Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Requirement for acidic amino acid residues immediately N‐terminal to the conserved domain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae TFIID.

TFIID binds to TATA boxes and initiates the assembly of general transcription factors and pol II on promoters. TFIID proteins from various species consist of a highly conserved carboxy terminal domain and very divergent amino terminal domains. We investigated the function of the non‐conserved amino terminal domain (residues 1–60) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae TFIID (YIID, 240 residues) by testing the ability of a series of YIID amino terminal deletion mutants to complement a YIID deficient yeast strain. Mutants with deletions up to amino acid 48 restored the YIID deficient yeast strain to an apparently wild type phenotype. However, deletion up to position 57 or 60 produced yeast strains which formed extremely small colonies. Moreover, overexpression of YIID delta 2–57 or YIID delta 3–60 protein in the presence of wild type YIID resulted in a dominant‐negative inhibition of growth. No difference between the basal transcriptional activity of wild type YIID and these amino terminal deletion mutants was observed in vitro. However, transcriptional activation in vivo of promoter‐lacZ fusions showed that the YIID delta 2–57 deletion affects the ability of certain promoters (CUP1 and an HSP UAS‐CYC1 promoter hybrid promoter) to respond to upstream factor stimulation. At least one inducible promoter, PHO5, was not affected by this deletion. The defect produced by YIID delta 2–57 was due to the deletion of several acidic residues present between residues 48 and 57. The results show that the conserved carboxy terminal domain of YIID is sufficient for cell viability. However, an acidic region just amino terminal to the conserved domain is required for normal growth and transcription control in most yeast strains.
Daily urinary excretion of bisphenol A

ObjectivesConcerns over dietary exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disruptor, have been raised because BPA is contained in resins and plastics commonly used for the preservation of food and beverages. The purpose of the present study was to assess daily intake levels of BPA in a group of male subjects by measuring total urinary BPA (free BPA plus BPA released by treatment with β-glucuronidase), as well as determining intra-individual variation in BPA excretion.MethodsTwenty-four-hour urine was collected from 5 subjects for 5 consecutive days for the evaluation of between-day variation in urinary BPA excretion and from 36 male subjects for the estimation of the level of daily BPA intake. BPA in the urine samples was measured by GC/MS/MS following enzymatic hydrolysis of BPA glucuronate, solid phase extraction, and derivatization.ResultsA large between-day variation was found over 5 days for the daily excretion of urinary BPA in the 5 subjects. The daily excretion of urinary BPA was distributed log-normally in the 36 male subjects, with the median value being 1.2 μg/day (range: <0.21–14 μg/day), which was far below the Tolerable Daily Intake (0.01 mg/kg bw) recommended by a scientific committee in the European Commission in 2002. However, the maximum estimated intake per body weight (0.2 μg/kg/day) was only one order of magnitude lower than the reported lowest level for reproductive/behavioral effects in pregnant mice (2 μg/kg/day). ConclusionsMeasuring urinary BPA in urine is a suitable approach for estimating short-term BPA intake levels in individuals and/or estimating the average exposure level of populations. Urine analyses will be increasingly important in the human health risk assessment of BPA.
Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emission Enhancement in Children with Reduced Speech-in-Noise Intelligibility

Reduced speech-in-noise intelligibility is one of the main difficulties experienced by children with auditory processing disorder (APD). Previous studies have established a relationship between the function of the medial olivocochlear system (MOCS) and reduced inhibition of otoacoustic emissions (OAE) in children with APD. This study measured spontaneous OAE (SOAE) in 27 children with reduced speech-in-noise intelligibility, and those of a control group matched by gender and age. A significantly higher prevalence of SOAE was found: 85% of the study group presented SOAE, 44% in the control group. An abnormally functioning MOCS with reduced inhibition could lead to an increase in SOAE. Identifying a higher prevalence and number of SOAE may be a helpful objective mean to include in an APD diagnosis test battery.
New pharmacological strategies for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis

The treatment of pulmonary fibrosis continues to pose major difficulties. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the most prevalent chronic fibrosing lung disease, is a devastating condition that carries a prognosis worse than that of many cancers. Abnormalities in multiple pathways involved in wound healing and inflammation lead to the development of this condition. High doses of corticosteroids are now contraindicated in IPF, although they have a role in other fibrosing lung diseases. More effective treatments are urgently required and a number of novel candidate therapies have been put forward, based on animal and in vitro work. As in other complex disorders, it is likely that combinations of agents, rather than single treatments, will be needed. The principle of combination therapy was recently endorsed by the guidelines of the British Thoracic Society, which make a weak recommendation for a combination of prednisolone, azathioprine and N-acetylcysteine. However, enrolment of patients into trials of new therapies is considered to be ‘best current practice’ as this offers sufferers with IPF the chance to receive new agents that may be more effective than current treatments. In pulmonary fibrotic disorders other than IPF, anti-inflammatory therapy is broadly appropriate and benefits most patients, but a clear treatment strategy is essential. The art of management is to distinguish accurately between inherently stable fibrotic disease (with treatment not required), progressive predominantly fibrotic disease (with low-dose long-term treatment warranted to retard progression) and the presence of major associated inflammation (justifying initial high-dose treatment).
The Effect of Financial Statement Classification of Hybrid Financial Instruments on Financial Analysts' Stock Price Judgments

This paper investigates whether the balance sheet classification of financial instruments that include attributes of both debt and equity (i.e., hybrid financial instruments) affects the stock price judgments of buy-side financial analysts. Financial economics research documents that, on average, firms announcing an offering of additional common equity securities experience a decline in the market value of their outstanding common stock. In contrast, firms financing with straight debt generally do not experience a decline in common stock market value (see Smith [1986] for a summary). Psychology research suggests that, when making
Could alterations in maternal plasma visfatin concentration participate in the phenotype definition of preeclampsia and SGA?

Objective. Women with preeclampsia and those who delivered a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) neonate share several mechanisms of disease, including chronic uteroplacental ischemia and failure of physiologic transformation of the spiral arteries. However, the clinical manifestation of these obstetrical syndromes is remarkably different. It has been proposed that an altered maternal metabolic state, as well as a unique circulating cytokines milieu, predispose women to develop either preeclampsia or SGA. Compelling evidence suggests that adipose tissue orchestrates both metabolic pathways and immunological responses via the production of adipokines. Visfatin is a novel adipocytokine with metabolic and immunomodulating properties. The objective of this study was to determine whether preeclampsia and SGA are associated with alterations in maternal circulating visfatin concentrations. Methods. This cross-sectional study included pregnant women in the following groups: (1) normal pregnancy (n = 158); (2) patients with preeclampsia (n = 43) of which 32 had an AGA and 11 had an SGA neonate; (3) patients without preeclampsia who delivered an SGA neonate (n = 55). Maternal plasma visfatin concentrations were measured by ELISA. Nonparametric tests and multiple linear regression analysis were used. Results. (1) Women who delivered an SGA neonate had a higher median maternal plasma visfatin concentration than those with a normal pregnancy (20.0 ng/ml, interquartile range: 17.2–24.6 vs. 15.2 ng/ml, 12.1–19.2, respectively; P < 0.001) and than those with preeclampsia (14.5 ng/ml, 12.5–18.7; P < 0.001); (2) the median maternal plasma visfatin concentration did not differ significantly between patients with preeclampsia and those with a normal pregnancy (P = 0.8); (3) among patients with preeclampsia, there was no significant difference in the median maternal plasma visfatin concentration between those with or without an SGA neonate (P = 0.5); (4) in a linear regression model, delivery of an SGA neonate and pregestational body mass index were independently associated with increased visfatin concentration after adjustment for confounding factors (maternal age, smoking, gestational age at blood collection and the presence of preeclampsia or SGA). Conclusion. (1) Patients with SGA, but not those with preeclampsia, had a higher maternal plasma visfatin concentration than those with a normal pregnancy; (2) this finding suggests differential involvement of visfatin in SGA and preeclampsia; (3) we propose that changes in circulating maternal visfatin concentration may be implicated in the phenotypic definitions and distinction of preeclampsia and SGA.
Clustering Trajectories by Relevant Parts for Air Traffic Analysis

Clustering of trajectories of moving objects by similarity is an important technique in movement analysis. Existing distance functions assess the similarity between trajectories based on properties of the trajectory points or segments. The properties may include the spatial positions, times, and thematic attributes. There may be a need to focus the analysis on certain parts of trajectories, i.e., points and segments that have particular properties. According to the analysis focus, the analyst may need to cluster trajectories by similarity of their relevant parts only. Throughout the analysis process, the focus may change, and different parts of trajectories may become relevant. We propose an analytical workflow in which interactive filtering tools are used to attach relevance flags to elements of trajectories, clustering is done using a distance function that ignores irrelevant elements, and the resulting clusters are summarized for further analysis. We demonstrate how this workflow can be useful for different analysis tasks in three case studies with real data from the domain of air traffic. We propose a suite of generic techniques and visualization guidelines to support movement data analysis by means of relevance-aware trajectory clustering.
Anatomic consistencies across epilepsies: a stereotactic-EEG informed high-resolution structural connectivity study

See Bernasconi (doi:10.1093/brain/awx229) for a scientific commentary on this article. Drug-resistant localization-related epilepsies are now recognized as network diseases. However, the exact relationship between the organization of the epileptogenic network and brain anatomy overall remains incompletely understood. To better understand this relationship, we studied structural connectivity obtained from diffusion weighted imaging in patients with epilepsy using both stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG)-determined epileptic brain regions and whole-brain analysis. High resolution structural connectivity analysis was applied in 15 patients with drug-resistant localization-related epilepsies and 36 healthy control subjects to study structural connectivity changes in epilepsy. Two different methods of structural connectivity analysis were carried out using diffusion weighted imaging, one focusing on the relationship between epileptic regions determined by SEEG investigations and one blinded to epileptic regions looking at whole-brain connectivity. First, we performed zone-based analysis comparing structural connectivity findings in patients and controls within and between SEEG-defined zones of interest. Next, we performed whole-brain structural connectivity analysis in all subjects and compared findings to the same SEEG-defined zones of interest. Finally, structural connectivity findings were correlated against clinical features. Zone-based analysis revealed no significant decreased structural connectivity within nodes of the epilepsy network at the group level, but did demonstrate significant structural connectivity differences between nodes of the epileptogenic network (regions involved in seizures generation and propagation) and the remaining of the brain in patients compared to controls. Whole-brain analyses showed a total of 133 clusters of significantly decreased structural connectivity across all patients. One cluster of significantly increased structural connectivity was identified in a single patient. Clusters of decreased structural connectivity showed topographical preference for both the salience and default mode networks despite clinical heterogeneity within our patient sample. Correlation analysis did not reveal any significant findings regarding either the effect of age at disease onset, disease duration or post-surgical outcome on structural connectivity. Taken together, this work demonstrates that structural connectivity disintegration targets distributed functional networks while sparing the epilepsy network.
Exposure to CO2 influences metabolism, calcification and gene expression of the thecosome pteropod Limacina retroversa

ABSTRACT Thecosomatous pteropods, a group of aragonite shell-bearing zooplankton, are becoming an important sentinel organism for understanding the influence of ocean acidification on pelagic organisms. These animals show vulnerability to changing carbonate chemistry conditions, are geographically widespread, and are both biogeochemically and trophically important. The objective of this study was to determine how increasing duration and severity of CO2 treatment influence the physiology of the thecosome Limacina retroversa, integrating both gene expression and organism-level (respiration and calcification) metrics. We exposed pteropods to over-saturated, near-saturated or under-saturated conditions and sampled individuals at 1, 3, 7, 14 and 21 days of exposure to test for the effect of duration. We found that calcification was affected by borderline and under-saturated conditions by week two, while respiration appeared to be more strongly influenced by an interaction between severity and duration of exposure, showing complex changes by one week of exposure. The organismal metrics were corroborated by specific gene expression responses, with increased expression of biomineralization-associated genes in the medium and high treatments throughout and complex changes in metabolic genes corresponding to both captivity and CO2 treatment. Genes associated with other physiological processes such as lipid metabolism, neural function and ion pumping had complex responses, influenced by both duration and severity. Beyond these responses, our findings detail the captivity effects for these pelagic organisms, providing information to contextualize the conclusions of previous studies, and emphasizing a need for better culturing protocols. Summary: Severity and duration of CO2 exposure influence calcification and respiration differentially in Limacina retroversa, as shown by organismal and gene expression responses, while captivity interactively influences respiration and gene expression.
Dideoxynucleoside analogues should be used cautiously in patients with hepatic steatosis.

Steatosis is frequently identified when elevated transaminases are noted incidentally during routine laboratory evaluation. Unenhanced hepatic CT is the optimal imaging study for the detection of hepatic steatosis, although it can also be detected by ultrasonography and MRI [6]. However, liver biopsy continues to play a central role in the evaluation of steatosis, because of its ability to detect inflammation, fibrosis, and other associated hepatocyte changes indicative of advanced liver disease. Hepatic steatosis is found in 40% to 180% of HCV-infected patients [7‐9]. In HCV infection, both viral and metabolic factors can lead to steatosis. In patients infected with HCV genotype 3, steatosis is predominantly virus mediated. In these patients, the prevalence and severity of steatosis are elevated (compared with patients who are infected with other HCV genotypes) and correlate with serum and liver HCV RNA levels, and steatosis largely resolves in patients who are successfully treated [10‐13]. In patients with HCV genotype 1 infection, host factors, such as excessive alcohol intake, age, central obesity, and hyperlipidemia, are predominant causes of hepatic steatosis. In these patients, steatosis is increasingly recognized as a component of the metabolic syndrome, a condition generally associated with insulin resistance. Hepatic steatosis is also common in HIV-infected patients
Prevalence of neck pain in migraine and tension-type headache: A population study

Background We assessed the prevalence of neck pain in the population in relation to headache. Methods In a cross-sectional study, a total of 797 individuals completed a headache interview and provided self-reported data on neck pain. We identified migraine, TTH or both migraine and TTH (M+TTH) groups. Pericranial tenderness was recorded in 496 individuals. A total tenderness score (TTS) was calculated as the sum of local scores with a maximum score of 48. Results The one-year prevalence of neck pain was 68.4% and higher in those with vs. without primary headache (85.7% vs. 56.7%; adjusted OR 3.0, 95% CI 2.0–4.4, p < 0.001). Adjusting for age, gender, education and poor self-rated health, in comparison with those without headaches, the prevalence of neck pain (56.7%) was significantly higher in those with M+TTH (89.3%), pure TTH (88.4%) and pure migraine (76.2%) (p < 0.05 for all three group comparisons). Individuals with neck pain had higher TTS than individuals without neck pain (15.1 ± 10.5 vs. 8.4 ± 8.0, p < 0.001). Conclusions Neck pain is highly prevalent in the general population and even more prevalent in individuals with primary headaches. Prevalence is highest in coexistent M+TTH, followed by pure TTH and migraine. Myofascial tenderness is significantly increased in individuals with neck pain.
Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli translocate Tir and form an intimin-Tir intimate attachment to red blood cell membranes.

Type III secretion allows bacteria to inject effector proteins into host cells. In enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) the type III secreted protein, Tir, is translocated to the host-cell plasma membrane where it functions as a receptor for the bacterial adhesin intimin, leading to intimate bacterial attachment and "attaching and effacing" (A/E) lesion formation. To study EPEC type III secretion the interaction of EPEC with monolayers of red blood cells (RBCs) has been exploited and in a recent study [Shaw, R. K. , Daniell, S. , Ebel, F. , Frankel, G. & Knutton, S. (2001 ). Cell Microbiol 3, 213-222] it was shown that EPEC induced haemolysis of RBCs and translocation of EspD, a putative pore-forming type III secreted protein in the RBC membrane. Here it is demonstrated that EPEC are able to translocate and correctly insert Tir into the RBC membrane and produce an intimin-Tir intimate bacterial attachment, identical to that seen in A/E lesions. Following translocation Tir did not undergo any change in apparent molecular mass or become tyrosine-phosphorylated and there was no focusing of RBC cytoskeletal actin beneath intimately adherent bacteria, and no pedestal formation. This study, employing an RBC model of infection, has demonstrated that Tir translocation can be separated from host-cell-mediated Tir modifications; the data show that the EPEC type III protein translocation apparatus is sufficient to deliver and correctly insert Tir into host-cell membranes independent of eukaryotic cell functions.
Adolescents' image of their suicide attempt.

OBJECTIVE To inventory the reasons adolescents give for their perceptions of events, thoughts, and feelings in the last days and hours before and during the attempt. METHOD A semistructured interview also included the administration of an instrument that contained the formulation of reasons. RESULTS The most frequently mentioned reasons for attempting suicide concerned the cessation of (an unbearable) consciousness. The motivation most frequently named for "crossing the bridge" between thinking about and attempting suicide involved an escalation of frustration and tension. CONCLUSIONS Special emphasis should be given to family relationships, relationships with peers and friends, frustration tolerance, and the way in which adolescents handle their problems.
Trust in Employee/Employer Relationships: A Survey of West Michigan Managers

Trust is at the core of all relationships. We spend a lifetime building a trust relationship with our friends and families, but we spend thirty minutes in an orientation session with our new employees and expect to have a successful and productive employee. “For employees to trust the management, they must know that the management shares the basic goals in the long run…and each will behave in ways that are not harmful to the other. ” (Ouchi — 1982). It has been reported that more than 78% of American workers are suspicious of management and develop an “as-against-them” syndrome that interferes with their performance. (Wall Street, February 1987).
Depression in Finland: a computer assisted telephone interview study

We examined the prevalence of depressive disorders and associated factors in the general population in Finland using the Computer‐Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) method. A total of 2293 (71%) of 3250 individuals randomly drawn from the population registry and representing the adult population of Finland in the age group 25‐79 years were interviewed by telephone in autumn 1994. The interview included a short form of the University of Michigan version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (UM‐CIDI) generating probability diagnoses of DSM‐111‐R major depressive episode and dysthymia. The age‐adjusted 6‐month prevalence was 4.1% for major depressive episode and 1.7% for current dysthymia; depressive mood during the preceding month was reported in 17% of cases. Major depressive episodes and depressive mood were significantly more prevalent among females than males. In the logistic regression analyses, factors associated with the depressive disorders were found to vary somewhat depending on sex and type of disorder. Only about 50% of those with major depressive episode or dysthymia reported a self‐perceived need for mental health services.