Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Slk19p of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Regulates Anaphase Spindle Dynamics Through Two Independent Mechanisms

Slk19p is a member of the Cdc-14 early anaphase release (FEAR) pathway, a signaling network that is responsible for activation of the cell-cycle regulator Cdc14p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Disruption of the FEAR pathway results in defects in anaphase, including alterations in the assembly and behavior of the anaphase spindle. Many phenotypes of slk19Δ mutants are consistent with a loss of FEAR signaling, but other phenotypes suggest that Slk19p may have FEAR-independent roles in modulating the behavior of microtubules in anaphase. Here, a series of SLK19 in-frame deletion mutations were used to test whether Slk19p has distinct roles in anaphase that can be ascribed to specific regions of the protein. Separation-of-function alleles were identified that are defective for either FEAR signaling or aspects of anaphase spindle function. The data suggest that in early anaphase one region of Slk19p is essential for FEAR signaling, while later in anaphase another region is critical for maintaining the coordination between spindle elongation and the growth of interpolar microtubules.
Letter to the Editor: “Protective Bystander Effects Simulated with the State-Vector Model”—Hela X Skin Exposure to 137CS not Protective Bystander Response but Mammogram and Diagnostic X-Rays are

The recent Dose Response journal article “Protective Bystander Effects Simulated with the State-Vector Model” (Schollnberger and Eck1 2007) identified the suppressive (below natural occurring, zero primer dose, spontaneous level) dose response for HeLa x skin exposure to 137Cs gamma rays (Redpath et al 2001) as a protective Bystander Effect (BE) behavior. I had previously analyzed the Redpath et al (2001) data with a Microdose Model and conclusively showed that the suppressive response was from Adaptive Response (AR) radio-protection (Leonard 2005, 2007a). The significance of my microdose analysis has been that low LET radiation induced single (i.e. only one) charged particle traversals through a cell can initiate a Poisson distributed activation of AR radio-protection. The purpose of this correspondence is to clarify the distinctions relative to the BE and the AR behaviors for the Redpath groups 137Cs data, show conversely however that the Redpath group data for mammography (Ko et al 2004) and diagnostic (Redpath et al 2003) X-rays do conclusively reflect protective bystander behavior and also herein emphasize the need for radio-biologist to apply microdosimetry in planning and analyzing their experiments for BE and AR. Whether we are adamantly pro-LNT, adamantly anti-LNT or, like most of us, just simple scientists searching for the truth in radio-biology, it is important that we accurately identify our results, especially when related to the LNT hypothesis controversy.
Associative Memory Using Dictionary Learning and Expander Decoding

An associative memory is a framework of content-addressable memory that stores a collection of message vectors (or a dataset) over a neural network while enabling a neurally feasible mechanism to recover any message in the dataset from its noisy version. Designing an associative memory requires addressing two main tasks: 1) learning phase: given a dataset, learn a concise representation of the dataset in the form of a graphical model (or a neural network), 2) recall phase: given a noisy version of a message vector from the dataset, output the correct message vector via a neurally feasible algorithm over the network learnt during the learning phase. This paper studies the problem of designing a class of neural associative memories which learns a network representation for a large dataset that ensures correction against a large number of adversarial errors during the recall phase. Specifically, the associative memories designed in this paper can store dataset containing exp(n) n-length message vectors over a network with O(n) nodes and can tolerate Ω(n / polylog) adversarial errors. This paper carries out this memory design by mapping the learning phase and recall phase to the tasks of dictionary learning with a square dictionary and iterative error correction in an expander code, respectively.
Why related bacterial species bloom simultaneously in the gut: principles underlying the ‘Like will to like’ concept

The large intestine is host to a complex ecological community composed predominantly of obligate anaerobic bacteria belonging to the classes Bacteroidia and Clostridia. This community confers benefits through its metabolic activities and host interactions. However, a microbial imbalance (dysbiosis) characterized by a decreased abundance of Clostridia and a bloom of facultative anaerobic Proteobacteria is commonly observed during inflammation in the large bowel. Here we review recent insights into the principles that favour simultaneous increases in the abundance of closely related species belonging to the Proteobacteria during inflammation, which provides important clues for the rational design of strategies to treat dysbiosis.
Bilinear deep learning for image classification

Image classification is a well-known classical problem in multimedia content analysis. This paper proposes a novel deep learning model called bilinear deep belief network (BDBN) for image classification. Unlike previous image classification models, BDBN aims to provide human-like judgment by referencing the architecture of the human visual system and the procedure of intelligent perception. Therefore, the multi-layer structure of the cortex and the propagation of information in the visual areas of the brain are realized faithfully. Unlike most existing deep models, BDBN utilizes a bilinear discriminant strategy to simulate the "initial guess" in human object recognition, and at the same time to avoid falling into a bad local optimum. To preserve the natural tensor structure of the image data, a novel deep architecture with greedy layer-wise reconstruction and global fine-tuning is proposed. To adapt real-world image classification tasks, we develop BDBN under a semi-supervised learning framework, which makes the deep model work well when labeled images are insufficient. Comparative experiments on three standard datasets show that the proposed algorithm outperforms both representative classification models and existing deep learning techniques. More interestingly, our demonstrations show that the proposed BDBN works consistently with the visual perception of humans.
ceh-16/engrailed patterns the embryonic epidermis of Caenorhabditis elegans

engrailed is a homeobox gene essential for developmental functions such as differentiation of cell populations and the onset of compartment boundaries in arthropods and vertebrates. We present the first functional study on engrailed in an unsegmented animal: the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In the developing worm embryo, ceh-16/engrailed is predominantly expressed in one bilateral row of epidermal cells (the seam cells). We show that ceh-16/engrailed primes a specification cascade through three mechanisms: (1) it suppresses fusion between seam cells and other epidermal cells by repressing eff-1/fusogen expression; (2) it triggers the differentiation of the seam cells through different factors, including the GATA factor elt-5; and (3) it segregates the seam cells into a distinct lateral cellular compartment, repressing cell migration toward dorsal and ventral compartments.
Lambda Interferons: New Cytokines with Old Functions

Interferon lambda (IFN-λ) is a member of the class II cytokine family, and like the other members of this family, they are small helical proteins. Since their discovery significant efforts have been made to determine their role in innate and adaptive immunity. Their strong antiviral activity, both in vitro and in vivo, has firmly established their interferon status. However, in contrast to type I interferon, only a very limited subset of cells/tissues responds to interferon lambda. In addition to inducing an antiviral state in responsive cells, recent data suggest that IFN-λ plays a role in shaping the adaptive immune response. However, the data is not in complete agreement regarding the effect of IFN-λ on the adaptive immune system. Recently IFN-λ has entered clinical trials against hepatitis C Virus and IFN-λ is a promising future therapeutic, against different viruses replicating in responsive tissues, like that of the airway epithelia. In this review we describe the knowledge acquired during the past six years about the structure and function of interferon lambda.
Neuroblastoma screening in the United States

We read with great interest the article by Yamashita et al., who suggest a direct correlation between the plasma thrombospondin level and the degree of venous invasion. Thrombospondin is a known agent that possesses important antiangiogenic activity. 4 Therefore, the increase in plasma level of thrombospondin appears not to be related primarily to the process of invasion, but it is more likely to occur as a secondary event. With regard to the source of thrombospondin, it is believed that the majority of plasma thrombospondin is derived from platelets. Therefore one might question the influence of the plasma platelet count on the plasma thrombospondin level. It is unclear whether the patients had received any antiplatelet drugs prior to the venipuncture that possibly could lower the level of thrombospondin by affecting its potential source, the platelets. Thrombospondin is the major secretable glycoprotein of human platelets that is stored in a-granules and released after activation of platelets by various substances such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, vasopressin, and some infectious agents. Even without the effect of any substances, platelets do vary in number among different individuals physiologically. The platelet count in the venous blood of normal adults averages 250,000/mL (range, 140 – 440,000/mL). It could be expected that any alterations in plasma platelet count are reflected in the plasma thrombospondin level, at least to some extent. Nevertheless, even after measuring the platelet count one still cannot be sure there are no qualitative disorders of platelet function, such as deficient release reaction, in which the platelets aggregate normally in response to exogenous agonists, but fail to release normal amounts of endogenous substances including thrombospondin. We believe these points should have been clarified by both measuring the plasma platelet count and performing the platelet function tests. With regard to the source of thrombospondin, it should be remembered that thrombospondin is known to be synthesized by some tumor cell lines. –11 In case it also is synthesized by colorectal carcinoma cells, one can theorize that there would be an additional effect on the plasma thrombospondin level, but more important, the existence of a probable correlation between the plasma thrombospondin level and the amount of colorectal carcinoma cells, rather than platelets, should be suspected. It then could be claimed that the increase in the plasma thrombospondin level and the degree of venous invasion might be coincident and the relation exists due to the late stage of colorectal carcinoma.
The Globalization of Householding and Social Reproduction in Pacific Asia

This article focuses on the missing dimension of global studies, the household, in the context of developments in Pacific (East and Southeast) Asia over the past two decades. In this world region, householding-the processes of forming and sustaining households-has been "going global, not only to seize new opportunities for advancement but equally to compensate for growing crises in householding within the nation-state. Global householding is only partially motivated by and manifested in work and income opportunities, as it encompasses issues of marriages; bearing, raising, and educating children; and caring for the elderly. From a societal level, global householding responds to collapsing population growth below replacement, severe labor shortages, rising dependency ratios, welfare systems going broke, and rapidly aging societies. However, popular attitudes and immigration policies are often inimical to global householding, and tensions with national identity bundled with ethnicity are generating important social and political issues in the region.
Semi-Supervised Generation with Cluster-aware Generative Models

Deep generative models trained with large amounts of unlabelled data have proven to be powerful within the domain of unsupervised learning. Many real life data sets contain a small amount of labelled data points, that are typically disregarded when training generative models. We propose the Cluster-aware Generative Model, that uses unlabelled information to infer a latent representation that models the natural clustering of the data, and additional labelled data points to refine this clustering. The generative performances of the model significantly improve when labelled information is exploited, obtaining a log-likelihood of -79.38 nats on permutation invariant MNIST, while also achieving competitive semi-supervised classification accuracies. The model can also be trained fully unsupervised, and still improve the log-likelihood performance with respect to related methods.
Dietary management of chronic kidney disease: protein restriction and beyond

Purpose of reviewMore kidney protective strategies are needed to reduce the burden of complete kidney failure from chronic kidney disease (CKD). Clinicians sometimes use protein restriction as kidney protection despite its demonstrated lack of effectiveness in the only large-scale study. Small-scale studies support that dietary acid reduction is kidney-protective, including when done with base-inducing foods like fruits and vegetables. We review these studies in light of current kidney-protective recommendations. Recent findingsAnimal models of CKD show that acid-inducing dietary protein exacerbates and base-inducing protein ameliorates nephropathy progression, and that increased intake of acid-inducing but not base-inducing dietary protein exacerbates progression. Clinical studies show that dietary acid reduction with Na+-based alkali reduces kidney injury and slows nephropathy progression in patients with CKD and reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR); base-inducing fruits and vegetables reduce kidney injury in patients with reduced GFR; and base-inducing fruits and vegetables improve metabolic acidosis in CKD. SummaryProtein type rather than amount might more importantly affect nephropathy progression. Base-inducing foods might be another way to reduce dietary acid, a strategy shown in small studies to slow nephropathy progression. Further studies will determine if CKD patients should be given base-inducing food as part of their management.
On The Prevalence of Event Clusters in Autobiographical Memory

Abstract Event clusters are narrative–like memory structures that draw together information about causally and thematically related events (Brown & Schopflocher, 1998a, 1998b). Prior research, using a method called event cueing, indicates that clusters play an important role in the organization of autobiographical memory and suggests that cluster formation is a by–product of the normal processes required to plan, execute, evaluate, and discuss meaningful event sequences. Two new event–cueing experiments are reported in this article. In the first, participants (undergraduates) were cued with personal memories from the past week, the recent past (high school), or the distant past (grade school) and were required to respond to each of the cueing events by retrieving a second, related personal event (the cued event). Cueing and cued events were often drawn from the same cluster. However, cueing events from the distant past were somewhat less likely to elicit clustermates than cueing events from the past week .
Psychosocial factors in heart surgery: presurgical vulnerability and postsurgical recovery.

OBJECTIVE Distress and low perceived social support were examined as indicators of psychosocial vulnerability in patients about to undergo heart surgery. DESIGN A total of 550 study patients underwent heart surgeries, including bypass grafting and valve procedures. Psychosocial interviews were conducted about five days before surgery, and biomedical data were obtained from hospital records. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Sociodemographic, personality, religious, and biomedical factors were evaluated as predictors of psychosocial vulnerability, and all five sets of variables were evaluated as contributors to hospital length of stay (LOS). RESULTS Patients scoring higher on one or more indicator of presurgical psychosocial vulnerability were younger, more likely to be female, less likely to be married, less well educated, lower in dispositional optimism, higher in trait anger, and lower in religiousness. Older age, depression, low support, and low trait anger each showed an independent, prospective association with greater LOS, and several other predictors had prospective relationships with LOS that were statistically mediated by depression or perceived support. CONCLUSION Evidence that multiple psychosocial factors may influence adaptation to heart surgery has implications for understanding and ameliorating presurgical distress and for improving postsurgical recovery.
Flânerie for Cyborgs

As a literary figure or conceit, Haraway’s cyborg is kin to Dumas’ and Balzac’s flâneur. As a social science fiction, crossing and mixing categories, the cyborg is an abject quasi-body who does not fit the Enlightenment model of the political subject and actor. The ‘Manifesto’ has a geography of sites - Home, Market, Paid Work Place, State, School, Clinic-Hospital and Church - which this article updates and to which it adds the Body and the Web. However, Haraway’s ‘cyborg-analysis’ directs attention to the nanotechnological scale of biotechnology. The spatialization implied in the ‘Manifesto’ is more like a surface, a site of regeneration, not a space of the body or of rebirth or the space of institutions such as the Market or School. The cyborg cannot be an Enlightenment political actor, but challenges the traditions, scale and space of the public sphere even as she carries ethical qualities and potentials for less normative forms of politics.
Evidence for Development of Capillary Leak Syndrome Associated with Cardiopulmonary Bypass in Pediatric Patients with the Homozygous C4A Null Phenotype

Background: The mechanism of postoperative capillary leak syndrome related to cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is unknown. The authors hypothesized that C4 gene polymorphism might be involved in the development of the syndrome because complement activation is associated with CPB and protamine administration, and the two isotypes of C4 (C4A and C4B) differ in their biochemical and functional properties after activation. Methods: One hundred fifty-six pediatric patients referred for elective cardiac surgery with CPB were included in the study. C4 isotype studies were performed in plasma samples obtained before surgery, with use of agarose gel immunofixation and crossed immunoelectrophoresis. Five possible C4 phenotype groups were observed, which were abbreviated as follows: (1) AABB = no detectable null alleles, (2) A0BB = a single null allele (heterozygous) at the C4A locus, (3) 00BB = a homozygous C4A null allele, (4) AAB0 = a single null allele (heterozygous) at the C4B locus, and (5) AA00 = a homozygous C4B null allele. The patients were classified into five groups according to their C4 phenotypes. Before CPB and at 1 h after CPB, plasma protein was measured with a biuret test kit. Plasma colloid osmotic pressure was determined with a membrane osmometer. Evans blue dye was used to measure plasma volume, serum protein, intravenous protein pool, and transvascular escape rate of Evans blue dye. Results: Of 156 pediatric patients enrolled, 80 were assigned to the AABB group, 28 were assigned to the A0BB group, 7 were assigned to the 00BB group, 31 were assigned to the AAB0 group, and 10 were assigned to the AA00 group, according to their C4 phenotypes. At 1 h after CPB, serum protein concentrations averaged 3.6 ± 0.4 g/dl in patients with the 00BB C4 phenotype; this value was significantly lower (P < 0.01) than that in patients with other C4 phenotypes. The changes of intravenous protein pool and colloid osmotic pressure were comparable with the change in serum protein concentration. At 1 h after CPB, the transvascular escape rate of Evans blue dye averaged 11.5 ± 1.3%/h in patients with the 00BB C4 phenotype; this value was significantly higher (P < 0.01) than that in patients with other C4 phenotypes. Conclusions: In this study, capillary leak syndrome induced by CPB occurred only in patients with the homozygous C4A null phenotype.
Giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica in northwestern Turkey: Clinical features and epidemiological data.

OBJECTIVE In this study, we evaluated clinical and epidemiologic features of our giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) patients. METHODS We retrospectively recorded down the general features of patients with GCA and PMR diagnosed at our center within the last 6 years. The incidence rates per 100000 aged > or =50 were calculated. In addition, we reported the frequencies of GCA/PMR in our previous epidemiologic study. RESULTS Nineteen patients were diagnosed with GCA (10F, 9M) and 53 with isolated PMR (39F, 14M). The annual incidence for GCA in subjects > or =50 years old was 1.13/100000, and for PMR it was 3.15/100000. The incidence of GCA and PMR in females were, respectively, 1.14/100000 and 4.48/100000. In males, the incidences of GCA and PMR were, respectively, calculated as 1.1/100000 and 1.72/100000. In our population-based study, the prevalences of GCA and PMR (> or =50 ages) were estimated as 20/100000. Fourteen (73.7%) GCA patients had symptoms of PMR. Two patients had developed unilateral and one patient bilateral permanent visual loss. Initial ESR was lower than 40 mm/hr in one GCA patient (5.3%) and in 6 PMR patients (11.3%). The median duration of follow-up was 16 months in GCA; and 8 months in PMR patients. One patient with PMR and another patient with GCA had lung cancer. One PMR patient had myelodysplastic syndrome. During follow-up, 4 patients with GCA died. CONCLUSION We detected a lower frequency of GCA/PMR in our center in northwestern Turkey than in Scandinavian and southern European countries.
Attitudes of gifted students towards science depending on some variables: A Turkish sample

This research aimed to examine the science attitudes of gifted students attending the science and art centers (SAC) in Turkey depending on variables such as gender of students, their fields of education, classroom level and the education levels of their families. The test of science related attitudes (TOSRA), developed by Fraser (1978), simplified by Chaerul (2002) and translated into Turkish and the validity and reliability of which were studied by Curebal (2004), was used in the research. It was observed that there was no statistical difference between the science attitudes of students and the above-mentioned variables. A general analysis of the obtained results was performed comparatively with the studies at national and international levels. In line with the results, a discussion was made on what could be done particularly regarding the science and technology instruction of students at SACs which were developed as a suitable model for country conditions.