Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of the Concentration of D-Glucose on the Attack of Tooth Substances in the Artificial Mouth

THE "artificial mouth" is a device for the reproduction and standardization in vitro of the oral conditions required particularly for studies of the various process. It is an extension of the numerous earlier studies of in vitro caries that have been carried out since the first experiments of Magitot and Miller. * The device consists of an arrangement for dropping a bacteriologic medium continuously on extracted human teeth, which are inoculated periodically with pooled human saliva.1 As shown earlier,2 tooth surfaces cleansed twice daily will remain relatively intact for periods of months; whereas, uncleansed enamel surfaces are rapidly softened and eventually lost. By this procedure, lesions in the enamel of grooves and pits of molars and of the interproximal regions are produced which resemble naturally various lesions of enamel. A further interesting development of this type is "the experimental mouth. "3 In the earlier work, however, it was found that, although dentin could be decalcified, the matrix remained relatively resistant to attack. In the present work, conditions are reported which allow destruction of the dentinal matrix as well as permitting decalcification processes. The findings of Burnett and Scherp4' 5 and earlier workers that intact dentin is relatively resistant to proteolytic microorganisms, whereas decalcified dentin is dissolved, suggested the procedure adopted in the present work.
Effect of Unilateral Nephrectomy on in Vitro Hepatic Microsomal Oxidative Drug Metabolism in the Rat 1

Abstract The effect of ablation of renal mass on in vitro hepatic microsomal oxidative drug metabolism was studied in unilaterally nephrectomized rats which were not uremic. When compared to either sham-operated or unoperated control rats, hepatic microsomal cytochrome P-450 content and ethylmorphine N-demethylase activity were both decreased significantly at 4 days but not at 15 days after unilateral nephrectomy. Differences were not observed in hepatic microsomal cytochrome b5 content or NADPH-cytochrome c reductase activity at either 4 or 15 days following unilateral nephrectomy. These results demonstrate that the removal of renal mass can influence temporarily in vitro hepatic microsomal oxidative drug metabolism and that this effect is apparent in the absence of uremia.
Yield damage functions for tea sector in Sri Lanka and India: An empirical estimation

A Yield damage function helps to illustrate by relating yield damage and some independent parameters of soil such as top soil depth and organic matter content. This study was focussed on three tea growing district, Passara and Watawala sub district of Sri Lanka and the Nilgiris of India where considered 208 tea fields from Passara tea growing region, 52 tea fields from Watawala/Ginigathena tea growing region and 96 tea fields from the Nilgiris tea district covering 66 and 30 tea fields from TANTEA Plantations corporation and four private tea plantations respectively. The results of the study show that the Passara region is responsible for higher yield damage due to top soil reduction and the region shows very shallow soil depth and poor ecological condition. If the Nilgiris is in a condition to manage the issue, Passara tea region of Sri Lanka is required immediate actions to control the problem for sustainability of tea industry of the region.
Post-mortem Peyer’s patches: Their potential application in forensic medicine

Pro-inflammatory mediators hold important functions in human body in response to infection, trauma and vascular disease. However, their action is down regulated by the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines, thus restoring a balance which reflects the immune status of a given individual. Recent studies have stressed out the importance of circulating levels of cytokines for forensic purposes even if there is a lack of studies regarding the role of post-mortem mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. In this respect, Peyer’s patches (PP), represent one of the most important immunological site of the body and the major component of the gut -associated lymphoid tissue. The aim of this study was to evaluate post-mortem PP immune response in 40 serial autopsy cases of people who died from natural and traumatic death. The study examined spontaneous release of the following cytokines by fresh isolated PP cells: interleukin (IL)-12, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, IL-10, IL-6, IL-1β, and IL-8. Results will show that higher levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1β, and IL-8 are statistically correlated with the traumatic death group. From a forensic point of view these data demonstrate that fundamental lymphoid organs, such as PP, may have a potential in diagnosing the cause of death.
Activation of p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase and mitochondrial Ca2+‐mediated oxidative stress are essential for the enhanced expression of grp78 induced by the protein phosphatase inhibitors okadaic acid and calyculin A

We have reported that treatment with okadaic acid, a potent protein phosphatase inhibitor, has the ability to enhance the synthesis of the 78‐kDa glucose‐regulated protein (GRP78). This article reports our investigation of another protein phosphatase inhibitor, calyculin A, demonstrating the signaling pathways elicited by the protein phosphatase inhibitors that lead to the induction of grp78. Our data showed that the induction process is abolished by SB203580, a specific inhibitor of p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase (p38MAPK). Phosphorylation‐activation of p38MAPK in the treated cells was indicated by its own phosphorylation, as shown by double Western blotting analyses and directly confirmed by the in vitro kinase assay using MAPK‐activated protein kinase‐2, a well‐known downstream effector of p38MAPK, as a substrate. The involvement of p38MAPK in this process is further substantiated by using transient transfection assays with a plasmid, pGRP78‐Luc, which contains a 0.72‐kbp stretch of the grp78 promoter. By exploiting the same transfection assay, we demonstrated that the up‐regulation of the grp78 promoter by the protein phosphatase inhibitors is suppressed in the presence of the cytoplasmic calcium chelator bis(aminophenoxy)ethane N,N′‐tetraacetic acid, the mitochondria calcium uniporter inhibitor ruthenium red as well as the antioxidants N‐acetyl cysteine and pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate. Taken together, our results lead us to conclude that treatment with the protein phosphatase inhibitors would activate the signaling pathways involving p38MAPK and mitochondrial calcium‐mediated oxidative stress and that these pathways must act in concert in order to confer the induction of grp78 by okadaic acid and calyculin A. J. Cell. Biochem. 76:585–595, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Atypical glandular cells (AGC): ThinPrep Imaging System (TIS), manual screening (MS), and correlation with Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) HPV DNA testing

The aim of the study was to determine if the ThinPrep Imaging System (T1S) improves the positive predictive value (PPV) of atypical glandular cell (AGC) diagnosis for identifying HPV‐related squamous and/or glandular lesions over manual screening (MS), and if human papilloma virus (HPV)‐DNA testing improves the diagnostic yield.
Optimism vs. locking: a study of concurrency control for client-server object-oriented databases

Many client-server object-oriented database systems (OODBs) run applications at clients and perform all accesses on cached copies of database objects. Moving both data and computation to the clients can improve response time, throughput, and scalability. For applications with good locality of reference, retaining cached state across transaction boundaries can result in further performance and scaling benefits. This thesis examines the question of what concurrency control scheme is best able to realize these potential benefits. It describes a new optimistic concurrency control scheme called AOCC (Adaptive Optimistic Concurrency Control) and compares its performance with that of ACBL (Adaptive-Granularity Callback Locking), the scheme shown to have the best performance in previous studies. Like all optimistic schemes, AOCC synchronizes transactions at the commit point, aborting transactions when synchronization fails; ACBL, like other locking schemes, synchronizes transactions while they execute. Earlier studies concluded that locking is a better choice than optimism for client-server systems. Our research leads to the opposite conclusion. We present the results of simulation experiments showing that AOCC outperforms ACBL across a wide range of system and workload settings. In addition to having better performance, AOCC is simpler than ACBL, and scales better with respect to the number of clients using shared data. The thesis also presents a model that allows us to understand these results. The two major costs associated with locking are the messages that must be exchanged for clients to acquire locks and the cost of waiting for locks held by other clients. The major cost associated with optimism is the need to re-execute aborted transactions. The reason AOCC performs so well (and that previously-studied optimistic schemes did not do well) is that its design allows it to have very low abort and restart costs. Both the model and the insights gained from the performance study should help in the design of future client-server concurrency control schemes.
Fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (FACE) of glycosaminoglycans.

OBJECTIVE Quantitation and analyses of the fine structure of glycosaminoglycans are increasingly important for understanding many biological processes, including those most critical for understanding skeletal biology. We have developed a novel procedure, fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (FACE), for determination of glycosaminoglycan fine structure and estimation of chain length. DESIGN FACE utilizes enzymes that cleave glycosaminoglycans to create products, usually disaccharides, characteristic of the enzyme specificity. Each cleavage exposes a new reducing terminus that is fluorotagged by reductive amination with 2-aminoacridone. The tagged products are then displayed by electrophoresis, identified by their characteristic migration and chemistry, and quantitated by their molar fluorescence. RESULTS Each class of glycosaminoglycan and the enzymes specific for each class are discussed. Specific application of the FACE technology is shown for analysis of the glycosaminoglycans on aggrecan isolated from knee cartilage of 5- and 68-year-old patients, and assessment of hyaluronan oligosaccharides. CONCLUSIONS The FACE technology is a powerful tool for analysis of all four classes of glycosaminoglycans obtained from a wide variety of biologic sources. While the FACE protocols are relative simple, they provide a wealth of information including quantitation in the pmole range, determination of fine structure, and estimation of chain length.
Protection against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in a murine burn wound sepsis model by passive transfer of antitoxin A, antielastase, and antilipopolysaccharide

The protective capacity of passively transferred immunoglobulin G (IgG) fractions from antitoxin (AT-IgG), antielastase (AE-IgG), and antilipopolysaccharide (ALPS-IgG) against Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection was evaluated in a murine burn wound sepsis model. Complete protection was afforded by homologous ALPS-IgG against intermediate challenge doses (10 50% lethal doses) of P. aeruginosa PA220, whereas AT-IgG and AE-IgG offered no significant protection (P less than 0.5). The simultaneous transfer of AT-IgG or AE-IgG with ALPS-IgG gave no additional protection above that seen with ALPS-IgG alone. The transfer of ALPS-IgG did not dramatically alter bacterial multiplication in the skin at the site of infection. However, bacteremia and infection of the liver were prevented. In parallel experiments, AT-IgG or AE-IgG did not significantly alter either the course of the infection or the number of bacteria seen in the blood, liver, or skin when compared with controls. ALPS-IgG administered 24 h before infection, at the time of infection, or 4 h postinfection provided complete protection. Even when ALPS-IgG was transferred at a time when the infection was well established locally in the skin (8 h postinfection), highly significant protection (P greater than 0.999) was obtained. Protection afforded by ALPS-IgG was serotype specific. These results indicate that antibody to lipopolysaccharide is of critical importance for protection against P. aeruginosa challenge in a relevant animal model.
A Cross-layer Monitoring Solution based on Quality Models

: In order to implement cross-organizational workﬂows and to realize collaborations between small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the use of Web service technology, Service-Oriented Architecture and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) has become a necessity. Based on these technologies, the need for monitoring the quality of (a) the acquired resources, (b) the services offered to the ﬁnal users and (c) the workﬂow-based procedures used by SMEs in order to use services, has come to the fore. To tackle this need, we propose four metric Quality Models that cover quality terms for the Workﬂow, Service and Infrastructure layers and an additional one for expressing the equality and inter-dependency relations between the previous ones. To support these models we have implemented a cross-layer monitoring system, whose main advantages are the layer-speciﬁc metric aggregators and an event pattern discoverer for processing the monitoring log. Our evaluation is based on the performance and accuracy aspects of the proposed cross-layer monitoring system.
Xer site‐specific recombination in vitro.

Two related recombinases, XerC and XerD, belonging to the lambda integrase family of enzymes, are required for Xer site‐specific recombination in vivo. In order to understand the roles of these proteins in the overall reaction mechanism, an in vitro recombination system using a synthetic Holliday junction‐containing substrate has been developed. Recombination of this substrate is efficient and requires both XerC and XerD. However, only exchange of one pair of strands, the one corresponding to the conversion of the Holliday junction intermediate back to the substrate, has been observed. Recombination reactions using XerC and XerD derivatives that are mutant in their presumptive catalytic residues, or are maltose‐binding fusion recombinase derivatives, have demonstrated that this pair of strand exchanges is catalysed by XerC. The site of XerC‐mediated cleavage has been located to between the last nucleotide of the XerC binding site and the first nucleotide of the central region. Cleavage at this site generates a free 5′‐OH and a covalent complex between XerC and the 3′ end of the DNA.
Chemokines--chemotactic cytokines that mediate inflammation.

The attraction of leukocytes to tissues is essential for inflammation and the host response to infection. The process is controlled by chemokines, which are chemotactic cytokines. This review introduces the burgeoning family of cytokines, with special emphasis on their role in the pathophysiology of disease and their potential as targets for therapy. Structure and Function of Chemokines Over 40 chemokines have been identified to date, most of them in the past few years. The relations among chemokines were not initially appreciated, which led to an idiosyncratic nomenclature consisting of many acronyms. When initially identified, these proteins had no known biologic .
Toward secure autonomic pervasive environments

Current trends toward autonomic environments lead to the definition and integration of existing and new technologies to enable self-management. However, self-management involves key issues such as self-configuration, auto-adaptation, self-protection, and self-optimization of autonomous systems. This is usually achieved by providing each environment with paradigms that bring awareness about its pervasiveness and enabled tools to self-manage and adapt the environment's resources to the changes occurring in the surroundings. The challenge is to dynamically configure and adapt networks to deal with the changes that are not less frequent and which results from users' roaming and services requests, changing services constraints, adding or removing services, and adding, upgrading or removing policies. To address these issues, we investigated the integration of policies for auto-configuration and control, agents as management entities, and ontologies for environment's concepts modeling and auto-adaptation. Self-protecting sensitive information is addressed by the definition of a public key infrastructure with X.509 certificates.
Perceptions of weight gain and bipolar pharmacotherapy: results of a 2005 survey of physicians in clinical practice

ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the perceptions of clinicians in the psychiatric community about pharmacotherapy and its impact on weight gain and adverse metabolic effects in patients with bipolar disorder. Methods: In November 2005, self-administered questionnaires were sent to 7000 psychiatrists who treat bipolar disorder in their clinical practice. An additional mailing of these questionnaires was sent in January 2006 to a different group of 7000 psychiatrists who treat bipolar disorder in their clinical practice. The first 298 completed surveys were analyzed. Results: Almost half of the respondents (48%) were psychiatrists in individual private practice and 32% were in community mental health centers. About two-thirds of respondents reported that 30–60% of their bipolar patients were overweight. Thirty-eight percent of respondents reported metabolic syndrome present in 20–40% of their patients. Almost all respondents (96%) reported a 20 lb increase in patients’ weight as a troublesome potential adverse event associated with the use of some agents. After initiating a new medication, more than 80% of respondents monitored their patients’ weight, fasting plasma glucose level, and fasting lipid profile at regular intervals. However, 80% did not monitor waist circumference. Overall, respondents viewed several agents (aripiprazole, ziprasidone, carbamazepine, and lamotrigine) as not (or minimally) problematic in terms of weight gain and adverse metabolic concerns. Clozapine and olanzapine were viewed as highly problematic due to their propensity to induce weight gain and negatively influence lipid and glucose metabolism. Other agents considered to be minimally to moderately problematic in terms of weight gain and metabolic issues were quetiapine, risperidone, lithium, and valproate. Respondents reported that the profile of a bipolar agent in terms of weight gain and adverse metabolic effects was an important consideration in the management of bipolar disorder. Conclusion: Although the study is limited by a low response rate and self-selection of respondents, clinicians who did respond were concerned about the risks of weight gain and metabolic disturbances in their patients treated with bipolar agents. For most parameters, such concerns were being integrated into clinical care. However, it appears that there is a need to increase clinicians’ appreciation of the importance of abdominal obesity and the need to monitor waist circumference. A growing recognition of the differences in weight-gain potential and adverse metabolic effects among agents appears to have had a definite impact on prescribing patterns in the management of bipolar disorder.
GENERALISED SYSTEMS APPROACH TO MODELLING ATM TELETRAFFIC Ass

Teletraffic phenomenon in classical and new telecommunication networks can be more systematically described and different system-type problems can be effectively solved using fundamental concepts of systems and GSPS (General Systems Problem Solver) methodology. Basic presupposition is that general systems methodology is usable as a logicomathematical methodology in formulation, derivation and explanation of relevant traffic traits of telecommunication network in structural and process dimensions. In this paper teletraffic phenomenon is defined on the object of interest (ATM teletraffic network) and relevant variables for effective network design and traffic management are discussed. Systematization of ATM teletraffic descriptors is derived from defined ATM traffic parameters.
The role of Janus kinases in haemopoiesis and haematological malignancy

The production of blood cells is regulated by a number of protein growth factors and cytokines that influence cell survival, proliferation and differentiation. Many of these molecules bind to cell surface receptors, which belong to a family of closely related cytokine receptors that lack intrinsic catalytic activity but are intimately associated with tyrosine kinases of the Janus kinase (JAK) family. Ligand binding induces the activation of JAKs, which sit at the apex of a signalling cascade in which a key role is played by members of the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) group. Congenital deficiencies in JAK–STAT signalling are associated with immunodeficiency states and acquired activating mutations and translocations are involved in the pathophysiology of haematological malignancy. The latter findings have raised hopes that drugs that target aberrant JAK–STAT signalling may be useful for the treatment of human disease.
Early ultrastructural changes in osteocytes from the proximal tibial metaphysis of mice after the incorporation of 224 Ra1,2.

Osteocytes from the proximal tibial metaphysis of mice were examined electron microscopically at various time intervals after the incorporation of 1, 1.5, or 5 . mu.Ci/kg of body weight /sup 224/Ra. The animals were sacrificed 2 hr, 24 hr, or 5 days following administration of the short-lived bone-seeking radionuclide. Only the younger, osteoblast-like osteocytes from the undecalcified trabecular bone were studied. Compared with the osteocytes from bone tissue of control animals, about half of the cells examined in specimens from animals treated with /sup 224/Ra showed ultrastructural alterations. The chromatin in the nuclei of many osteocytes was condensed. The mitochondria showed various signs of damage such as loss of cristae, swelling, and dissociation or disruption of both limiting membranes. Additionally, giant mitochondria were found. The rough-surfaced endoplasmic reticulum was sometimes dilated and formed large cisternae. The Golgi complex was vacuolated. The pericellular spaces of lacunae containing severely damaged osteocytes were enlarged. It is thought that the early ultrastructural changes in osteocytes from the trabecular bone of mice resulted from the effects of direct irradiation upon the cells. Probably, all osteocytes which showed lesions were situated within the range of the . cap alpha. radiation emitted from the incorporated /sup 224/Ra which wasmore » randomly distributed in the mineralized bone matrix of the trabeculae. The mitochondria of the osteoblast-like osteocytes appeared to be the cellular organelles most sensitive to the effects of /sup 224/Ra administration. « less
Multi-octave planar microwave slot-coupled directional coupler up to 28 GHz with novel phase velocity compensation

A nonuniform symmetrical QTEM-mode directional slot-line coupler operating in a multi-octave frequency range from 2.5 GHz up to 28.6GHz is presented. The calculated continuously varying even- and odd-mode line impedances are realized by a 3D electromagnetic (EM) field simulation of the slot-coupled microstrip cross section. A new method of even- and odd-mode phase velocity compensation, based on a continuously structured prepreg, is suggested. A -8.34 dB coupling factor is achieved, showing a low amplitude and phase imbalance up to 28 GHz. Furthermore, a tandem configuration is evaluated by utilizing two -8.34 dB directional coupler to form a wideband -3.01 dB coupler.