Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein misfolding in Dictyostelium: Using a freak of nature to gain insight into a universal problem

Abstract Prion-like proteins can undergo conformational rearrangements from an intrinsically disordered to a highly ordered amyloid state. This ability to change conformation is encoded in distinctive domains, termed prion domains (PrDs). Previous work suggests that PrDs change conformation to affect protein function and create phenotypic diversity. More recent work shows that PrDs can also undergo many weak interactions when disordered, allowing them to organize the intracellular space into dynamic compartments. However, mutations within PrDs and altered aggregation properties have also been linked to age-related diseases in humans. Thus, the physiological role of prion-like proteins, the mechanisms regulating their conformational promiscuity and the links to disease are still unclear. Here, we summarize recent work with prion-like proteins in Dictyostelium discoideum. This work was motivated by the finding that D. discoideum has the highest content of prion-like proteins of all organisms investigated to date. Surprisingly, we find that endogenous and exogenous prion-like proteins remain soluble in D. discoideum and do not misfold and aggregate. We provide evidence that this is due to specific adaptations in the protein quality control machinery, which may allow D. discoideum to tolerate its highly aggregation-prone proteome. We predict that D. discoideum will be an important model to study the function of prion-like proteins and their mechanistic links to disease.
Digital Equality and the Uptake of Digital Applications among Seniors of Different Age

Abstract Ageing societies are facing challenges from the perspective of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). There is an increase in online services relevant for the economic, political, cultural and private life. Those who participate more fully in a digitally mediated social life enjoy advantages over their digitally disadvantaged counterparts. Today’s digital divide is not first and foremost between pensioners and others, but between younger and older pensioners. Scholars identify the need for longitudinal research among younger and older seniors to understand the differences between more or less advantaged users. Based on longitudinal, representative surveys, the present study finds that there is a clear gap between younger and older seniors, and that it is closing only very slowly. Age and level of education are powerful explanatory factors whereas generational belonging and social capital contribute only to a limited extent to the understanding of Internet uptake among older adults.
RhoG is required for both FcγR- and CR3-mediated phagocytosis

Phagocytosis is a highly ordered process orchestrated by signalling through Rho GTPases to locally organise the actin cytoskeleton and drive particle uptake. Specific Rho family members that regulate phagocytosis are not known, as the majority of studies have relied on the use of dominant-negative mutants and/or toxins, which can inactivate multiple Rho GTPases. To identify the relevant GTPases for phagocytosis through the Fcγ receptor (FcγR) and complement receptor 3 (CR3), we depleted 20 Rho proteins individually in an RNA interference (RNAi) screen. We find that distinct GTPase subsets are required for actin polymerisation and uptake by macrophages: FcγR-dependent engulfment requires Cdc42 and Rac2 (but not Rac1), whereas CR3 requires RhoA. Surprisingly, RhoG is required for particle uptake through both FcγR and CR3. RhoG has been previously linked to Rac and Cdc42 signalling in different model systems, but not to RhoA. Interestingly, we find that RhoG is also recruited and activated at phagocytic cups downstream of FcγR and CR3, irrespective of their distinct actin structures and mechanisms of internalisation. Thus, the functional links between RhoG and RhoA downstream of CR3-dependent phagocytosis are new and unexpected. Our data suggest a broad role for RhoG in consolidating signals from multiple receptors during phagocytosis.
Personality traits related to problematic Facebook use

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) encouraged research in the area of Internet Gaming Disorder, by including it in the Conditions for Further Study section o f the Diagnostic and Statistical M anual o f Mental Disorders, 5lh Edition (DSM-5; APA, 2013). The present study attempted to determine which personality traits were associated with problematic Facebook use, a subset o f problematic Internet use. The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS), Narcissistic Personality Inventory-Sixteen (NPI-16), International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) items related to extraversion, IPIP items related to neuroticism, Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Facebook Intensity Scale (FBI), a demographic information form, and Exploratory Facebook Use Questionnaire were used to determine if specific personality traits were associated with problematic Facebook use. Participants were 295 Facebook users, recruited through social media. Participants reported more Facebook friends and the average participant age was over a decade older than in prior studies. The average number o f hours spent on Facebook per day was similar to previous research. Females reported having significantly more Facebook friends and yielded significantly lower scores on personality measures than males. On the three measures of problematic Facebook use, results were mixed. Females produced lower scores than males on two measures and higher scores on a third measure. Additionally, results suggest narcissism, extraversion, and neuroticism predict problematic Facebook use in males, but not females. Higher levels o f narcissism and extroversion were found to be associated with higher scores on measures o f problematic Facebook use. Additionally, neuroticism and extraversion were significant positive predictors o f problematic f acebook use. Positive endorsement o f Exploratory Facebook Use Questions was associated with higher scores on two measures o f problematic Facebook use. Lastly, participants with higher problematic Internet use also reported higher levels of problematic Facebook use. Continued research is needed to understand better the full nature o f problematic Internet and/or subsets (i.e., problematic Facebook use). APPROVAL FOR SCHOLARLY DISSEMINATION T h e au th or grants to the P rescott M em orial Library o f L ouisiana le c h I Iniversity the right to rep rod u ce, by a p p rop ria te m e th o d s , u p on req u est, any o r ail p o rtio n s o f th is T h e s is . It is u n d erstood that "prop er request'' c o n s is ts o f the a g r e e m e n t, o n the part o f the req u estin g p arty , that sa id rep rod u ction is for his p ersonal u se and that su b seq u en t rep ro d u ctio n w ill not o c c u r w ith o u t w ritten app roval o f the au th or o f this T hesis. Further, any p o r tio n s o f th e T hesis used in b o o k s , p a p ers , and o th e r w o r k s m ust be appropriate ly referen ced to this Thesis. F in a lly , the a u th or o f th is T hesis r e serv es the right to publish freely , in the literature, at any tim e, any o r all p o r t io n s o f th is T h e s is .
Interacting anyonic fermions in a two-body color code model

We introduce a two-body quantum Hamiltonian model of spin-1/2 on a 2D spatial lattice with exact topological degeneracy in all coupling regimes. There exists a gapped phase in which the low-energy sector reproduces an effective color code model. High energy excitations fall into three families of anyonic fermions that turn out to be strongly interacting. The model exhibits a Z_2xZ_2 gauge group symmetry and string-net integrals of motion, which are related to the existence of topological charges that are invisible to moving high-energy fermions.
Kernel based automatic clustering using modified particle swarm optimization algorithm

This paper introduces a method for clustering complex and linearly non-separable datasets, without any prior knowledge of the number of naturally occurring clusters. The proposed method is based on an improved variant of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. In addition, it employs a kernel-induced similarity measure instead of the conventional sum-of-squares distance. Use of the kernel function makes it possible to cluster data that is linearly non-separable in the original input space into homogeneous groups in a transformed high-dimensional feature space. Computer simulations have been undertaken with a test bench of five synthetic and three real life datasets, in order to compare the performance of the proposed method with a few state-of-the-art clustering algorithms. The results reflect the superiority of the proposed algorithm in terms of accuracy, convergence speed and robustness.
Network Analysis of Cancer Patients and Symptoms : Implications for Symptom Management and Treatment

Although many cancer patients experience multiple concurrent symptoms, most studies have focused on the analysis of single symptoms. Furthermore, the few studies that have analyzed how symptoms co-occur across patients have used methods such as factor analysis that have a priori assumptions of how the data is structured. To address these limitations, we used networks to visualize how 665 cancer patients reported 18 symptoms, and verified the results using appropriate quantitative methods. The results suggest that symptoms co-occur in a nested structure, where there is a small set of symptoms that co-occur in many patients, and larger inclusive sets of symptoms that co-occur among a few patients. These results (1) demonstrate how network analyses can reveal complex relationships between patients and symptoms while avoiding a priori assumptions, and (2) provide implications for cancer treatment and management that address complexities in symptom co-occurrence.
Low dose bisphenol A impairs spermatogenesis by suppressing reproductive hormone production and promoting germ cell apoptosis in adult rats

Bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogenic chemical, has been shown to reduce sperm count; however, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Herein, we show that oral administration of BPA (2 µg/kg) for consecutive 14 days in adult rats (BPA rats) significantly reduced the sperm count and the number of germ cells compared to controls. The serum levels of testosterone and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), as well as the level of GnRH mRNA in BPA rats were lower than those of control rats. Testosterone treatment could partially rescue the reduction of germ cells in BPA rats. Notably, the number of apoptotic germ cells was significantly increased in BPA rats, which was insensitive to testosterone. Furthermore, the levels of Fas, FasL and caspase-3 mRNA in the testicle of BPA rats were increased in comparison with controls. These results indicate that exposure to a low dose of BPA impairs spermatogenesis through decreasing reproductive hormones and activating the Fas/FasL signaling pathway.
PERSONAL POWER AND TRUST AS MEDIATORS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND AFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

PERSONAL POWER AND TRUST AS MEDIATORS OF THE RELATI ONSHIP BETWEEN SERVANT LEADERSHIP AND AFFECTIVE ORGANIZATI ONAL COMMITMENT By George D. Bingham, Jr. This research was designed to investigate the poten tial mediating role of personal power and of trust in the relationship between servant le adership and affective organizational commitment. The research responds to calls for incr eased understanding of the mechanisms at work between leadership models and ou tcomes. Especially unique in the available literature is the quantitative study of t he relationship between servant leadership and personal power. All of the constructs in the re search model are based on existing instruments, including those developed for personal power (PP; Hinkin & Schriesheim, 1989; Raven, Schwarzwald, & Koslowsky, 1998), trust (T; Mayer & Gavin, 2005), servant leadership (SL; Winston & Fields, 2015), an d ffective organizational commitment (AOC; Allen & Meyer, 1990), and were mea sured as follower perceptions and attitudes. Social exchange theory was used as t he theoretical basis of the proposed model (Blau, 1964; Emerson, 1962). This includes th perspective of social power and trust being characteristic of exchange relationship s as opposed to attributes of an individual. Linear regression was performed using I BM SPSS (SPSS), and mediation was evaluated using the approach from Baron and Ken ny (1986). The hypotheses for the positive relationship between SL and AOC, and for m ediation of the SL-AOC relationship by PP were supported. Structural equat ion modeling (SEM) was used in confirmation analysis. The hypothesis for T as a me diator in the relationship between SL and AOC was not supported. Further ad hoc analysis suggests SL and PP as serial mediators in the relationship between T and AOC. Im plications for academic and practitioner applications are discussed.
Stochastic Joint Radio and Computational Resource Management for Multi-User Mobile-Edge Computing Systems

Mobile-edge computing (MEC) has recently emerged as a prominent technology to liberate mobile devices from computationally intensive workloads, by offloading them to the proximate MEC server. To make offloading effective, the radio and computational resources need to be dynamically managed, to cope with the time-varying computation demands and wireless fading channels. In this paper, we develop an online joint radio and computational resource management algorithm for multi-user MEC systems, with the objective of minimizing the long-term average weighted sum power consumption of the mobile devices and the MEC server, subject to a task buffer stability constraint. Specifically, at each time slot, the optimal CPU-cycle frequencies of the mobile devices are obtained in closed forms, and the optimal transmit power and bandwidth allocation for computation offloading are determined with the Gauss-Seidel method; while for the MEC server, both the optimal frequencies of the CPU cores and the optimal MEC server scheduling decision are derived in closed forms. Besides, a delay-improved mechanism is proposed to reduce the execution delay. Rigorous performance analysis is conducted for the proposed algorithm and its delay-improved version, indicating that the weighted sum power consumption and execution delay obey an $\left [{O\left ({1 / V}\right), O\left ({V}\right) }\right ]$ tradeoff with $V$ as a control parameter. Simulation results are provided to validate the theoretical analysis and demonstrate the impacts of various parameters.
Management of Reproduction on Small, Medium and Large Rabbit Farms: A Review

One of the main goals of small, medium and large farms is to improve the reproductive performance of rabbit does. Stocks of lower productivity can be improved by crossing with intensive breeds. A better nutritional status of both foetuses and suckling kits has a positive effect on their later productivity. Overfeeding young females before first mating can lead to conditions of fattiness. Using restricted feeding or higher fibre content in the feed and changing it for a higher level ad libitum feeding about one week prior to first mating leads to longer lifespan and higher productive level. Intensive reproductive rhythm creates a negative energy balance in does : they are unable to consume enough feed (energy) for the nutritional requirements of foetus and lactation, and therefore lose most of their fat reserves. Furthermore, primiparous does also expend energy because they are still growing. Under intensive conditions, the 42-d reproductive rhythm (re-mating 11 days after parturition) is recommended. Under extensive conditions, the 18 or 25-d mating interval with 35 to 42-d weaning could be suitable. On small farms, natural mating is favoured; on large farms AI is commonly employed. The main advantage of AI is the all-in, all-out system. Hormonal (PMSG) treatment is used with AI to increase receptivity on d 11. Frequent and high level PMSG use can lead to higher anti-PMSG antibody rates. Lower level (max. 20 IU) and less frequent PMSG injection or non-hormonal alternative methods (short dam-litter separation, changing nursing method or lighting programs) are recommended for this reason.
Survey of Human Oxidoreductases and Cytochrome P450 Enzymes Involved in the Metabolism of Xenobiotic and Natural Chemicals

Analyzing the literature resources used in our previous reports, we calculated the fractions of the oxidoreductase enzymes FMO (microsomal flavin-containing monooxygenase), AKR (aldo-keto reductase), MAO (monoamine oxidase), and cytochrome P450 participating in metabolic reactions. The calculations show that the fractions of P450s involved in the metabolism of all chemicals (general chemicals, natural, and physiological compounds, and drugs) are rather consistent in the findings that >90% of enzymatic reactions are catalyzed by P450s. Regarding drug metabolism, three-fourths of the human P450 reactions can be accounted for by a set of five P450s: 1A2, 2C9, 2C19, 2D6, and 3A4, and the largest fraction of the P450 reactions is catalyzed by P450 3A enzymes. P450 3A4 participation in metabolic reactions of drugs varied from 13% for general chemicals to 27% for drugs.
Time reversal MIMO radar: Improved CRB and Angular Resolution Limit

The paper derives closed form (nonmatrix) expression for the deterministic Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) for the direction-of-arrival associated with a target embedded in a noisy, multipath channel using the time reversal (TR) MIMO system. By incorporating the TR built-in adaptive waveform processing feature to reshape the MIMO probing signals, we prove that the CRBs for the direction of arrival can be improved in ways not foreseen with the conventional MIMO radars. A second contribution of the paper is the analytical derivation of the Angular Resolution Limit (ARL) defined as the minimal separation between two targets to be separately resolved by the MIMO radar. At high signal-to-noise ratio, we show that the TR ARL inherits the properties of the TR CRB and is superior to its conventional counterpart by a factor proportional to the order of the channel multipath.
Contribution to More Patient-Friendly ART Treatment: Efficacy of Continuous Low-Dose GnRH Agonist as the Only Luteal Support—Results of a Prospective, Randomized, Comparative Study

Background. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate intranasal buserelin for luteal phase support and compare its efficacy with standard vaginal progesterone in IVF/ICSI antagonist cycles. Methods. This is a prospective, randomized, open, parallel group study. Forty patients underwent ovarian hyperstimulation with human menopausal gonadotropin under pituitary inhibition with gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist, while ovulation trigger and luteal support were achieved using intranasal GnRH agonist (group A). Twenty patients had their cycle downregulated with buserelin and stimulated with hMG, while ovulation trigger was achieved using 10,000 IU human chorionic gonadotropin with luteal support by intravaginal progesterone (group B). Results. No difference was observed in estradiol levels. Progesterone levels on day 5 were significantly lower in group A. However, significantly higher levels of luteinizing hormone were observed in group A during the entire luteal phase. Pregnancy rates (31.4% versus 22.2%), implantation rates (22% versus 15.4%), and clinical pregnancy rates (25.7% versus 16.7%) were not statistically different between groups, although a trend towards higher rates was observed in group A. No luteal phase lasting less than 10 days was recorded in either group. Conclusion. Intranasal administration of buserelin is effective for providing luteal phase support in IVF/ICSI antagonist protocols.
Towards Reporting Guidelines for Experimental Replications: A Proposal

value of experimental replications has been well established. In order for the replicating researcher and the community to receive the greatest benefit from a replication, the right information about it must be published. This paper proposes publishing guidelines to increase the value of experimental replications. First, a review of some published replications highlights the variation in current publishing practice. Then, a set of guidelines are proposed. The goal of this paper is to provide a starting point for a discussion that will formalize and publish a set of guidelines.
A Dynamic Critical Path Algorithm for Scheduling Scientific Workflow Applications on Global Grids

Effective scheduling is a key concern for the execution of performance driven grid applications. In this paper, we propose a dynamic critical path (DCP) based workflow scheduling algorithm that determines efficient mapping of tasks by calculating the critical path in the workflow task graph at every step. It assigns priority to a task in the critical path which is estimated to complete earlier. Using simulation, we have compared the performance of our proposed approach with other existing heuristic and meta-heuristic based scheduling strategies for different type and size of workflows. Our results demonstrate that DCP based approach can generate better schedule for most of the type of workflows irrespective of their size particularly when resource availability changes frequently.
Radial velocity mapping of Paczyński's star AW UMa: not a contact binary★

We present 2D (radial velocity, orbital phase) spectroscopic results for the very low massratio close binary AW UMa which strongly indicate that the spectroscopic mass ratio (qsp = 0.10) does not agree with the photometrically derived one and that the widely adopted contact binary model appears to experience serious inconsistencies and limitations for this object. AW UMa is compared with V566 Oph (qsp = 0.26) which we found to behave according to the contact model. Observed broadening functions of AW UMa can be interpreted by a very strong limb darkening and/or non-solid-body rotation of the dominant primary component; the former assumption is unphysical while the differential rotation is not supported by an apparent stability of localized, dark features on the outer side of the primary. There are indications of the existence of an equatorial belt encompassing the whole system. All deficiencies in the interpretation and the discrepancy between the photometric and spectroscopic mass ratio of AW UMa can be solved within a new model of AW UMa where both components are detached and the system is submerged in a stream of hot, optically thick matter which mimics the stellar contact. While the masses and their ratio are correctly given by spectroscopy, the photometric picture is heavily modified by the matter engulfing both stars in the equatorial plane.