Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heterogeneity and microtubule interaction of the CHO1 antigen, a mitosis-specific kinesin-like protein. Analysis of subdomains expressed in insect sf9 cells.

The CHO1 antigen is a mitosis-specific kinesin-like motor located at the interzonal region of the spindle. The human cDNA coding for the antigen contains a domain with sequence similarity to the motor domain of kinesin-like protein (Nislow et al., Nature 359, 543, 1992). Here we cloned cDNAs encoding the CHO1 antigen by immunoscreening of a CHO Uni-Zap expression library, the same species in which the original monoclonal antibody was raised. cDNAs of CHO cells encode a 953 amino acid polypeptide with a calculated molecular mass of 109 kDa. The N-terminal 73% of the antigen was 87% identical to the human clone, whereas the remaining 27% of the coding region showed only 48% homology. Insect Sf9 cells infected with baculovirus containing the full-length insert produced 105 and 95 kDa polypeptides, the same doublet identified as the original antigen in CHO cells. Truncated polypeptides corresponding to the N-terminal motor and C-terminal tail produced a 56 and 54 kDa polypeptide in Sf9 cells, respectively. Full and N-terminal proteins co-sedimented with, and caused bundling of, brain microtubules in vitro, whereas the C-terminal polypeptide did not. Cells expressing the N terminus formed one or more cytoplasmic processes. Immunofluorescence as well as electron microscopic observations revealed the presence of thick bundles of microtubules, which were closely packed, forming a marginal ring just beneath the cell membrane and a core in the processes. The diffusion coefficient and sedimentation coefficient were determined for the native CHO1 antigen by gel filtration and sucrose density gradient centrifugation, respectively. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Supramolecular Polymers

Telechelic oligoand poly(dimethylsiloxanes) provided with two ureidopyrimidinone (Upy) functional groups, have been prepared via a hydrosilylation reaction. The compounds have been characterised in solution by H-NMR spectroscopy and viscometry, and in the solid state by H-NMR and C-NMR, FTIR spectroscopy, and rheology measurements. The measurements show that the Upy groups in 1 and 2 are associated via quadruple hydrogen bonds in a DDAA array, whereas the O-benzylprotected analogues 1-Bn and 2-Bn do not associate, and therefore, behave like low molecular weight compounds. The amorphous bifunctional molecules 1 and 2 behave like entangled polymers, whose mechanical behaviour is characterised by a rubber plateau with a modulus of approximately 10 Pa, and a relatively high activation enthalpy for stress relaxation (ΔH = 127 kJ.mol and 54 kJ.mol for 1 and 2, respectively). The degree of polymerisation of 1 and 2, was estimated to be above 100 for 1 and approximately 20 for 2, and is strongly dependent on the amount of monofunctional impurities that can act as chain stopper. * Part of this work has been published: a) Hirschberg, J.H. K.K. , Beijer, F.H. , van Aert, H.A. , Magusin, P.C. M.M. , Sijbesma, R.P., Meijer, E.W. Macromolecules 1999, 32, 2696. b) Sijbesma, R.P., Beijer, F.H. , Brunsveld, L. , Folmer, B.J.B. , Hirschberg, J.H. K.K. , Lange, R.F. M. , Lowe, J.K. L. , Meijer, E.W. Science 1997, 278, 1601.
Sensitivity of Liver Injury in Heterozygous Sod2 Knockout Mice Treated with Troglitazone or Acetaminophen

Recently, it was reported that the intraperitoneal administration of 30 mg/kg/day troglitazone to heterozygous superoxide dismutase 2 gene knockout (Sod2+/−) mice for twenty-eight days caused liver injury, manifested by increased serum ALT activity and hepatic necrosis. Therefore, we evaluated the reproducibility of troglitazone-induced liver injury in Sod2+/− mice, as well as their validity as an animal model with higher sensitivity to mitochondrial toxicity by single-dose treatment with acetaminophen in Sod2+/− mice. Although we conducted a repeated dose toxicity study in Sod2+/− mice treated orally with 300 mg/kg/day troglitazone for twenty-eight days, no hepatocellular necrosis was observed in our study. On the other hand, six hours and twenty-four hours after an administration of 300 mg/kg acetaminophen, plasma ALT activity was significantly increased in Sod2+/− mice, compared to wild-type mice. In particular, six hours after administration, hepatic centrilobular necrosis was observed only in Sod2+/− mice. These results suggest that Sod2+/− mice are valuable as an animal model with higher sensitivity to mitochondrial toxicity. On the other hand, it was suggested that the mitochondrial damage alone might not be the major cause of the troglitazone-induced idiosyncratic liver injury observed in humans.
Prediction of Human Clearance Based on Animal Data and Molecular Properties

Human clearance is often predicted prior to clinical study from in vivo preclinical data by virtue of interspecies allometric scaling methods. The aims of this study were to determine the important molecular descriptors for the extrapolation of animal data to human clearance and further to build a model to predict human clearance by combination of animal data and the selected molecular descriptors. These important molecular descriptors selected by genetic algorithm (GA) were from five classes: quantum mechanical, shadow indices, E‐state keys, molecular properties, and molecular property counts. Although the data set contained many outliers determined by the conventional Mahmood method, the variation of most outliers was reduced significantly by our final support vector machine (SVM) model. The values of cross‐validated correlation coefficient and root‐mean‐squared error (RMSE) for leave‐one‐out cross‐validation (LOOCV) of the final SVM model were 0.783 and 0.305, respectively. Meanwhile, the reliability and consistency of the final model were also validated by an external test set. In conclusion, the SVM model based on the molecular descriptors selected by GA and animal data achieved better prediction performance than the Mahmood method. This approach can be applied as an improved interspecies allometric scaling method in drug research and development.
Examining hand dominance using dynamometric grip strength testing as evidence for overwork weakness in Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review with a meta-analysis of studies was carried out to evaluate the potential of overwork weakness on the basis of grip strength of dominant and nondominant hands in individuals with Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT). Numerous electronic databases were searched from the earliest records to February 2016. Studies of any design including participants older than 18 years of age with a confirmed diagnosis of CMT that measured grip strength of both hands using dynamometric testing were eligible for inclusion. Of 12 593 articles identified following removal of duplicates, five articles fulfilled the criteria. A total of 166 participants, mostly with CMT1 or CMT2, were described from the studies included. Hand and finger pinch grip strength for the dominant compared with the nondominant hand was not statistically different. There is no definitive evidence that preferential use of the dominant hand in CMT impairs function relative to the nondominant hand. Thus, robust exercise trials of progressive resistance training are needed to understand the extent of adaptations possible and provide evidence of the safety of such regimens.
Climate change and farmers’ adaptive capacity to strategic innovations: The case of northern Ghana

Northern Ghana is noted for perennial low and varying agricultural production and this is manifest by persistent vulnerability of inhabitants (mostly farmers) to food insecurity. The low agricultural production has been linked to effects of climate change. New technologies and cultivation practices aimed at enabling farmers to maximise their production to reduce risks associated with changes in climatic conditions in agriculture have been introduced in Northern Ghana. The nagging question is ‘“what influences the adaptive capacities of farmers to innovations introduced to them with the advent of climate variability’? This study has therefore been motivated by the interest in finding the determinants of adaptive capacity of farmers to various innovations targeted at adaptation to climate change and variability. The influence of education on the adaptive capacity of farmers to dugout construction and improvement suggest education will only make a difference for those with low adaptive capacity. This result, which also holds for the innovation on organic matter and composting, suggests that there is a threshold below which education or access to financial services exerts a positive influence on a farmer’s adaptive capacity. Technology appears to widen the gap between the different adaptive capacity categories of farm households.
Fifty Years of Fiscal Planning and Implementation in the Netherlands

Using real-time data from the annual budgets over the period 1958–2009, we explore budgetary planning and implementation in the Netherlands. Three fiscal policy regimes are distinguished. Our key findings are the following. First, plans are on average unbiased, although they are overoptimistic during earlier parts of our sample and overly pessimistic during the later parts of our sample, when revenues are under-projected. Second, general economic conditions and the state of the public finances are important determinants of both plans and their implementation. Third, this is also the case for political and institutional factors. Expenditure overruns are partly related to political factors, whereas cautious revenue forecasts relate to the institutional setting. Fourth, under the most recent regime of “trend-based budgeting” implementation was strongest relative to planning. In fact, this regime may contain some elements that are useful for designing national fiscal arrangements elsewhere.
Shedding of microparticles by myofibroblasts as mediator of cellular cross‐talk during normal wound healing

Interactions between cells are a crucial mechanism to correctly heal a wounded tissue. Myofibroblasts have a central role during healing but their means to communicate with other cells is unknown. Microparticles (MP) have demonstrated a potential role as mediators of cellular interactions during various diseases. We have analyzed the production of MP by normal (Wmyo) and pathological (hypertrophic scar, Hmyo) myofibroblasts and human dermal fibroblasts (Fb) when treated with serum or plasma as examples of body fluids. We have shown that the presence of these body fluids induced a very significant increase in MP production by Wmyo while no MP production was denoted for Hmyo and Fb. These effects were at least due to thermally sensitive protein(s) with a molecular mass >30 kDa. Furthermore, the increase in MP production was not linked to an increase in apoptotic Wmyo. MP characterization showed that VEGF and FGF2 were present in MP and that endothelial and (myo)fibroblast cell growth can be stimulated by MP treatment. We postulated that MP production by myofibroblasts could modulate mesenchymal cell growth and angiogenesis during normal healing. J. Cell. Physiol. 225: 734–740, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Recurrence of Synostosis following Surgical Repair of Craniosynostosis

Background: The incidence of resynostosis after surgical release of synostotic suture(s) is not well reported. The authors examined cases of nonsyndromic and syndromic craniosynostosis treated with surgical repair and established the rate of reoperation for synostosis. Methods: Charts were retrieved from 119 consecutive patients treated for craniosynostosis: 62 percent were boys, and 11 percent were treated for craniofacial dysostosis (Apert syndrome, n = 2; Crouzon syndrome, n = 4; Saethre-Chotzen syndrome, n = 5; and other, n = 2). Results: Eight patients (6.7 percent) underwent surgery for resynostosis [nonsyndromic, six of 106 (5.7 percent); syndromic, two of 13 (15.4 percent)]. Seventy-nine patients (66.4 percent) underwent primary surgery before 1 year of age. Analysis by age at primary operation yielded significantly lower resynostosis rates (p < 0.02) when patients younger than 1 year [two of 79 resynostosis cases (2.5 percent)] were compared with those older than 1 year [six of 40 resynostosis cases (15 percent)]. Further stratifications of age at initial operation did not yield significance for resynostosis. Four of eight patients who resynostosed had raised intracranial pressure, as indicated by lumbar puncture following the primary operation. A trend of increasing mean length of hospital stay, estimated blood loss, and operative time in the patients who eventually resynostosed was observed (data not significant). Conclusions: Resynostosis rates were higher in syndromic than in nonsyndromic children for whom a single suture was involved. Analysis of age at primary operation showed an increase in resynostosis when the primary operation occurred after age 1 year. Evidence of increased intracranial pressure following primary surgery may suggest recurrence.
Effects of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) on Secondary School Students' Performance in Biology.

This study investigated the effects of computer assisted instruction (CAI) on secondary school students’ performance in biology. Also, the influence of gender on the performance of students exposed to CAI in individualised or cooperative learning settings package was examined. The research was a quasi experimental involving a 3 x 2 factorial design. The sample for the study comprised 120 first year senior secondary school students (SSS I) sampled from three private secondary schools, in Oyo State, Nigeria. The students’ pre-test and post test scores were subjected to Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings of the study showed that the performance of students exposed to CAI either individually or cooperatively were better than their counterparts exposed to the conventional classroom instruction. However, no significant difference existed in the performance of male and female students exposed to CAI in either individual or cooperative settings. Based on the research findings recommendations were made on the need to develop relevant CAI packages for teaching biology in Nigerian secondary schools.
Evaluation of a multiscale color model for visual difference prediction

How different are two images when viewed by a human observer? There is a class of computational models which attempt to predict perceived differences between subtly different images. These are derived from theoretical considerations of human vision and are mostly validated from psychophysical experiments on stimuli, such as sinusoidal gratings. We are developing a model of visual difference prediction, based on multiscale analysis of local contrast, to be tested with psychophysical discrimination experiments on natural-scene stimuli. Here, we extend our model to account for differences in the chromatic domain by modeling differences in the luminance domain and in two opponent chromatic domains. We describe psychophysical measurements of objective (discrimination thresholds) and subjective (magnitude estimations) perceptual differences between visual stimuli derived from colored photographs of natural scenes. We use one set of psychophysical data to determine the best parameters for the model and then determine the extent to which the model generalizes to other experimental data. In particular, we show that the cues from different spatial scales and from the separate luminance and chromatic channels contribute roughly equally to discrimination and that these several cues are combined in a relatively straightforward manner. In general, the model provides good predictions of both threshold and suprathreshold image differences arising from a wide variety of geometrical and optical manipulations. This implies that models of this class can be generally useful in specifying how different two similar images will look to human observers.
Better Nights/Better Days-Distance Intervention for Insomnia in School-Aged Children With/Without ADHD: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE Better Nights/Better Days, a distance intervention for insomnia in school-aged children (with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]), was evaluated to determine its effectiveness on children's sleep and psychosocial functioning. METHODS A single center, parallel group design randomized controlled trial (stratified on ADHD diagnosis) was conducted. Parents were randomized to intervention (n = 31) or waitlist control (n = 30), and completed questionnaires administered over the phone at baseline, postintervention (2 months), and follow-up (6 months). Actigraphy was also collected. The intervention consisted of a five-session manual and weekly telephone coach support. RESULTS The intervention group demonstrated a significant reduction in sleep problems and improved psychosocial functioning at postintervention and follow-up. Actigraphy results indicated improved sleep onset, but not sleep duration. Children with and without ADHD responded in a similar manner to this intervention. Parents provided high satisfaction ratings. CONCLUSIONS This intervention holds promise as an accessible, sustainable, and effective program to address insomnia in school-aged children.
Effect of Samarium Oxide on Structural and Optical Properties of Zinc Silicate Glass Ceramics from Waste Material

This work indicates the synthesis of samarium doped zinc silicate (willemite) glass ceramics with different weight concentrations. Solid-state reaction technique was used to make up the samples, with waste rice husks as silicate source. The measurement of X-ray diffraction revealed sharp and broad diffraction peaks. Besides, the Field emission scanning electron microscope exhibited the poly grains morphology of the crystalline samples. Consequently, samarium strips were growing in size as the weight percent of dopant was increased. While Fourier transforms infrared spectra, showed slight variation peaks with diverse dopant concentrations. Then the energy band gaps of samarium doped willemite glass ceramics were reduced with the increment of samarium dopant concentrations. The photoluminescence measurement exhibited the red emission which agreed to the 4G5/2 → 6H11/6 (646.71 nm) under the blue excitation.
100-kHz rate Rayleigh Imaging for Combustion and Flow Diagnostics

Two-dimensional (2D) Rayleigh scattering (RS) imaging at an ultrahigh repetition rate of 100 kHz is demonstrated in non-reacting and reacting flows employing a high-energy burst-mode laser system. Image sequences of flow mixture fraction were directly derived from high-speed RS images. Additionally, a 2D instantaneous flow velocity field at 100 kHz was obtained through optical-flow-based analysis of the RS images. The technique was also applied to study turbulent flames having a near-constant Rayleigh cross section. The demonstrated high-speed RS technique in conjunction with optical-flow-based analysis provides non-intrusive, simultaneous measurements of the flow mixing and velocity field, extending the measurement capability of the RS technique to high-speed non-reacting and reacting flows.
Bcl‐2 down‐regulation by small interfering RNA induces Beclin1‐dependent autophagy in human SGC‐7901 cells

While Bcl‐2 protein is involved in the regulation of apoptosis, recent research showed that Beclin1, described as the essential autophagy effector and haploinsufficient tumor suppressor, was originally isolated as a Bcl‐2 interacting protein. Beclin1 interacts with Bcl‐2 through a BH3 domain; nevertheless, the function of the anti‐apoptotic gene, Bcl‐2, in autophagy is not well understood. We explored the role of Bcl‐2 in autophagy in human SGC‐7901 cells in which Bcl‐2 is overexpressed. Knockdown of Bcl‐2 by small interfering RNA in human SGC‐7901 cells downregulated Bcl‐2 protein levels ∼82% and induced autophagy. Beclin1 protein, the first identified autophagy gene product, was induced by as much as 58%. Transmission electron microscopy and DNA fragmentation assay showed that autophagy was enhanced, but not apoptosis, in Bcl‐2 siRNA treated cells. The results provide evidence that knockout the anti‐apoptotic gene Bcl‐2 induces autophagy in SGC‐7901 cells and Bcl‐2 specific siRNA may be used as a potential therapeutic strategy in gastric cancer cells that overexpress Bcl‐2.
Uncontrolled persistent allergic asthma in practice: eXpeRience registry baseline characteristics

Abstract Background: Medical registries can be used to assess and monitor the effectiveness and safety of approved therapy, and provide insights into how quality of care can be optimized. Methods: The post-marketing, non-interventional, observational registry (eXpeRience) aims to collect data on the treatment effectiveness and safety of omalizumab in ‘real-world’ practice. The baseline characteristics of patients with uncontrolled allergic asthma receiving omalizumab therapy and included in the first interim analysis of this observational registry are reported. Results: A total of 294 patients were included in the first interim analysis. Of these patients, 271 (92.2%) were active in the registry at the time of reporting. At baseline, the mean duration of allergic asthma was approximately 19 years, with over 87% of patients testing positive for a perennial allergen. Mean % predicted FEV1 and serum total IgE levels were 62.4% and 316.7 IU/mL, respectively. Asthma was uncontrolled for approximately 62% of patients, while around 23% were partly controlled. The majority of patients were being treated with multiple asthma controller medications, including inhaled-corticosteroids, long-acting β2-agonists and leukotriene receptor antagonists, and 28% of patients were also receiving maintenance oral corticosteroids. Concomitant diseases were present in many patients, the most common being perennial allergic rhinitis (42.5%). Conclusions: Demographic and disease characteristics highlight the unmet clinical need in patients with uncontrolled allergic asthma. Future analyses from this study will further determine the real-life effectiveness and safety of omalizumab.