Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pressor response induced by central angiotensin II is mediated by activation of Rho/Rho-kinase pathway via AT1 receptors

Objectives The brain renin–angiotensin system plays an important role in cardiovascular regulation and the pathogenesis of hypertension. Angiotensin II activates the Rho/Rho-kinase pathway in vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes in vitro. The aim of the present study was to determine whether angiotensin II in the brainstem activates the Rho/Rho-kinase pathway, and, if so, whether this mechanism is involved in the central pressor action of angiotensin II. Methods and results Angiotensin II infused intracisternally for 7 days in Wistar–Kyoto rats (WKY) increased systolic blood pressure (SBP) and urinary norepinephrine excretion. These responses were abolished by the co-infusion of Y-27632, a specific Rho-kinase inhibitor, or valsartan. The intracisternal infusion of Y-27632 or valsartan also reduced SBP and norepinephrine excretion in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Western blot analysis was performed to examine the expression levels of membranous RhoA and phosphorylated ezrin, radixin, and moesin (p-ERM), which reflects Rho/Rho-kinase activity. The expression levels of membranous RhoA and p-ERM in the brainstem were significantly greater in both angiotensin II-treated WKY and SHR than in vehicle-treated WKY. Valsartan reduced the expression levels of membranous RhoA and p-ERM in angiotensin II-treated WKY and SHR. Y-27632 reduced the expression levels of p-ERM in angiotensin II-treated WKY and SHR. Conclusions These results suggest that the pressor response induced by intracisternally infused angiotensin II is substantially mediated by the activation of the Rho/Rho-kinase pathway via AT1 receptors of the brainstem in WKY, and that this pathway might be involved in the hypertensive mechanisms of SHR.
Clinical usefulness of CT in the treatment of stage I endometrial carcinoma.

This retrospective study was aimed at assessing Computed Tomography (CT) capabilities in identifying low- and high-risk groups of clinical stage I endometrial carcinoma patients. CT of the pelvis was performed on 125 endometrial carcinoma patients who were divided into two groups based on T (stage and depth of myometrial invasion) and N (lymph node status) parameters. All patients had histologic evidence of well/moderately-differentiated adenocarcinoma (G1-G2). The low-risk group consisted of stage I patients with superficial myometrial involvement and no lymphadenopathy, while the high-risk group consisted of the patients with deep myometrial invasion and/or stage II and/or positive lymph nodes. All patients were operated on-i.e., total abdominal hysterectomy with vaginal cuff, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy. The patients were followed-up for 36 months at least. On the basis of CT findings, 85 patients were included in the low-risk group, but 11 misstaged cases were found at surgery in which lymphadenectomy never changed the factor risk. Only four relapses (4.7%) were observed in this group. Forty patients were included in the high-risk group: CT misstaged 20 cases and 12 relapses (30%) were observed. This study demonstrates the clinical value of CT in the assessment of radiologic risk factors in stage I endometrial carcinoma; CT findings can be used as guidelines for different treatments.
Investigation of the Effects of Chirped RZ Signals in Reducing the Transmission Impairments in R-SOA-Based Bidirectional PONs

Distributed and concentrated reflections represent the two main limitations in reflective-semiconductor optical amplifier (R-SOA)-based passive optical networks (PONs). In this paper, we experimentally discuss how the use of chirped signals in centralized light seeding bidirectional PON can increase the resilience of the system against those two types of reflections. An experimental comparison of the performance of a highly chirped return to zero (RZ) modulation format and the nonreturn to zero is given. Error-free operation is achieved down to 10 dB of signal to crosstalk ratio in presence of distributed reflection, when the upstream signal is highly chirped RZ signal. The same chirped modulation leads to a tolerance of more than -25 dB network return loss due to concentrated reflections. Finally, we assess also the system feasibility of a R-SOA-based full-duplex PON where both the upstream and the downstream are modulated signals.
Substance Use and Sexual Behavior Among Men Prior to Parole Revocation

Men’s risk behavior during a 3-month period prior to parole revocation was assessed. Frequent alcohol use was higher among men who had more children, were homeless, or had a history of alcohol and other drug abuse treatment. The use of drugs was greater among men who were younger or had a history of sexually transmitted infection (STI). The use of hard drugs was higher among men who had history of injection drug use. Unprotected vaginal or anal sex was increased among men who were younger, single, or had a history of STIs. Sex with a high-risk partner was greater among men who were older, used hard drugs, or had a history of STIs. Findings highlight the importance of developing risk-reduction programs for men on parole.
Mutations Affecting Gonadotropin Secretion and Action

A number of mutations are known to disturb the development and function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. They affect hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal function at multiple levels, from the migration of gonadotropin releasing hormone neurons to the hypothalamus right through to gonadotropin action in the ovary and testis. Most of the mutations are inactivating, causing various forms of hypogonadism. Exceptions are the activating mutations of the luteinizing hormone receptor, causing male-limited gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty. The human mutations and genetically modified animal models have clarified the molecular pathogenesis of hypogonadism and such disorders can now be diagnosed using molecular biological techniques, enabling selection of specific treatments and appropriate counselling of patients and their families.
A half-loop antenna with dual band-notched characteristics using three parallel line elements

In this paper, we propose an antenna which consists of some line elements with the dual band-notched characteristics. The structure is based on a half-loop antenna placed over a ground plane. The proposed antenna is not complex in comparison with traditional line antennas, and makes the desired frequency response. Moreover, it can be manufactured easily and at low cost.
Evaluation of treatment for gastric cancer with liver metastasis

In 161 cases of gastric cancer with liver metastasis but without peritoneal dissemination, evaluations were executed to find effective treatment. The most favorable results with best prognosis were obtained in the group receiving gastrectomy + hepatectomy + chemotherapy, followed by gastrectomy + chemotherapy, and gastrectomy alone. The most unfavorable outcome was in nonresected cases. Chief chemotherapy to be used after gastrectomy was FML (5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU) + mitomycin C [MMC] + lentinan) continuous intra‐arterial infusion. Hepatectomy was found to be effective as an active measure for tumor reduction in cases of liver metastasis so far as the metastatic lesions are only a few scattered ones in both lobes.
Reward-based Incentive Mechanisms for Delay Tolerant Networks

Delay tolerant networking (DTN) [1] is an architecture that promotes data transmission even in absence of end-to-end connectivity at a given time. In DTNs, forwarding of a message is performed through mobile nodes in an opportunistic manner. To cope with intermittent connectivity and to increase delivery rate, DTN routing protocols commonly appeal to multi-copy forwarding, that is the message is replicated to relay nodes and it is delivered if one of the copies reaches the destination. The two-hop routing scheme [2], which we consider in this paper, allows the source to forward copies of the message to any idle node in contact, and a relay that receives the message from the source can transmit it only to the destination. However, in DTN applications, when mobile devices are controlled by selfish owners, DTN nodes can be unwilling to spend their own resources serving as relays or can try to gain benefits from cooperation. Some form of virtual currency is proposed by creditbased incentive mechanisms [3] to encourage communication among different nodes in DTNs. The studies in this work are centred on such type of incentives, namely addressing the reward-based incentive scheme introduced in [4] for two-hop routing. Each node that accepts the message has a certain probability to reach the destination, and the incentive scheme proposes to reward the relay that is the first one to deliver. The success probability and expected reward estimated by a relay depend on certain informations that the source announces to a relay in contact. This paper investigates the impact of the announced information on the expected reward the source has to pay, and the aim is to find a reward policy for the source that is optimal in costs. The results are obtained in two cases. First, for two relays and a decreasing density function of intercontact times between relays and the source (destination), it is shown that the optimal reward policy corresponds with adapting the information the source can give to the relays. This adaptive strategy is shown to be of threshold type. Second, for an arbitrary number of relays and exponentially distributed inter-contact times, it is proved that the expected reward the source has to pay remains the same within fixed setting of informing the relays. The source can, however, reduce the expected reward, by adapting the announced information according to the meeting times with the relays.
SOMATIC AFFERENT INFLUENCE ON RESPIRATION *

Our interest in the somatic afferent influence on respiration lies in its possible role in exercise hyperpnea. In previous studieslI2 a cross circulation technique was used to separate t,he neural and humoral factors which stimulate breathing during muscular work. The hind limbs of one dog (the neural dog) were perfused exclusively by blood from a second dog (the humoral dog) (FIGURE 1) . When these limbs were exercised, ventilation of both dogs increased though in neither one was the increment in ventilation as great as in intact dogs for similar increment of oxygen consumption. The ventilatory response of the humoral dog could be accounted for by the humoral factors produced in the working tissues, which stimulated its ventilation through the chemosensitive areas of the head and not the recently postulated venous chemoreceptors. ~ The increase in ventilation in the neural dog when its hind limbs were exercised was accompanied by hypocapnia which might be expected to have inhibitory effect to ventilation. It was predicted that if the arterial PCoI in the head of the neural dog was prevented from falling during exercise, then the ventilatory response of this dog would simulate that seen in the intact animal. The present investigations were carried out to test this prediction and to examine more closely the interaction of COz with this neural exercise stimulus to ventilation. Some observations pertinent to the nature of the neural stimulus will also be discussed.
Peripheral Endovascular Interventions in the Era of Precision Medicine

An “endovascular-first” strategy has been widely adopted in the treatment of symptomatic occlusive peripheral artery disease (PAD). This shift in clinical practice is largely attributed to growing revascularization technologies, improved training in endovascular skills across specialties, and advancements in vascular imaging. There is no highlevel evidence to guide decision making with respect to which patients are appropriate candidates for percutaneous vascular interventions (PVIs) and which treatments are best suited for a particular patient or lesion type. The “endovascular-first” strategy has recently come into question based on growing evidence linking PVI failure to worse outcomes with secondary bypass grafting, highlighting the importance of patient selection. Clinicians hoped that the recently published, long-awaited update to the TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus–II (TASC-II) guidelines would provide direction on optimal treatment strategies. Unfortunately, this consensus document no longer makes treatment recommendations due to a paucity of evidence. The current evidence is primarily based on observational studies without adequate long-term follow-up. Even the relevance of the BASIL trial, the only multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) to compare bypass surgery to PVI, is questioned. The PVI group in this study received only balloon angioplasty, which no longer reflects modern endovascular treatment strategies. There are inherent limitations to the utility of long, expensive RCTs when the treatment arms no longer reflect rapidly evolving clinical practice. Without formal guidelines, physicians currently must resort to a combination of “trial-and-error” and a “use what’s in stock” approach to patient, wire, and device selection. This has been implicated in poor outcomes, including high technical failure and reintervention rates. In this article, we speculate on how plaque pathophysiology and morphology might facilitate an objective, tailored approach to wire, drug, and device selection. Yahagi et al recently updated their modified American Heart Association classification scheme for atherosclerotic lesions. Using this classification scheme, we take a mechanistic approach to discussing adjunctive wire, drug, and device selection considerations for specific plaque morphologies.
Theoretical and experimental study of Air-Ground cooperative navigation

The Air-Ground robots cooperation has much superiority for they are function complementary, which is very important for the application. Thus, more and more attentions have been paid to the Air-Ground cooperation researches. One of the important cooperation modes is that with its wide environment perception the aerial robot supplies the navigation information for the ground robot. Based on the problem, theory and experiment are studied in this paper. The environmental modeling and target identification based on the airborne CCD sensor are first researched. Then the window tracking method is proposed to achieve the target tracking. In the final, the motion based cooperative collision avoidance experiment is set to verify the proposed method.
Letter in response to Drs Lee and Hoge's commentary

Dear editor, We are pleased to respond to Drs Lee and Hoge's1 commentary on our randomised controlled trial (RCT) published in JAMA (a summary of the original article can be found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26241597). 2 While we readily acknowledge several limitations to the study, Drs Lee and Hoge have failed to consider or acknowledge several aspects of the study and its results. The main concern with Lee and Hoge's critique is its focus on a single time-point of data that seems to invite readers to ignore all other data. Lee and Hoge argue that the lack of a statistically significant difference between groups at post-treatment equates, of necessity, to a lack of evidence of effectiveness. The authors neglect to consider that despite appropriate randomisation procedures, which they commend, there were significant differences between groups on baseline PTSD symptoms. Participants in the mindfulness-based stress reduction group had significantly greater severity of baseline PTSD symptoms than those in the present-centred therapy group as measured …
Sequencing from Compomers: Using Mass Spectrometry for DNA de novo Sequencing of 200+ nt

One of the main endeavors in today's life science remains the efficient sequencing of long DNA molecules. Today, most de novo sequencing of DNA is still performed using the electrophoresis-based Sanger concept of 1977, in spite of certain restrictions of this method. Methods using mass spectrometry to acquire the Sanger sequencing data are limited by short sequencing lengths of 15-25 nt. We propose a new method for DNA sequencing using base-specific cleavage and mass spectrometry that appears to be a promising alternative to classical DNA sequencing approaches. A single stranded DNA or RNA molecule is cleaved by a base-specific (bio-)chemical reaction using, for example, RNAses. The cleavage reaction is modified such that not all, but only a certain percentage of bases are cleaved. The resulting mixture of fragments is then analyzed using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, whereby we acquire the molecular masses of fragments. For every peak in the mass spectrum, we calculate those base compositions that will potentially create a peak of the observed mass and, repeating the cleavage reaction for all four bases, finally try to uniquely reconstruct the underlying sequence from these observed spectra. This leads us to the combinatorial problem of sequencing from compomers and, finally, to the graph-theoretical problem of finding a walk in a subgraph of the de Bruijn graph. Application of this method to simulated data indicates that it might be capable of sequencing DNA molecules with 200+ nt.
Risk Factors for Spinal Surgical-Site Infections in a Community Hospital: A Case–Control Study

Abstract Objective: To characterize risk factors for surgical-site infection after spinal surgery. Design: A case–control study. Setting: A 113-bed community hospital. Method: From January 1998 through June 2000, the incidence of surgical-site infection in patients undergoing laminectomy, spinal fusion surgery, or both increased at community hospital. A We compared 13 patients who acquired surgical-site infections after laminectomy, spinal fusion surgery, or both with 47 patients who were operated on during the same time period but did not acquire a surgical-site infection. Information collected included demographics, risk factors, personnel involved in the operations, length of hospital stay, and hospital costs. Results: Of 13 case-patients, 9 (69%) were obese, 9 (69%) had spinal compression, 5 (38.5%) had a history of tobacco use, and 4 (31%) had diabetes. Oxacillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (6 of 13; 46%) was the most common organism isolated. Significant risk factors for postoperative spinal surgical-site infection were dural tear during the surgical procedure and the use of glue to cement the dural patch (3 of 13 [23%] vs 1 of 47 [2.1%] ; P = .02) and American Society of Anesthesiologists risk class of 3 or more (6 of 13 [46.2%] vs 7 of 47 [15%]; P = .02). Case-patients were more likely to have prolonged length of stay (median, 16 vs 4 days; P < .001). The average excess length of stay was 11 days and the excess cost per case was $12,477. Conclusion: Dural tear and the use of glue should be evaluated as potential risk factors for spinal surgical-site infection. Systematic observation for potential lapses in sterile technique and surgical processes that may increase the risk of infection may help prevent spinal surgical-site infection.
IMMUNOLOGICAL RESPONSES OF PACIFIC HAGFISH: I. Skin Transplantation Immunity1

The capacity to recognize and reject skin allografts was found to be well developed in hagfish, a very primitive vertebrate morphologically. Chronic allograft rejection characteristic of weaker histocompatibility barriers was the rule in hagfish even at a “summer” ocean temperature of 18–19 C. The sequence of observed inflammatory reactions, including lymphocyte infiltration, capillary hemorrhage, and pigment cell destruction, was typical of that seen accompanying skin allograft destruction in other vertebrates. First-set grafts showed a median survival time of 72 days compared to 28 days for second-set grafts at 18–19 C. However, when repeat grafts were placed soon after first-set rejection, acute rejection occurred after only 14 days. Accelerated second-set reactions revealed the induction of specific immunity as well as persistent immunological memory. As in higher vertebrates, such anamnesis may conversely result in enhanced survival of repeat grafts under certain conditions. Since hagfish can also give serum antibody responses to xenogeneic antigens, their usually prolonged allotransplantation reactions, like those of many more advanced vertebrates, need not necessarily be regarded as a model of immunological primitiveness.
The immunomodulatory glycan LNFPIII initiates alternative activation of murine macrophages in vivo

The early pathogen–macrophage interactions that help drive macrophage maturation towards classically or alternatively activated are largely unknown. To examine this question we utilized the immunomodulatory glycan Lacto‐N‐fucopentaose III (LNFPIII), which contains the Lewis X (LeX) trisaccharide, to activate murine peritoneal macrophages in vivo. Because LNFPIII is known to induce anti‐inflammatory responses, we asked if LNFPIII stimulation of macrophages in vivo initiates alternative activation events such as upregulation of Arginase 1, Ym1, FIZZ‐1, MGL‐1 or macrophage mannose receptor (MMR). Examination of peritoneal exudate cells from mice 20 hr post‐LNFPIII injection demonstrated increased Arginase 1 activity, at the mRNA and protein levels, coincident with undetectable inducible nitric oxide synthase expression or nitric oxide production. In addition to Arginase 1, Ym1 expression was also significantly upregulated at 20 and 48 hr after LNFPIII exposure in vivo. However, the expression of FIZZ‐1, MGL‐1, and MMR was not changed in these macrophages. In an attempt to determine activation requirements for functional activity, we adoptively transferred antigen‐pulsed, in vivo LNFPIII activated macrophages into naïve recipients and found that they were capable of triggering recipient T cells to secrete elevated levels of interleukin (IL)‐10 and IL‐13 compared to mice receiving control macrophages. Together, these data demonstrate that upregulation of expression of Arginase 1 and Ym1 occur very early in activation of macrophages, and can be independent of other alternatively activated (AA) macrophage markers. Importantly, these early events appear to be IL‐4/IL‐13‐independent in our model. In the future we hope to determine if upregulation of these initial AA maturational events is sufficient for these macrophages to exert immunoregulatory activity in vivo.
Antibody‐dependent cellular cytotoxicity in HIV infections

ADCC is an important immune effector mechanism against tumor and virus‐infected cells that can be destroyed by the combined action of specific antibodies of IgG isotype against cell surface‐associated antigens and effector cells, predominantly of the NK phenotype. ADCC has been shown to function in vivo in several systems. With regard to HIV, it can be readily demonstrated in vitro against the viral envelope proteins with serum and/or effector cells obtained from HIV‐infected subjects. Several studies have demonstrated that the titers of the env‐specific ADCC‐mediating antibodies decrease in the sera of HIV‐infected individuals as the infection progresses toward AIDS. The cells that mediate ADCC also become functionally compromised in these individuals in early stages of the infection, thus depriving the host of the potential benefits of this process. Restoration of this process in the infected individuals by the administration of functionally competent effector cells (in vitro expanded and lym‐phokine‐activated killer cells) and ADCC‐mediating antibodies (hyperimmune serum or appropriate monoclonal antibodies), alone or in combination, may help slow the disease progress. Because of the multicomponent nature of the process, ADCC‐mediating antibodies may prove a better correlate of protection and prognosis than the virus‐specific neutralizing antibodies and cytotoxic T cells in assessing anti‐HIV immunization and immunotherapy. FASEB J. 10, 258‐266 (1996)