Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Delay in leaf senescence of Malus hupehensis by long‐term melatonin application is associated with its regulation of metabolic status and protein degradation

Melatonin has an important anti‐aging role in plant physiology. We tested the effects of long‐term melatonin exposure on metabolic status and protein degradation during natural leaf senescence in trees of Malus hupehensis Rehd. The 2‐month regular supplement of 100 μm melatonin to the soil once every 6 days altered the metabolic status and delayed protein degradation. For example, leaves from treated plants had significantly higher photosynthetic activity, chlorophyll concentrations, and levels of three photosynthetic end products (sorbitol, sucrose, and starch) when compared with the control. The significant inhibition of hexose (fructose and glucose) accumulation possibly regulated the signaling of MdHXK1, a gene for which expression was also repressed by melatonin during senescence. The plants also exhibited better preservation of their nitrogen, total soluble protein, and Rubisco protein concentrations than the control. The slower process of protein degradation might be a result of melatonin‐linked inhibition on the expression of apple autophagy‐related genes (ATGs). Our results are the first to provide evidence for this delay in senescence based on the metabolic alteration and protein degradation.
Microbial Diversity and Parasitic Load in Tropical Fish of Different Environmental Conditions

In this study we analysed fecal bacterial communities and parasites of three important Indonesian fish species, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, Epinephelus sexfasciatus and Atule mate. We then compared the biodiversity of bacterial communities and parasites of these three fish species collected in highly polluted Jakarta Bay with those collected in less polluted Indonesian areas of Cilacap (E. sexfasciatus, A. mate) and Thousand Islands (E. fuscoguttatus). In addition, E. fuscoguttatus from net cages in an open water mariculture facility was compared with free living E. fuscoguttatus from its surroundings. Both core and shared microbiomes were investigated. Our results reveal that, while the core microbiomes of all three fish species were composed of fairly the same classes of bacteria, the proportions of these bacterial classes strongly varied. The microbial composition of phylogenetically distant fish species, i.e. A. mate and E. sexfasciatus from Jakarta Bay and Cilacap were more closely related than the microbial composition of more phylogentically closer species, i.e. E. fuscoguttatus, E. sexfasciatus from Jakarta Bay, Cilacap and Thousand Islands. In addition, we detected a weak negative correlation between the load of selected bacterial pathogens, i.e. Vibrio sp. and Photobacterium sp. and the number of endoparasites. In the case of Flavobacterium sp. the opposite was observed, i.e. a weak positive correlation. Of the three recorded pathogenic bacterial genera, Vibrio sp. was commonly found in E. fuscoguttatus from mariculture, and lessly in the vicinity of the net cages and rarely in the fishes from the heavily polluted waters from Jakarta Bay. Flavobacterium sp. showed higher counts in mariculture fish and Photobacteria sp. was the most prominent in fish inside and close to the net cages.
Immigration, ethnicity, and avoidable mortality in Canada, 1991–2006

Objective. Avoidable mortality is a well-recognized, but less studied indicator of the performance of the health system. First, the study seeks to establish whether immigrants overall and selected foreign-born ethnic groups (Western Europeans, South Asians, Chinese, and Filipinos) have an advantage over nonimmigrants in avoidable mortality. Second, it assesses the effect of sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors on any observed differences by duration of residence. Design. Deaths grouped by cause of death and by behavioral risk factors, namely smoking-related and alcohol-related, were derived from the 1991 Canadian Census Cohort: Mortality and Cancer Follow-up. The analysis estimated age-standardized mortality rates (ASMRs), rate ratios, and rate differences and also fitted hazard regression models for the overall Canadian-born population and for selected foreign-born ethnicities by sex. Predictors were assessed at baseline. Results. Compared to the Canadian-born persons, foreign-born men and women had lower ASMRs for overall avoidable mortality and also for selected causes of avoidable mortality. The only exception to this overall trend was for ischemic heart disease among South Asian women. Except for the order of prominence, the three leading causes of death for nonimmigrant and immigrant men and women overall were ischemic heart diseases, smoking-related diseases, and neoplasms. A similar pattern was observed among the ethnic groups, except for circulatory heart diseases replacing ischemic heart diseases and smoking-related diseases among Chinese and Filipino women, respectively. In the hazard regression analysis, the risk of avoidable mortality was lower for immigrants overall and selected ethnicities irrespective of the duration in Canada compared to nonimmigrants. These differences persisted even with adjustment for sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors. Conclusion. Immigrants overall and the selected ethnicities enjoy an advantage over nonimmigrants in avoidable mortality. However, for certain causes of death especially ischemic heart disease mortality among South Asian women, immigrants appeared worse-off than nonimmigrants. The results suggest differential access to and use of health services, differences in protective health-related behavior, and the healthy immigrant effect.
Treatment of the intra-articular calcaneal fractures : an efficacy comparison among closed percutaneous reduction surgery , open reduction via extended L-shaped lateral approach and small sinus tarsi approach

The goal of this study was to retrospectively compare the complications and outcomes of three operations to determine a better approach with less complications and satisfied outcomes. Between 1990 and 2010, 175 patients with intra-articular calcaneal fractures underwent the closed percutaneous reduction (50 feet, PR group), open reduction via an extended L-shaped lateral approach (70 feet, EL group) or minimally invasive small sinus tarsi approach (75 feet, MI group) in our hospital. Outcome parameters included complications, radiographic analysis, the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle score and the Short Form 36 (SF-36) score. Although the calcaneal height, length, width, Böhler angle, and Gissane angle were significantly improved in the three groups postoperatively, a more pronounced improvement was observed in the EL and MI groups. At the final follow-up, the foot function seemed to be better recovered by the EL and MI treatments with higher AOFAS and SF-36 scores. The complication incidence was significantly lower in the PR (0%) and MI (5.33%) groups than that in the EL group (22.86%). Furthermore, reoperation occurred in 6 feet (12.00%) in the PR group, 11 feet (15.71%) in the EL group and 2 feet (2.67%) in the MI group. The sinus tarsi approach may be the most effective and safest for the intra-articular calcaneal fractures, with an excellent reduction, but lower complication and reoperation rates.
Analysis of a radial infusion model for in-plane permeability measurements of fiber reinforcement in composite materials

The principal components of in-plane permeability of fiber reinforcement during resin infusion can be determined by unidirectional or by radial flow experiments. Using unidirectional flow, two separate experiments are required to determine both components if the directions of principal axis are known. The main drawback of this method is related to the edge flow that may significantly affect the accuracy of measurements. In radial flow, both principal components can be determined by performing one experiment when the directions of principal axis are known. However, developed models that apply to this method require iterative procedures and are highly sensitive to the radius of the injection port. Measurements of the flow front displacement have to be taken when the wetted area becomes large enough in comparison with the size of the inlet gate. This analysis is based on a quasi-steady radial infusion model developed by Adams et al., Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 14, 203 (1988), which is used for calculation of the principal components of in-plane permeability. It is shown that the anisotropy coefficient and consequent permeability may be evaluated at any stage of the flow front displacement. This implies that the pressure difference does not necessarily need to be constant during the experiment, as usually required for most previous models. Asymptotic analysis for very small and very large flow front displacements is also conducted and comparison with point source algorithms is provided. Three accurate and relatively simple algorithms that do not require iterative procedures for evaluation of in-plane components of permeability are proposed. POLYM. COMPOS. , 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers
Differentiation of vascular dementia from AD on neuropsychological tests

Background: The concept of vascular dementia (VaD) is currently in a state of evolution. Memory impairment is emphasized as a primary criterion, reflecting the influence of AD on the concept of dementia. We have systematically reviewed whether the nature of neuropsychological dysfunction is distinct in AD and VaD, and whether similar defining criteria for the concept of dementia in both disorders can be supported. Methods: We searched five bibliographic databases (Medline, Biological Abstracts, EMBASE, PsychINFO, PsychLIT) for research articles in which VaD and AD had been compared using neuropsychological tests and that met criteria for scientific merit. Results: Of the 45 studies, 18 were excluded because of inadequacies, and the remaining 27 were analyzed. There were a number of similarities of dysfunction between VaD and AD. However, when matched for age, education, and severity of dementia, VaD patients had relatively superior function in verbal long-term memory and more impairment in frontal executive functioning compared with AD patients. Interpretation of the results is limited by uncertainty in diagnostic criteria for VaD, possible inclusion bias due to use of clinical diagnosis alone, possible overlap of AD and VaD, and the methodologic shortcomings of some studies. Conclusions: The neuropsychological differentiation of VaD from AD was consistent with the different neuroimaging findings in the two disorders, and argues for differential criteria for the definition of the syndromes. The simple application of Alzheimer’s dementia criteria to VaD, with the inclusion of cerebrovascular disease etiology, may not be sufficient to capture the uniqueness of VaD.
Epidemiological consequences of an incursion of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza into the British poultry flock

Highly pathogenic avian influenza and in particular the H5N1 strain has resulted in the culling of millions of birds and continues to pose a threat to poultry industries worldwide. The recent outbreak of H5N1 in the UK highlights the need for detailed assessment of the consequences of an incursion and of the efficacy of control strategies. Here, we present results from a model of H5N1 propagation within the British poultry industry. We find that although the majority of randomly seeded incursions do not spread beyond the initial infected premises, there is significant potential for widespread infection. The efficacy of the European Union strategy for disease control is evaluated and our simulations emphasize the pivotal role of duck farms in spreading H5N1.
The Wound Healing Process: An Overview of the Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms

Wound healing remains a challenging clinical problem and correct, efficient wound management is essential. Much effort has been focused on wound care with an emphasis on new therapeutic approaches and the development of technologies for acute and chronic wound management. Wound healing involves multiple cell populations, the extracellular matrix and the action of soluble mediators such as growth factors and cytokines. Although the process of healing is continuous, it may be arbitrarily divided into four phases: (i) coagulation and haemostasis; (ii) inflammation; (iii) proliferation; and (iv) wound remodelling with scar tissue formation. The correct approach to wound management may effectively influence the clinical outcome. This review discusses wound classification, the physiology of the wound healing process and the methods used in wound management.
CPP-GMR reader and wraparound shield writer for perpendicular recording

Current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) giant magnetoresistive (GMR) read heads and wraparound shielded write heads for perpendicular recording were fabricated, and their recording performance was tested. The measured readout waveform of the CPP-GMR head was noise free and well biased. An output voltage of 2.2 mV and head-amp signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 30 dB were obtained from an operating voltage of 120 mV. Thermal damage in the heads was caused by an increase in the area of pinholes. The activation energy for the 5% resistance reduction was estimated to be 2.3 eV, which was similar to the self-diffusion energy of Co. The lifetime of the heads was projected to be 200 years. Newly developed CPP-GMR films showed the MR ratio of 6% at the resistance area product of 0.3 /spl Omega//spl mu/m/sup 2/. The wraparound shielded write heads showed similar overwrite values to that of the unshielded heads. The shielded heads showed about 1 dB better media SNR and 5%-10% better linear resolution than the unshielded heads. Smaller side writing was found in the wraparound shield design, when the half-width of the off-track profile was the same. Better down-track and cross-track performance was thought to be due to a tighter field distribution in the shielded heads.
High efficiency TALENs enable F0 functional analysis by targeted gene disruption in Xenopus laevis embryos

Summary Recently, gene editing with transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) has been used in the life sciences. TALENs can be easily customized to recognize a specific DNA sequence and efficiently introduce double-strand breaks at the targeted genomic locus. Subsequent non-homologous end-joining repair leads to targeted gene disruption by base insertion, deletion, or both. Here, to readily evaluate the efficacy of TALENs in Xenopus laevis embryos, we performed the targeted gene disruption of tyrosinase (tyr) and pax6 genes that are involved in pigmentation and eye formation, respectively. We constructed TALENs targeting tyr and pax6 and injected their mRNAs into fertilized eggs at the one-cell stage. Expectedly, introduction of tyr TALEN mRNA resulted in drastic loss of pigmentation with high efficiency. Similarly, for pax6, TALENs led to deformed eyes in the injected embryos. We confirmed mutations of the target alleles by restriction enzyme digestion and sequence analyses of genomic PCR products. Surprisingly, not only biallelic but also paralogous, gene disruption was observed. Our results demonstrate that targeted gene disruption by TALENs provides a method comparable to antisense morpholinos in analyzing gene function in Xenopus F0 embryos, but also applies beyond embryogenesis to any life stage.
Genus-Wide Physicochemical Evidence of Extracellular Crystalline Silver Nanoparticles Biosynthesis by Morganella spp

This study was performed to determine whether extracellular silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) production is a genus-wide phenotype associated with all the members of genus Morganella, or only Morganella morganii RP-42 isolate is able to synthesize extracellular Ag nanoparticles. To undertake this study, all the available Morganella isolates were exposed to Ag+ ions, and the obtained nanoproducts were thoroughly analyzed using physico-chemical characterization tools such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It was identified that extracellular biosynthesis of crystalline silver nanoparticles is a unique biochemical character of all the members of genus Morganella, which was found independent of environmental changes. Significantly, the inability of other closely related members of the family Enterobacteriaceae towards AgNPs synthesis strongly suggests that AgNPs synthesis in the presence of Ag+ ions is a phenotypic character that is uniquely associated with genus Morganella.
SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY OBSERVATIONS TOWARD THE MASSIVE STAR-FORMING CORE MM1 OF W75N

The massive star-forming core MM1 of W75N was observed using the Submillimeter Array with ∼1″ and 2″ spatial resolutions at 217 and 347 GHz, respectively. From the 217 GHz continuum we found that the MM1 core consists of two sources, separated by about 1″: MM1a (∼0.6 M☉) and MM1b (∼1.4 M☉), located near the radio continuum sources VLA 2/VLA 3 and VLA 1, respectively. Within MM1b, two gas clumps were found to be expanding away from VLA 1 at about ±3 km s−1, as a result of the most recent star formation activity in the region. Observed molecular lines show emission peaks at two positions, MM1a and MM1b: sulfur-bearing species have emission peaks toward MM1a, but methanol and saturated species at MM1b. We identified high-temperature (∼200 K) gas toward MM1a and the hot core in MM1b. This segregation may result from the evolution of the massive star-forming core. In the very early phase of star formation, the hot core is seen through the evaporation of dust ice-mantle species. As the mantle species are consumed via evaporation the high-temperature gas species (such as the sulfur-bearing molecules) become bright. The SiO molecule is unique in having an emission peak exactly at the VLA 2 position, probably tracing a shock powered by VLA 2. The observed sulfur-bearing species show similar abundances both in MM1a and MM1b, whereas the methanol and saturated species show significant abundance enhancement toward MM1b, by about an order of magnitude, compared to MM1a.
New test methods to evaluate the performance of dermatological braided sutures from both the doctor and the patient sides

Test methods and instrumentations to measure suture tensile performances have been limited to single‐pull to failure and knot‐pull strength. Though useful, these tests do not thoroughly represent the stresses that sutures experience during wound healing. This paper proposes new test methods to evaluate the performance of dermatological sutures using slippage ratio and recovery deformation based on a realistic representation of suture geometry in wounds. For demonstration purposes, we compared three dermatological knots: square, surgeon’s square, and surgeon’s granny. Our results confirmed that the knot design and the generated internal forces in the knot led to significant change in suture behavior during the tying and healing process. Suture performance depended greatly on the intensity of internal forces and the ability of knot packing. Among the studied knots, the square knot had the lowest slippage ratio because it showed the best aptitude to tightening, while the surgeon’s knot exhibited the highest deformation recovery due to its lower locking ability.
Discovering Morphemic Suffixes A Case Study In MDL Induction

This paper reports experiments in the automatic discovery of linguistically significant regularities in text. The minimum description length principle is exploited to eva.luate linguistic hypotheses with respect to a corpus and a theory of the types of regularities to be found in it. The domain of inquiry in this paper is the discovery of morphemic sufrxes such as English -ing and -ly, but the technique is widely applicable to language learning problems.
Stochastic progressive failure analysis of laminated composite plates using Puck's failure criteria

ABSTRACT The present work deals with second-order statistics of the progressive failure response of laminated composite plates subjected to in-plane uniaxial and bi-axial loadings with random system properties. A stochastic finite element method based on higher-order shear deformation theory combined with first- and second-order perturbation technique is used for solution of random progressive failure equation. A Puck failure criterion is used for the evaluation of first ply and last-ply failure load. The results obtained using the present solution approach are validated with the results available in the literature and Monte Carlo simulation.
GPS 2.1: enhanced prediction of kinase-specific phosphorylation sites with an algorithm of motif length selection.

As the most important post-translational modification of proteins, phosphorylation plays essential roles in all aspects of biological processes. Besides experimental approaches, computational prediction of phosphorylated proteins with their kinase-specific phosphorylation sites has also emerged as a popular strategy, for its low-cost, fast-speed and convenience. In this work, we developed a kinase-specific phosphorylation sites predictor of GPS 2.1 (Group-based Prediction System), with a novel but simple approach of motif length selection (MLS). By this approach, the robustness of the prediction system was greatly improved. All algorithms in GPS old versions were also reserved and integrated in GPS 2.1. The online service and local packages of GPS 2.1 were implemented in JAVA 1.5 (J2SE 5.0) and freely available for academic researches at: http://gps.biocuckoo. org.
The Type ISP Restriction–Modification enzymes LlaBIII and LlaGI use a translocation–collision mechanism to cleave non-specific DNA distant from their recognition sites

The Type ISP Restriction–Modification (RM) enzyme LlaBIII is encoded on plasmid pJW566 and can protect Lactococcus lactis strains against bacteriophage infections in milk fermentations. It is a single polypeptide RM enzyme comprising Mrr endonuclease, DNA helicase, adenine methyltransferase and target-recognition domains. LlaBIII shares >95% amino acid sequence homology across its first three protein domains with the Type ISP enzyme LlaGI. Here, we determine the recognition sequence of LlaBIII (5′-TnAGCC-3′, where the adenine complementary to the underlined base is methylated), and characterize its enzyme activities. LlaBIII shares key enzymatic features with LlaGI; namely, adenosine triphosphate-dependent DNA translocation (∼309 bp/s at 25°C) and a requirement for DNA cleavage of two recognition sites in an inverted head-to-head repeat. However, LlaBIII requires K+ ions to prevent non-specific DNA cleavage, conditions which affect the translocation and cleavage properties of LlaGI. By identifying the locations of the non-specific dsDNA breaks introduced by LlaGI or LlaBIII under different buffer conditions, we validate that the Type ISP RM enzymes use a common translocation–collision mechanism to trigger endonuclease activity. In their favoured in vitro buffer, both LlaGI and LlaBIII produce a normal distribution of random cleavage loci centred midway between the sites. In contrast, LlaGI in K+ ions produces a far more distributive cleavage profile.