Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ellipsometry and differential interference contrast microscopic imaging of cellular exoand endocytosis: modelling and experiments

In this work it is presented a solution to Maxwell’s equations for core-shell nanoparticle scattering near an isotropic substrate covered with an anisotropic thin film, based on an extension of the Bobbert-Vlieger (BV) solution for particle scattering near a substrate, delivering an exact solution in the near-field as well as far-field. It is applied successfully the developed scattering model to the calculation of light scattering on an optical model representing a lipid vesicle near a lipid bilayer, whereby the lipids are characterized through a uniaxial optical model. Hereby, it is paved the path for understanding quantitatively how light scatters during a cellular exoor endocytosis event during microscopic observation taking into account lipid induced anisotropy. Through the application of ellipsometry angles it is effectively demonstrated that realistically small optical anisotropy values significantly alter far-field optical scattering in respect to an equivalent optical model for cellular endocytosis consisting of isotropic components only. It is then calculated the impact of lipid-induced optical anisotropy on the experimental observation of exoor endocytic microscopic imaging with e.g. Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) microscopy. Furthermore, it is integrated this extended BV scattering solution into a rigorous model of DIC image formation which allows for characterizing DIC, through simulation, as a tool for imaging of exoor endocytosis events. It is also compared theoretical predictions with experimental high Numerical Aperture (NA) dic imaging of dielectric oxide nanoparticles with organic shell.
Partially methylated alleles, microdeletion, and tissue mosaicism in a fragile X male with tremor and ataxia at 30 years of age: A case report

CGG repeat expansion >200 within FMR1, termed full mutation (FM), has been associated with promoter methylation, consequent silencing of gene expression and fragile X syndrome (FXS)—a common cause of intellectual disability and co‐morbid autism. Unmethylated premutation (55–199 repeats) and FM alleles have been associated with fragile X related tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), a late onset neurodegenerative disorder. Here we present a 33‐year‐old male with FXS, with white matter changes and progressive deterioration in gait with cerebellar signs consistent with probable FXTAS; there was no evidence of any other cerebellar pathology. We show that he has tissue mosaicism in blood, saliva, and buccal samples for the size and methylation of his expanded alleles and a de novo, unmethylated microdeletion. This microdeletion involves a ∼80 bp sequence in the FMR1 promoter as well as complete loss of the CGG repeat in a proportion of cells. Despite FMR1 mRNA levels in blood within the normal range, the methylation and CGG sizing results are consistent with the diagnosis of concurrent FXS and probable FXTAS. The demonstrated presence of unmethylated FM alleles would explain the manifestation of milder than expected cognitive and behavioral impairments and early onset of cerebellar ataxia. Our case suggests that individuals with FXS, who manifest symptoms of FXTAS, may benefit from more detailed laboratory testing. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Alcohol and pregnancy

Alcohol exerts teratogenic effects in all the gestation times, with peculiar features in relationship to the trimester of pregnancy in which alcohol is assumed. Alcohol itself and its metabolites modify DNA synthesis, cellular division, cellular migration and the fetal development. The characteristic facies of feto-alcoholic syndrome (FAS)-affected baby depends on the alcohol impact on skull facial development during the first trimester of pregnancy. In association there are cerebral damages with a strong defect of brain development up to the life incompatibility. Serious consequences on fetal health also depends on dangerous effects of alcohol exposure in the organogenesis of the heart, the bone, the kidney, sensorial organs, et al. It has been demonstrated that maternal binge drinking is a high factor risk of mental retardation and of delinquent behaviour. Unfortunately, a lower alcohol intake also exerts deleterious effects on fetal health. In several countries of the world there is a high alcohol use, and this habit is increased in the women. Therefore, correct information has to be given to avoid alcohol use by women in the preconceptional time and during the pregnancy. Preliminary results of a study performed by the authors show that over 80% of pregnant and puerperal women are not unaware that more than 2 glasses of alcohol/week ingested during pregnancy can create neurological abnormalities in the fetus. However, after the information provided on alcoholic fetopathy, all women are conscious of the damage caused by the use of alcohol to the fetus during pregnancy. This study confirms the need to provide detailed information on the negative effects of alcohol on fetal health. Proceedings of the 9 th International Workshop on Neonatology · Cagliari (Italy) · October 23 rd -26 th , 2013 · Learned lessons, changing practice and cutting-edge research
Nationwide surveillance of resistance rates of Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates from Greek hospitals, 2012–2013

Abstract Purpose To evaluate the in vitro efficacy of several anti-staphylococcal agents against a nationwide collection of contemporary Staphylococcus aureus clinical isolates from several healthcare centres in Greece. Methods Thirty hospitals throughout Greece (18 in Attica) provided all clinical isolates of S.aureus from April 2012 to May 2013 to a central lab to be re-submitted to susceptibility testing. The MICs were evaluated by Vitek® 2 with the exception of ceftaroline (OXOID M.I.C. Evaluator™). Vancomycin and daptomycin MICs were also evaluated by Etest®. Heterogeneously vancomycin-intermediate strains (hVISA) were detected by the Etest® GRD. VISA phenotype was confirmed by PAP-AUC. Results A total of 1005 isolates (39% MRSA) were studied. Susceptibility rates were: erythromycin 66.5%, clindamycin 79.2%, SXT 98.9%, rifampicin 97.3%, fusidic acid 67%, moxifloxacin 78.8%, vancomycin 99.9%, ceftaroline 92.9% and linezolid, tigecycline and daptomycin 100%. For mupirocin, high level resistance could be excluded for 98.9% of isolates. Vancomycin Etest® MIC50/90 were 1.5/1.5 mg/L, 58.5% of isolates exhibited a MIC > 1 and 8.7% a MIC of 2 mg/L, while Vitek® MIC50/90 were 1/1 and 3.1% showed MIC > 1 mg/L. One VISA strain was detected. Among the selected 175 isolates that were screened for hVISA phenotype, six (3.4%) were positive. In 315 bloodstream isolates, 64.1% had a vancomycin Etest® MIC > 1 mg/L. Conclusions This multi-centre surveillance study revealed that a significant percentage of contemporary S.aureus isolates from Greek patients have a vancomycin MIC (> 1 mg/L) that may compromise the clinical efficacy of the drug for the treatment of serious infections. The in vitro activity of SXT, rifampicin, mupirocin, linezolid, tigecycline, daptomycin and ceftaroline remains excellent.
Object recognition from local scale-invariant features

An object recognition system has been developed that uses a new class of local image features. The features are invariant to image scaling, translation, and rotation, and partially invariant to illumination changes and affine or 3D projection. These features share similar properties with neurons in inferior temporal cortex that are used for object recognition in primate vision. Features are efficiently detected through a staged filtering approach that identifies stable points in scale space. Image keys are created that allow for local geometric deformations by representing blurred image gradients in multiple orientation planes and at multiple scales. The keys are used as input to a nearest neighbor indexing method that identifies candidate object matches. Final verification of each match is achieved by finding a low residual least squares solution for the unknown model parameters. Experimental results show that robust object recognition can be achieved in cluttered partially occluded images with a computation time of under 2 seconds.
The Hepatitis C Virus Core Protein Contains a BH3 Domain That Regulates Apoptosis through Specific Interaction with Human Mcl-1

ABSTRACT The hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein is known to modulate apoptosis and contribute to viral replication and pathogenesis. In this study, we have identified a Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3) domain in the core protein that is essential for its proapoptotic property. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments showed that the core protein interacts specifically with the human myeloid cell factor 1 (Mcl-1), a prosurvival member of the Bcl-2 family, but not with other prosurvival members (Bcl-XL and Bcl-w). Moreover, the overexpression of Mcl-1 protects against core-induced apoptosis. By using peptide mimetics, core was found to release cytochrome c from isolated mitochondria when complemented with Bad. Thus, core is a bona fide BH3-only protein having properties similar to those of Noxa, a BH3-only member of the Bcl-2 family that binds preferentially to Mcl-1. There are three critical hydrophobic residues in the BH3 domain of the core protein, and they are essential for the proapoptotic property of the core protein. Furthermore, the genotype 1b core protein is more effective than the genotype 2a core protein in inducing apoptosis due to a single-amino-acid difference at one of these hydrophobic residues (residue 119). Replacing this residue in the J6/JFH-1 infectious clone (genotype 2a) with the corresponding amino acid in the genotype 1b core protein produced a mutant virus, J6/JFH-1(V119L), which induced significantly higher levels of apoptosis in the infected cells than the parental J6/JFH-1 virus. Furthermore, the core protein of J6/JFH-1(V119L), but not that of J6/JFH-1, interacted with Mcl-1 in virus-infected cells. Taken together, the core protein is a novel BH3-only viral homologue that contributes to the induction of apoptosis during HCV infection.
Disk striping in video server environments

A growing number of applications need access to video data stored in digital form on secondary storage devices (e.g., video-on-demand, multimedia messaging). As a result, video servers that are responsible for the storage and retrieval, at fixed rates, of hundreds of videos from disks are becoming increasingly important. Since video data tends to be voluminous, several disks are usually used in order to store the videos. A challenge is to devise schemes for the storage and retrieval of videos that distribute the workload evenly across disks, reduce the cost of the server and at the same time, provide good response times to client requests for video data. We present schemes that are based on striping videos (fine-grained as well as coarse-grained) across disks in order to effectively utilize the disk bandwidth. For the schemes, we show how an optimal-cost server architecture can be determined if data for a certain pre-specified number of videos is to be concurrently retrieved. The schemes provide good response times in environments in which the number of concurrent client requests is not much larger than the number of videos that can be concurrently retrieved by the server.
An Allosteric Mechanism for Drug Block of the Human Cardiac Potassium Channel KCNQ1

The intracellular aspect of the sixth transmembrane segment within the ion-permeating pore is a common binding site for many voltage-gated ion channel blockers. However, the exact site(s) at which drugs bind remain controversial. We used extensive site-directed mutagenesis coupled with molecular modeling to examine mechanisms in drug block of the human cardiac potassium channel KCNQ1. A total of 48 amino acid residues in the S6 segment, S4-S5 linker, and the proximal C-terminus of the KCNQ1 channel were mutated individually to alanine; alanines were mutated to cysteines. Residues modulating drug block were identified when mutant channels displayed <50% block on exposure to drug concentrations that inhibited wild-type current by ≥90%. Homology modeling of the KCNQ1 channel based on the Kv1.2 structure unexpectedly predicted that the key residue modulating drug block (F351) faces away from the permeating pore. In the open-state channel model, F351 lines a pocket that also includes residues L251 and V254 in S4-S5 linker. Docking calculations indicated that this pocket is large enough to accommodate quinidine. To test this hypothesis, L251A and V254A mutants were generated that display a reduced sensitivity to blockage with quinidine. Thus, our data support a model in which open state block of this channel occurs not via binding to a site directly in the pore but rather by a novel allosteric mechanism: drug access to a side pocket generated in the open-state channel configuration and lined by S6 and S4-S5 residues.
Longitudinal Trajectories of Television Watching Across Childhood and Adolescence Predict Bone Mass at Age 20 Years in the Raine Study

Sedentary behaviors such as watching television (TV) are associated with increased risk of cardiometabolic disease. The effects of TV watching during key developmental stages on skeletal health are uncertain. Hours of TV watching/week were recorded by parental or self‐report at 5, 8, 10, 14, 17, and 20 years of age in 1181 members (48% female) of a pregnancy cohort (the Raine Study). Participants were classified into one of three TV‐watching trajectories (using latent class analysis): low (consistently <14 h/week; 20.3%), high (consistently ≥14 h/week; 44.4%), or increasing (increased from <14 to ≥14 h/week during adolescence; 35.3%). General linear models tested associations between TV trajectory and bone mineral content (BMC) measured at age 20 years using dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry. After adjustment for height, body mass, physical activity, calcium intake, serum 25‐hydroxyvitamin D levels, alcohol, and smoking (all at age 20 years), males in the low TV‐watching trajectory had greater BMC for whole body (mean ± SEM, 3338 ± 59 g versus 3111 ± 31 g), legs (612 ± 12 g versus 569 ± 6 g), and arms (234 ± 5 g versus 214 ± 3 g) than those in the high TV‐watching trajectory. Differences between low and high TV‐watching trajectories were similar for females. BMC in the increasing TV‐watching trajectory also differed for both sexes, for example males in the increasing TV‐watching trajectory had greater whole‐body BMC (3252 ± 38 g) than males in the high TV‐watching trajectory (3111 ± 31 g) but less arm BMC (218 ± 3 g) than those in the low TV‐watching trajectory (234 ± 5 g). In this community‐based cohort, consistently high TV watching during childhood and adolescence independently predicted reduced peak bone mass at age 20 years. Because attainment of optimal peak bone mass is protective against osteoporosis in later life, reducing sedentary time in children may have long‐term skeletal benefits. © 2016 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
The predictive value of gastric reactance for postoperative morbidity and mortality in cardiac surgery patients

No useful method to directly monitor the level of end organ tissue injury is currently available clinically. Gastric reactance has been proposed to measure changes in a tissue structure caused by ischemia. The purpose of this study was to assess whether gastric reactance is a reliable, clinically relevant predictor of complications and a potentially useful tool to assess hypoperfusion in cardiovascular surgery patients. The value of gastric reactance measurements, standard hemodynamic and regional perfusion variables, and scores to predict postoperative complications were compared in 55 higher risk cardiovascular surgery patients with cardiopulmonary bypass. Low frequency gastric reactance, XL, had a significant predictive value of postoperative persistent shock requiring more than 48 h of vasopressors and associated complications, before, during and after surgery (p < 0.05). Results suggest that reactance is an earlier predictor of patients at risk than all other variables tested. Patients with a high reactance (XL > 26) before surgery had a significantly higher incidence of complications, higher mortality and more days in the ICU than patients with a low reactance (XL < 13). XL was found to be a reliable and clinically relevant measurement. These results justify further clinical research to explore how this information may be used to improve patient management.
Cone‐rod dystrophy, growth hormone deficiency and spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia: Report of a new case without nephronophtisis

Cone-Rod Dystrophy, Growth Hormone Deficiency and Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia: Report of a New Case Without Nephronophtisis Bertrand Isidor, Martine Le Merrer, Emmanuelle Ramos, Sabine Baron, and Albert David* Clinical Genetic Department, Nantes University Hospital, Nantes, France Clinical Genetic Department, Necker Hospital, Paris, France Pediatric Endocrinology Department, Nantes University Hospital, Nantes, France
63 EFFECTS OF NITROGEN , ORGANIC MANURE AND BIOFERTILIZER APPLICATIONS ON STRAWBERRY PLANTS . I-VEGETATIVE GROWTH , FLOWERING AND CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF LEAVES

In the two successive summer seasons of 1999/2000 and 2000/2001, studies were carried out on sandy soils under a drip irrigation system, at the Experimental Station Farm, South Tahrir, Horticultural Research Station, situated at Behiera Governorate. The objectives of these experiments were to investigate the responses of strawberry plants (Camarosa cultivar) to different levels of nitrogen (0, 200, 300 and 400 kg N fed. -1 ), organic manure (0, 15, 20 and 25 m 3 fed. -1 ) and biofertilizer treatments (inoculation with or without “Halex-2”) as well as their interactions on vegetative growth , flowering characters, and chemical constituents of strawberry plants. The obtained results, generaly, indicated that the incremental additions of inorganic nitrogen or chicken manure rates led to significant increases for number of leaves plant -1 , leaf area plant -1 , fresh and dry masses plant -1 , No of flower trusses plant -1 , in addition to chlorophyll and N contents of leaves. Nevertheless, leaf’s K content and earliness of flowering responded significantly and negatively to such treatments. The inoculation of strawberry transplants with “Halex-2” biofertilizer improved all studied vegetative and flowering traits. Chlorophyll and N contents of the leaves, also, increased; but leaf’s K content did not reflect significant differences. In general, under the conditions of the present study, most of the vegetative growth and flowering characters of Camarosa cultivar could be improved through the use of “Halex-2” biofertilizer J. Agric. & Env. Sci. Alex. Univ., Egypt. Vol. 2 ( 2 ) 2003 63 inoculation combined with 300 kg N fed. -1 or 25 m 3 chicken
Towards the Semantic Web: Collaborative Tag Suggestions

Content organization over the Internet went through several interesting phases of evolution: from structured directories to unstructured Web search engines and more recently, to tagging as a way for aggregating information, a step towards the semantic web vision. Tagging allows ranking and data organization to directly utilize inputs from end users, enabling machine processing of Web content. Since tags are created by individual users in a free form, one important problem facing tagging is to identify most appropriate tags, while eliminating noise and spam. For this purpose, we define a set of general criteria for a good tagging system. These criteria include high coverage of multiple facets to ensure good recall, least effort to reduce the cost involved in browsing, and high popularity to ensure tag quality. We propose a collaborative tag suggestion algorithm using these criteria to spot high-quality tags. The proposed algorithm employs a goodness measure for tags derived from collective user authorities to combat spam. The goodness measure is iteratively adjusted by a reward-penalty algorithm, which also incorporates other sources of tags, e.g., content-based auto-generated tags. Our experiments based on My Web 2.0 show that the algorithm is effective.
Biofouling in reverse and forward osmosis membrane systems

Global freshwater demand has significantly increased over the past century and continued growth is expected in the coming century. Since more than 97 percent of the water in the world is seawater, desalination technologies have the potential to solve the fresh water crisis. Currently, the most used desalination technology is reverse osmosis, where a semipermeable membrane is used to separate the salt from the water. The driving force of reverse osmosis desalination is hydraulic pressure, which has to be greater than the osmotic pressure of the seawater. Due to the high hydraulic pressure reverse osmosis has a high energy demand. Lately, hybrid desalination systems, e.g. indirect desalination with forward osmosis combined with low pressure reverse osmosis are getting more importance. Forward osmosis is also a membrane based process that uses the osmotic pressure difference as driving force. One of the main advantages of forward osmosis is the limited amount of external energy requirement compared to reverse osmosis. The major problem of membrane desalination process is fouling, the accumulation of unwanted material on the membrane surface, causing performance decline and increase of costs. Several types of fouling can occur in membrane processes, biofouling (microbial biofilm formation), scaling (mineral salt precipitation), organic fouling (deposition of organic macromolecules) and colloidal fouling (deposition of particulate matter). In practice biofouling is considered as the major problem in membrane systems.
Study on dual-monomer melt-grafted poly(lactic acid) compatibilized poly(lactic acid)/polyamide 11 blends and toughened melt-blown nonwovens

With increasing demands on the high-performance and environmental-friendly melt-blown nonwovens (MBs) for separation and filtration, herein, we reported a poly(lactic acid)/polyamide 11 (PLA/PA11) 100% bio-based MBs in situ compatibilized by dual-monomer glycidyl methacrylate–styrene melt-grafted poly(lactic acid) (PLA-g-(St-co-GMA)). The morphology, crystallization, thermal and rheological behaviors of reactive extruded PLA/PA11/PLA-g-(St-co-GMA) melt blends were investigated, and the structure and filtration performance of corresponding MBs were fully characterized. The results indicated that the interface between PLA and PA11 were effectively improved due to the compatibilizer of PLA-g-(St-co-GMA). PA11 promoted the cold crystallization and enhanced the thermal stability of PLA matrix. The reactive blends displayed a higher viscosity with unchanged rheological behaviors compared with PLA. In comparison with PLA MBs, the average fiber diameter and pore size of PLA/PA11/PLA-g-(St-co-GMA) MBs were slightly increased, whereas the strength and toughness were significantly improved. All the PLA/PA11/PLA-g-(St-co-GMA) MBs presented high air permeability and low filtration resistance. High filtration efficiency (>99.8%) could also be obtained especially for the target particles with diameters larger than 2.5 µm.