Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differences between α-linolenic and linoleic acid supplementation on the redox status and cardiodynamic parameters of male and female Wistar albino rats

The aim of present study was to investigate the difference between α-linolenic acid (ALA, omega-3) and linoleic acid (LA, n-6) on the redox status and cardiac function of the isolated rat heart. ALA or LA were administered for 6 weeks by gavage to all animals, which were randomly divided into 4 groups: male rats treated with a linoleic acid (M-LA), dose of 7.3 mg/kg/day; female rats treated with a linoleic acid (F-LA), dose of 7.3 mg/kg/day; male rats treated with an α-linolenic acid (M-ALA), dose of 165 mg/kg/day; female rats treated with α-linolenic acid (F-ALA), dose of 165 mg/kg/day. Using the Langendorff technique, markers of heart function were evaluated: the maximum and minimum rates of pressure development in the left ventricle (LV; dp/dt max, dp/dt min), systolic and diastolic left ventricle pressure (SLVP, DLVP, respectively), heart rate (HR) and coronary flow (CF). We measured the concentrations of prooxidative markers: nitrites (NO 2 - ), superoxide anion radicals (O 2 - ) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), as well as the index of lipid peroxidation (TBARS) in the plasma and effluent. In the lysate, we measured the concentrations of reduced glutathione (GSH), catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD). ALA more negatively influenced the isolated rat heart, especially in females. In contrast, the administration of LA was linked to more prominent oxidative stress, while the application of ALA was associated with improved activity of the antioxidative defense system (with better values in males). https://doi.org/10.2298/ABS170810038R Received: August 10, 2017; Revised: September 24, 2017; Accepted: October 6, 2017; Published online: October 16, 2017 How to cite this article: Radoman K, Živkovic V, Nikolic T, Stojic I, Raicevic D, Jeremic J, Srejovic I, Jakovljevic V. Differences between α-linolenic and linoleic acid supplementation on the redox status and cardiodynamic parameters of male and female Wistar albino rats. Arch Bio Sci. 2018;70(2):223-31.
Bisphenol A decreases progesterone synthesis in human ovarian granulosa cells

Evidences indicate that the decline of female fertility is becoming a common problem over the past few decades. Environmental exposure of Bisphenol A (BPA) has been considered as an endocrine‐disrupting chemical deleteriously affecting human reproductions. To better understand the effect of BPA exposure on human ovarian granulosa cells, we treated human ovarian granulosa cell line (KGN) with increasing concentrations (0.1, 1, 10, and 100 μM) of BPA for 24 hr. About 0.1, 1, and 10 μM BPA did not significantly affect the viability of KGN while 100 μM of BPA caused a statistically significant decrease in the viability of KGN. Treatment KGN with 10 μM BPA resulted in a significant decrease in progesterone biosynthesis. The treatment also significantly increased the expression of ATP binding cassette subfamily A member 1 (ABCA1) and steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (STAR). In the current study, exposure to BPA could lead to decreased progesterone production probably through the upregulation of ABCA1 in human granulosa cells.
A safety evaluation of current medications for adult women with the polycystic ovarian syndrome not pursuing pregnancy

ABSTRACT Introduction The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a very prevalent disorder in premenopausal women. Cardiovascular risk factors cluster in these patients, raising concern about the safety of the drugs commonly used to ameliorate symptoms of androgen excess in in this population at risk of cardiovascular morbidity. Areas covered This review summarizes the clinical efficacy and safety profiles of drugs commonly used for the management of hyperandrogenic symptoms and endometrial protection in adult women with PCOS who do not seek pregnancy. Expert opinion Antiandrogenic drugs usually used in adult women with PCOS carry a low risk of severe side effects. In spite of the cardiovascular risk profile of women with PCOS, and that individualized risk assessment is of paramount importance, there is no solid evidence supporting that the use of combined oral contraceptives in these women increases the risk of cardiovascular or thromboembolic events compared with the general population. However, virtually all these drugs are used in an off-label fashion. Large, high-quality studies addressing the long-term safety of pharmacological treatments in women with PCOS are definitely needed.
Clinical complexity of utilizing FGFR inhibitors in cancer therapeutics

ABSTRACT Introduction Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR 1–4) are a highly conserved family of receptor tyrosine kinases, involved in several physiological processes. Genetic aberrations of FGFRs and their ligands, fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are involved in several pathological processes including cancer. The FGF-FGFR axis has emerged as a treatment target in oncology. Because these aberrations drive cancer progression, the development of FGFR targeted therapies have been accelerated. Areas covered In this comprehensive review, we evaluate molecular pathology and targeted therapies to FGFRs. We reviewed the evidence for safety and efficacy from preclinical and clinical studies (phase I–III) of FGFR targeted therapies. We also discuss potential challenges in bringing these targeted therapies from bench to bedside and the potential opportunities. Expert opinion Despite the challenges of the clinical development of FGFR targeted therapies, two FGFR small-molecule inhibitors, namely Erdafitinib and Pemigatinib, are FDA approved for urothelial cancer and cholangiocarcinoma, respectively. Understanding and detection of FGFR genomic aberrations, protein overexpression and the development of isoform-specific inhibitors are factors in the clinical success of these therapies. An enhanced understanding of patient selection based on a gene signatures or biomarkers is key to success of FGFR targeted therapies.
Circadian variation in renal blood flow and kidney function in healthy volunteers monitored using non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging.

Circadian regulation of kidney function is involved in maintaining whole-body homeostasis and dysfunctional circadian rhythm can potentially be involved in disease development. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides reliable and reproducible repetitive estimates of kidney function non-invasively without the risk of adverse events associated with contrast agents and ionizing radiation. The purpose of this study was to estimate circadian variations in kidney function in healthy human subjects using MRI, and relate the findings with urinary excretions of electrolytes and markers of kidney function. Phase Contrast imaging, Arterial Spin Labeling and Blood Oxygen Level Dependent R2*-mapping were used to assess the total renal blood flow and regional perfusion, and intrarenal oxygenation in eight female and eight male healthy volunteers every fourth hour during a 24h period. Parallel with MRI scans, standard urinary and plasma parameters were quantified. Significant circadian variations of total renal blood flow were found over 24h with increasing flow from noon to midnight and decreasing flow during the night. In contrast, no circadian variation in intrarenal oxygenation was detected. Urinary excretions of electrolytes, osmotically active particles, creatinine and urea all displayed circadian variations, peaking during the afternoon and evening hours. In conclusion, total renal blood flow and kidney function, as estimated from excretion of electrolytes and waste products, display profound circadian variations, whereas intrarenal oxygenation displays significantly less circadian variation.
Mys retrotransposons in Peromyscus leucopus and transgenic Mus musculus

The my3 family of retrotranspos ona exhibits an interesting phylogenetic distribution with 500-1000 copies per haploid genome in the white-footed mouse Peromyscus leucopua and no copies detectable in the house mouse Mua musculus, even though most other repeated sequences are shared by these two species. Comparison of the DNA sequences from the 3' ends of five mys elements show that insertion occurs just upstream of a well-conserved 11 bp target sequence. Transcription patterns of the elements in brain, liver, heart, kidneys and gonads in Peromyscus leucopus are analyzed. Transcripts are found in all tissues examined, but they are remarkably heterogeneous in size. When four cloned elements are introduced into transgenic Mus musculus, however, discrete patterns of expression are revealed. Furthermore, a study of the structure of the concatemers of mys elements in the transgenic mice demonstrates that recircularization of injected linear molecules is an important event in concatemer generation.
Regulation of energy metabolism in cultured skeletal muscle cells: Effects of exercise, donor differences and perilipin 2. Studies in human and mouse myotubes

6 INTRODUCTION . 8 Energy metabolism in skeletal muscle . 8 Dynamics of skeletal muscle lipid pools . 12 Metabolic flexibility of skeletal muscle . 13 Skeletal muscle fiber types . 15 Effects of exercise on energy metabolism in skeletal muscle . 16 Insulin resistance, obesity and type 2 diabetes . 20 AIMS. 23 SUMMARY OF PAPERS . 24 METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS . 32 Donor characteristics . 32 Study design of the in vivo exercise intervention . 34 Cultured skeletal muscle cells as an in vitro model . 35 Methods used to measure energy metabolism in cultured skeletal muscle cells . 38 Data analyses and statistics . 42 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS . 43 Oxidative capacity . 43 Lipid storage and turnover . 49 Fiber type transformations in skeletal muscles . 50 Effects on insulin sensitivity . 52 Final considerations. 53 REFERENCES . 55
Effects of HPS and LED lighting on cucumber leaf photosynthesis, light quality penetration and temperature in the canopy, plant morphology and yield

In Nordic countries during the winter months supplemental lighting is essential for year-round cucumber production. In this research the effects of full HPS (top and interlights) illumination is compared to hybrid (HPS top, LED interlights) and full LED (top and interlights). The results showed that fruit yield was highest in the HPS-LED treatment whereas the electrical use efficiency (kg yield J -1 ) increased when HPS was replaced with LED. In LED-LED the light use efficiency (g fruit FW mol -1 PAR) was highest but resulted in a fewer number of fruits in mid-winter particularly and the lowest yield potential. The lower temperature and lower light level due to LED-LED lighting lead to reduced photosynthesis capacity, flower initiation rate and water use efficiency whereas increased stem elongation and leaf expansion compared to other treatments. Differences in light quality of LED and HPS are also discussed in terms of cucumber yield formation.
Multi-attribute Decision-making is Best Characterized by an Attribute-Wise Reinforcement Learning Model

Choice alternatives often consist of multiple attributes that vary in how successfully they predict reward. Some standard theoretical models assert that decision makers evaluate choices either by weighting those attribute optimally in light of previous experience (so-called rational models), or adopting heuristics that use attributes suboptimally but in a manner that yields reasonable performance at minimal cost (e.g., the take-the-best heuristic). However, these models ignore both the possibility that decision makers might learn to associate reward with whole stimuli (a particular combination of attributes) rather than individual attributes and the common finding that decisions can be overly influenced by recent experiences and exhibit cue competition effects. Participants completed a two-alternative choice task where each stimulus consisted of three binary attributes that were predictive of reward, albeit with different degrees of reliability. Their choices revealed that, rather than using only the “best” attribute, they made use of all attributes but in manner that reflected the classic cue competition effect known as overshadowing. The time needed to make decisions increased as the number of relevant attributes increased, suggesting that reward was associated with attributes rather than whole stimuli. Fitting a family of computational models formed by crossing attribute use (optimal vs. only the best), representation (attribute vs. whole stimuli), and recency (biased or not), revealed that models that performed better when they made use of all information, represented attributes, and incorporated recency effects and cue competition. We also discuss the need to incorporate selective attention and hypothesis-testing like processes to account for results with multiple-attribute stimuli.
Habitat‐specific capture timing of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) suggests that predators structure temporal activity of prey

Editor: L. Ebensperger Abstract Timing is an essential component of the choices that animals make: The likelihood of successful resource capture (and predator avoidance) depends not just on what an animal chooses to do, but when it chooses to do it. Despite the importance of activity timing, our ability to understand the forces that constrain activity timing has been limited because this aspect of animal behavior is shaped by several factors (e.g., interspecific competitors, predators, physical conditions), and it is difficult to examine activity timing in a setting where only a single factor is operating. Using an island system that makes it possible to focus on the effect of predation risk in the absence of interspecific competition, we examine how the onset of activity of the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) varies between habitats with unique predation risks (i.e., minimalshrub cover versus abundantshrub cover sites). Using capture time to assess the timing of mouse activity, we found that mice in habitats with minimal shrub cover were captured 1.7 hr earlier than mice in habitats with abundant shrub cover. This difference in timing between habitats was likely a direct response to differences in predation risk between the two habitats: There were no differences in thermal conditions between the two habitats, and the difference in activity timing disappeared during a night when overcast skies reduced islandwide predation risk. Our results demonstrate that predation risk, independent of interspecific competition, can generate significant changes in animal activity timing. Our work suggests that habitat structure that provides safety (i.e., refuge habitats) plays a direct role in the timing of prey activity and that habitat modification that alters refuge availability (e.g., shrub dominance) may alter the timing of animal activity.
A case of natural recovery after the removal of invasive predators – community assemblage changes in the avifauna of Burgess Island

Opportunities to monitor natural island ecosystem recovery following the eradication of introduced predators are rare, and provide a useful comparison for recovery programmes aided by active habitat restoration and species translocations. We present an assessment of the current avifauna on Burgess Island, Mokohinau Group, 2 decades after kiore (Pacific rat; Rattus exulans) removal. The 4 most abundant land bird species we recorded are red-crowned parakeet (Cyanorhamphus novaezelandiae), bellbird (Anthornis melanura), tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) and silvereye (Zosterops lateralis), all New Zealand native taxa. Our records confirm that 46 species now utilize the island’s habitats, compared with 24 species reported from the literature during the last decades of rat infestation. We also confirm breeding of 9 seabird species by 2011, only 4 of which maintained breeding populations on Burgess Island prior to rat eradication. More than 20 years after predator removal, Burgess Island hosts a rich avifauna, and provides a valuable example of natural recovery following predator eradication without any further active restoration measures
Effect of Genetic Variation on Salt, Sweet, Fat and Bitter Taste

Background: Taste is one of the primary determinants of food intake and taste function can be influenced by a number of factors including genetics. However, little is known about the relationship between genetic variation, taste function, food preference and intake. Objective: To examine the effect of variation in genes involved in the perception of salt, sweet, fat and bitter compounds on taste function, food preference and consumption. Methods: Subjects were drawn from the Toronto Nutrigenomics and Health Study, a population of healthy men (n=487) and women (n = 1058). Dietary intake was assessed using a 196-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and food preference was assessed using a 63-item food preference checklist. Subsets of individuals were phenotyped to assess taste function in response to salt (n=95), sucrose (n=95), oleic acid (n=21) and naringin (n=685) stimuli. Subjects were genotyped for Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes. Results: Of the SNPs examined in putative salt taste receptor genes (SCNN1(A, B, D, G), TRPV1), the rs9939129 and rs239345 SNPs in the SCNN1B gene and rs8065080 in the TRPV1 gene were associated with salt taste. In the TAS1R2 gene, the rs12033832 was associated with sucrose taste and sugar intake. The rs1077242 SNP in the bitter taste receptor gene TAS2R19 was
Implications of grass–clover interactions in dairy pastures for forage value indexing systems. 2. Waikato

ABSTRACT The implementation and monitoring of the treatments in the core experiment (eight perennial ryegrass cultivars grown under four combinations of plus/minus clover and high/low nitrogen (N)) at a dryland Waikato site is described. The N x clover interaction was significant in 10 of the 17 seasonal or total annual herbage accumulation (HA) data sets available, caused by substantially lower annual HA in the low N minus clover treatment compared with all other treatments. Five significant scaling-type clover × cultivar interactions in HA were evident. In all cases, HA was greater in plus clover than minus clover treatments, but more so for some cultivars than others. However, the interactions were not consistent across seasons, and different cultivars or phenotypic contrast groups were involved in many cases. The hypothesis that relative HA rankings of ryegrass cultivars do not differ when ryegrass is grown in monoculture versus mixtures with white clover is supported.
Genetic variability of some Italian and Polish duck breeds

Abstract This study is aimed to estimate and compare the inter- and within-breed variability of duck populations under genetic conservation programmes. The following four duck breeds were analysed: Germanata Veneta (AGV) and Mignon (AMG) from Italy, Pekin Krajowy (33P) and Pomniejszona (2K) from Poland. The characterisation of the four populations was carried out through a panel of 23 microsatellite markers. The analysis involved 180 individuals: 39 for AGV, 41 for AMG, 50 for 33P and 50 for 2K. An average of 11.36 alleles per locus was identified. Twenty-two loci showed high values of polymorphism information content from 0.575 to 0.912, while CAUD136 was monomorphic for the Italian breeds. The breeds showed relatively high heterozygosity: higher for the Polish populations (0.6920 for 33P and 0.6521 for 2K), and lower for the Italian (0.4497 and 0.3718 for AGV and AMG, respectively). The inbreeding coefficient was higher for the Italian breeds, AMG in particular (0.133, 0.097 and 0.121), as well as the differentiation index (0.253). The Nei’s minimum distances (DM) and Reynolds distances (DR) were low between the Polish populations (0.131 and 0.088, respectively); these were associated to AGV (DM = 0.191 and DR = 0.259 for 33P; DM = 0.174 and DR = 0.226 for 2K). Finally, AGV was distant from AMG (DM = 0.259 and DR = 0.317). The molecular coancestry, or mean kinship was higher for the Italian breeds compared to Polish populations. The Italian populations showed intermediate values. The obtained results can be perceived as an important tool for the applied genetic conservation programmes.
Can Warm Glow Alleviate Credit Market Failures? Evidence from Online Peer-to-Peer Lenders

This article looks at an institutional innovation in which Western investors lend peer-to-peer to poor country enterprises. Using a unique data set from an online lending platform called MYC4, we find that MYC4’s Western lenders grant lower interest rates to pro-poor, socially responsible, and pro-female African projects. Using a novel instrumental variable to account for interest rates’ endogeneity, we find that these lower interest rates substantially improve the repayment performance of borrowers and do not reflect profit-maximizing behavior. This new way to organize finance improves credit market efficiency and the success rate of poor country enterprises.
Data-Driven Extraction of a Nested Structure of Human Cognition

Decades of cognitive neuroscience research have revealed two basic facts regarding task-driven brain activation patterns. First, distinct patterns of activation occur in response to different task demands. Second, a superordinate, dichotomous pattern of activation/de-activation, is commonly observed across a variety of task demands. We explore the possibility that a hierarchical model incorporates these two observed brain activation phenomena into a unifying framework. We apply a latent variable approach, exploratory bi-factor analysis, to a large set of brain activation patterns to determine the potential existence of a nested structure of factors that underlies a variety of commonly observed activation patterns. We find that a general factor, associated with a superordinate brain activation/de-activation pattern, explained the majority of the variance (52.37%). The bi-factor analysis also revealed several sub-factors that explained an additional 31.02% of variance in brain activation patterns, associated with different manifestations of the superordinate brain activation/de-activation pattern, each emphasizing different contexts in which the task demands occurred. Importantly, this nested factor structure provided better overall fit to the data compared with a non-nested factor structure model. These results point to domain-general psychological process, representing a ‘focused awareness’ process or ‘attentional episode’ that is variously manifested according to the sensory modality of the stimulus and degree of cognitive processing. This novel model provides the basis for constructing a biologically-informed, data-driven taxonomy of psychological processes.