Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing storm-related geomorphic shoreline changes based on GPS surveys, old maps and aerial photographs

Digital shorelines obtained from old maps and photographs as well as more recent GPS surveys are used to study the developments in coastal geomorphic processes in relation to variations in climatic and oceanographic forcing factors in the Baltic Sea area. By the end of the 20th century, the postglacial isostatic land uplift is nearly balanced out by the sea level rise and storminess-related shore changes have become crucial. The current rate of shoreline change in western Estonia is 5 times higher than it was in the 1900s-1950s; the intensity of shore processes has increased at westerly exposed study sites and slightly decreased at northerly exposed sites, which is in accordance with the long-term variations in regional storminess.
Statin Use in Patients With Acute Pancreatitis and Symptomatic Gallstone Disease

Objective The long-term use of statins may be associated with a decreased risk for gallstones and biliary-induced acute pancreatitis (AP). Our aim was to study the relationship of statin use and outcome of AP. Methods We investigated the records of 461 consecutive patients with AP and 1140 patients with symptomatic gallstones during 2008 to 2010. The use of lipid-lowering drugs, patient’s characteristics, and outcome of patients were recorded. All known risk factors for AP and particularly statin use in idiopathic AP were analyzed. Results Statin use was comparable between the patients with AP (22%) and patients with cholelithiasis (24%). The frequencies of surgical treatment, duration of hospital stay, or mortality were not different between the statin users compared with the nonusers. Idiopathic AP was more often associated with the use of statins than alcohol- or gallstone-induced AP (44% vs 30% vs 13%, P < 0.002). The etiology of AP was alcohol in 56% of the patients, gallstones in 28% of the patients, and unknown (idiopathic) or miscellaneous in 16% of the patients. Conclusions No beneficial effect of statins was observed in mortality or other outcome parameters of patients with AP. Statin use was more frequent in patients with idiopathic AP than in patients with biliary- or alcohol-induced AP.
A Memory of Early Life Physical Activity Is Retained in Bone Marrow of Male Rats Fed a High-Fat Diet

Studies have reported opposing effects of high-fat (HF) diet and mechanical stimulation on lineage commitment of the bone marrow stem cells. Yet, how bone marrow modulates its gene expression in response to the combined effects of mechanical loading and a HF diet has not been addressed. We investigated whether early-life (before onset of sexual maturity at 6 weeks of age) voluntary physical activity can modulate the effects of a HF diet on male Sprague Dawley rats. In the bone marrow, early-life HF diet resulted in adipocyte hypertrophy and a pro-inflammatory and pro-adipogenic gene expression profile. The bone marrow of the rats that undertook wheel exercise while on a HF diet retained a memory of the early-life exercise. This memory lasted at least 60 days after the cessation of the voluntary exercise. Our results are consistent with the marrow adipose tissue having a unique response to HF feeding in the presence or absence of exercise.
Recurrent chimeric RNAs enriched in human prostate cancer identified by deep sequencing

Transcription-induced chimeric RNAs, possessing sequences from different genes, are expected to increase the proteomic diversity through chimeric proteins or altered regulation. Despite their importance, few studies have focused on chimeric RNAs especially regarding their presence/roles in human cancers. By deep sequencing the transcriptome of 20 human prostate cancer and 10 matched benign prostate tissues, we obtained 1.3 billion sequence reads, which led to the identification of 2,369 chimeric RNA candidates. Chimeric RNAs occurred in significantly higher frequency in cancer than in matched benign samples. Experimental investigation of a selected 46 set led to the confirmation of 32 chimeric RNAs, of which 27 were highly recurrent and previously undescribed in prostate cancer. Importantly, a subset of these chimeras was present in prostate cancer cell lines, but not detectable in primary human prostate epithelium cells, implying their associations with cancer. These chimeras contain discernable 5′ and 3′ splice sites at the RNA junction, indicating that their formation is mediated by splicing. Their presence is also largely independent of the expression of parental genes, suggesting that other factors are involved in their production and regulation. One chimera, TMEM79-SMG5, is highly differentially expressed in human cancer samples and therefore a potential biomarker. The prevalence of chimeric RNAs may allow the limited number of human genes to encode a substantially larger number of RNAs and proteins, forming an additional layer of cellular complexity. Together, our results suggest that chimeric RNAs are widespread, and increased chimeric RNA events could represent a unique class of molecular alteration in cancer.
Quadratic programming for monotone control theoretic splines

In this article, we solve the problem of monotone control theoretic splines. Monotone control theoretic splines have been solved only when the target system is the second-order integrator 1/s2, but not for other cases. To solve this, we first formulate the problem as semi-infinite quadratic programming, and then we adopt discretization technique. The problem is reduced to a finite-dimensional quadratic programming, which can be easily solved by numerical computation. We also illustrate examples to show the effectiveness of our method.
Improving the position control of a two degrees of freedom robotic sensing antenna using fractional-order controllers

ABSTRACT Flexible links combined with force and torque sensors can be used to detect obstacles in mobile robotics, as well as for surface and object recognition. These devices, called sensing antennae, perform an active sensing strategy in which a servomotor system moves the link back and forth until it hits an object. At this instant, information of the motor angles combined with force and torque measurements allow calculating the positions of the hitting points, which are valuable information about the object surface. In order to move the antenna fast and accurately, this article proposes a new closed-loop control for driving this flexible link-based sensor. The control strategy is based on combining a feedforward term and a feedback phase-lag compensator of fractional order. We demonstrate that some drawbacks of the control of these sensing devices like the apparition of spillover effects when a very fast positioning of the antenna tip is desired, and actuator saturation caused by high-frequency sensor noise, can be significantly reduced by using our newly proposed fractional-order controllers. We have applied these controllers to the position control of a prototype of sensing antenna and experiments have shown the improvements attained with this technique in the accurate and vibration free motion of its tip (the fractional-order controller reduced ten times the residual vibration obtained with the integer-order controller).
The effects of diethyl pyrocarbonate on the stability and activity of plant polyribosomes.

Although polyribosomes have been isolated from several plant systems, the data are suggestive of considerable degrada- tion of large polyribosomes. Weeks and Marcus (18) showed that much of the degradation could be prevented by isolation with diethyl pyrocarbonate, a compound previously used by Fedorcsak al. as a nuclease inhibitor during the isolation of nucleic acids. The results of Weeks and Marcus that there was a of somes and a population of in DEP'-treated preparations and that DEP inhibited the ability of the ribosomes to support in vitro amino acid incorporation. Although effects results
Association of Glycosylated Hemoglobin Levels With Vitamin D Status

Background The discovery of vitamin D is one of medicine’s great achievements. Despite all the positive evidence emerging about the beneficial effect of vitamin D, we still find many are vitamin D deficient. The purposes of this study were to examine the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels, to test the hypothesis that lower 25(OH)D levels are associated with poorer glucose control in diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and to investigate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on HbA1c levels. Methods This was a prospective observational cohort study of all patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes (above 12 years) who attended the outpatient clinics of a tertiary center in Riyadh. HbA1c and vitamin D levels were recorded prior to supplementation and after 9 months of supplementation with vitamin D. All patients were divided into four groups according to their vitamin D level and an association between 25(OH)D and HbA1c was tested. Results Results showed that 73.1% of the patients had 25(OH)D levels < 50 nmol/L. We observed lowering of HbA1c after vitamin D supplementation (from mean HbA1c of 10.55 to 7.70). We found HbA1c to be inversely related to serum vitamin D levels (r = -0.14 (P < 0.0000002) before supplementation and -0.16 (P < 0.000001) after supplementation with vitamin D). Conclusions Advising patients with higher HbA1c to test their vitamin D level and correct any deficiency will result in better blood glucose control and benefit the patient’s overall health.
Indinavir plasma protein binding in HIV-1-infected adults

ObjectiveTo quantify unbound indinavir concentrations and characterize indinavir plasma protein binding in HIV-infected adults. DesignPharmacokinetic study in antiretroviral-naive, HIV-infected persons with CD4 T lymphocytes > 100 × 106 cells/l and HIV-RNA in plasma > 5000 copies/ml at baseline who were participating in an open-label study of zidovudine, lamivudine and indinavir therapy. MethodsEight men underwent 8 h intensive pharmacokinetic studies for indinavir on two occasions 6 months apart. Unbound indinavir was separated by ultra-filtration, and unbound and total concentrations were quantified by a validated high-performance liquid chromatography method. ResultsOverall indinavir protein binding was 61 ± 6%, with a range among the profiles of 54 to 70%. Indinavir binding was higher at the 8 h post-dose concentration compared with the 1 h post-dose concentration (66 versus 57%, P = 0.0006). ConclusionsThe mean 61% protein binding for indinavir in these HIV-infected persons is similar to the in vitro report of 60%. However, the fraction bound was concentration-dependent, and considerable variability in binding was present among patients. Quantification of unbound protease inhibitor concentrations opens new avenues of research to advance our understanding of the pharmacologically-relevant moieties of antiretroviral agents and thereby the pharmacotherapy of HIV infection.
Mycoplasma bovis infections in cattle.

Mycoplasma bovis is a pathogen causing respiratory disease, otitis media, arthritis, mastitis, and a variety of other diseases in cattle worldwide. It is increasingly recognized by the veterinary and livestock communities as having an important impact on the health, welfare, and productivity of dairy and beef cattle. M. bovis diseases can be difficult to diagnose and control because of inconsistent disease expression and response to treatments and vaccines, and large gaps in our understanding of the epidemiology and pathophysiology of these diseases. There are limited data on which to base evidence-based decisions for treatment and control, and the literature contains differing clinical biases and opinions. This document is intended for veterinarians dealing with cattle and is focused on the cattle production systems of North America. The goal of the consensus statement panel was to encourage an evidence-based approach to M. bovis problems. The scientific literature was critically reviewed, including peer-reviewed journal articles and reviews obtained by database searches using the terms "Mycoplasma bovis" or "mycoplasma + cattle. " Where other data were lacking, conference proceedings were reviewed as a source of expert opinion.
Plasma concentrations of myeloperoxidase in endurance and 3-day event horses after a competition.

REASON FOR PERFORMING STUDY In man, exercise of any type has been shown to induce neutrophil degranulation and respiratory burst activity, as well as an increase in plasma myeloperoxidase (MPO), a specific enzyme of neutrophil azurophilic granules with a strong oxidative activity. Until now, it is not known whether this is the same in horses. OBJECTIVES To study whether degranulation of blood neutrophils may be induced by exercise by measuring the total concentration of MPO and assess the possible influence of type of competition on this exercise-induced adjustment. METHODS Blood was sampled before, and 30 min after, the course, in 9 ponies performing the Phase D of a national 3-day event championship (CIC*), and in 7 endurance horses participating at the European endurance championship 2005. White blood cells and granulocytes, total plasma proteins, creatine phosphokinase (CK), and total MPO contents were determined from blood samples. In addition, blood was taken from all ponies and 4 of the endurance horses 5 min after completion of the course to give some idea of the intensity of exercise. RESULTS The mean blood lactate was 15.8 +/- 5.8 mmol/l after the CIC* and 2.7 +/- 0.2 mmol/l after the 160 km course. Performing both competitions induced a significant increase in CK and MPO. After the endurance course, the number of granulocytes significantly increased. Whilst there was no significant correlation between the measurements in CIC* ponies, MPO was significantly correlated with granulocyte count (r2 = 0.776) and CK (r2 = 0.586) in endurance horses. CONCLUSIONS Intense exercise induces an activation of blood granulocytes, with degranulation of neutrophils and release of MPO. The plasmatic MPO concentration after endurance was higher than the values reported in some inflammatory pathological conditions. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE This phenomenon may partly contribute to the occurrence of an exercise-induced oxidative stress and to the alteration of muscular membrane permeability. Further studies should be conducted to assess the possible relationship between MPO concentration and markers of oxidative stress in performance horses.
Analytic performance of bacteriuria and leukocyturia obtained by UriSed in culture positive urinary tract infections.

BACKGROUND Urine analysis is one of the most common tests for assessing urinary-tract infections, which are the most frequently occurring infectious diseases in community populations. Urine culture is still the 'gold standard' for the detection of urinary tract infection, however, it is time- and labor-intensive and and has a high number of unnecessary cultures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the analytical and diagnostic performance of a new urinalysis system LabUMat with UriSed (77 Elektronika, Budapest, Hungary) in comparison to urine culture as the reference method. METHODS By comparing the test results for 965 urine samples with quantitative urine cultures, we established cutoff criteria for the UriSed. The cut-off values by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve technique, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated for bacteria (BACT) and white blood cells (WBCs). RESULTS A bacterial cutoff value of 375/microL provided the best discrimination for community-acquired urinary tract infection, with a sensitivity of 96.5% and a specificity of 82.1% compared with 182 urine culture positive samples (AUC: 0.939). It was possible to forgo 62.6% of cultures with only 8 false-negative results. The best cut-off value for WBCs was 13/microL. When we used an algorithm in which the combination with the positivity for 85 BACT/microL and for 13 WBCs/microL count, the sensitivity and NPV improved to 99.8% and 100%, respectively, but the specificity declined from 78.8% to 52.0%. CONCLUSIONS When screening with the UriSed for community-acquired urinary tract infection, a cut-off value of 85 bacteria/microL and 13 WBCs/microL should be adopted. Diagnostic performance of UriSed is satisfactory and use of this instrument is a reliable method for screening out a major part of the culture negative samples. It would improve the efficiency of microbiology laboratory, and unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions could be reduced.
A phase II trial of dasatinib in subjects with hormone-refractory prostate cancer previously treated with chemotherapy.

4575 Background: The efficacy of therapies for prostate cancer following failure of androgen deprivation and docetaxel is limited. SRC dysregulation may be important in prostate cancer progression. Dasatinib (DAS) is an inhibitor of tyrosine kinases including the SRC family. METHODS Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) treated with one prior chemotherapy regimen were enrolled. Starting dose of DAS was 70 mg BID. It was amended to 100 mg/day after 6 patients were treated. Response rate (RR) and progression free survival (PFS) were assessed in a 2-stage design (21+20). A maximum of 41 patients were to be accrued to rule out a null hypothesized positive effect (PR, CR and SD) of 5% versus alternative of positive effect of 20% with α=0.05 and β=0.1. Correlative studies on blood, urine specimens were performed. RESULTS 38 subjects were enrolled, 26 were evaluable for response or toxicity. Median duration of therapy was 55 days (6-284 days). 12 patients (46%) had dose reduction or treatment delay. One PSA PR (3.8% RR, 95% CI: 0.1%-19.6%) was seen. This patient remained on treatment for 284 days. One patient (3.8%) had stable disease for more than 6 months. Median time to treatment failure was 29 days (95% CI: 28-37 days). 31% of patients discontinued treatment without having progression of disease. Attributable grade 3 and 4 toxicities included: pleural and pericardial effusions (23%), fatigue (19%), elevated lipase (12%), dyspnea (8%), hyponatremia (8%), diarrhea (8%), GI bleed (8%), anemia (4%), venous thrombosis (4%). Most subjects showed decline in PHA-stimulated expression of GMCSF, CD40L, GZMB and IL-2 cytokines in PBMNCs following start of DAS, consistent with its biologic effect. Decrease in serum IL-6 of ≥50% was noted within 28 days of therapy in patients with PR and SD. CONCLUSIONS The initial DAS dose was poorly tolerated in these advanced CRPC subjects. Tolerability was improved by reduction in starting dose to 100mg/d. Activity of DAS in chemo-pretreated CRPC patients is limited, but the observation of cases with prolonged clinical benefit warrants further investigation of this agent in the context of molecular profiling and appropriate patient selection.
Effects of temperature and volatile anesthetics on GABA(A) receptors.

BACKGROUND Potentiation of the activity of the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA(A)) receptor channel by volatile anesthetic agents is usually studied in vitro at room temperature. Systematic variation of temperature can be used to assess the relevance of this receptor to general anesthesia and to characterize the modulation of its behavior by volatile agents at normal body temperature. METHODS Potentiation of the GABA(A) receptor by halothane, sevoflurane, isoflurane, and methoxyflurane was studied at six temperatures in the range 10-37 degrees C using the whole-cell patch-clamp technique and mouse fibroblast cells stably transfected with defined GABA(A) receptor subunits. RESULTS Control GABA concentration-response plots showed small and physically reasonable changes in the GABA concentration required for a half-maximal effect, the Hill coefficient, and maximal response over the range 10-30 degrees C. Potentiations of GABA (1 microM) responses by aqueous minimum alveolar concentrations of the volatile anesthetic agents decreased with increasing temperature from 10-37 degrees C in an agent-specific manner (methoxyflurane > isoflurane > sevoflurane > halothane) but tended to equalize at normal body temperature (37 degrees C). These findings are in line with published results on the temperature dependence of anesthetic potencies in animals. CONCLUSIONS These results are consistent with direct binding of volatile anesthetic agents to the GABA(A) receptor channel playing an important role in general anesthesia. The finding that the degree of anesthetic potentiation was agent-specific at low temperatures but not at 37 degrees C emphasizes the importance of doing in vitro experiments at normal body temperature.
The beta APP717 Alzheimer mutation increases the percentage of plasma amyloid-beta protein ending at A beta 42(43)

Article abstract-We measured plasma levels of amyloid beta protein (A beta) ending at positions 40 (A beta 40) and 42(43) [A beta 42(43)] in six carriers of beta APP717 (Val to Ile) mutation linked to familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) as well as in patients with sporadic AD (sAD) and controls. The percentage and the level of A beta 42(43) were significantly higher in carriers of beta APP717 mutation relative to sAD, whereas A beta 40 levels were decreased. In contrast, A beta levels and ratios were at similar levels in sAD, regardless of the stage of the disease, compared with non-AD neurologic disease controls and nondemented control individuals. These results suggest that the reported increase in the percentage of A beta 42(43) secretion in transfected cells with beta APP717 mutant genes actually takes place in the bodies of carriers of beta APP717 mutation, and that plasma A beta could be used as an indicator of the alterations of beta APP/A beta metabolism in subtypes of AD. NEUROLOGY 1997;48: 741-745
A Single Server Queueing Loss Model with Heterogeneous Arrival and Service

A heterogeneous arrival and service single server queueing loss model is analyzed. The arrival process of customers is assumed to be a nonstationary Poisson process with an intensity function whose evolution is governed by a two-state continuous time Markov chain. Different service distributions for different types of customers are allowed. The explicit loss formula for the model considered is obtained. In a special case, it is shown that as the arrival process becomes more regular the loss decreases. For single server loss systems with renewal arrivals, counterexamples are given to show that regularity of arrival and service distributions do not work to good effect in general. Two sufficient conditions for it to be true are given.
Optic nerve grey crescent

Another feature in the morphological assessment of the optic nerve head The optic nerve head has been defined as all areas inside the peripapillary scleral ring. Outside this ring in the parapapillary region, various features and abnormalities can be differentiated. In almost all eyes, the retinal pigment epithelium shows some histological irregularities close to the tip of Bruch’s membrane at the border of the optic disc. It is the histological equivalent of the alpha zone of parapapillary atrophy which is present in almost all normal eyes. It can usually better be detected at the temporal disc margin than in other parts of the parapapillary region. The beta zone of parapapillary atrophy, present in about 25% of normal eyes, and in a higher percentage of glaucomatous eyes, reflects a complete loss of retinal pigment epithelium cells and an almost complete loss of retinal photoreceptors. Other abnormalities or changes in the parapapillary region include a hypertrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium mainly at the temporal optic disc border in eyes with a so …