Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of Cu–Mg–Al Mixed Oxide Catalysts in Lignin Depolymerization in Supercritical Ethanol

We investigated the role of Cu–Mg–Al mixed oxides in depolymerization of soda lignin in supercritical ethanol. A series of mixed oxides with varying Cu content and (Cu+Mg)/Al ratio were prepared. The optimum catalyst containing 20 wt % Cu and having a (Cu+Mg)/Al ratio of 4 yielded 36 wt % monomers without formation of char after reaction at 340 °C for 4 h. Comparison with Cu/MgO and Cu/γ-Al2O3 catalysts emphasized the excellent performance of Cu–Mg–Al oxides. These mixed oxides catalyze the reaction between formaldehyde and ethanol, which limits polymerization reactions between phenolic products and formaldehyde. The combination of Cu and basic sites catalyzes the associated Guerbet and esterification reactions. These reactions also protect lignin side-chains (e.g., aldehyde groups). Lewis acid sites of the catalyst, mainly Cu and Al cations, catalyze C- and O-alkylation reactions that protect phenolic products and phenolic moieties in lignin oligomers. Hydrogen produced by dehydrogenation reactions is in.
Mismatch repair, molecular switches, and signal transduction.

The foundation of molecular switches in biology is grounded in translation elongation and cellular signal transduction. In these systems, guanine nucleotidebound proteins (G proteins) produce the ON and OFF signaling states that act as gates for downstream biochemical processes. Recent studies on the human mismatch repair reaction have suggested a similar molecular switch that relies on adenine nucleotide-bound forms (A proteins) to produce an ON and OFF signaling state. In the field of signal transduction, the concept of a molecular switch is elementary whereas the biochemical processes of DNA repair appear foreign. Similarly, the field of DNA repair recognizes the complex machinery required for DNA manipulation events but regards biochemical signaling processes as essential cellular input but outside the genome juggernaut. The concept of a molecular switch as an integral step in mismatch repair should accelerate communication between these two fields toward a resolved and unified mechanism for biological signaling processes.
Effortful retrieval reduces hippocampal activity and impairs incidental encoding

Functional imaging studies frequently report that the hippocampus is engaged by successful episodic memory retrieval. However, considering that concurrent encoding of the background environment occurs during retrieval and influences medial temporal lobe activity, it is plausible that hippocampal encoding functions are reduced with increased attentional engagement during effortful retrieval. Expanding upon evidence that retrieval efforts suppress activity in hippocampal regions implicated in encoding, this study examines the influence of retrieval effort on encoding performance and the interactive effects of encoding and retrieval on hippocampal and neocortical activity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted while subjects performed a word recognition task with incidental picture encoding. Both lower memory strength and increased search duration were associated with encoding failure and reduced hippocampal and default network activity. Activity in the anterior hippocampus tracked encoding, which was more strongly deactivated when incidental encoding was unsuccessful. These findings highlight potential contributions from background encoding processes to hippocampal activations during neuroimaging studies of episodic memory retrieval. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A New Family of Cdc42 Effector Proteins, CEPs, Function in Fibroblast and Epithelial Cell Shape Changes*

Cdc42, a Rho GTPase, regulates the organization of the actin cytoskeleton by its interaction with several distinct families of downstream effector proteins. Here, we report the identification of four new Cdc42-binding proteins that, along with MSE55, constitute a new family of effector proteins. These molecules, designated CEPs, contain three regions of homology, including a Cdc42 binding domain and two unique domains called CI and CII. Experimentally, we have verified that CEP2 and CEP5 bind Cdc42. Expression of CEP2, CEP3, CEP4, and CEP5 in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts induced pseudopodia formation. Fibroblasts coexpressing dominant negative Cdc42 with CEP2 or expressing a Cdc42/Rac interactive binding domain mutant of CEP2 did not induce pseudopodia formation. In primary keratinocytes, CEP2- and CEP5-expressing cells showed reduced F-actin localization at the adherens junctions with an increase in thin stress fibers that extended the length of the cell body. Keratinocytes expressing CEPs also showed an altered vinculin distribution and a loss of E-cadherin from adherens junctions. Similar effects were observed in keratinocytes expressing constitutively active Cdc42, but were not seen with a Cdc42/Rac interactive binding domain mutant of CEP2. These results suggest that CEPs act downstream of Cdc42 to induce actin filament assembly leading to cell shape changes.
Mapping human vulnerability to climate change in the Brazilian Amazon: The construction of a municipal vulnerability index

Vulnerability, understood as the propensity to be adversely affected, has attained importance in the context of climate change by helping to understand what makes populations and territories predisposed to its impacts. Conditions of vulnerability may vary depending on the characteristics of each territory studied—social, environmental, infrastructural, public policies, among others. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate what makes the municipalities of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, vulnerable to climate change in the context of the largest tropical forest in the world, and which regions of the State are the most susceptible. A Municipal Vulnerability Index was developed, which was used to associate current socio-environmental characteristics of municipalities with climate change scenarios in order to identify those that may be most affected by climate change. The results showed that poor adaptive capacity and poverty had the most influence on current vulnerability of the municipalities of Amazonas with the most vulnerable areas being the southern, northern, and eastern regions of the state. When current vulnerability was related to future climate change projections, the most vulnerable areas were the northern, northeastern, extreme southern, and southwestern regions. From a socio-environmental and climatic point of view, these regions should be a priority for public policy efforts to reduce their vulnerability and prepare them to cope with the adverse aspects of climate change.
Maximal mid-expiratory flow detects early lung disease in α1-antitrypsin deficiency

Pathological studies suggest that loss of small airways precedes airflow obstruction and emphysema in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Not all α1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) patients develop COPD, and measures of small airways function might be able to detect those at risk. Maximal mid-expiratory flow (MMEF), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), ratio of FEV1/forced vital capacity (FVC), health status, presence of emphysema (computed tomography (CT) densitometry) and subsequent decline in FEV1 were assessed in 196 AATD patients. FEV1/FVC, FEV1 % predicted and lung densitometry related to MMEF % pred (r2=0.778, p<0.0001; r2=0.787, p<0.0001; r2=0.594, p<0.0001, respectively) in a curvilinear fashion. Patients could be divided into those with normal FEV1/FVC and MMEF (group 1), normal FEV1/FVC and reduced MMEF (group 2) and those with spirometrically defined COPD (group 3). Patients in group 2 had worse health status than group 1 (median total St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) 23.15 (interquartile range (IQR) 7.09–39.63) versus 9.67 (IQR 1.83–22.35); p=0.006) and had a greater subsequent decline in FEV1 (median change in FEV1 −1.09% pred per year (IQR −1.91–0.04% pred per year) versus −0.04% pred per year (IQR −0.67–0.03% pred per year); p=0.007). A reduction in MMEF is an early feature of lung disease in AATD and is associated with impaired health status and a faster decline in FEV1. Mid-expiratory flow indicates early disease, worse health status and predicts decline in AATD patients without COPD http://ow.ly/F6K6308355E
A Novel Mutation of AMHR2 in Two Siblings with Persistent Müllerian Duct Syndrome

Persistent Müllerian Duct syndrome (PMDS) develops due to deficiency of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) or insensitivity of target organs to AMH in individuals with 46,XY karyotype. PMDS is characterized by normal male phenotype of external genitals, associated with persistence of Müllerian structures. This report includes the presentation of a 2.5 year old male patient due to bilateral undescended testis. His karyotype was 46,XY. The increase in testosterone following human chorionic gonadotropin stimulation test was normal. The patient was referred to our clinic after uterine, fallopian tube and vaginal remnants were recognized during the orchiopexy surgery. The family reported that the eight year old elder brother of the patient was operated on for right inguinal hernia and left undescended testis at the age of one year. A right transverse testicular ectopia was found in the elder brother. Both cases had normal AMH levels. AMHR2 gene was analyzed and a homozygous NM_020547. 3:c.233-1G>A mutation was found that was not identified previously. In conclusion, we determined a novel mutation in the AMHR2 gene that was identified for the first time. This presented with different phenotypes in two siblings.
Learning and Transferring IDs Representation in E-commerce

Many machine intelligence techniques are developed in E-commerce and one of the most essential components is the representation of IDs, including user ID, item ID, product ID, store ID, brand ID, category ID etc. The classical encoding based methods (like one-hot encoding) are inefficient in that it suffers sparsity problems due to its high dimension, and it cannot reflect the relationships among IDs, either homogeneous or heterogeneous ones. In this paper, we propose an embedding based framework to learn and transfer the representation of IDs. As the implicit feedbacks of users, a tremendous amount of item ID sequences can be easily collected from the interactive sessions. By jointly using these informative sequences and the structural connections among IDs, all types of IDs can be embedded into one low-dimensional semantic space. Subsequently, the learned representations are utilized and transferred in four scenarios: (i) measuring the similarity between items, (ii) transferring from seen items to unseen items, (iii) transferring across different domains, (iv) transferring across different tasks. We deploy and evaluate the proposed approach in Hema App and the results validate its effectiveness.
Determination of Odour Interactions of Three-Component Gas Mixtures Using an Electronic Nose

The paper presents an application of an electronic nose prototype comprised of six TGS-type sensors and one PID-type sensor to identify odour interaction phenomena in odorous three-component mixtures. The investigation encompassed eight odorous mixtures—toluene-acetone-triethylamine and formaldehyde-butyric acid-pinene—characterized by different odour intensity and hedonic tone. A principal component regression (PCR) calibration model was used for evaluation of predicted odour intensity and hedonic tone. Correctness of identification of odour interactions in the odorous three-component mixtures was determined based on the results obtained with the electronic nose. The results indicated a level of 75–80% for odour intensity and 57–73% for hedonic tone. The average root mean square error of prediction amounted to 0.03–0.06 for odour intensity determination and 0.07–0.34 for hedonic tone evaluation of the odorous three-component mixtures.
Malignant mesothelioma in body fluids - with special reference to differential diagnosis from metastatic adenocarcinoma

Background : Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a rare malignant neoplasm occurring in pleura, pericardium, and peritoneum. The differential diagnosis between MM and metastatic adenocarcinoma (MA) causes diagnostic, staging, and therapeutic dilemmas. Herein, we investigated characteristic cytologic features of MM. Methods : Cytologic specimens of MM (n=10), MA (n=25), and reactive mesothelial hyperplasia (n=10) were retrieved and reviewed from archival materials in the Department of Pathology, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital from May 2003 to July 2008. Results : MM showed tumor cell clusters and singly scattered malignant tumor cells forming single cell populations with sparse reactive benign mesothelial cells. In contrast, MA showed distinct two cell populations of tumor cell clusters and scattered reactive mesothelial cells. Furthermore, MM frequently exhibited a characteristic long chain-like arrangement (hand-in-hand appearance) and intercellular windows, which were rarely evident in MA. Variable nuclear size, relatively consistent nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio, bior multi-nucleation, and lacy cytoplasmic borders were also frequently observed in MM. Conclusions : Differential diagnosis of MM from MA in body fluids is possible based on meticulous examination of certain cytologic parameters, which could have significant implications in staging and treatment.
Casein Kinase II (CK2) as a Therapeutic Target for Hematological Malignancies.

BACKGROUND Casein kinase II (CK2) is a pro-oncogenic protein, which is emerging as a promising therapeutic target in cancer. Recent studies have revealed an important role for CK2 in tumorigenesis. High levels of CK2 are noted in many malignancies including leukemia. Use of CK2 inhibitors in various malignancies including breast, prostate, and lung cancer are being tested. Although many CK2 inhibitors exist, only a few have emerged as selective inhibitors that are potent and effective. CX-4945 is a selective, orallybioavailable small molecule inhibitor, which has shown encouraging results in pre-clinical models of leukemia. METHODS In this review we will elaborate on the structure and physiological function of the CK2 protein as well as its role in cancer. We will review, in depth, the role of CK2 in leukemia and its mechanisms of tumorigenesis via phosphorylation of the tumor suppressor protein Ikaros. We will discuss both the importance of Ikaros in leukemia suppression and the restoration of Ikaros' tumor suppressor function after CK2 inhibition by CX-4945 (a CK2-specific inhibitor). RESULTS CK2 is an oncogene that is overexpressed in hematological malignancies. In high risk Pre-B ALL, CK2 phosphorylates Ikaros tumor suppressor and promotes leukemogenesis. Inhibition of CK2 using CX4945 restores Ikaros function and leads to anti leukemic effects in vitro and in pre-clinical leukemia models. CONCLUSION CK2 is an attractive target in treatment of various cancers. Currently only a few specific CK2 inhibitors are available. Preclinical studies using CK2 inhibitor, CX4945 in high risk pediatric leukemias have shown promising results and warrants further testing in other types of leukemia.
Is reappraisal always effective in modifying emotional reactions in females? The role of regulatory timing and goals

Numerous studies have explored the effect of cognitive reappraisal before or after emotion‐inducing events. However, only a few studies have examined the influence of regulatory timing on the effectiveness of reappraisal. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of regulatory timing and goals in reappraisal regulation, which would help promote the specific application of cognitive reappraisal in emotion regulation. We hypothesized that decrease reappraisal would be more effective when initiated early rather than late, but increase reappraisal would be more effective when initiated in the emotional high‐activation phase.
TWEAK/Fn14 interaction induces proliferation and migration in human airway smooth muscle cells via activating the NF‐κB pathway

Asthma, an increasingly common chronic disease among children, are characterized by airway remodeling, which is partly attributed to the proliferation and migration of airway smooth muscle cell (ASMC). The purpose of the present study was to investigate potential roles and mechanisms of the tumor necrosis factor‐like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK)/fibroblast growth factor‐inducible molecule 14 (Fn14) axis on cell proliferation and migration in HASMCs. Compared to HASMCs from non‐asthmatic patients, those from asthmatic patients showed elevated expression levels of both Fn14 and TWEAK. Additionally, similar to the response triggered by platelet‐derived growth factor‐BB, stimulation with recombinant TWEAK strongly induced cell proliferation and migration in HASMCs. However, depletion of Fn14 remarkably abrogated the enhancement of TWEAK on the cell proliferation and migration of HASMCs. Furthermore, treatment with TWEAK led to the activation of NF‐κB. This effect was eliminated by silencing Fn14, indicating that TWEAK‐induced NF‐κB signaling was mediated via Fn14. Moreover, the TWEAK/Fn14 interaction promoted cell proliferation and migration. These effects were blocked by NF‐κB inhibitor SN50, which suggest that the TWEAK/Fn14 signaling system partially depends on NF‐κB activity. Collectively, we demonstrated that the TWEAK/Fn14 axis accelerated HASMC cell proliferation and migration by activating the NF‐κB pathway, thereby exacerbating airway remodeling in asthma. Altogether, these findings indicate a novel role for the TWEAK/Fn14/NF‐κB pathway as a potent option for limiting airway remodeling in asthma.
Follow-up of patients with uncontrolled asthma: clinical features of asthma patients according to the level of control achieved (the COAS study)

Our aim was to study the asthma control achieved in patients with uncontrolled asthma who had received appropriate treatment according to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2010 (valid at the time the study was designed), and to analyse the factors associated with a lack of asthma control. This was a multicentre study in routine clinical practice performed in patients with uncontrolled asthma according to GINA 2010. At visit 1, we recorded demographics, asthma characteristics and spirometry. We assessed asthma control using GINA 2010 criteria and the Asthma Control Test (ACT). Treatment was optimised according to GINA 2010. At visit 2, 3 months later, we reassessed spirometry, asthma control and factors associated with failure to achieve control. We recruited 1299 patients with uncontrolled asthma (mean age 46.5±17.3 years, 60.7% women, 25.8% obese). The mean percentage of predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s was 76.4±12.8% and the mean post-bronchodilator increase was 14.9±6.8%. We observed poor agreement between ACT and GINA 2010 when evaluating asthma control (kappa = −0.151). At visit 2, asthma in 71.2% of patients was still not fully controlled. Patients whose asthma remained uncontrolled were older, had a higher body mass index, greater disease severity, longer disease evolution and worse lung function. After treatment optimisation, most patients did not achieve optimal control according to GINA 2010. Risk factors for failure to achieve asthma control were time of disease evolution, severity, age, weight and lung function impairment (excluded in the GINA 2014). Asthma in most patients is not fully controlled despite adjusting their treatment using GINA 2010 strategy criteria http://ow.ly/C73c307fMOZ
S FIXED POINT THEOREMS OF FINITE FAMILY WITH ERRORS FOR ASYMPTOTICALLY QUASI-NONEXPANSIVE MAPPINGS IN CONVEX METRIC SPACES

In this paper, we prove that a multi-step iteration process with errors for a finite family of asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive mappings converges strongly to a common fixed point of the mappings in convex metric spaces. Our results extend and improve the recent result of Kim et al. [9, 10] and many known results.
Expert opinion on "best practices" in the delivery of health care services to immigrants in Denmark.

INTRODUCTION Delivery of health care to immigrants is an emerging field of interest. Immigrants are frequently characterised by health outcomes that are inferior to those of other groups with regard to morbidity and mortality. In addition, health professionals report difficulties associated with the encounter with immigrant patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS A Delphi process with eight Danish experts from the field of immigrant health was performed as part of an EU project. The objective of the Delphi process was to investigate expert opinion on "best practice in the delivery of healthcare to immigrants". Initially, 60 factors were suggested by the experts. Next, these factors were summarised into 32 factors that the experts were invited to rate and, if possible, agree on. RESULTS The top 11 factors identified in the Delphi process were access to interpreters, quality of interpretation, ensuring medication compliance, having sufficient consultation time, coherence of offers, interdisciplinary collaboration, allocation of resources, the role of the practitioner, acknowledgement of the individual patient, education of health professionals and students and access to telephone interpretation to supplement other services. CONCLUSION The Delphi process can be a valuable tool in the investigation of expert opinion and may thereby help to guide future policy directives. In the light of the importance experts placed on access to interpreters and on the quality of the interpretation services offered, it seems as an untenable strategy to introduce as from June 2011 self-payment for interpretation services provided to immigrants who have stayed in the country for more than seven years.
Mobile technology affordance and its social implications: A case of "Rain Classroom"

This paper proposed the affordance approach of material, affective and social dimensions so as to explore the learners’ engagement and disposition to share of using mobile learning technology. The participants in this study were graduate-level engineering students ( N 5 387) from a research university in People’s Republic of China. “Rain Classroom” in this case referred to the newly developed built-in mobile application in China facilitating the didactic practice both synchronously and asynchronously in class. Two surveys were issued to both groups before and after the 14-week long experiment. All the data were input into SPSS 16.0 and examined in descriptive statistics and independent samples t -test. The results showed that the group exposed to Rain Classroom had a positive attitude towards the mobile technology tool. Also, the same test group obtained statistically higher scores than the control group in both learning engagement and their willingness to continue and share the learning experience. The study implies that what the mobile learning technology affords has produced positive impact on teachers, students and institutions in terms of curriculum design, learning activities and policy making towards improving academic quality. Future work could focus on comparing learning effects with different time duration and learning intensity. It might also extend to participants from different educational background.
UNIVERSAL CHARACTERISTICS OF POLYGONAL KNOT PROBABILITIES

There is a striking qualitative similarity among the graphs of the relative probabilities of corresponding knot types across a wide range of random polygon models. In many cases one has theoretical results describing the asymptotic decay of these knot probabilities but, in the finite range, there is little theoretical knowledge and a variety of functional models have been used to fit the observed structures. In this paper we compare a selection of these models and study the extent to which each provides a successful fit for five distinct random knot models. One consequence of this study is that while such models are quite successful in this finite range, they do not provide the theoretically predicted asymptotic structure. A second result is the observed similarity between the global knot probabilities and those arising from small perturbations of three ideal knots.