Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-Level Production, Solubilization and Purification of Synthetic Human GPCR Chemokine Receptors CCR5, CCR3, CXCR4 and CX3CR1

Chemokine receptors belong to a class of integral membrane G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and are responsible for transmitting signals from the extracellular environment. However, the structural changes in the receptor, connecting ligand binding to G-protein activation, remain elusive for most GPCRs due to the difficulty to produce them for structural and functional studies. We here report high-level production in E.coli of 4 human GPCRs, namely chemokine receptors (hCRs) CCR5, CCR3, CXCR4 and CX3CR1 that are directly involved in HIV-1 infection, asthma and cancer metastasis. The synthetic genes of CCR5, CCR3, CXCR4 and CX3CR1 were synthesized using a two-step assembly/amplification PCR method and inserted into two different kinds of expression systems. After systematic screening of growth conditions and host strains, TB medium was selected for expression of pEXP-hCRs. The low copy number pBAD-DEST49 plasmid, with a moderately strong promoter tightly regulated by L-arabinose, proved helpful for reducing toxicity of expressed membrane proteins. The synthetic Trx-hCR fusion genes in the pBAD-DEST49 vector were expressed at high levels in the Top10 strain. After a systematic screen of 96 detergents, the zwitterionic detergents of the Fos-choline series (FC9-FC16) emerged as the most effective for isolation of the hCRs. The FC14 was selected both for solubilization from bacterial lysates and for stabilization of the Trx-hCRs during purification. Thus, the FC-14 solubilized Trx-hCRs could be purified using size exclusion chromatography as monomers and dimers with the correct apparent MW and their alpha-helical content determined by circular dichroism. The identity of two of the expressed hCRs (CCR3 and CCR5) was confirmed using immunoblots using specific monoclonal antibodies. After optimization of expression systems and detergent-mediated purification procedures, we achieved large-scale, high-level production of 4 human GPCR chemokine receptor in a two-step purification, yielding milligram quantities of CCR5, CCR3, CXCR4 and CX3CR1 for biochemical, biophysical and structural analysis.
KINE3D: a New 3d Restoration Method Based on a Mixed Approach Linking Geometry and Geomechanics

We developed a new methodology for 3D restoration by coupling a geometric modelling software and a mechanical finite-element code. This method allows the geologist to impose the displacement on the main faults in order to get an adequate restored geometry and to compute the 3D strain and stress fields within the main blocks based on the unfolding with the mechanical approach. Complex meshing of the solid take into account heterogeneities due to the layering and facies variation. Results are discussed on compressive and extensional contexts, as well as in backward and forward approaches. The compressive case is illustrated by the restoration of a faulted anticline with massive sand and shaly beds. This case has been also restored with 2D surface unfolding processes and we will compare the information that geologists may get from the various methods. The second case concerns the deformation, in a gravity gliding context, of a sandy channel embedded into a shaly matrix. The mixed approach allows to quantify the reorientation of the stress field on the sand/shale boundary.
Seeing the phantom: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of a supernumerary phantom limb

Supernumerary phantom limb (SPL) is a rare neurological manifestation where patients with a severe stroke‐induced sensorimotor deficit experience the illusory presence of an extra limb that duplicates a real one. The illusion is most often experienced as a somesthetic phantom, but rarer SPLs may be intentionally triggered or seen. Here, we report the case of a left visual, tactile, and intentional SPL caused by right subcortical damage in a nondeluded woman.
Ieee Robotics and Automation Magazine, Special Issue on Wearable Robotics 1 Cyberlegs -a User-oriented Robotic Transfemoral Prosthesis with Whole-body Awareness Control

—Restoring the mobility of transfemoral dysvascular amputees is essential to their rehabilitation process. Impeding this, exhaustion is often the cause of non-effective deambulation of elderly lower-limb amputees using a prosthesis as they use more energy for locomotion than younger amputees do. This article presents finite state control of a novel powered pros-thesis prototype for transfemoral amputees based on whole-body awareness. Intention detection was implemented through a non-invasive, distributed wireless wearable sensory system. The CYBERLEGs system was evaluated in a study involving three amputees. The subjects were able to walk with the prosthesis without training, showing accurate performance of the intention detection. The functionality of the CYBERLEGs approach was confirmed by gait pattern analysis and intention detection statistics. I. LOWER-LIMB AMPUTATION AND REHABILITATION Lower-limb amputation can be a dramatic consequence of severe peripheral arterial disease which is associated with diabetes. It is estimated that 80 % of all lower-limb amputations in the US are dysvascular, while about 15 % are trauma-related (other causes are cancer or congenital disease). Transfemoral amputation accounts for about a third of all lower-limb amputations. Furthermore, due to higher risk of dysvascular amputation in the elderly, lower-limb amputations are expected to increase as a consequence of population ageing [1]. About 70 % of transfemoral amputees use their prosthesis for at least a few hours a day and have an effective deambulation, while 30 % do not due to stump-related issues or fatigue from the increased energy cost of walking [2]. A study of Waters et al. [3] looked at the influence of the level of lower-limb amputation on gait and energy expenditure. It showed that dysvascular transfemoral amputees walked slower (at about 40 % of regular gait speed) and consumed 2.5 times more energy than healthy persons. Restoring the mobility of such amputees is an essential element in their rehabilitation process, often achieved by replacing a part of the missing limb by an artificial one. II. PROSTHESES AND INTENTION DETECTION The evolution of lower-limb prostheses through the years culminated in the current use of passive devices, devices with active damping (semi-active or actively-braked prostheses), and powered devices. The majority of modern commercially available passive and semi-active prostheses are able to store energy during initial stance phase and use it to provide push-off in the late stance phase [4]. Powered lower-limb prostheses, capable of producing net power over a gait cycle, were introduced to allow amputees walk with …
Classroom-Based Motivational Interviewing for Improving College Students’ Academic Performance: A Randomized Trial

In this study, we used a randomized control trial (N = 84) to evaluate the effects of a classroom-based motivational interviewing intervention on undergraduate psychology students’ test performance. Results indicated that students in the treatment group (n = 38) demonstrated significant increases in their exam grades following the intervention (d = .34). However, these changes were not significantly different from students in a control group (n = 43) who received a handout on study tips.
Not Competent but Warm... Really? Compensatory Stereotypes in the French-speaking World

Two studies examined the compensation hypothesis that members of both high- and low-status groups associate high-status groups with high levels of competence and low levels of warmth on the one hand, and low-status groups with low levels of competence and high levels of warmth, on the other. Building upon existing linguistic relations between the French and the Belgians, Study 1 had standard, i.e. French, and non-standard, i.e. Belgian, speakers rate the linguistic skills, competence, and warmth of both groups and report their meta-stereotypes. As predicted, both groups of participants saw the French as more skilled linguistically than Belgians and evaluated standard speakers as more competent than warm and non-standard speakers as more warm than competent. This pattern also emerged in respondents’ meta-stereotypes. Study 2 revealed that compensation was less marked among a third group of Francophone speakers, i.e. Swiss, even if the latter respondents seemed well aware of the pattern guiding Belgian and French representations of each other. We discuss the implications of the findings in terms of motivated intergroup stereotypes.
E-Mentoring as a Means to Develop and Retain Expatriate Managers.

As globalization increases, many corporations are faced with sending managers to foreign countries. With the increase in expatriate managers, a critical issue must be addressed – the high failure rate of expatriates. The literature shows mentoring to be a critical component in developing and retaining expatriate managers. The growing discipline of e-mentoring is proposed as a possible means to satisfy the need for mentoring, ultimately playing a role in the reduction of the failure rate.
The United States is a Small Country in World Trade

Despite being the largest country in world trade and thus presumably having high optimal tariffs, the United States has long had low and declining levels of protection. This paradox suggests that the United States is failing to exploit its monopsony power by levying optimal tariffs. Using data on world output and trade flows, we find that the United States is a small country in world trade in that its trade policies have negligible impacts on world prices. In the median manufacturing industry, US tariffs reduce world prices by only 0.12%. United States optimal tariffs are also typically small (3.6% in the median industry) and are lower than existing US tariffs in most industries. It is no puzzle that the United States has been a champion of free trade since the 1930s-the United States, like other small countries, benefits economically from tariff reductions. Copyright © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Targeted approaches in the treatment of osteoporosis: differential mechanism of action of denosumab and clinical utility

Denosumab is a breakthrough biological drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency for the treatment of osteoporosis in 2010. It is a fully human monoclonal antireceptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand antibody, which inhibits the activity of osteoclasts, resulting in an antiresorptive effect with a significant increase in bone mineral density. The FREEDOM (Fracture Reduction Evaluation of Denosumab in Osteoporosis every 6 Months) trial, comparing denosumab with no treatment in 7868 women with postmenopausal osteoporosis, showed an important reduction of fracture risk at hip, vertebral, and nonvertebral sites in the treated group, while no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse events was detected between denosumab and placebo groups. The specific action of denosumab directed against a key regulator of osteoclasts makes it a valuable tool in preventing the occurrence of skeletal events caused by bone destruction in patients with advanced malignancies. The drug was approved for postmenopausal osteoporosis in women at increased risk of fracture and for the treatment of bone loss associated with androgen deprivation therapy in men with prostate cancer.
EEG-based local brain activity feedback training—tomographic neurofeedback

Along with the development of distributed EEG source modeling methods, basic approaches to local brain activity (LBA-) neurofeedback (NF) have been suggested. Meanwhile several attempts using LORETA and sLORETA have been published. This article specifically reports on “EEG-based LBA-feedback training” developed by Bauer et al. (2011). Local brain activity-feedback has the advantage over other sLORETA-based approaches in the way that feedback is exclusively controlled by EEG-generating sources within a selected cortical region of training (ROT): feedback is suspended if there is no source. In this way the influence of sources in the vicinity of the ROT is excluded. First applications have yielded promising results: aiming to enhance activity in left hemispheric linguistic areas, five experimental subjects increased significantly the feedback rate whereas five controls receiving sham feedback did not, both after 13 training runs (U-test, p < 0.01). Preliminary results of another study that aims to document effects of LBA-feedback training of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and Dorso-Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) by fMRI revealed more local ACC-activity after successful training (Radke et al., 2014).
A Metaplasticity-Like Mechanism Supports the Selection of Fear Memories: Role of Protein Kinase A in the Amygdala

How the brain determines which memories are selected for long-term storage is critical for a full understanding of memory. One possibility is that memories are selected based on the history of activity and current state of neurons within a given memory circuit. Many in vitro studies have demonstrated metaplasticity-like effects whereby prior neuronal activity can affect the ability of cells to express synaptic plasticity in the future; however, the significance of these findings to memory is less clear. Here we show in rats that a single pairing of a light with shock, insufficient to support either short- or long-term fear memory, primes future learning such that another trial delivered within a circumscribed time window lasting from ∼60 min to 3 d results in the formation of a long-lasting and robust fear memory. Two adequately spaced training trials support long-term fear memory only if the two trials are signaled by the same cue. Furthermore, although a single training trial does not support formation of an observable fear memory, it does result in the phosphorylation of several targets of protein kinase A (PKA) in the amygdala. Accordingly, blocking PKA signaling in the amygdala before the first training trial completely prevents the ability of that trial to facilitate the formation of long-term fear memory when a second trial is delivered 24 h later. These findings may provide insight into how memories are selected for long-term storage.
The Socioeconomic Background of Managers and Corporate Social Responsibility

Several experimental findings from the social psychological field support the thesis of a negative relationship between a person’s socioeconomic background and the tendency to proactively engage in prosocial behavior. Coupling this insight with the reported self-reproduction of the corporate elite, the question of the social responsibility of this elite emerges. If findings match reality, a relatively low level of social responsibility is to be expected from those at the upper echelons of the economy. This paper provides theoretical support for this idea. Top executives who reportedly play a crucial role in shaping the CSR policies of their companies differ in their tendencies to proactively engage in prosocial behavior. These divergences can be partly explained through their distinct socioeconomic background. Scholars should therefore more often account for the individual characteristics and background of top executives. Understanding the effects of the recruitment process of the corporate elite on companies’ outcomes will deliver new insights to better understand the social behavior of companies. Furthermore, it could help to improve corporate governance policies, which have proven to be all but optimal in the wake of the recent economic crisis.
Exploring the Significance of Social Class Identity Performance in the English Classroom: A Case Study Analysis of a Literature Circle Discussion

English educators at all levels have endeavored to understand difference in their classrooms both in terms of the content that they teach and in terms of the social and cultural identities of students in their classrooms. However, although educators have come a long way in understanding identity as it is constituted by race and gender, much work is needed for social class identity to be understood with nuance and complexity. This article explores the salience of class identity as it affects one aspect of learning in the English classroom—literary interpretation. Specifically, this article draws on data from a six-week literature circle unit in which four white, socioeconomically diverse students discussed Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina. By examining and uncovering the students’ social class identity performances as they influenced both their participation and interpretations in the literature circle, this article sheds light on the significance of social class identity in the English classroom and makes a case for the importance of a more thorough consideration of social class in teaching and research in English education.
Novel Mutations in the CPT1A Gene Identified in the Patient Presenting Jaundice as the First Manifestation of Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase 1A Deficiency

Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A) is an enzyme functioning in mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (FAO) of the liver. Patients with CPT1A deficiency have impaired mitochondrial FAO and display hypoketotic hypoglycemia and hepatic encephalopathy as typical manifestations. In this report, we present a case of CPT1A deficiency presenting jaundice as the first manifestation. A 1.9 years old boy showed jaundice and elevated levels of free and total carnitine were observed. From direct sequencing analysis of CPT1A, two novel mutations, c.1163+1G>A and c.1393G>A (p.Gly465Arg), were identified. At the age of 2.2 years, hypoglycemia, tachycardia, and altered mental status developed just after cranioplasty for craniosynostosis. High glucose infusion rate was required for recovery of his vital signs and mentality. Diet rich in high carbohydrate, low fat and inclusion of medium chain triglyceride oil resulted in improvement in cholestatic hepatitis and since then the boy has shown normal growth velocity and developmental milestones to date.
Pharmacological Inhibition of Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase/Visfatin Enzymatic Activity Identifies a New Inflammatory Pathway Linked to NAD

Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT), also known as visfatin, is the rate-limiting enzyme in the salvage pathway of NAD biosynthesis from nicotinamide. Since its expression is upregulated during inflammation, NAMPT represents a novel clinical biomarker in acute lung injury, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn's disease. However, its role in disease progression remains unknown. We report here that NAMPT is a key player in inflammatory arthritis. Increased expression of NAMPT was confirmed in mice with collagen-induced arthritis, both in serum and in the arthritic paw. Importantly, a specific competitive inhibitor of NAMPT effectively reduced arthritis severity with comparable activity to etanercept, and decreased pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion in affected joints. Moreover, NAMPT inhibition reduced intracellular NAD concentration in inflammatory cells and circulating TNFα levels during endotoxemia in mice. In vitro pharmacological inhibition of NAMPT reduced the intracellular concentration of NAD and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion by inflammatory cells. Thus, NAMPT links NAD metabolism to inflammatory cytokine secretion by leukocytes, and its inhibition might therefore have therapeutic efficacy in immune-mediated inflammatory disorders.
Genetic covariation between neuroticism and the symptoms of anxiety and depression

A genetic analysis of the trait of neuroticism and symptoms of anxiety and depression in 3,810 pairs of adult MZ and DZ twins is reported. Differences between people in these measures can be explained simply by differences in their genes and in their individual environmental experiences. There is no evidence that environmental experiences that are shared by cotwins, such as common family environment or social influences, are important. There are differences between the sexes in gene action affecting neuroticism, and genetic effects become more pronounced with age in females. The lack of evidence for dominance variance affecting neuroticism contrasts well with the detection of considerable genetical nonadditivity for extraversion in the same sample and reinforces the view that these two traits are not only statistically, but also genetically, quite independent.
On the transfer matrix of a MIMO system

We develop a deterministic ab initio model for the input–output relationship of a multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) wireless channel, starting from the Maxwell equations combined with Ohm's law. The main technical tools are scattering and geometric perturbation theories. The derived relationship can lead us to a deep understanding of how the propagation conditions and the coupling effects between the elements of multiple‐element arrays affect the properties of an MIMO channel, e.g. its capacity and its number of degrees of freedom. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Stereotypes Determining Perceptions of Female Politicians: The Case of Poland

Abstract The aim of this study is to find out whether women in Polish politics are perceived through the prism of gender stereotypes. We conducted a two-stage empirical study (N=447) to investigate the kinds of qualities that young voters attribute to politicians in the context of gender stereotypes. Our findings correlated with a pattern of research that shows that female politicians are typically associated with “female issues” and seen in terms of stereotypically feminine traits. The results of our survey showed gender solidarity, with female and male participants generally responding more positively to politicians of the same gender. There were also significant differences based on respondents’ interest in politics; people interested in politics were, for example, significantly less likely to ascribe qualities related to political ability and self-composure to women. Finally, ideological identifications did not modify perceptions of female politicians but people who identified as right-wing more often viewed male politicians as politically capable, diligent, likeable and go-getters.
An exploration of graph metric reproducibility in complex brain networks

The application of graph theory to brain networks has become increasingly popular in the neuroimaging community. These investigations and analyses have led to a greater understanding of the brain's complex organization. More importantly, it has become a useful tool for studying the brain under various states and conditions. With the ever expanding popularity of network science in the neuroimaging community, there is increasing interest to validate the measurements and calculations derived from brain networks. Underpinning these studies is the desire to use brain networks in longitudinal studies or as clinical biomarkers to understand changes in the brain. A highly reproducible tool for brain imaging could potentially prove useful as a clinical tool. In this review, we examine recent studies in network reproducibility and their implications for analysis of brain networks.