Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of age, pregnancy, and lactation on rat, guinea pig, and cow adipose enzyme activities and cow adipose metabolism.

Abstract In the enzyme study, virgin, pregnant, lactating, and adult animals whose ages were comparable to lactating animals were compared. With all three species, young virgin adipose enzyme activities were higher than in older groups indicating a prominent age effect. Comparison of adipose enzyme activities of adult and lactating groups indicated that activities of only a few enzymes were increased during lactation and some differences in response exist among species. In the general study of cow adipose metabolism through tissue slices, relative rates of glucose-1-, -2-, and -6- 14 C oxidation and incorporation into glyceride glycerol were 1.0, . 5, and . 25 and . 62, . 92, and 1.0, indicating high hexose monophosphate shunt activity and high rates of glucose utilization for glyceride glycerol synthesis. Ratio of glucose-U- 14 C oxidation to use for lipogenesis was about 1.2, was increased by insulin in vitro, and was decreased in lactating as compared to nonlactating animals. Rates of glucose and acetate oxidation and use for lipogenesis were doubled approximately during lactation. Comparisons of rates of glucose oxidation with rates of fatty acid synthesis from acetate indicated that NADPH 2 yields from hexose-P oxidation via pentose cycle are not sufficient to support fatty acid synthesis. Hence, additional NADPH 2 generating reactions must occur. Rates of fatty acid esterification in adipose tissue slices exceeded rates of fatty acid synthesis by about four-fold presumably reflecting extensive fatty acid reesterification.
Dental health status and development trends among children and adolescents in Greenland

Abstract Objectives. This paper describes the occurrence of dental caries in children and adolescents in Greenland and the disease pattern is analysed across districts and over time. Study design. Cross-sectional population surveys of children aged 6, 12 and 15 years. Methods. Data were stored in the oral health information system established for the Greenland Public Dental Health Services, recording the dental health status of children served by the programme. The participation rate is approximately 100%. In 2003, the study population counted 645 6-year-olds; 587 12-year-olds, and 488 15-year-olds. Dental caries is clinically recorded according to the criteria used by the Danish Public Dental Health Services. Results. About 80–90% of children in all age groups were affected by dental caries. In 2003, a mean of 13.1 tooth surfaces were affected by dental caries in children aged 6 years, about 6.1 tooth surfaces in 12-year-olds, and 10.2 surfaces at age 15. At all ages, high proportions of children had severe patterns of dental caries. Extensive variations by district in dental caries indices were observed for all age groups. The dental caries experience tends to increase with time in young children, while the dental caries level remained stable for adolescents. Conclusions. The dental caries burden is high in children in Greenland compared to Denmark and other Nordic countries. It is unrealistic to achieve international goals for oral health and, thus, the strengthening of oral health promotion and disease prevention is urgently needed.
Solvent/detergent-treated plasma: composition, efficacy, and safety.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Recent reports on adverse events associated with solvent/detergent-treated plasma have raised concerns about the efficacy and safety of this type of therapeutic plasma. Comparisons of various brands of solvent/detergent-treated plasma have revealed substantial differences in their composition. RECENT FINDINGS Retrospective analyses and case reports suggest an association between the low protein S activity levels found in solvent/detergent-treated plasma and venous thromboembolism when solvent/detergent-treated plasma is given for thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura or transfused massively during liver transplantation surgery. Augmented bleeding caused by hyperfibrinolysis, possibly caused by the low plasmin inhibitor (also termed alpha2-antiplasmin) activity of solvent/detergent-treated plasma, has also been a matter of concern. The efficacy and safety of various types of solvent/detergent-treated plasma have been studied intensively for all indications for therapeutic plasma by at least five prospective trials, four observational studies, and post-licensure monitoring. A review of the literature shows that the clinical significance of transient protein S and plasmin inhibitor deficiency has been considerably overstated, even when such deficiency might be aggravated by the administration of large amounts of solvent/detergent-treated plasma. However, different brands of solvent/detergent-treated plasma differ substantially with respect to their composition and hemostatic balance. It cannot be completely excluded that the very low citrate and protein S concentrations versus higher clotting factor concentrations found in a given brand of solvent/detergent-treated plasma could contribute to coagulation activation in the settings of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and liver transplantation. SUMMARY Future research should seek to optimize the composition of solvent/detergent-treated plasma. Prospective trials and prospective hemovigilance studies are required to determine the rate of adverse events occurring after treatment with solvent/detergent-treated plasma and other types of therapeutic plasma.
Influence of Differentiation State, Salt Stress and Methyl Jasmonate on in Vitro Production of Cucurbitacins from Tissue Cultures of Ecballium elaterium and Cucumis prophetarum Endemic to Egypt

The best medium for callus proliferation from hypocotyl and cotyledon explants of aseptically grown seedlings of two Egyptian landraces of rare wild plants, Ecballium elaterium and Cucumis prophetarum was found to be Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 0.1-0.5 mg/l NAA in combination with BA at 2 mg/l. On the other hand, MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/l BA, 60 mg/l adenine sulfate and 170 mg/l KH2PO4 was the best medium for shoot proliferation after a phase of callus formation. The content of cucurbitacins in suspension cultures was elicited by application of different concentrations of NaCl (salt stress) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA). The highest yield of cucurbitacins (0.1898%) was reached after three days of culture in liquid medium containing 200 μM MeJA. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Influence of alterations in foregoing life-sustaining treatment practices on a clinical sepsis trial. The HA-1A Sepsis Study Group.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the timing of foregoing life-sustaining treatments in patients enrolled in a sepsis trial and to determine their influence on patient outcome and trial results. DESIGN Subset of patients in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. SETTING Twenty-three academic medical centers. PATIENTS Enrolled patients who had life-sustaining therapies withheld or withdrawn. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS The number of patients, types of disorders and interventions, reasons, and timing of withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments and their effect on mortality and trial results were assessed. Foregoing of life-sustaining therapies took place in 117 (22%) of 543 patients and occurred within 72 hrs of study drug administration in 38 (32%) patients. Withholding treatment (60%) was more common than withdrawing treatment (40%), but withdrawing treatment was more frequent (51%) than withholding treatment (20%) in the first 72 hrs of the trial (p < .01). Sixty-one (52%) patients had severe underlying disorders with a poor prognosis. The hospital mortality rate was 94% (of the 117 patients). The mean time (SEM) from withholding or withdrawing of treatment until death was 2.83 +/- 0.57 and 0.32 +/- 0.13 days, respectively (p < .001). Patients who had therapies foregone in the first 24, 48, and 72 hrs after receiving the study drug had higher mortality rates in the first 72 hrs (p < .01). CONCLUSIONS A substantial number of patients enrolled in a sepsis trial had severe underlying diseases and had foregoing of therapies early in the course of the trial, which led to a higher early mortality rate. Enrollment of patients in clinical trials with severe underlying disorders with a high likelihood of having therapies foregone may bias the potential for showing the efficacy of new therapeutic modalities.
Prediction of the conformation and geometry of loops in globular proteins: Testing ArchDB, a structural classification of loops

In protein structure prediction, a central problem is defining the structure of a loop connecting 2 secondary structures. This problem frequently occurs in homology modeling, fold recognition, and in several strategies in ab initio structure prediction. In our previous work, we developed a classification database of structural motifs, ArchDB. The database contains 12,665 clustered loops in 451 structural classes with information about ϕ–ψ angles in the loops and 1492 structural subclasses with the relative locations of the bracing secondary structures. Here we evaluate the extent to which sequence information in the loop database can be used to predict loop structure. Two sequence profiles were used, a HMM profile and a PSSM derived from PSI‐BLAST. A jack‐knife test was made removing homologous loops using SCOP superfamily definition and predicting afterwards against recalculated profiles that only take into account the sequence information. Two scenarios were considered: (1) prediction of structural class with application in comparative modeling and (2) prediction of structural subclass with application in fold recognition and ab initio. For the first scenario, structural class prediction was made directly over loops with X‐ray secondary structure assignment, and if we consider the top 20 classes out of 451 possible classes, the best accuracy of prediction is 78.5%. In the second scenario, structural subclass prediction was made over loops using PSI‐PRED (Jones, J Mol Biol 1999;292:195–202) secondary structure prediction to define loop boundaries, and if we take into account the top 20 subclasses out of 1492, the best accuracy is 46.7%. Accuracy of loop prediction was also evaluated by means of RMSD calculations. Proteins 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analysis on bifferences between Japan and the USA on pathway from research and development to industry: Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL)

This article covers the linkage of science and technology, and the decision-making of management on the road from research and development (R&D) to industry. We selected Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) as a case study. VCSEL is well-known as one of most successful Japanese inventions in the field of opto-electronic semiconductor devices. “Although Japan has been playing a leading role in VCSEL technology, why is VCSEL business successful in the USA and not in Japan? ” To give a solution to this question, we analyze technical papers and patents, and at the same time we pay such attention to the academia-industry-government alliance and mobilization of key people, in the USA and Japan, respectively. After that we discuss this case from a viewpoint of innovation management strategies.
Obesity and Diabetes in TNF-a Receptor – deficient Mice

TNFa may play a role in mediating insulin resistance associated with obesity. This concept is based on studies of obese rodents and humans, and cell culture models. TNF elicits cellular responses via two receptors called p55 and p75. Our purpose was to test the involvement of TNF in glucose homeostasis using mice lacking one or both TNF receptors. C57BL/6 mice lacking p55 (p55 2 / 2 ), p75, (p75 2 / 2 ), or both receptors (p55 2 / 2 p75 2 / 2 ) were fed a high-fat diet to induce obesity. Marked fasting hyperinsulinemia was seen for p55 2 / 2 p75 2 / 2 males between 12 and 16 wk of feeding the high-fat diet. Insulin levels were four times greater than wild-type mice. In contrast, p55 2 / 2 and p75 2 / 2 mice exhibited insulin levels that were similar or reduced, respectively, as compared with wild-type mice. In addition, high-fat dietfed p75 2 / 2 mice had the lowest body weights and leptin levels, and improved insulin sensitivity. Obese ( db/db ) mice, which are not responsive to leptin, were used to study the role of p55 in severe obesity. Male p55 2 / 2 db/db mice exhibited threefold higher insulin levels and twofold lower glucose levels at 20 wk of age than control db/db expressing p55. All db/db mice remained severely insulin resistant based on fasting plasma glucose and insulin levels, and glucose and insulin tolerance tests. Our data do not support the concept that TNF, acting via its receptors, is a major contributor to obesity-associated insulin resistance. In fact, data suggest that the two TNF receptors work in concert to protect against diabetes. ( J. Clin. Invest . 1998. 102:402– 411.)
Neointimal patterns obtained by optical coherence tomography correlate with specific histological components and neointimal proliferation in a swine model of restenosis.

AIMS Although optical coherence tomography (OCT) is capable to detect microscopic peri-strut changes that seem to be related to neointimal inhibition and healing, its ability to characterize these components is still limited. In this study, we aimed to compare different OCT morphological characteristics with different in-stent neointimal tissue types analysed by histology. METHODS A total of 69 stents (39 drug eluting and 30 bare metal stents) were implanted in coronary arteries of 27 swine. By OCT, neointimal type was classified as homogeneous, heterogeneous, or layered according to its pattern of backscatter and optical intensity. The resulting optical patterns were correlated with several histological findings [external elastic lamina (EEL) disruption, fibrin deposition, circumferential rim of peri-strut inflammatory cell infiltration, and fibrous connective deposition] in every single cross-section (CS) analysed. RESULTS A total of 197 matched OCT and histological CS were analysed. The heterogeneous (0.44 ± 0.21 mm) and layered (0.65 ± 0.16 mm) patterns had a significantly higher degree of neointimal thickness compared with the homogeneous pattern (0.25 ± 0.16 mm, P < 0.001). Fibrous connective tissue deposition was more frequently present in the homogeneous pattern (71.6%, P < 0.001), whereas significant fibrin deposits were more commonly seen in the heterogeneous pattern (56.9%, P = 0.007). Peri-strut inflammation was less frequently found in the homogeneous pattern (19.8%, P < 0.001) in comparison with the layered (73.9%) or heterogeneous patterns (43.1%). The presence of EEL rupture was also more commonly seen in layered (73.9%) and heterogeneous (46.6%) patterns than in the homogeneous pattern (22.4%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION The optical characteristics of neointimal formation seen in OCT properly correlated with the presence of several histological findings involved in stent healing. The biological implications of these findings in clinical outcomes require further investigation.
A High Power CMOS Switch Using Substrate Body Switching in Multistack Structure

A novel high power CMOS RF switch using the substrate body switching technique in a multistack structure is designed, implemented, and characterized in a standard 0.18- triple-well CMOS process. One of the stacked devices in the receive side has a body switch at the bulk port in order to provide high power handling capability to the transmit switch side without compromising insertion loss to the receiver switch. The body switch connected to the bulk port at one of the receiver switches turns on in mode to minimize leakage current into path. In the meanwhile, that switch turns off in mode so that the bulk port can have body floating to reduce leakage current to substrates. Experimental data show that the switch using the body-switching technique has 1 dB of 31.5 dBm that is 2.5 dB higher than the one using the body floating technique. Insertion loss is 1.5 dB at 1.9 GHz in the transmit switch and 1.8 dB in the receiver switch. Isolation is less than 30 dB for switch and 20 dB for switch at 1.9 GHz.
Pax6 Controls the Expression of Critical Genes Involved in Pancreatic α Cell Differentiation and Function*

The paired box homeodomain Pax6 is crucial for endocrine cell development and function and plays an essential role in glucose homeostasis. Indeed, mutations of Pax6 are associated with diabetic phenotype. Importantly, homozygous mutant mice for Pax6 are characterized by markedly decreased β and δ cells and absent α cells. To better understand the critical role that Pax6 exerts in glucagon-producing cells, we developed a model of primary rat α cells. To study the transcriptional network of Pax6 in adult and differentiated α cells, we generated Pax6-deficient primary rat α cells and glucagon-producing cells, using either specific siRNA or cells expressing constitutively a dominant-negative form of Pax6. In primary rat α cells, we confirm that Pax6 controls the transcription of the Proglucagon and processing enzyme PC2 genes and identify three new target genes coding for MafB, cMaf, and NeuroD1/Beta2, which are all critical for Glucagon gene transcription and α cell differentiation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Pax6 directly binds and activates the promoter region of the three genes through specific binding sites and that constitutive expression of a dominant-negative form of Pax6 in glucagon-producing cells (InR1G9) inhibits the activities of the promoters. Finally our results suggest that the critical role of Pax6 action on α cell differentiation is independent of those of Arx and Foxa2, two transcription factors that are necessary for α cell development. We conclude that Pax6 is critical for α cell function and differentiation through the transcriptional control of key genes involved in glucagon gene transcription, proglucagon processing, and α cell differentiation.
Molecular Determinants of the Interaction between the Inositol 1,4,5-Trisphosphate Receptor-associated cGMP Kinase Substrate (IRAG) and cGMP Kinase Iβ* 210

Cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase I (cGKI) affects the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3)-dependent release of intracellular calcium by phosphorylation of IRAG (inositol 1,4,5-trisphophate receptor-associated cGMP kinase substrate). IRAG is present in a macromolecular complex with the InsP3 receptor type I (InsP3RI) and cGKIβ. The specificity of the interaction between these three proteins was investigated by using the yeast two-hybrid system and by co-precipitation of expressed proteins. The amino-terminal region containing the leucine zipper (amino acids 1–53) of cGKIβ but not that of cGKIα or cGKII interacted with the sequence between amino acids 152 and 184 of IRAG in vitroand in vivo most likely through electrostatic interaction. cGKIβ did not interact with the InsP3RI, but co-precipitated the InsP3RI in the presence of IRAG indicating that IRAG bound to the InsP3RI and to cGKIβ. cGKIβ phosphorylated up to four serines in IRAG. Mutation of these four serines to alanine showed that cGKIβ-dependent phosphorylation of Ser696 is necessary to decrease calcium release from InsP3-sensitive stores. These results show that cGMP induced reduction of cytosolic calcium concentrations requires cGKIβ and phosphorylation of Ser696 of IRAG.
Automatic Accent Recognition Systems and the Effects of Data on Performance

This paper considers automatic accent recognition system performance in relation to the specific nature of the accent data. This is of relevance to the forensic application, where an accent recogniser may have a place in casework involving various accent classification tasks with different challenges attached. The study presented here is composed of two main parts. Firstly, it examines the performance of five different automatic accent recognition systems when distinguishing between geographically-proximate accents. Using geographically-proximate accents is expected to challenge the systems by increasing the degree of similarity between the varieties we are trying to distinguish between. The second part of the study is concerned with identifying the specific phonemes which are important in a given accent recognition task, and eliminating those which are not. Depending on the varieties we are classifying, the phonemes which are most useful to the task will vary. This study therefore integrates feature selection methods into the accent recognition system shown to be the highest performer, the Y-ACCDIST-SVM system, to help to identify the most valuable speech segments and to increase accent recognition rates.
Using systems biology approaches to understand cardiac inflammation and extracellular matrix remodeling in the setting of myocardial infarction

Inflammation and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling are important components regulating the response of the left ventricle to myocardial infarction (MI). Significant cellular‐ and molecular‐level contributors can be identified by analyzing data acquired through high‐throughput genomic and proteomic technologies that provide expression levels for thousands of genes and proteins. Large‐scale data provide both temporal and spatial information that need to be analyzed and interpreted using systems biology approaches in order to integrate this information into dynamic models that predict and explain mechanisms of cardiac healing post‐MI. In this review, we summarize the systems biology approaches needed to computationally simulate post‐MI remodeling, including data acquisition, data analysis for biomarker classification and identification, data integration to build dynamic models, and data interpretation for biological functions. An example for applying a systems biology approach to ECM remodeling is presented as a reference illustration. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2014, 6:77–91. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1248
Oxygen isotope fractionations across individual leaf carbohydrates in grass and tree species.

Almost no δ18 O data are available for leaf carbohydrates, leaving a gap in the understanding of the δ18 O relationship between leaf water and cellulose. We measured δ18 O values of bulk leaf water (δ18 OLW ) and individual leaf carbohydrates (e.g. fructose, glucose and sucrose) in grass and tree species and δ18 O of leaf cellulose in grasses. The grasses were grown under two relative humidity (rH) conditions. Sucrose was generally 18 O-enriched compared with hexoses across all species with an apparent biosynthetic fractionation factor (εbio ) of more than 27‰ relative to δ18 OLW , which might be explained by isotopic leaf water and sucrose synthesis gradients. δ18 OLW and δ18 O values of carbohydrates and cellulose in grasses were strongly related, indicating that the leaf water signal in carbohydrates was transferred to cellulose (εbio = 25.1‰). Interestingly, damping factor pex px , which reflects oxygen isotope exchange with less enriched water during cellulose synthesis, responded to rH conditions if modelled from δ18 OLW but not if modelled directly from δ18 O of individual carbohydrates. We conclude that δ18 OLW is not always a good substitute for δ18 O of synthesis water due to isotopic leaf water gradients. Thus, compound-specific δ18 O analyses of individual carbohydrates are helpful to better constrain (post-)photosynthetic isotope fractionation processes in plants.