Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pro-Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Processing Activity Is Tightly Controlled by a Component That Does Not Affect Notch Processing*

The extracellular domain of a heterogeneous group of transmembrane proteins can be proteolytically released from the cell surface, a process known as protein ectodomain shedding. Despite the biomedical importance of several substrates of the shedding system, such as the β-amyloid precursor protein (βAPP), little is known about the regulation of protein ectodomain shedding, and the only protease known to be involved is the metalloprotease disintegrin, tumor necrosis factor-α converting enzyme (TACE). Here, we show that previously described pro-transforming growth factor-α shedding-defective cell mutants (M2 cells), known to be defective in ectodomain shedding of several molecules, that include βAPP, fail to shed the ectodomain of pro-TNF-α. The target of the mutation is a component required for TACE activity, since transfection of TACE into M2 cells has no effect on the shedding of pro-TNF-α and somatic cell fusions between M2 cells and TACE null cells recover the ability to shed pro-TNF-α, pro-transforming growth factor-α, and βAPP. Furthermore, we show that TACE is also necessary for the shedding of βAPP since TACE null cells show defective βAPP shedding. Biochemical evidence shows that the component that controls TACE is different from protein kinase C, the only known activator of protein ectodomain shedding, and that this component does not affect biosynthesis or processing of TACE or other metalloprotease disintegrins. The component mutated in M2 cells is likely to control only a subset of metalloprotease disintegrins involved in regulated ectodomain shedding, since Notch processing, a process known to be dependent on the activity of another metalloprotease disintegrin, Kuzbanian, is normal in M2 cells.
Carbon and Water Budgets in Multiple Wheat-Based Cropping Systems in the Inland Pacific Northwest US: Comparison of CropSyst Simulations with Eddy Covariance Measurements

Accurate carbon and water flux simulations for croplands are greatly dependent on high quality representation of management practices and meteorological conditions, which are key drivers of the surface-atmosphere exchange processes. Fourteen site-years of carbon and water fluxes were simulated using the CropSyst model over four agricultural sites in the inland Pacific Northwest US from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2015. Model performance for field-scale net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) and evapotranspiration (ET) was evaluated by comparing simulations with long-term eddy covariance measurements. The model captured the temporal variations of NEE and ET reasonably well with an overall r of 0.78 and 0.80, and a low RMSE of 1.82 g C m-2 d-1 and 0.84 mm d-1 for NEE and ET, respectively. The model slightly underestimated NEE and ET by 0.51 g C m-2 d-1 and 0.09 mm d-1, respectively. ET simulations showed better agreement with eddy covariance measurements than NEE. The model performed much better for the sites with detailed initial conditions (e.g. SOC content) and management practice information (e.g. tillage type). The CropSyst results showed that the winter wheat fields could be annual net carbon sinks or close to neutral with the net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) ranging from 92 to -17 g C m-2, while the spring crop fields were net carbon sources or neutral with an annual NECB of -327 to -3 g C m-2. Simulations for the paired tillage sites showed that the no-till site resulted in lower CO2 emissions for the crop rotations of winter wheat-spring garbanzo, but had higher carbon loss into the atmosphere for spring canola compared to the conventional tillage site. Water budgets did not differ significantly between the two tillage systems. Winter wheat in the high-rainfall area had higher crop yields and water use efficiency but emitted larger amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere than in the low-rainfall area. Based on model evaluations in this study, CropSyst appears promising as a tool to simulate field-scale carbon and water budgets and assess the effects of different management practices and local meteorological conditions for the wheat-based cropping systems in this region.
Disposition kinetics and bioavailability of piperacillin and cephapirin in mares.

The pharmacokinetics of piperacillin (430 mg/kg.b.wt.) and cephapirin (20 mg/kg.b.wt.) were investigated following a single intravenous and intramuscular injection in normal mares. The serum concentration-time curve following a single intravenous injection of both antibiotics obeyed a two-compartment open model. After intravenous dose, piperacillin and cephapirin were transferred from central to peripheral compartment (k12) with values 0.46 and 0.52 h-1, while their passages from peripheral to central compartment (k21) were equal to 0.56 and 0.49 h-1, respectively. The elimination half-lives [t0.5(beta)] following intravenous injection were 6.94 and 3.82 h for piperacillin and cephapirin, respectively. Piperacillin and cephapirin were cleared after intravenous injection by all clearance processes in the body (CItot.) at rates of 5.52 and 0.67 ml/min., respectively. The absorption half-lives [t0.5(ab)] of piperacillin and cephapirin following a single intramuscular injection were 0.46 and 0.88 h. , respectively. The calculated maximum [Cmax. ] and minimum [Cmin. ] serum concentrations to establish a proper multiple dosage regimen were 52.94, 4.50 micromilligrams (for piperacillin) and 10.18, 2.20 micromilligrams (for cephapirin), respectively. The mean systemic bioavailabilities of piperacillin and cephapirin following a single intramuscular injection were 85.47% and 67.89%, respectively. The in-vitro protein binding percent was 19.23% for piperacillin and 52.62% for cephapirin.
Stability and Recovery for Independence Systems

Two genres of heuristics that are frequently reported to perform much better on "real-world" instances than in the worst case are greedy algorithms and local search algorithms. In this paper, we systematically study these two types of algorithms for the problem of maximizing a monotone submodular set function subject to downward-closed feasibility constraints. We consider perturbation-stable instances, in the sense of Bilu and Linial, and precisely identify the stability threshold beyond which these algorithms are guaranteed to recover the optimal solution. Byproducts of our work include the first definition of perturbation-stability for non-additive objective functions, and a resolution of the worst-case approximation guarantee of local search in p-extendible systems.
Evolution of diabetes medical nutrition therapy

Research supports the importance of medical nutrition therapy in achieving diabetes treatment goals. For persons requiring insulin therapy, the first priority is to integrate an insulin regimen into the patient’s lifestyle. For type 2 diabetes, the priority is to focus on lifestyle strategies (that is, nutrition and exercise) that will improve metabolic outcomes at diagnosis and as the disease progresses. Patients with diabetes need nutrition recommendations that are supported by scientific evidence and that can be easily understood and translated into everyday life. To achieve positive outcomes, a coordinated team effort that provides continued education and support is essential.
Psychiatric Diagnoses of Patients Visiting a Sleep Disorder Clinic Due to Dyssomnias

This study analyzed the demographic characteristics and psychiatric diagnoses of 90 consecutive patients who visited a sleep disorder clinic in Taiwan with complaints of insomnia (difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or nonrestorative sleep) or hypersomnia (excessive sleepiness as evidenced by either prolonged sleep episodes or daytime sleep episodes that occur almost daily). All subjects were interviewed using a sleep disturbance questionnaire and the structured Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview supplemented by the DSM-IV criteria for psychiatric diagnoses. Among 90 patients, 79 were classified as having insomnia and 11 had hypersomnia. 53 patients also had psychiatric diagnoses other than sleep disorders. Patients with insomnia had a significantly higher rate of comorbidities with other psychiatric diagnoses (65.8%) than did subjects with hypersomnia (9.1%). These results emphasize the importance of psychiatric evaluation of patients with complaints of sleep disturbance.
Divergent roles of CD44 and carcinoembryonic antigen in colon cancer metastasis

After separating from a primary tumor, metastasizing cells enter the circulatory system and interact with host cells before lodging in secondary organs. Previous studies have implicated the surface glycoproteins CD44 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in adhesion, migration, and invasion, suggesting that they may influence metastatic progression. To elucidate the role of these multifunctional molecules while avoiding the potential drawbacks of ectopic expression or monoclonal antibody treatments, we silenced the expression of CD44 and/or CEA in LS174T colon carcinoma cells and analyzed their ability to metastasize in 2 independent mouse models. Quantitative PCR revealed that CD44 knockdown increased lung and liver metastasis >10‐fold, while metastasis was decreased by >50% following CEA knockdown. These findings were corroborated by in vitro experiments assessing the metastatic potential of LS174T cells. Cell migration was decreased as a result of silencing CEA but was enhanced in CD44‐knockdown cells. In addition, CD44 silencing promoted homotypic aggregation of LS147T cells, a phenotype that was reversed by additional CEA knockdown. Finally, CD44‐knockdown cells exhibited greater mechanical compliance than control cells, a property that correlates with increased metastatic potential. Collectively, these data indicate that CEA, but not CD44, is a viable target for therapeutics aimed at curbing colon carcinoma metastasis. — Dallas, M. R. , Liu, G. , Chen, W. ‐C. , Thomas, S. N. , Wirtz, D. , Huso, D. L. , Konstantopoulos, K. Divergent roles of CD44 and carcinoembryonic antigen in colon cancer metastasis. FASEB J. 26, 2648–2656 (2012). www.fasebj. org
Dynamics of spin I=3/2 under spin-locking conditions in an ordered environment.

We have derived approximate analytic solutions to the master equation describing the evolution of the spin I=3/2 density operator in the presence of a radio-frequency (RF) field and both static and fluctuating quadrupolar interactions. Spectra resulting from Fourier transformation of the evolutions of the on-resonance spin-locked magnetization into the various coherences display two satellite pairs and, in some cases, a central line. The central line is generally trimodal, consisting of a narrow component related to a slowly relaxing mode and two broad components pertaining to two faster relaxing modes. The rates of the fast modes are sensitive to slow molecular motion. Neither the amplitude nor the width of the narrow component is affected by the magnitude of the static coupling, whereas the corresponding features of the broad components depend in a rather complicated manner on the spin-lock field strength and static quadrupolar interaction. Under certain experimental conditions, the dependencies of the amplitudes on the dynamics are seen to vanish and the relaxation rates reduce to relatively simple expressions. One of the promising emerging features is the fact that the evolutions into the selectively detected quadrupolar spin polarization order and the rank-two double-quantum coherence do not exhibit a slowly relaxing mode and are particularly sensitive to slow molecular motion. Furthermore, these coherences can only be excited in the presence of a static coupling and this makes it possible to discern nuclei in anisotropic from those in isotropic environment. The feasibility of the spin-lock pulse sequences with limited RF power and a nonvanishing average electric field gradient has been demonstrated through experiments on sodium in a dense lyotropic DNA liquid crystal.
[A prospective, randomized, controlled trial of autologous mesenchymal stem cells transplantation for dilated cardiomyopathy].

OBJECTIVE Recent experimental and clinical observations have suggested that cell transplantation could be of therapeutic value for the treatment of heart failure. This study was performed to explore the efficacy and safety of intracoronary autologous mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplantation for treating patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. METHOD Twenty-four consecutive patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy received standard drug therapy were randomly divided into intracoronary injection of autologous mesenchymal stem cells (treated, n = 12) or saline (control, n = 12) groups. Serum IL-6, TNF-alpha and CRP, plasma brain natriuretic peptides (BNP) were determined and echocardiography, Holter electrocardiogram monitoring and six minutes walk test were performed at baseline, 3 and 6 months post injection. RESULTS IL-6, TNF-alpha and CRP remained unchanged after MSCs transplantation. Plasma BNP levels at 3 months and 6 months post MSCs injection were significantly higher than that of pre-injection (378.10 +/- 147.47, 420.40 +/- 148.50 vs. 292.40 +/- 148.54 ng/L, respectively, P < 0.05) but were significantly lower than that in control group at comparable time points (3 months: 378.10 +/- 147.47 vs. 473.10 +/- 106.31 ng/L; 6 months: 420.40 +/- 148.50 vs. 544.60 +/- 93.11 ng/L, P < 0.05). Six-minute-walking distance significantly increased at 6 months after MSCs injection compared with pre-injection level and which is also higher than that in control patients (519.00 +/- 43.28 vs. 396.33 +/- 42.19 and 464.00 +/- 76.5 m, respectively, P < 0.05). Left ventricular ejection fraction and LVEDd remained unchanged post MSCs injection. No malignant arrhythmias and severe side effects could be observed around transplantation and during six months follow-up. Survival was similar between the two groups during six months follow-up. CONCLUSION Percutaneous coronary autologous mesenchymal stem cells transplantation can attenuate the increase of plasma BNP, increase six-minute-walking capacity in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.
Variations of the human glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1): Pathological and in vitro mutations and polymorphisms

Glucocorticoid (GC) resistance can occur in a number of diseases. It can be either generalized (i.e., familial glucocorticoid resistance) or localized (i.e., asthma). In many cases, a reason for this resistance to steroids lies with mutations or polymorphisms present in the glucocorticoid receptor gene (GR/NR3C1) that belongs to a large family of nuclear receptors. A number of GC‐resistant cell lines have been isolated in vitro, some of which arose or may have arisen in vivo. These and the mutations defined in them are included in this review as well as mutations engineered in plasmids and expressed in vitro. It also lists polymorphisms and the individual studies where association‐related studies have been performed. NR3C1 is located on chromosome 5q31 and contains 10 exons that code for a 777 amino acid protein. There are two naturally occurring isoforms of the NR3C1, GRα (functional) and GRβ (no hormone‐binding ability). A total of 15 missense, three nonsense, three frameshift, one splice site, and two alternative spliced mutations have been reported in the NR3C1 gene associated with glucocorticoid resistance as well as 16 polymorphisms. Mutation and polymorphism data for NR3C1 will soon be found on the newly created locus‐specific database. Hum Mutat 21:557–568, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An In-House Assay Is Superior to Sepsityper for Direct Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization–Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) Mass Spectrometry Identification of Yeast Species in Blood Cultures

ABSTRACT We developed an in-house assay for the direct identification, by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry, of yeasts in blood culture. Sixty-one representative strains from 12 species were analyzed in spiked blood cultures. Our assay accurately identified 95 of 107 (88.8%) positive blood cultures and outperformed the commercial Sepsityper kit (81.7% identification).
Magnetic Sensor for Building Structural Vibrations

This paper shows a new displacement-to-frequency transducer based on the variation of a coil inductance when a magnetic core is partially or completely inserted inside. This transducer is based on a Colpitts oscillator due its low manufacturing price, behavior and immunity to noise. A tank circuit with a configuration in parallel was used because it can be employed at lower frequencies and it enables it to make a direct analysis. The sensor has a dynamic range equal to the length of the coil. The cores can exchange sensors (coils with its ferromagnetic core) using the same electronic measuring system. In this way, with only an electronic circuit, the core sensor determines the measurement range. The obtained resolution is higher than 1/100,000, and the sensor also allows the measurement and knowing in real time the effect of vibration, thermal expansion, referred overload movements, etc., that can occur in the structural elements of a building.
Molecular modeling on kappa opioid receptor and its interaction with nonpeptide kappa opioid agonists.

AIM To study the interaction between kappa-opioid receptor and its nonpeptide agonists. METHODS The "conservation patterns" for G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) were used to determine 7 transmembrane (TM) regions. Taking the crystallographic coordinates of bacteriorhodopsin (BR) as the template, the 3D structural model was constructed for 7 TM of kappa-opioid subtype with molecular mechanics (MM) method. Five highly active nonpeptide kappa-opioid agonists were docked into the 7 helices of kappa-opioid receptor to study the ligand-receptor interaction. RESULTS Four important interactions between U-50488-like agonists and kappa-opioid receptors were drawn according to our modeling study: (1) the protonated pyrrolidine nitrogen of the ligands formed a hydrogen-bond with the carboxyl of Asp138; (2) the carbonyl oxygen of ligands forms a hydrogen bond to the hydroxyl of Ser187; (3) the aryl groups connected to acylamide of the agonists inserted into a hydrophobic cavity enclosed by residues Val239, Val236, Phe235, Val232, Leu186, and Trp183; (4) the pyrrolidine of the ligands in the complexes was surrounded by Ile290, Asp138, Ile194, Ile135, and Cys131. CONCLUSION The proposed interaction mechanism is helpful for further mutant experiments and designing novel potent kappa-opioid agonists.
MEROPENEM IN THE TREATMENT OF FEBRILE NEUTROPENIC CHILDREN

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of meropenem in immunocompromised children. Between January 1998 and December 2002 in the hemato-oncological units of our hospital meropenem was used in 87 febrile events diagnosed in 55 patients, and 328 bacterial cultures were evaluated. Microorganisms were detected and identified in 64 of the 328 hemocultures; there was a predominance of gram-positive strains (67%). In 49.4% the infection was documented microbiologically. In 16 additional cases the infection was proven clinically and 32.2% of the episodes were considered to be fever of unknown origin. The success rate of the meropenem therapy—excluding the proven fungal or coagulase-negative Staphylococcus infections—was 72.9% and for the whole cohort 49.4%. The results demonstrate that meropenem is effective and well-tolerated when used for the treatment of neutropenic cancer children.
Daphnia magna mortality when exposed to titanium dioxide and fullerene (C60) nanoparticles

Nanoparticles (1–100 nm) comprise the latest technological advances designed to do everything from absorb environmental toxins to deliver drugs to a target organ. Recently, however, they have come under scrutiny for the potential to cause environmental damage. Because compounds in this miniature size range have chemical properties that differ from those of their larger counterparts, nanoparticles deserve special attention. Our main objective was to assess the potential impact that nanoparticles may have on release into aquatic environments. We prepared titanium dioxide (TiO2) and fullerene (C60) nanoparticles by filtration in tetrahydrofuran or by sonication. Daphnia magna were exposed to the four solutions using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 48‐h acute toxicity tests. Images of the particle solutions were recorded using transmission‐electron microscopy, and the median lethal concentration, lowest‐observable‐effect concentration, and no‐observable‐effect concentration were determined. Exposure to filtered C60 and filtered TiO2 caused an increase in mortality with an increase in concentration, whereas fullerenes show higher levels of toxicity at lower concentrations. Exposure to the sonicated solutions caused varied mortality. Understanding the potential impacts of nanoparticles will help to identify the most appropriate nanotechnology to preserve the aquatic environment while advancing medical and environmental technology.
The Influence of Technology, Environment and User Acceptance on the Effectiveness of Information System Project Selection Using SEM

The selection of the present information system project is difficult because of the many factors that influence it. Information system project should pay attention to the user acceptance, technology and the environment in terms of their influence on the information system project selection. The purpose of this paper is to determine how much influence user acceptance, technology and the environment have on the information system project selection. This research uses data obtained from several ministries and analyzed using SEM (Structural Equation Models). The results found that the technology and the environment affects user acceptance. Moreover, technology and environment affect the effectiveness of the information systems project selection through the mediating effect of user acceptance. User acceptance, tested by the incorporation of usefulness and ease of use, the results are more modest and in line with previous theories. Furthermore, the external environment highly impacts the information system project selection.
Book Review: A History of Christian Education: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Perspectives

This book details major developments in the history of Christian education. It offers a context for understanding present-day educational efforts among Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Orthodox Christians. The history presents the major thinkers and practitioners who have influenced how Christians transmit their faith to both children and adults. It also shows how major historical events and intellectual movements have impacted the shape and content of Christian education.