Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ω-Conotoxin CVID Inhibits a Pharmacologically Distinct Voltage-sensitive Calcium Channel Associated with Transmitter Release from Preganglionic Nerve Terminals*

Neurotransmitter release from preganglionic parasympathetic neurons is resistant to inhibition by selective antagonists of L-, N-, P/Q-, R-, and T-type calcium channels. In this study, the effects of different ω-conotoxins from genusConus were investigated on current flow-through cloned voltage-sensitive calcium channels expressed in Xenopusoocytes and nerve-evoked transmitter release from the intact preganglionic cholinergic nerves innervating the rat submandibular ganglia. Our results indicate that ω-conotoxin CVID from Conus catus inhibits a pharmacologically distinct voltage-sensitive calcium channel involved in neurotransmitter release, whereas ω-conotoxin MVIIA had no effect. ω-Conotoxin CVID and MVIIA inhibited depolarization-activated Ba2+ currents recorded from oocytes expressing N-type but not L- or R-type calcium channels. High affinity inhibition of the CVID-sensitive calcium channel was enhanced when position 10 of the ω-conotoxin was occupied by the smaller residue lysine as found in CVID instead of an arginine as found in MVIIA. Given that relatively small differences in the sequence of the N-type calcium channel α1B subunit can influence ω-conotoxin access (Feng, Z. P., Hamid, J., Doering, C., Bosey, G. M., Snutch, T. P., and Zamponi, G. W. (2001)J. Biol. Chem. 276, 15728–15735), it is likely that the calcium channel in preganglionic nerve terminals targeted by CVID is a N-type (Cav2.2) calcium channel variant.
Brava and Autologous Fat Transfer Is a Safe and Effective Breast Augmentation Alternative: Results of a 6-Year, 81-Patient, Prospective Multicenter Study

Background: Breast augmentation by autologous fat transfer is an appealing alternative in need of scientific validation. Methods: In a prospective multicenter study, 81 women (age range, 17 to 63 years) wore the Brava device, a bra-like vacuum-based external tissue expander, for 4 weeks and then underwent autologous fat injection using 10 to 14 needle puncture sites into each breast in a three-dimensional fanning pattern (average, 277 ml volume injected per breast). Patients resumed Brava wear within 24 hours for 7 or more days. Pretreatment and posttreatment breast volumes were derived from three-dimensional volumetric reconstruction of magnetic resonance imaging scans, and outcomes were compared with a meta-analysis of six recent published reports on autologous fat transfer breast augmentation without expansion. Follow-up ranged from 12 months to 6 years (average, 3.7 years). Results: Breast volume was unchanged between 3 and 6 months. Seventy-one of the treated women were compliant with Brava wear and had a mean augmentation volume at 12 months of 233 ml per breast compared with 134 ml per breast in published series without Brava (p < 0.00001). Graft survival was 82 ± 18 percent compared with 55 ± 18 percent without Brava (p < 0.00001). There was a strong linear correlation (R 2 = 0.87) between pregrafting Brava expansion and the resultant breast augmentation. There were no suspicious breast masses or nodules. Magnetic resonance imaging recognized a 16 percent incidence of fat necrosis easily identified at 1-year mammographic evaluation. Conclusion: The addition of Brava expansion before autologous fat grafting leads to significantly larger breast augmentations, with more fat graft placement, higher graft survival rates, and minimal graft necrosis or complications, demonstrating high safety and efficacy for the procedure. CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.
Hybrid structure in massive MIMO: Achieving large sum rate with fewer RF chains

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems can attain a high channel capacity and spectral efficiency by using a very large antenna array at the base station (BS). However, the cost of having one radio frequency (RF) chain behind every antenna element can be prohibitive. In addition, the overall power consumption of the RF hardware can be excessively high. A hybrid analog-digital structure can be utilized to reduce the required number of RF chains at the BS. In this paper, we present achievable rates of hybrid beamforming in multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) when employing only one RF chain per user. The analysis and simulation results show that the asymptotic signal-plus-interference-to-noise ratio (SINR) of hybrid beamforming is reduced by a factor of π/4 compared to conventional beamforming methods, and the resulting achievable sum-rate degradation can be compensated by simply employing 27% more transmit antennas.
Comparison of Loudspeaker Placement Methods for Sound Field Reproduction

This paper presents a comparison between several loudspeaker placement methods for sound field reproduction (SFR). The goal of these placement methods is to reduce the SFR error under a power constraint by selecting suitable locations for the loudspeakers. The first method is based on singular value decomposition of the acoustic transfer function (ATF) matrix. Depending on the configuration, an ideal ATF matrix is created and, then, approximated by selecting the appropriate locations for the loudspeakers. Another method is based on the constrained matching pursuit (CMP) algorithm, in which candidate locations of the loudspeakers are selected iteratively to minimize the approximation error of the desired sound field. The third method is based on sparsity-promoting sound field approximation using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator. Loudspeaker placements obtained using these methods are compared against benchmark configuration of uniformly distributed loudspeakers. The comparison indicates that for constrained power, the CMP-based placement has the least reproduction error.
Probable regions for emitter localization

A probable region (PR) for the location of an emitter is useful for quantifying the reliability of a location estimate and for defining a search region. Previous investigations have yielded equations that define PRs having the form of error or uncertainty ellipses (or ellipsoids) given the assumption of Gaussian probability density functions (pdfs). The new derivation proposed in this paper differs in the use of polar or spherical coordinates instead of Cartesian coordinates. In addition to being simpler in some respects, it has the further advantage of being extensible to other PRs that contain arbitrary regions-of-interest. Numerical examples give results that are in close agreement with the theoretical values.
Residual active granzyme B in cathepsin C–null lymphocytes is sufficient for perforin-dependent target cell apoptosis

Cathepsin C activates serine proteases expressed in hematopoietic cells by cleaving an N-terminal dipeptide from the proenzyme upon granule packaging. The lymphocytes of cathepsin C–null mice are therefore proposed to totally lack granzyme B activity and perforin-dependent cytotoxicity. Surprisingly, we show, using live cell microscopy and other methodologies, that cells targeted by allogenic CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) raised in cathepsin C–null mice die through perforin-dependent apoptosis indistinguishable from that induced by wild-type CTL. The cathepsin C–null CTL expressed reduced but still appreciable granzyme B activity, but minimal granzyme A activity. Also, in contrast to mice with inactivation of both their granzyme A/B genes, cathepsin C deficiency did not confer susceptibility to ectromelia virus infection in vivo. Overall, our results indicate that although cathepsin C clearly generates the majority of granzyme B activity, some is still generated in its absence, pointing to alternative mechanisms for granzyme B processing and activation. Cathepsin C deficiency also results in considerably milder immune deficiency than perforin or granzyme A/B deficiency.
Stretching out and expanding work practices in time and space: The case of telemedicine

The article utilizes the imagery of stretching out and expanding for exploring what happens when medical practices and health working arrangements are temporally and spatially reconfigured. Based on the tenets of contemporary practice theory, and on the back of a three years' longitudinal study of telemedicine in northern Italy, the article investigates some of the practical issues raised by the subversion of the proximity principles that still underscore most current medical practices. The study argues that in order to cope with the expansion of their activity practitioners had to face three main practical problems: they had to redistribute their work and tasks among human and non-human elements, they had to reframe the ways in which the activity was made accountable, and they had to reconfigure the relationships between all those involved. The stretching out and expanding of medical practices in space and time implies thus much more than a simple redistribution of what was already there and it triggers profound changes which included the reframing of the object and content of the activity, the emergence of new artefacts and new identities, and the modification of the geography of the power positions between all those involved.
The Use of Monoclonal Antibodies in the Treatment of Autoimmune Complications of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Autoimmune cytopenias are a frequent complication in CLL, occurring in approximately 5–10% of the patients. The most common manifestation is autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, followed by immune thrombocytopenia and only rarely pure red blood cell aplasia or autoimmune granulocytopenia. Initial treatment is as for the idiopathic autoimmune cytopenias, with most patients responding to conventional corticosteroid therapy. Patients, who do not respond to conventional therapy after 4–6 weeks, should be considered for alternative immunosuppression, monoclonal antibody therapy or splenectomy. While randomized trials demonstrating the benefit of rituximab in CLL-related autoimmune diseases are still lacking, there are considerable data in the literature that provide evidence for its effectiveness. The monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab also displays considerable activity against both the malignant disease and the autoimmune complication in patients with CLL, although at the expense of greater toxicity. A number of new monoclonal antibodies, such as ofatumumab, GA-101, lumiliximab, TRU-016, epratuzumab, and galiximab, are currently investigated in CLL and their activity in CLL-related autoimmune cytopenias should be evaluated in future studies.
THE PECULIAR CHEMICAL INVENTORY OF NGC 2419: AN EXTREME OUTER HALO “GLOBULAR CLUSTER”

NGC 2419 is a massive outer halo Galactic globular cluster (GC) whose stars have previously been shown to have somewhat peculiar abundance patterns. We have observed seven luminous giants that are members of NGC 2419 with Keck/HIRES at reasonable signal-to-noise ratio. One of these giants is very peculiar, with an extremely low [Mg/Fe] and high [K/Fe] but normal abundances of most other elements. The abundance pattern does not match the nucleosynthetic yields of any supernova model. The other six stars show abundance ratios typical of inner halo Galactic GCs, represented here by a sample of giants in the nearby GC M30. Although our measurements show that NGC 2419 is unusual in some respects, its bulk properties do not provide compelling evidence for a difference between inner and outer halo GCs.
RNA Type III Secretion Signals That Require Hfq

ABSTRACT Salmonella virulence is largely mediated by two type III secretion systems (T3SS) that deliver effector proteins from the bacterium to a host cell; however, the secretion signal is poorly defined. Effector N termini are thought to contain the signal, but they lack homology, possess no identifiable motif, and adopt intrinsically disordered structures. Alternative studies suggest that RNA-encoded signals may also be recognized and that they can be located in the 5′ untranslated leader sequence. We began our study by establishing the minimum sequence required for reporter translocation. Untranslated leader sequences predicted from 42 different Salmonella effector proteins were fused to the adenylate cyclase reporter (CyaA′), and each of them was tested for protein injection into J774 macrophages. RNA sequences derived from five effectors, gtgA, cigR, gogB, sseL, and steD, were sufficient for CyaA′ translocation into host cells. To determine the mechanism of signal recognition, we identified proteins that bound specifically to the gtgA RNA. One of the unique proteins identified was Hfq. Hfq had no effect upon the translocation of full-length CigR and SteD, but injection of intact GtgA, GogB, and SseL was abolished in an hfq mutant, confirming the importance of Hfq. Our results demonstrated that the Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 (SPI-2) T3SS assembled into a functional apparatus independently of Hfq. Since particular effectors required Hfq for translocation, Hfq-RNA complexes may participate in signal recognition.
Communication Under Strong Asynchronism

A formulation of the problem of asynchronous point-to-point communication is developed. In the system model of interest, the message codeword is transmitted over a channel starting at a randomly chosen time within a prescribed window. The length of the window scales exponentially with the codeword length, where the scaling parameter is referred to as the asynchronism exponent. The receiver knows the transmission window, but not the transmission time. Communication rate is defined as the ratio between the message size and the elapsed time between when transmission commences and when the decoder makes a decision. Under this model, several aspects of the achievable tradeoff between the rate of reliable communication and the asynchronism exponent are quantified. First, the use of generalized constant-composition codebooks and sequential decoding is shown to be sufficient for achieving reliable communication under strictly positive asynchronism exponents at all rates less than the capacity of the synchronized channel. Second, the largest asynchronism exponent under which reliable communication is possible, regardless of rate, is characterized. In contrast to traditional communication architectures, there is no separate synchronization phase in the coding scheme. Rather, synchronization and communication are implemented jointly. The results are relevant to a variety of sensor network and other applications in which intermittent communication is involved.
An Investigation Of Ethnic Differences In The Motivation And Strategies For Learning Of Students In Desegregated South African Schools

No significant ethnic group differences were found in the academic motivation or learning strategies of more than 200 White and 200 Black South African students from two recently integrated secondary schools. Both groups considered working hard and having interest in school tasks to be more important than competition or affiliation. The former items tended to be the best predictors in both groups of the use of deep learning strategies, which are known to be prerequisites for high-quality learning outcomes. The motivation scales tended to be better predictors of learning strategies for the Black students.
Processing Affect in Social Media

Emotion analysis in social media is challenging. While most studies focus on positive and negative sentiments, the differentiation between emotions is more difficult. We investigate the problem as a collection of binary classification tasks on the basis of four opposing emotion pairs provided by Plutchik. We processed the content of messages by three alternative methods: structural and lexical features, latent factors, and natural language processing. The final prediction is suggested by classifiers deriving from the state of the art in machine learning. Results are convincing in the possibility to distinguish the emotions pairs in social media.
The Response of Diatom Central Carbon Metabolism to Nitrogen Starvation Is Different from That of Green Algae and Higher Plants1[W]

The availability of nitrogen varies greatly in the ocean and limits primary productivity over large areas. Diatoms, a group of phytoplankton that are responsible for about 20% of global carbon fixation, respond rapidly to influxes of nitrate and are highly successful in upwelling regions. Although recent diatom genome projects have highlighted clues to the success of this group, very little is known about their adaptive response to changing environmental conditions. Here, we compare the proteome of the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana (CCMP 1335) at the onset of nitrogen starvation with that of nitrogen-replete cells using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. In total, 3,310 protein spots were distinguishable, and we identified 42 proteins increasing and 23 decreasing in abundance (greater than 1.5-fold change; P < 0.005). Proteins involved in the metabolism of nitrogen, amino acids, proteins, and carbohydrates, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll biosynthesis were represented. Comparison of our proteomics data with the transcriptome response of this species under similar growth conditions showed good correlation and provided insight into different levels of response. The T. pseudonana response to nitrogen starvation was also compared with that of the higher plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus. We have found that the response of diatom carbon metabolism to nitrogen starvation is different from that of other photosynthetic eukaryotes and bears closer resemblance to the response of cyanobacteria.
Equity Aversion: Social Norms and the Desire to Be Ahead

Inequity aversion models have dominated the behavioral economics landscape in the last decade. This study uses variants of dictator and trust games to provide empirical content to these models. We manipulate market features—such as competition over resources—to demonstrate that extant models cannot explain realistic manipulations of either game. For example, we show that if socially acceptable actions provide one player with a greater portion of the rents, she will put forth extra effort to secure them, to the detriment of the other person. When she can earn more than the other player through customary actions, we find a preference for selfishness. (JEL C71, C70, D03, Z13)
Clinical features of children with Henoch-Schonlein purpura: risk factors associated with renal involvement.

INTRODUCTION This study aimed to evaluate renal involvement and factors affecting the prognosis in patients with Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP). MATERIALS AND METHODS The outcomes of 107 children diagnosed with HSP who had been followed up for at least 6 months were reviewed. RESULTS Renal involvement was observed in 26.1% of the patients. The mean age of the patients with renal involvement was 8.8 ± 4.0 years as compared to 7.1 ± 2.9 years in the patients without renal involvement (P = .02). The risk of renal involvement was found to be significantly higher in the patients who were 10 years old and over (P < .001). In the group with renal involvement, the frequency of scrotal involvement was significantly higher than that of the group without renal involvement (P = .02). The mean serum immunoglobulin A level of the patients with renal involvements was significantly higher (P = .04) and the mean serum complement C3 levels was significantly lower (P = .04) than those of the patients without renal involvement. None of the patients with renal involvement reached end-stage kidney failure. No significant relationship was observed between the development of renal involvement and early steroid treatment. CONCLUSIONS This study proposes that in old children with HSP, elevated serum immunoglobulin A levels, decreased serum complement C3 levels, and scrotal involvement are associated with renal involvement. We failed to find any effect of steroid treatment on development of renal involvement.
Biasing decision making by means of retrieval practice

Decision making requires the recruitment of several cognitive processes. So far, however, few studies have dealt with the role of inhibitory control in this domain. In this study, we aim to examine this issue in a memory-based decision task by using an adaptation of the retrieval practice paradigm (Anderson, Bjork, & Bjork, 1994). The retrieval-induced forgetting found through this task is normally explained in terms of inhibition. Specifically, we analyse how retrieval practice may affect what alternatives are selected as well as the choice probability and attribute recall. Our data show a relation between the recall impairment of the attributes due to retrieval practice and biased decisions.
Activation of cellular death programs associated with immunosenescence-like phenotype in TPPII knockout mice

The giant cytosolic protease tripeptidyl peptidase II (TPPII) has been implicated in the regulation of proliferation and survival of malignant cells, particularly lymphoma cells. To address its functions in normal cellular and systemic physiology we have generated TPPII-deficient mice. TPPII deficiency activates cell type-specific death programs, including proliferative apoptosis in several T lineage subsets and premature cellular senescence in fibroblasts and CD8+ T cells. This coincides with up-regulation of p53 and dysregulation of NF-κB. Prominent degenerative alterations at the organismic level were a decreased lifespan and symptoms characteristic of immunohematopoietic senescence. These symptoms include accelerated thymic involution, lymphopenia, impaired proliferative T cell responses, extramedullary hematopoiesis, and inflammation. Thus, TPPII is important for maintaining normal cellular and systemic physiology, which may be relevant for potential therapeutic applications of TPPII inhibitors.
Adult Romantic Attachment and Types of Perfectionism

Previous studies examining the relationship between attachment and perfectionism have not included a comprehensive measure of perfectionism that determines subtypes of perfectionism and have not studied the relationship between attachment and perfectionism in adults outside of undergraduate students. Thus, the current study examined the relationship between attachment and types of perfectionism in a sample of nontraditional undergraduate and graduate students. Multiple regression analyses revealed that anxious attachment predicted scores on the self-evaluative perfectionism scales but not on the conscientious perfectionism scales. Implications of the results and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Lentiviral expression of GAD67 and CCK promoter‐driven opsins to target interneurons in vitro and in vivo

The ability to manipulate the activity of interneurons with optogenetic tools offers the possibility of interfering with diseases caused by altered neuronal inhibition and synchrony, including epilepsy and schizophrenia. To develop vectors for therapeutic approaches, targeting optogenetic constructs to interneurons is therefore a key requirement. We investigated whether the interneuron‐specific promoters glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD)67 and cholecystokinin (CCK) allowed targeted lentiviral delivery of opsins to interneurons as a whole, or specifically CCK+ interneurons.