Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of a long‐chain fatty acid‐CoA ligase 4 gene polymorphism with depression and with enhanced niacin‐induced dermal erythema

Hypotheses about relationships between changes in membrane lipids and mental illness have focused primarily on three long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acids: arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Membrane deficiencies of these fatty acids have been reported in schizophrenia (AA, EPA, and DHA) and in depression (EPA and DHA). Long‐chain fatty acid‐CoA ligase type 4 (FACL4; MIM 300157) is a key enzyme involved in the metabolism of AA, EPA, and DHA. FACL4 selectively esterifies these fatty acids with co‐enzyme A, forming acyl‐co‐A, which can then be incorporated into membrane phospholipid. We used niacin‐induced dermal erythema as one index of AA metabolism to identify a common C to T single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the first intron of the FACL4 gene (Xq22.3), which is associated with enhanced dermal erythema in both schizophrenia and control subjects. Male subjects with the T0 genotype showed greater dermal erythema following topical application of methylnicotinate, suggesting that this polymorphism may be in linkage disequilibrium with a functional polymorphism of the FACL4 gene that modulates re‐sequestration of agonist‐released free AA. We also examined the allele frequency of this polymorphism in 555 European–Americans (EA), including 229 control subjects, 198 subjects with major depression, 58 with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, and 70 with alcohol dependence without co‐morbid psychiatric illness. We observed a significant excess of the T allele in subjects with major depression, as compared with controls (49% vs. 38%; P = 0.003) and a non‐significant excess of the T allele in schizophrenia (44%; P = 0.29). The allele frequency for subjects with alcohol dependence did not differ from controls. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Luteolin Inhibits Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-Induced Angiogenesis; Inhibition of Endothelial Cell Survival and Proliferation by Targeting Phosphatidylinositol 3′-Kinase Activity

In an attempt to identify phytochemicals contributing to the well-documented preventive effect of plant-based diets on cancer incidence and mortality, we have previously shown that certain flavonoids inhibit in vitro angiogenesis. Here, we show that the flavonoid luteolin inhibited tumor growth and angiogenesis in a murine xenograft model. Furthermore, luteolin inhibited vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced in vivo angiogenesis in the rabbit corneal assay. In agreement, luteolin inhibited both VEGF-induced survival and proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with an IC50 of about 5 μmol/L. Luteolin inhibited VEGF-induced phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase (PI3K) activity in HUVECs, and this inhibition was critical for both the antisurvival and antimitotic affects of the compound. Indeed, luteolin abolished VEGF-induced activation of Akt, a downstream target of PI3K conveying both survival and mitotic downstream signals. Because overexpression of a constitutively active form of Akt rescued HUVECs only from the antisurvival effects of luteolin, the result indicated that luteolin targeted mainly the survival signals of the PI3K/Akt pathway. With regard to its antimitotic activity, luteolin inhibited VEGF-induced phosphorylation of p70 S6 kinase (S6K), a downstream effector of PI3K responsible for G1 progression. Indeed, VEGF-induced proliferation of HUVECs was sensitive to rapamycin, an inhibitor of p70 S6K activation. Surprisingly, luteolin did not affect VEGF-induced phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 mitogen-activated protein kinases, a pathway that is considered important for the mitotic effects of VEGF. Thus, blockade of PI3K by luteolin was responsible for the inhibitory effects of the compound on VEGF-induced survival and proliferation of HUVECs. The antisurvival effects of luteolin were mediated via blockage of PI3K/Akt-dependent pathways, whereas inhibition of the PI3K/p70 S6K pathway mediated the antimitotic effects of the compound.
On representing the prognostic value of continuous gene expression biomarkers with the restricted mean survival curve

Motivation Researchers developing biomarkers for cancer prognosis from quantitative gene expression data are often faced with an odd methodological discrepancy: while Cox's proportional hazards model, the appropriate and popular technique, produces a continuous and relative risk score, it is hard to cast the estimate in clear clinical terms like median months of survival and percent of patients affected. To produce a familiar Kaplan-Meier plot, researchers commonly make the decision to dichotomize a continuous (often unimodal and symmetric) score. It is well known in the statistical literature that this procedure induces significant bias. Results We illustrate the liabilities of common techniques for categorizing a risk score and discuss alternative approaches. We promote the use of the restricted mean survival (RMS) and the corresponding RMS curve that may be thought of as an analog to the best fit line from simple linear regression. Conclusions Continuous biomarker workflows should be modified to include the more rigorous statistical techniques and descriptive plots described in this article. All statistics discussed can be computed via standard functions in the Survival package of the R statistical programming language. Example R language code for the RMS curve is presented in the appendix.
Evaluation of a PCR multiplex for detection and differentiation of Mycoplasma synoviae, M. gallisepticum, and M. gallisepticum strain F-vaccine

Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) and Mycoplasma synoviae (MS) are the mycoplasma infections of most concern for commercial poultry industry. MG infection is commonly designated as chronic respiratory disease (CRD) of chickens and infections sinusitis of turkeys. MS causes sub clinical upper respiratory infection and tenosynovitis or bursitis in chickens and turkeys. The multiplex PCR was standardized to detect simultaneously the MS, MG field strains and MG F-vaccine strain specific. The generic PCR for detection of any species of Mollicutes Class was performed and compared to the multiplex PCR and to PCR using species-specific primers. A total of 129 avian tracheal swabs were collected from broiler-breeders, layer hens and broilers in seven different farms and were examined by multiplex PCR methods. The system (multiplex PCR) demonstrated to be very rapid, sensitive, and specific. Therefore, the results showed a high prevalence of MS in the flocks examined (27.9%), and indicate that the MS is a recurrent pathogen in Brazilian commercial poultry flocks.
Issues and Limitations of HMM in Speech Processing: A Survey

is the most natural way of communication among humans. This mode of communication is constituted of two parts, namely sound and sense. The intelligent production and synthesis of speech has intrigued man himself for long and efforts at automated speech recognition, has gone through various phases. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) provide a simple and effective framework for modeling time-varying spectral vector sequences. Application of HMMs to speech recognition has seen considerable success and gained much popularity. As a consequence, almost all present day speech recognition systems are based on HMMs.
Inactivation kinetics of model and relevant blood-borne viruses by treatment with sodium hydroxide and heat.

To determine the efficacy of a clean-in-place system for the inactivation of viruses present in human plasma, the effect of 0.1 M sodium hydroxide at 60 degrees C on viral infectivity was investigated. Inactivation of the following model and relevant viruses were followed as a function of time: human hepatitis A virus (HAV), canine parvovirus (CPV; a model for human parvovirus B-19) pseudorabies virus (PRV, a model for hepatitis B virus), and bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV, a model for hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus). Infectivity of CPV was determined by a novel in situ EIA method which will prove useful for studies to validate parvovirus inactivation or removal. Infectivity of BVDV, PRV and CPV were shown to be reproducibly inactivated below the limit of detection by 0.1 M NaOH at 60 degrees C within 30 s. HAV was inactivated to below the limit of detection within 2 min. Treatment with heat alone also resulted in some log reduction for all viruses tested except for CPV which remained unaffected after heating at 60 degrees C for 16 min. Treatment of HAV with hydroxide alone (up to 1.0 m) at 15 degrees C did not lead to rapid inactivation. Collectively, these data suggest that 0.1 M NaOH at 60 degrees C for two min should be sufficient to inactivate viruses present in process residues.
An opportunistic-bit transmission scheme with enhanced spectral efficiency

This work is motivated by the need for the fundamental increase of spectral efficiency with the transmissions on the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). We define a bit-unit (BU) that is conceptually similar to an IP packet that contains sufficient information for its destination to identify the address and interpret the contents. Armed with these functions, each BU is divided into two parts, which are defined as the opportunistic bit (OB) and the conventional bit (CB), respectively. By performing mapping and recombining among different OBs and CBs, partial bits can be economized and not injected into the transmission. In addition, the probability of failed mapping and the spectral efficiency gain are derived in closed form. As the numerical results demonstrate, the proposed scheme attains enhanced performance.
Entrainment of Reentrant Ventricular Tachycardia in Anisotropic Rings of Rabbit Myocardium Mechanisms of Termination, Changes in Morphology, and Acceleration

BackgroundEntrainment of ventricular tachycardia can either terminate or change the rate and/or morphology of ventricular tachycardia. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the underlying mechanisms by mapping of entrainment of ventricular tachycardia.Methods and Resuls. In 10 Langendorff-perfused rings of anisotropic rabbit left ventricular epicardium created by a cryoprocedure, ventricular tachycardia with a cycle length of 167±17 milliseconds was induced by incremental pacing. During transient entrainment (10 stimuli), the circulating wave was extinguished by collision with the paced antidromic wave, whereas ventricular tachycardia was reset by the paced orthodromic wave. At shorter pacing intervals, the site of collision shifted deeper into the circuit. Entrainment at high rates (104±11 milliseconds) resulted in either termination (n=54), a change in morphology (n=8), or acceleration (n=6) of ventricular tachycardia. Termination of ventricular tachycardia was due to complete (84%) or partial (16%) block of the paced orthodromic wave. Partial block induced microreentry within the circuit, resulting in a reflected echo wave that terminated ventricular tachycardia. A change in morphology of ventricular tachycardia was due to reversion of the direction of propagation of the circulating wave around the obstacle. Acceleration of ventricular tachycardia was caused by double-wave reentry induced by block of the paced antidromic wave. In 28 cases, the sequence of activation during entrainment was not stable but changed from beat to beat due to varying arcs of conduction block. Block occurred predominantly (86%) during slow transverse propagation. Before termination, local oscillations in interval occurred, resulting in a shortening of the last local interval at the site of block by 10±6 milliseconds.Conciuions. Termination of ventricular tachycardia by entrainment was due either to complete orthodromic block or to a reflected echo wave. A change in morphology occurred when the direction of the circulating wave reversed. Acceleration of ventricular tachycardia was due to initiation of double-wave reentry. All changes were preceded by conduction block during one or more stimuli at one or multiple sites in the circuit. Block occurred predominantly during slow transverse propagation and was preceded by local oscillations in interval at the site of block.
Privacy Preserving in Association Rule Mining On Horizontally Partitioned Database

The advancement in data mining techniques plays an important role in many applications. In context of privacy and security issues, the problems caused by association rule mining technique are investigated by many research scholars. It is proved that the misuse of this technique may reveal the database owner’s sensitive and private information to others. Many researchers have put their effort to preserve privacy in Association Rule Mining. Amongst the two basic approaches for privacy preserving data mining, viz. Randomization based and Cryptography based, the later provides high level of privacy but incurs higher computational as well as communication overhead. Hence, it is necessary to explore alternative techniques that improve the over-heads. In this work, we propose an efficient, collusion-resistant cryptography based approach for distributed Association Rule mining using Shamir’s secret sharing scheme. As we show from theoretical and practical analysis, our approach is provably secure and require only one time a trusted third party. We use secret sharing for privately sharing the information and code based identification scheme to add support against malicious adversaries.
A Review of Surgical and Endovascular Repair of Coarctation of the Aorta

Coarctation of the aorta (CoAo) occurs in about 5-8% of all live births with congenital heart disease (CHD), with a potentially higher incidence when including stillbirths [1,2]. The incidence is 1.7x higher in male newborns than female [3]. Although it is one of the most common congenital anomalies, prenatal screening may miss the diagnosis in 40-50% of cases [4], and further concerning is the rate of false positives of about 50% [5]. CoAo is most commonly characterized by congenital isthmic stenosis in proximity to the ductus arteriosus. A systolic gradient of greater than 20 mmHg is highly suggestive of diagnosis [6]. Poor detection and low sensitivity of screening lead to late diagnosis and increased morbidity and mortality [4,7]. Depending on the severity and location of the coarctation, some patients may remain asymptomatic until adulthood, when they present with signs of heart failure, hypertension, and coronary artery disease.
Application of X-rays to dental age estimation in medico-legal practice.

AIM OF THE STUDY The paper addresses the use of dental age assessment methods based on radiographs in medico-legal practice. Different cases of practical application of the methods are presented including identification of human remains, dental age assessment in a living person and one archaeological case. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study material consisted of cases involving dental age assessment performed in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poznan. Depending on the preliminary assessment of age, the Liversidge or the Kvaal et al. methods were applied. Dental age was estimated on the basis of available pantomograms. In the case of the living person, it was a radiograph supplied for expert evaluation. In the other cases, dental computed tomography was performed. RESULTS Dental age was successfully estimated in all of the cases. Various methods based on the analysis of X-ray images were applied. Dental age was shown to be correlated with skeletal age. CONCLUSIONS The methods based on radiographs were demonstrated to be useful, and the results they yield are fully correlated with results of anthropological analyses.
Looking across three generations of Alaska Natives to explore how culture fosters indigenous resilience

Research has established connection between indigenous culture—often described in terms of cultural identity, enculturation, and participation in traditional activities—and resilience, the process by which people overcome acute and ongoing challenges. Despite correlations between culture and resilience, research has seldom described the ways these concepts are linked in indigenous people’s narratives. Furthermore, little attention has been paid to the affect of historical trauma on different generations’ understanding and deployment of “culture” in the context of hardship. This project, conducted in the summer of 2008 in an indigenous Arctic community, focuses on narratives from three generations who have experienced different degrees of cultural suppression in their lifetimes. From this starting point, the study explores how individuals make meaning and take strength from particular notions of culture, and illuminates the ways each generation accesses and deploys their cultural understandings in the face of hardship. By identifying the similarities and differences in both the challenges and sources of strength for each generation, the paper highlights how understandings of culture are shaped by historical experiences and modified through time. The differing ways that culture fosters strength, purpose, and fortitude (or does not) in indigenous young people’s, adults’ and Elders’ life stories provide clues for enhancing indigenous youth resilience. Findings suggest that “culture” can galvanize Inupiaq people’s sense of identity, feeling of commitment, and purpose, all of which are protective. However, young people need support in developing particular ideas around cultural identity and group membership that can contribute to resilience.
Adaptive admission control and scheduling for wireless packet communication

This paper describes a new admission control and scheduling scheme that enables adaptive control of resource usage. The new scheme has been designed for wireless networks that put high demands on resource reservation due to their inherent lack of sufficient bandwidth, high error probability and frequent resource overload due to the users' mobility. The scheme deploys bandwidth adaptation on the application level and combines these methods with admission control and packet scheduling on the network layer by taking into account packet error rates measured on the link layer. The scheme makes use of the so-called "enriched packet streams" that allow for congestion prediction and forms the basis of delay-sensitive bandwidth adaptation at network nodes. Measurements received from simulation studies show up the benefits gained from the proposed concepts.
Band-to-band tunneling in vertically scaled SiGe:C HBTs

A nonideal base current component with negative differential resistance is observed at low injection on Gummel characteristics of high-speed SiGe:C bipolar transistors. The temperature dependence of this effect and the influence of emitter-base engineering on its magnitude are described. The results point to band-to-band tunneling in the emitter-base junction as the physical origin of this phenomenon.
p27Kip1 Expression and grading of breast cancer diagnosed on cytological samples

The progressive reduction in p27Kip1 (p27) protein immunohistochemical staining with increasing histological grading is a well‐established finding occurring in breast cancer, and its role as diagnostic complement and prognostic marker has been thoroughly evaluated. To clarify whether this test may be applied to breast cytopathology, we performed p27 immunostaining on fresh fine‐needle cytology (FNC) samples from 10 benign and 40 malignant breast lesions. On average, p27 immunostaining was significantly lower in carcinomas than in benign lesions (P < 0.005). In particular, among carcinomas, p27 immunostaining progressively reduced from well‐to poorly differentiated lesions (G1 vs. G2, P < 0.05; G1 vs. G3, P < 0.001; G2 vs. G3; P < 0.001). A similar trend was noted in a subgroup of 20 matched FNCs and histological samples of breast carcinomas, when p27 immunostaining on FNCs was stratified according to the histological grading (G1 vs. G2, P = 0.18; G1 vs. G3, P < 0.05; G2 vs. G3, P < 0.05). In addition, p27 immunostaining on FNCs showed a good positive correlation with that on histology (Spearman R = 0.58; P < 0.01), with a diagnostic concordance between samples of 85%, by using the standard 50% positive cell cutoff. Taken in concert, our data suggest that p27 immunostaining is a reliable marker of tumor cell differentiation in breast cytopathology as well as in histopathology. Accordingly, staining FNCs for p27 may be an useful complement in addition to cytological grading in the preoperative assessment of breast cancer. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2004;30:375–380. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines.

Pneumococcal infections are major causes of morbidity and mortality in children throughout the world. For this reason and because of the increasingly frequent isolation of multiply resistant pneumococci of the serotypes most often causing infection in childhood, prophylactic immunization offers the best prospect of reducing the incidence of such infections in the future. Studies of the immune system of humans have shown that immunologic maturation continues throughout the first decade of life and that responsiveness to some purified bacterial polysaccharides may be delayed until several years after birth. Vaccines of such capsular polysaccharides conjugated chemically to protein have been found to be immunogenic at an earlier age and to stimulate the development of IgM and IgG antibodies and of "immunologic memory. " Current investigations suggest that administration of polyvalent vaccines of polysaccharide-protein conjugates in infancy followed by the administration of vaccines of purified polysaccharides after the age of 10 years offers the prospect of reducing significantly the incidence of pneumococcal infections.
Advanced bus-clamping PWM techniques based on space vector approach

Conventional space vector pulsewidth modulation (CSVPWM) employs conventional switching sequence, which divides the zero vector time equally between the two zero states in every subcycle. Existing bus-clamping PWM (BCPWM) techniques employ clamping sequences, which use only one zero state in a subcycle. This paper deals with a special type of switching sequences, termed here as “double-switching clamping sequences,” which use only one zero state and apply an active vector twice in a subcycle. The present work brings out a class of bus-clamping PWM techniques, which employ such sequences. It is shown analytically as well as experimentally that the proposed BCPWM techniques result in reduced harmonic distortion in the line currents over CSVPWM as well as existing BCPWM techniques at high modulation indices for a given average switching frequency of FSW. At high modulation indices, the dominant harmonic components in the line voltages are around 2 FSW with the proposed BCPWM techniques, while the dominant components are around FSW and 1.5 FSW, respectively, with CSVPWM and existing BCPWM techniques. The proposed techniques also reduce the inverter switching losses at high power factors over CSVPWM and existing BCPWM techniques.