Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SAMBA, a plant-specific anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome regulator is involved in early development and A-type cyclin stabilization

The anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is a large multiprotein E3 ubiquitin ligase involved in ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of key cell cycle regulatory proteins, including the destruction of mitotic cyclins at the metaphase-to-anaphase transition. Despite its importance, the role of the APC/C in plant cells and the regulation of its activity during cell division remain poorly understood. Here, we describe the identification of a plant-specific negative regulator of the APC/C complex, designated SAMBA. In Arabidopsis thaliana, SAMBA is expressed during embryogenesis and early plant development and plays a key role in organ size control. Samba mutants produced larger seeds, leaves, and roots, which resulted from enlarged root and shoot apical meristems, and, additionally, they had a reduced fertility attributable to a hampered male gametogenesis. Inactivation of SAMBA stabilized A2-type cyclins during early development. Our data suggest that SAMBA regulates cell proliferation during early development by targeting CYCLIN A2 for APC/C-mediated proteolysis.
Molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity in adult mammalian sensory cortex

Title of Document: MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY IN ADULT MAMMALIAN SENSORY CORTEX Haiyan He, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Directed By: Dr. Elizabeth M Quinlan Department of Biology Experience-dependent changes in synaptic composition and function (synaptic plasticity) underlie many brain functions including learning and memory, formation of sensory maps, as well as the capability to recover from injury. Most of these functions decline with age, supporting the observation that synaptic plasticity is greater in juveniles than in adults. However, it has been known for some time that peripheral deafferentation in adult animals can induce large-scale reorganization of sensory cortex, which suggests that the adult cortex retains a level of synaptic plasticity that is typically masked by normal activity inputs. Here I present a series of experiments in the adult mammalian sensory cortex that examine the mechanisms and methods to enhance experience-dependent synaptic plasticity. The results showed: 1. Peripheral deafferentation of a single digit in the adult raccoon induces progressive modulation of excitation and inhibition in the deafferented somatosensory cortex that might be needed for the reorganization of receptive fields; 2. Visual deprivation in adult rats reverses three molecular mechanisms that have been correlated with the decrease in synaptic plasticity in adult cortex. These include the developmental increase in the level of inhibition relative to excitation, the development switch in NMDA receptor subunit composition from NR2b to NR2a, and the developmental decrease in tPA activity in visual cortex; 3.Visual deprivation rejuvenates ocular dominance plasticity in the adult visual cortex, and promotes the functional recovery of an eye deprived of vision from birth in adulthood. This work provides further understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying experience-dependent cortical plasticity. In addition, it demonstrates that ocular dominance plasticity can be regulated throughout life, and proposes a non-invasive method to enhance synaptic plasticity in adult cortex. MOLECULAR MECHANISMS OF SYNAPTIC PLASTICITY IN ADULT MAMMALIAN SENSORY CORTEX
Single and mixed interaction of experimental Trypanosoma brucei brucei and Trypanosoma evansi on the semen collection reaction time and spermatozoa morphology of Yankasa rams

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the pathological effects of experimental trypanosomosis on the semen collection reaction time and spermatozoa morphology of Yankasa rams. Materials and Methods: Twelve apparently healthy Yankasa rams aging 24-30 months and weighing 22-25 Kg were randomly selected and were distributed into four (4) groups. Groups I and II were challenged with experimental Trypanosoma brucei brucei (Federe strain) and T. evansi (Sokoto strain) respectively, while group III was challenged with both T. brucei brucei and T. evansi parasites. Group IV was left as uninfected control. Each infected ram received 2 mL of the infected blood containing 2x10 6 trypomastigotes via the jugular vein. The animals were examined for clinical observations, reaction time for semen collection and abnormalities in the morphology of the spermatozoa. Results: Infection of rams with trypanosomes showed scrotal edema, scrotal atrophy, loss of libido, increased semen collection reaction time, and significant increase of spermatozoa morphological abnormalities in all the infected rams. The rams especially in groups I and III were all deemed unfit for breeding by the end of the 98 days post infection, while the uninfected rams remained as healthy and had normal values of sperm morphology throughout the study period. Conclusion: Single or mixed interaction with T. brucei brucei or T. evansi is capable of causing infertility and reproductive failure in Yankasa rams. http://doi.org/10.5455/javar.2016. c174
Mitogen-induced recruitment of ERK and MSK to SRE promoter complexes by ternary complex factor Elk-1

Many eukaryotic genes are acutely regulated by extra-cellular signals. The c-fos serum response element (SRE) mediates transcriptional activation in response to mitogens through serum response factor (SRF)-dependent recruitment of Elk-1, a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-responsive transcription factor. How subsequent events at SRE promoters stimulate initiation of transcription has yet to be fully resolved. Here we show that extra-cellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and mitogen and stress-activated kinase (MSK) are recruited to SRE promoter complexes in vitro and in vivo. Their recruitment in vitro correlates with Elk-1 binding and for ERK the D domain/KIM of Elk-1 is specifically involved. In vivo, recruitment of ERK and MSK is stimulated by mitogens, correlates with histone H3 phosphorylation and is impaired by Elk-1 knockdown. Immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy reveal that ERK appears to associate to some extent with initiating rather than elongating RNA polymerase II. Taken together, our data add to the body of evidence implying that ERK and related MAPKs may fulfil a generic role at the promoters of acutely regulated genes.
Insulin improves cardiac contractile function and oxygen utilization efficiency during moderate ischemia without compromising myocardial energetics.

Insulin improves myocardial contractile function during moderate ischemia, but the mechanism is unknown. To determine effects of insulin on myocardial oxygen utilization efficiency (O2UE) and energetics, regional left coronary perfusion pressure (CPP) was lowered sequentially from 100 to 60, 50, and 40 mmHg in 24 anesthetized, open-chest dogs. Regional power index (PI), myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2), and O2UE index (PI/MVO2) were determined in untreated and insulin treated (4 U/min, i.v.) hearts. Biopsies were obtained from six untreated and six insulin-treated hearts at CPP=40 mmHg for determining high energy phosphates and the cytosolic phosphorylation potential. Measurements were compared with data from normal, untreated myocardium (n=11). MVO2 fell (P<0.05) in all hearts as CPP was lowered to 40 mmHg, and was unaffected by insulin treatment. PI decreased 32 and 75% in untreated hearts at CPP=50 and 40 mmHg, respectively (P<0.05). In insulin treated hearts, PI was not significantly depressed at CPP>40 mmHg, and fell only 26% at CPP=40 mmHg. O2UE increased (P<0.05) in all hearts at CPP=60 mmHg. In insulin treated hearts, O2UE was greater (P<0.05) at CPP=50 and 40 mmHg than at CPP=100 mmHg, and greater (P<0.05) than in untreated hearts at CPP=40 mmHg. Reducing CPP to 40 mmHg produced similar metabolic changes in all hearts. Compared to normal myocardium, ATP content of untreated and treated hearts was unchanged, creatine phosphate content decreased 21 and 14%, creatine content increased 24 and 30%, inorganic phosphate concentration increased 108 and 140%, and phosphorylation potential decreased 80 and 77%. We conclude that insulin markedly improves PI and O2UE without altering cytosolic energetics during moderate myocardial ischemia.
Learning Dexterous Manipulation Policies from Experience and Imitation

We explore learning-based approaches for feedback control of a dexterous five-finger hand performing non-prehensile manipulation. First, we learn local controllers that are able to perform the task starting at a predefined initial state. These controllers are constructed using trajectory optimization with respect to locally-linear time-varying models learned directly from sensor data. In some cases, we initialize the optimizer with human demonstrations collected via teleoperation in a virtual environment. We demonstrate that such controllers can perform the task robustly, both in simulation and on the physical platform, for a limited range of initial conditions around the trained starting state. We then consider two interpolation methods for generalizing to a wider range of initial conditions: deep learning, and nearest neighbors. We find that nearest neighbors achieve higher performance. Nevertheless, the neural network has its advantages: it uses only tactile and proprioceptive feedback but no visual feedback about the object (i.e. it performs the task blind) and learns a time-invariant policy. In contrast, the nearest neighbors method switches between time-varying local controllers based on the proximity of initial object states sensed via motion capture. While both generalization methods leave room for improvement, our work shows that (i) local trajectory-based controllers for complex non-prehensile manipulation tasks can be constructed from surprisingly small amounts of training data, and (ii) collections of such controllers can be interpolated to form more global controllers. Results are summarized in the supplementary video: this https URL
Depression in college students with ADHD

The primary aim of this study was to determine whether students with ADHD endorse higher rates of depressive disorders and depressive symptoms than their non-ADHD college student peers. A second aim was to explore whether protective factors are associated with lower rates of depression in college students with ADHD. Forty-six students with ADHD were enrolled in this study, and compared to a demographically-equivalent group of 46 college students without ADHD on measures assessing depressive disorders, depressive symptoms, and protective factors. The ADHD group more frequently endorsed a depressive episode sometime during college, although they were not necessarily more likely to endorse a current depressive episode. The ADHD group also endorsed more current depressive symptoms than their non-ADHD peers. In terms of protective factors, compared to students with ADHD only, students with ADHD and depression in college endorsed greater utilization of psychological supports and a lesser degree of support from friends during college, as well as greater total protective factors prior to college. ADHD status, a history of depression prior to college, and lesser support from friends were found to predict current depressive symptoms in regression analyses. Overall, findings from these analyses suggest that some of the "protective factors" as measured in this study may better represent outcomes associated with ADHD. Post-hoc analyses revealed that impairment during college and depressive cognitions significantly predicted current depressive symptoms as well. In sum, findings from this study suggest that students with ADHD are at increased risk for experiencing depressive disorders and depressive symptoms in college compared to students without ADHD. Clinical implications as well as avenues for future research are discussed.
Impact of home networks on end-to-end performance: controlled experiments

This paper performs controlled experiments to analyze the performance of home networks. We show that the home network has a significant impact on end-to-end performance. For example, watching TV can double the time to download a file; and deploying a wireless network significantly increases round-trip times. Despite its impact on end-to-end performance, most existing diagnosis tools ignore the home network when identifying the cause of performance problems. To make matters worse, our results show that simple techniques that directly probe the home gateway cannot reliably identify that the home network is the cause of performance degradation. We are currently designing a technique based on packet bursts to identify performance problems caused by the home network. Our results for Ethernet based home networks are encouraging.
CUE USAGE IN VOLLEYBALL: A TIME COURSE COMPARISON OF ELITE, INTERMEDIATE AND NOVICE FEMALE PLAYERS

This study compared visual search strategies in adult female volleyball players of three levels. Video clips of the attack of the opponent team were presented on a large screen and participants reacted to the final pass before the spike. Reaction time, response accuracy and eye movement patterns were measured. Elite players had the highest response accuracy (97.50 ± 3.5%) compared to the intermediate (91.50 ± 4.7%) and novice players (83.50 ± 17.6%; p<0.05). Novices had a remarkably high range of reaction time but no significant differences were found in comparison to the reaction time of elite and intermediate players. In general, the three groups showed similar gaze behaviour with the apparent use of visual pivots at moments of reception and final pass. This confirms the holistic model of image perception for volleyball and suggests that expert players extract more information from parafoveal regions.
Particularities: Collected Essays on Ethnography and Education

Ethnography is much more than a collection of research techniques. The paradigm wars in educational research have pushed qualitative methods to become increasingly focused on technique and theory. The essays in this volume speak against these trends by examining ethnography as a way of understanding particularities. Examining the ethnographic enterprise itself, Particularities demonstrates the power of ethnography through discrete studies of education and race.
Long-term Effect of Gestational Age and Birthweight on Macular Development.

Objective To evaluate macular structure in childhood due to their birth history, and analyse possible effects of prematurity and birthweight for gestatinonal age. Methods Children who were between five and 18 years old age were divided into the following three groups due to their birth histories: Patients who were preterm (Preterm: Group 1), full-term and small for gestational age (Full-term-SGA: Group 2), and full-term and average for gestational age (Full-term-AGA: Group 3,Control group). Three hundred and ninety-eight eyes of 199 children were included. Their macular parameters were analysed by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Mean outcome measures were central foveal thickness (CFT), minumum foveal thickness (MFT), inner retinal thickness (IRT), outer retinal thickness (ORT), central foveal volume (CFV), total macular volume (TMV) and parafoveal volume (PV). Results There was no statistically significant difference in age between the groups. The mean gestational age was 30.68 ± 2.76; 38.82 ± 0.75; and 39.59 ± 0.56 weeks in Group 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The mean CFT and MFT in Group 1 were significantly thicker than Group 1 (p = 0.020, p = 0.017). The mean IRT in Group 3 was significantly thicker than Group 1 (p = 0.034;) and Group 2 (p = 0.013). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups according to CFV, TMV and PV. Conclusions Prematurity might be more associated with thicker CFT than small for gestational age, whereas both parameters seem to be associated with thinner parafoveal thickness in childhood.
Progress, pitfalls and parallel universes: a history of insect phylogenetics

The phylogeny of insects has been both extensively studied and vigorously debated for over a century. A relatively accurate deep phylogeny had been produced by 1904. It was not substantially improved in topology until recently when phylogenomics settled many long-standing controversies. Intervening advances came instead through methodological improvement. Early molecular phylogenetic studies (1985–2005), dominated by a few genes, provided datasets that were too small to resolve controversial phylogenetic problems. Adding to the lack of consensus, this period was characterized by a polarization of philosophies, with individuals belonging to either parsimony or maximum-likelihood camps; each largely ignoring the insights of the other. The result was an unfortunate detour in which the few perceived phylogenetic revolutions published by both sides of the philosophical divide were probably erroneous. The size of datasets has been growing exponentially since the mid-1980s accompanied by a wave of confidence that all relationships will soon be known. However, large datasets create new challenges, and a large number of genes does not guarantee reliable results. If history is a guide, then the quality of conclusions will be determined by an improved understanding of both molecular and morphological evolution, and not simply the number of genes analysed.
Long-Term Prognosis of Individuals With Right Precordial ST-Segment–Elevation Brugada Syndrome

Background—Brugada syndrome is an arrhythmogenic disease characterized by an ECG pattern of ST-segment elevation in the right precordial leads and an increased risk of sudden cardiac death as a result of ventricular fibrillation. Controversy exists with regard to risk stratification and therapeutic management, particularly in asymptomatic individuals. Methods and Results—A total of 212 individuals (mean age, 45±6 years) with a type 1 Brugada ECG pattern were studied. Of these, 123 (58%) were asymptomatic, 65 (31%) had ≥1 syncope of unknown origin, and 24 (11%) had to be resuscitated because of ventricular fibrillation. In 125 individuals (59%), a spontaneous type 1 ECG was recorded. In the remaining, drug challenge with a class I antiarrhythmic agent unmasked a Brugada ECG. The mean ST elevation was 2.3±1.2 mm in symptomatic patients and 1.9±1.5 mm in asymptomatic individuals (P=0.04). During a mean follow-up of 40±50 months, 4 of the 24 patients (17%) with aborted sudden cardiac death and 4 of 65 (6%) with a prior syncope had a recurrent arrhythmic event, whereas only 1 of 123 asymptomatic individuals (0.8%) had a first arrhythmic event. Four of 9 patients with arrhythmic events during follow-up were not inducible during programmed electrical stimulation. A previous history of aborted sudden death or syncope and the presence of a spontaneous type 1 ECG were predictors of adverse outcome. Conclusions—The present study reports data on a large population of individuals with a type 1 Brugada ECG pattern with the longest follow-up reported so far. A very low incidence of severe arrhythmic events, particularly in asymptomatic individuals, was found during follow-up. In the presence of very few arrhythmic events on follow-up, programmed electrical stimulation showed very little accuracy in predicting outcome.
Thinking Images: The Essay Film as a Dialogic Form in European Cinema

Contents: The thinking form - Questions and answers: Towards a dialogical understanding of the essay film - Essayistic filmmaking as a non-fictional practice: Self-reflexivity and heteroglossia in Harun Farocki's Workers Leaving the Factory, Jose Luis Guerin's Train of Shadows and Chris Marker's Sunless - Beyond the `I': Subjectivity and dialogical authorship in Chris Marker's Level 5 - Unfinalizability, addressivity and tact: Harun Farocki's Videograms of a Revolution - Interpellation, active spectatorship and the returned gaze: Jose Luis Guerin's In the City of Sylvia - Mapping the origins of an essayistic sensibility in five films.
Comments on General Gauge Mediation

There has been interest in generalizing models of gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking. As shown by Meade, Seiberg, and Shih (MSS), the soft masses of general gauge mediation can be expressed in terms of the current two-point functions of the susy-breaking sector. We here give a simple extension of their result which provides, for general gauge mediation, the full effective potential for squark pseudo-D-flat directions. The effective potential reduces to the sfermion soft masses near the origin, and the full potential, away from the origin, can be useful for cosmological applications. We also generalize the soft masses and effective potential to allow for general gauge mediation by Higgsed gauge groups. Finally, we discuss general gauge mediation in the limit of small F-terms, and how the results of MSS connect with the analytic continuation in superspace results, based on a spurion analysis.
Restriction fragment length polymorphism of the tdh and trh genes in clinical Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains

The restriction fragment length polymorphism of the genes encoding thermostable direct hemolysin (tdh) and thermostable direct hemolysin-related hemolysin (trh) was analyzed for 137 strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolated from specimens from diarrheal patients in Thailand. The HindIII restriction fragment patterns of tdh and trh were grouped into five and four types, respectively. A strong association between the restriction fragment patterns of tdh and trh was observed with V. parahaemolyticus strains.
Triple A Syndrome: Preliminary Response to the Antioxidant N-Acetylcysteine Treatment in a Child

Introduction: Triple A syndrome (AAAS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by alacrima, achalasia, ACTH-resistant adrenal insufficiency, autonomic dysfunction, and progressive neurodegeneration. Increased oxidative stress, demonstrated in patients’ fibroblasts in vitro, may be a central disease mechanism. N-acetylcysteine protects renal function in patients with kidney injuries associated with increased oxidative stress and improves viability of AAAS-knockdown adrenal cells in vitro. Patient and Results: A boy diagnosed with AAAS presented with short stature and increased oxidative stress in vivo assessed by increased thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), which are markers of lipid peroxidation, and by the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation and the capacity of HDL to prevent it. A homozygous missense germline mutation (c.523G>T, p.Val175Phe) in AAAS was identified. N-acetylcysteine (600 mg orally, twice daily) decreased oxidative stress but did not change the patient’s growth pattern. Conclusions: An increase in oxidative stress is reported for the first time in vivo in an AAAS patient. N-acetylcysteine was capable of decreasing TBARS levels, reducing the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation and improving the antioxidant role of HDL. The long-term effect of antioxidant treatment should be evaluated to determine the real benefit for the prevention of the degenerative process in AAAS.