Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SUMO Is a Critical Regulator of Salt Stress Responses in Rice1[OPEN]

The OsOTS1 SUMO protease acts in the nucleus to promote root growth and confer salt tolerance. SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier) conjugation onto target proteins has emerged as a very influential class of protein modification systems. SUMO1/2 double mutant plants are nonviable, underlining the importance of SUMO conjugation to plant survival. Once covalently bound, SUMO can alter a conjugated protein’s stability and/or function. SUMO conjugation is a highly dynamic process that can be rapidly reversed by the action of SUMO proteases. The balance between the conjugated/deconjugated forms is a major determinant in the modulation of SUMO-target function. Despite the important mechanistic role of SUMO proteases in model plants, until now the identity or the function of these regulatory enzymes has not been defined in any crop plant. In this report, we reveal the ubiquitin-like protease class of SUMO protease gene family in rice (Oryza sativa) and demonstrate a critical role for OsOTS1 SUMO protease in salt stress. OsOTS-RNAi rice plants accumulate high levels of SUMO-conjugated proteins during salt stress and are highly salt sensitive; however, in non-salt conditions, they are developmentally indistinguishable from wild-type plants. Transgenic rice plants overexpressing OsOTS1 have increased salt tolerance and a concomitant reduction in the levels of SUMOylated proteins. We demonstrate that OsOTS1 confers salt tolerance in rice by increasing root biomass. High salinity triggers OsOTS1 degradation, indicating that increased SUMO conjugation in rice plants during salt stress is in part achieved by down-regulation of OTS1/2 activity. OsOTS1 is nuclear localized indicating a direct requirement of OsOTS1-dependent deSUMOylation activity in rice nuclei for salt tolerance.
Fire injuries, disasters, and costs from cigarettes and cigarette lights: a global overview.

BACKGROUND Fires cause 1% of the global burden of disease. Fire (includes explosion) disasters have immense health, social, and environmental costs. We will provide initial estimates of overall U. S. and global fire tolls from smoking. METHODS We tabulated and summarized smoking-related fire and disaster tolls from published documents. We compared those tolls to U.S. fire, burn, and fire death rates per billion cigarettes extrapolated globally. Smoking-attributable percentages of adult and child access to cigarette lighter and match ignitions (lights), and resultant fires, burns, and deaths ignited by young children, were estimated from likely smoking-attributable lights usage. Cigarette plus cigarette lights fire tolls were multiplied times published and estimated fire costs. RESULTS Smoking is the leading cause of residential or total fire death in all eight countries with available statistics. Smoking is a leading cause of fires in many more countries. Cigarettes cause numerous fire disasters. Cigarette lights cause an estimated 100,000 U.S. and one million global, child-playing fires per year. Cigarette lights fire injuries likely rival U.S., and possibly global, cigarette fire injury numbers. Smoking causes an estimated 30% of U. S. and 10% of global fire death burdens. Smoking's estimated U.S. and global fire costs were $6.95 (sensitivity range $5.34-22.8) and $27.2 (sensitivity range $8.2-89.2) billion, respectively, in 1998 U. S. dollars. CONCLUSIONS Smoking likely causes large global fire tolls. U.S. fire tolls have fallen when smoking decreased. Further reducing smoking can substantially reduce fire and disaster tolls.
Functional Limit Theorems for a Simple Auction

We consider a continuous transparent auction with one asset. Buyers and sellers arrive at the auction according to independent renewal processes, willing to transact a random number of units (shares) of the asset for one ofN possible prices. Upon arrival, they buy/sell as many units of the asset as they can for the best price available at that time. However, if the prices offered for sale/purchase are worse than their initial preferences, they do not transact, but instead they stay at the auction, posting buying/selling orders and waiting for a suitable counterparty. We model the numbers of outstanding orders of each type, together with the numbers of assets exchanged up to date by customers of different types, by stochastic processes and find the limiting distributions of these (suitably scaled) processes.
Organisation, and Information Systems between Formal and Informal - Continuum, Balance, Patterns, and Anti-patterns

There is no doubt that formalising information systems is of great value to an organisation. This enables, among others, business processes, rules, services and objects models to be standardized, structured, capitalized and reused. A formal information system involves a structured organisation, clearly defined roles and responsibilities and therefore a rational management. However, generalising a formalisation approach to all information system perspectives or all levels of granularity can inversely be fatal to the smooth running of the business, its management, and operation. The aim of this paper is to explore information systems formalinformal continuum, to discover and understand its characteristics, patterns, anti-patterns, and the forces partcipating to its equilibrium, and to propose recommendations to reach right level of formalisation .
Quantum rods as nanocarriers of gene therapy

Both antisense oligonucleotides (ASODN) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) have enormous potential to selectively silence specific cancer-related genes and could therefore be developed to be important therapeutic anti-cancer drugs. The use of nanotechnology may allow for significant advancement of the therapeutic potential of ASODN and siRNA, due to improved pharmacokinetics, bio-distribution and tissue specific targeted therapy. In this mini-review, we have discussed the advantages of using a nanocarrier such as a multimodal quantum rod (QR) complexed with siRNA for gene delivery. Comparisons are made between ASODN and siRNA therapeutic efficacies in the context of cancer and the enormous application potential of nanotechnology in oncotherapy is discussed. We have shown that a QR-interleukin-8 (IL-8) siRNA nanoplex can effectively silence IL-8 gene expression in the PC-3 prostate cancer cells with no significant toxicity. Thus, nanocarriers such as QRs can help translate the potent effects of ASODN/siRNA into a clinically viable anti-cancer therapy. Drug delivery for cancer therapy, with the aid of nanotechnology is one of the major translational aspects of nanomedicine, and efficient delivery of chemotherapy drugs and gene therapy drugs or their co-delivery continue to be a major focus of nanomedicine research.
Purification and Characterization of Lipase produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from some soils of Basrah Governorate

The present study aimed to Purification and characterization of lipase produced by the isolate Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The results showed that crude lipase was purified by using the precipitation step of several concentrations ratios of cold acetone. The concentration ratio 4:1 gave the best specific activity 6 U/mg of protein. The subsequent purification step using gel filtration was showed that specific activity reached to 40.5U/mg of protein. The gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of lipase purity were determined. the result showed there is an appearance of a single protein band predominant in all purification steps, While The molecular weight of purified lipase was 68KDa
The Crystal Structure of the SV40 T-Antigen Origin Binding Domain in Complex with DNA

DNA replication is initiated upon binding of “initiators” to origins of replication. In simian virus 40 (SV40), the core origin contains four pentanucleotide binding sites organized as pairs of inverted repeats. Here we describe the crystal structures of the origin binding domain (obd) of the SV40 large T-antigen (T-ag) both with and without a subfragment of origin-containing DNA. In the co-structure, two T-ag obds are oriented in a head-to-head fashion on the same face of the DNA, and each T-ag obd engages the major groove. Although the obds are very close to each other when bound to this DNA target, they do not contact one another. These data provide a high-resolution structural model that explains site-specific binding to the origin and suggests how these interactions help direct the oligomerization events that culminate in assembly of the helicase-active dodecameric complex of T-ag.
Mapping the in vivo arrangement of nucleosomes on simian virus 40 chromatin by the photoaddition of radioactive hydroxymethyltrimethylpsoralen

Intracellular simian virus 40 (SV40) chromatin was photoreacted with a 3H-labeled psoralen derivative, hydroxymethyltrimethylpsoralen (HMT), at 48 h postinfection. Psoralen compounds have been shown to readily penetrate intact cells and, in the presence of long-wavelength UV light, form covalent adducts to DNA, preferentially at regions unprotected by nucleosomes. The average distribution pattern of [3H]HMT on the SV40 genome was determined by specific activity measurements of the DNA fragments generated by HindIII plus HpaII or by AtuI restriction enzyme digestion. At levels of 1 to 10 [3H]HMT photoadducts per SV40 molecule, the radiolabel was found to be distributed nonrandomly. Comparison of the labeling pattern in vivo with that of purified SV40 DNA labeled in vitro revealed one major difference. A region of approximately 400 base pairs, located between 0.65 and 0.73 on the physical map, was preferentially labeled under in vivo conditions. This finding strongly suggests that the highly accessible region near the origin of replication, previously observed on isolated SV40 "minichromosomes," exists on SV40 chromatin in vivo during a lytic infection.
Spirituality, Religiosity, and Personal Beliefs of Australian Undergraduate Nursing Students

Purpose: To explore Australian nursing students’ perceptions of spirituality, religiosity, and personal belief. Background: Spiritual and religious literature support the benefits to patients’ physical and mental health. Nurses have an ethical obligation to understand and incorporate patient’s spiritual beliefs and values into the care plan. Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the 32-item WHO-QOL-SRPB questionnaire. Sample: The sample consisted of 483 undergraduate nursing students in Sydney, Australia. Results: There were 21% male and 79% female students; age ranged from 18 to 56 years, with a mean age of 26.53 (SD = 7.32). There were no significant difference between male and female nursing students, but there were difference in SRPB scores between first-, second-, and third-year students and between religious affiliations. Conclusions and Implications: Spirituality is multidimensional and multilevel and is interconnected with religiosity and personal belief. Nurses need to understand their own spirituality before they can incorporate spirituality in their patient care.
Profiling of Translatomes of in Vivo–Grown Pollen Tubes Reveals Genes with Roles in Micropylar Guidance during Pollination in Arabidopsis[W][OPEN]

This work described the use of a method for the specific isolation of ribosome-associated mRNAs of in vivo–grown pollen tubes to identify over 500 genes with transcripts highly enriched or specific to in vivo–grown pollen tubes. T-DNA insertion alleles of a number of these genes conferred defects in late stages of the pollination process by haploid gametes. Transcriptome profiling has been used to identify genes expressed in pollen tubes elongating in vitro; however, little is known of the transcriptome of in vivo–grown pollen tubes due to the difficulty of collecting pollen that is elongating within the solid maternal gynoecium. Using a pollen-specific promoter (ProLAT52) to generate epitope-tagged polysomal-RNA complexes that could be affinity purified, we obtained mRNAs undergoing translation (the translatome) of in vivo–grown pollen tubes from self-pollinated gynoecia of Arabidopsis thaliana. Translatomes of pollen grains as well as in vivo– and in vitro–cultured pollen tubes were assayed by microarray analyses, revealing over 500 transcripts specifically enriched in in vivo–elongating pollen tubes. Functional analyses of several in vivo mutants (iv) of these pollination-enhanced transcripts revealed partial pollination/fertilization and seed formation defects in siliques (iv2, iv4, and iv6). Cytological observation confirmed the involvement of these genes in specialized processes including micropylar guidance (IV6 and IV4), pollen tube burst (IV2), and repulsion of multiple pollen tubes in embryo sac (IV2). In summary, the selective immunopurification of transcripts engaged with polysomes in pollen tubes within self-fertilized florets has identified a cohort of pollination-enriched transcripts that facilitated the identification of genes important in in vivo pollen tube biology.
Sputtered Iridium Gate Module for GaN HEMT with Stress Engineering and High Reliability

A new gate module with iridium as a degradation resistant Schottky contact for GaN based HEMT devices is developed. Conformal deposition of Schottky and barrier metal in the gate trench provides sealing of the semiconductor. Sputtering is the enabling technology that provides low stress iridium contacts from low damage processing. Patterning of the gate contact is achieved by a subtractive method. Robustness and reliability of the devices were investigated by step-stress-test, IDQ-test, storage test and DC life-test. Results are compared to a conventional deposition method with evaporated platinum contacts.
Feasibility and impact of telemonitor-based depression care management for geriatric homecare patients.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary clinical outcomes of a method to leverage existing home healthcare telemonitoring technology to deliver depression care management (DCM) to both Spanish- and English-speaking elderly homebound recipients of homecare services. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three stand-alone, nonprofit community homecare agencies located in New York, Vermont, and Miami participated in this study. Evidence-based DCM was adapted to the telemonitor platform by programming questions and educational information on depression symptoms, antidepressant adherence, and side effects. Recruited patients participated for a minimum of 3 weeks. Telehealth nurses were trained on DCM and received biweekly supervision. On-site trained research assistants conducted in-home research interviews on depression diagnosis and severity and patient satisfaction with the protocol. RESULTS An ethnically diverse sample of 48 English- and Spanish-only-speaking patients participated, along with seven telehealth nurses. Both patients and telehealth nurses reported high levels of protocol acceptance. Among 19 patients meeting diagnostic criteria for major depression, the mean depression severity was in the "markedly severe" range at baseline and in the "mild" range at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Results of this pilot support the feasibility of using homecare's existing telemonitoring technology to deliver DCM to their elderly homebound patients. This was true for both English- and Spanish-speaking patients. Preliminary clinical outcomes suggest improvement in depression severity, although these findings require testing in a randomized clinical trial. Implications for the science and service of telehealth-based depression care for elderly patients are discussed.
On the role of AtDMC1, AtRAD51 and its paralogs during Arabidopsis meiosis

Meiotic recombination plays a critical role in achieving accurate chromosome segregation and increasing genetic diversity. Many studies, mostly in yeast, have provided important insights into the coordination and interplay between the proteins involved in the homologous recombination pathway, especially the recombinase RAD51 and the meiosis-specific DMC1. Here we summarize the current progresses on the function of both recombinases and the CX3 complex encoded by AtRAD51 paralogs, in the plant model species Arabidopsis thaliana. Similarities and differences respect to the function of these proteins in other organisms are also indicated.
On the global solvability of the Cauchy problem for a quasilinear ultraparabolic equation

In the present paper we study the Cauchy problem as well as the first initial boundary value problem for a class of quasilinear ultraparabolic equations. We show that the presence of the low order term satisfying a certain assumption provides a global solvability of the above problems. The optimality of this assumption is demonstrated.
Fixed and Random Effects Selection in Linear and Logistic Models

Summary We address the problem of selecting which variables should be included in the fixed and random components of logistic mixed effects models for correlated data. A fully Bayesian variable selection is implemented using a stochastic search Gibbs sampler to estimate the exact model‐averaged posterior distribution. This approach automatically identifies subsets of predictors having nonzero fixed effect coefficients or nonzero random effects variance, while allowing uncertainty in the model selection process. Default priors are proposed for the variance components and an efficient parameter expansion Gibbs sampler is developed for posterior computation. The approach is illustrated using simulated data and an epidemiologic example.
Regional Neural Response Differences in the Determination of Faces or Houses Positioned in a Wide Visual Field

In human visual cortex, the primary visual cortex (V1) is considered to be essential for visual information processing; the fusiform face area (FFA) and parahippocampal place area (PPA) are considered as face-selective region and places-selective region, respectively. Recently, a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study showed that the neural activity ratios between V1 and FFA were constant as eccentricities increasing in central visual field. However, in wide visual field, the neural activity relationships between V1 and FFA or V1 and PPA are still unclear. In this work, using fMRI and wide-view present system, we tried to address this issue by measuring neural activities in V1, FFA and PPA for the images of faces and houses aligning in 4 eccentricities and 4 meridians. Then, we further calculated ratio relative to V1 (RRV1) as comparing the neural responses amplitudes in FFA or PPA with those in V1. We found V1, FFA, and PPA showed significant different neural activities to faces and houses in 3 dimensions of eccentricity, meridian, and region. Most importantly, the RRV1s in FFA and PPA also exhibited significant differences in 3 dimensions. In the dimension of eccentricity, both FFA and PPA showed smaller RRV1s at central position than those at peripheral positions. In meridian dimension, both FFA and PPA showed larger RRV1s at upper vertical positions than those at lower vertical positions. In the dimension of region, FFA had larger RRV1s than PPA. We proposed that these differential RRV1s indicated FFA and PPA might have different processing strategies for encoding the wide field visual information from V1. These different processing strategies might depend on the retinal position at which faces or houses are typically observed in daily life. We posited a role of experience in shaping the information processing strategies in the ventral visual cortex.
[Susceptibility patterns and mechanisms of macrolide resistance in group B streptococcus isolates].

OBJECTIVE To test the antibiotic susceptibility and study mechanisms of macrolide resistance in group B streptococcus isolates (GBS). METHODS The GBS investigated in this study included 140 and 47 colonizing strains isolated from vaginal or cervical swabs from pregnant women in Beijing (from 1994 to 1999) and Guangzhou obstetrics and gynecology hospitals (from 1999) and 6 invasive strains isolated from infants in Beijing Children's Hospital. Susceptibility to ampicillin, penicillin G, erythromycin, lincomycin, cephazolin, cefuroxime, cefoperazone was assessed by K-B disc diffusion. The mechanisms, methylation or efflux, of macrolide resistant GBS isolates, were analyzed by PCR for ermB and mefA genes. RESULTS Susceptibility testing revealed that none of the GBS isolates were resistant to beta-lactam drugs, but 17% isolates showed intermediate susceptibility to penicillin G and ampicillin. The rate of erythromycin resistance increased from 8% in 1998 to 16% in 1999 in Beijing, while the rate of lincomycin resistance increased from 20% to 28% in that period. However, 21 (45%) and 12 (26%) isolates were resistant to erythromycin and lincomycin, respectively in Guangzhou city where erythromycin resistance rate was higher than that in Beijing. Of 45 erythromycin resistant isolates, 20 (20/45, 44%) possessed the ermB gene and 13 (13/45, 29%) harbored the mefA gene; 6 isolates harbored both genes, 6 isolates had possessed neither ermB gene nor mefA gene. CONCLUSION The susceptibility of GBS isolates to penicillin G and ampicillin suggests use of penicillin G or ampicillin as a first-line drug in prophylactic treatment regimes against early-onset neonatal GBS disease. Erythromycin and lincomycin should not be recommended as the second-line antimicrobial in Beijing and Guangzhou city. The clinical relevance of macrolide resistant GBS in women treated with macrolides for intrapartum prophylaxis needs to be assessed. Ribosomal modification by a methylase encoded by erm gene may play a major role in the mechanisms of macrolide resistance of GBS isolates in China.
Sets of Covariant Residues Modulate the Activity and Thermal Stability of GH1 β-Glucosidases

The statistical coupling analysis of 768 β-glucosidases from the GH1 family revealed 23 positions in which the amino acid frequencies are coupled. The roles of these covariant positions in terms of the properties of β-glucosidases were investigated by alanine-screening mutagenesis using the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda β-glycosidase (Sfβgly) as a model. The effects of the mutations on the Sfβgly kinetic parameters (k cat/K m) for the hydrolysis of three different p-nitrophenyl β-glycosides and structural comparisons of several β-glucosidases showed that eleven covariant positions (54, 98, 143, 188, 195, 196, 203, 398, 451, 452 and 460 in Sfβgly numbering) form a layer surrounding the active site of the β-glucosidases, which modulates their catalytic activity and substrate specificity via direct contact with the active site residues. Moreover, the influence of the mutations on the transition temperature (T m) of Sfβgly indicated that nine of the coupled positions (49, 62, 143, 188, 223, 278, 309, 452 and 460 in Sfβgly numbering) are related to thermal stability. In addition to being preferentially occupied by prolines, structural comparisons indicated that these positions are concentrated at loop segments of the β-glucosidases. Therefore, due to these common biochemical and structural properties, these nine covariant positions, even without physical contacts among them, seem to jointly modulate the thermal stability of β-glucosidases.