Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Altered Expression of Signaling Genes in Jurkat Cells upon FTY720 Induced Apoptosis

FTY720, a novel immunosuppressant, has a marked activity in decreasing peripheral blood T lymphocytes upon oral administration. Recent investigations suggest that the action of FTY720 on lymphocytes may result from its ability to induce cell apoptosis. However, the cell signaling mechanism involved in the FTY720-induced cell apoptosis remains unclear. Here we examined the apoptotic signal pathways mediated by FTY720 in Jurkat cells using microarray analysis. The results showed that FTY720 can induce Jurkat cell apoptosis in a dose and time dependent manner as assessed by cell viability, Hoechst 33258 staining, Annexin V binding and DNA fragmentation tests. cDNA microarray analysis showed that 10 μM of FTY720 up-regulated 54 and down-regulated 10 genes in Jurkat cells among the 458 apoptotic genes examined following the 6 h incubation period. At least five-fold increased expression of modulator of apoptosis-1 (MOAP-1), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factors (TRAF 6), Caspase 2 (CASP 2), E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F 1) and Casapse 5 (CASP 5) genes was observed in microarray analyses; these results were confirmed with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) examination. Our findings suggest that the mitochondria related signaling pathways are the key pathways involved in the FTY720-induced apoptosis in Jurkat cells. And our results provide a new insight into the mechanism of FTY720, which allows us to draw the first simple diagram showing the potential pathways mediated by FTY720.
Elastin: relation of protein and gene structure to disease.

The elastic properties of many tissues such as the lung, dermis, and large blood vessels are due to the presence of elastic fibers in the extracellular space. These fibers have been shown by biochemical and ultrastructural analysis to be comprised of two distinct components, a more abundant amorphous component and the microfibrillar component. The microfibrillar component is found in 10- to 12-nm fibrils which are located primarily around the periphery of the amorphous component but, to some extent, interspersed within it. The protein, elastin, makes up the highly insoluble amorphous component and is responsible for the elastic properties. Elastin is found throughout the vertebrate kingdom except for very primitive fish and possesses an unusual chemical composition consonant with its characteristic physical properties. Elastin is composed largely of glycine, proline, and other hydrophobic residues and contains multiple lysine-derived cross-links, such as the desmosines, which link the individual polypeptide chains into a rubber-like network. The intervening, hydrophobic regions of the polypeptide chains between the cross-links are highly mobile, and the elastic properties of the fibers can be described in terms of the theory of rubber elasticity. Recent application of recombinant DNA techniques has led to further understanding of the structure of elastin. Analyses of the bovine and human elastin genes have demonstrated that the hydrophobic and cross-linking domains are encoded in separate exons. These exons tend to be small, varying from 27 to 114 base pairs, and are separated by large intervening sequences. Furthermore, DNA sequence analysis has demonstrated that the elastin molecule contains two cysteine residues which were not previously identified near the carboxy terminus and which may be important in the interaction of elastin with other extracellular matrix proteins. Further DNA sequencing should determine the complete amino acid sequence of elastin. Biosynthetic studies and in vitro translation of elastin mRNA have demonstrated that a 72,000-dalton polypeptide, designated tropoelastin, is the initial translation product. Analysis of several developing systems has demonstrated that elastin synthesis is controlled by the level of elastin mRNA. After packaging into membrane-bound vesicles in the Golgi apparatus, tropoelastin is secreted by exocytosis into the extracellular space where it is cross-linked by a copper-requiring extracellular enzyme, lysyl oxidase. Elastin can be solubilized only by proteases that have consequently been designated elastases, although these are general, powerful proteases that can hydrolyze numerous proteins. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Time-Dependent Trajectory Regression on Road Networks via Multi-Task Learning

Road travel costs are important knowledge hidden in large-scale GPS trajectory data sets, the discovery of which can benefit many applications such as intelligent route planning and automatic driving navigation. While there are previous studies which tackled this task by modeling it as a regression problem with spatial smoothness taken into account, they unreasonably assumed that the latent cost of each road remains unchanged over time. Other works on route planning and recommendation that have considered temporal factors simply assumed that the temporal dynamics be known in advance as a parametric function over time, which is not faithful to reality. To overcome these limitations, in this paper, we propose an extension to a previous static trajectory regression framework by learning the temporal dynamics of road travel costs in an innovative non-parametric manner which can effectively overcome the temporal sparsity problem. In particular, we unify multiple different trajectory regression problems in a multi-task framework by introducing a novel cross-task regularization which encourages temporal smoothness on the change of road travel costs. We then propose an efficient block coordinate descent method to solve the resulting problem by exploiting its separable structures and prove its convergence to global optimum. Experiments conducted on both synthetic and real data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of our method and its improved accuracy on travel time prediction.
Disruption of Hif-1α enhances cytotoxic effects of metformin in murine squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract Purpose: In the present study, we investigated whether the disruption of the Hif-1α gene affects the sensitivity of SCC VII cells to metformin and also if metformin functions as a radiosensitizer using murine squamous cell carcinoma (SCC VII) cells. Materials and methods: Cultured SCC VII and SCC VII Hif-1α-deficient cells were incubated with metformin under glucose-free and/or hypoxia-mimetic conditions and cell viabilities were measured. Tumor-bearing mice were continuously given 5-bromo-2’-deoxyuridine (BrdU) to label all proliferating cells. Tumor-bearing mice were then subjected to γ-ray irradiation after the metformin treatment. Immediately after irradiation, cells were isolated from some tumors and incubated with a cytokinesis blocker. The responses of quiescent and total (= proliferating + quiescent) cell populations were assessed based on the frequency of micronuclei using immunofluorescence staining for BrdU. Results: The disruption of Hif-1α increased the sensitivity of SCC VII cells to metformin in glucose-free medium. Metformin-induced decreases in the percentage of dead cells in the presence of CoCl2 were partially reduced when Hif-1α was disrupted. In vivo, metformin increased the radiosensitivity of SCC VII Hif-1α-deficient cells. Conclusion: The combination of disruption of Hif-1α and metformin effectively enhanced the radiosensitivity of SCC VII cells.
Mitochondrial Group II Introns, Cytochrome c Oxidase, and Senescence in Podospora anserina

ABSTRACT Podospora anserina is a filamentous fungus with a limited life span. It expresses a degenerative syndrome called senescence, which is always associated with the accumulation of circular molecules (senDNAs) containing specific regions of the mitochondrial chromosome. A mobile group II intron (α) has been thought to play a prominent role in this syndrome. Intron α is the first intron of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COX1). Mitochondrial mutants that escape the senescence process are missing this intron, as well as the first exon of theCOX1 gene. We describe here the first mutant of P. anserina that has the α sequence precisely deleted and whose cytochrome c oxidase activity is identical to that of wild-type cells. The integration site of the intron is slightly modified, and this change prevents efficient homing of intron α. We show here that this mutant displays a senescence syndrome similar to that of the wild type and that its life span is increased about twofold. The introduction of a related group II intron into the mitochondrial genome of the mutant does not restore the wild-type life span. These data clearly demonstrate that intron α is not the specific senescence factor but rather an accelerator or amplifier of the senescence process. They emphasize the role that intron α plays in the instability of the mitochondrial chromosome and the link between this instability and longevity. Our results strongly support the idea that in Podospora, “immortality” can be acquired not by the absence of intron α but rather by the lack of active cytochromec oxidase.
Secure and Scalable Fault Localization under Dynamic Traffic Patterns

Compromised and misconfigured routers are a well-known problem in ISP and enterprise networks. Data-plane fault localization (FL) aims to identify faulty links of compromised and misconfigured routers during packet forwarding, and is recognized as an effective means of achieving high network availability. Existing secure FL protocols are path-based, which assume that the source node knows the entire outgoing path that delivers the source node's packets and that the path is static and long-lived. However, these assumptions are incompatible with the dynamic traffic patterns and agile load balancing commonly seen in modern networks. To cope with real-world routing dynamics, we propose the first secure neighborhood-based FL protocol, DynaFL, with no requirements on path durability or the source node knowing the outgoing paths. Through a core technique we named delayed key disclosure, DynaFL incurs little communication overhead and a small, constant router state independent of the network size or the number of flows traversing a router. In addition, each DynaFL router maintains only a single secret key, which based on our measurement results represents 2 - 4 orders of magnitude reduction over previous path-based FL protocols.
Medical practice during a world cruise: a descriptive epidemiological study of injury and illness among passengers and crew.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To describe the medical practice of one physician and two nurses during a 106-day westward cruise from Los Angeles to New York in 2004 with an average of 464 passengers (51% women) and 615 crew (22% women) aboard. METHODS Patient data were registered continuously and reviewed after the voyage. RESULTS There were 4244 recorded patient contacts (=40 per day), 2866 of which directly involved the doctor (=27 per day). Passengers accounted for 59% of the doctor consultations, while crew accounted for 59% of the nurse consultations. The most frequent consultation cause was respiratory illness (19%) in passengers and skin disorders (27%) in crew. Among 101 reported injuries (56 passengers, 45 crew) wound was the most common type (passengers 41%, crew 40%). The most frequent accident location for passengers was ashore (27%) and for crew galleys aboard (31%). 133 crew were on sick leave for a total of 271 days, and seven were medically signed off, six of them following injuries. Seven passengers and 13 crew were referred to dentists ashore, five passengers and two crew were referred to medical specialists ashore and returned to the ship, while seven passengers and one crew were hospitalized in port. CONCLUSION The medical staff on long voyages will have a busy general practice. Broad experience in emergency and general medicine, good communication skills and previous cruise experience are useful qualifications. While the ACEP PREP may be sufficient for shorter cruises, additional equipment is recommended for long voyages.
Seasonal Change in Oxidative Stress Markers in Blood Plasma of Tharparkar (Bos indicus) and Karan Fries (Bos indicus x Bos taurus) Cattle under Tropical Climate

Free radical reactions are the integral part of normal metabolism. Normally, oxidation is necessary to provide energy for maintenance of cellular integrity and functions (Miller et al., 1993). In normal cellular metabolism, low to moderate ROS is generated as part of the signaling pathways, and in innate and adaptive immune response against danger signals (Martins Chaves et al., 2000). When reactive forms of oxygen are produced faster than they can be safely neutralized by antioxidant mechanisms, oxidative stress results (Sies, 1991). OxS is considered as a part of the stress response to heat exposure (Lin et al., 2006). OxS can be induced by both exogenous and endogenous factors in living organisms (Cross et al., 1998; Lesser, 2006). Animals are exposed to a wide variety International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 2 (2017) pp. 1720-1730 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Differential effects of Losartan and Atorvastatin in partial and full thickness burn wounds

Healing of burn wounds is often associated with scar formation due to excessive inflammation and delayed wound closure. To date, no effective treatment is available to prevent the fibrotic process. The Renin Angiotensin System (RAS) was shown to be involved in fibrosis in various organs. Statins (e.g. Atorvastatin), Angiotensin receptor antagonists (e.g. Losartan) and the combination of these drugs are able to reduce the local RAS activation, and reduced fibrosis in other organs. We investigated whether inhibition of the RAS could improve healing of burn wounds by treatment with Atorvastatin, Losartan or the combination of both drugs. Therefore, full and partial thickness burn wounds were inflicted on both flanks of Yorkshire pigs. Oral administration of Atorvastatin, Losartan or the combination was started at post-burn day 1 and continued for 28 days. Full thickness wounds were excised and transplanted with an autologous meshed split-thickness skin graft at post-burn day 14. Partial thickness wounds received conservative treatment. Atorvastatin treatment resulted in enhanced graft take and wound closure of the full thickness wounds, faster resolution of neutrophils compared to all treatments and reduced alpha-smooth muscle actin positive cells compared to control treatment. Treatment with Losartan and to a lesser extent the combination therapy resulted in diminished graft take, increased wound contraction and poorer scar outcome. In contrast, Losartan treatment in partial thickness wounds decreased the alpha-smooth muscle actin+ fibroblasts and contraction. In conclusion, we showed differential effects of Losartan and Atorvastatin in full and partial thickness wounds. The extensive graft loss seen in Losartan treated wounds is most likely responsible for the poor clinical outcome of these full thickness burn wounds. Therefore, Losartan treatment should not be started before transplantation in order to prevent graft loss. Atorvastatin seems to accelerate the healing process in full thickness wounds possibly by dampening the pro-inflammatory response.
All that Glitters is not Gold: Employee Retention in Offshored Indian Information Technology Enabled Services

Increasing offshoring of customer contact services to destinations such as India is underpinned by the availability of low cost and high quality workforce. But this competitive advantage is under threat with talent shortages, wage increases, and, most importantly, high employee attrition. Based on empirical studies and person-organization fit literature, this paper identifies and addresses some of the key issues and challenges in retaining talent in the Indian business process outsourcing sector, such as pay satisfaction, work organization, employment branding, and longer-term career advancement opportunities. It recognizes the need for multi-pronged retention strategies in a highly competitive, changing, and fast-growing part of the global services sector.
Striving for Success: A Qualitative Exploration of Competing Theories of High-Achieving Black College Students' Academic Motivation

Research on the academic performance of Black students has focused on low-achievers, framing their academic motivation as maladaptive and driven by externally (e.g., competition or compliance) rather than internally (e.g., love of learning) generated forces. This qualitative study challenges this mono-dimensional deficit framework, examining the motivation of nine Black high-achievers attending a large public university. Findings show that self-determination theory, socio-cognitive theory, and attribution theory cannot individually explain the motivation of these Black high-achievers. Instead, a multidimensional framework that incorporates all three models and that highlights internal and external sources of motivation best accounts for these students' experiences.
A Comparison of B16 Melanoma Cells and 3T3 Fibroblasts Concerning Cell Viability and ROS Production in the Presence of Melatonin, Tested Over a Wide Range of Concentrations

Melatonin is a pleiotropic molecule with many cellular and systemic actions, including chronobiotic effects. Beneficial effects are widely documented concerning the treatment of neoplastic diseases in vivo as well as reductions in viability of cultured cells from melanoma, one of the most aggressive cancers in humans. However, studies of its effects on non-tumor cells in vitro have not focused on viability, except for experiments aiming to protect against oxidotoxicity or other toxicological insults. Furthermore, there is no agreement on the range of effective melatonin concentrations in vitro, and the mechanisms that reduce cell viability have remained unclear. Tumor cell-specific increases in the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) may provide a possible explanation. Our aim was to analyze the potential inhibition of tumor (B16 melanoma 4A5) and non-tumor cell (3T3 Swiss albino) viability using a wide range of melatonin concentrations (10−11–10−2 M), and to determine whether intracellular ROS enhancement was involved in this process. In the absence of fetal bovine serum (FBS), low melatonin concentrations (10−9–10−5 M) reduced the proliferation of melanoma cells with no effect in fibroblasts, whereas, in the presence of FBS, they had no effect or even increased the proliferation of both fibroblast and melanoma cells. Melatonin concentrations in the upper millimolar range increased ROS levels and reduced the viability of both cell types, but more markedly so in non-tumor cells. Thus, low melatonin concentrations reduce proliferation in this specific melanoma cell line, whereas high concentrations affect the viability of both tumor (B16 4A5 melanoma) and non-tumor (3T3 fibroblasts) cells. Increased ROS levels in both lines indicate a role for ROS production in the reduction of cell viability at high—but not low—melatonin concentrations, although the mechanism of action still remains to be elucidated.
Speaker verification using Gaussian component strings in dynamic trajectory space

In this paper, a novel approach is presented for text-independent speaker veriﬁcation. A quantized acoustic trajectory is constructed for each utterance based on Universal Background Model (UBM). Analysis of the speaker entropy in the trajectory space demonstrates that the segmental trajectory catches some speaker-speciﬁc information, which can be used to discriminate different speakers. Gaussian component strings are proposed to reﬂect the dynamic features in the segmental trajectory. Based on the occurring frequencies of different component strings in the non-target and target speaker data, a Universal Background Trajectory Model (UBTM) and multiple Target Trajectory Models (TTMs) are created for background and target speakers separately. The experiments are conducted on the telephony speech used in the NIST 1999 speaker veriﬁcation evaluation. The experimental results show that the bi-component strings achieve better performance compared to the uni-component and tri-component strings. The trajectory models can be combined with a general speaker veriﬁcation system to provide complementary information.
Moving Towards an ‘Indigenous’ Social Work Education in Vietnam

Professional social work has been reintroduced to Vietnam recently as part of the effort to deal with increasing levels of social problems arising from changes in economic policy. It is estimated that about 25% of the population is in need of social work services. Though social work has not yet been officially recognized as a profession in Vietnam, programmes of social work education have been offered since the early 1990s. Following the issue of a government training code in 2004, social work education is considered to be the most developed aspect of the professionalization of social work in Vietnam. Social work education is now being offered in increasing numbers of training institutions. Nevertheless, social work education in Vietnam faces many challenges. As has happened elsewhere, Western models of social work education have influenced social work education in Vietnam. From this phase of ‘adoption’ of Western models, Vietnam is in an ‘adaptation’ phase, in that making social work education appropriate for Vietnam is the current major issue. Vietnamese social work educators are striving to develop social work training programmes that meet core international professional standards as well as fitting the Vietnamese cultural, political and economic background. This paper describes and discusses these developments.