Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Bacillus stearothermophilus Mannitol Regulator, MtlR, of the Phosphotransferase System

d-Mannitol is taken up byBacillus stearothermophilus and phosphorylated via a phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent phosphotransferase system (PTS). The genes involved in the mannitol uptake were recently cloned and sequenced. One of the genes codes for a putative transcriptional regulator, MtlR. The presence of a DNA binding helix-turn-helix motif and two antiterminator-like PTS regulation domains, suggest that MtlR is a DNA-binding protein, the activity of which can be regulated by phosphorylation by components of the PTS. To demonstrate DNA binding of MtlR to a region upstream of the mannitol promoter, by DNA footprinting, MtlR was overproduced and purified. EI, HPr, IIAmtl, and IICBmtl of B. stearothermophilus were purified and used to demonstrate that MtlR can be phosphorylated and regulated by HPr and IICBmtl, in vitro. Phosphorylation of MtlR by HPr increases the affinity of MtlR for its binding site, whereas phosphorylation by IICBmtl results in a reduction of this affinity. The differential effect of phosphorylation, by two different proteins, on the DNA binding properties of a bacterial transcriptional regulator has not, to our knowledge, been described before. Regulation of MtlR by two components of the PTS is an example of an elegant control system sensing both the presence of mannitol and the need to utilize this substrate.
Placeholders dissociate two forms of inhibition of return

Decades of research using Posner’s classic spatial cueing paradigm has uncovered at least two forms of inhibition of return (IOR) in the aftermath of an exogenous, peripheral orienting cue. One prominent dissociation concerns the role of covert and overt orienting in generating IOR effects that relate to perception- and action-oriented processes, respectively. Another prominent dissociation concerns the role of covert and overt orienting in generating IOR effects that depend on object- and space-based representation, respectively. Our objective was to evaluate whether these dichotomies are functionally equivalent by manipulating placeholder object presence in the cueing paradigm. By discouraging eye movements throughout, Experiments 1A and 1B validated a perception-oriented form of IOR that depended critically on placeholders. Experiment 2A demonstrated that IOR was robust without placeholders when eye movements went to the cue and back to fixation before the manual response target. In Experiment 2B, we replicated Experiment 2A’s procedures except we discouraged eye movements. IOR was observed, albeit only weakly and significantly diminished relative to when eye movements were involved. We conclude that action-oriented IOR is robust against placeholders but that the magnitude of perception-oriented IOR is critically sensitive to placeholder presence when unwanted oculomotor activity can be ruled out.
Nitrate regulation of AFB3 and NAC4 gene expression in Arabidopsis roots depends on NRT1.1 nitrate transport function

Nitrogen is an essential macronutrient for plants and its availability is a major limiting factor for plant growth and crop production. Nitrate is the main source of inorganic N for plants in aerobic soils and can act as a potent signal to control global gene expression. We found that gene expression in response to nitrate treatment of the AFB3 auxin receptor and its target, the NAC4 transcription factor depends on the nitrate transport function of NRT1.1. This gene regulatory function of NRT1.1 on AFB3 and NAC4 differs from the previously described signaling function controlling NRT2.1, NIA1 and NIA2 transcript levels and root colonization of nitrate-rich patches. Our work suggests two different signaling pathways may exist to control gene expression in response to nitrate downstream of NRT1.1.
Intellectual Deficiencies in Left-Handers: A Review of the Research

The purpose of this paper was to examine current research and to determine whether the idea that the majority of left-handers were intellectually inferior to right-handers is empirically supported. This view was inferred in two studies and partially endorsed in another. Inquiry indicated that the cognitive performance of left-handers was not significantly lower than that of right-handers. Based on empirical evidence, then, the idea that left-handers possess cognitive deficits was not demonstrated.
Psychosocial support groups for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: Five years of experience

Abstract This detailed case history traces the first 5 years of a psychosocial support group intervention aimed to improve adherence to individualized drug regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Peru. A total of eight groups were established in metropolitan Lima and two provinces of Peru led by teams of psychiatrists and nurses. The intervention consisted of bi-monthly support groups, recreational excursions, symbolic celebrations, and periodic family workshops. Notably, of the 285 patients who participated in this intervention, only 3.5% defaulted from treatment. Details include the description of services, patient data, major psychosocial difficulties faced by this population, key challenges, and implications. Psychosocial support is a crucial component of treatment for MDR-TB in order to ensure completion of complicated treatment regimens and enable psychosocial rehabilitation after treatment.
Diverse Influence Factors on the Range of Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles of today can be designed with high efficiency drives and drivetrains. This means that the aerodynamic drag, the tire losses and auxiliary equipment have an increasing influence on the range of the vehicle. Moreover, the user will experience "his range" in a single direction from A to B, rather than averaged. The rolling resistance and the drag force are not constants but temperature dependent. Effects of wind, rain and altitude change are also evaluated. Such factors are not included in typical driving cycle tests, but are important for the real range of the vehicle.
Biocompatibility and hemocompatibility of surface-modified NiTi alloys.

Nickel titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys have been investigated for several years with regard to biomedical applications. However, little is known about the influences of surface modifications on the biocompatibility of these alloys. The effects of a range of surface treatments were investigated. Cytotoxicity and cytocompatibility studies with both fibroblast and endothelial cells showed no differences in the biocompatibility of any of the NiTi surfaces. The cytotoxicity and cytocompatibility of all surfaces were favorable compared to the controls. The hemolysis caused by a range of NiTi surfaces was no different from that caused by polished 316L stainless steel or polished titanium surfaces. The spreading of platelets has been linked to the thrombogenicity of materials. Platelet studies here showed a significant increase in thrombogenicity on polished NiTi surfaces compared to 316L stainless steel and pure titanium surfaces. Heat treatment of NiTi was found to significantly reduce thrombogenicity, to the level of the control. The XPS results showed a significant decrease in the concentration of surface nickel with heat treatment and changes in the surface nickel itself from a metallic to an oxide state. This correlates with the observed reduction in thrombogenicity.
Diabetic Patients on Peritoneal Dialysis

During the past two decades, a number of studies have tried to evaluate the clinical status of dialyzed diabetic patients and the factors that may affect their outcomes. However, only a small number of diabetic patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) have been followed for over 5 years, which is largely because of the presence of various comorbid conditions at the start of dialysis, the coexisting, far‐advanced, target‐organ damage that may gradually progress during the course of dialysis and limit the long‐term survival on PD. On the contrary, among renal replacement therapies, survival of diabetic patients undergoing either PD or hemodialysis (HD) is probably similar, while diabetic patients on PD and HD have a lower actuarial survival than nondiabetic counterparts. This paper reviews our experience and the literature concerning the long‐term outcome of diabetic patients on PD.
Dapsone for chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura in children and adults – a report on 90 patients

Abstract: Data on 90 patients (55 adults and 35 children) with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and a platelet count of <50 × 109/L treated with dapsone at a dose of 1–2 mg/kg/d are presented. A response was observed in 57 (63.3%) patients. The average time for response was 3.5 months (range 1–9) and the average duration of treatment with dapsone was 10.4 months (range 4–14). Overall response rates of 65.7% and 61.8% were observed in children and adults respectively. Side effects requiring discontinuation of therapy were observed in three (2%) patients. These results demonstrate that dapsone is an effective, inexpensive and well‐tolerated treatment for chronic ITP, in both children and adults and could be considered for patients who fail steroid therapy.
Replacement of soybean meal with maize steep liquor in the diets of feedlot lambs

It was hypothesized that maize steep liquor, which is high in crude protein, could replace soybean meal in supplementation strategies in lamb production systems. Therefore, the effects of replacing soybean meal with maize steep liquor at 0%, 33%, 66% and 100% on a dry matter (DM) basis on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and carcass characteristics were assessed in feedlot lambs. Thirty-two Santa Ines intact male lambs, with an average initial weight of 21.0 ± 2.3 kg, were assigned to a completely randomized block design with four treatments and eight replicates. Intake of DM, organic matter, ether extract, neutral detergent fibre and total digestible nutrients were not affected by the diets. However, the intake of crude protein (CP) was reduced by 0.2 g/day for each 1% increase in the replacement level of soybean meal with maize steep liquor. Replacement of soybean meal with maize steep liquor in the diets did not affect the apparent digestibility of nutrients with the exception of CP, which decreased by 14.1 g/kg DM for each 1% increase in the replacement level of soybean meal. Similar trends were observed for average daily gain, hot carcass weight, cold carcass weight, hot carcass yield and cold carcass yield. From these results, soybean meal could be replaced by up to 100% with maize steep liquor in finishing diets for feedlot lambs. Keywords: Alternative feed, by-product, digestibility, intake, performance
PHYTOEXTRACTION OF AS AND FE USING HIBISCUS CANNABINUS L. FROM SOIL POLLUTED WITH LANDFILL LEACHATE

Terrestrial plants as potential phytoremediators for remediation of surface soil contaminated with toxic metals have gained attention in clean-up technologies. The potential of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) to offer a cost-effective mechanism to remediate Fe and As from landfill leachate-contaminated soil was investigated. Pot experiment employing soil polluted with treatments of Jeram landfill leachate was conducted for 120 days. Plants were harvested after 8th, 12th, and 16th weeks of growth. Accumulation of Fe and As was assessed based on Bioconcentration Factor and Translocation Factor. Results showed sequestration of 0.06–0.58 mg As and 66.82–461.71 mg Fe per g plant dry weight in kenaf root, which implies that kenaf root can be an bioavailable sink for toxic metals. Insignificant amount of Fe and As was observed in the aerial plant parts (<12% of total bioavailable metals). The ability of kenaf to tolerate these metals and avoid phytotoxicity could be attributed to the stabilization of the metals in the roots and hence reduction of toxic metal mobility (TF < 1). With the application of leachate, kenaf was also found to have higher biomass and subsequently recorded 11% higher bioaccumulation capacity, indicating its suitability for phytoextraction of leachate contaminated sites.
Evaluation of Premedicants as Protective Agents Against Convulsive (LD50) Doses of Local Anesthetic Agents in Rats

In 1925, Tatum and associates1 first proposed the use of barbiturates for prophylaxis to prevent convulsions following administration of local anesthetic agents. This concept is still favored by some2 but is opposed by others.3~4 Moore5 believes that barbiturates, although providing adequate sedation in certain cases, may make some patients restless and difficult to control. As antidote against systemic toxic reactions, oxygen inhalation has been recommended by Moore and Bridenbaughe and by Daos and coworkers. '
Anatomy of the gustatory system in the hamster: Central projections of the chorda tympani and the lingual neirve

The sensory modalities of taste and touch, for the anterior tongue, are relegated to separate cranial nerves. The lingual branch of the trigeminal nerve mediates touch; the chorda tympani branch of the facial nerve mediates taste. The chorda tympani also contains efferent axons which originate in the superior salivatory nucleus. The central projections of these two nerves have been visualized in the hamster by anterograde labelling with horseradish peroxidase (HRP).
Relationship of symptoms, perceived health, and stigma with quality of life among urban HIV-infected African American men.

OBJECTIVES To explore the relationship of symptom prevalence and intensity, perceptions of health, and stigma on quality of life (QOL) among HIV-infected African American men. DESIGN Cross-sectional correlational descriptive study. SAMPLES The sample consisted of HIV-infected African American men (N=55), all urban, age range 23-66 years (M=48.84, SD=7.67), average length of time since HIV diagnosis 10.79 years (SD=6.4). MEASUREMENTS A questionnaire consisting of 5 instruments was used: (a) sociodemographic characteristics, (b) Holzemer Signs and Symptom Checklist for HIV, (c) perceptions of health, (d) Berger HIV Stigma Scale, and (e) Holmes HIV/AIDS-Targeted Quality of Life Scale. RESULTS Prevalent symptoms were fatigue (98%), fear (92.7%), shortness of breath (92.7%), gastrointestinal upset (85.5%), numbness (80.0%), and headache (76.4%). Symptoms with the highest intensity were gastrointestinal upset, body changes, fear, and fatigue. Symptom intensity was significantly associated with the measures of stigma and QOL. CONCLUSIONS The results underscore the importance of incorporating a holistic view of the relationship of symptoms with QOL for HIV-infected African American men. Without efforts to ameliorate stigmatizing effects, however, nurses may be falling short in helping individual African American men with HIV infection achieve a better QOL.
Dietary habits and breast cancer incidence among seventh‐day adventists

Breast cancer incidence was monitored in a cohort of 20,341 California Seventh‐day Adventist women who completed a detailed lifestyle questionnaire in 1976, and who were followed for 6 years. There were 215 histologically confirmed primary breast cancer detected among some 115,000 person‐years of follow‐up. Mean age at diagnosis was 66 years, indicating a primarily postmenopausal case series. Established risk factors for breast cancer showed strong relationships to risk in these data. Age at first live birth, maternal history of breast cancer, age at menopause, educational attainment, and obesity were all significantly related to risk. However, increasing consumption of high fat animal products was not associated with increased risk of breast cancer in a consistent fashion. Nor were childhood and early teenage dietary habits (vegetarian versus nonvegetarian) related to subsequent, adult risk of developing breast cancer. Also, a derived index of percent of calories from animal fat in the adult years was not significantly related to risk. These results persisted after simultaneously controlling for other, potentially confounding variables, utilizing Cox proportional hazard regression models.
Survey of the knowledge, attitudes and practice of Italian beef and dairy cattle veterinarians concerning the use of antibiotics

Between June and September 2002 a telephone survey of Italian beef and dairy cattle veterinarians was made to obtain information about their use of antibiotics and their perception of the problem of antimicrobial resistance. A total of 106 veterinarians, selected at random from the membership lists of two professional societies, were interviewed by telephone, using a structured questionnaire concerning their background, training and continuing education activities, and current type of practice; their diagnostic, treatment, and prophylactic practices for mastitis, calf scours and respiratory disease; and their perception of the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance. The median age of the interviewees was 42˙5 (range 28 to 75) years; 62 per cent treated only dairy cattle, 10 per cent treated only beef cattle and 28 per cent treated both. Laboratory support was requested ‘frequently’ or ‘always’ by 67 per cent of the veterinarians when treating mastitis, by 37 per cent when treating calf scours and by 17 per cent when treating respiratory diseases. Twenty per cent reported using prophylactic antibiotics ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ for calf scours, 28 per cent for respiratory diseases, and 62 per cent reported their use ‘always’ or ‘often’ for mastitis. Fluoroquinolones, phenicols or third/fourth-generation cephalosporins were prescribed as first-choice drugs by 54 per cent for calf scours, by 12 per cent for bacterial respiratory diseases and by 6 per cent for mastitis. Therapeutic failure was reported ‘often’ (21 per cent) or ‘sometimes’ (64 per cent) and was the main predictor in a multivariate model of the use of newer antibiotics. The level of awareness of the problem of antibiotic resistance was high, although more than half of the interviewees were confident that new antimicrobial drugs were already available to replace those of lower effectiveness.
Discontinuities in university student experiences of learning through discussions

This article reports on research into the student experience of learning through discussions in a third-year undergraduate engineering subject. Information engineering students studying e-commerce were required to engage in face-to-face and online discussions as a key aspect of their learning experience. This study investigates the quality of the experience of learning through those discussions using quantitative methodologies from Student Learning Research. Analyses of student ratings on the closed-ended questionnaires identify qualitatively different approaches to learning through discussions, both in face-to-face contexts and online. Relationships are found among the variation in the quality of these approaches and how students perceive issues such as workload, what they thought they were learning through discussions and performance. Implications arising from these results identify different suggestions for teaching students to discuss successfully in different contexts.
Negative Expression of CPSF2 Predicts a Poorer Clinical Outcome in Patients with Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND The BRAF(V600E) mutation is a promising prognostic biomarker for patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), but its prevalence differs widely among different geographic regions. A recent study reported that loss of the Cleavage and Polyadenylation Specificity Factor Subunit 2 (CPSF2) gene was associated with increased cellular invasion, cancer stem cells, and aggressiveness of PTC. This study aimed at evaluating CPSF2 protein expression as a prognostic marker for PTC in a region with a high prevalence of the BRAF(V600E) mutation, Korea. METHODS This study included 159 patients with classical PTC who underwent a total thyroidectomy and received ablative doses of (131)I. The expression of CPSF2 protein was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and graded semi-quantitatively. The presence of the BRAF(V600E) mutation was evaluated by direct sequencing. RESULTS Negative protein expression of CPSF2 was observed in 34 (21.3%) of the 159 PTCs. In multivariate analysis, negative CPSF2 expression was significantly associated with cervical lymph node metastasis (odds ratio [OR]=2.56, p=0.28), and distant metastasis (OR=3.48, p=0.02). After adjusting for age, sex, tumor size, extrathyroidal invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and the BRAF(V600E) mutation, the CPSF2-negative group had a significantly lower recurrence-free survival compared to the CPSF2-positive group (hazard ratio=2.14, p=0.03). CONCLUSION Negative protein expression of CPSF2 is independently associated with a poor clinical outcome in PTC. CPSF2 could be a useful prognostic marker for PTC in regions with a high prevalence of the BRAF(V600E) mutation.
Coexistence of IEEE802.15.4 based networks: A survey

Wireless networks based on IEEE 802.15. 4 have paid great attention to the coexistence problem between themselves and with other non-IEEE 802.15. 4 wireless networks. This problem has been further emphasized by two new industry wireless standards, WirelessHART and ISA100 that are set to meet special industry requirements. In this paper, we firstly review the current solutions and analysis models in this field, and summarize the characters of different studies. Then, based on the survey study, we point out some new interests and development trend of future research. Finally, we discuss about some open research issues and suggest some solutions.
Rab3A and Rab3D Control the Total Granule Number and the Fraction of Granules Docked at the Plasma Membrane in PC12 Cells

Rab proteins are Ras‐like GTPases that regulate traffic along the secretory or endocytic pathways. Within the Rab family, Rab3 proteins are expressed at high levels in neurons and endocrine cells where they regulate release of dense core granules and synaptic vesicles. Immuno‐electron microscopy shows that Rab3A and Rab3D can coexist on the same granule before and after docking. Using electron microscopy of transfected PC12 cells, we report that expression of wild‐type Rab3A (or Rab3D) increases the total number of granules and the percentage that is docked at the plasma membrane. Mutated Rab3A N135I (or Rab3D N135I) decreases the total granule number and the fraction of granules docked to the plasma membrane. These data show that at least one of the functions of Rab3A and Rab3D proteins is to control the number of granules docked at the plasma membrane.
Stance Detection for the Fake News Challenge with Attention and Conditional Encoding

The in-progress Fake News Challenge is a public challenge tasking competitors to develop a stance detection tool that could ultimately be incorporated into a larger automatic fact-checking pipeline. 49,972 body-headline pairs are labeled with either ”Unrelated”, ”Discusses”, ”Agrees”, or ”Disagrees”, and it is the goal of the stance detection task to predict these labels. We applied the concepts of neural attention and conditional encoding to long short-term memory networks (LSTM) ultimately achieving a preliminary competition score of 0.808, improving over the competition baseline of 0.795 that relies on several hand-crafted linguistic features. Four models were evaluated: Bag of Words (BOW), basic LSTM, LSTM with attention, conditional encoding LSTM with attention (CEA LSTM). The attention models outperformed the simpler models on all performance metrics on the test set. In particular, the models with neural attention were able to achieve significantly higher F1 scores predicting the infrequent stances ”Agrees” and ”Disagrees”.