Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
4′,5-Dihydroxy-7-methoxyflavanone dihydrate

The title compound, C16H14O5·2H2O [systematic name: 5-hydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-7-methoxychroman-4-one dihydrate], is a natural phytoalexin flavone isolated from the native chilean species Heliotropium taltalense and crystallizes with an organic molecule and two water molecules in the asymmetric unit. The 5-hydroxy group forms a strong intramolecular hydrogen bond with the carbonyl group, resulting in a six-membered ring. In the crystal, the components are linked by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a three-dimensional network. The 4-hydroxyphenyl benzene ring is bonded equatorially to the pyrone ring, which adopts a slightly distorted sofa conformation. The title compound is the hydrated form of a previously reported structure [Shoja (1990 ▶). Acta Cryst. C46, 1969–1971]. There are only slight variations in the molecular geometry between the two compounds.
Lovastatin‐induced up‐regulation of the BH3‐only protein, Bim, and cell death in glioblastoma cells

The mechanism of lovastatin‐induced cell death was examined in three established human glioblastoma cell lines; U87, U251, and U138. Changes in potential modifiers of apoptosis, including Bcl‐2 family proteins and MAP kinase targets after such lovastatin treatment, were evaluated. Lovastatin (5 μm) treatment causes extensive cell death in two of the cell lines, U87 and U251; but only minimal in a third, U138. Lovastatin‐induced death occurs in correlation with significantly increased levels of the BH3‐only protein, Bim. The up‐regulation of Bim levels was directly associated with an increased incidence of apoptosis. Lovastatin treatment in U87 cells results in activation of targets of three major mitogen‐activating protein kinase cascades including Erk1/2, JNK and p38. Changes in levels of Bim, as well as increase phosphorylation of Erk1/2, c‐jun, and p38 are all prevented by co‐incubation of lovastatin and the isoprenylation metabolite, geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate. Inhibition of the MAP kinase pathways failed to block the increased expression of Bim expression or cell death. Further elucidation of the mechanisms of lovastatin‐induced up‐regulation of Bim and apoptosis in glioblastoma cells are important in determining a potential role for lovastatin as a chemotherapy agent.
Selectivity of lingual nerve fibers to chemical stimuli

The cell bodies of the lingual branch of the trigeminal nerve were localized in the trigeminal ganglion using extracellular recordings together with horseradish peroxidase labeling from the tongue. Individual lingual nerve fibers were characterized with regard to their conduction velocities, receptive fields, and response to thermal, mechanical, and chemical stimuli. Fibers were classified as C, A delta, A beta, cold, and warm. The chemical stimuli included NaCl, KCl, NH4Cl, CaCl2, menthol, nicotine, hexanol, and capsaicin. With increasing salt concentration the latency of the response decreased and the activity increased. The responses elicited by salts (to 2.5 M), but not nonpolar stimuli such as menthol, were reversibly inhibited by 3.5 mM of the tight junction blocker, LaCl3. These data suggest that salts diffuse into stratified squamous epithelia through tight junctions in the stratum corneum and stratum granulosum, whereupon they enter the extracellular space. 11 C fibers were identified and 5 were characterized as polymodal nociceptors. All of the C fibers were activated by one or more of the salts NaCl, KCl, or NH4Cl. Three C fibers were activated by nicotine (1 mM), but none were affected by CaCl2 (1 M), menthol (1 mM), or hexanol (50 mM). However, not all C fibers or even the subpopulation of polymodals were activated by the same salts or by nicotine. Thus, it appears that C fibers display differential responsiveness to chemical stimuli. A delta fibers also showed differential sensitivity to chemicals. Of the 35 characterized A delta mechanoreceptors, 8 responded to NaCl, 9 to KCl, 9 to NH4Cl, 0 to CaCl2, menthol, or hexanol, and 2 to nicotine. 8 of 9 of the cold fibers (characterized as A delta's) responded to menthol, none responded to nicotine, 8 of 16 were inhibited by hexanol, 9 of 19 responded to 2.5 M NH4Cl, 5 of 19 responded to 2.5 M KCl, and 1 of 19 responded to 2.5 M NaCl. In summary, lingual nerve fibers exhibit responsiveness to chemicals introduced onto the tongue. The differential responses of these fibers are potentially capable of transmitting information regarding the quality and quantity of chemical stimuli from the tongue to the central nervous system.
African origin for Madagascan dogs revealed by mtDNA analysis

Madagascar was one of the last major land masses to be inhabited by humans. It was initially colonized by Austronesian speaking Indonesians 1500–2000 years ago, but subsequent migration from Africa has resulted in approximately equal genetic contributions from Indonesia and Africa, and the material culture has mainly African influences. The dog, along with the pig and the chicken, was part of the Austronesian Neolithic culture, and was furthermore the only domestic animal to accompany humans to every continent in ancient times. To illuminate Madagascan cultural origins and track the initial worldwide dispersal of dogs, we here investigated the ancestry of Madagascan dogs. We analysed mtDNA control region sequences in dogs from Madagascar (n=145) and compared it with that from potential ancestral populations in Island Southeast Asia (n=219) and sub-Saharan Africa (n=493). We found that 90% of the Madagascan dogs carried a haplotype that was also present in sub-Saharan Africa and that the remaining lineages could all be attributed to a likely origin in Africa. By contrast, only 26% of Madagascan dogs shared haplotypes with Indonesian dogs, and one haplotype typical for Austronesian dogs, carried by more than 40% of Indonesian and Polynesian dogs, was absent among the Madagascan dogs. Thus, in contrast to the human population, Madagascan dogs seem to trace their origin entirely from Africa. These results suggest that dogs were not brought to Madagascar by the initial Austronesian speaking colonizers on their transoceanic voyage, but were introduced at a later stage, together with human migration and cultural influence from Africa.
Unplanned Intensive Care Unit Admission following Elective Surgical Adverse Events: Incidence, Patient Characteristics, Preventability, and Outcome

Context: Adverse events (AEs) are a persistent and an important reason for Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission. They lead to death, disability at the time of discharge, unplanned ICU admission (UIA), and prolonged hospital stay. They impose large financial costs on health-care systems. Aims: This study aimed to determine the incidence, patient characteristics, type, preventability, and outcome of UIA following elective surgical AE. Settings and Design: This is a single-center prospective study. Methods: Analysis of 15,372 elective surgical procedures was performed. We defined UIA as an ICU admission that was not anticipated preoperatively but was due to an AE occurring within 5 days after elective surgery. Statistical Analysis: Descriptive analysis using SPSS software version 18 was used for statistical analysis. Results: There were 75 UIA (0.48%) recorded during the 2-year study period. The average age of patients was 54.64 ± 18.02 years. There was no sex predominance, and the majority of our patients had an American Society of Anesthesiologist classes 1 and 2. Nearly 29% of the UIA occurred after abdominal surgery and 22% after a trauma surgery. Regarding the causes of UIA, we observed that 44 UIA (58.7%) were related to surgical AE, 24 (32%) to anesthetic AE, and 7 (9.3%) to postoperative AE caused by care defects. Twenty-three UIA were judged as potentially preventable (30.7%). UIA was associated with negative outcomes, including increased use of ICU-specific interventions and high mortality rate (20%). Conclusions: Our analysis of UIA is a quality control exercise that helps identify high-risk patient groups and patterns of anesthesia or surgical care requiring improvement.
Analysis of the LAD Methods

A localization algorithm based on double-thresholding (LAD) has been recently proposed for localizing concentrated signal(s) in the frequency or time domain. The LAD method blindly detects and separates concentrated signals and estimates their characteristics. This letter presents a theoretical performance analysis of the LAD method and an enhancement of the LAD method: the LAD with adjacent cluster combining (ACC). The good detection performance of the LAD ACC method is confirmed both theoretically and numerically.
The neurological syndrome of infantile cobalamin deficiency: Developmental regression and involuntary movements

Developmental regression is the presenting symptom of most infants with cobalamin (vitamin B12) deficiency. We present a report of three infants with cobalamin deficiency in which the infants also developed a movement disorder. In each case the mother was a vegetarian and the infant was exclusively breast‐fed. In two of the infants, a striking movement disorder consisting of a combination of tremor and myoclonus particularly involving face, tongue, and pharynx appeared 48 h after the initiation of treatment with intramuscular cobalamin. This was associated with marked changes in plasma amino acid levels. Paradoxically, the onset of the movement disorder coincided with overall neurological improvement. The third infant had a persistent focal tremor, which appeared before the commencement of treatment. The movements slowly abated during a 3–6‐week period. The presence of a movement disorder in cobalamin deficiency has received less attention than other features, but in a mild form is probably common. It may offer an early clue to the diagnosis before the onset of profound neurological deterioration. The cause of the severe movement disorder that can appear after treatment is not known.
Prediction of the Number of Residue Contacts in Proteins

Knowing the number of residue contacts in a protein is crucial for deriving constraints useful in modeling protein folding and/or scoring remote homology search. Here we focus on the prediction of residue contacts and show that this figure can be predicted with a neural network based method. The accuracy of the prediction is 12 percentage points higher than that of a simple statistical method. The neural network is used to discriminate between two different states of residue contacts, characterized by a contact number higher or lower than the average value of the residue distribution. When evolutionary information is taken into account, our method correctly predicts 69% of the residue states in the data base and it adds to the prediction of residue solvent accessibility. The predictor is available at htpp://www.biocomp. unibo.it
Autophagy Is Essential for Mitochondrial Clearance in Mature T Lymphocytes1

Macroautophagy plays an important role in the regulation of cell survival, metabolism, and the lysosomal degradation of cytoplasmic material. In the immune system, autophagy contributes to the clearance of intracellular pathogens, MHCII cross-presentation of endogenous Ags, as well as cell survival. We and others have demonstrated that autophagy occurs in T lymphocytes and contributes to the regulation of their cellular function, including survival and proliferation. Here we show that the essential autophagy gene Atg7 is required in a cell-intrinsic manner for the survival of mature primary T lymphocytes. We also find that mitochondrial content is developmentally regulated in T but not in B cells, with exit from the thymus marking a transition from high mitochondrial content in thymocytes to lower mitochondrial content in mature T cells. Macroautophagy has been proposed to play an important role in the clearance of intracellular organelles, and autophagy-deficient mature T cells fail to reduce their mitochondrial content in vivo. Consistent with alterations in mitochondrial content, autophagy-deficient T cells have increased reactive oxygen species production as well as an imbalance in pro- and antiapoptotic protein expression. With much recent interest in the possibility of autophagy-dependent developmentally programmed clearance of organelles in lens epithelial cells and erythrocytes, our data demonstrate that autophagy may have a physiologically significant role in the clearance of superfluous mitochondria in T lymphocytes as part of normal T cell homeostasis.
A SIMPLE BAYESIAN APPROACH TO MULTIPLE CHANGE-POINTS

After a brief review of previous frequentist and Bayesian approaches to multiple change-points, we describe a Bayesian model for multiple parameter changes in a multiparameter exponential family. This model has attractive sta- tistical and computational properties and yields explicit recursive formulas for the Bayes estimates of the piecewise constant parameters. Efficient estimators of the hyperparameters of the Bayesian model for the parameter jumps can be used in conjunction, yielding empirical Bayes estimates. The empirical Bayes approach is also applied to solve long-standing frequentist problems such as significance testing of the null hypothesis of no change-points versus multiple change-point alterna- tives, and inference on the number and locations of change-points that partition the unknown parameter sequence into segments of equal values. Simulation studies of performance and an illustrative application to the British coal mine data are also given. Extensions from the exponential family to general parametric families and from independent observations to genearlized linear time series models are then provided.
The Functionality of Marek's Disease Virus Us3 Protein

Marek’s disease (MD) is a lymphoproliferative disease of chickens caused by cell-associated Marek’s disease virus (MDV). The US3 protein kinase expressed by MDV has been shown to be involved in various stages of the viral life cycle. Deletion of the US3 open reading frame resulted in an accumulation of primarily enveloped virions in the perinuclear space which led to a reduction in viral titers (Schumacher et al., 2005). It was also shown that the US3 protein is involved in actin stress fiber breakdown. In this study we constructed a recombinant virus (US3*220A) to determine the significance of the US3 kinase activity. Disruption of the kinase activity was achieved by substituting a lysine in the active site of the protein with an alanine. Titers of the kinase-negative virus were reduced when compared to parental virus in a similar fashion as the previously described US3 deletion mutant. We were able to show complete absence of direct phosphorylation of an MDV-specific phosphoprotein, pp38 by pUS3*220A. Surprisingly, expression of pUS3*220A mediated breakdown of the actin cytoskeleton 24h after transfection of chicken embryo fibroblasts in the same way wildtype pUS3* does. At 48h post transfection the actin cytoskeleton was fully restored in almost all transfected cells. Our results show that the US3 and pp38 proteins comprise a kinase-substrate pair but that not all of US3 functions are mediated by its kinase activity. Marek’s disease (MD) is a highly contagious lymphoproliferative disease of chickens caused by the cell associated Marek’s disease virus (MDV). MDV is a member of the Alphaherpesvirinae subfamily, along with various other animal viruses such as pseudorabies virus (PRV) of pigs as well as the more familiar human viruses, varicella zoster virus (VZV) and herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). MDV is further classified within the Mardivirus genus along with its close relatives, GaHV-3, and herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT). MDV is the only Mardivirus that can cause MD.
Breakthrough Technologies Isolation and Proteomic Characterization of the Arabidopsis Golgi De fi nes Functional and Novel Components Involved in Plant Cell Wall Biosynthesis 1 [ W ] [ OA ]

Joint BioEnergy Institute and Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 (H.T.P., K.C., B.K., A.C., J.I., T.S.B., A.M.S.-M., S.M., P.M., M.Z.H., M.A., A.M., C.J.P., H.V.S., D.L., J.L.H.); Sandia National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551 (S.M., P.M., M.Z.H.); and Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (H.V.S.)
Music reduces pain and increases functional mobility in fibromyalgia

The pain in Fibromyalgia (FM) is difficult to treat and functional mobility seems to be an important comorbidity in these patients that could evolve into a disability. In this study we wanted to investigate the analgesic effects of music in FM pain. Twenty-two FM patients were passively exposed to (1) self-chosen, relaxing, pleasant music, and to (2) a control auditory condition (pink noise). They rated pain and performed the “timed-up & go task (TUG)” to measure functional mobility after each auditory condition. Listening to relaxing, pleasant, self-chosen music reduced pain and increased functional mobility significantly in our FM patients. The music-induced analgesia was significantly correlated with the TUG scores; thereby suggesting that the reduction in pain unpleasantness increased functional mobility. Notably, this mobility improvement was obtained with music played prior to the motor task (not during), therefore the effect cannot be explained merely by motor entrainment to a fast rhythm. Cognitive and emotional mechanisms seem to be central to music-induced analgesia. Our findings encourage the use of music as a treatment adjuvant to reduce chronic pain in FM and increase functional mobility thereby reducing the risk of disability.
Psychostimulant-Induced Fos Protein Expression in the Thalamic Paraventricular Nucleus

Lesions of glutamatergic afferents to the nucleus accumbens have been reported to block psychostimulant-induced behavioral sensitization. However, thalamic glutamatergic projections to the nucleus accumbens have received little attention in the context of psychostimulant actions. We examined the effects of acute amphetamine and cocaine administration on expression of Fos protein in the thalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVT), which provides glutamatergic inputs to the nucleus accumbens and also receives dopaminergic afferents. Immunoblot and immunohistochemical studies revealed that both psychostimulants dose-dependently increased PVT Fos expression. PVT neurons retrogradely labeled from the nucleus accumbens were among the PVT cells that showed a Fos response to amphetamine. D2family dopamine agonists, including low doses of the D3-preferring agonist 7-OH-DPAT, increased the numbers of Fos-like-immunoreactive neurons in the PVT. Conversely, the effects of cocaine and amphetamine on PVT Fos expression were blocked by pretreatment with the dopamine D2/3 antagonist raclopride. Because PVT neurons express D3 but not other dopamine receptor transcripts, it appears that psychostimulants induce Fos in PVT neurons through a D3 dopamine receptor. We suggest that the PVT may be an important part of an extended circuit subserving both the arousing properties and reinforcing aspects of psychostimulants.
A CLASS OF ESTIMATORS : A UNIFYING TOOL TOWARDS THE ESTIMATION OF GINI INDEX AND ITS VARIANT

The Gini index and its variant are widely used as a measure of income inequality. Finding reliable estimators of these measures and studying its asymptotic properties has been an important area of research in the last two decades. Due to the fragmentation of literature among statistician and economist, several results in this direction have been republished often with a clear lack of reference to previous work. In this paper, we propose a simple unique approach to find the estimators of different income inequality measures. Asymptotic properties of these estimators can be proved in an identical way. The method described here provides an explicit formula for finding the asymptotic variance of the proposed estimators. A consistent estimator of the asymptotic variance can also find by plug-in method. We bring several research problems related to the estimation of Gini index and related concepts into our uniform framework. The asymptotic distribution obtained for Gini covariance has far reaching consequence due to its potential application in non-linear time series analysis.
The platelet-activating factor signaling system and its regulators in syndromes of inflammation and thrombosis

ObjectivesTo review the platelet-activating factor (PAF) signaling system, its regulation, and its dysregulation in acute inflammation and thrombosis and in syndromes that involve these cascades, including sepsis. Data SourcesA summary of published literature from MEDLINE search files and published reviews. Data Extraction, Synthesis, and SummaryPAF, a phospholipid signaling molecule, transmits outside-in signals to intracellular transduction systems and effector mechanisms in a variety of cell types, including key cells of the innate immune and hemostatic systems: neutrophils, monocytes, and platelets. Thus, the PAF signaling system is a point of convergence at which injurious stimuli can trigger and amplify both acute inflammatory and thrombotic cascades. The biological activities of PAF are regulated by several precise mechanisms that, together, constrain and control its action in physiologic inflammation. Unregulated synthesis of PAF or defects in the mechanisms that limit its biological activities have the potential to cause pathologic inflammation and thrombosis. In addition, nonenzymatic generation of oxidized phospholipids that are recognized by the PAF receptor can trigger inflammatory and thrombotic events. There is evidence that the PAF signaling system is dysregulated in sepsis, shock, and traumatic injury and that interruption or termination of its effector responses leads to beneficial outcomes. Plasma PAF acetylhydrolase, an enzyme that hydrolyzes PAF and structurally related oxidized phospholipids, yielding products that are no longer recognized by the PAF receptor, may be a particularly important signal terminator. ConclusionThe PAF signaling system can trigger inflammatory and thrombotic cascades, amplify these cascades when acting with other mediators, and mediate molecular and cellular interactions (cross talk) between inflammation and thrombosis. Evidence from in vitro experiments, studies of experimental animals, and clinical observations in humans indicates that the PAF signaling system is important in sepsis and other syndromes of inflammatory injury and that therapeutic strategies to interrupt or terminate signaling via the PAF signaling system may be useful in these conditions.