Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Purification and biochemical characterization of a novel protease from Penicillium digitatum – Use in bioactive peptides production

This work reports the production of a novel serine protease enzyme (P. dig‐protease) from the fungus Penicillium digitatum. The protease was purified from the culture supernatant to homogeneity using ammonium sulfate precipitation, Sephadex G‐150 gel filtration and carboxymethyl‐sepharose ion exchange chromatography with a 13‐fold increase in specific activity. The apparent molecular weight of P.dig‐protease was estimated to be 120 kDa by native high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS–PAGE) revealed a single polypeptide at about 30 kDa that indicates a tetrameric protein. The proteolytic activity was inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride suggesting a serine‐protease enzyme. P.dig‐protease stability was investigated over broad range of pH, temperature, salt concentrations, surfactants and metal ions. The purified P.dig‐protease was used for the production of bioactive peptides. Red scorpionfish (Scorpaena notata) muscle was hydrolyzed with P.dig‐protease in order to obtain peptides with biological activities. Interestingly, the hydrolysate revealed the presence of antioxidant and angiotensin‐I converting enzyme inhibitor peptides.
Alcohol Consumption and Functional Outcome After Stroke in Men

Background and Purpose— Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with reduced risk of total and ischemic stroke. However, data on the relationship between alcohol consumption and functional outcomes from stroke are sparse. Methods— Prospective cohort study among 21 860 men enrolled in the Physicians' Health Study who provided information on alcohol consumption at baseline and had no prior history of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Alcohol consumption was divided into 5 categories: <1 drink/wk, 1 drink/wk, 2 to 4 drinks/wk, 5 to 6 drinks/wk, and ≥1 drink/d. Possible functional outcomes included TIA, modified Rankin Scale (mRS)=0 to 1, mRS=2 to 3, and mRS=4 to 6. We used multinomial logistic regression to evaluate the relationship between levels of alcohol consumption and functional outcomes from stroke. Results— During a mean of 21.6 years of follow-up, 766 TIAs and 1393 strokes (1157 ischemic, 222 hemorrhagic, and 14 unknown type) occurred. Men who consumed 1 drink/wk had lowest associated odds for any outcome. Compared with men who did not experience a TIA or stroke and who consumed <1 drink/wk, men who consumed 1 drink/wk had odds ratio (95% CI) for total stroke of 0.85 (0.60 to 1.21) for mRS=0 to 1, 0.84 (0.64 to 1.10) for mRS=2 to 3, and 0.60 (0.37 to 0.97) for mRS=4 to 6. The odds ratio for TIA was 0.95 (0.73 to 1.23). The pattern of association did not substantially differ for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Higher alcohol consumption showed no association with functional outcome after stroke. Conclusions— Our data do not show strong associations between alcohol consumption and functional outcome after stroke. Modest beneficial associations exist with low alcohol consumption.
Skewed Matrilineal Genetic Composition in a Small Wild Chimpanzee Community

Maternal kinship is important in primate societies because it affects individual behaviour as well as the sustainability of populations. All members of the Bossou chimpanzee community are descended from 8 individuals (herein referred to as original adults) who were already adults or subadults when field observations were initiated in 1976 and whose genetic relationships were unknown. Sequencing of the control region on the maternally inherited mtDNA revealed that 4 (1 male and 3 females) of the 8 original adults shared an identical haplotype. We investigated the effects of the skewed distribution of mtDNA haplotypes on the following two outcomes. First, we demonstrated that the probability of mtDNA haplotype extinction would be increased under such a skewed composition in a small community. Second, the ratio of potential mating candidates to competitors is likely to decrease if chimpanzees become aware of maternal kinship and avoid incest. We estimated that the magnitude of the decrease in the ratio is 10 times greater in males than in females. Here we demonstrate a scenario in which this matrilineal skewness in a small community accelerates extinction of mtDNA haplotype, which will make it more difficult to find a suitable mate within the community.
Novel Class 1 Integron (InS21) Carrying blaCTX-M-2 in Salmonella enterica Serovar Infantis

ABSTRACT The genetic organization of the region coding for CTX-M-2 in Salmonella enterica serovar Infantis was determined by PCR mapping. This gene seems to have been mobilized from the Kluyvera ascorbata chromosome to a complex sulI-type integron, similar to In6 and In7.
Ablation of the Sox11 Gene Results in Clefting of the Secondary Palate Resembling the Pierre Robin Sequence*

Mouse gene inactivation has shown that the transcription factor Sox11 is required for mouse palatogenesis. However, whether Sox11 is primarily involved in the regulation of palatogenesis still remains elusive. In this study, we explored the role of Sox11 in palatogenesis by analyzing the developmental mechanism in cleft palate formation in mutants deficient in Sox11. Sox11 is expressed both in the developing palatal shelf and in the surrounding structures, including the mandible. We found that cleft palate occurs only in the mutant in which Sox11 is directly deleted. As in the wild type, the palatal shelves in the Sox11 mutant undergo outgrowth in a downward direction and exhibit potential for fusion and elevation. However, mutant palatal shelves encounter clefting, which is associated with a malpositioned tongue that results in physical obstruction of palatal shelf elevation at embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5). We found that loss of Sox11 led to reduced cell proliferation in the developing mandibular mesenchyme via Cyclin D1, leading to mandibular hypoplasia, which blocks tongue descent. Extensive analyses of gene expression in Sox11 deficiency identified FGF9 as a potential candidate target of Sox11 in the modulation of cell proliferation both in the mandible and the palatal shelf between E12.5 and E13.5. Finally we show, using in vitro assays, that Sox11 directly regulates the expression of Fgf9 and that application of FGF9 protein to Sox11-deficient palatal shelves restores the rate of BrdU incorporation. Taken together, the palate defects presented in the Sox11 loss mutant mimic the clefting in the Pierre Robin sequence in humans.
Partition of Photosynthates and Energy Production in Different Flax Cultivars

Abstract Two field trials were carried out in the Agricultural Experimental Station of the National Research Centre at Shalakan, Kalubia Governorate during 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 seasons to evaluate seven fibre flax, i.e., Wiko, Nike, Alba, Viking, Texa and Belinka genotypes as well as two dual purpose flax, i.e., Giza 5 and Giza 6 in relation to energy production. The results showed that flax cultivars differed significantly in photosynthate partitions. Significant differences were obtained in carbohydrates, protein and oil percentage of vegetative organs, seeds and straw, except protein percentage of straw which responded insignificantly. Glucose required for synthesis of chemical constituents, carbon equivalent in vegetative organs, straw and seeds differed significantly in all investigated flax cultivars under investigation. Energy yield plant−1 and hectare _1 for straw and seeds yield also differed significantly. All investigated flax cultivars showed significant differences in yield as well as its components. Broad sense heritability and coefficient of variation were estimated for all investigated flax cultivars. Heritability ranged between 60.93% for number of capsules plant _1 and 90.74% for seed index.
Wnt/β-catenin signaling and Msx1 promote outgrowth of the maxillary prominences

Facial morphogenesis requires a series of precisely orchestrated molecular events to promote the growth and fusion of the facial prominences. Cleft palate (CP) results from perturbations in this process. The transcriptional repressor Msx1 is a key participant in these molecular events, as demonstrated by the palatal clefting phenotype observed in Msx1−/− embryos. Here, we exploited the high degree of conservation that exists in the gene regulatory networks that shape the faces of birds and mice, to gain a deeper understanding of Msx1 function in CP. Histomorphometric analyses indicated that facial development was disrupted as early as E12.5 in Msx1−/− embryos, long before the palatal shelves have formed. By mapping the expression domain of Msx1 in E11.5 and E12.5 embryos, we found the structures most affected by loss of Msx1 function were the maxillary prominences. Maxillary growth retardation was accompanied by perturbations in angiogenesis that preceded the CP phenotype. Experimental chick manipulations and in vitro assays showed that the regulation of Msx1 expression by the Wnt/β-catenin pathway is highly specific. Our data in mice and chicks indicate a conserved role for Msx1 in regulating the outgrowth of the maxillary prominences, and underscore how imbalances in Msx1 function can lead of growth disruptions that manifest as CP.
A Survey and Evaluation of Features for the Diagnosis of Malignant Melanoma

Malignant melanoma is a form of skin cancer that is on the rise in most parts of the world. During the year 2000 more than 33,000 people died from the decease. Using some of the diagnostical tools available to the dermatologist it is possible to design a system that would in principle diagnose the decease from photographs. In order for such a system to work there is a need to extract the features that indicate malignancy in a lesion from the photographs. In this thesis the ABCD diagnosis system used by dermatologists is used as a model for these features and a number of examples are presented. Also for the feature extraction process to work there is a need for some stipulations to be set on the pictures taken. These conditions are examined as is the e ectiveness of the features in describing the outer attributes of the skin lesion. Among the things concluded in this thesis it was shown that the initial quality of the pictures was very important. The features found gave some indication that they would be useful if further developed in a more complete system. It was determined that although the features were invariant to rotation and translation, the scale of the picture was very important.
A Rice Brassinosteroid-Deficient Mutant, ebisu dwarf (d2), Is Caused by a Loss of Function of a New Member of Cytochrome P450 Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.014712.

We characterized a rice dwarf mutant, ebisu dwarf (d2). It showed the pleiotropic abnormal phenotype similar to that of the rice brassinosteroid (BR)-insensitive mutant, d61. The dwarf phenotype of d2 was rescued by exogenous brassinolide treatment. The accumulation profile of BR intermediates in the d2 mutants confirmed that these plants are deficient in late BR biosynthesis. We cloned the D2 gene by map-based cloning. The D2 gene encoded a novel cytochrome P450 classified in CYP90D that is highly similar to the reported BR synthesis enzymes. Introduction of the wild D2 gene into d2-1 rescued the abnormal phenotype of the mutants. In feeding experiments, 3-dehydro-6-deoxoteasterone, 3-dehydroteasterone, and brassinolide effectively caused the lamina joints of the d2 plants to bend, whereas more upstream compounds did not cause bending. Based on these results, we conclude that D2/CYP90D2 catalyzes the steps from 6-deoxoteasterone to 3-dehydro-6-deoxoteasterone and from teasterone to 3-dehydroteasterone in the late BR biosynthesis pathway.
Quantitative Evaluation of Atherosclerosis Using Doppler Ultrasound

During the last two decades, various Doppler methods have been successfully used to screen patients with significant cerebral and peripheral vascular disease. In general terms, the principal advantages of Doppler ultrasound techniques in the evaluation of atherosclerotic lesions are that they: 1) are noninvasive, 2) are nontraumatic, 3) are relatively inexpensive, 4) provide anatomical and physiological data, and 5) provide direct and dynamic measurements. Nevertheless, the general limitations of the techniques are of equal importance: 1) the techniques are difficult in some subjects due to obesity and anatomical variations; 2) the technique cannot examine tissues surrounded by air or bone; 3) the techniques require operator skill and a thorough knowledge of human anatomy and cardiovascular dynamics; 4) the techniques have finite spatial resolutions which may compromise the important measurement of vessel diameter, ulceration, and percent stenosis; and 5) the techniques have finite velocity measuring capabilities which may compromise some measurements of highly disturbed blood velocities outside the range of 2-200 cm/sec. As clinical demands for the early diagnosis and quantification of vascular lesions increased, improvements in Doppler ultrasonics and spectra analysis significantly increased the technical and clinical capabilities of existing simple, inexpensive instruments. Presently, both anatomical and physiological images along with quantitative Doppler spectra from superficial and deep-lying vessels can be obtained. Consequently, the ability of new expensive imaging equipment to quantitate atherosclerotic lesions using spectral analysis techniques compares favorably with the interpretational precision of standard invasive or intravenous digital angiography.
Anesthetic Management of Transapical Off-Pump Mitral Valve Repair With NeoChord Implantation.

OBJECTIVES Various minimally invasive surgical approaches have been used in mitral valve (MV) surgery. The transapical off-pump mitral valve intervention with NeoChord implantation (TOP-MINI) is a minimally invasive, alternative procedure for the treatment of degenerative mitral regurgitation. There are several special considerations for the anesthesiologist during the TOP-MINI procedure. The main purpose of this study was to present the anesthetic management of the TOP-MINI procedure. DESIGN An observational study. SETTING Training and research hospital. PARTICIPANTS Adult patients who underwent MV repair with the NeoChord DS1000 system (NeoChord Inc, St Louis Park, MN). INTERVENTIONS The study included 12 consecutive patients who underwent MV repair with the NeoChord DS1000 system at the Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey, between June 2014 and December 2015. A record was made of preoperative demographic details, comorbidities, preoperative and postoperative mitral regurgitation severity, preoperative and postoperative forced expiratory volume in 1 second values, use of blood products and vasoactive drugs, surgical times, mechanical ventilation times, intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay, visual analog scale scores, analgesic requirement in ICU and perioperative complications. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS TOP-MINI was performed completely off-pump in 12 patients. Intraoperative salvaged blood via cell-saver was 660±196 mL. Patients required 0.8±0.7 U of red blood cells and 2.0±0.9 U of fresh frozen plasma in the ICU. Inotropic support was used in 5 patients. There was a significant decline in mean arterial pressure from before surgery to during implantation (70.9±4.5 mmHg v 51.7±5.8 mmHg, respectively). A statistically significant increase was demonstrated in mean arterial pressure from during implantation to postimplantation (51.7±5.8 mmHg v 67.0±6.8 mmHg, respectively). There were no significant differences in preoperative and postoperative forced expiratory volume in 1 second values. Defibrillation was required in 1 patient, and temporary atrial fibrillation was observed in 1 patient during the procedure. Atelectasis occurred in the postoperative period in 1 patient. The mean visual analog scale score was 3.6±1.4, and the mean tramadol consumption was 77±39 mg in the ICU. Extubation time and the mean length of stay in the ICU and hospital were 2.6±0.5 hours, 19.8±2.7 hours, 5±1 days, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The TOP-MINI procedure requires complex anesthetic management. Transesophageal echocardiographic guidance is essential for this procedure. One-lung ventilation, fluid administration, avoidance of hypothermia, and pain management are the bases for anesthetic management.
Testing metric properties

Finite metric spaces, and in particular tree metrics play an important role in various disciplines such as evolutionary biology and statistics. A natural family of problems concerning metrics is deciding, given a matrix <italic>M</italic>, whether or not it is a distance metric of a certain predetermined type. Here we consider the following relaxed version of such decision problems: For any given matrix <italic>M</italic> and parameter <italic>\eps</italic>, we are interested in determining, by probing <italic>M</italic>, whether <italic>M</italic> has a particular metric property <italic>P</italic>, or whether it is <italic>ε far</italic> from having the property. In <italic>ε far</italic> we mean that more than an ε-fraction of the entries of <italic>M</italic> must be modified so that it obtains the property. The algorithm may query the matrix on entries <italic>M[i,j]</italic> of its choice, and is allowed a constant probability of error. We describe algorithms for testing Euclidean metrics, tree metrics and ultrametrics. Furthermore, we present an algorithm that tests whether a matrix <italic>M<italic> is an approximate ultrametric. In all cases the query complexity and running time are polynomial in <italic>1 &egr<italic> and independent of the size of the matrix. Finally, our algorithms can be used to solve relaxed versions of the corresponding search problems in time that is sub-linear in the size of the matrix.
Improving survival in the 6 months after diagnosis of heart failure in the past decade: population-based data from the UK

Objective: To investigate the secular trend in survival after a new diagnosis of heart failure in the UK population. Design and Setting: Comparison of all-cause mortality in the 6 months after diagnosis of heart failure in population-based studies in the south east of England in 2004–5 (Hillingdon–Hastings Study) and 1995–7 (Hillingdon–Bromley Studies). Participants: 396 patients in the 2004–5 cohort and 552 patients in the 1995–7 cohort with incident (new) heart failure. Main Outcome Measures: All-cause mortality. Results: All-cause mortality rates were 6% (95% CI 3% to 8%) at 1 month, 11% (8% to 14%) at 3 months and 14% (11% to 18%) at 6 months in the 2004–5 cohort compared with 16% (13% to 20%), 22% (19% to 25%) and 26% (22% to 29%), respectively, in the 1995–7 cohort (difference between the two cohorts, p<0.001). The difference in survival was not explained by any difference in the demographics or severity of heart failure at presentation. There was a difference at baseline and thereafter in the use of neurohormonal antagonists (β-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors). Conclusions: Although early mortality remains high among patients with newly diagnosed heart failure in the UK general population, there is strong evidence of a marked improvement in survival from 1995–7 to 2004–5, perhaps partly explained by an increased usage of neurohormonal antagonists.
Macrovascular disease and systemic sclerosis

OBJECTIVE To determine if macrovascular disease is more prevalent in systemic sclerosis (SSc) compared with unaffected subjects. METHODS 54 patients with SSc (both limited and diffuse disease) and 43 unaffected control subjects of similar age and sex were recruited. All subjects underwent a basic screen for conventional atherosclerotic disease risk factors. All had non-invasive vascular assessments—that is, carotid duplex scanning and measurement of ankle brachial blood pressure index—to identify the presence of asymptomatic peripheral vascular disease. RESULTS 33 of 52 (64%) patients had carotid artery disease compared with only 15 of 42 (35%) controls (p=0.007). Eleven (21%) of these patients had moderate disease compared with only two (5%) controls (NS). Nine of 53 (17%) SSc patients had evidence of peripheral arterial disease compared with no controls. This result was also statistically significant (p=0.003). There were no significant differences in the basic risk factor profile, which included cigarette smoking, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol, trigyceride and glucose concentrations. CONCLUSION Macrovascular disease is more common in SSc. Screening of these patients may allow identification of “at risk” patients at an early stage and allow the study of treatments to attenuate the high rate of cardiovascular mortality in these patients.
Reliability of insulating substrates — High temperature power electronics for more electric aircraft

Insulating substrates for high temperature power electronics are in the focus of this paper. The targets were 200 °C ambient temperature (base plate) and 300°C junction temperature for the use of silicon carbide devices. DBA and DBC were tested if they are suitable to reach this target. A comparative temperature cycling test under extreme conditions was done. Standard DBC substrates with alumina ceramic withstand only a few cycles. The first idea that higher mean temperatures will increase the temperature cycling capability could not be confirmed. DBA substrates have a very high temperature cycling capability, more than one order of magnitude higher compared to standard DBC. There is a totally different failure mechanism. The surface get rough. There was no optical influence on the die attach quality.
A Call to ARMs: Understanding the Costs and Benefits of JIT Spraying Mitigations

JIT spraying allows an attacker to subvert a JustIn-Time compiler, introducing instruction sequences useful to the attacker into executable regions of the victim program’s address space as a side effect of compiling seemingly innocuous code in a safe language like JavaScript. We present new JIT spraying attacks against Google’s V8 and Mozilla’s SpiderMonkey JavaScript engines on ARM. The V8 attack is the first JIT spraying attack not to rely on instruction decoding ambiguity, and the SpiderMonkey attack uses the first ARM payload that executes unintended instructions derived from intended instruction bytes without resynchronizing to the intended instruction stream. We review the JIT spraying defenses proposed in the literature and their currently-deployed implementations and conclude that the current state of JIT spraying mitigation, which prioritizes low performance overhead, leaves many exploitable attacker options unchecked. We perform an empirical evaluation of mitigations with low but non-zero overhead in a unified framework and find that full, robust defense implementations of diversification defenses can effectively mitigate JIT spraying attacks in the literature as well as our new attacks with a combined average overhead of 4.56% on x86-64 and 4.88% on ARM32.