Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural and functional diversity among amyloid proteins: Agents of disease, building blocks of biology, and implications for molecular engineering

Amyloids have long been associated with protein dysfunction and neurodegenerative diseases, but recent research has demonstrated that some organisms utilize the unique properties of the amyloid fold to create functional structures with important roles in biological processes. Additionally, new engineering approaches have taken advantage of amyloid structures for implementation in a wide variety of materials and devices. In this review, the role of amyloid in human disease is discussed and compared to the functional amyloids, which serve a largely structural purpose. We then consider the use of amyloid constructs in engineering applications, including their utility as building blocks for synthetic biology and molecular engineering. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 7–20. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Epstein-Barr virus BZLF1 trans activator induces the promoter of a cellular cognate gene, c-fos

The Epstein-Barr virus BZLF1 gene product ZEBRA is a DNA-binding protein that is partially homologous to c-Fos, binds specifically to AP-1 sites, and can induce the lytic cycle in latently infected B lymphocytes. Induction of the viral lytic cycle can also be achieved by treatment with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetrade-canoylphorbol-13-acetate, a reagent which activates gene expression in part through AP-1 (Jun/Fos). In this article the interrelationship between ZEBRA and AP-1 is extended by the demonstration that ZEBRA can induce c-Fos expression through AP-1 and "AP-1-like" sites present in the c-fos promoter. Induction of c-Fos may be necessary for the expression of other viral lytic genes and perhaps cellular genes whose products are required for viral replication.
Social determinants of mental health: A review of the evidence

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study is to present a non-systematic narrative review of the published evidence on the association between mental health and sociodemographic and economic factors at individual- and at area-level. Methods: A literature search of PubMed and Web of Science was carried out to identify studies published between 2004 and 2014 on the impact of sociodemographic and economic individual or contextual factors on psychiatric symptoms, mental disorders or suicide. The results and methodological factors were extracted from each study. Results Seventy-eight studies assessed associations between individual-level factors and mental health. The main individual factors shown to have a statistically significant independent association with worse mental health were low income, not living with a partner, lack of social support, female gender, low level of education, low income, low socioeconomic status, unemployment, financial strain, and perceived discrimination. Sixty-nine studies reported associations between area-level factors and mental health, namely neighbourhood socioeconomic conditions, social capital, geographical distribution and built environment, neighbourhood problems and ethnic composition. Conclusions Most of the 150 studies included reported associations between at least one sociodemographic or economic characteristic and mental health outcomes. There was large variability between studies concerning methodology, study populations, variables, and mental illness outcomes, making it difficult to draw more than some general qualitative conclusions. This review highlights the importance of social factors in the initiation and maintenance of mental illness and the need for political action and effective interventions to improve the conditions of everyday life in order to improve population's mental health.
Mutual Information Correlation with Human Vision in Medical Image Compression

Background: The lossy compression algorithm produces different results in various con-trasts areas. Low contrast area image quality declines greater than that of high contrast regions using equal compression ratio. These results were obtained in a subjective study. The objective image quali-ty metrics are more effective if the calculation method is more closely related to the human vision re-sults. Methods: This study first measured the PSNR and MI for discrimination between different contrast areas responding to lossy image compression in a SMPTE electronic pattern. The MI was consistent with human vision results in SMPTE electronic phantom but PSNR was not. The measurement was also applied to compressed medical images in different contrast cropping regions. Results: The MI was found to be close to human vision in CT and MR but not CRX. Both weighted PSNR and weighted MI were created to respond to the gray value and the contrast areas affected the quality estimation. Conclusion: The W-PSNR and W-MI showed that they can discriminate between different contrast areas using image compression ratios and the series of lines are equal to the contrast values and better than the tranditional approach. The W-MI measures were found to perform better than W-PSNR and can be used as an image quality index.
The Effect of Some Anti‐inflammatory Agents on Elastase Release From Neutrophils In‐vitro

Abstract— In view of the potential role of released polymorphonuclear leucocyte elastase in causing tissue damage, the effect of commonly used anti‐inflammatory drugs on elastase release from neutrophils has been studied in‐vitro. Elastase release from neutrophils exposed to the synthetic bacterial cell wall peptide N‐formyl‐L‐methionyl‐L‐leucyl‐L‐phenylalanine (10−6 M) was quantitated using a radiometric immunoassay and a functional assay of elastase. Prednisolone and non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs inhibited elastase release at concentrations from 0.1 mM‐0.1 nM. No inhibition by sulphosalicylic acid, D‐penicillamine or chloroquine sulphate was observed. The clinical relevance of these findings is discussed.
Suicide in Correctional Settings: Assessment, Prevention, and Professional Liability

This article reviews important details of the suicide risk assessment procedure as it pertains to incarcerated individuals. Research on correctional suicide risk factors is briefly outlined as a prelude to discussing current methods of clinical suicide risk assessment and prevention in correctional settings. A comprehensive and reliable procedure for eliciting suicidal ideation, behavior, planning, desire, and intent is described. Recommendations for formulating an individualized suicide risk reduction plan are presented, along with key principles of suicide risk assessment documentation. Finally, issues related to professional liability for suicide in corrections are discussed.
Real Estate Performance Five Essays Kicki Björklund

This dissertation consists of five papers addressing various real estate performance issues (see full titles in italics below). The dissertation is empirical in nature and the data used in most of the empirical sections consist of figures for income-producing property returns. Paper 1 was presented at seminar and accepted as a Licentiate Degree in Engineering thesis. Papers 2 to 5 were all written jointly with others (the names of the co-authors appear later in the dissertation). Paper 3 has been published in the Journal of Real Estate Research, and Papers 2, 4, and 5, are also intended for publication in academic journals. The objective of Paper 1, entitled Capital Recovery and Long-run Profitability, was to find empirical and scientific support for adopting measurements of profitability featuring stability, simplicity and reliability, that could easily be implemented into existing administrative routines, and which could also support effective decision-making. The model was empirically tested through analysing the profitability of individual properties and property portfolios. The portfolios studied were put together featuring variation in property location, usage and initial performance expectations. Paper 2, entitled An Investigation of Property Price Studies, constitutes an untraditional literature review covering articles where price equations in the real estate market have been estimated using regression techniques. This paper examines the degree to which these studies follow good scientific practice when reporting on the econometric issues. It also presents a descriptive overview of the prevalence of these articles in the literature, and the significance of the various topics addressed by these studies. This paper was prepared in 1996 and examines 145 articles published between 1990 and 1995 from 12 highly regarded (see later) research journals on real estate, housing and urban economics.
Heterodimer formation between the antimicrobial peptides magainin 2 and PGLa in lipid bilayers: a cross-linking study.

The antimicrobial peptides magainin 2 and PGLa, isolated from the skin of the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis, show marked synergism [Westerhoff, H. V. , Zasloff, M. , Rosner, J. L. , Hendler, R. W. , de Waal, A. , Vaz Gomes, A. , Jongsma, A. P. M. , Riethorst, A. , and Juretic, D. (1995) Eur. J. Biochem. 228, 257-264]. We suggested previously that these peptides form a potent heterodimer composed of either parallel or antiparallel helices in membranes [Matsuzaki, K. , Mitani, Y. , Akada, K. , Murase, O. , Yoneyama, S. , Zasloff, M. , and Miyajima, K. (1998) Biochemistry 37, 15144-15153]. To detect the putative heterodimer by chemical cross-linking, analogues of magainin 2 and PGLa with a Cys residue at either terminus were synthesized. These cross-linking experiments suggested that both peptides form a parallel heterodimer in membranes composed of phosphatidylglycerol/phosphatidylcholine but not in either buffer or a helix-promoting 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol/buffer mixture. The isolated parallel heterodimers exhibited an order of magnitude higher membrane permeabilization activity compared with the monomeric species, indicating that the observed synergism is due to heterodimer formation.
SYNTHESIS - EFFECTS OF METABOLIC STRESS AND FEEDING

Surgical trauma and critical illness are pathophysiological conditions where the metabolic stress leads to an imbalance between protein synthesis and protein breakdown, resulting in a net loss of body proteins. A major part of the protein losses comes from skeletal muscle. Muscle depletion is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. To understand the changes that occur during critical illness and following trauma it is therefore necessary to study protein metabolism on the tissue level. The aim of this thesis work was to investigate the impact of metabolic stress and feeding on muscle protein synthesis. Healthy patients undergoing elective surgery and critically ill patients in the intensive care unit were investigated by the flood technique, employing L-[H5] phenylalanine, for quantification of muscle protein synthesis rate. The effect of continuous and ongoing total parenteral nutrition was investigated in healthy patients scheduled for elective abdominal surgery of medium size. Muscle protein synthesis rate was determined before surgery and 24 hours after surgery with continuous and ongoing total parenteral nutrition. Conventional TPN could not prevent the decrease in muscle protein synthesis rate as compared to a control group receiving saline. Whereas conventional total parenteral nutrition is not effective in the immediate postoperative period it is shown that provision of glutamine can attenuate the decrease in muscle protein synthesis. However, glutamine is only marginally effective on muscle protein synthesis in ICU patients. To evaluate if a large enough dose of intravenous glutamine supplementation would influence muscle protein synthesis, ICU patients were randomized to receive 0, 20, 40 or 60 g of glutamine per kg body weight and day for a five-day study period. The main result was that plasma glutamine concentrations were normalized in all glutamine treated groups. No increase was seen in muscle glutamine concentration and therefore glutamine had no effect on muscle protein synthesis rate. The effect of difference size of trauma on muscle protein synthesis rate was investigated in patients undergoing elective minor surgery and major surgery before and immediately after surgery. Minor surgery did not have an impact on muscle protein synthesis rate, as expected. However, muscle protein synthesis rate following major surgery was also unaltered. Intensive care patients have an on average normal muscle protein synthesis rate but with a larger variation than in healthy individuals. In order to evaluate if artefacts or muscle tissue heterogeneity can explain this large scatter, muscle protein synthesis rate was determined simultaneously in both legs of ICU patients. Muscle protein synthesis rate was on average normal, and similar in the two legs. The variation between the legs was smaller than the variation between individuals and muscle morphology revealed no
Mechanistic In vitro Evaluation of Prosopis farcta Roots Potential as an Antidiabetic Folk Medicinal Plant

Objective: Prosopis farcta has been used as a traditional herbal medicine for treating Diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study is to investigate the antidiabetic mechanisms of infusion (INF) extract of P. farcta and discovering the active extract for the first time. Materials and Methods: Six different extracts of P. farcta were prepared using five different solvents (ethanol, n-hexane, acetone, ethanol:water (1:1 v/v), and water). Cytotoxicity and cell proliferation assays were performed on mouse pancreatic β-cells (β-TC3) using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium method. The effects of P. farcta on glucose metabolism (in a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line [HepG2]) and glucose diffusion across a dialysis membrane (as a model of cellular glucose absorption) were evaluated. The protective effect of various P. farcta extracts on cytotoxicity, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and streptozotocin (STZ)-induced apoptosis in β-TC3 cells was investigated. Results: Cytotoxicity study indicated that extracts were safe on β-TC3and HepG2 (≤0.5 mg/ml). INF protected β-TC3 cells from apoptosis induced by STZ and improved cell viability for 20% and significantly decrease depolarization of MMP (P < 0.005). The results showed that INF inhabited breaking/streaking the DNA. Proliferation study showed no significant increase in the number of cells either at single or multiple doses. In moderate hyperglycemia (11.1 mmol/l), a significant glucose-lowering effect was observed but glucose diffusion was not the probable mechanism of extracts antidiabetic effect. In conclusion, only INF, the traditionally used extract, has an antidiabetic potential by attenuating the death and apoptosis induced by STZ in β-TC3 cells and increase glucose consumption. Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that only INF extract have an antidiabetic potential by attenuating the death and apoptosis induced by STZ in β-TC3 cells and increase glucose consumption. Abbreviations used: AC: Acetone extract; ANOVA: Analysis of variance; BSA: Bovine serum albumin; β-TC3: Mouse pancreatic β-cells; DMEM: Dulbecco modified Eagle medium; DMSO: Dimethyl sulfoxide; ETH: Ethyl acetate extract; FBS: Fetal bovine serum; HDETH: Hydroethanolic extract; HepG2: Hepatocellular carcinoma cell line; HEX: Hexane extract; INF: Infusion; KUMS: Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences; MMP: Mitochondrial membrane potential; MTT: 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium; NaCl: Natrium chloride; OD: Optical density; spp: Species; STZ: Streptozotocin; Tag: T-antigen; USA: United States of America.
Anti‐HBc screening of blood donors: a comparison of nine anti‐HBc tests

Background and Objectives Since voluntary introduction of hepatitis B virus (HBV) minipool nucleic acid amplification technology (NAT) at the German Red Cross, the expected residual risk of a transfusion‐associated HBV infection has been estimated to be 1 : 500 000 – about 10 times higher than for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Donors demonstrating chronic positivity for antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti‐HBc), negativity for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)‐negative with a low virus load are a major cause of this increased risk.
A new view on psoriasis research efforts

understandable since the age of 1. A skin biopsy from pigmented skin in the abdomen demonstrated hyperpigmentation of the basal epidermal layer with very few scattered melanophages in papillary dermis. A cytogenic analysis of peripheral blood revealed that the patient karyotype was 46,X,rec(X)dup(Xp)del(Xq)inv(X)p11.2q26. Fluorescent in situ hybridization using subtelomeric probes revealed a partial trisomy of the distal portion of the short arm and monosomy of the terminal region of the long arm of the recombinant X chromosome. To determine the origin of this abnormal X chromosome, both parents were studied, and the mother’s karyotype showed a pericentric inversion of the X chromosome: 46,XX, inv(X)p11.23q26. The spectrum of the pigmentary disorders is wide, even though this case had several features of LWNH defined by Kalter in 1988. The authors emphasize some particularities observed in this patient. First, the unusual late-onset hyperpigmentation along the lines of Blaschko, an occurrence already mentioned by other authors. Second, the significant multi-systemic involvement observed in our case. Nehal et al. reported an analysis of 54 cases with aberrant pigmentation along the lines of Blaschko and demonstrated that 30% of patients had extracutaneous abnormalities. These included developmental and growth retardation, micro or macrocephalia, facial and body asymmetry, abnormal teeth, ocular and cardiac defects, deafness and pseudohermaphroditism. The third particular aspect of this case is the underlying unique genetic mechanism. The recombinant X chromosome resulted from an abnormal crossing over in the inversion loop during the maternal gametogenesis. Relation between pigmentary disorders and X chromosomal abnormalities had been reported (particularly in HI), including ring X and X-autosome translocations. It is important to note that the breakpoint on Xp11 (reported in our case) had been implicated in HI. This could be an additional argument to unify the pigmentary disorders; however, further studies are needed to recognize the pathogenetic significance of this finding. The genetic and clinical heterogeneity of pigmentary disorders along the lines of Blaschko oblige a multidisciplinary approach. The patients should be carefully evaluated for structural malformations and for neurologic problems, and when they are absent, the karyotype is likely to be normal. By contrast, in the presence of malformations or developmental abnormalities, both lymphocyte and fibroblast karyotyping should be considered to exclude chromosomal mosaicism.
The Relationship of Pressure Ulcers, Race, and Socioeconomic Conditions After Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract Objective: To identify risks factors associated with pressure ulcers (PrU) after spinal cord injury (SCI) by examining race and indicators of socioeconomic status (measured by income and education). We hypothesize African Americans will have a greater risk for PrUs than whites, but this relationship will be mediated by the 2 socioeconomic status indicators. Design: Cohort study. Setting: A large rehabilitation hospital in the southeastern US. Participants: 1,466 white and African American adults at least 1-year post-traumatic SCI. Outcome Measures: (a) PrUs in the past year, (b) current PrU, (c) surgery to repair a PrU since injury. Results: In preliminary analyses, race was significantly associated with having a current PrU and with having surgery to repair a PrU since injury. In multivariable analyses, the relationships of PrU with having a current PrU and with having surgery to repair a PrU were both mediated by income and education such that the relationships were no longer significant. Lower income was associated with increased odds of each PrU outcome. After controlling for other variables in the model, education was associated with increased odds of having a current PrU. Conclusion: These findings help clarify the relationships between race and socioeconomic status with PrUs after SCI. Specifically, a lack of resources, both financial and educational, is associated with worse PrU outcomes. These results can be used by both providers and policy makers when considering prevention and intervention strategies for PrUs among people with SCI.
Pulse electromagnetic sounding of the petroleum- containing layered medium

In this research, propagation of super wide-band pulse in a frequency dispersive medium representing the oil-saturated collector. The capability of their use for geonavigation in techniques of lateral drilling is discussed on the basis of the results of simulation obtained. The complex dielectric constant of oil-saturated rock was calculated on the basis of refraction mixing dielectric model, the oil, sodium chloride solution, methane, quartz and bentonite being contained in each layer. The thin cylindrical vibrator of finite dimensions was used as antenna, being excited by voltage the like one period sinus pulse of nanosecond duration. The time-domain structure of pulse propagation in a plane-layered medium was calculated. Attenuation of power flow pulse reflecting from oil-bearing bed was studied. The gain-frequency characteristic relating to each particular layer was analyzed proving the medium of petroleum collector to operate like a low-pass filter.
Local Kyphosis Reduces Surgical Outcomes of Expansive Open-Door Laminoplasty for Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

Study Design. This retrospective study analyzed the effects of cervical alignment on surgical results of expansive laminoplasty (ELAP) for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Objective. To determine the limitation of posterior decompression by ELAP for CSM in the presence of local kyphosis. Summary of Background Data. Several studies have reported that cervical malalignment affected surgical outcomes of ELAP. However, there has been no report to demonstrate crucial determinants of surgical outcomes of ELAP for CSM in relation to cervical sagittal alignment. Methods. The study group comprised 114 patients who underwent ELAP for CSM. All were followed up for more than 2 years. The Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scoring system for cervical myelopathy (full score, 17 points) was used to evaluate surgical outcomes for each patient 2 years after surgery. Statistical analysis with multivariate logistic regression models was used to ascertain the risk factors affecting postoperative surgical outcomes. Results. The average JOA scores were 9.9 points before surgery and 14 points 2 years after surgery. The recovery rate was 60.2%. Statistical analysis showed that signal intensity change on MRI and local kyphosis were the most crucial risk factors for poor surgical outcomes. Calculated with the logistic regression model, the highest risk of poor recovery was local kyphosis exceeding 13°. Conclusions. The influence of cervical malalignment on neurologic recovery after ELAP for CSM was shown. When patients have local kyphosis exceeding 13°, anterior decompression or posterior correction of kyphosis as well as ELAP should be considered. Expansive laminoplasty for CSM is best indicated for patients with local kyphosis less than 13°.