Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial Learning and Memory Deficits after Whole-Brain Irradiation are Associated with Changes in NMDA Receptor Subunits in the Hippocampus

Abstract Shi, L. , Adams, M. M. , Long, A. , Carter, C. C. , Bennett, C. , Sonntag, W. E. , Nicolle, M. M. , Robbins, M. , D'Agostino, R. , Jr. and Brunso-Bechtold, J. K. Spatial Learning and Memory Deficits after Whole-Brain Irradiation are Associated with Changes in NMDA Receptor Subunits in the Hippocampus. Radiat. Res. 166, 892–899 (2006). Whole-brain irradiation is used for the treatment of brain tumors, but can it also induce neural changes, with progressive dementia occurring in 20–50% of long-term survivors. The present study investigated whether 45 Gy of whole-brain irradiation delivered to 12-month-old Fischer 344 × Brown Norway rats as nine fractions over 4.5 weeks leads to impaired Morris water maze (MWM) performance 12 months later. Compared to sham-irradiated rats, the irradiated rats demonstrated impaired MWM performance. The relative levels of the NR1 and NR2A but not the NR2B subunits of the NMDA receptor were significantly higher in hippocampal CA1 of irradiated rats compared to control rats. No significant differences were detected for these NMDA subunits in CA3 or dentate gyrus. Further analysis of CA1 revealed that the relative levels of the GluR1 and GluR2 subunits of the AMPA receptor and synaptophysin were not altered by whole-brain irradiation. In summary, a clinically relevant regimen of fractionated whole-brain irradiation led to significant impairments in spatial learning and reference memory and alterations in the relative levels of subunits of the NMDA, but not the AMPA, receptors in hippocampal CA1. These findings suggest for the first time that radiation-induced cognitive impairments may be associated with alterations in glutamate receptor composition.
Chlorophyll b Reductase Plays an Essential Role in Maturation and Storability of Arabidopsis Seeds1[W]

Although seeds are a sink organ, chlorophyll synthesis and degradation occurs during embryogenesis and in a manner similar to that observed in photosynthetic leaves. Some mutants retain chlorophyll after seed maturation, and they are disturbed in seed storability. To elucidate the effects of chlorophyll retention on the seed storability of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), we examined the non-yellow coloring1 (nyc1)/nyc1-like (nol) mutants that do not degrade chlorophyll properly. Approximately 10 times more chlorophyll was retained in the dry seeds of the nyc1/nol mutant than in the wild-type seeds. The germination rates rapidly decreased during storage, with most of the mutant seeds failing to germinate after storage for 23 months, whereas 75% of the wild-type seeds germinated after 42 months. These results indicate that chlorophyll retention in the seeds affects seed longevity. Electron microscopic studies indicated that many small oil bodies appeared in the embryonic cotyledons of the nyc1/nol mutant; this finding indicates that the retention of chlorophyll affects the development of organelles in embryonic cells. A sequence analysis of the NYC1 promoter identified a potential abscisic acid (ABA)-responsive element. An electrophoretic mobility shift assay confirmed the binding of an ABA-responsive transcriptional factor to the NYC1 promoter DNA fragment, thus suggesting that NYC1 expression is regulated by ABA. Furthermore, NYC1 expression was repressed in the ABA-insensitive mutants during embryogenesis. These data indicate that chlorophyll degradation is induced by ABA during seed maturation to produce storable seeds.
Identification of a phosphoenolpyruvate:fructose phosphotransferase system (fructose-1-phosphate forming) in Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive bacterium whose carbohydrate metabolic pathways are poorly understood. We provide evidence for an inducible phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP):fructose phosphotransferase system (PTS) in this pathogen. The system consists of enzyme I, HPr, and a fructose-specific enzyme II complex which generates fructose-1-phosphate as the cytoplasmic product of the PTS-catalyzed vectorial phosphorylation reaction. Fructose-1-phosphate kinase then converts the product of the PTS reaction to fructose-1,6-bisphosphate. HPr was shown to be phosphorylated by [32P]PEP and enzyme I as well as by [32P]ATP and a fructose-1,6-bisphosphate-activated HPr kinase like those found in other gram-positive bacteria. Enzyme I, HPr, and the enzyme II complex of the Listeria PTS exhibit enzymatic cross-reactivity with PTS enzyme constituents from Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus.
The homeless mentally ill.

In Australia, it is widely believed that most homeless people have mental health issues and that mental illness is a primary cause of homelessness. This paper uses information from a study of 4,291 homeless people in Melbourne to investigate these propositions. The research found that 15 per cent of the homeless had mental health issues prior to becoming homeless. This challenges the community perception that mental illness is the primary cause of homelessness. The research also found that 16 per cent of the sample developed mental health issues after becoming homeless. Homelessness causes mental health issues for some people, particularly anxiety and depression. The claim that most homeless people are mentally ill sends the wrong message to policy makers about the services that are needed to assist homeless people.
Self-Report Daily Life Activity as a Prognostic Marker of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disease, leading to substantial physical impairment. The distance walked in 6 min (6MWD) is a measure of exercise tolerance and is of prognostic relevance in IPF. While 6MWD is a punctual measurement which may not be representative, self-reported daily life activity may represent the patients' functional capacity more globally even in less severe affected patients. Objectives: We evaluated and characterized a simple classification system based on the patients' self-reported daily activity and analyzed if this would add significantly to the prognostic information of the 6MWD alone in IPF patients. Methods: Daily life activity was assessed in IPF (n = 156) patients with standardized questions and categorized in activity classes (AC I-IV), comprising the less severe impaired in AC I and II. The 6MWD was also assessed. Results: ACs were related to the lung functional impairment and inversely correlated to the 6MWD. Thirty-two patients were in AC I/II, 98 in AC III and 26 patients in AC IV. Thirty-seven (23.7%) patients died during a median follow-up of 14.9 months, comprising 1 patient in AC I/II. In addition, a 6MWD <470 m predicted mortality. Combining AC I/II and a 6MWD >470 m identified a subgroup of patients with favorable outcome. Conclusions: AC is a novel scoring system which can easily be obtained and correlates with lung functional and physical impairments as well as mortality. Moreover, AC adds prognostic information to the 6MWD.
Flux vector control of an induction motor drive for energy-efficient operation of a centrifugal pump

Centrifugal pumps driven by induction motors are widely used in industry for liquid transfer and delivery. However, their energy efficiencies may change significantly with operating flow rate, total head and speed. Consequently, many pumping systems delivering variable flow rates operate well below their maximum efficiency. In this paper, a speed control scheme for an induction motor drive for a centrifugal pump is described to ensure that the pump works in its best efficiency region. The motor uses flux vector control to ensure rapid torque and speed response to match the flow rate requirements. The proposed scheme is tested under various operating conditions to validate its performance.
Gendered Innovations: A New Approach for Nursing Science

Considerable sex and gender bias has been recognized within the field of medicine. Investigators have used sex and gender analysis to reevaluate studies and outcomes and generate new perspectives and new questions regarding differential diagnoses and treatments of men and women. Sex and gender analysis acts as an experimental control to provide critical scientific rigor; researchers who ignore it risk ignoring a possible source of error in past, current, and future science. In this article, the authors introduce some tools of sex and gender analysis and illustrate the concept of gendered innovations by demonstrating through examples how this type of analysis has profoundly enhanced human knowledge in health and disease. The authors also provide recommendations for incorporating the concepts of sex and gender analysis into nursing education and research.
Local Detectors and Descriptors for Object Class Recognition

Abstract —Local feature detection and description are widely used for object recognition such as augmented reality applications. There have been a number of evaluations and comparisons between feature detectors and descriptors and between their different implementations. Those evaluations are carried out on random sets of image structures. However, feature detectors and descriptors respond differently depending on the image structure. In this paper, we evaluate the overall performance of the most efficient detectors and descriptors in terms of speed and efficiency. The evaluation is carried out on a set of images of different object classes and structures with different geometric and photometric deformations. This evaluation would be useful for detecting the most suitable detector and descriptor for a particular object recognition application. Moreover, multi-object applications such as digilog books could change the detector and descriptor used based on the current object. From the results, it has been observed that some detectors perform better with certain object classes. Differences in performance of the descriptors vary with different image structures.
Effects of Diabetes and Hyperglycemia on the Hexosamine Synthesis Pathway in Rat Muscle and Liver

In vitro studies suggested that increased flux of glucose through the hexosamine biosynthesis pathway (HexNSP) contributes to glucose-induced insulin resistance. Glutamine:fructose-6- phosphateamidotransferase (GFAT) catalyzes glucose flux via HexSNP; its major products are uridine diphosphate (UDP)-N-acetyl hexosamines (UDP-HexNAc). We examined whether streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes (4–10 days) or sustained hyperglycemia (1–2 h) in normal rats alters absolute or relative concentrations of nucleotide-linked sugars in skeletal muscle and liver in vivo. UDP-HexNAc and UDP-hexoses (UDP-Hex) were increased and decreased, respectively, in muscles of diabetic rats, resulting in an ∼ 50% increase in the UDP-HexNAc:UDPHex ratio (P < 0.01). No significant changes in nucleotide sugars were observed in livers of diabetic rats. In muscles of normal rats, UDP-HexNAc concentrations increased (P < 0.01) and UDP-Hex decreased (P < 0.01) during hyperglycemia. The UDP-HexNAc:UDP-Hex ratio increased ∼40% (P < 0.01) and correlated strongly with plasma glucose concentrations. Changes in liver were similar to muscle but were less marked. GFAT activity in muscle and liver was unaffected by 1–2 h of hyperglycemia. GFAT activity decreased 30–50% in muscle, liver, and epididymal fat of diabetic rats, and this was reversible with insulin therapy. No significant change in GFAT mRNA expression was detected, suggesting post-transcriptional regulation. The data suggest that glucose flux via HexNSP increases in muscle during hyperglycemic hyperinsulinemia and that the relative flux of glucose via HexNSP is increased in muscle in STZ-induced diabetes. Since nucleotide sugars are essential substrates for glycoprotein synthesis, changes in their absolute or relative concentrations may affect signal transduction and contribute to insulin resistance.
Exact Bayesian p-values for a test of independence in a 2 × 2 contingency table with missing data

Altham (Altham PME. Exact Bayesian analysis of a 2 × 2 contingency table, and Fisher’s “exact” significance test. J R Stat Soc B 1969; 31: 261–269) showed that a one-sided p-value from Fisher’s exact test of independence in a 2 × 2 contingency table is equal to the posterior probability of negative association in the 2 × 2 contingency table under a Bayesian analysis using an improper prior. We derive an extension of Fisher’s exact test p-value in the presence of missing data, assuming the missing data mechanism is ignorable (i.e., missing at random or completely at random). Further, we propose Bayesian p-values for a test of independence in a 2 × 2 contingency table with missing data using alternative priors; we also present results from a simulation study exploring the Type I error rate and power of the proposed exact test p-values. An example, using data on the association between blood pressure and a cardiac enzyme, is presented to illustrate the methods.
Aberrant Sialic Acid Expression and Its Role In Regulating Metastasis in Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer [1]. Although the advent of metastasis is only observed in 20% of patients who present with this malignancy [2], metastatic disease remains the leading cause of death in patients with CRC [3]. Aberrant patterns of glycosylation have emerged as a fundamental characteristic of cancer cells [4] and glycosylation plays an important role in cancer pathogenesis, particularly in the later stages of invasion and metastasis [5,6]. Cancer progression, invasion, metastasis and chemoresistance are highly influenced by cell surface sialoglycoproteins [6,7]. The terminal monosaccharides of N-glycans are sialic acids, and cell surface receptors and adhesion molecules like growth factor receptor, integrins, laminin, and cadherins are highly sialylated. The sialylation of these molecules is significantly altered during neoplastic transformation. Therefore, understanding the underlying mechanisms of metastasis as a whole is important, particularly when determining a treatment regimen that will prove most effective. This review will focus on the metastatic cascade as it relates to cancer as a whole, the role of sialic acids in the metastasis cascade and the models that are available to study sialic acid expression and how they can be applied to the study of colorectal cancer. Metastatic Cascade and its Regulation
In Vitro System for Modeling Influenza A Virus Resistance under Drug Pressure

ABSTRACT One of the biggest challenges in the effort to treat and contain influenza A virus infections is the emergence of resistance during treatment. It is well documented that resistance to amantadine arises rapidly during the course of treatment due to mutations in the gene coding for the M2 protein. To address this problem, it is critical to develop experimental systems that can accurately model the selection of resistance under drug pressure as seen in humans. We used the hollow-fiber infection model (HFIM) system to examine the effect of amantadine on the replication of influenza virus, A/Albany/1/98 (H3N2), grown in MDCK cells. At 24 and 48 h postinfection, virus replication was inhibited in a dose-dependent fashion. At 72 and 96 h postinfection, virus replication was no longer inhibited, suggesting the emergence of amantadine-resistant virus. Sequencing of the M2 gene revealed that mutations appeared at between 48 and 72 h of drug treatment and that the mutations were identical to those identified in the clinic for amantadine-resistant viruses (e.g., V27A, A30T, and S31N). Interestingly, we found that the type of mutation was strongly affected by the dose of the drug. The data suggest that the HFIM is a good model for influenza virus infection and resistance generation in humans. The HFIM has the advantage of being a highly controlled system where multiplicity parameters can be directly and accurately controlled and measured.
Off-Environment RL with Rare Events

Policy gradient methods have been widely applied in reinforcement learning. For reasons of safety and cost, learning is often conducted using a simulator. However, learning in simulation does not traditionally utilise the opportunity to improve learning by adjusting certain environment variables – state features that are randomly determined by the environment in a physical setting but controllable in a simulator. Exploiting environment variables is crucial in domains containing significant rare events (SREs), e.g., unusual wind conditions that can crash a helicopter, which are rarely observed under random sampling but have a considerable impact on expected return. We propose off environment reinforcement learning (OFFER), which addresses such cases by simultaneously optimising the policy and a proposal distribution over environment variables. We prove that OFFER converges to a locally optimal policy and show experimentally that it learns better and faster than a policy gradient baseline.
Synthesis of Endothelin‐1 Analogues, Endothelin‐3, and Sarafotoxin S6b: Structure‐Activity Relationships

Summary Two disulfide analogues (types A and B) of endothelin-3 (ET-3; formerly, rat ET), sarafotoxin S6b, and apamin, were synthesized to determine their disulfide structures as in the case of endothelin-1 (ET-1; formerly human and porcine ET). The disulfide structures of ET-3 and sarafotoxin S6b were found to be identical with that of ET-1 (type A) but distinct from that of apamin (type B). The vasoconstricting activities of ET-3 and sarafotoxin S6b were about one-60th and one-third that of ET-1, respectively. Such different biological potencies between endothelins and sarafotoxin S6b could be largely attributed to the sequence heterogeneity at the N-terminal portion. ET-1 analogues were also synthesized to clarify the structure-activity relationships. The opening of any disulfide bond in the ET-1 molecule extremely decreased the activity, while oxidation of the Met residue did not alter it. Amidation of the terminal COOH group and extension of the Lys-Arg sequence to the N-terminus led to 16-and 540-fold decreases in activity, respectively. Removal of the C-terminal Trp residue resulted in complete loss of the activity. The other disulfide analogues (type B and C) of ET-1 showed markedly lower activity than the parent molecule (type A). These results indicated the importance of the whole molecule with the proper double cyclic structure for determining its active conformation.
Further follow up of the cardiomyopathic patient treated by intracoronary administration of autologous mesenchymal stem cells

We would like to present a longer follow up of a patient reported earlier in your journal (1). In spite of excellent results in the first year after intracoronary administration of autologous mesenchymal stem cells, clinical condition of the patient deteriorated gradually in the late second year leading to worse functional class (IV), low ejection fraction (around 20%), and frequent hospitalization to receive intravenous inotropic agents. While we were preparing him for another autologous mesenchymal stem cell injection, a suitable heart donor was found. Heart transplantation was carried out 26 months after the intracoronary administration of autologous mesenchymal stem cells. Despite excellent immediate results, a fulminant septicemia developed and followed by disseminated intravascular coagulation, intracranial hemorrhage, coma and finally death of the patient in the second week after the transplantation. Strauer et al. showed that beneficial effects of intracoronary stem cell administration in adult ischemic cardiomyopathy can last for several years (2). Data about the long-term effects of this therapy in childhood are still lacking. Rupp et al. presented follow up results as long as six months after intracoronary administration of stem cells to a two-yr-old cardiomyopathic patient (3). Our experience of autologous mesenchymal stem cell administration in this patient was in favor of shortto intermediate-term benefits. In our patient, this method mostly functioned as a bridge to transplantation than as a long-term therapeutic option. Certainly, larger cohorts are required to document the advantages and duration of beneficial effects of autologous mesenchymal stem cells administration in childhood cardiomyopathia more clearly.
The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow–wind Connection in Mrk 231

Long-term radio monitoring of the broad absorption line (BAL) quasar Mrk 231 at 17.6 GHz detected a strong flare in 2015. This triggered four epochs of Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations from 8.4 to 43 GHz as well as three epochs of X-ray observations with NuSTAR and two with XMM over a 15 week period. Two ejected components were detected by the VLBA observations. A conservative lower bound on the apparent speed of the first ejection is attained by assuming that it was ejected when the flare began, . Serendipitous far-UV Hubble Space Telescope observations combined with our long-term radio monitoring seem to indicate that episodes of relativistic ejections suppress flux that is emitted at wavelengths shortward of the peak of the far-UV spectral energy distribution, similar to what has been observed in radio-loud quasars. Episodes of strong jet production also seem to suppress the high-ionization BAL wind seen in weak jet states. We found a statistically significant increase ( ) of the 3–12 keV flux during the radio flare relative to a quiescent radio state. This is explained by an ultra-fast (∼0.06c) X-ray-absorbing photoionized wind that is significantly detected only in the low-radio state (similar to Galactic black holes). Mrk 231 is becoming more radio loud. We found that the putative parsec-scale radio lobe doubled in brightness in nine years. Furthermore, large flares are more frequent, with three major flares occurring at ∼2 year intervals.
! : Interrupting In-Car Phone Conversations

Holding phone conversations while driving is dangerous not only because it occupies the hands, but also because it requires attention. Where driver and passenger can adapt their conversational behavior to the demands of the situation, and e.g. interrupt themselves when more attention is needed, an interlocutor on the phone cannot adjust as easily. We present a dialogue assistant which acts as ‘bystander’ in phone conversations between a driver and an interlocutor, interrupting them and temporarily cutting the line during potentially dangerous situations. The assistant also informs both conversation partners when the line has been cut, as well as when it has been reestablished. We show that this intervention improves drivers’ performance in a standard driving task.