Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of plasma benzodiazepine concentrations following intranasal and intravenous administration of diazepam to dogs.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether plasma concentrations of benzodiazepines (BDZ) in dogs following intranasal (IN) administration of diazepam are comparable to concentrations following IV administration. ANIMALS 6 (4 male, 2 female) healthy adult Greyhounds. PROCEDURE Dogs were randomly assigned to 2 groups of 3 dogs in a crossover design. Diazepam (0.5 mg/kg of body weight) was administered intravenously to dogs in group 1 and intranasally to dogs in group 2. Blood was collected from the jugular vein of each dog into tubes containing lithium heparin before and 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60, 120, 240, and 480 minutes following diazepam administration. After a 4-day washout period, dogs in group 1 received diazepam intranasally, dogs in group 2 received diazepam intravenously, and blood was again collected. Plasma concentration of BDZ was determined by use of a fluorescence polarization immunoassay. RESULTS Mean (+/- SD) peak plasma concentration of BDZ following IV administration (1,316 +/- 216 microg/L) was greater than that following IN administration (448 +/- 41 microg/L). Time to peak concentration was < or = 3 minutes following IV administration and 4.5 +/- 1.5 minutes following IN administration. Mean bioavailability of BDZ following IN administration was 80 +/- 9%. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Diazepam is rapidly and efficiently absorbed following IN administration of the parenteral formulation. Plasma concentrations match or exceed the suggested therapeutic concentration (300 microg/L). Intranasal administration of diazepam may be useful for treatment of seizures in dogs by owners or when intravenous access is not readily available.
MARKET ACCESS OF ORAL CANCER DRUGS IN FINLAND: A patient and patient organization view

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies Master’s Program in Heath and Business AUVINEN, MATTI: Market access of oral cancer drugs in Finland: A patient and patient organization view. Oraalisten syöpälääkkeiden markkinoille tulo Suomessa: Potilaan ja potilasjärjestön näkökulma Master’s Thesis, 85 p. 3 appendices (4 pages) Mentors: Professor Hanna Lehtimäki & Adjunct professor Juha Laine, Pfizer Oy February 2017
TAPA-1, the target of an antiproliferative antibody, defines a new family of transmembrane proteins

A murine monoclonal antibody was identified by its ability to induce a reversible antiproliferative effect on a human lymphoma cell line. Immunoprecipitation studies revealed that the antibody reacted with a 26-kilodalton cell surface protein (TAPA-1). A diverse group of human cell lines, including hematolymphoid, neuroectodermal, and mesenchymal cells, expressed the TAPA-1 protein. Many of the lymphoid cell lines, in particular those derived from large cell lymphomas, were susceptible to the antiproliferative effects of the antibody. TAPA-1 may therefore play an important role in the regulation of lymphoma cell growth. A cDNA clone coding for TAPA-1 was isolated by using the monoclonal antibody to screen an expression library in COS cells. Analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence indicated that the protein is highly hydrophobic and that it contains four putative transmembrane domains and a potential N-myristoylation site. TAPA-1 showed strong homology with the CD37 leukocyte antigen and with the ME491 melanoma-associated antigen, both of which have been implicated in the regulation of cell growth.
Respiratory syncytial virus neutralizing activity in nasopharyngeal secretions

SUMMARY Nasopharyngeal secretions were taken during the acute phase of illness from 30 children admitted to hospital with lower respiratory tract infections. The presence of neutralizing activity in secretions taken at the onset of illness was demonstrated in 11 out of 15 patients (73%) with bronchiolitis caused by R.S. virus, as compared with 4 out of 9 patients (44%) with R.S. virus infections other than bronchiolitis, and 1 out of 6 without R.S. virus infection. Second secretions were taken 7 days later from 10 of the children with R.S. virus infection. Eight of these paired secretions showed an increase of neutralizing activity against R.S. virus. It is suggested that the neutralizing activity, found in secretions taken at the onset of illness, may be a result of previous infection with R.S. virus.
Fixation of Dinitrogen-15 Associated with Rice Plants

Rice plants (IR26 and Latisail) obtained at near heading stage from a wetland field were transferred to water culture and exposed to 15N2 in a gas-tight growth chamber for 7 days to measure N2-fixing activities associated with the rice. The activities measured varied from 6.5 to 11.6 μmol of N2 fixed per hill per day. The outer leaf sheath had about 2.5 times higher N2-fixing activities per unit weight than the root. Slight activities were also found in the basal node and inner leaf sheath. Wrapping basal parts of the stem with aluminum foil did not decrease the activities of N2 fixation in these parts. Thus, the outer leaf sheath as well as the root are N2-fixing sites in rice plants. N2 fixation found in above-ground parts is not due to photoautotrophic organisms. Less than 10% of the fixed nitrogen was translocated from the fixing sites to the leaf blades and the young panicles.
Flexible Object Recognition: A New Approach toward Increasing Noise Tolerance in Contour Pattern Matching

Pattern recognition with computer systems presents a great challenge to researchers in computer science. In some cases patterns can be differentiated by their silhouette and recognized through the contour around its shape. In this study, shape is deliberately examined in terms of its flexibility, a measure defined to be the extent to which curves could be deformed. The proposed flexible object recognition (FOR) method widely employs flexibility to find corners, to form segments, to match segment pairs, and eventually to calculate the dissimilarity of contour pairs. Further analysis on classification with such dissimilarities shows rather high accuracy rates across various application domains, which may provide an evidence of the robustness for the proposed FOR method.
Phenology, behavior, and host-relations of Dermacentor andersoni Stiles in outdoor "rodentaria" and in nature.

Artificial tick foci or "rodentaria", infested with ovipositing females or larvae, have furnished new information on D. andersoni biology, and a means of mass production of adults for acaricide and other tests. Both a 1-year and a 2-year life cycle were observed, depending on the date the larvae emerged or were put out. Each year, adult ticks wandered near the soil surface in the fall but did not seek hosts or climb up to questing positions until spring. A tendency for the adult ticks to congregate southwards of the point of dropping of the engorged nymphs was discernible.In a large-scale rodentarium involving 24 runways, with four replicates of each of six species of rodents, by far the largest number of adult ticks was produced by Marmota flaviventris, but on a tick per unit weight of rodent basis, this species was low in the approximate order calculated.Adult ticks were ready to feed in mid-December in one trial, but they were inactive in the rodentarium because soil temperatures under the snow were us.
Some new faces of membrane microdomains: A complex confocal fluorescence, differential polarization, and FCS imaging study on live immune cells

Lipid rafts are cholesterol‐ and glycosphingolipid‐rich plasma membrane microdomains, which control signal transduction, cellular contacts, pathogen recognition, and internalization processes. Their stability/lifetime, heterogeneity remained still controversial, mostly due to the high diversity of raft markers and cellular models. The correspondence of the rafts of living cells to liquid ordered (Lo) domains of model membranes and the effect of modulating rafts on the structural dynamics of their bulk membrane environment are also yet unresolved questions. Spatial overlap of various lipid and protein raft markers on live cells was studied by confocal laser scanning microscopy, while fluorescence polarization of DiIC18(3) and Bodipy‐phosphatidylcholine was imaged with differential polarization CLSM (DP‐CLSM). Mobility of the diI probe under different conditions was assessed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopic (FCS). GM1 gangliosides highly colocalized with GPI‐linked protein markers of rafts and a new anti‐cholesterol antibody (AC8) in various immune cells. On the same cells, albeit not fully excluded from rafts, diI colocalized much less with raft markers of both lipid and protein nature, suggesting the Lo membrane regions are not equivalents to lipid rafts. The DP‐CLSM technique was capable of imaging probe orientation and heterogeneity of polarization in the plasma membrane of live cells, reflecting differences in lipid order/packing. This property—in accordance with diI mobility assessed by FCS—was sensitive to modulation of rafts either through their lipids or proteins. Our complex imaging analysis demonstrated that two lipid probes—GM1 and a new anti‐cholesterol antibody—equivocally label the membrane rafts on a variety of cell types, while some raft‐associated proteins (MHC‐II, CD48, CD59, or CD90) do not colocalize with each other. This indicates the compositional heterogeneity of rafts. Usefulness of the DP‐CLSM technique in imaging immune cell surface, in terms of lipid order/packing heterogeneities, was also shown together with its sensitivity to monitor biological modulation of lipid rafts. © 2007 International Society for Analytical Cytology
Up to five degree permutation polynomial interleavers for short length LTE turbo codes with optimum minimum distance

The permutation polynomial (PP) interleavers are ones of the most attractive and popular deterministic interleavers for turbo codes. Quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP) interleavers have been extensively studied since 2005. QPPs of short lengths with optimum minimum distances were given in 2006 by Rosnes and Takeshita. In this paper, we give PPs of degree 3, 4 and 5 with optimum minimum distances and lowest corresponding codeword multiplicities for turbo codes with recursive convolutional component codes from LTE standard and dual trellis termination. Then, we compare these PP interleavers in terms of truncated upper bounds (TUB) of frame error rate (FER) at high SNR for AWGN channel. We have obtained many PPs of degree 3, 4 or 5 with the smallest TUB(FER). A tradeoff between the error rate performance and implementation complexity is highlighted by means of the minimum number of LPPs from the Parallel Linear PP (PLPP) representation of PPs, so that the coefficients of linear terms of the component LPPs of PLPP are equal to one another.
(How) can listeners identify the L1 in foreign accented L2 speech?

Par son accent étranger, un locuteur/une locutrice révèle son origine, sa langue maternelle. Ainsi, la majorité des Suisses alémaniques seront reconnus comme tels, en parlant une langue seconde. A partir de cet accent 'suisse allemand', est-ce qu’on pourra aussi deviner la région dialectale d’où provient le locuteur/la locutrice? Et, si la perception humaine permet l’identification de ces subtilités, quels en sont les indices pertinents dans le signal linguistique? Les expériences de perception conduites avec nos sujets suisses alémaniques démontrent, dans un premier temps, que des différences d’accent dues à un dialecte particulier peuvent être perçues non seulement dans du matériel linguistique allemand standard, mais aussi quand lesdits locuteurs parlent français. Une expérience ultérieure explore l’importance des données temporelles, ou rythmiques, pour l’identification d’un accent étranger.
A Miniaturized 3 dB 90 $^{\circ}$ Hybrid Coupler Using Coupled-Line Section With Spurious Rejection

In this letter, a novel miniaturization method for 3 dB 90 ° hybrid coupler is proposed. The proposed structure is composed of a conventional structure with a coupled line section inserted in the low impedance section. The proposed coupler occupies an area of only 9.6% compared to a conventional branch-line coupler, and reveals comparable S-parameter characteristics in the operation band. Furthermore, the proposed structure demonstrates a harmonic suppression property due to the a periodicity at odd order harmonics.
Proteomic identification of proteins differentially expressed by melatonin in hepatic ischemia‐reperfusion injury

Abstract: Hepatic ischemia‐reperfusion (I‐R) injury induces hepatic dysfunction or failure. Melatonin is a potent free radical scavenger and a strong antioxidant. Although many studies have demonstrated the protective effect of melatonin in hepatic injury, the molecular mechanisms of this protection are unclear. We identified specific proteins that are differentially expressed by melatonin treatment in hepatic I‐R injury. Adult mice were subjected to 1 hr of ischemia and 3 hr of reperfusion. Animals were treated with vehicle or melatonin (10 mg/kg, i.p.) 15 min prior to ischemia and just before reperfusion. Serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels were higher in I‐R group than in sham‐operated group, and these increases were reduced by melatonin treatment. Proteins that were differentially expressed following melatonin treatment during hepatic I‐R injury were detected using two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis. Hepatic I‐R injury induced down‐regulation of glyoxalase I, glutaredoxin‐3, spermidine synthase, proteasome subunit beta type‐4, and dynamin like protein‐1 (DLP‐1). However, melatonin prevented the reductions in these proteins induced by I‐R injury. Among the identified proteins, we focused on DLP‐1, which is essential for the maintenance of mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum morphology. Western blot analysis confirmed that melatonin prevents the hepatic I‐R injury‐induced decrease in DLP‐1. These results suggest that melatonin protects hepatic cells against hepatic I‐R injury and that its protective effects involve the regulation of specific proteins.
Core Loss Modeling for Permanent-Magnet Motor Based on Flux Variation Locus and Finite-Element Method

Core-loss prediction is an important issue in design and analysis of permanent-magnet (PM) motors. Because of the diverse structure, flux distribution, and rotational variation of flux, it is difficult to predict the core loss in a machine exactly. In this paper, a core-loss model for the PM motor is introduced in which flux variation loci in different parts of the motor are predicted by carrying out a finite-element transient analysis. Since the flux variation pattern is complicated, an improved equation based on the conventional three-term expression is used for core-loss calculation. The core-loss model is developed totally in ANSYS parametric design language as a parametric model and it can be used easily for different types of PM motors. Calculation and experiments on a high-speed PM motor have shown that the model can produce results that agree with the experimental ones.
Reaction of ferrate (VI)/ferrate (V) with hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion--a stopped-flow and premix pulse radiolysis study.

The reduction of ferrate(VI) to ferrate(V) by superoxide ions was studied over the pH range 2.6-13.0 using the premix pulse radiolysis technique. The pH dependence indicates that only the unstable protonated forms of ferrate, H2FeO4 (pKa3.5) and HFeO4- (pKa7.3) are reactive, k(HFeO4(-) + O2) = (1.7 +/- 0.2) x 10(7) M-1 s-1. The stable ferrate ion, FeO4(2-), showed no significant reactivity towards either hydrogen peroxide or superoxide anion. The rate constants for the spontaneous dimerization and decomposition of the protonated ferrates, e.g. k(HFeO4(-) + HFe04) approximately 250 M-1s-1, are orders of magnitude slower than their corresponding reduction reduction by superoxide indicating an outer-sphere mode of electron transfer for the latter process. In contrast the ferrate(VI) species H3FeO4+ (pKa = 1.6 +/- 0.2), H2FeO4, and HFeO4- oxidize hydrogen peroxide, e.g. k(HFeO4(-) + H2O2) = 170 M-1 s-1), at rates which correspond closely to their dimerization rates suggesting an inner-sphere controlled mechanism.
Spinal Cord Stimulator Adjustment to Maximize Implanted Battery Longevity: A Randomized, Controlled Trial Using a Computerized, Patient‐Interactive Programmer

Internally powered, implanted pulse generators (IPGs) have been an important advance in spinal cord stimulation for the management of pain, but they require surgical replacement, with attendant cost and risk, when the implanted battery is depleted. Battery life is determined by the programmed settings of the implant, but until now the technical means to optimize settings for maximal battery life, delaying surgical replacement as long as possible,
Ligand‐regulated transport of the Menkes copper P‐type ATPase efflux pump from the Golgi apparatus to the plasma membrane: a novel mechanism of regulated trafficking.

The Menkes P‐type ATPase (MNK), encoded by the Menkes gene (MNK; ATP7A), is a transmembrane copper‐translocating pump which is defective in the human disorder of copper metabolism, Menkes disease. Recent evidence that the MNK P‐type ATPase has a role in copper efflux has come from studies using copper‐resistant variants of cultured Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. These variants have MNK gene amplification and consequently overexpress MNK, the extents of which correlate with the degree of elevated copper efflux. Here, we report on the localization of MNK in these copper‐resistant CHO cells when cultured in different levels of copper. Immunofluorescence studies demonstrated that MNK is predominantly localized to the Golgi apparatus of cells in basal medium. In elevated copper conditions there was a rapid trafficking of MNK from the Golgi to the plasma membrane. This shift in steady‐state distribution of MNK was reversible and not dependent on new protein synthesis. In media containing basal copper, MNK accumulated in cytoplasmic vesicles after treatment of cells with a variety of agents that inhibit endosomal recycling. We suggest that MNK continuously recycles between the Golgi and the plasma membrane and elevated copper shifts the steady‐state distribution from the Golgi to the plasma membrane. These data reveal a novel system of regulated protein trafficking which ultimately leads to the efflux of an essential yet potentially toxic ligand, where the ligand itself appears directly and specifically to stimulate the trafficking of its own transporter.
Factors limiting motor recovery after facial nerve transection in the rat: combined structural and functional analyses

It is believed that a major reason for the poor functional recovery after peripheral nerve lesion is collateral branching and regrowth of axons to incorrect muscles. Using a facial nerve injury protocol in rats, we previously identified a novel and clinically feasible approach to combat axonal misguidance – the application of neutralizing antibodies against neurotrophic factors to the injured nerve. Here, we investigated whether reduced collateral branching at the lesion site leads to better functional recovery. Treatment of rats with antibodies against nerve growth factor, brain‐derived neurotrophic factor, fibroblast growth factor, insulin‐like neurotrophic factor I, ciliary neurotrophic factor or glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor increased the precision of reinnervation, as evaluated by multiple retrograde labelling of motoneurons, more than two‐fold as compared with control animals. However, biometric analysis of vibrissae movements did not show positive effects on functional recovery, suggesting that polyneuronal reinnervation – rather than collateral branching – may be the critical limiting factor. In support of this hypothesis, we found that motor end‐plates with morphological signs of multiple innervation were much more frequent in reinnervated muscles of rats that did not recover after injury (51% of all end‐plates) than in animals with good functional performance (10%). Because polyneuronal innervation of muscle fibres is activity‐dependent and can be manipulated, the present findings raise hopes that clinically feasible and effective therapies could be soon designed and tested.
Ligand-induced inactivation of type I iodothyronine 5'-deiodinase: protection by propylthiouracil in vivo and reversibility in vitro.

The inactivation of the phenolic ring deiodinases by natural substrates and iodinated contrast agents such as iopanoic acid (IOP) is a principal mechanism regulating the peripheral metabolism of thyroid hormones. The present studies were designed to investigate the cellular and biochemical mechanisms mediating this effect on type I 5'-deiodinase (5'DI) in rat liver and kidney. We reasoned that if inactivation requires the direct interaction of ligand (e.g. IOP) with 5'DI, then this effect should be blocked by a prior injection of 6n-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU), which binds to an essential sulfhydryl group at the enzyme's active site and inhibits catalytic cycling. Experiments were performed using liver and kidney microsomes prepared from male rats injected 2.5 or 6 h earlier with various combinations of PTU, IOP, and/or vehicle. In initial studies, conditions were defined whereby active 5'DI could be regenerated in vitro from PTU-injected animals. This involved the treatment of microsomes with 50 mM dithiothreitol, pH 7.0, before assay. After this reductive treatment, 5'DI activity in both liver and kidney microsomes from rats previously injected with PTU, or the combination of PTU followed 30 min later by IOP, was equivalent to that in vehicle-injected control animals, whereas activity was decreased 60% in microsomes from animals injected with only IOP. This demonstrates that PTU protects 5'DI against ligand-induced inactivation, suggesting that this process is initiated by substrate binding to the enzyme's active site. In other experiments, liver microsomes from IOP-injected animals were pretreated with 100 mM dithiothreitol, pH 9.0, then washed, and 5'DI activity was determined. Under these stringent reducing conditions, 5'DI activity was completely recovered in microsomes from rats injected with IOP 2.5 h earlier, but only partially recovered 6 h after the IOP injection. Thus, ligand-induced inactivation of 5'DI may involve initially a reversible oxidation of the enzyme, followed by its irreversible inactivation.