Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel class of autoantigens of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis: the lysosomal membrane glycoprotein h-lamp-2 in neutrophil granulocytes and a related membrane protein in glomerular endothelial cells

Necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis (NCGN) is frequently associated with circulating antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA). It is established that ANCA are specific for soluble enzymes of granules of polymorphonuclear neutrophil granulocytes (PMN), such as myeloperoxidase (MPO) or protease 3 (PR3). The purpose of this study was to identify membrane proteins of PMNs, and/or glomerular cells, as additional autoantigenic ANCA targets. When membrane protein fractions were prepared from PMNs and isolated human glomeruli, and immunoblotted with ANCA sera of NCGN patients, two bands with apparent molecular masses of 170 and 80-110 kD (gp170/80-110) were labeled in PMNs, and a 130-kD glycoprotein (gp130) in glomeruli. Gp130 was purified, and monoclonal and rabbit antibodies (Abs) were produced which showed the same double specificity as the patient's ANCA. Using these probes, evidence was provided that gp170/80-110 is identical with human lysosomal-associated membrane protein 2 (h-lamp-2), because both proteins were immunologically cross-reactive and screening of a cDNA expression library from human promyelocytic leukemia cells with anti- gp130 Ab yielded a clone derived from h-lamp-2. Gp170/80-110 was localized primarily in granule membranes of resting PMNs, and was translocated to the cell surfaces by activation with FMLP. By contrast, gp130 was localized in the surface membranes of endothelial cells of human glomerular and renal interstitial capillaries, rather than in lysosomes, as found for h-lamp-2. Potential clinical relevance of autoantibodies to gp170/80-110 and gp130 was assessed in a preliminary trial, in which ANCA sera of patients (n = 16) with NCGN were probed with purified or recombinant antigens. Specific reactivity was detected in approximately 90% of cases with active phases of NCGN, and frequently also in combination with autoantibodies specific for PR3 or MPO. Collectively, these data provide evidence that h-lamp-2 in PMNs and a different, structurally related 130-kD membrane protein on the cell surface of renal microvascular endothelial cells are autoantigenic targets for ANCA in patients with active NCGN.
Is intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) associated with higher incidence of congenital anomalies? A single center prospective controlled study in Egypt

Abstract Objective: To compare the incidence of congenital anomalies by ultrasound in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) pregnancies and in spontaneous pregnancies with correlation to the neonatal outcome. Methods: This is a prospective comparative study carried out in Kasr Al Aini Hospital Cairo University from January 2010 to December 2012, comparing 739 pregnant women conceived through ICSI and 843 pregnant women conceived spontaneously as regard to incidence of congenital anomalies, multiple pregnancy, preterm labor, cesarean section and neonatal outcome. Results: The number of anomalies diagnosed by antenatal ultrasound in ICSI group was 14 (1.62%) while in spontaneous group was 13 (1.51%). The number of anomalies detected by postnatal examination in ICSI group was 20 (2.31%) while in spontaneous group was 16 (1.86%) (Odds ratio [OR] 1.438; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.739–2.796). ICSI group was associated with higher incidence of twins 12.7% (p < 0.001), preterm labor 3.8% (p 0.022), preterm premature rupture of membranes 4.6% (p 0.001), cesarean section 74.1% (p < 0.001) and neonatal deaths 10.4% (p < 0.001). Conclusion: ICSI was associated with higher incidence of multiple pregnancy and cesarean section, with no difference in the incidence of congenital anomalies compared to spontaneous conception.
Purified thick filaments from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans: evidence for multiple proteins associated with core structures

The thick filaments of the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, arising predominantly from the body-wall muscles, contain two myosin isoforms and paramyosin as their major proteins. The two myosins are located in distinct regions of the surfaces, while paramyosin is located within the backbones of the filaments. Tubular structures constitute the cores of the polar regions, and electron-dense material is present in the cores of the central regions (Epstein, H.F., D.M. Miller, I. Ortiz, and G.C. Berliner. 1985. J. Cell Biol. 100:904-915). Biochemical, genetic, and immunological experiments indicate that the two myosins and paramyosin are not necessary core components (Epstein, H.F., I. Ortiz, and L.A. Traeger Mackinnon. 1986. J. Cell Biol. 103:985-993). The existence of the core structures suggests, therefore, that additional proteins may be associated with thick filaments in C. elegans. To biochemically detect minor associated proteins, a new procedure for the isolation of thick filaments of high purity and structural preservation has been developed. The final step, glycerol gradient centrifugation, yielded fractions that are contaminated by, at most, 1-2% with actin, tropomyosin, or ribosome-associated proteins on the basis of Coomassie Blue staining and electron microscopy. Silver staining and radioautography of gel electrophoretograms of unlabeled and 35S-labeled proteins, respectively, revealed at least 10 additional bands that cosedimented with thick filaments in glycerol gradients. Core structures prepared from wild-type thick filaments contained at least six of these thick filament-associated protein bands. The six proteins also cosedimented with thick filaments purified by gradient centrifugation from CB190 mutants lacking myosin heavy chain B and from CB1214 mutants lacking paramyosin. For these reasons, we propose that the six associated proteins are potential candidates for putative components of core structures in the thick filaments of body-wall muscles of C. elegans.
The Xanthomonas effector XopJ triggers a conditional hypersensitive response upon treatment of N. benthamiana leaves with salicylic acid

XopJ is a Xanthomonas type III effector protein that promotes bacterial virulence on susceptible pepper plants through the inhibition of the host cell proteasome and a resultant suppression of salicylic acid (SA) – dependent defense responses. We show here that Nicotiana benthamiana leaves transiently expressing XopJ display hypersensitive response (HR) –like symptoms when exogenously treated with SA. This apparent avirulence function of XopJ was further dependent on effector myristoylation as well as on an intact catalytic triad, suggesting a requirement of its enzymatic activity for HR-like symptom elicitation. The ability of XopJ to cause a HR-like symptom development upon SA treatment was lost upon silencing of SGT1 and NDR1, respectively, but was independent of EDS1 silencing, suggesting that XopJ is recognized by an R protein of the CC-NBS-LRR class. Furthermore, silencing of NPR1 abolished the elicitation of HR-like symptoms in XopJ expressing leaves after SA application. Measurement of the proteasome activity indicated that proteasome inhibition by XopJ was alleviated in the presence of SA, an effect that was not observed in NPR1 silenced plants. Our results suggest that XopJ – triggered HR-like symptoms are closely related to the virulence function of the effector and that XopJ follows a two-signal model in order to elicit a response in the non-host plant N. benthamiana.
Cortical Excitability and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

We to add a contribution to the manuscript titled “Cortical Excitability and Agressive Behavior in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” that was published in the 52 nd edition of your journal (1). To summarize this study, it was found the mean motor excitability threshold was lower in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients than in control group patients; furthermore, a negative correla-tion was detected between the motor excitability threshold and the aggression scale and between aggression scores and the measure-ments of the cortical silent period that was presumed to be the findings of inhibition of the prefrontal cortex (1). The activities of the amygdala and insula freed from the inhibition of the medial prefrontal cortex are mentioned in the biological hypothesis on PTSD that is accepted today (2). The disruption of anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortex functions in PTSD are consistent with this hypothesis
Utterance Segmentation Using Combined Approach Based on Bi-directional N-gram and Maximum Entropy

This paper proposes a new approach to segmentation of utterances into sentences using a new linguistic model based upon Maximum-entropy-weighted Bi-directional N-grams. The usual N-gram algorithm searches for sentence boundaries in a text from left to right only. Thus a candidate sentence boundary in the text is evaluated mainly with respect to its left context, without fully considering its right context. Using this approach, utterances are often divided into incomplete sentences or fragments. In order to make use of both the right and left contexts of candidate sentence boundaries, we propose a new linguistic modeling approach based on Maximum-entropy-weighted Bi-directional N-grams. Experimental results indicate that the new approach significantly outperforms the usual N-gram algorithm for segmenting both Chinese and English utterances.
Understanding the Effective Receptive Field in Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

We study characteristics of receptive fields of units in deep convolutional networks. The receptive field size is a crucial issue in many visual tasks, as the output must respond to large enough areas in the image to capture information about large objects. We introduce the notion of an effective receptive field size, and show that it both has a Gaussian distribution and only occupies a fraction of the full theoretical receptive field size. We analyze the effective receptive field in several architecture designs, and the effect of sub-sampling, skip connections, dropout and nonlinear activations on it. This leads to suggestions for ways to address its tendency to be too small.
Skeletal muscle mitochondrial protein metabolism and function in ageing and type 2 diabetes

Purpose of reviewMitochondria are the site of oxidative substrate utilization to produce adenosine triphosphate for normal tissue function. Tissue substrate utilization is impaired in ageing and type 2 diabetes. Defects in mitochondrial gene expression, protein synthesis and function occur with ageing in various tissues including skeletal muscle, and are emerging in individuals with type 2 diabetes. The current review will discuss advances in the understanding of skeletal muscle mitochondrial alterations associated with age and type 2 diabetes. Recent findingsInsulin acutely stimulates skeletal muscle mitochondrial protein synthesis and adenosine triphosphate production. These insulin effects are impaired in insulin-resistant patients with type 2 diabetes who also exhibit defective basal muscle mitochondrial function. The age-related reduction in mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate production has been confirmed in vivo in skeletal muscle in humans and rodents. SummaryThe emerging concept that insulin stimulates mitochondrial protein synthesis and function indicates potential novel molecular mechanisms of metabolic defects in type 2 diabetes, particularly in the post-prandial period characterized by acute increments of plasma insulin concentrations. The potential relationship between insulin resistance and basal post-absorptive muscle mitochondrial defects should be further investigated. As ageing is characterized by insulin resistance, the hypothesis that impaired insulin action could contribute to age-related muscle mitochondrial dysfunction, and metabolic alterations should be addressed.
Effects of Prandial Versus Fasting Glycemia on Cardiovascular Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes: The HEART2D trial

OBJECTIVE—Hyperglycemia and Its Effect After Acute Myocardial Infarction on Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (HEART2D) is a multinational, randomized, controlled trial designed to compare the effects of prandial versus fasting glycemic control on risk for cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Patients (type 2 diabetes, aged 30–75 years) were randomly assigned within 21 days after AMI to the 1) prandial strategy (PRANDIAL) (three premeal doses of insulin lispro targeting 2-h postprandial blood glucose <7.5 mmol/l) or the 2) basal strategy (BASAL) (NPH twice daily or insulin glargine once daily targeting fasting/premeal blood glucose <6.7 mmol/l). RESULTS—A total of 1,115 patients were randomly assigned (PRANDIAL n = 557; BASAL n = 558), and the mean patient participation after randomization was 963 days (range 1–1,687 days). The trial was stopped for lack of efficacy. Risks of first combined adjudicated primary cardiovascular events in the PRANDIAL (n = 174, 31.2%) and BASAL (n = 181, 32.4%) groups were similar (hazard ratio 0.98 [95% CI 0.8–1.21]). Mean A1C did not differ between the PRANDIAL and BASAL groups (7.7 ± 0.1 vs. 7.8 ± 0.1%; P = 0.4) during the study. The PRANDIAL group showed a lower daily mean postprandial blood glucose (7.8 vs. 8.6 mmol/l; P < 0.01) and 2-h postprandial blood glucose excursion (0.1 vs. 1.3 mmol/l; P < 0.001) versus the BASAL group. The BASAL group showed lower mean fasting blood glucose (7.0 vs. 8.1 mmol/l; P < 0.001) and similar daily fasting/premeal blood glucose (7.7 vs. 7.3 mmol/l; P = 0.233) versus the PRANDIAL group. CONCLUSIONS—Treating diabetic survivors of AMI with prandial versus basal strategies achieved differences in fasting blood glucose, less-than-expected differences in postprandial blood glucose, similar levels of A1C, and no difference in risk for future cardiovascular event rates.
On low‐complexity adaptive wireless push‐based data broadcasting

This letter addresses a low‐complexity adaptive wireless data broadcasting system. Specifically, it proposes a way for reducing the computational complexity of the estimation process for the item demands, which in turn leads to a lower computational complexity to the broadcast server for selecting a data item to broadcast. We assume no a priori knowledge of the client demands for information items as happens in real environments. Simulation results reveal that the lowering of the computational complexity of the proposed system does not affect the performance offered to the system clients. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Delays in care seeking, diagnosis and treatment among pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Shenzhen, China.

BACKGROUND Continued improvements in early diagnosis and treatment are critical in the management of tuberculosis (TB). OBJECTIVE To assess delays in care seeking, diagnosis and treatment among TB patients in the city of Shenzhen, China, and to explore factors associated with delay. METHODS A total of 4677 TB patients were diagnosed and treated under the TB information management system in 2009 and 2010 in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, China. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyse factors associated with delay among TB patients. RESULTS The median time from onset of cough and sputum to the first medical visit was 10 days (range 0-2530); from the first medical visit to TB diagnosis it was 2 days (range 0-2193); and from TB diagnosis to initiation of anti-tuberculosis treatment it was 0 days (range 0-73). On logistic regression, adjusting for other factors, female sex and older age were significantly associated with higher odds of delay in care seeking, first episode of tuberculosis and smear positivity were significantly associated with lower odds of delay in diagnosis, and smear positivity was significantly associated with higher odds of delay in treatment. CONCLUSION In Bao'an District, Shenzhen, TB is diagnosed and treated in a fairly timely fashion in comparison with reports from other developing countries.
Recovery of consciousness and an injured ascending reticular activating system in a patient who survived cardiac arrest

AbstractWe report on a patient who survived cardiac arrest and showed recovery of consciousness and an injured ARAS at the early stage of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HI- BI) for 3 weeks, which was demonstrated by diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). A 52-year-old male patient who had suffered cardiac arrest caused by acute coronary syndrome was resuscitated immediately by a layman and paramedics for ∼25 minutes. He was then transferred immediately to the emergency room of a local medical center. When starting rehabilitation at 2 weeks after onset, his consciousness was impaired, with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 8 and Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (GRS-R) score of 8. He underwent comprehensive rehabilitative therapy, including drugs for recovery of consciousness. He recovered well and rapidly so that his consciousness had recovered to full scores in terms of GCS:15 and GRS-R:23 at 5 weeks after onset.The left lower dorsal and right lower ventral ARAS had become thicker on 5-week DTT compared with 2-week DTT (Fig. 1B). Regarding the change of neural connectivity of the thalamic ILN, increased neural connectivity to the basal forebrain and prefrontal cortex was observed in both hemispheres on 5-week DTT compared with 2-week DTT.Recovery of an injured ARAS was demonstrated in a patient who survived cardiac arrest and his consciousness showed rapid and good recovery for 3 weeks at the early stage of HI-BI.
THE INTERFACE CONTROL DOMAIN DECOMPOSITION (ICDD) METHOD FOR STOKES-DARCY COUPLING

The ICDD method [15, 16] is here proposed to solve the coupling between Stokes and Darcy equations. According to this approach, the problem is formulated as an optimal control problem whose control variables are the traces of the velocity and the pressure on the internal boundaries of the subdomains that provide an overlapping decomposition of the original computational domain. A theoretical analysis is carried out and the well-posedness of the problem is proved under certain assumptions on both the geometry and the model parameters. An efficient solution algorithm is proposed, and several numerical tests are implemented. Our results show the accuracy of the ICDD method, its computational efficiency and robustness with respect to the different parameters involved (grid-size, polynomial degrees, permeability of the porous domain, thickness of the overlapping region). The ICDD approach turns out to be more versatile and easier to implement than the celebrated model based on the Beavers, Joseph and Saffman coupling conditions.
A novel bacteriocin from Enterococcus faecalis 478 exhibits a potent activity against vancomycin-resistant enterococci

The emergence of multidrug-resistant enterococci (MDRE) and particularly vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) is considered a serious health problem worldwide, causing the need for new antimicrobials. The aim of this study was to discover and characterize bacteriocin against clinical isolates of MDRE and VRE. Over 10,000 bacterial isolates from water, environment and clinical samples were screened. E. faecalis strain 478 isolated from human feces produced the highest antibacterial activity against several MDRE and VRE strains. The optimum condition for bacteriocin production was cultivation in MRS broth at 37°C, pH 5–6 for 16 hours. The bacteriocin-like substance produced from E. faecalis strain EF478 was stable at 60°C for at least 1 hour and retained its antimicrobial activity after storage at -20°C for 1 year, at 4°C for 6 months, and at 25°C for 2 months. A nano-HPLC electrospray ionization multi-stage tandem mass spectrometry (nLC-ESI-MS/MS) analysis showed that the amino acid sequences of the bacteriocin-like substance was similar to serine protease of E. faecalis, gi|488296663 (NCBI database), which has never been reported as a bacteriocin. This study reported a novel bacteriocin with high antibacterial activity against VRE and MDRE.
Multi Agent Estimation of Musical Preferences

This paper focuses on the problem of ”party playlist generation”, where the ultimate goal is to generate a playlist for a group based on the listening histories of a group of individuals. We design a classification system which uses both frequency data and song metadata to accurately gauge song similarity. Comparing randomly generated playlists, a purely frequency based approach, and the combined frequency and metadata approach, we found that the addition of metadata resulted in higher quality playlists.
Elected Versus Appointed Regulators: Theory and Evidence

This paper contrasts direct election with political appointment of regulators. When regulators are appointed, regulatory policy becomes bundled with other policy issues the appointing politicians are responsible for. Since regulatory issues are not salient for most voters, regulatory policy outcomes reflect the preferences of party elites and special interests. Direct election of regulators strengthens the power of voters by ensuring the salience of regulatory issues. Using panel data on regulatory outcomes from U.S. states, we find evidence in favor of the idea that elected states are more pro-consumer in their regulatory policies.
Differential distribution of competence for panplacodal and neural crest induction to non-neural and neural ectoderm

It is still controversial whether cranial placodes and neural crest cells arise from a common precursor at the neural plate border or whether placodes arise from non-neural ectoderm and neural crest from neural ectoderm. Using tissue grafting in embryos of Xenopus laevis, we show here that the competence for induction of neural plate, neural plate border and neural crest markers is confined to neural ectoderm, whereas competence for induction of panplacodal markers is confined to non-neural ectoderm. This differential distribution of competence is established during gastrulation paralleling the dorsal restriction of neural competence. We further show that Dlx3 and GATA2 are required cell-autonomously for panplacodal and epidermal marker expression in the non-neural ectoderm, while ectopic expression of Dlx3 or GATA2 in the neural plate suppresses neural plate, border and crest markers. Overexpression of Dlx3 (but not GATA2) in the neural plate is sufficient to induce different non-neural markers in a signaling-dependent manner, with epidermal markers being induced in the presence, and panplacodal markers in the absence, of BMP signaling. Taken together, these findings demonstrate a non-neural versus neural origin of placodes and neural crest, respectively, strongly implicate Dlx3 in the regulation of non-neural competence, and show that GATA2 contributes to non-neural competence but is not sufficient to promote it ectopically.