Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dissecting the involvement of LC3B and GATE-16 in p62 recruitment into autophagosomes

Autophagy is a major intracellular trafficking pathway that delivers proteins and organelles from the cytoplasm into lysosomes for consequential degradation and recycling. Mammalian Atg8s are key autophagic factors that undergo a unique ubiquitin-like conjugation to the lipid phase of the autophagosomal membrane. In addition to their activity in autophagosome formation, several Atg8s directly bind p62/SQSTM1. Here we show that LC3 and GATE-16 differ in their mode of p62 binding. While the soluble form of both LC3 and GATE-16 bind p62, only the lipidated form of LC3 is directly involved in p62 recruitment into autophagosomes. Moreover, by utilizing chimeras of LC3 and GATE-16 where their N-terminus was swapped, we determined the regions responsible for this differential binding. Accordingly, we found that the chimera of GATE-16 containing the LC3 N-terminal region acts similarly to wild-type LC3 in recruiting p62 into autophagosomes. We therefore propose that LC3 is responsible for the final stages of p62 incorporation into autophagosomes, a process selectively mediated by its N-terminus.
Finding out about sperm banking: what information is available online for men diagnosed with cancer?

Sperm banking is routinely offered to men where there is a risk of infertility following cancer treatment but uptake is lower than expected. Since these men may turn to the internet for information, we used the search engine www.google. com to identify the material available about sperm banking and fertility preservation options. Sixty-six resources (NHS/Private Clinic, Charity, Press Releases, General and Forums/Blogs) fulfilled the criteria for inclusion and were examined for quality including readability, layout and content. The most frequently reported information related to: (1) effects of cancer treatment on fertility (77.3%); (2) reasons to bank sperm (69.7%); and (3) fertility recovery after treatment (57.6%). Information about maintaining contact with the sperm bank (18.2%) and disposal of banked samples (10.6%) was less often included. The quality of information available on the Internet about sperm banking was variable. The readability of all resources was assessed as ‘fairly difficult’, i.e. reading skills required were too complex for the average member of the public to understand. Furthermore, visual presentation of material (e.g. lay out) did not facilitate easy reading. More attention should be given to information about longer-term issues, such as fertility recovery and the use or disposal of banked sperm.
The Critical Care Management of Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a neurosurgical emergency that results from the rupture of an aneurysm in the subarachnoid space (see figure 1). SAH carries a high mortality rate, estimated at 45%; additionally, a significant amount of patients are left with impaired neurologic function [1]. The critical care management of SAH requires an appreciation of both neurologic and general critical care principles; it is best thought of as a systemic multi-organ disease.
Evidence on the Impact of Adopting English as an External Reporting Language on Foreign Investment, Information Asymmetry, and Analyst Following

This study investigates the economic consequences of non-English speaking companies adopting English as an external reporting language. We examine a sample of companies that initiate the voluntary issuance of an annual report in English in addition to the local language annual report. To control for self-selection, we use a difference-in-differences design with a propensity score matched control sample. We find that adoption of English as an external reporting language is associated with increased foreign ownership, decreased information asymmetry, and increased analyst following. We also find that these benefits are not conditional on the use of IFRS for financial reporting. Our findings hold if we run a number of robustness checks to control for correlated events (creation of an investor relations service, provision of conference calls, and/or changes in management). These results are consistent with the language used in the annual report acting as a barrier to investment for some investors and with annual reports issued in English reducing investors’ information processing costs.
Measurement of Depreciation Rates based on Disposal Asset Data in Japan

This paper presents preliminary estimates of asset service lives and geometric depreciation rates for 195 assets based on the recently constructed ESRI Survey on Capital Expenditures and Disposables (CED). The disposal surveys in the 2005 and 2006 CED collected about 260,000 observations of disposal assets from business accounts of private corporations, of which about 26,000 transactions include sales of disposal assets with the observed sale price of the traded asset. Although further investigations of the disposal data are still required, our estimates of geometric depreciation rates for building and construction are much higher than those assumed in the current JSNA.
The H 3 K 27 me 3 demethylase UTX is a gender-speci fi c tumor suppressor in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Center for Medical Genetics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Cancer Biology and Genetics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY; Department for Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Centre for Human Genetics, University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; INSERM U563, Toulouse, France; Department of Pediatric HematologyOncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium; and Department of Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology and Immunology,
Stock Option Exercise and Gift Exchange Relationships: Evidence for a Large Us Company

We investigate gift exchange relationships in real jobs, making use of a field quasi-experiment associated with the exercise of stock options for roughly 4500 managers in a large public company. In this company, option grants are set equally for all employees within occupational categories, and financial markets set the price at which the options are ultimately exercised. We assert that the considerable variation that we observe across employees and over time in profits from those sales is beyond the control of the individual employee and can be thought of as effectively randomized. We also assert that employees perceive the profit they receive from exercising these options at least in part as the equivalent of a gift: Higher profits in turn cause them to reciprocate with better job performance in the subsequent period. We find significant and economically meaningful positive relationships between the variation in profit per share of the options sold and standard measures of subsequent job performance for individual employees. These effects exist in real jobs and persist over long periods, extending previous studies. Non-parametric and parametric fixed effects models, other controls for sample heterogeneity, and alternative specifications address possible concerns about the randomization assumption and associated statistical issues.
US emergency department visits for hip fracture, 1992–2000

Background: Hip fracture is a significant injury for older persons. Little has been reported about emergency department (ED) care of these patients. Objective: To characterize the management of older patients treated in the ED for hip fracture with specific attention to the use of analgesia. Methods: This study analysed data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (∼400 hospitals report each year) for the years 1992–2000. We included records of patients who were at least 50 years old and had a diagnosis of hip fracture (International Classification of Disease, 9th revision, clinical modification 820–820.9) in any of the three fields allowed for recording diagnosis. Results: There were 1 935 000 ED visits (≈215 000 a year), predominately among older white women. The rate in those over 80 years old was 25 times that of the youngest group. Fifty-six per cent of patients received analgesia (44% narcotics). There were no ethnic or racial distinctions in the use of analgesia. Conclusions: The ED visit presents a largely untapped opportunity for focused efforts in fall and hip fracture prevention, especially in countries with comprehensive geriatric services and well integrated healthcare delivery systems. Despite the high likelihood of pain, the administration of analgesics appears to be low and may be a worthy focus for practice improvement.
Career progression, human capital and pay equity in Australian public sector labour markets

This study uses data from the Victorian Public Sector Census 2004 to identify the extent of equity in pay and career progression (promotion). A system of three equations is developed to capture the endogeneity between human capital and promotion and the interdependence between promotion, pay and human capital. The results indicate that there are substantial differences in the average wages earned by public sector employees in different Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) groups. While some of these differences arise from factors beyond the control of the public sector employers, others arise from bias in the public sector employment system and procedures. The earnings of individual employees in the public sector are determined in a systematic way by the wage structures in the different sub-sectors, the skill base of the employee on recruitment, sub-sector specific promotion rates, acquisition of formal and informal training and the apparent bias within recruitment and promotion systems in dealing with particular groups. The apparent bias of recruitment and promotion systems is complex in makeup and varies within EEO groups as well as between EEO groups. Most of the difference in pay across employees can be explained as an outcome of individual choice and labour market conditions external to the public sector. After adjusting for sectoral wage differences, skill base when recruited, sectoral promotion rate differences, experience in the public sector, whether individuals are employed on a full-time or part-time basis and individual training decisions, the statistical evidence is consistent with the finding that public sector recruitment and promotion systems tends to be biased, on average, against females and those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Achievements in formal education are important for salary progression. This is particularly the case for women. The main drivers of participation in formal education were employer support in both financial and non-financial terms. Promotion rates were important factors in explaining wage differences. Women tended to receive slightly fewer promotions than men, but women received, on average, greater rewards for each promotion.
The influence of social responsibility initiatives on the South African wine consumers planned behaviour

The market benefits and competitive advantage of integrating social responsibility initiatives are well known within the global marketing context. More recently, this movement had notably increased within the South African wine industry, where wine producers are integrating philanthropy into their overall business operations. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the marketing of social responsibility initiatives, within the South African wine industry, would lead to a positive consumer attitude towards a brand and result in influencing South African wine consumers’ purchasing behaviour. The literature review was conducted to establish the effect of marketing social responsibility initiatives over consumer attitude, intention and planned behaviour. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. This study indicated that the marketing of social responsibility initiatives are recognised by South African wine consumers as a decision-making factor and do influence consumers’ attitude towards brands, when purchasing wine. Although social responsibility initiatives are regarded as a low decision-making factor, when compared to other factors, the study did indicate that South African wine consumers generally do portray positive attitude towards the South African wine industry’s social responsibility initiatives. Generally, it was found that South African wine consumers portrayed positive planned purchasing behaviour towards most of the South African wine producers’ social responsibility initiatives, with management of quality and environmental conservation initiatives receiving more positive response. Land reformation and legislative responsibility were regarded as lesser important initiatives. Given the fact that social responsibility initiatives are recognised, yet only influences a certain portion of South African wine consumers’ purchasing decisions, the study did indicate that there are opportunities for the South African wine industry to market its social responsibility initiatives. The study concludes with the educational role that the marketing of social responsibility initiatives may have on influencing wine consumers’ planned behaviour and suggests a multi-stakeholder approach towards marketing.
The Quiet Run of 2011: Money Market Funds and the European Debt Crisis

We show that money market funds transmitted distress across firm during the European sovereign debt crisis. Using a novel data set of US money market fund holdings, we show that funds with large exposures to Eurozone banks suffered significant outflows between June and August 2011. These outflows have significant short-run spillover effects on other firms: non-Eurobank issuers that typically rely on these funds raise less financing in this period. The results are not driven by issuer riskiness or direct exposure to Europe: for the same issuer, money market funds with greater exposure to Eurozone banks decrease their holdings more than other funds. Our results illustrate that instabilities associated with money market funds persist despite recent changes to the regulations governing them.
Improving piglet survival: traits for piglet vitality at birth

Selection for improved litter size at birth has been part of most pig breeding programs throughout the last decade, with the objective to increase number of pigs weaned. However, litter size is unfavourably correlated to piglet survival until weaning (Hogberg and Rydhmer, 2008; Hermesch, 2001b; Bunter, 2009), such that the gains in litter size are not fully realised in the number of piglets weaned. Selection has negative implications on the quality of the piglet at birth, which has been shown to influence its ability to survive until weaning. Leenhouwers et al. (2001) and Canario et al. (2007) have clearly demonstrated, using within line contrasts and the contemporary comparison of modern vs. historical lines, that body composition and physiological state of piglets at birth have been altered by selection practices. Further, selection criteria aimed at improving finisher pig performance could also lead to undesired consequences for sow performance and longevity (Bunter at al., 2010) and potentially piglet survival. Larger litter size in combination with piglets that have higher demands for resources, during both gestation and lactation, place strong pressure on the sow to provide adequate nutrition and a safe maternal environment for all its piglets (Prunier et al., 2010). As a result, there has been a continuing increase in piglet mortality worldwide which is regarded as both a welfare and financial concern.
Energy analysis of the AAβ lightweight asymmetric encryption scheme on an embedded device

Lightweight cryptography offers energy-efficient cryptographic capabilities on low powered devices such as those commonly found in the Internet of Things (IoT). One such lightweight scheme is the AA-Beta (AAß) asymmetric cryptographic scheme which is based on the Diophantine Equation Hard Problem (DEHP) and whose algorithm consists of only basic arithmetic operations of addition and subtraction for both the encryption and decryption process. In a previous work we have shown that the implementation of the AAß scheme on a Raspberry-Pi (embedded) platform produced a remarkable timing improvement for the encryption and decryption of messages when compared to previous trials on a numeric computing environment. In this paper, we present the energy analysis of running the AAß scheme over Raspbian OS on the Raspberry Pi 2 device. We compare the energy consumptions for encryption and decryption using the AAß scheme with similar processes using the Textbook Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman (RSA) scheme on the aforesaid platform. The AAß asymmetric encryption process demonstrates a significantly lower energy consumption compared to RSA, whereby as much as 400 times less energy was used by AAß when encrypting messages while considerable energy savings were also seen during AAß message decryption. We conclude that the AAß encryption scheme is a cryptographic scheme with a great potential for deployment on low powered devices, offering fast and energy-efficient asymmetric cryptographic capabilities to all devices.
Agonist Activity of the delta-antagonists TIPP and TIPP-psi in cellular models expressing endogenous or transfected delta-opioid receptors.

A new class of highly selective delta-opioid receptor antagonists has been recently developed, termed the TIP(P) peptides. Two prototypical compounds in this class are TIPP (H-Tyr-Tic-Phe-Phe-OH) and a derivative, TIPP-psi (H-Tyr-Tic[CH2NH]-Phe-Phe-OH). Surprisingly, both TIPP and TIPP-psi demonstrated inhibition of adenylyl cyclase activity in GH3 cells transfected with delta-opioid receptors (GH3DORT), an effect normally observed by agonists. The agonist activity was delta-selective, because no inhibition occurred in wild-type GH3 or GH3MOR (mu-opioid receptor) cells. Both TIPP and TIPP-psi exhibited concentration-dependent inhibition of adenylyl cyclase activity; however, TIPP-psi was found to be less potent (IC50 = 3.97 versus 0.162 nM) and less efficacious (I(max) = 50% versus 70%) than TIPP. Pretreatment of cells with pertussis toxin attenuated the inhibition of maximally effective concentrations of TIPP and TIPP-psi, indicating the involvement of G(i)alpha/G(o)alpha G-proteins. Other delta-antagonists, naltriben, naloxone, and ICI 174864, attenuated the inhibition of adenylyl cyclase activity mediated by TIPP. Coadministration of TIPP with the selective delta-agonist [D-Pen2,5]enkephalin resulted in an additive interaction. Both TIPP and TIPP-psi exhibited significant inhibition of adenylyl cyclase activity in different GH3DORT clones expressing a 28-fold range of delta-opioid receptor densities, and in cell lines expressing endogenous (i.e., N1E115 and NG108-15) and transfected (i.e., Chinese hamster ovary-DOR and human embryonic kidney-DOR) delta-opioid receptors, with densities ranging from 0.12 to 6.67 pmol/mg. These results suggest that compounds previously thought to be purely delta-opioid receptor antagonists also demonstrate agonist activity in several in vitro models.
Effect of katG Mutations on the Virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the Implication for Transmission in Humans

ABSTRACT The usefulness of isoniazid (INH), a key component of short-course chemotherapy of tuberculosis, is threatened by the emergence of drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis with mutations in the katG gene. It is shown here that the most commonly occurring KatG mutation, where Ser 315 is replaced by Thr (S315T), is associated with clinically significant levels of INH resistance. In contrast to another resistant isolate, in which Pro replaces Thr 275, the S315T mutant produces active catalase-peroxidase and is virulent in the mouse model of the disease, indicating that a significant loss of bacterial fitness does not result from this frequent mutation. The implications of this finding for the transmission and reactivation of multidrug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis are severe.
Multicenter open-label study with infliximab in active ankylosing spondylitis over 28 weeks in daily practice.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate the therapeutic efficacy and safety of infliximab therapy in NSAID-refractory AS patients, with special emphasis on impact on quality of life in daily practice. PATIENTS AND METHODS 101 AS patients with active disease (mean Bath ankylosing spondylitis activity index (BASDAI) 6.3, range 4.0-9.8) were enrolled in an open label study. Infliximab 5 mg/kg body weight was administered intravenously at week 0, 2, 6, 12, 18 and 24 followed by a final assessment at week 28. Clinical assessments included quality of life (SF-36, primary endpoint), disease activity (BASDAI), function (BASFI), metrology (BASMI), patients' and physicians' global, pain, work productivity (WPAI) and CRP. RESULTS Using an intention to treat (ITT) analysis, the mean SF-36 physical health component improved from 27.6 at baseline to 40.9 at study end (p<0.001), the mean SF-36 mental health component improved from 44.4 at study entry to 53.0 at final assessment (p<0.001). The Assessment of AS (ASAS-) 20 short-term improvement criteria were reached by 80.2% of patients, ASAS 40 by 60.4% and the ASAS criteria for partial remission were reached by 27.7% of patients. A BASDAI 50% improvement was found in 66.3% of patients. Comparable significant improvements were found for mean BASDAI; BASFI, BASMI, patients' and physicians' global, general pain, CRP and WPAI. 11.8% of patients stopped therapy because of side effects. CONCLUSIONS Infliximab showed high efficacy and safety when used by non-specialised rheumatologists in daily practice.
Distribution pattern of inhibitory and excitatory synapses in the dendritic tree of single masseter α‐motoneurons in the cat

Little is known about the differences in the distributions of inhibitory and excitatory synapses in the dendritic tree of single motoneurons in the brainstem and spinal cord. In this study, the distribution of γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)‐, glycine‐, and glutamate‐like immunoreactivity in axon terminals on dendrites of cat masseter α‐motoneurons, stained intracellularly with horseradish peroxidase, was examined by using postembedding immunogold histochemistry in serial ultrathin sections. The dendritic tree was divided into three segments: primary (Pd) and distal (Dd) dendrites and intermediate (Id) dendrites between the two segments. Quantitative analysis of 175, 279, and 105 boutons synapsing on 13 Pd, 54 Id, and 81 Dd, respectively, was performed. Fifty percent of the total number of studied boutons were immunopositive for GABA and/or glycine and 48% for glutamate. Among the former, 27% showed glycine immunoreactivity only and 14% were immunoreactive to both glycine and GABA. The remainder (9%) showed immunoreactivity for GABA only. As few as 3% of the boutons were immunonegative for the three amino acids. Most boutons immunoreactive to inhibitory amino acid(s) contained a mixture of spherical, oval, and flattened synaptic vesicles. Most boutons immunoreactive to excitatory amino acid contained clear, spherical, synaptic vesicles with a few dense‐cored vesicles. When comparisons of the inhibitory and excitatory boutons were made between the three dendritic segments, the proportion of the inhibitory to the excitatory boutons was high in the Pd (60% vs. 37%) but somewhat low in the Id (46% vs. 52%) and Dd (44% vs. 53%). The percentage of synaptic covering and packing density of the inhibitory synaptic boutons decreased in the order Pd, Id, and Dd, but this trend was not applicable to the excitatory boutons. The present study provides possible evidence that the spatial distribution patterns of inhibitory and excitatory synapses are different in the dendritic tree of jaw‐closing α‐motoneurons. J. Comp. Neurol. 414:454–468, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.