Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of tin and lead chlorotriphenyl analogues on selected living cells

Three kinds of living cells, human embryonic kidney cells, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Escherichia coli, were tested for their sensitivity to chlorotriphenyltin and chlorotriphenyllead. The tin compound proved definitely more toxic than the lead derivative, particularly in the case of the human embryonic kidney cells devoid of any protective cell wall. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) comparative studies carried out by using a natural model liposome system (egg yolk lecithin) confirmed considerable changes within the lipid bilayer upon doping by the aforementioned additives, which may be crucial to the mechanism of the observed cell cleavage. The individual dopants revealed diverse impact upon the membrane's condition, chlorotriphenyltin distinctly fluidized the lipid system, whereas chlorotriphenyllead stiffened the medium within the membrane. A theoretical approach concerning such different behaviors of studied tin and lead analogues because of their high toxicity in living cells has been presented. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 25:231–237, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/jbt.20380
Insulin receptor function and glycogen synthase activity in human skeletal muscle. Physiology and pathophysiology.

Insulin stimulates glucose uptake and non-oxidative glucose metabolism (predominantly glycogen synthesis) in skeletal muscle. Among other things, insulin resistance is characterized by a subnormal insulin-stimulated glucose disposal, and it appears to be associated with an increased risk for development of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). The aim of the present investigation has been to elucidate the mechanism of action of insulin on non-oxidative glucose metabolism both during conditions of insulin resistance and during physiological modification of glucose metabolism. To do so, the effect of insulin was investigated both with respect to its initial activation of the insulin receptor kinase and the terminal step of the signal pathway, namely stimulation of the glycogen synthase. From needle biopsies of human skeletal muscle (vastus lateralis) cellular membranes were solubilized and the insulin receptors were partially purified by affinity chromatography using wheat germ agglutinin. Subsequently insulin binding and the insulin-stimulated tyrosine kinase activity were characterized. The insulin receptor kinase activity did not change during physiological modification of the glucose metabolism (exercise training, acute exercise, growth hormone exposure or experimental hyperglycemia). No specific abnormalities of the insulin receptor kinase activity were revealed in insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM) or in common NIDDM. In addition, insulin receptor kinase activity did not change during dietary or sulphonylurea treatment of NIDDM. Glucose deposition as glycogen in muscle is regulated by glycogen synthase (GS), which during insulin stimulation undergoes dephosphorylation and becomes more active at physiological concentrations of glucose-6-phosphate. Recently, insulin was shown to stimulate a cascade of phosphorylation-dependent kinases which ultimately activate a glycogen-bound subunit of a phosphatase (G-subunit of phosphatase-1) which promotes dephosphorylation GS by the catalytic subunit. The quantity of the GS enzyme (GStot) in muscle may be reduced in the diabetes disease. However, it may increase during physical training of insulin-dependent diabetic patients. GStot is not altered during acute exposure to insulin, hyperglycemia or muscle contraction. The insulin stimulation of GS is reduced in insulin resistant NIDDM patients. However, once the hyperglycemia and the insulin resistance is ameliorated during treatment with diet or sulphonylurea drugs the activation of GS improves. Growth hormone-induced transient insulin resistance in non-diabetic subjects, is accompanied by a reduced insulin stimulation of GS. Experimentally induced hyperglycemia in normal subjects has no influence on GS activation by insulin. After an acute exercise bout the GS in muscle becomes activated. The mechanism of this post-exercise GS activation is still unknown. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
TIGIT signalling pathway negatively regulates CD4+ T‐cell responses in systemic lupus erythematosus

B‐lymphocyte hyperactivity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is T‐cell‐dependent, and CD4+ T‐cell activation is essential to SLE pathogenesis. However, the mechanism of the deregulation of CD4+ T cells in SLE is largely unknown. T‐cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT) is a new inhibitory receptor preferentially expressed on activated CD4+ T cells. Here, we address the role of TIGIT in the pathogenesis of SLE. Our results showed that TIGIT expression on CD4+ T cells was significantly elevated in patients with SLE and highly correlated with the activity of the disease. TIGIT+ CD4+ T cells from both healthy individuals and patients with SLE had a more activated phenotype than TIGIT− CD4+ T cells. In contrast, the activation, proliferation and cytokine production potential of TIGIT+ CD4+ T cells were significantly lower than those of TIGIT− CD4+ T cells. Furthermore, activation of the TIGIT pathway by using CD155 could substantially down‐regulate the activities of CD4+ T cells from SLE patients in vitro, and in vivo administration of CD155 resulted in a delayed development of SLE in MRL/lpr mice. TIGIT is a powerful negative regulator of CD4+ T cells in SLE, which suggests that the TIGIT signalling pathway may be used as a potential therapeutic target for treating this disease.
Kinematics of medial osteoarthritic knees before and after posterior cruciate ligament retaining total knee arthroplasty

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a widely accepted surgical procedure for the treatment of patients with end‐stage osteoarthritis (OA). However, the function of the knee is not always fully recovered after TKA. We used a dual fluoroscopic imaging system to evaluate the in vivo kinematics of the knee with medial compartment OA before and after a posterior cruciate ligament‐retaining TKA (PCR‐TKA) during weight‐bearing knee flexion, and compared the results to those of normal knees. The OA knees displayed similar internal/external tibial rotation to normal knees. However, the OA knees had less overall posterior femoral translation relative to the tibia between 0° and 105° flexion and more varus knee rotation between 0° and 45° flexion, than in the normal knees. Additionally, in the OA knees the femur was located more medially than in the normal knees, particularly between 30° and 60° flexion. After PCR‐TKA, the knee kinematics were not restored to normal. The overall internal tibial rotation and posterior femoral translation between 0° and 105° knee flexion were dramatically reduced. Additionally, PCR‐TKA introduced an abnormal anterior femoral translation during early knee flexion, and the femur was located lateral to the tibia throughout weight‐bearing flexion. The data help understand the biomechanical functions of the knee with medial compartment OA before and after contemporary PCR‐TKA. They may also be useful for improvement of future prostheses designs and surgical techniques in treatment of knees with end‐stage OA. © 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 29:40–46, 2011
Heme oxygenase effect on mesenchymal stem cells action on experimental Alzheimer's disease

The objective is to evaluate the effect of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) enzyme inducer and inhibitor on Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) in Alzheimer disease. 70 female albino rats were divided equally into 7 groups as follows: group 1: healthy control; group 2: Aluminium chloride induced Alzheimer disease; group 3: induced Alzheimer rats that received intravenous injection of MSCs; group 4: induced Alzheimer rats that received MSCs and HO inducer cobalt protoporphyrin; group 5: induced Alzheimer rats that received MSCs and HO inhibitor zinc protoporphyrin; group 6: induced Alzheimer rats that received HO inducer; group7: induced Alzheimer rats that received HO inhibitor. Brain tissue was collected for HO-1, seladin-1 gene expression by real time polymerase chain reaction, heme oxygenase activity, cholesterol estimation and histopathological examination. MSCs decreased the plaque lesions, heme oxygenase induction with stem cells also decreased plaque lesions however there was hemorrhage in the brain. Both heme oxygenase inducer alone or with stem cells increased seladin-1 expression and decreased cholesterol level. MSCs alone or with HO-1 induction exert a therapeutic effect against the brain lesion in Alzheimer's disease possibly through decreasing the brain cholesterol level and increasing seladin-1 gene expression.
Evaluating Pricing Strategy Using Ecommerce Data: Evidence and Estimation Challenges

As Internet-based commerce becomes increasingly widespread, large data sets about the demand for and pricing of a wide variety of products become available. These present exciting new opportunities for empirical economic and business research, but also raise new statistical issues and challenges. In this article, we summarize research that aims to assess the optimality of price discrimination in the software industry using a large e-commerce panel data set gathered from Amazon.com. We describe the key parameters that relate to demand and cost that must be reliably estimated to accomplish this research successfully, and we outline our approach to estimating these parameters. This includes a method for ``reverse engineering'' actual demand levels from the sales ranks reported by Amazon, and approaches to estimating demand elasticity, variable costs and the optimality of pricing choices directly from publicly available e-commerce data. Our analysis raises many new challenges to the reliable statistical analysis of e-commerce data and we conclude with a brief summary of some salient ones.
Topographic reorganization in area 18 of adult cats following circumscribed monocular retinal lesions in adolescence

Circumscribed laser lesions were made in the nasal retinae of one eye in adolescent cats. Ten to sixteen months later, about 80 % of single neurones recorded in the lesion projection zone (LPZ) of contralateral area 18 (parastriate cortex, area V2) were binocular but when stimulated via the lesioned eye had ectopic discharge fields (displaced to normal retina in the vicinity of the lesion). Although the clear majority of binocular cells recorded from the LPZ responded with higher peak discharge rates to stimuli presented via the non‐lesioned eye, the orientation and direction selectivities as well as preferred and upper cut‐off velocities for stimuli presented through either eye were very similar. Furthermore, the sizes of the ectopic discharge fields of binocular cells recorded from the LPZ were not significantly different from those of their counterparts plotted via the non‐lesioned eye. Thus, monocular retinal lesions performed in adolescent cats induce topographic reorganization in the LPZ of area 18. Although a similar reorganization occurs in area 17 (striate cortex, area V1) of cats in which monocular retinal lesions were made either in adulthood or adolescence, in view of the very different velocity response profiles of ectopic discharge fields in areas 17 and those in area 18, it appears that ectopic discharge fields in area 17 are largely independent of excitatory feedback input from area 18.
Erythroid expression of the heme-regulated eIF-2 alpha kinase

The role of heme-regulated eIF-2 alpha kinase (HRI) in the regulation of protein synthesis in rabbit reticulocytes is well documented. Inhibitors of protein synthesis with properties similar to those of HRI have been described in some nonerythroid cell types, but it has not yet been determined whether these eIF-2 alpha kinase activities are mediated by HRI or one or more as yet uncharacterized kinases. We have studied the expression of mRNA, polypeptide, and kinase activities of HRI in various tissues from both nonanemic and anemic rabbits. Our results indicate that HRI is expressed in an erythroid cell-specific manner. HRI is present in the bone marrow and peripheral blood of both nonanemic and anemic rabbits but not in any of the other tissues tested. HRI mRNA is present at low levels in uninduced mouse erythroleukemic (MEL) cells and human K562 cells and accumulates to higher levels upon induction. The accumulation of HRI mRNA in differentiating MEL cells is dependent upon the presence of heme. The addition of 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole (AT), an inhibitor of heme biosynthesis, to the induction medium markedly reduced HRI mRNA accumulation. Simultaneous addition of hemin and AT to the dimethyl sulfoxide induction medium largely prevented the inhibition of HRI mRNA induction by AT. These findings indicate that HRI is expressed in an erythroid cell-specific manner and that the major physiologic role of HRI is in adjusting the synthesis of globins to the availability of heme.
Effect of Reinforcing Bar Orientation and Location on Bond with Self-Consolidating Concrete

Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is more workable than vibrated concrete (VC) when it is fresh. This workability supports the use of SCC in congested and restricted areas without adding vibration. However, there are also some differences in the concretes once they have hardened. This article reports on a study of the effect of reinforcing bar orientation and location on steel-concrete bond behavior. The study used SCCs and two VCs and the concrete casting direction is always vertical. For small-size concrete elements, SCC25 shows a better resistance against bleeding than VC25. The difference, however, is not significant for SCC40 and VC40. For samples reinforced with ribbed bars, the orientation of the bars (horizontal or vertical) has a significant and equivalent influence on both 25 MPa (3625 psi) concretes. The VC40 and SCC40 bond strength values are almost equivalent and not affected by the orientation of the bars. For tall concrete elements, voids formation under the horizontal bars was clearly observed for every type of concrete. The authors note that the size of the voids was almost equivalent for SCC25, SCC40, and VC40, but significantly larger in the case of VC25, especially near the top casting surface. Finally, the ultimate bond strengths (not affected by the casting conditions) obtained were approximately 20% higher for SCC than for VC, regardless of the concrete strength, for samples reinforced with ribbed bars.
Hedonic Games with Graph-restricted Communication

We study hedonic coalition formation games in which cooperation among the players is restricted by a graph structure: a subset of players can form a coalition if and only if they are connected in the given graph. We investigate the complexity of finding stable outcomes in such games, for several notions of stability. In particular, we provide an efficient algorithm that finds an individually stable partition for an arbitrary hedonic game on an acyclic graph. We also introduce a new stability concept -in-neighbor stability- which is tailored for our setting. We show that the problem of finding an in-neighbor stable outcome admits a polynomial-time algorithm if the underlying graph is a path, but is NP-hard for arbitrary trees even for additively separable hedonic games; for symmetric additively separable games we obtain a PLS-hardness result.
Dust emission from the most distant quasars

We report observations of three SDSS z>6 QSOs at 250 GHz (1.2mm) using the 117-channel Max-Planck Millimeter Bolometer (MAMBO-2) array at the IRAM 30-meter telescope. J1148+5251 (z=6.41) and J1048+4637 (z=6.23) were detected with 250 GHz flux densities of 5.0 +- 0.6 mJy and 3.0 +- 0.4 mJy, respectively. J1630+4012 (z=6.05) was not detected with a 3 sigma upper limit of 1.8 mJy. Upper flux density limits from VLA observations at 43 GHz for J1148+5251 and J1048+4637 imply steeply rising spectra, indicative of thermal infrared emission from warm dust. The far-infrared luminosities are estimated to be \\~10^13 L_sun, and the dust masses ~10^8 M_sun, assuming Galactic dust properties. The presence of large amounts of dust in the highest redshift QSOs indicates that dust formation must be rapid during the early evolution of QSO host galaxies. Dust absorption may hinder the escape of ionizing photons which reionize the intergalactic medium at this early epoch.
High-fundamental-frequency modulation for the DC-DC modular multilevel converter (MMC) with low switching frequency and predicted-based voltage balance strategy

This paper proposes the high-fundamental-frequency modulation of the dc-dc MMC-transformer-MMC topology, which is a potential candidate for the HVDC and transportation applications. With the proposed modulation, the MMC arms generate a high-fundamental-frequency ac voltage applying on the transformer, the size of the transformer, as well as the inductors and capacitors of the MMC arms, can be reduced. On the other hand, the proposed modulation ensures all the MMC submodules strictly working at the same fundamental frequency, and the switching losses of all the submodules are approximately balanced. Besides, the capacitor voltage balance strategy under the proposed modulation strategy is presented, and the current stresses of the submodules are also analyzed. Finally, the proposed modulation method is verified by a 10 kV/20 kV/1 MW simulation.
Fabrication of highly ordered sub-20 nm silicon nanopillars by block copolymer lithography combined with resist design

The control of order and orientation of the self-assembly of cylinder-forming poly(styrene-b-dimethylsiloxane) block copolymer is demonstrated. Copolymer thin films are spun-cast onto topographically patterned (well-defined rectangular cross-section channels) polyhedral-silsesquioxane-type resist templates and annealed in solvent vapor. The templates used here are fabricated by UV-curing nanoimprint lithography and the surface properties of the resist are tuned by the ligands coordinated to the resist's silsesquioxane cages. Depending on the resist's composition and on the surface chemistry at the base of the trench (resist or silicon), various morphologies and orientations of the polydimethylsiloxane cylinders are observed without the use of a brush layer. Some surfaces are demonstrated to be neutral for the copolymer, without any wetting layer and, under favorable conditions, highly ordered features are observed over substrate areas of about 1 cm2 (scalable to larger surfaces). Also, the possibility of using solvents widely accepted in industry for polymer spin-coating and annealing is proved. Due to the high plasma etch resistance of the polydimethylsiloxane block, self-assembled patterns can be transferred to the silicon substrate producing silicon features with aspect ratios up to 2. We demonstrate that the methodology developed here could be integrated into conventional fabrication processes and scaled to wafer production.
Development of a High-Throughput Plate-Based Chemiluminescent Transcription Factor Assay

Transcription factors are DNA-binding proteins that regulate the expression of specific genes by controlling transcription initiation. Two families of transcription factors, NFκB and AP-1, play pivotal roles in controlling important cellular processes ranging from normal cell growth and differentiation to apoptosis and cancer. Identifying changes in the DNA-binding activity of these factors is essential to understanding the regulation of these processes. We have developed a high-throughput DNA-based ELISA capable of monitoring activated levels of NFκB (p50 and p65) and AP-1 (c-Jun and c-Fos). This chemiluminescent assay utilizes a 96-well plate format, eliminating the throughput challenges imposed by traditional gel shift assays and exceeding the sensitivity and dynamic range of standard colorimetric detection systems. The sensitivity of this assay enables distinction between subtle as well as dramatic differences in the DNA-binding activity of these factors that result from the treatment of cells with various inhibitors or activating agents.
Bifurcation of Connecting Orbits with One Nonhyperbolic Fixed Point for Maps

In this paper we consider the bifurcation of transversal heteroclinic orbits in discrete time dynamical systems. We assume that a nonhyperbolic transversal heteroclinic orbit exists at some critical parameter value. This situation appears, for example, when one end point undergoes a fold or flip bifurcation. In these two cases the bifurcation analysis of the orbit is performed in detail. In particular, we prove, using implicit function techniques, that the orbit can be continued beyond the bifurcation point. Finally, we show numerical computations for the fold and for the flip bifurcations.
Mariposa: a new architecture for distributed data

We describe the design of Mariposa, an experimental distributed data management system that provides high performance in an environment of high data mobility and heterogeneous host capabilities. The Mariposa design unifies the approaches taken by distributed file systems and distributed databases. In addition, Mariposa provides a general, flexible platform for the development of new algorithms for distributed query optimization, storage management, and scalable data storage structures. This flexibility is primarily due to a unique rule-based design that permits autonomous, local-knowledge decisions to be made regarding data placement, query execution location, and storage management. <<ETX>>
Seasonal H1N1 2007 influenza virus infection is associated with elevated pre-exposure antibody titers to the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus.

The new influenza strain detected in humans in April 2009 has caused the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century. A cross-reactive antibody response, in which antibodies against seasonal H1N1 viruses neutralized the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus (2009 pH1N1), was detected among individuals aged >60 years. However, factors other than age associated with such a cross-reactive antibody response are poorly documented. Our objective was to examine factors potentially associated with elevated pre-exposure viro-neutralization and hemagglutination-inhibition antibody titers against the 2009 pH1N1. We also studied factors associated with antibody titers against the 2007 seasonal H1N1 virus. One hundred subjects participating in an influenza cohort were selected. Sera collected in 2008 were analysed using hemagglutination inhibition and viro-neutralization assays for the 2009 pH1N1 virus and the 2007 seasonal H1N1 virus. Viro-neutralization results were explored using a linear mixed-effect model and hemagglutination-inhibition results using linear-regression models for interval-censored data. Elevated antibody titers against 2009 pH1N1 were associated with seasonal 2007 H1N1 infection (viro-neutralization, p 0.006; hemagglutination-inhibition, p 0.018). Elevated antibody titers were also associated with age in the viro-neutralization assay (p <0.0001). Seasonal 2007 H1N1 infection is an independent predictor of elevated pre-exposure antibody titers against 2009 pH1N1 and may have contributed to lowering the burden of the 2009 pH1N1 pandemic.
Velocity shear, turbulent saturation, and steep plasma gradients in the scrape-off layer of inner-wall limited tokamaks

The narrow power decay-length (λq), recently found in the scrape-off layer (SOL) of inner-wall limited (IWL) discharges in tokamaks, is studied using 3D, flux-driven, global two-fluid turbulence simulations. The formation of the steep plasma profiles is found to arise due to radially sheared E×B poloidal flows. A complex interaction between sheared flows and parallel plasma currents outflowing into the sheath regulates the turbulent saturation, determining the transport levels. We quantify the effects of sheared flows, obtaining theoretical estimates in agreement with our non-linear simulations. Analytical calculations suggest that the IWL λq is roughly equal to the turbulent correlation length.