Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Polyphenols and the Modulation of Gene Expression Pathways: Can We Eat Our Way Out of the Danger of Chronic Disease?

Plant-derived dietary polyphenols may improve some disease states and promote health. Experimental evidence suggests that this is partially attributable to changes in gene expression. The rational use of bioactive food components may therefore present an opportunity to activate or repress selected gene expression pathways and, consequently, to manage or prevent disease. It remains to be determined whether this use of bioactive food components can be done safely. This article reviews the associated controversies and limitations of polyphenol therapy. There is a paucity of clinical data on the rational use of polyphenols, including a lack of knowledge on effective dosage, actual chemical formulations, bioavailability, distribution in tissues, the effect of genetic variations, differences in gut microflora, the synergistic (or antagonistic) effects observed in extracts, and the possible interaction between polyphenols and lipid domains of cell membranes that may alter the function of relevant receptors. The seminal question of why plants make substances that benefit humans remains unanswered, and there is still much to learn in terms of correlative versus causal effects of human exposure to various nutrients. The available data strongly suggest significant effects at the molecular level that represent interactions with the epigenome. The advent of relatively simple technologies is helping the field of epigenetics progress and facilitating the acquisition of multiple types of data that were previously difficult to obtain. In this review, we summarize the molecular basis of the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and the epigenetic changes associated with the consumption of polyphenols that illustrate how modifications in human nutrition may become relevant to health and disease.
Mitotic Regulator SKAP Forms a Link between Kinetochore Core Complex KMN and Dynamic Spindle Microtubules*

Background: KMN (KNL/MIS12/NDC80) is a kinetochore constituent essential for chromosome movements in mitosis. Results: KMN protein specifies the kinetochore localization of SKAP. SKAP regulates spindle microtubule dynamics for accurate chromosome movements. Conclusion: The MIS13-SKAP interaction links kinetochore structural components to dynamic microtubule plus-ends. Significance: MIS13-SKAP interaction governs chromosome dynamics and stability in mitosis. Chromosome segregation in mitosis is orchestrated by the dynamic interactions between the kinetochore and spindle microtubules. Our recent study shows that mitotic motor CENP-E cooperates with SKAP to orchestrate an accurate chromosome movement in mitosis. However, it remains elusive how kinetochore core microtubule binding activity KMN (KNL1-MIS12-NDC80) regulates microtubule plus-end dynamics. Here, we identify a novel interaction between MIS13 and SKAP that orchestrates accurate interaction between kinetochore and dynamic spindle microtubules. SKAP physically interacts with MIS13 and specifies kinetochore localization of SKAP. Suppression of MIS13 by small interfering RNA abrogates the kinetochore localization of SKAP. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopic assays demonstrate that SKAP exhibits an EB1-dependent, microtubule plus-end loading and tracking in vitro. Importantly, SKAP is essential for kinetochore oscillations and dynamics of microtubule plus-ends during live cell mitosis. Based on those findings, we reason that SKAP constitutes a dynamic link between spindle microtubule plus-ends and mitotic chromosomes to achieve faithful cell division.
Current Concepts on Immunity and Mastitis

Mastitis is a significant disease of adult dairy cattle affecting up to 40 percent of cows within a herd at any given time. Recent surveys show that udder health problems are consistently the most frequent cause of morbidity with the US dairy cattle population (Table 1). The U.S. dairy industry loses an estimated $2 billion every year due to mastitis, with reduced milk production accounting for the majority of the total economic loss.
Isolation and Genetic Characterization of a Novel Filamentous Bacteriophage, a Deleted Form of Phage f237, from a Pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus O4:K68 Strain

We isolated a filamentous bacteriophage, VfO4K68, from the pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus strain belonging to O4:K68 serovar. The VfO4K68 DNA lacked a 1,893‐bp fragment present in that of the distinctive region of f237, a filamentous phage isolated from a pandemic O3:K6 strain (Nasu, H. et al., J. Clin. Microbiol., 38, 2156–2161, 2000). The deletion resulted in the formation of a novel open reading frame (ORF) that possesses homology to the ORF 27 of ETA phage and staphylococcal enterotoxin E (SEE) of Staphylococcus aureus. VfO4K68 was able to infect the recipient O3:K6 serovar strains. These results suggest that VfO4K68 might act as a genetic transmitter and play some roles in the pandemic V. parahaemolyticus infection.
A Prototype of Wearable Respiration Biofeedback Platform and Its Preliminary Evaluation on Cardiovascular Variability

This paper introduced the development of a prototype wearable respiration biofeedback platform and made a preliminary evaluation of its effects on cardiovascular system. The biofeedback platform consisted of three parts: a shirt with multiple wearable sensors embedded in to acquire necessary physiological signals such as ECG, rib cage and abdomen movement, radial artery pulse, PCG, PPG ,temperature, posture and activities etc, an NI 14bits USB data acquisition card USB- 6009 to acquire multiple parameters simultaneously at a sample rate of 1000Hz/s, and a notebook PC with LABVIEW8.2 software to generate the audiovisual guiding signals to the user based on the detected breathing pattern and special algorithms. With this platform, a preliminary experiment was done to evaluate its performance. 16 volunteers were recruited in this experiment and cardiovascular variability under guided breathing was chosen to be analyzed. It was shown that this prototype platform with audiovisual biofeedback technology to guide the user's breathing movement was effective, it was easy for the user to do the desired breathing maneuver and got wanted cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary interaction to make beneficial effects. User-specific guiding waveform is especially useful for the user to learn and follow the breathing maneuvers at the initial stage. Increased heart rate variability and PWTT variability were observed during this breathing biofeedback procedure. Prolonged baseline change of PWTT was also observed with the decreased breathing rate in some volunteers. Further work is still needed to use this platform to study the mechanism of cardiopulmonary interaction, and a wearable mobile biofeedback system based on PDA also needs to be developed.
Longitudinal study of serum neutralization of HIV‐1 in infected plasma donors

Earlier studies provided suggestive evidence about the effectiveness of passive immunotherapy for AIDS patients using plasma donated by healthy HIV‐1 infected individuals and revealed beneficial effects of plasmapheresis for the immune system of the donors. In this study, anti‐HIV‐1 neutralizing activity in 31 healthy HIV‐1 infected donors of plasma participating in a passive immunotherapy study was investigated as a function of time. Average studied period was 33 months. Using the highly cytopathic HIV‐1 NDK strain and MOLT4 cells, it was shown by means of syncytia formation inhibition assay and polyclonal HIV‐1 antigen‐capture assay that viral neutralizing titers tend either to remain unchanged or increase over time. These findings support the notion that the immune system is not affected adversely in HIV‐1 infected plasma donors and lend further support to the feasibility of passive immunotherapy for AIDS patients. J. Med. Virol. 65:649–658, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mapping ash tree colonization in an agricultural mountain landscape: Investigating the potential of hyperspectral imagery

In this contribution, we evaluate the potential of hyperspectral imagery for identifying ash tree and other dominant species in encroached mountain grasslands. The method is based on a supervised approach using Support Vector Machines in which kernel parameters are fixed by kernel alignment. We present the application of the method and the first results obtained. The statistical measures derived from the confusion matrix show that tree species are well discriminated with accuracies > 90%. These results confirm the possibility of detecting tree species with this data and the performance of the SVM classifier.
Evaluation of Calcium Dihydroxide- and Silver-Coated Implants in the Rat Tibia

Background Silver ions (Ag+) have strong antibacterial effects, and silver-coated materials are in widespread clinical use. However, the application of silver-coated medical devices is not without concerns: its use with direct bone contact is not established, and systemic toxic side effects of released Ag+ have been described. Therefore, alternative bactericidal coatings with a more localized way of acting – e.g., calcium dihydroxide, Ca(OH)2 (CH) – would be advantageous. Methods A new rat model of the animal's tibial metaphysis was developed. In the left proximal tibiae of 36 male Wistar rats, titanium screws were implanted. The screws were coated with hydroxyapatite (HA; 12 animals: group I), low-dosed HA silver (HA-Ag; 12 animals: group II) and CH (12 animals: group III). After 6 weeks, all rats were sacrificed. The implants were evaluated for morphological changes on their surfaces, by light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; for osteointegration, by measurement of resistance to removal; and for bacterial colonization, by quantitative culture analysis. Additionally, the tibial bone was investigated histologically for signs of osteomyelitis and sonicated to detect bacterial loads. Results (i) No microbiological or histological signs of infection could be determined on any of the screws or the surrounding bone. (ii) The bone-implant interface analysis revealed extensive bone formation and direct bone-implant contact on all HA, HA-Ag and HA-CH coated screws. (iii) HA and HA-Ag were partially, and CH was fully, degraded on the screw coating, allowing host bone to osteointegrate.
Expression of a system L neutral amino acid transporter at the blood–brain barrier

Amino acid transport system L has been proposed to be one of the major nutrient transport systems at the blood–brain barrier. Using immunohistochemical analyses, a system L transporter LAT1 was shown to be expressed in the brain capillary endothelial cells in rats. Because LAT1 was co-expressed with 4F2 heavy chain which brings LAT1 to the plasma membrane, LAT1 is proposed to be functional in the plasma membrane of brain capillary endothelial cells. Both LAT1 and 4F2hc immunoreactivities were detected in a double line appearance surrounding endothelial cell nuclei, suggesting both proteins are present in the luminal and abluminal membranes. LAT1 is, thus, a blood–brain barrier system L transporter responsible for the permeation of aromatic or branched-chain amino acids and amino acid-related drugs such as L-DOPA.
Infective endocarditis: call for education of adults with CHD: review of the evidence

Abstract Advanced surgical repair procedures have resulted in the increased survival rate to adulthood of patients with CHD. The resulting new chronic conditions population is greater than one million in the United States of America and >1.2 million in Europe. This review describes the risks and effects of infective endocarditis – a systemic infectious process with high morbidity and mortality – on this population and examines the evidence to determine whether greater patient education on recognition of symptoms and preventative measures is warranted. The literature search included the terms “infective endocarditis” and “adult congenital heart disease”. Search refinement, the addition of articles cited by included articles, as well as addition of supporting articles, resulted in utilisation of 24 articles. Infective endocarditis, defined by the modified Duke Criteria, occurs at a significantly higher rate in the CHD population due to congenitally or surgically altered cardiac anatomies and placement of prosthetic valves. This literature review returned no studies in the past five years assessing knowledge of the definition, recognition of symptoms, and preventative measures of infective endocarditis in the adult CHD population. Existing data are more than 15 years old and show significant knowledge deficits. Studies have consistently shown the need for improved CHD patient knowledge with regard to infective endocarditis, and there is no recent evidence that these knowledge deficits have decreased. It is important to address and decrease knowledge deficits in order to improve patient outcomes and decrease healthcare utilisation and costs.
Genetic risk factors and retinal ganglion cell degeneration in primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG): A bird’s eye view

Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy and often associated with elevated intraocular pressure (IOP). It is the second leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and is characterized by the optic nerve degeneration and loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). This may lead to loss of vision. The primary cause of glaucoma is unknown but several risk factors including elevated IOP and age have been suggested. In most population, primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is the most common type of glaucoma and is often associated with elevated IOP. Genetic analyses have identified at least 14 chromosomal loci but only three genes which when mutated can cause POAG have been well documented. These genes account for less than 5% of all POAG cases suggesting that more than 90% of the genetic contribution of POAG cases is unknown. RGC consists of cell body, axon and dendritic arbor and each of these three parts can independently degenerate. Several molecular signals such as oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, disruption of neurotrophic factor (NTF), dysfunction of immune system, glial activation and the release of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) have been found to be involved in the optic nerve degeneration. Therefore, therapies aimed at axonal and cell body protection may have a greater protective role in early or progressive glaucoma. In the future, an understanding of gene-gene and gene-environmental factor interaction as well as epigenetic regulation of gene expression by environmental factors may provide an opportunity to develop neuroprotective therapies and DNA based diagnostic tests.
Optimum Watermarking Algorithm Based-on Cost Function

This paper proposed a cost function in DWT domain, which combines the two most critical properties including the transparency and robustness. Based on the cost function, the optimum location can be found for watermarking. Through modeling to the wavelet coefficient by the GGD (generalized Gaussian density), we proposed the method of estimation of shape parameter, which corresponding to LOD (locally optimum detection) also can be used in watermarking detection. By utilizing the proposed approach, a good compromise between the transparency and robustness can be gotten in experiments.
Compact Low-Cost Phased Array of Dielectric Resonator Antenna Using Parasitic Elements and Capacitor Loading

A three elements compact low-cost phased array of rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (RDRA) is presented. The scanning phase is based on using mutual coupling and capacitor loading. The center DRA is made of high dielectric constant, εr=35.9 and fed by a microstrip line. The two parasitic dielectric resonators (DRs) are electromagnetically coupled to the driven element. The dielectric constant and dimensions of the parasitic element are quite similar to the driven dielectric resonator. The phase shift between elements is adjustable by changing the reactive loading on the parasitic DRs. The reactive loadings are two small capacitors inserted between the microstrip lines and ground plane. The scan coverage of the phased array antenna is ±30 degrees at 2.8 GHz. Across the entire scan angle range, the array return loss is less than 10 dB across a bandwidth of 130 MHz.
Edge Contrast Failure Analysis on Vision Angle of Human Eyes for Curve Displays

For curve displays, the purpose of this study is to present edge contrast failure analysis (ECFA) method on the vision angle of human eyes. In order to analyze edge contrast of curve display images, a flexible cholesteric liquid crystal display is bent for different radii of curvature by using a flexible-characteristic inspection system. To simulate the human eye factors, a charge-coupled device colorimeter is utilized based on ECFA to analyze a maximum vision angle of human eyes with respect to curve displays under different radii of curvature. According to analysis results, a designer or maker of curve displays can design large-vision-angle and comfortable curve-display products for human being.
A robot system for automated handling in micro-world

Nanotechnology is a key issue in today's and tomorrow's development of advanced products. Soon new tools will be needed to automatically handle and assemble micro-sized objects with nanometer precision, or simply to give human beings the capability of operating in these tiny dimensions. In view of the emerging applications in this field, the Swiss Federal Institute a Technology, Zurich (ETHZ) decided to focus on an interdisciplinary project with the theme "Nanorobotics", i.e. automated handling of microparts with nanometer resolution. After a short description of the goals and the approach taken in this project this paper focuses on some important aspects of the design of high precision robots. Two new 3 DOF planar robots are presented. Both of them have an unlimited range of motion while having a resolution down to 10 nm. They have been controlled using vision feedback under a light microscope and have shown very promising results.
The effect of human eosinophils on cultured human nasal epithelial cell activity and the influence of nedocromil sodium in vitro.

Although there is increasing evidence of a pathogenic role for eosinophils in the airway epithelium, there is little direct evidence which demonstrates that eosinophils influence epithelial cell activity in humans. We have cultured human nasal epithelial cells in vitro and studied the effect of isolated human eosinophils on the ciliary beat frequency (CBF) and cell membrane integrity of these cells after incubation in the absence or presence of 0.1 microM phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) or 0.1 mg/ml opsonized latex beads and the absence or presence of 10(-5) M nedocromil sodium. CBF was monitored by an analogue contrast-enhancement technique, and cell damage was assessed by release of 51Cr from the cells. Cell cultures were also assessed for the percentage of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) released into the medium at the end of incubation. Neither 0.1 microM PMA, 0.1 mg/ml opsonized latex beads, 10(-5) M nedocromil sodium, nor eosinophils alone altered the CBF of the epithelial cells. PMA-stimulated eosinophils, however, attenuated the CBF significantly, from 10.2 +/- 0.3 to 8.8 +/- 0.4 Hz (P less than 0.05) after 15 h of incubation. Similarly, opsonized latex bead-stimulated eosinophils led to a significant attenuation of CBF from 9.2 +/- 0.3 to 8.4 +/- 0.3 Hz (P less than 0.05), 6.9 +/- 0.5 Hz (P less than 0.001), and 7.5 +/- 0.3 Hz (P less than 0.001) after 2, 15, and 24 h of incubation, respectively. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Perioperative Nurses' Ability to Think Critically

Aims The purpose of this quantitative descriptive correlational study was to assess forpresence and degree of critical thinking skills among perioperative (OR) nurses. Background Critical thinking has become a multidisciplinary “buzz phrase”; however, critical thinking, reflectivethinking, or mental discipline was discussed among educators, as early as 1912. As nurses' roles change inresponse to the dynamics of managed care and an increase in use of biotechnology in health care, more is expected ofnurses in terms of both psychomotor and cognitive skills. Thus, critical thinking may be central tonurses' ability to meet the care expectations of patients and the skill expectations of managers, peers, andthemselves. Setting Data collected from 1 university-affiliated medical center, 1non–university-affiliated medical center, and 3 ambulatory surgicenters. Data were collected over a 12-monthperiod from 2008 to 2009. Sample Convenience sample of 92 OR nurses. The sample comprised nurses withvarious educational levels for entry into practice: diploma, associate, and bachelor of science in nursing degrees. Subjects' clinical experience ranged from 1 month to 40 years. Instruments AdministeredCalifornia Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory; Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills of Perioperative Nurses, an investigator-developed tool; and a demographic survey. Analyses Descriptive statistics, multipleregression, and step-wise regression were performed; power of 80% with a medium effect size was calculated. Results Aggregate (N = 92) for the dependent variable (level of critical thinking)and predictor variables (dispositions) were not significant. The group (medical center 1) indicated that as thelevel of critical thinking increased, the level of truth increased. Also, as the level of critical thinkingincreased, the level of open-mindedness decreased. In groups 2, 4, and 5 (surgicenters) coefficient indicated thatnone of the predictors were significant. A stepwise regression was calculated for group 3 (medical center 2) to findthe best predictor model. As the level of critical thinking decreased, open-mindedness increased. Conclusions Critical thinking skill may be related to organizational culture, geography, and/orspecialization. Specialization competencies may act as barriers to the development of critical thinking skills. This could be highly detrimental to the anticipation of significant negative patient outcomes within an OR setting.
Class I and III Phosphatidylinositol 3′-Kinase Play Distinct Roles in TLR Signaling Pathway1

PI3K involvement has been implicated in the TLR signal pathway. However, the precise roles of the different classes of PI3K in the pathway remain elusive. In this study, we have explored the functions of class I and class III PI3K in the TLR signal pathway using specific kinase mutants and PI3K lipid products. Our results reveal that class III PI3K specifically regulates CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN)-induced cytokine and NO production as well as NF-κB activation, whereas class I PI3K regulates both CpG ODN- and LPS-induced IL-12 production and NF-κB activation. Additional studies of CpG ODN uptake with flow cytometric analysis show that class III PI3K, but not class I, regulates cellular CpG ODN uptake. Furthermore, experiments with MyD88-overexpressing fibroblast cells transfected with dominant-negative mutants of PI3K demonstrate that class III PI3K regulates CpG ODN-mediated signaling upstream of MyD88, while class I PI3K regulation is downstream of MyD88. These results suggest that class I and class III PI3K play distinct roles in not only the uptake of CpG ODN, but also responses elicited by CpG ODN and LPS.
Managed competition in the Dutch health system: is there a realistic alternative?

We would like to thank Hans Maarse and Aggie Paulus for their comments. They add several interesting cases and issues that complement our paper. We agree with them that market reform of the Dutch health-care sector is far from finished. We also agree that empirical evidence on the effects of purchaser competition is incomplete. However, we disagree with their main conclusion that there is more reason to be pessimistic than optimistic about the reform’s impact. In our view, incomplete evidence means no final conclusion can be drawn about the effects of the reform.