Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Striatal dopamine release during unrewarded motor task in human volunteers

Striatal dopamine is associated with the processing of rewarded motor tasks. Its involvement in mediating unrewarded tasks is, however, unclear. We used a recently developed PET technique to dynamically measure the rate of displacement of a dopamine receptor ligand raclopride in healthy volunteers performing a finger opposition task. Rapid displacement of the ligand from the posterior putamen and the caudate immediately after the task initiation suggested striatal dopamine release during task performance. Since dopamine release was observed in the striatal areas that are implicated in unrewarded tasks by neuroimaging studies, the results demonstrate that the PET method can be used to extend the findings of conventional neuroimaging techniques, that do not provide information about signal transduction.
Intrinsic subtypes and benefit from postmastectomy radiotherapy in node-positive premenopausal breast cancer patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy – results from two independent randomized trials

Abstract Background: The study of the intrinsic molecular subtypes of breast cancer has revealed differences among them in terms of prognosis and response to chemotherapy and endocrine therapy. However, the ability of intrinsic subtypes to predict benefit from adjuvant radiotherapy has only been examined in few studies. Methods: Gene expression-based intrinsic subtyping was performed in 228 breast tumors collected from two independent post-mastectomy clinical trials (British Columbia and the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group 82b trials), where pre-menopausal patients with node-positive disease were randomized to adjuvant radiotherapy or not. All patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and a subgroup of patients underwent ovarian ablation. Tumors were classified into intrinsic subtypes: Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2-enriched, Basal-like and Normal-like using the research-based PAM50 classifier. Results: In the British Columbia study, patients treated with radiation had an overall significant lower incidence of locoregional recurrence compared to the controls. For Luminal A tumors the risk of loco-regional recurrence was low and was further lowered by adjuvant radiation. These findings were validated in the DBCG 82b study. The individual data from the two cohorts were merged, the hazard ratio (HR) for loco-regional recurrence associated with giving radiation was 0.34 (0.19 to 0.61) overall and 0.12 (0.03 to 0.52) for Luminal A tumors. Conclusions: In both postmastectomy trials, patients with Luminal A tumors turned out to have a significant lower incidence of loco-regional recurrence when randomized to adjuvant radiotherapy, leaving no indication to omit postmastectomy adjuvant radiation in pre-menopausal high-risk patients with Luminal A tumors. It was not possible to evaluate the effect of radiotherapy among the other subtypes because of limited sample sizes.
A prospective, randomized phase III trial comparing combination chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and 5‐fluorouracil with vinorelbine plus doxorubicin in the treatment of advanced breast carcinoma

A prospective, multicenter, randomized, Phase III trial comparing the efficacy of combination chemotherapy with 5‐fluorouracil, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FAC) with a combination of vinorelbine and doxorubicin (NA) in the treatment of patients with advanced breast carcinoma was undertaken.
Parkinson's Disease: Barriers and Facilitators to Optimizing Function

&NA; The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore with caregivers and people with Parkinson's disease (PD) the facilitators and barriers that they encounter in trying to optimize participation in functional activities and exercise. Face‐to‐face interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of seven caregivers and three people diagnosed with PD. Data analysis was performed using content analysis and yielded 94 codes, which were reduced to five specific themes: personality components, physiological symptoms, communication difficulties, environmental factors, and tricks of the trade to optimize function. Findings from this study provide useful practical techniques for professionals and caregivers to promote optimal function and participation in physical activity among people with PD.
Structural analysis of a class III preQ1 riboswitch reveals an aptamer distant from a ribosome-binding site regulated by fast dynamics

Significance Riboswitches are RNA molecules found mostly in bacteria that control genes by sensing cellular levels of metabolites, such as the simple organic compound preQ1. The diversity of riboswitches and their potential as novel antibiotic targets continue to elicit interest in these regulatory sequences. Here we present the crystal structure of a newly discovered bacterial preQ1-III riboswitch that senses preQ1 using an unusual, two-part architecture. A complementary analysis of flexibility and dynamics showed that recognition of preQ1 induces riboswitch compaction, while concomitantly enhancing formation of a distant double-helix possessing a regulatory signal that zips and unzips rapidly, producing gene “off” and “on” states. These observations expand our knowledge of riboswitch construction and suggest a broader role for dynamics than previously recognized. PreQ1-III riboswitches are newly identified RNA elements that control bacterial genes in response to preQ1 (7-aminomethyl-7-deazaguanine), a precursor to the essential hypermodified tRNA base queuosine. Although numerous riboswitches fold as H-type or HLout-type pseudoknots that integrate ligand-binding and regulatory sequences within a single folded domain, the preQ1-III riboswitch aptamer forms a HLout-type pseudoknot that does not appear to incorporate its ribosome-binding site (RBS). To understand how this unusual organization confers function, we determined the crystal structure of the class III preQ1 riboswitch from Faecalibacterium prausnitzii at 2.75 Å resolution. PreQ1 binds tightly (KD,app 6.5 ± 0.5 nM) between helices P1 and P2 of a three-way helical junction wherein the third helix, P4, projects orthogonally from the ligand-binding pocket, exposing its stem-loop to base pair with the 3′ RBS. Biochemical analysis, computational modeling, and single-molecule FRET imaging demonstrated that preQ1 enhances P4 reorientation toward P1–P2, promoting a partially nested, H-type pseudoknot in which the RBS undergoes rapid docking (kdock ∼0.6 s−1) and undocking (kundock ∼1.1 s−1). Discovery of such dynamic conformational switching provides insight into how a riboswitch with bipartite architecture uses dynamics to modulate expression platform accessibility, thus expanding the known repertoire of gene control strategies used by regulatory RNAs.
Purification, characterization, and immunofluorescence localization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae capping protein

Capping protein binds the barbed ends of actin filaments and nucleates actin filament assembly in vitro. We purified capping protein from Saccharomyces cervisiae. One of the two subunits is the product of the CAP2 gene, which we previously identified as the gene encoding the beta subunit of capping protein based on its sequence similarity to capping protein beta subunits in chicken and Dictyostelium (Amatruda, J. F., J. F. Cannon, K. Tatchell, C. Hug, and J. A. Cooper. 1990. Nature (Lond.) 344:352-354). Yeast capping protein has activity in critical concentration and low-shear viscometry assays consistent with barbed- end capping activity. Like chicken capping protein, yeast capping protein is inhibited by PIP2. By immunofluorescence microscopy yeast capping protein colocalizes with cortical actin spots at the site of bud emergence and at the tips of growing buds and shmoos. In contrast, capping protein does not colocalize with actin cables or with actin rings at the site of cytokinesis.
Fabrication of a substrate for Ag-nanorod metal-enhanced fluorescence using the oblique angle deposition process

Metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) is a powerful technology to improve the sensitivity of fluorescence analysis by allowing fluorophores to interact with enhanced electromagnetic fields generated by the localised surface plasmon resonance effects of metallic nanostructures. To apply MEF technology to disposable DNA or protein microarray analysis, metallic nanostructures need to be fabricated on the full area of a glass slide at low cost. In this reported work an oblique angle deposition process was used to fabricate Ag nanorods on the whole area of a 25 × 75 mm2 glass slide to serve as an inexpensive and large-area MEF substrate. To examine the feasibility of the proposed substrate and maximise signal enhancement, Ag nanorods with different lengths were deposited on glass slides. Different concentrations of streptavidin-conjugated Cy5 in phosphate buffered saline were spotted onto the Ag nanorods and bare glass substrates, and the fluorescence signals were measured and compared. Longer Ag nanorods improved the fluorescence enhancement factor because of a higher surface plasmon resonance effect and the large surface area of the nanostructure with a high aspect ratio. A maximum enhancement factor of −23 was obtained from Ag nanorods that were 1000 nm long with comparable uniformity with the glass substrate.
Effective steganalysis based on statistical moments of wavelet characteristic function

In this paper, an effective steganalysis based on statistical moments of wavelet characteristic function is proposed. It decomposes the test image using two-level Haar wavelet transform into nine subbands (here the image itself is considered as the LL/sub 0/ subband). For each subband, the characteristic function is calculated. The first and second statistical moments of the characteristic functions from all the subbands are selected to form an 18-dimensional feature vector for steganalysis. The Bayes classifier is utilized in classification. All of the 1096 images from the CorelDraw image database are used in our extensive experimental work. With randomly selected 100 images for training and the remaining 996 images for testing, the proposed steganalysis system can steadily achieve a correct classification rate of 79% for the non-blind Spread Spectrum watermarking algorithm proposed by Cox et ai, 88% for the blind Spread Spectrum watermarking algorithm proposed by Piva et ai, and 91% for a generic LSB embedding method, thus indicating significant advancement in steganalysis.
Epidemiology of trauma victims admitted to a level 2 trauma center of North India

Background: Good quality information on characteristics of victims, types, and frequency of injuries, causes of accidents, vehicles involved in injury and outcome is essential for understanding and planning required for managing the trauma epidemic. The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of trauma victims admitted to King George's Medical University trauma center. Methods: This observational study enrolled trauma victims over a 1-year period. Characteristics recorded were age, sex, systolic blood pressure at admission, respiratory rate at admission, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score at the time of admission, time since injury to admission, referral, specific injury, Injury Severity Score (ISS), chronic medical condition, mechanism of injury, and the regions involved. Outcome at the end of hospital stay was recorded. Results: A total of 3280 injuries were recorded in 2288 patients. Mean age 40.81 ± 16.3 years, predominantly male (83.57%), mean ISS 12.56 ± 7.3, mean GCS 12.20 ± 4.1. Mean time to admission (hospitalization) to trauma center was 54.22 ± 185.2 h. Head was the most commonly involved region (32.44%). Patients referred from peripheral hospitals had significantly lower GCS, higher time to admission to trauma center, and longer duration of hospital stay. Road traffic accidents were responsible for 1514 (66.40%) injuries. Five hundred and ten (22.37%) patients sustained injury due to a fall. Three hundred and ninety (68.59%) patients were discharged, 67 (11.69%) left the hospital against medical advice, 8 absconded from the trauma center, and 104 expired within the hospital. Conclusion: Traumatic brain injuries and orthopedic injuries constitute a majority of injured admitted to the trauma center. Motorcycle collision with other vehicles and pedestrian hits by other vehicles are the most common causes of traumatic brain injuries. In contrast to west, the most common cause of spinal cord injury was falls. Pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists are the vulnerable road users. Long time to admission is an alarming finding.
Axonal Growth Is Sensitive to the Levels of Katanin, a Protein That Severs Microtubules

Katanin is a heterodimeric enzyme that severs microtubules from the centrosome so that they can move into the axon. Katanin is broadly distributed in the neuron, and therefore presumably also severs microtubules elsewhere. Such severing would generate multiple short microtubules from longer microtubules, resulting in more microtubule ends available for assembly and interaction with other structures. In addition, shorter microtubules are thought to move more rapidly and undergo organizational changes more readily than longer microtubules. In dividing cells, the levels of P60-katanin (the subunit with severing properties) increase as the cell transitions from interphase to mitosis. This suggests that katanin is regulated in part by its absolute levels, given that katanin activity is high during mitosis. In the rodent brain, neurons vary significantly in katanin levels, depending on their developmental stage. Levels are high during rapid phases of axonal growth but diminish as axons reach their targets. Similarly, in neuronal cultures, katanin levels are high when axons are allowed to grow avidly but drop when the axons are presented with target cells that cause them to stop growing. Expression of a dominant-negative P60-katanin construct in cultured neurons inhibits microtubule severing and is deleterious to axonal growth. Overexpression of wild-type P60-katanin results in excess microtubule severing and is also deleterious to axonal growth, but this only occurs in some neurons. Other neurons are relatively unaffected by overexpression. Collectively, these observations indicate that axonal growth is sensitive to the levels of P60-katanin, but that other factors contribute to modulating this sensitivity.
CONSTRAINTS ON THE LOW-ENERGY CUTOFF IN THE ELECTRON DISTRIBUTION OF THE PKS 0637–752 JET

We reanalyze the Chandra ACIS spectrum of the kpc-scale jet in PKS 0637–752 to investigate the possible low-energy cutoff in the relativistic electron spectrum producing the nonthermal radiation in the scenario of inverse Compton (IC) emission off the cosmic microwave background. This was among the first objects targeted by the Chandra Observatory and gives a unique opportunity to study the low-energy X-ray emission free of detector contamination. As previously reported in the literature, the spectrum can be fit by a power law, with the slope predicted by the radio spectrum, modified by low energy absorption through the Galaxy as determined from the spectrum of the quasar core and by Hi 21 cm observations. We obtain a marginally better fit with a model of IC emission produced by an electron population that exhibits a cutoff at γmin δ10 between about 50 and 80 (assuming Γ = δ). This range for γmin is higher than has previously been assumed in broadband spectral fits to the jet emission. The observed optical flux can be used to place a lower limit on γmin; the constraint is not very strong, but does suggest that γmin must be higher than 1 to avoid overproducing the optical emission. We investigate the effect of uncertainties in the column density for galactic absorption as well as the calibration of Chandra for these early observations. Finally, we discuss the implication of these limits on the jet luminosity in this source.
Automated two stage detection and analyzer system in multipartitioned Digital Microfluidic Biochips

Digital Microfluidic Biochips (DMFB), a promising platform for Lab-on-chip systems are capable of automated biochemical analysis targeted for medical diagnostics and other biochemical applications. The inherent nature of reconfigurability and scalability enables the device to integrate multiple bioassay protocols within the same array for simultaneous execution. Each execution of Bioassay involves numerous microfluidic operations to be performed successfully within the DMFB. Optical Detection and analysis are one of the significant operations required to be performed in DMFB systems for conclusive diagnosis and testing of targeted parameters within the specified sample. In this paper we propose a new design for automated detection based analyzer system integrated with a multipartioned scalable DMFB for two stage confirmatory detection of multiple parameters for a given set of samples . Multiple bioassays are executed sequentially in two stages and the results are analyzed using an intelligent system with integrated memory containing precharacterized standard outputs. The design prototype is implemented on FPGA platform and the simulations and detection results for a set of specified bioassay protocols are found to be satisfactory and in conformance with conventional benchtop laboratory processes.
Correlation between Exterior Exposure and Automatic Boil Test Results

Abstract : ASTM D 3434 (The Automatic Boil Test) exposes specimens to 20 cycles boil/dry per day for 40 days. The evaluation of various adhesives by this system are compared to 11 years exterior exposure and several actual failure related applications. The ABT is shown to be a good method for evaluating adhesives and predicting durability. The exact relation between ABT cycles and exterior exposure varies somewhat depending on adhesive type, but 41 + or - 6 cycles = 1 year is a good approximation for better wood adhesives.
Time-resolved diffused optical characterization of key tissue constituents of human bony prominence locations

We report a broadband time-resolved characterization of selected bony prominence locations of the human body. A clinical study was performed at six different bony prominence locations of 53 subjects. A portable broadband time-resolved system equipped with pulse drift and distortion compensation strategy was used for absorption and scattering measurements. Key tissue constituents were quantified as a pilot step towards non-invasive optical assessment of bone pathologies.
Brain-type creatine kinase in photoreceptor cell outer segments: role of a phosphocreatine circuit in outer segment energy metabolism and phototransduction.

Different isoforms of creatine kinase, an important enzyme of vertebrate energy metabolism, were localized in bovine photoreceptor cells, with particular emphasis on the identification and quantification of the brain-type isoform within the outer segment compartment. Using immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy, brain-type creatine kinase was shown to be present in bovine photoreceptor cell outer and inner segments. The presence of this isoenzyme in rod outer segments was additionally confirmed by immunoblotting and immunolabeling of isolated rod outer segments. The content of creatine kinase in rod outer segments was quantified by measuring creatine kinase activity after membrane disruption with detergent. The ATP regeneration potential provided by the creatine kinase in isolated, washed bovine rod outer segments was 1.2 +/- (0.4) i.u. mg-1 rhodopsin. This value was calculated to be at least an order of magnitude larger than that necessary to replenish the energy required for cGMP resynthesis in rod outer segments, and high enough to regenerate the entire ATP pool of rod outer segments within the time span of a photic cycle. A mitochondrial creatine kinase isoenzyme was located within the ellipsoid portions of bovine rod and cone inner segments by immunofluorescence microscopy and, using immunogold staining, was specifically localized in the mitochondria clustered within bovine rod and cone inner segments. These results suggest that vertebrate photoreceptor cells contain a functional phosphocreatine circuit. Outer segment creatine kinase may play an important role in phototransduction by providing energy for the visual cycle, maintaining high local ATP/ADP ratios and consuming protons produced by enzymes located in the outer segment.
A Unique Subset of CD4+CD25highFoxp3+ T Cells Secreting Interleukin-10 and Transforming Growth Factor-β1 Mediates Suppression in the Tumor Microenvironment

Purpose: Immunosuppression, including that mediated by CD4+CD25highFoxp3+ regulatory T cells (Treg), is a characteristic feature of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Tregs with a distinct phenotype in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) contribute to local immune suppression. Experimental Design: The frequency and phenotype of Treg in TIL and/or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in 15 HNSCC patients and PBMC in 15 normal controls were compared. Single-cell sorted CD4+CD25high T cells were tested for regulatory function by coculture with carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester–labeled and activated autologous CD4+CD25− responder T cells. Transwell inserts separating Treg from responders and neutralizing interleukin-10 (IL-10) or transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) antibodies were used to evaluate the mechanisms used by Treg to suppress responder cell proliferation. Results: In TIL, CD25+ cells were enriched in the CD3+CD4+ subset (13 ± 3%) relative to circulating CD3+CD4+ T cells (3 ± 0.7%) in HNSCC patients (P ≤ 0.01) or normal controls (2 ± 1.5%; P ≤ 0.001). Among the CD3+CD4+ subset, CD25high Treg represented 3 ± 0.5% in TIL, 1 ± 0.3% in PBMC, and 0.4 ± 0.2% in normal controls. Tregs in TIL were GITR+, IL-10+, and TGF-β1+, although circulating Treg up-regulated CD62L and CCR7 but not GITR, IL-10, or TGF-β1. Treg in TIL mediated stronger suppression (P ≤ 0.001) than Treg in PBMC of HNSCC patients. The addition of neutralizing IL-10 and TGF-β antibodies almost completely abrogated suppression (5 ± 2.51%). Transwell inserts partly prevented suppression (60 ± 5% versus 95 ± 5%). Conclusions: Suppression in the tumor microenvironment is mediated by a unique subset of Treg, which produce IL-10 and TGF-β1 and do not require cell-to-cell contact between Treg and responder cells for inhibition.
Comparison of ANFIS and ANN for Estimation of Biochemical Oxygen Demand Parameter in Surface Water

Nowadays, several techniques such as; Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and Neural Network (NN) are employed for developing of the predictive models to estimate par ameters of water quality. The main objective of this study is to com pare between the predictive ability of the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Infe rence System (ANFIS) model and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) m odel to estimate the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) on dat a from 11 sampling sites of Saen Saep canal in Bangkok, Thail and. The data is obtained from the Department of Drainage and Sewera ge, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, during 2004-2011. The five parameters of water quality namely Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Chem ical Oxygen Demand (COD), Ammonia Nitrogen (NH3N), Nitrate Nitrogen (NO3N), and Total Coliform bacteria (T-coliform) are us ed as the input of the models. These water quality indices af fect the biochemical oxygen demand. The experimental results indicate that the ANN model provides a higher correlation coeffic ient (R=0.73) and a lower root mean square error (RMSE=4.53) than the corresponding ANFIS model. Keywords—adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, artificial neural network, biochemical oxygen demand, surface wat r.