emphasis in rural communities. The goal of this study was to assess the risk of cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis of Potam dwellers consuming drinking water from communal well water. To achieve the goal, quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) was carried out as follows: (a) identification of Cryptosporidium oocysts and Giardia cysts in well water samples by information collection rule method, (b) assessment of exposure to healthy Potam residents, (c) dose-response modelling, and (d) risk characterization using an exponential model. All well water samples tested were positive for Cryptosporidium and Giardia. The QMRA results indicate a mean of annual risks of 99:100 (0.99) for cryptosporidiosis and 1:1 (1.0) for giardiasis. The outcome of the present study may drive decision-makers to establish an educational and treatment program to reduce the incidence of parasite-borne intestinal infection in the Potam community, and to conduct risk analysis programs in other similar rural communities in Mexico.
Depth-based selective image reconstruction using spatiotemporal image analysis

In industrial plants, a remote monitoring system which removes physical tour inspection is often considered desirable. However the image sequence given from the mobile inspection robot is hard to see because interested objects are often partially occluded by obstacles such as pillars or fences. Our aim is to improve the image sequence that increases the efficiency and reliability of remote visual inspection. We propose a new depth-based image processing technique, which removes the needless objects from the foreground and recovers the occluded background electronically. Our algorithm is based on spatiotemporal analysis that enables fine and dense depth estimation, depth-based precise segmentation, and accurate interpolation. We apply this technique to a real time sequence given from the mobile inspection robot. The resulted image sequence is satisfactory in that the operator can make correct visual inspection with less fatigue.
Bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) mutations are associated with variable ocular, brain, ear, palate, and skeletal anomalies

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling regulates a range of cellular processes and plays an important role in the specification and patterning of the early embryo. However, due to the functional redundancy of BMP ligands and receptors in tissues where they are coexpressed, relatively little is known about the role of individual BMP ligands in human disease. Here we report heterozygous variations in BMP7, including a frameshift, missense, and Kozak sequence mutation, in individuals with developmental eye anomalies and a range of systemic abnormalities, including developmental delay, deafness, scoliosis, and cleft palate. We determined that BMP7 is expressed in the developing eye, brain, and ear in human embryos in a manner consistent with the phenotype seen in our mutation cases. These data establish BMP7 as an important gene in human eye development, and suggest that BMP7 should be considered during clinical evaluation of individuals with developmental eye anomalies. Hum Mutat 31:1–7, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Methods of Endotoxin Detection

Endotoxin, present in the outer membrane of all gram-negative bacteria, can pose serious risks to human health, from irreversible shock to death. Therefore, it is essential to develop sensitive, accurate, and rapid methods for its detection. The rabbit pyrogen test is the first standard technique for endotoxin detection and, nowadays, has been replaced by the Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate test, which is the most popular detection technique for endotoxin. With in-depth understanding of endotoxin, biosensors based on endotoxin-sensing components are promising alternatives to pursue in developing low-cost, easy-operation, and fast-response endotoxin detection techniques. This article summarizes the recent advances of endotoxin detection methods with a particular emphasis on optical and electrochemical biosensors based on various sensing elements ranging from nature biomolecules to artificial materials. As the research and technological revolution continues, the highly integrated and miniaturized commercial devices for sensitively and reliably detecting endotoxin will provide a wide range of applications in people’s daily life.
Posttreatment controllers: what do they tell us?

Purpose of reviewThe posttreatment controllers (PTCs), as described for the Viro-Immunological Sustained COntrol after Treatment Interruption patients, are able to maintain durable HIV control after interruption of early antiretroviral therapy (ART). They are different from spontaneous HIV controllers who achieve HIV control without prior ART. PTCs provide proof-of-concept that prolonged ART-free remission is possible. Recent findingsPTCs support the idea that early treatment could be especially beneficial. They show that a stable equilibrium between a small HIV reservoir and HIV-1-specific immune responses can be achieved. PTCs occur at a frequency of 5 and 15% of patients with early combination ART interruption, which might be considered too infrequent to support early combination ART in all individuals. However, it will be necessary to use more potent ART, with good penetration into lymphoid tissues, initiated earlier and maintained for at least 4 years to see if this frequency might be increased. SummaryUnderstanding the mechanisms underlying durable HIV control among PTCs will provide critical insights into how this might be achieved in others. PTCs give hope that the objective of durable HIV remission is a realistic goal in the medium term.
Neural Progenitor Cells After Spinal Cord Injury : Spontaneous Reactions of Endogenous Progenitor Cells

multipotent fe than a decade little about the function of ad tion of these c been suggeste white matter p central canal, subependyma posed regardin adult spinal c cells may give liferate. In the cell resides in (55, 74). These ditions divide migrating to cord, where it itor cell or a m alternative mo glial progenito spinal cord (1 ative ependym matter of the a nous, expres overlapping m proteoglycan and Nkx2.2 (50 tipotent stem progenitors b lineage (49). E not generate a in the intact sp the term SPCs In contrast t pocampus an (SVZ), where t in vivo, the ad ered a nonneu ditions, the d glial-restricted dendrocytes a vitro expansio er, demonstra the adult spin neurons in cu tation studies derived from cells when reare able to giv neurogenic hi cate that the n tissue culture entiation pote results demon not intrinsical cues are able see Refs. 10, 29). The functional recovery is thought to be mainly mediated by the trophic factor secretion of SPCs or by remyelination of spared axons through newly formed oligodendrocytes (60), but the generation of new neurons has also been described (30, 64). However, transplantation-based approaches have several disadvantages, such as the risk of immune rejection and the need for external sources of cells. Embryonic stem cells or postnatal SPCs can be used for transplantation. Embryonic stem cells likely have a greater plastic potential than adult SPCs; however, ethical concerns and their potential for unwanted and possibly dangerous continued growth and tumor formation limit their use. Recently, the generation of autologous pluripotent stem cells from skin fibroblasts was reported (109), thus avoiding the ethical and immunorejection problems. Since these cells were manipulated using viral vectors, a therapeutic application of these converted skin cells must be initialized by thorough safety studies. Other significant challenges for stem cell transplantation include optimizing the cell characteristics before grafting, reducing risks such as tumor formation, and developing adequate commercial-scale production technologies. Given these shortcomings of exogenous stem cell application, the existence of neural progenitor cells in the adult spinal cord (3, 95, 104), and approaches to regulate their numbers and fate may provide an alternative to transplantation. This article focuses on the potential utility of endogenous neural SPCs as substrates for structural repair after SCI. We review the biology and possible function of SPCs in the normal and injured adult spinal cord as well as strategies to manipulate these cells to replace lost neurons and glia.
Energy Efficient Metadata Management for Cloud Storage System

To effectively handle duplicate files, data deduplication schemes are widely used in many storage systems. Data deduplication algorithms reduce storage space by eliminating data to ensure that only single instance of data is stored in storage device. In this paper, we propose an energy efficient file synchronization scheme that provides hybrid data chunking using variable-length chunking (VLC) and fixed-length chunking (FLC). The main idea is to analyze similarities between old and new versions of data and decide which chunking method to apply in synchronizing the files. In particular, the proposed algorithm exploits the file similarity pattern for calculating the energy efficiency of chunking algorithms. We have developed an Android mobile application for file synchronization and measured energy consumption. The experiment results show that the proposed scheme helps save energy in synchronizing files, regardless of file types or amount of redundancies the files have.
Educating physicians to treat erectile dysfunction patients: development and evaluation of a course on communication and management strategies.

PURPOSE To describe the development and assess the outcome of a workshop on erectile dysfunction (ED) management based on participating physicians evaluations. METHOD The study involved physicians who attended a workshop offered throughout the country, during a 3-year period. The workshop included tutorials, video-based dramatizations, and role-play sessions. A pilot study investigated the workshop's impact on physicians' attitudes toward patient-centeredness and sexual behavior issues; Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS) and Cross Cultural Attitude Scale (CCAS) were administered before and after the course. New knowledge acquisition, quality of presentation, and workshop's usefulness in their clinical practice were the dimensions used for workshop's evaluation. Analysis used quantitative and qualitative methods. RESULTS A total of 194 questionnaires were administered during the pilot study and the response rate was 53.6%. A shift in attitudes toward patient-centeredness and less judgmental attitude toward patients' sexual attitudes were revealed (total PPOS score and Sharing subscale: P < 0.05, CCAS: P < 0.001). Six hundred physicians were asked to evaluate the workshops and the response rate was 62.3%. The tutorial session for "medical treatment of ED" (P < 0.001) and the role-play on sexual history taking (P < 0.05) received higher evaluation scores. Qualitative analysis showed that the most frequently reported category referred to the appropriateness of role-play as a teaching and awareness-raising technique (31.25%); a need for changes in clinical practice and communication patterns was identified by 20% of the participants who stressed the necessity for multidisciplinary approach, as well as the adoption of a nonjudgmental attitude toward patients. CONCLUSION Training courses on ED management, using a combination of tutorial and interactive sessions, constitute an effective way of providing knowledge, enhancing physicians' communication skills with ED patients, and influencing attitudes toward patient-centeredness in sexual issues. Such results strongly support the establishment of sexual medicine courses at continuing medical education curricula.
Infants' Mental and Motor Development: Effects of Home Environment, Maternal Attitudes, Marital Adjustment, and Socioeconomic Status

27 two-yr. -old infants and their mothers were studied in their homes to analyze the relationship between infants' development and their home environment, mothers' attitudes as parents, mothers' marital adjustment, and families' socioeconomic status. Bayley Mental Development Indexes correlated with the infants' home environment, families' socioeconomic status, and maternal attitudes. Bayley Psychomotor Development Indexes related to home environment and socioeconomic status. Home environment, maternal attitude, and marital adjustment scores correlated with socioeconomic status. The implications of these ecological factors on infants' mental and motor development are discussed.
Toward a Physiology of Dual-Process Reasoning and Judgment: Lemonade, Willpower, and Expensive Rule-Based Analysis

This experiment used the attraction effect to test the hypothesis that ingestion of sugar can reduce reliance on intuitive, heuristic-based decision making. In the attraction effect, a difficult choice between two options is swayed by the presence of a seemingly irrelevant “decoy” option. We replicated this effect and the finding that the effect increases when people have depleted their mental resources performing a previous self-control task. Our hypothesis was based on the assumption that effortful processes require and consume relatively large amounts of glucose (brain fuel), and that this use of glucose is why people use heuristic strategies after exerting self-control. Before performing any tasks, some participants drank lemonade sweetened with sugar, which restores blood glucose, whereas others drank lemonade containing a sugar substitute. Only lemonade with sugar reduced the attraction effect. These results show one way in which the body (blood glucose) interacts with the mind (self-control and reliance on heuristics).
Epac Signaling Is Required for Cocaine-Induced Change in AMPA Receptor Subunit Composition in the Ventral Tegmental Area

Exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (Epac) and protein kinase A (PKA) are intracellular receptors for cAMP. Although PKA and its downstream effectors have been studied extensively in the context of drug addiction, whether and how Epac regulates cellular and behavioral effects of drugs of abuse remain essentially unknown. Epac is known to regulate AMPA receptor (AMPAR) trafficking. Previous studies have shown that a single cocaine exposure in vivo leads to an increase in GluA2-lacking AMPARs in dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA). We tested the hypothesis that Epac mediates cocaine-induced changes in AMPAR subunit composition in the VTA. We report that a single cocaine injection in vivo in wild-type mice leads to inward rectification of EPSCs and renders EPSCs sensitive to a GluA2-lacking AMPAR blocker in VTA dopamine neurons. The cocaine-induced increase in GluA2-lacking AMPARs was absent in Epac2-deficient mice but not in Epac1-deficient mice. In addition, activation of Epac with the selective Epac agonist 8-CPT-2Me-cAMP (8-CPT) recapitulated the cocaine-induced increase in GluA2-lacking AMPARs, and the effects of 8-CPT were mediated by Epac2. We also show that conditioned place preference to cocaine was impaired in Epac2-deficient mice and in mice in which Epac2 was knocked down in the VTA but was not significantly altered in Epac1-deficient mice. Together, these results suggest that Epac2 is critically involved in the cocaine-induced change in AMPAR subunit composition and drug-cue associative learning. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Addictive drugs, such as cocaine, induce long-lasting adaptions in the reward circuits of the brain. A single intraperitoneal injection of cocaine leads to changes in the composition and property of the AMPAR that carries excitatory inputs to dopamine neurons. Here, we provide evidence that exchange protein directly activated by cAMP (Epac), a cAMP sensor protein, is required for the cocaine-induced changes of the AMPAR. We found that the effects of cocaine were mimicked by activation of Epac but were blocked by genetic deletion of Epac. Furthermore, cocaine-cue associative learning was impaired in mice lacking Epac. These findings uncovered a critical role of Epac in regulating the cellular and behavioral actions of cocaine.
A Dual-Band Cavity Antenna Embedded Within Multiple Metallic Enclosures

This work describes the design and evaluation of an antenna to be embedded within multiple metallic cavity like structures of quite arbitrary shape. The design is based on an open substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) implemented with RO 4003 substrate, aiming to miniature the cavity and suited for fabrication with printed-circuit board (PCB) technology. A pair of vias is used to tune the resonances of the cavity for dual-band operation [2.45 and 5-GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) bands], and an open-loop resonator is introduced to enhance the bandwidth. The cavity antenna is fed by a stripline to avoid cross coupling with other devices. Evaluations have been performed both in freespace (FS) and inside multiple metallic cavities. Operating from within the cavities, a good antenna performance is obtained with a maximum -10-dB bandwidth of 4% at 2.45 GHz and 25% at 5.5 GHz. Simulations and measurements agree well. As a proof of concept, the proposed antenna was connected to several WLAN modules inside realistic metallic cavity environments and its operation was evaluated in a realistic indoor environment. These real-life tests confirm that the maximum data rate of 54 Mb/s is obtained for most practical situations, in which the antenna has to operate.
Investigation of Thr715Pro P-selectin gene polymorphism and soluble P-selectin levels in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Summary Increased levels of soluble P-selectin (sP-selectin) have been shown in a number of different disorders, e.g. diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Several studies have attempted to demonstrate the association of the most intensively examined variant of P-selectin gene polymorphism (Thr715Pro) with sP-selectin levels in healthy subjects and in CVD, but contradictory data have been reported.To clarify the effect of Pro715 allele on the sP-selectin levels in type 2 DM, we analysed this polymorphism in diabetic patients and compared these data with sP-selectin levels. Type 2 DM patients (n=119), 48 BMImatched non diabetic individuals – consisting mostly of overweight subjects – and 57 healthy volunteers were included in the study.TheThr715Pro polymorphism was analysed by PCR-RFLP, while sP-selectin levels were measured by ELISA. Significantly elevated sP-selectin levels were found in both DM and in overweight subjects compared to healthy controls. We confirmed previous reports that in healthy Pro715 allele carriers lower sP-selectin levels could be measured; however, this difference was only significant in case of lean subjects. No significant difference was detected in sP-selectin level among DM and overweight individuals according to this genotype. However, significant difference was observed in sP-selectin levels in older DM patients compared to younger ones,but these levels were not accounted for by the Thr715Pro polymorphism.We suggest that in type 2 DM individuals, the significantly elevated sP-selectin levels are not due to the Thr715Pro P-selectin gene polymorphism.
The acquisition of prosodic constraints on derivational morphology in typically developing children and children with SLI

Abstract Aim of this study was to investigate at what age German children master prosodic and morphological constraints in the acquisition of the word formation paradigm -heit/-keit, which is comparable to English -ness, and whether children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have difficulties identifying the prosodic cues from the input. Derived words with -heit contain simple bases with final stress and those with -keit have complex bases with a weak final syllable. Three groups of typically developing children (four, six and eight years old) and 18 children with SLI (from 8 to 10 years) had to produce either -heit or -keit derivations in a sentence completion task. The results show that typically developing children mastered these derivations by the age of six only when both prosodic and morphological cues were present, while eight-year-old children performed almost adult-like. In contrast, most children with SLI did not produce systematic responses that follow prosodic and/or morphological constraints. The findings support the assumption that children with SLI are less sensitive to prosodic properties of grammatical forms than typically developing peers.