Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of angiotensin II receptor blockade‐based therapy with losartan on left ventricular hypertrophy and geometry in previously treated hypertensive patients

Background. The 2003 European Society of Hypertension/European Society of Cardiology (ESH/ESC) guidelines recommend angiotensin II receptor antagonists (AIIRAs) as a first‐line therapy in hypertensives with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Aim. We investigated the long‐term effects of an AIIRA‐based therapy on left ventricular (LV) structure and geometry in previously, unsatisfactorily treated essential hypertensive patients. Methods. Sixty‐eight consecutive patients referred to our hypertension hospital outpatient clinic with: (i) LVH (LV mass index, LVMI ⩾51 g/m2.7 in men and ⩾47 g/m2.7 in women), (ii) uncontrolled clinic blood pressure (BP⩾140 and/or 90 mmHg) and (iii) antihypertensive therapy not including angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or AIIRAs were selected for this study. Two‐dimensionally guided M‐mode echocardiograms were carried out at baseline and after 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of follow‐up. In all patients, losartan (50–100 mg/day, mean dose 82 mg/day) was added as first step to the previous therapy. Additional drugs, tailored to the single patient, were added, if necessary, to achieve target BP values (<140/90 mmHg). Results. Overall, 59 patients completed the study with the primary efficacy measurements (LVMI) at all appropriate times. A significant reduction in both clinic systolic BP and diastolic BP was found across the entire period of study respect to baseline (−17/10, −22/12, −24/13 and −26/14 mmHg at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, p<0.001 respectively), leading to target clinic BP in 75.6% of cases. LVMI was significantly lower after 1 year of treatment (−11±12%, p<0.05) with a further significant reduction at the end of treatment (−22±18%, p<0.01). The proportion of patients achieving normalization of LVMI was 47.4% and more importantly, the prevalence of concentric LVH fell from 38.9% to 6.7% (p<0.01). Conclusions. Our findings indicate that long‐term intensive treatment based on the AIIRA losartan induced a normalization of LVH in about 50% of patients and more importantly caused an almost complete regression of concentric LVH, the most dangerous adaptive pattern. The transition from concentric to normal or eccentric LV geometry may have in these high‐risk patients a favourable prognostic implication in addition to the recognized positive effect of reducing LVMI.
Interference suppression by biased nonlinearities

It is shown that, when the input signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is small, a biased nonlinearity that has a dead zone below some threshold value can provide a large enhancement in output SIR and signal-to-interference-plus-intermodulation ratio (SIIMR) if the threshold is set equal or close to the amplitude of the strong interference. In the absence of noise, the output SIR and SIIMIR are virtually independent of the input SIR, however low the latter may be. It Is shown that, for a dead-zone limiter, the output SIIMR in this case is -4.93 dB regardless of the input SIR. Under strong interference, any noise present in the input reduces the SIR and SIIMR improvement, but a biased nonlinearity can still provide an output SIR and SIIMR superior to the input SIR, i.e. an output SIIMR 6.35 dB below the input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) instead of 6.02 dB below the input SIR as is the case with hard limiting. >
The effect of pulsed electromagnetic fields on the acceleration of tooth movement.

AIM Accelerating the speed of orthodontic tooth movement should contribute to the shortening of the treatment period. This study was designed to determine whether a pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) affects orthodontic tooth movement. METHODS The canines of one side of 10 patients (mean age 23.0 ± 3.3 years) who needed canine retraction were exposed to a PEMF; the canines on the contralateral sides of the same patients were not similarly exposed. After extraction of the maxillary first premolars, both canines were retracted with coil springs. A circuit and a watch battery were used to generate a PEMF (1 Hz). The generator was embedded in a removable appliance. Foil was used to obstruct the contol group from PEMF exposure. Patients were instructed to use the device from the commencement of canine retraction, and it was removed when Class I canine relationship was achieved in either of the canines after 5.0 ± 0.6 months. The changes in the space between the maxillary canine and first molar were measured to indicate the amount of tooth movement. The canine retraction distances were compared by paired t test. Afterward, the treatment plan was continued. RESULTS With exposure to a PEMF, canine retraction was 1.57 ± 0.83 mm more than the control group (P<.001). CONCLUSION These findings suggest that application of a PEMF can accelerate orthodontic tooth movement.
Analysis of Mitotic and Expression Properties of Human Neocentromere-based Transchromosomes in Mice*

Human neocentromeres are functional centromeres that are devoid of the typical human centromeric α-satellite DNA. We have transferred a 60-Mb chromosome 10-derived neocentric marker chromosome, mardel(10), and its truncated 3.5-Mb derivative, NC-MiC1, into mouse embryonic stem cell and have demonstrated a relatively high structural and mitotic stability of the transchromosomes in a heterologous genetic background. We have also produced chimeric mice carrying mardel(10) or NC-MiC1. Both transchromosomes were detected as intact episomal entities in a variety of adult chimeric mouse tissues including hemopoietic stem cells. Genes residing on these transchromosomes were expressed in the different tissues tested. Meiotic transmission of both transchromosomes in the chimeric mice was evident from the detection of DNA from these chromosomes in sperm samples. In particular, germ line transmission of NC-MiC1 was demonstrated in the F1 embryos of the chimeric mice. Variable (low in mardel(10)- or NC-MiC1-containing embryonic stem cells and chimeric mouse tissues and relatively high in NC-MiC1-containing F1 embryos) levels of missegregation of these transchromosomes were detected, suggesting that they are not optimally predisposed to full mitotic regulation in the mouse background, particularly during early embryogenesis. These results provide promising data in support of the potential use of neocentromere-based human marker chromosomes and minichromosomes as a tool for the study of centromere, neocentromere, and chromosome biology and for gene therapy studies in a mouse model system. They also highlight the need to further understand and overcome the factors that are responsible for the definable rates of instability of these transchromosomes in a mouse model.
One-Side Three-Dimensional Image Reconstruction of Radioactive Contamination

A numerical scheme is presented for imaging the three-dimensional distribution of gamma-ray activity under a section of a civil structure, to determine the degree of contamination, and the effectiveness of consequent decontamination. Imaging is to be accomplished by monitoring radiation emission alongside the exposed contaminated surface. In this problem, the number of independent measurements is limited, and can lead to an incomplete imaging problem, in which the expected contribution of image voxels exponentially decreases with depth. A maximum-likelihood expectation-maximization (MLEM) iterative technique was adopted for image reconstruction, guided by supplementary information and aided with a measurement scanning strategy devised to reduce measurement redundancy. The resulting inverse problem was solved for a number of configurations to demonstrate that the algorithm can tolerate measurement noise, nonuniform and sparse contamination conditions, and a low-energy emitting isotope.
Modélisation de la propagation de fissure dans les aubes de turbines monocristallines

L'objectif de ce travail a tout d'abord ete de developper une methodologie de simulation numerique de propagation de fissure, en appliquant une approche couplee en chargement cyclique. On s'est interesse, plus particulierement, a l'utilisation d'elements de zones cohesives couples a une loi de comportement specifique, afin de simuler, sans discontinuite, et avec un caractere predictif, l'avancee d'une fissure. Enfin, nous avons etabli un modele phenomenologique de propagation, dans le cadre de la Mecanique Lineaire de la Rupture, qui rend compte des effets de fissure courte et, a haute temperature, des effets de fluage et d'oxydation sur la vitesse de propagation par fatigue. L'objectif de ce modele est de fournir aux Bureaux d'Etudes un outil rapide et facile a mettre en œuvre afin de dimensionner des pieces industrielles telles que les aubes de turbines. Cette etude, tres riche en termes de resultats experimentaux de propagation de fissure, a permis de developper une approche locale basee sur les modeles de zones cohesives pour la simulation numerique de la propagation de fissure. Mais les perspectives futures de l'application de telles methodes sont de pouvoir fournir des informations sur le couplage complexe qui existe entre la plasticite en pointe de fissure et le phenomene de propagation qui permettront d'enrichir des modeles phenomenologiques applicables en Bureaux d'Etudes.
Disposition of amphiphilic helices in heteropolar environments

It is known that α helices in globular proteins usually consist of two types of residues, hydrophobic and hydrophilic, with the number of each type being roughly equal. Except for many transmembrane helices, α‐helices are generally amphiphilic to some degree. This is not entirely surprising because α‐helices typically reside in heteropolar environments that arise from the polar aqueous solution that surrounds a protein and the apolar “hydrophobic core” located at its center. The packing of α‐helices in such heteropolar environments is driven by the minimization of free energy brought about by placing hydrophobic sidechains into apolar environments and hydrophilic sidechains into polar environments. The interface between the two environments can be characterized by an interfacial plane, called the demarcation plane, that optimally separates the two classes of residues. The inclination angle Ω between the axis of the helix and the demarcation plane provides a measure of the degree of amphiphilicity of an α‐helix. For highly amphiphilic helices, Ω ≈ 0. The inclination angle provides a new measure of amphiphilicity that complements the hydrophobic moments of Eisenberg et al. Based on the simple physical model described above, an algorithm is developed for predicting the helix inclination angle. The calculated results show that the inclination angle for most α‐helices extracted from globular proteins is less than 25° in magnitude. This suggests that helices found in globular proteins tend to be reasonably amphiphilic with half their face dominated by hydrophobic residues and the other half by hydrophilic residues. A new two‐dimensional representation that characterizes the disposition of hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues in α‐helices, called a “wenxiang diagram,” is presented. The wenxiang diagram can also be used as an important element to represent a protein molecule. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss Inc.
Aftershock modeling based on uncertain stress calculations

[1] We discuss the impact of uncertainties in computed coseismic stress perturbations on the seismicity rate changes forecasted through a rate- and state-dependent frictional model. We aim to understand how the variability of Coulomb stress changes affects the correlation between predicted and observed changes in the rate of earthquake production. We use the aftershock activity following the 1992 M7.3 Landers (California) earthquake as a case study. To accomplish these tasks, we first analyze the variability of stress changes resulting from the use of different published slip distributions. We find that the standard deviation of the uncertainty is of the same size as the absolute stress change and that their ratio, the coefficient of variation (CV), is approximately constant in space. This uncertainty has a strong impact on the forecasted aftershock activity if a rate-and-state frictional model is considered. We use the early aftershocks to invert for friction parameters and the coefficient of variation by means of the maximum likelihood method. We show that, when the uncertainties are properly taken into account, the inversion yields stable results, which fit the spatiotemporal aftershock sequence. The analysis of the 1992 Landers sequence demonstrates that accounting for realistic uncertainties in stress changes strongly improves the correlation between modeled and observed seismicity rate changes. For this sequence, we measure a friction parameter Asn � 0.017 MPa and a coefficient of stress variation CV = 0.95.
Development of “Souryu‐IV” and “Souryu‐V:” Serially connected crawler vehicles for in‐rubble searching operations

The authors have developed Souryu‐I, Souryu‐II and Souryu‐III, connected crawler vehicles that can travel in rubble. These machines were developed for the purpose of finding survivors trapped inside collapsed buildings. However, when conducting experiments in post‐disaster environments with Souryu‐III, mechanical and control limitations have been identified. This led the authors to develop novel crawler units using crawler tracks strengthened with metal, and develop two improved models, called Souryu‐IV (composed of three double‐sided crawler bodies, a joint driving unit, a blade‐spring joint mechanism, and cameras) and Souryu‐V (composed of mono‐tread‐crawler bodies, elastic‐rod‐joint mechanisms, and cameras). The authors then conducted basic motion experiments and teleoperated control experiments on off‐road fields with Souryu‐IV and Souryu‐V. Their high performance in experiments of urban rescue operations was confirmed. However, several problems were identified during the driving experiments, and are reported in this paper, as well as a few possible solutions to solve them. This paper describes Souryu‐IV and Souryu‐V, their mechanisms, their cameras, and the experiments to test their mobile performance. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Algorithms for CpG Islands Search: New Advantages and Old Problems

CpG islands (CGIs) are regions having high GC and CpG content while generally mammalian genomes are CpG-depleted. CGIs are often located in the promoter region of the genes, mostly housekeeping but also tissue-specific. It is widely believed that CpG dinucleotides within promoters CGIs are unmethylated and are targets for specific regulatory protein binding. As a result, CGIs contain special sequence motifs for highly affinitive protein binding (transcription factor binding sites, TFBS). Methylation of cytosine in CpG context within such motifs could decrease the affinity of TF binding, increase the attraction of methyl-binding proteins, affect the histones modification and, therefore, leads to repression of genes transcription. The mechanism of local and global transcription repression via CpG methylation is used in many different normal (development, differentiation, aging, X-chromosome inactivation, imprinting) and pathological processes (cancer and other diseases). However recently it has been reported that a class of normally methylated but active promoters do exist. Lately evidences of biological relevance of methylated CGIs or CGIs located far from gene promoters appear. Such CGIs could act as regulator for pervasive transcription, which seems to be actual genome feature rather than a side-effect of high-throughput techniques errors. Replication origins are also reported to be associated with CGIs of any location. As a consequence of specific nucleotide content, CGIs could affect DNA or RNA secondary structures. For example, G2-3C2-3 motif common within CGIs induces significant local curiosity of DNA. Another motif, G-rich sequence (GRS) in 3’ and 5’ region of RNA, is known to form specific structures, G-quadruplexes, on both end of RNA playing important role in its stability. This motif corresponds to C-rich sequence in DNA, is likely to appear in CGIs. Classical algorithms for CpG islands search use sliding window (SWM) or running sum (RSM) and several distinct but not independent criteria (GC content, Obs/ExpCpG and length). The thresholds for the criteria are rather arbitrary, unconcerned between species, and demonstrate lack of biological interpretation. SWM algorithms are rather slow, RSM algorithms are faster but tend to split large CGIs into several smaller ones and to omit CGIs with nonuniform distribution of CpG dinucleotides along the sequence. Recently, several different algorithms based on CpG dinucleotides clustering were implemented. Those algorithms have smaller number of parameters and reasonable mathematical basics. The comparison of the algorithms is tricky. Hypermutability of CpG dinucleotides lead to loss of
Identification of a Microtubule-binding Domain in a Cytoplasmic Dynein Heavy Chain*

As a molecular motor, dynein must coordinate ATP hydrolysis with conformational changes that lead to processive interactions with a microtubule and generate force. To understand how these processes occur, we have begun to map functional domains of a dynein heavy chain from Dictyostelium. The carboxyl-terminal 10-kilobase region of the heavy chain encodes a 380-kDa polypeptide that approximates the globular head domain. Attempts to further truncate this region fail to produce polypeptides that either bind microtubules or UV-vanadate cleave, indicating that the entire 10-kilobase fragment is necessary to produce a properly folded functional dynein head. We have further identified a region just downstream from the fourth P-loop that appears to constitute at least part of the microtubule-binding domain (amino acids 3182–3818). When deleted, the resulting head domain polypeptide no longer binds microtubules; when the excised region is expressed in vitro, it cosediments with added tubulin polymer. This microtubule-binding domain falls within an area of the molecule predicted to form extended α-helices. At least four discrete sites appear to coordinate activities required to bind the tubulin polymer, indicating that the interaction of dynein with microtubules is complex.
Factors affecting the left atrial diameter

We read with interest the article by Mansour et al. (1) published entitled "Echocardiographic predictors of atrial fibrillation after mitral valve replacement. " in Anatol J Cardiol 2017;17:3346. As expected, postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is more likely to occur in patients with mitral valve disease when the preoperative left atrial diameter increases. However, there is a particular aspect that draws our attention when both groups are evaluated in the study of Mansour et al. (1). That aspect is the body mass index (BMI) difference that can affect the left atriums of patients independent of valve pathologies. BMI of patients who develop POAF in particular is higher than that of patients in the other group. Many studies show that enlargement in the diameter of the left atrium occurs as the weight increases (2–5). In some studies, obesity alone is a risk factor for AF (5). In a study of the effects of the changes in the left atrium on POAF in particular, we believe that a parameter (BMI) that affects the left atrial diameter independently of the valve pathology should be similar between the two groups. We are convinced that learn the authors’ ideas on this subject will add value to their study.
Development of an Internal Positive Control for Rapid Diagnosis of Avian Influenza Virus Infections by Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR with Lyophilized Reagents

ABSTRACT We developed an internal positive control (IPC) RNA to help ensure the accuracy of the detection of avian influenza virus (AIV) RNA by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and real-time RT-PCR (RRT-PCR). The IPC was designed to have the same binding sites for the forward and reverse primers of the AIV matrix gene as the target amplicon, but it had a unique internal sequence used for the probe site. The amplification of the viral RNA and the IPC by RRT-PCR were monitored with two different fluorescent probes in a multiplex format, one specific for the AIV matrix gene and the other for the IPC. The RRT-PCR test was further simplified with the use of lyophilized bead reagents for the detection of AIV RNA. The RRT-PCR with the bead reagents was more sensitive than the conventional wet reagents for the detection of AIV RNA. The IPC-based RRT-PCR detected inhibitors in blood, kidney, lungs, spleen, intestine, and cloacal swabs, but not allantoic fluid, serum, or tracheal swabs The accuracy of RRT-PCR test results with the lyophilized beads was tested on cloacal and tracheal swabs from experimental birds inoculated with AIV and compared with virus isolation (VI) on embryonating chicken eggs. There was 97 to 100% agreement of the RRT-PCR test results with VI for tracheal swabs and 81% agreement with VI for cloacal swabs, indicating a high level of accuracy of the RRT-PCR assay. The same IPC in the form of armored RNA was also used to monitor the extraction of viral RNA and subsequent detection by RRT-PCR.
The Impacts of Implementing ISO Certification 9000 Series on Productivity of Barez Industrial Group

Quality management systems especially ISO 9000 has gained great importance in today business with the purpose of offering higher value to the stakeholders. This retrospective study analyzed productivity records of the Barez Industrial Group consisted of eleven companies in Iran, from 1994 to 2001 by the means of Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS 15). One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test was used for data normality. The non-parametric 2-related samples Wilcoxon Test was performed. The results show that the implication of ISO 9000 series did not have any significant impact on productivity. The findings of this study show that if quality management systems are considered as a tool for achieving excellence and not as a goal, they can give maximum efficiency and effectiveness; otherwise they would give low or even negative efficiency and effectiveness. This study is based on real achievements not respondents' perceptions. This study will be useful for all sectors of business.
Explicit and Implicit Approach vs. Avoidance Tendencies towards High vs. Low Calorie Food Cues in Patients with Obesity and Active Binge Eating Disorder

Patients with binge eating disorder (BED) suffer from regular food binges with loss of control. This may be due to dysfunctional approach vs. avoidance tendencies towards food in BED. We applied an approach-avoidance task (AAT), in which n = 24 patients with obesity and active BED (OB-BED), n = 32 patients with obesity without current BED (OB), and n = 25 healthy controls (CO) either approached (“pulled”) or avoided (“pushed”) high (HC) vs. low calorie (LC) food pictures. We tested the hypothesis that OB-BED patients would show an approach bias (measured as different response times RT) towards HC food compared to the other groups. While there was no main effect for group or direction of movement, a significant main effect for calorie (p < 0.001; RT for HC significantly slower than for LC) was found. Repeated measures ANOVA (rm-ANOVA) for comparison of OB-BED vs. OB vs. CO revealed a significant three-fold interaction group × direction × calorie (p = 0.02). Against our hypothesis, the OB-BED group showed an avoidance bias for LC. In explicit ratings, OB-BED reported a significantly reduced urge to consume LC food compared to the OB group. Similar to OB-BED, CO also showed an avoidance bias for LC. The implications of our results are discussed and future directions in this field of research are presented.