Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanisms responsible for the failure of protamine  to inactivate low‐molecular‐weight heparin

Summary. Protamine is unable to completely reverse the anticoagulant effect of the low‐molecular‐weight heparins (LMWH), a fact of clinical importance given the rapid increase in use of LMWH in clinical practice. This investigation sought to determine the mechanism by which LMWH were able to resist protamine‐mediated inactivation. Affinity fractionation of LMWH by passage through a protamine column, with subsequent determination of molecular mass and sulphate charge density, demonstrated that the protamine‐resistant fraction in LMWH is an ultra‐low‐molecular‐weight fraction with low sulphate charge density. This group of molecules was not found in unfractionated heparin, even when species of similar molecular mass were compared. We then determined that different commercially available LMWH varied in their ability to be neutralized by protamine, and that this variability correlated with the total sulphate content of the LMWH. We conclude that reduced sulphate charge, not molecular mass, is the principle reason that protamine is unable to fully inactivate LMWH. Furthermore, different LMWH vary in their ability to be neutralized by protamine, suggesting that product‐specific recommendations for neutralization might be developed.
Prolactin and interleukin 2 concentrations before and after i.v. TRH application in primary hypothyroidism and in controls.

The authors evaluated serum level of prolactin (PRL) and interleukin 2 (IL-2) before and after i.v. application of tyreoliberin (TRH) 0.2 mg in 10 women as controls and 10 women with primary hypothyreoidism. In controls, there was a significant increase of IL-2 20 min following application of TRH (IL-2 0 min: 17.95 +/- 11.69, IL-2 in 20 min: 33.36 +/- 17.73 fmol/l), in patients with hypothyreoidism the serum level of IL-2 decreased (IL-2 0 min: 31.32 +/- 19.0, IL-2 in 20 min: 19.11 +/- 17.8 fmol/l). The basal concentration of IL-2 in patients with hypothyreoidism was significantly higher as in controls (p < 0.01). The presented finding indicated relation between the neuroendocrine and immune system but its value is not yet apparent. (Tab. 4, Fig. 1, Ref. 7.)
A New Public Key Encryption with Conjunctive Field Keyword Search Scheme

The scheme that searching over the encrypted data, which is also named conjunctive keyword searchable scheme, enables one to search the encrypted data by using conjunctive keywords. The concept was first presented by Golle et al. , and then Park et al. extended their scheme into a public key system. According to the existing conjunctive keyword searchable schemes and the assumption that Golle et al. proposed, there are two types: the fixed keyword field scheme and the variable keyword field scheme. However, there are still rooms for both kinds of the schemes to improve both the performance and the security. In this paper, we propose an efficient secure channel free public key encryption with conjunctive field keyword search scheme that can stand against the off-line keyword-guessing attacks, which is more suitable for the weak devices used by users. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.itc. 43.3. 6429
The ORF2 Protein of Hepatitis E Virus Binds the 5′ Region of Viral RNA

ABSTRACT Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major human pathogen in much of the developing world. It is a plus-strand RNA virus with a 7.2-kb polyadenylated genome consisting of three open reading frames, ORF1, ORF2, and ORF3. Of these, ORF2 encodes the major capsid protein of the virus and ORF3 encodes a small protein of unknown function. Using the yeast three-hybrid system and traditional biochemical techniques, we have studied the RNA binding activities of ORF2 and ORF3, two proteins encoded in the 3′ structural part of the genome. Since the genomic RNA from HEV has been postulated to contain secondary structures at the 5′ and 3′ ends, we used these two terminal regions, besides other regions within the genome, in this study. Experiments were designed to test for interactions between the genomic RNA fusion constructs with ORF2 and ORF3 hybrid proteins in a yeast cellular environment. We show here that the ORF2 protein contains RNA binding activity. The ORF2 protein specifically bound the 5′ end of the HEV genome. Deletion analysis of this protein showed that its RNA binding activity was lost when deletions were made beyond the N-terminal 111 amino acids. Finer mapping of the interacting RNA revealed that a 76-nucleotide (nt) region at the 5′ end of the HEV genome was responsible for binding the ORF2 protein. This 76-nt region included the 51-nt HEV sequence, conserved across alphaviruses. Our results support the requirement of this conserved sequence for interaction with ORF2 and also indicate an increase in the strength of the RNA-protein interaction when an additional 44 bases downstream of this 76-nt region were included. Secondary-structure predictions and the location of the ORF2 binding region within the HEV genome indicate that this interaction may play a role in viral encapsidation.
Green scheduling to minimize Base station transmit power and UE circuit power consumption

Packet scheduling algorithms are viewed as one of the key mechanisms for increasing the diversity order, robustness and effectiveness of a wireless multi-user communication systems. Traditional packet scheduling algorithms are designed to save energy at the Base-station(BS) in downlink by exploiting tradeoffs between spectral efficiency, delay and energy while at the same time meeting the QoS requirements of the system. However, these algorithms ignore the User-Equipment(UE) circuit power consumption to receive and process downlink traffic. In this paper, we show that the optimization of only BS transmit power consumption in downlink can lead to significant drain of UE battery power. Hence, we propose sub-optimal algorithms that exploit Discontinuous Transmission(DTX) at the base-station to tradeoff delay with energy consumption to improve Energy Effi- ciency (EE) of the UE circuit power and BS transmit power, while at the same time meeting the application QoS requirements in terms of throughput and service delay. The proposed algorithm is also shown to achieve good performance in saving transmit power at the base-station and also the UE circuit power consumption over traditional scheduling algorithms.
The Clustering of Regression Models Method with Applications in Gene Expression Data

Summary Identification of differentially expressed genes and clustering of genes are two important and complementary objectives addressed with gene expression data. For the differential expression question, many “per‐gene” analytic methods have been proposed. These methods can generally be characterized as using a regression function to independently model the observations for each gene; various adjustments for multiplicity are then used to interpret the statistical significance of these per‐gene regression models over the collection of genes analyzed. Motivated by this common structure of per‐gene models, we proposed a new model‐based clustering method—the clustering of regression models method, which groups genes that share a similar relationship to the covariate(s). This method provides a unified approach for a family of clustering procedures and can be applied for data collected with various experimental designs. In addition, when combined with per‐gene methods for assessing differential expression that employ the same regression modeling structure, an integrated framework for the analysis of microarray data is obtained. The proposed methodology was applied to two microarray data sets, one from a breast cancer study and the other from a yeast cell cycle study.
Using Contextual Information from Topic Hierarchies to Improve Context-Aware Recommender Systems

Unlike the traditional recommender systems, that make recommendations only by using the relation between user and item, a context-aware recommender system makes recommendations by incorporating available contextual information into the recommendation process as explicit additional categories of data to improve the recommendation process. In this paper, we propose to use contextual information from topic hierarchies to improve the accuracy of context-aware recommender systems. Additionally, we also propose two context-aware recommender algorithms for item recommendation. These are extensions from algorithms proposed in literature for rating prediction. The empirical results demonstrate that by using topic hierarchies our technique can provide better recommendations.
Prior heat stress inhibits apoptosis in adenosine triphosphate-depleted renal tubular cells.

BACKGROUND This study tested the following hypotheses: (a) renal tubular epithelial cells subjected to transient adenosine triphosphate (ATP) depletion undergo apoptosis, and (b) induction of heat stress proteins (HSPs) inhibits cell death following ATP depletion, possibly by interacting with anti-apoptotic signal proteins. METHODS To simulate ischemia in vivo, cells derived from opossum kidney proximal tubule (OK) were subjected to ATP depletion (5 mM cyanide, 5 mM 2-deoxy-D-glucose, and 0 mM glucose) for 1 to 1. 5 hours, followed by recovery (10 mM glucose without cyanide). The presence of apoptosis was assessed by morphological and biochemical criteria. The effect of prior heat stress or caspase inhibition on apoptosis and cell survival were assessed. RESULTS In the ATP-depleted cell, both Hoechst dye and electron microscopy revealed morphological features that are typical of apoptosis. On an agarose gel, a "ladder pattern" typical of endonucleosomal DNA degradation was observed. Prior heat stress reduced the number of apoptotic-appearing cells, significantly decreased DNA fragmentation, and improved cell survival compared with controls (73.0 +/- 1% vs. 53.0 +/- 1.5%; P < 0.05). Two different caspase inhibitors also improved survival, suggesting that apoptosis is a cause of cell death in this model. Compared with ATP-depleted controls, prior heat stress inhibited the pro-apoptotic changes in the ratio of Bcl2 to BAX, proteins known to regulate the apoptotic set point in renal cells. HSP 72, a known cytoprotectant, co-immunoprecipitated with Bcl2, an anti-apoptotic protein. Prior heat stress markedly increased the interaction between HSP 72 and Bcl2. CONCLUSIONS Transient ATP depletion causes apoptosis in tubular epithelial cells. Prior HS inhibits apoptosis and improves survival in these cells. Novel interactions between HSP 72 and Bcl2 may be responsible, at least in part, for the protection afforded by prior heat stress against ATP depletion injury.
Investigation and Mitigation of Differential Movement at Railway Transitions for US High Speed Passenger Rail and Joint Passenger/Freight Corridors

As with most highway bridges, railway transitions experience differential movements due to differences in track system stiffness, track damping characteristics, foundation type, ballast settlement from fouling and/or degradation, as well as fill and subgrade settlement. This differential movement is especially problematic for high speed rail infrastructure as the “bump” at the transition is accentuated at high speeds. Identification of different factors contributing towards this differential movement, as well as development of design and maintenance strategies to mitigate the problem is imperative for the safe and economical operation of both freight and passenger rail networks. This paper presents the research framework and preliminary findings from a recently initiated research effort at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Aimed at developing design and repair techniques to mitigate differential movement at railway transitions, this research project involves instrumentation, performance monitoring and numerical modeling of new and existing track transitions.
Une étude rétrospective sur l'incidence de l'insuffisance rénale chronique dans le service de Médecine Interne et Néphrologie du Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Antananarivo

L'insuffisance rénale chronique est un problème de santé publique au niveau mondial. Dans les pays développés, cette affection survient essentiellement chez les sujets âgés, mais en Afrique, elle s'installe plutôt chez les sujets jeunes actifs. C'est une affection de lourde prise en charge dans un pays à faible revenu à cause de ses coûts. Notre but est de décrire les aspects épidémiologiques des nouveaux cas d'insuffisance rénale chronique à Madagascar. Il s'agit d'une étude rétrospective descriptive de 3 ans partant du 1er janvier 2007 au 31 décembre 2009 dans le service de Médecine Interne et Néphrologie du Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Antananarivo portant sur 239 patients diagnostiqués comme une insuffisance rénale chronique. L'incidence était de 8,51% parmi les patients hospitalisés dans le service. L’âge moyen des patients était de 45,4 ans avec des extrêmes de 16 et 82 ans et un sex-ratio de 1,46. Le principal antécédent était l'hypertension artérielle (59,8%). L'insuffisance rénale chronique était terminale dans 75,31% des cas (n=180). Les causes de l'insuffisance rénale chronique étaient dominées par la glomérulonéphrite chronique (40,1%), la néphroangiosclérose (35,5%). L'hémodialyse était réalisée chez 3 patients (1,26%), aucun patient n’était pas programmé pour une greffe rénale. Le taux de mortalité dans le service était de 28,87%. L'insuffisance rénale chronique est une maladie de pronostic redoutable et handicapante qui affecte les sujets jeunes à Madagascar. Son traitement reste inaccessible dans la majorité des patients. L'accent doit donc être mis principalement sur la prévention notamment une bonne prise en charge précoce des infections, de l'hypertension artérielle et du diabète pour réduire ses impacts négatifs sur la santé communautaire et publique. Le projet de la transplantation rénale - donneur vivant, traitement efficace et moins coûteux par rapport à l'hémodialyse pourrait être aussi une bonne solution chez ces sujets jeunes malgaches.
Frequent recovery of HIV-1 from genital herpes simplex virus lesions in HIV-1-infected men.

CONTEXT Genital ulcer disease has been epidemiologically linked as a risk factor in the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1). While herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) is the most common cause of genital ulcers, no study has systematically evaluated the frequency or titer of HIV-1 virus in HSV-2 lesions. OBJECTIVE To compare lesional HIV-1 RNA levels during and after genital HSV-2 reactivation and to evaluate the frequency, titer, and duration of HIV-1 RNA shedding in lesions due to HSV-2. DESIGN Convenience sample. SETTING Sexually transmitted disease research clinic at the University of Washington, Seattle. PATIENTS Twelve HIV-infected men with a history of symptomatic HSV-2 infection who underwent daily sampling of genital lesions for HIV-1 RNA by polymerase chain reaction assay and HSV-2 by culture. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Detection of lesional HIV RNA and HSV-2. RESULTS HIV-1 RNA was detected from lesional swabs in 25 of 26 consecutively studied HSV-2 episodes and on 67% of days in which genital lesions were noted. The HIV-1 RNA titers in lesional swabs exceeded 10000 copies/mL of swab sample in 75% of samples (range, 2.2-3.2 x 10(5) copies/mL of swab sample). HIV-1 RNA in genital lesion swabs was seen in persons with high and low titers of plasma HIV-1 RNA and was not associated with plasma HIV-1 RNA levels. CONCLUSIONS HIV-1 virions can consistently be detected in genital ulcers caused by HSV-2, which suggests that genital herpes infection likely increases the efficiency of the sexual transmission of HIV-1.
Factors Associated With Occipital Pressure Ulcers in Hospitalized Infants and Children.

BACKGROUND The occiput is a common location for development of pressure ulcers in hospitalized infants and young children. However, risk factors associated with occurrence of the ulcers have not been fully described. OBJECTIVE To identify factors associated with development of occipital pressure ulcers in acutely ill infants and children. METHODS Charts of all patients with occipital pressure ulcers reported in a computerized safety event reporting system since its implementation in 2005 and of any patients with such ulcers recalled by members of the skin care special interest group were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS During a 4-year period, 60 cases of occipital pressure ulcers were identified: 40% stage I, 12% stage II, 30% unstageable, and 18% deep tissue Injury. The median age of the sample was 12 months. Among the patients, 86% were in the intensive care unit with cardiovascular or pulmonary problems. A total of 68% had comorbid conditions. Most of the patients were less than 1 year old; were critically ill, requiring high-risk therapies; and had multiple medical devices in place. Patients with the ulcers were commonly treated with mechanical ventilation (83%) and sedation (74%) and were described as agitated (42%). Many of these patients were receiving vasoactive medications (50%) and had vascular access devices in the neck that restricted head movement (45%). When documented, the median Braden Q score was 16. CONCLUSIONS Infants and children at risk for occipital pressure ulcers can be prospectively identified, allowing implementation of nursing interventions to prevent these ulcers.
Early Neurodegeneration after Hypoxia-Ischemia in Neonatal Rat Is Necrosis while Delayed Neuronal Death Is Apoptosis

We used silver staining to demonstrate neuronal cell body, axonal, and terminal degeneration in brains from p7 rat pups recovered for 0, 1.5, 3, 6, 24, 48, 72 h, and 6 days following hypoxia-ischemia. We found that initial injury is evident in ipsilateral forebrain by 3 h following hypoxia-ischemia, while injury in ventral basal thalamus develops at 24 h. A secondary phase of injury occurs at 48 h in ipsilateral cortex, but not until 6 days in basal ganglia. Initial injury in striatum and cortex is necrosis, but in thalamus the neurodegeneration is primarily apoptosis. Degeneration also occurs in bilateral white matter tracts, and in synaptic terminal fields associated with apoptosis in regions remote from the primary injury. These results show that hypoxia-ischemia in the developing brain causes both early and delayed neurodegeneration in specific systems in which the morphology of neuronal death is determined by time, region, and potentially by patterns of neuronal connectivity.
Future care planning: a first step to palliative care for all patients with advanced heart disease

Palliative care is recommended for patients with end-stage heart failure with several recent, randomised trials showing improvements in symptoms and quality of life and more studies underway. Future care planning provides a framework for discussing a range of palliative care problems with patients and their families. This approach can be introduced at any time during the patient's journey of care and ideally well in advance of end-of-life care. Future care planning is applicable to a wide range of patients with advanced heart disease and could be delivered systematically by cardiology teams at the time of an unplanned hospital admission, akin to cardiac rehabilitation for myocardial infarction. Integrating cardiology care and palliative care can benefit many patients with advanced heart disease at increased risk of death or hospitalisation. Larger, randomised trials are needed to assess the impact on patient outcomes and experiences.
Epididymal protein Rnase10 is required for post-testicular sperm maturation and male fertility

Eutherian spermatozoa are dependent on the environment of the proximal epididymis to complete their maturation; however, no specific epididymal factors that mediate this process have so far been identified. Here, we show that targeted disruption of the novel gene Rnase10 encoding a secreted proximal epididymal protein in the mouse results in a binding defect in spermatozoa and their inability to pass through the uterotubal junction in the female. The failure to gain the site of fertilization in the knockout spermatozoa is associated with a gradual loss of ADAM3 and ADAM6 proteins during epididymal transit. In the distal epididymis, these spermatozoa appear to lack calcium‐dependent associations with the immobilizing glutinous extracellular material and are released as single, vigorously motile cells that display no tendency for head‐to‐head agglutination and lack affinity to the oviductal epithelium. In sperm‐egg binding assay, they are unable to establish a tenacious association with the zona pellucida, yet they are capable of fertilization. Furthermore, these sperm show accelerated capacitation resulting in an overall in vitro fertilizing ability superior to that of wild‐type sperm. We conclude that the physiological role of sperm adhesiveness is in the mechanism of restricted sperm entry into the oviduct rather than in sperm‐egg interaction. —Krutskikh, A. , Poliandri, A. , Cabrera‐Sharp, V. , Dacheux, J. L. , Poutanen, M. , Huhtaniemi, I. Epididymal protein Rnase10 is required for post‐testicular sperm maturation and male fertility. FASEB J. 26, 4198–4209 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in depressed patients with schizophrenia

Abstract Aim: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) are neurotrophins—proteins that induce the survival, development, and function of neurons. Their role in the development of schizophrenia and mood disorders is widely studied. This study was aimed to determine whether depression affects levels of BDNF and NT-3 in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: Data for 53 Caucasian adult hospitalized patients with chronic paranoid schizophrenia was compared with 27 healthy subjects. Clinical symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and positive, negative and general sub-scores, the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), and the Clinical Global Impressions scale (CGI). Patients were defined as depressed (SHZ-DEP) with scores CDSS > 6 and HDRS > 7, otherwise they were included into the non-depressed group (SHZ-nonDEP). Results: In total, 17 patients (32.1%) with schizophrenia met criteria for depression. SHZ-DEP patients had higher scores in HDRS, CDSS, PANSS total, PANSS negative, PANSS general and CGI (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). There were no differences in BDNF or NT-3 levels between patients with schizophrenia and controls. BDNF levels were lower in SHZ-DEP compared to SHZ-nonDEP: 18.82 ± 5.95 versus 22.10 ± 5.31 ng/mL, p = 0.045. NT-3 levels were higher in SHZ-DEP compared to SHZ-nonDEP: 133.31 ± 222.19 versus 56.04 ± 201.28 pg/mL, p = 0.033. Conclusion: There were no differences in neurotrophin levels between patients with schizophrenia and controls. We found lower BDNF and higher NT-3 serum levels in depressed patients with schizophrenia.