Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Magnesium depletion triggers production of an immune modulating diterpenoid in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the causative agent of the human disease Tuberculosis, and remains a worldwide health threat responsible for ∼ 1.7 million deaths annually. During infection, Mtb prevents acidification of the engulfing phagosome, thus blocking endocytic progression and eventually leading to stable residence. The diterpenoid metabolite isotuberculosinol (isoTb) exhibits biological activity indicative of a role in this early arrest of phagosome maturation. Presumably, isoTb production should be induced by phagosomal entry. However, the relevant enzymatic genes are not transcriptionally upregulated during engulfment. Previous examination of the initial biosynthetic enzyme (Rv3377c/MtHPS) involved in isoTb biosynthesis revealed striking inhibition by its Mg2+ cofactor, leading to the hypothesis that the depletion of Mg2+ observed upon phagosomal engulfment may act to trigger isoTb biosynthesis. While Mtb is typically grown in relatively high levels of Mg2+ (0.43 mM), shifting Mtb to media with phagosomal levels (0.1 mM) led to a significant (∼ 10‐fold) increase in accumulation of the MtHPS product, halimadienyl diphosphate, as well as easily detectable amounts of the derived bioactive isoTb. These results demonstrate isoTb production by Mtb specifically under conditions that mimic phagosomal cation concentrations, and further support a role for isoTb in the Mtb infection process.
Prevalence, clinical characteristics, and risk factors for insomnia in the context of breast cancer.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To estimate the prevalence of insomnia, describe clinical characteristics of sleep difficulties, assess the influence of cancer on the insomnia course, and identify potential risk factors involved in the development of insomnia among women who had received radiotherapy for non metastatic breast cancer. DESIGN A sample of 300 consecutive women who had been treated with radiotherapy for non metastatic breast cancer first completed an insomnia screening questionnaire. Participants who reported sleep difficulties were subsequently interviewed over the phone to evaluate further the nature, severity, duration, and course of their insomnia. SETTING N/A. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS N/A. INTERVENTIONS N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Nineteen percent (n=56) of the participants met diagnostic criteria for an insomnia syndrome. In most cases (95%), insomnia was chronic. The onset of insomnia followed the breast cancer diagnosis in 33% of the patients and 58% of the patients reported that cancer either caused or aggravated their sleep difficulties. Factors associated with an increased risk for insomnia were sick leave, unemployment, widowhood, lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and a less severe cancer stage at diagnosis. Among women with insomnia symptoms, the risk to meet diagnostic criteria for an insomnia syndrome was higher in those who were separated and had a university degree. CONCLUSIONS Insomnia is a prevalent and often chronic problem in breast cancer patients. Although it is not always a direct consequence of cancer, pre-existing sleep difficulties are often aggravated by cancer. It is therefore important to better screen breast cancer patients with insomnia and offer them an appropriate treatment.
Patients at Risk for Peritoneal Surface Malignancy of Colorectal Cancer Origin: The Role of Second Look Laparotomy

Peritoneal surface malignancy (PSM) is a frequent occurrence in the natural history of colorectal cancer (CRC). Although significant advances have been made in screening of CRC, similar progress has yet to be made in the early detection of PSM of colorectal cancer origin. The fact that advanced CRC can be confined to the peritoneal surface without distant dissemination forms the basis for aggressive multi-modality therapy consisting of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) plus hyperthermic intra-peritoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), and neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant systemic therapy. Reported overall survival with complete CRS+HIPEC exceeds that of systemic therapy alone for the treatment of PSM from CRC, underscoring the advantage of this multi-modality therapeutic approach. Patients with limited peritoneal disease from CRC can undergo complete cytoreduction, which is associated with the best reported outcomes. As early or limited peritoneal carcinomatosis is undetectable by conventional imaging modalities, second look laparotomy is an important means to identify disease in high-risk patients at a stage most amenable to complete cytoreduction. This review focuses on the identification of patients at risk for PSM from CRC and discusses the role of second look laparotomy.
The Use of Traditional Healing in South Asian Psychiatric Patients in the U.K.: Interactions between Professional and Folk Psychiatries

The use of traditional healing and traditional healers among ethnic minority psychiatric patients remains little explored in the U.K. Using qualitative and quantitative methodology, this article examines the use of traditional healing among 25 South Asian psychiatric patients in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Twenty-eight percent of the sample had resorted to a traditional healer during their psychiatric illness. Five case studies are presented which illustrate the various forms of traditional healing used. Although the numbers are small, the study suggests that South Asian psychiatric patients in Britain do resort to traditional forms of healing in collaboration with western psychiatric treatments. Asian patients use a number of treatments concurrently, although they may often not always understand how the treatments work. Humoral theories are commonly posited to explain mental illness and foods are commonly used in treatment. Only the age of the patient was significantly related to the use of a traditional healer. These findings are discussed in relation to globalization.
Comment Are Arterial Pressure and Deformation the Sole Determinants of Baroreceptor Activity ? Importance of Humoral and Endothelial Modulation in Normal and Disease States

A rterial baroreceptors located in the carotid si/ \ nuses and aortic arch play a major role in A. \ control of circulation and regulation of arterial pressure. Increased arterial pressure triggers increased frequency of baroreceptor discharge, which leads to reflex adjustments that buffer the rise in pressure. It is established that baroreceptors are not activated by increases in arterial pressure directly but instead are activated by the increased vascular stretch or strain that accompanies the rise in pressure. Mechanical deformation of the baroreceptor nerve endings is usually considered the primary or even the sole determinant of the frequency of baroreceptor discharge. Are there other factors besides deformation that are important in activation of baroreceptors? In this issue of Hypertension, Wang et al report that exposure of the vascularly isolated carotid sinus in anesthetized dogs to the hormone aldosterone suppresses activation of baroreceptors without a change in vascular stretch as measured with sonomicrometer crystals. What is the mechanism of aldosterone-induced suppression of baroreceptor activity? Wang et al demonstrate that the inhibitory effect of aldosterone is dependent on the presence of intact endothelium and is blocked by the aldosterone receptor antagonist spironolactone. The simplest scenario is that aldosterone binds to its receptor in endothelial cells and alters the release of a diffusable mediator that acts directly on baroreceptor neurons to modulate their sensitivity. This study is the first to show that aldosterone modulates baroreceptor activity and adds to the growing evidence that humoral and endothelial factors modulate to a significant extent the sensitivity of baroreceptors.
Collaborative efforts work! Reflections on a two- year relationship between Faculty of Health and International Student Services - Language and Learning Unit

This paper is a personal reflection on a two-year collaborative initiative between the International Student Services Language and Learning Unit and the Faculty of Health at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) from the viewpoint of the coordinating Academic Language and Learning (ALL) practitioner. The initiative was underpinned by a number of policy “push factors” including: the First Year in Higher Education Principles of Transition Pedagogy (Kift, Nelson, & Clarke, 2010); the Good Practice Principles (GPP); and AUQA/TEQSA auditing criteria (DEEWR, 2009; Harper, Prentice, & Wilson, 2011; Murray, 2010). It identifies the factors, institutional and personal, which have contributed to a successful collaboration and addresses the tensions the ALL practitioner experienced as she journeyed through the project.
Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase is involved in PMA-induced activation of HIV-1 in U1 cells by modulating the LTR function.

Phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-induced HIV-1 production in U1 cells was markedly suppressed by inhibitors of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Northern blot analysis revealed that the PARP-inhibitors suppressed the virus production at a level of transcription. In order to examine the effect of PARP on transcriptional regulation of HIV-1 genes, we transfected a reporter plasmid containing HIV-1-LTR-promoted luciferase gene to L-1210 cell clones, which expressed varying decreased level of PARP. In wild type L-1210 cells, the expression of LTR-promoted luciferase gene was stimulated approximately 4-fold in response to PMA, whereas the PMA-dependent response was almost abolished in mutant cells, which expressed only 8% of PARP of the wild type cells. The effect of decrease in PARP content on the function of HIV-1-LTR was confirmed also in human wild type cells, Jurkat and J111, which were co-transfected with the reporter plasmid and a plasmid expressing a PARP-antisense RNA: Down-regulation of PARP in the cells by the expression of the antisense RNA significantly suppressed the PMA-dependent, LTR-function of the reporter plasmid in both Jurkat and J111 cells. NF-kappaB, which is known to mediate the PMA-induced activation of HIV-1 in U1 cells, was found to be activated approximately 5-fold in PMA-treated U1 cells. PARP-inhibitor, unexpectedly, did not suppress but rather stimulated (approximately 2-fold) the NF-kappaB activation. Combining the results with the finding that the LTR-function was minimum in a PARP-defective mutant cells in spite of a very high level of the activated NF-kappaB in the cells, we suggest that PARP, in addition to activated NF-kappaB, is essential for the function of HIV-1 LTR.
Chronic dysimmune demyelinating polyneuropathy: a clinical and electrophysiological study of 93 patients.

OBJECTIVES--To identify clinical, electrophysiological, and immunological characteristics of chronic immune demyelinating polyneuropathy to define for each group the appropriate therapeutic strategies. METHODS--The clinical and electrophysiological data and the response to treatment of 93 patients with an acquired chronic dysimmune demyelinating polyneuropathy (CDDP) studied over a period of 10 years were reviewed. Two groups were identified: group 1, comprising 64 patients with an idiopathic CDDP, of whom 13 had serum monoclonal or polyclonal gammopathy without detectable antibodies directed against the "myelin associated glycoprotein" (MAG), and group 2, comprising 29 patients with an IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) with antibodies binding to the MAG. RESULTS--Group 1 patients had either a progressive or relapsing course. The relapsing course had more pronounced distal slowing of motor conduction velocity. In group 1, there were no significant clinical or electrophysiological differences between patients with or without gammopathy. Patients with anti-MAG antibody (group 2) differed significantly from group 1 patients, especially on the basis of electrophysiological results. They had a more pronounced slowing of peroneal motor nerve conduction velocity, a lower frequency of conduction block, and a distal accentuation of conduction slowing, distinguishing them from those with idiopathic CDDP, Charcot-Marie-Tooth polyneuropathy type 1A, and control subjects. CONCLUSION--The idiopathic CDDP group is heterogeneous with probably different subgroups. Patients with IgM MGUS polyneuropathy and anti-MAG antibodies have characteristics which distinguish them significantly from other CDDP and suggest different immune mechanisms and responses to treatment.
Image Denoising Using Tensor Product Complex Tight Framelets with Increasing Directionality

Tensor product real-valued wavelets have been employed in many applications such as image process- ing with impressive performance. Though edge singularities are ubiquitous and play a fundamental role in image processing and many other two-dimensional problems, tensor product real-valued wavelets are known to be only sub-optimal since they can only capture edges well along the coordinate axis directions (that is, the horizontal and vertical directions in dimension two). Among several approaches in the literature to enhance the performance of tensor product real-valued wavelets, the dual tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT), proposed by Kings- bury (16) and further developed by Selesnick et al. (24), is one of the most popular and successful enhancements of the classical tensor product real-valued wavelets by employing a correlated pair of orthogonal wavelet filter banks. The two-dimensional DT-CWT is obtained via tensor product and offers improved directionality with 6 directions. In this paper we shall further enhance the performance of DT-CWT for the problem of image denois- ing. Using framelet-based approach and the notion of discrete affine systems, we shall propose a family of tensor product complex tight framelets TP-CTFn for all integers n > 3 with increasing directionality, where n refers to the number of filters in the underlying one-dimensional complex tight framelet filter bank. For dimension two, such tensor product complex tight framelet TP-CTFn offers 1 (n 1)(n 3) + 4 directions when n is odd, and 1 2 (n 4)(n + 2) + 6 directions when n is even. In particular, we shall show that TP-CTF4, which is different to DT-CWT in both nature and design, provides an alternative to DT-CWT. Indeed, we shall see that TP-CTF4 behaves quite similar to DT-CWT by offering 6 directions in dimension two, employing the tensor product struc- ture, and enjoying slightly less redundancy than DT-CWT. When TP-CTF4 is applied to image denoising, its performance is comparable to DT-CWT. Moreover, better results on image denoising can be obtained by using other TP-CTFn, for example, n = 6, which has 14 directions in dimension two. Moreover, TP-CTFn allows us to further improve DT-CWT by using TP-CTFn as the first stage filter bank in DT-CWT. Experiments on image denoising using TP-CTFn and detailed comparison with DT-CWT will be provided in this paper.
Huge networks, tiny faulty nodes

Can one build, and efficiently use, networks of arbitrary size and topology using a "standard" node whose resources, in terms of memory and reliability, do not need to scale up with the complexity and size of the network? This thesis addresses two important aspects of this question. The first is whether one can achieve efficient connectivity despite the presence of a constant probability of faults per node/link. Efficient connectivity means (informally) having every pair of regions connected by a constant fraction of the independent, entirely non-faulty paths that would be present if the entire network were fault free - even at distances where each path has only a vanishingly small probability of being fault-free. The answer is yes, as long as some very mild topological conditions on the high level structure of the network are met - informally, if the network is not too "thin" and if it does not contain too many large "holes". The results go against some established "empyrical wisdom" in the networking community. The second issue addressed by this thesis is whether one can route efficiently on a network of arbitrarly size and topology using only a constant number c of bits/node (even if c is less than the logarithm of the network's size! ). Routing efficiently means (informally) that message delivery should only stretch the delivery path by a constant factor. The answer again is yes, as long as the volume of the network grows only polynomially with its radius (otherwise, we run into established lower bounds). This effectively captures every network one may build in a universe (like our own) with finite dimensionality using links of a fixed, maximum length and nodes with a fixed, minimum volume. The results extend the current results for compact routing, allowing one to route efficiently on a much larger class of networks than had previously been known, with many fewer bits. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Link Loss Inference in Wireless Sensor Networks with Randomized Network Coding

Due to fading and interference, data transmission via wireless links may sometimes be prone to error. For some applications in wireless sensor networks, it is of interest to monitor the link status and infer the packet loss rate. It has been shown that randomized network coding can improve the reliability of wireless sensor networks with lossy links. With network coding, the loss rate of a chosen path in a wireless sensor network is the maximum link loss rate among all the links in that path. This behavior changes the link identification problem and imposes challenges on the link loss inference. In this paper, we study the passive loss tomography problem in coded packet wireless sensor networks. We show that by inspecting the content of the coded packets at the sink (i.e., destination), one can estimate the path loss rates not only from the source nodes but also from various intermediate nodes to the sink. By utilizing such information at the sink, we determine the set of links whose loss rates can be identified. We propose a passive loss inference with random linear network coding (PLI-RLC) algorithm to estimate the link loss rates. Results show that in coded packet wireless sensor networks, our proposed algorithm can identify the status of a higher number of links compared to a Bayesian inference algorithm.
A change management process: Grounded in both theory and practice

There exists in the literature a number of change models to guide and instruct the implementation of major change in organisations. Three of the most well known are Kotter's strategic eight-step model for transforming organisations, Jick's tactical ten-step model for implementing change, and General Electric (GE)'s seven-step change acceleration process model. This paper introduces a framework that draws from these three theoretical models but is also grounded in the reality of the change process at a Fortune 500 defence industry firm. The purpose of the paper is to provide guidance to the practitioner leading an organisational change process. This guidance is grounded in both theory and practice. The guidance is further enriched by the demonstrated use of such methodologies as mind mapping, lessons learned, storytelling and metaphors.
New regional record and notes on historical specimens of Gunther Toad Duttaphrynus hololius with comments on other southeastern Indian congeners

We report on the finding of the Gunther Toad Duttaphrynus hololius from Visakhapatnam and discuss aspects of its distribution based on our species distribution modeling. We also provide data on historically collected specimens and refine its intra-specific variation, provide an up-to-date chresonymy and comment on the validity of earlier reported diagnosis. Lastly, we remark on some misidentification-mediated dubious southern Indian records of another, related congener, the Marbled Toad D. stomaticus and correct some misallocations by referring them to another syntopic congener, the Dwarf Toad D. scaber.
GENES MEET GEOLOGY: FISH PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC PATTERN REFLECTS ANCIENT, RATHER THAN MODERN, DRAINAGE CONNECTIONS

Abstract We used DNA analysis of the freshwater Galaxias vulgaris complex (Pisces: Galaxiidae) to test a geological hypothesis of drainage evolution in South Island, New Zealand. Geological evidence suggests that the presently north-flowing Nevis River branch of the Clutha/Kawarau River system (Otago) once flowed south into the Nokomai branch of the Mataura system (Southland). The flow reversal is thought to have resulted from fault and fold activity associated with post-Miocene uplift. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data (control region and cytochrome b genes; 76 individuals; maximum divergence 7.1%) corroborate this geomorphological hypothesis: The Nevis River retains a freshwater fish species (Galaxias gollumoides; five sites; 10 haplotypes) that is otherwise restricted to Southland (nine sites; 15 haplotypes). There is no indication that the Nevis River lineage of G. gollumoides lives elsewhere in the Clutha/Kawarau system (> 30 sites). Likewise, two widespread Clutha lineages (G. ‘sp D’; G. anomalus–G. pullus) are apparently absent from the Nevis (> 30 sites). In particular, G. ‘sp D’ lives throughout much of the Clutha (12 sites, 23 haplotypes), including a tributary of the Kawarau, but is absent from the Nevis itself. Conventional molecular clock calibrations (based on a minimum Nevis-Mataura haplotype divergence of 3.0%) indicate that the Nevis flow reversal may have occurred in the early-mid Pleistocene, which is roughly consistent with geological data. The broad phylogeographic structure evident in the Clutha system is consistent with the sedentary nature of nonmigratory galaxiids. Our study reinforces the value of combining biological and geological data for the formulation and testing of historical hypotheses. Corresponding Editor: B. Bowen
Art, Crime, and the Image of the City

This dissertation explores the symbolic structure of the metropolis, probing how neutral spaces may be imbued with meaning to become places, and tracing the processes through which the image of the city can come to be – and carry real consequences. The centrality of the image of the city to a broad array of urban research is established by injecting the question of image into two different research areas: crime and real estate in Washington, DC and the spatial structure of grassroots visual art production in Boston, Massachusetts. By pursuing such widely diverging areas of research, I seek to show the essential linkage between art and crime as they related to the image of the city and general urban processes of definition, distinction, and change. And yet, the research pursued here offers a mixed appraisal of strategies that pin urban prospects to image and image manipulation, from the great crime decline of the past two decades to the rise of the creative economy and application of urban branding campaigns. Across the analyses, I highlight tension between expectations of change and the essentially conservative forces of image. Far from rebranding the city, culture is shown to play a key role in locking in inequalities, undermining revitalization efforts, and generally explaining the reproduction and persistence of place over time, following the logic of the “looking glass neighborhood. ” Thus, culture is not nearly the tool to revalorize, relabel, and transform place so well depicted in studies nor do the buzz of cultural events shape markets and communities as effectively in “offcenter” cities. Place is not fixed for good, and can be “re-accomplished,” albeit through decades-long demographic, cultural, and political processes.