Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A transferrinlike (hemiferrin) mRNA is expressed in the germ cells of rat testis

In the testis, germ cells which are separated from the serum by the blood-testis barrier rely primarily on the Sertoli cell to obtain nutrients. For example, transferrin synthesized by the Sertoli cell is important in delivering iron from the serum to the developing germ cells. Because of its role in the testis, Sertoli cell transferrin protein and mRNA have been extensively studied. By using RNA blot analysis of rat testicular tissue, we detected a transcript of 2.6 kb which is attributed to transferrin. In addition, we detected a novel mRNA of 0.9 kb which had sequence similarity to the 3' end of transferrin. This 0.9-kb mRNA was present in germ cells, but not Sertoli cells, liver, or brain. The primary source of this mRNA in the testis was round spermatids. Sequence analysis of a cDNA clone showed that this mRNA encoded a protein with sequence similarity to the carboxy terminus of transferrin. Polysome analysis indicated that this transcript was translated and may therefore have importance in the iron metabolism of germ cells. The evolutionary implications between the transferrinlike mRNA germ cells and the gene duplication event which resulted in the diferric binding of transferrin are discussed.
Influence of skin hardness on dehydration kinetics of wine grapes.

BACKGROUND Knowledge of the influence of initial mechanical properties on the evolution of the weight loss of berries through the drying process is scarce. Therefore, the main purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of skin hardness at two different physiological stages of off-vine drying kinetics of grapes. Skin hardness was evaluated as the berry skin-break force parameter, measured by the texture analysis test. RESULTS The decrease of berry weight as a function of the drying time was linear, indicating that the drying rates were constant within each cultivar studied (Moscato bianco and Erbaluce), and for each ripening stage and berry skin hardness. The drying rates decreased as berry skin hardness increased for the ripest grapes in the cultivars studied. CONCLUSION The study allowed the assessment of the correlation between the skin hardness of fresh berries and the weight loss determined for different drying days.
Unmet clinical needs in chronic spontaneous urticaria. A GA2LEN task force report 1

To cite this article: Maurer M, Weller K, Bindslev‐Jensen C, Giménez‐Arnau A, Bousquet PJ, Bousquet J, Canonica GW, Church MK, Godse KV, Grattan CEH, Greaves MW, Hide M, Kalogeromitros D, Kaplan AP, Saini SS, Zhu XJ, Zuberbier T. Unmet clinical needs in chronic spontaneous urticaria. A GA2LEN task force report. Allergy 2011; 66: 317–330.
Value of oxaliplatin treatment in heavily pretreated patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

In order to assess the efficacy and toxicity profile of oxaliplatin, a third generation platinum derivate active against several solid tumors, we carried out a study in a group of heavily pretreated patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Between August 2003 and May 2004, 19 pretreated patients were enrolled in a phase II trial and were treated with oxaliplatin. The drug was administered intravenously on day 1 of a 21-day schedule, at a dose of 130 mg/m2 for a total of 6 cycles. One (5%) patient achieved complete remission (CR) and 5 patients (27%) had partial response (PR), thus giving an overall response rate of 32%. The patient in CR suffered from an aggressive B NHL. One of the 5 patients in PR had an aggressive B NHL, whereas the remaining 4 had an indolent B NHL. The treatment was well tolerated with minimal hematologic and extrahematologic toxicity. These data suggest and confirm the efficacy and low toxicity of oxaliplatin in the treatment of patients with heavily pretreated NHL. Further trials using oxaliplatin alone or in combination with other conventional drugs are needed.
Correlation of DNA Ploidy to Tumor Histologic Grade, Clinical Variables, and Survival in Dogs with Mast Cell Tumors

By using flow cytometry, a retrospective analysis of the DNA content of 40 primary canine mast cell tumors and seven lymph nodes that contained metastatic mast cell tumor from 44 dogs of various breed, sex, and age was performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples of the tumors and nodes. These samples were chosen according to the following criteria: samples contained sufficient well-preserved tumor tissue in the paraffin block for processing, sufficient patient history data were available, clean and homogeneous cell suspensions were obtained after processing, and interpretable DNA histograms were produced on analysis. The ploidy data obtained were compared with the histopathologic grade, the anatomical site of occurrence, the clinical stage of the tumors, and the survival of the dogs. Over 70% (29/40) of the mast cell tumors were diploid. Three metastatic mast cell tumors in lymph nodes had the same ploidy status as their corresponding primary tumors. In five dogs, mast cell tumors from multiple sites in each dog displayed similar ploidy status. Of 26 dogs evaluated for survival times, 69% (18/26) had diploid tumors and 31 % (8/26) had aneuploid tumors. When numbers of diploid versus aneuploid tumors were compared, no significant difference was found between any two grades, clinical stages, or anatomic sites. A significant difference (P = 0.02) was found, however, between aneuploid and diploid tumors when comparing Stage I and non-Stage I disease. The Kaplan-Meier survival plot indicated a tendency towards an increased survival within the first year in dogs with diploid versus aneuploid tumors (P = 0.06).
SEARCH FOR POLARIZATION EFFECTS IN THE ANTIPROTON PRODUCTION PROCESS

For the production of a polarized antiproton beam, various methods have been suggested including the possibility that antiprotons may be produced polarized which will be checked experimentally. The polarization of antiprotons produced under typical conditions for antiproton beam preparation will be measured at the CERN/PS. If the production process creates some polarization, a polarized antiproton beam could be prepared by a rather simple modification of the antiproton beam facility. The detection setup and the expected experimental conditions are described.
Expression of the FGFR2 mesenchymal splicing variant in epithelial cells drives epithelial-mesenchymal transition

The FGFRs are receptor tyrosine kinases expressed by tissue-specific alternative splicing in epithelial IIIb or mesenchymal IIIc isoforms. Deregulation of FGF/FGFR signaling unbalances the epithelial-stromal homeostasis and may lead to cancer development. In the epithelial-context, while FGFR2b/KGFR acts as tumor suppressor, FGFR2c appears to play an oncogenic role. Based on our recent observation that the switching of FGFR2b versus FGFR2c induces EMT, here we investigated the biological outcome of the ectopic expression of FGFR2c in normal human keratinocytes. Morphological analysis showed that, differently from FGFR2b overexpression, the forced expression and activation of FGFR2c drive the epithelial cells to acquire a mesenchymal-like shape and actin reorganization. Moreover, the appearance of invasiveness and anchorage-independent growth ability in FGFR2c transfected keratinocytes was consistent with the potential tumorigenic role proposed for this receptor variant. Biochemical and molecular approaches revealed that the observed phenotypic changes were accompanied by modulation of EMT biomarkers and indicated the involvement of EMT transcription factors and miRs. Finally, the analysis of the expression pattern of discriminating markers strongly suggested that activation of FGFR2c triggers a process corresponding to the initiation of the pathological type III EMT, but not to the more physiological type II EMT occurring during FGFR2b-mediated wound healing.
Injury Prevention: An International Perspective

Peter Barss, Gordon Smith, Susan Baker, Dinesh Mohan Oxford University Press, £42.50, pp 384 ISBN 0195119827 Rating: ! [Graphic][1] ! [Graphic][2] ! [Graphic][3] ! [Graphic][4] Several years ago I reviewed this book in draft form at the request of the publisher. I was torn: it was a labour of love and a potentially important book, but it had numerous shortcomings. I conveyed my concerns but stressed that everything possible should be done to bring it to press. Thankfully, publisher and authors agreed. What we now have is a landmark addition to a remarkably small shelf of texts about this subject. Originally, the book … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif [3]: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif [4]: /embed/inline-graphic-4.gif
Usefulnessof Data on Albuminand PrealbuminConcentrationsin Determining Effectivenessof Nutritional Support

In this ongoing study, albumin and prealbumin (transthyretin) changes were compared in 40 patients managed with enteral and (or) parenteral support with attainment of caloric/protein goals. The concentration of prealbumin in serum changed rapidly and more accurately reflected current nutritional status of these patients than did that of albumin. We determined concentrations of albumin and prealbumin that reflected significant improvement in nutritional status, using Rudolph’s approach based on Shannon information measures. Reference values for albumin and prealbumin in the treatment populations were 25 g/L and 107 mg/L, respectively. A prealbumin concentration of 135 mg/L or greater reflected a return to stable status.
Nerve growth factor‐induced sprouting of mature, uninjured sympathetic axons

The infusion of nerve growth factor (NGF) into the lateral ventricle ofthe mature rat brain elicits a sprouting response from axons associated with the intradural segment of the internal carotid artery. Using electron microscopic techniques, we observed a three–fold increase in the total number of perivascular axons. This NGF‐elicited response is characterized by a dramatic reduction in glial cell ensheathment similar to that observed during development and by the presence of profiles devoid of organelles that may represent newly formed sprouts. In spite of the increase in axon number, no significant changes in the percentage of small, medium, or large axons wereobserved.
Simple resource allocation scheme for heterogeneous traffic in MU-MIMO-OFDMA systems

This paper proposes an adaptive resource allocation scheme to cope with heterogeneous traffic for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiple access (MU-MIMO-OFDMA). The feature of the proposed approach is to maximize the frame efficiency by simultaneously allocating frequency and space resources under different user's packet size and channel condition. However, since frequency and space resources generate numerous number of allocation patterns, we reduce the number of patterns thanks to the fact that broadband frequency channels in OFDMA provide almost the same performance. Computer simulation shows the effectiveness of the proposed scheme by comparing with the conventional scheme without resource allocation.
Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase could be a promising target in lung cancer therapy.

PURPOSE To investigate the prevalence of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PIK3CA) gene amplification in lung cancer, and to explore its prognostic value. METHODS A total of 647 lung tumor samples from 290 patients were included in the study. The ratio of PIK3CA signals/centromere 3 signals in cancer cells was estimated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH7rpar; analysis. RESULTS Both gains and amplifications were significantly more frequent in squamous cell (gains: 19.4%; amplifications: 34.1%; p<0.0001) and large cell carcinoma (gains: 22.4%; amplifications: 20.4%; p<0.0001) compared with adenocarcinomas (gains 3.0%; amplifications: 4.0%). Conversely, adenocarcinomas displayed significantly more frequent deletions of the PIK3CA locus than the other two histologic types (p<0.0001). No clear correlation between PIK-3CA status and the pT stage, pN stage or the degree of tumor differentiation was found. Ki67 significantly increased with increasing of PIK3CA copy number: 47 tumors with a PIK-3CA deletion had a mean Ki67 of 16, while 103 tumors with PIK3CA amplification showed a mean Ki67 of 28 (p=0.004). Significant association between cell proliferation and PIK-3CA was found (p<0.05). However, no significant correlation was seen between patient survival and PIK3CA amplifications, deletions and gains. CONCLUSION PIK3CA amplifications in large cell and squamous cell carcinomas were significantly higher compared with adenocarcinomas. The results suggest that PIK-3CA could be a promising target for selective lung cancer therapy.
On Computational Modelling of Strain-Hardening Material Dynamics

In this paper we show that entropy can be used within a functional for the stress relaxation time of solid materials to parametrise finite viscoplastic strain-hardening deformations. Through doing so the classical empirical recovery of a suitable irreversible scalar measure of work-hardening from the three-dimensional state parameters is avoided. The success of the proposed approach centres on determination of a rate-independent relation between plastic strain and entropy, which is found to be suitably simplistic such to not add any significant complexity to the final model. The result is sufficiently general to be used in combination with existing constitutive models for inelastic deformations parametrised by one-dimensional plastic strain provided the constitutive models are thermodynamically consistent. Here a model for the tangential stress relaxation time based upon established dislocation mechanics theory is calibrated for OFHC copper and subsequently integrated within a two-dimensional moving-mesh scheme. We address some of the numerical challenges that are faced in order to ensure successful implementation of the proposed model within a hydrocode. The approach is demonstrated through simulations of flyer-plate and cylinder impacts.
Collectins: sentinels of innate immunity

Collectins, present in plasma and on mucosal surfaces, are humoral molecules of the innate immune system. They were discovered a hundred years ago in 1906 as the first association of an animal lectin with the immune system. They are a family of calcium‐dependent lectins that recognize pathogen‐associated molecular patterns. They share a similar modular domain architecture consisting of four regions; a cysteine‐rich N‐terminal domain, a collagen‐like region, an α‐helical neck domain and a C‐terminal carbohydrate recognition domain. There have been eight collectins members defined so far, of which, MBL, SP‐A and SP‐D are the most characterized. Collectins represent the first line of host defense. Upon recognition of the infectious agents, collectins put into action effector mechanisms like direct opsonization, neutralization, agglutination, complement activation and phagocytosis to curb the microbial growth. In addition, they also modulate inflammatory and allergic responses and apoptotic cell clearance. These functions limit infection and subsequently modulate the adaptive immune responses. The role of collectins, their structure, function, characteristics and clinical significance are reviewed in this article. BioEssays 29:452–464, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Particle Swarm Optimization based Hybrid Recommendation System

Due to rapid digital explosion user shows interest towards finding suggestions regarding a particular topic before taking any decision. Nowadays, a movie recommendation system is an upcoming area which suggests movies based on user profile. Many researchers working on supervised or semi-supervised ensemble based machine learning approach for matching more appropriate profiles and suggest related movies. In this paper a hybrid recommendation system is proposed which includes both collaborative and content based filtering to design a profile matching algorithm. A nature inspired Particle Swam Optimization technique is applied to fine tune the profile matching algorithm by assigning to multiple agents or particle with some initial random guess. The accuracy of the model will be judged comparing with Genetic algorithm.
Genome-Wide Screening of Genomic Alterations and Their Clinicopathologic Implications in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancers

Purpose: Although many genomic alterations have been observed in lung cancer, their clinicopathologic significance has not been thoroughly investigated. This study screened the genomic aberrations across the whole genome of non–small cell lung cancer cells with high-resolution and investigated their clinicopathologic implications. Experimental Design: One-megabase resolution array comparative genomic hybridization was applied to 29 squamous cell carcinomas and 21 adenocarcinomas of the lung. Tumor and normal tissues were microdissected and the extracted DNA was used directly for hybridization without genomic amplification. The recurrent genomic alterations were analyzed for their association with the clinicopathologic features of lung cancer. Results: Overall, 36 amplicons, 3 homozygous deletions, and 17 minimally altered regions common to many lung cancers were identified. Among them, genomic changes on 13q21, 1p32, Xq, and Yp were found to be significantly associated with clinical features such as age, stage, and disease recurrence. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that genomic changes on 10p, 16q, 9p, 13q, 6p21, and 19q13 were associated with poor survival. Multivariate analysis showed that alterations on 6p21, 7p, 9q, and 9p remained as independent predictors of poor outcome. In addition, significant correlations were observed for three pairs of minimally altered regions (19q13 and 6p21, 19p13 and 19q13, and 8p12 and 8q11), which indicated their possible collaborative roles. Conclusions: These results show that our approach is robust for high-resolution mapping of genomic alterations. The novel genomic alterations identified in this study, along with their clinicopathologic implications, would be useful to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of lung cancer and to identify reliable biomarkers for clinical application.
Does lidocaine protect the heart during coronary revascularisation?

Background: Lidocaine has been used as the primary antiarrhythmic agent for ventricular arrhythmias during acute myocardial infarction (MI) and open heart surgery. Its cardioprotective effects have been studied in experimental settings and also during angioplastic reperfusion and coronary revascularisation. The basic mechanism of action, probably also involved with cardioprotection, has been demonstrated to be blockade of cardiac sodium channels. In this open study we investigated the contribution of continuous lidocaine infusion to cardioprotection during coronary revascularisation with blood cardioplegia.
Satellite cells in slow and fast rat muscles differ in respect to acetylcholinesterase regulation mechanisms they convey to their descendant myofibers during regeneration

The hypothesis of satellite cell diversity in slow and fast mammalian muscles was tested by examining acetylcholinesterase (AChE) regulation in muscles regenerating (1) under conditions of muscle disuse (tenotomy, leg immobilization) in which the pattern of neural stimulation is changed, and (2) after cross‐transplantation when the regenerating muscle develops under a foreign neural stimulation pattern. Soleus (SOL) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles of the rat were allowed to regenerate after ischemic‐toxic injury either in their own sites or had been cross‐transplanted to the site of the other muscle. Molecular forms of AChE in regenerating muscles were analyzed by velocity sedimentation in linear sucrose gradients. Neither tenotomy nor limb immobilization significantly affected the characteristic pattern of AChE molecular forms in regenerating SOL muscles, suggesting that the neural stimulation pattern is probably not decisive for its induction. During an early phase of regeneration, the general pattern of AChE molecular forms in the cross‐transplanted regenerating muscle was predominantly determined by the type of its muscle of origin, and much less by the innervating nerve which exerted only a modest modifying effect. However, alkali‐resistant myofibrillar ATPase activity on which the separation of muscle fibers into type I and type II is based, was determined predominantly by the motor nerve innervating the regenerating muscle. Mature regenerated EDL muscles (13 weeks after injury) which had been innervated by the SOL nerve became virtually indistinguishable from the SOL muscles in regard to their pattern of AChE molecular forms. However, AChE patterns of mature regenerated SOL muscles that had been innervated by the EDL nerve still displayed some features of the SOL pattern. In regard to AChE regulation, muscle satellite cells from slow or fast rat muscles convey to their descendant myotubes the information shifting their initial development in the direction of either slow or fast muscle, respectively. The satellite cells in fast or slow muscles are, therefore, intrinsically different. Intrinsic information is expressed mostly during an early phase of regeneration whereas later on the regulatory influence of the motor nerve more or less predominates. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Simultaneous localization and map building with linear system model

This paper presents an optimization solution for the simultaneous localization and map building (SLAM) problem. The full covariance solution based on extended Kalman filter (EKF) requires update time quadratic in the number of landmarks in the map. This paper reconstructs system state vector and system models. Covariance matrix consists of two identical submatrix and a negative symmetrical submatrix. An optimization solution is proposed based on this property. The computation requirement is reduced without any approximation. The optimization solution is consistent and convergent theoretically and realistically. Another approximation solution is proposed to reduce computation requirement much more. The experiment compares the performance of optimization and approximation solution with the full covariance solution. All these techniques have been implemented on our mobile robot ATRVII equipped with 2D laser rangefinder SICK.
Politics, Markets, and America's Schools

During the 1980s, widespread dissatisfaction with America's schools gave rise to a powerful movement for educational change, and the nation's political institutions responded with aggressive reforms. Chubb and Moe argue that these reforms are destined to fail because they do not get to the root of the problem. The fundamental causes of poor academic performance, they claim, are not to be found in the schools, but rather in the institutions of direct democratic control by which the schools have traditionally been governed. Reformers fail to solve the problem-when the institutions ARE the problem. The authors recommend a new system of public education, built around parent-student choice and school competition, that would promote school autonomythus providing a firm foundation for genuine school improvement and superior student achievement. "