Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The decrease of the cytoskeleton tubulin follows the decrease of the associating molecular chaperone αB‐crystallin in unloaded soleus muscle atrophy without stretch

The cytoskeletal component tubulin/microtubule commonly allows the cell to respond mechanically to the environment. The concentration of free tubulin dimer is autoregulated in the balance of free dimer and polymeric forms of microtubule (MT) protein, having an intrinsic property of “dynamic instability”, and through cotranslational β‐tubulin mRNA degradation. Recently, we have demonstrated that αB‐crystallin is a key molecule of muscle atrophy, since αB‐crystallin has a chaperone‐like‐activity that suppresses tubulin aggregation and protects the MT disassembly against both Ca2+ and depolymelizing alkaloid in vitro. Most of the small heat‐shock proteins (sHsps), including αB‐crystallin, are expressed in skeletal muscle. However, no report to date has studied the changes of tubulin/MT during muscle adaptation. Here, we examined changes in tubulin content in rat soleus muscles after hindlimb suspension (HS) with/without passive stretch and the recovery. HS induced rapid decreases of soleus muscle mass, most Hsps (αB‐crystallin, Hsp90, Hsp70, Hsp27, and p20) and tubulin contents in soleus muscle, while heat‐shock cognate 70‐kDa protein (Hsc70) did not decrease. Soleus muscle mass, most Hsps, and tubulin were maintained with passive stretch. After 5 days' recovery, the levels of tubulin and Hsps, but not Hsc70, were restored to control levels. The interactions of αB‐crystallin and tubulin/MT were observed with immunoprecipitation with an anti‐α‐tubulin antibody and taxol‐dependent MT assembly. Other sHsps were also associated with αB‐crystallin and MT, whereas Hsp90 and Hsp70 did not co‐precipitate with them. These data imply an interaction and close relationship between αB‐crystallin and tubulin/MTs in muscle tissues. The amount of mRNA of αB‐crystallin decreased with the muscle atrophy level, whereas the gene expression level of βI‐tubulin was maintained during HS. This means a significant role of post‐transcriptional regulation in tubulin/MT system in muscle adaptation, whereas αB‐crystallin and most sHsps are regulated at the transcriptional level. Additional functional contribution of αB‐crystallin to tubulin/MTs during myotube formation was examined using C2C12 myoblast cultured cells, the αB‐crystallin expression of which was decreased or increased. It indicated the necessity of αB‐crystallin during microtubule reorganization. In conclusion, tubulin/MTs were revealed to be one of the substrates of αB‐crystallin, and also serial decreases of αB‐crystallin and tubulin/MT in early soleus muscle atrophy suggest that the chaperone effect of αB‐crystallin on the cytoskeleton, which may be also dynamically regulated in the muscle cell, is a key mechanism for muscle adaptation and protection of the atrophy and also muscle differentiation.
Storm effects on intertidal invertebrates: increased beta diversity of few individuals and species

Climate change is predicted to lead to more extreme weather events, including changes to storm frequency, intensity and location. Yet the ecological responses to storms are incompletely understood for sandy shorelines, the globe’s longest land-ocean interface. Here we document how storms of different magnitude impacted the invertebrate assemblages on a tidal flat in Brazil. We specifically tested the relationships between wave energy and spatial heterogeneity, both for habitat properties (habitat heterogeneity) and fauna (β-diversity), predicting that larger storms redistribute sediments and hence lead to spatially less variable faunal assemblages. The sediment matrix tended to become less heterogeneous across the flat after high-energy wave events, whereas β-diversity increased after storms. This higher β-diversity was primarily driven by species losses. Significantly fewer species at a significantly lower density occurred within days to weeks after storms. Negative density and biomass responses to storm events were most prominent in crustaceans. Invertebrate assemblages appeared to recover within a short time (weeks to months) after storms, highlighting that most species typical of sedimentary shorelines are, to some degree, resilient to short-term changes in wave energy. Given that storm frequency and intensity are predicted to change in the coming decades, identifying properties that determine resilience and recovery of ecosystems constitute a research priority for sedimentary shorelines and beyond.
Mapping trade policy : understanding the challenges of civil society participation

iii Summary This paper examines the way that a range of development actors view and engage with the arena of trade policy, focusing in particular on the challenges encountered by civil society actors participating in that arena. The dynamics of civil society participation in the trade arena – what might be achieved, and how – are very different from those that shape civil society participation in processes labelled poverty reduction; this paper explores the differences. To achieve this, we provide an overview of the international trade policy landscape, and discuss factors that shape participation at the interfaces of trade and development policy processes. We go on to present the views and perspectives of two sets of civil society actors – UK-based international non-government organisations, and Ugandan and Kenyan civil society organisations – about their experiences and strategies of engagement and participation. Finally we reflect on some of the challenges of civil society participation in the trade arena: structural complexity and inequities, the exclusion of alternatives to trade liberalisation narratives, and the dynamics of representation.
Cardioprotective effects of curcumin and nebivolol against doxorubicin-induced cardiac toxicity in rats

Doxorubicin (DOX) is used in the treatment of cancer. However, cardiotoxicity is its major dose-limiting factor. Mechanism of DOX–cardiac toxicity is not completely elucidated. The aim of the current study was to explore whether the addition of subeffective dose of curcumin (100 mg/kg) to nebivolol would produce a better impact in treating DOX-induced cardiac toxicity in comparison with monotherapy. Male rats were used and subdivided into seven groups. Cardiac toxicity was induced in 6 groups by intraperitoneal injection of DOX over 23 days; of the six groups, five groups were treated with curcumin (100 and 200 mg/kg), nebivolol (1 and 2 mg/kg), and their combination; the sixth group was the control group used for comparison. Oral administration of curcumin and/or nebivolol attenuated DOX cardiotoxicity as manifested by increasing survival rate, improvement in body weight, heart index, and ECG parameters, increase in ventricular isoprenaline responses, and improvement in cardiac enzymes, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and histopathological picture. The addition of the current low subeffective dose of curcumin to nebivolol ameliorated DOX cardiac toxicity to a much greater extent than monotherapy showing better antioxidant and antiapoptotic effects versus the per se effect of nebivolol. Therefore, the current study encourages adding low dose of curcumin to potentiate the effect of nebivolol in the clinical management of cardiac toxicity improving the patients’ quality of life if proper clinical safety data are available.
Caregiver Burden in Medical versus Psychiatric Patients: A Cross-sectional Comparative Study

Background: An informal care-giver is generally an unpaid individual who looks after the personal and medical needs of the patient. India being a country of traditions and family values, this informal care-giver is usually a family member. These care-givers, being untrained in this job undergo tremendous stress. Available research studies the burden individually in the relatives of chronically medically ill patients and those of psychiatrically ill patients. Furthermore the previous research targets the burden in individual diseases. This study stands out as it makes a comparison between the two broad groups, taking into account almost all possible chronic diseases in each group. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytical descriptive study that was conducted on the family caregivers of chronically medically ill and psychiatrically ill patients, using the Caregiver's Burden Scale. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 statistical software and Pearson correlation coefficient tests. Significant difference between area of caregiver burden of medicine and psychiatric patients was tested using relative deviate “Z” of SEDM test at 5% level of significance. Result: There is a significant difference between each category of Caregiver's Burden Scale among chronically medically ill and psychiatrically ill patients. (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The outcome of this study may help the health care providers in designing stress relief programs for primary care-givers. Overall this study may help better delivery systems of care for both the chronically medically ill as well as psychiatrically ill patients, by proper specific framing and psycho education programs for the caregivers of specific chronic illnesses.
VPg of tobacco etch potyvirus is a host genotype-specific determinant for long-distance movement

The V20 cultivar of Nicotiana tabacum was shown previously to exhibit a strain-specific restriction of long-distance movement of tobacco etch potyvirus (TEV). In V20, both TEV-HAT and TEV-Oxnard strains are capable of genome amplification and cell-to-cell movement, but only TEV-Oxnard is capable of systemic infection by vasculature-dependent long-distance movement. To investigate the basis for host-specific movement of TEV, chimeric virus genomes were assembled from TEV-HAT and TEV-Oxnard. Viruses containing the TEV-Oxnard coding regions for HC-Pro and/or capsid protein (CP), two proteins that are known to be essential for TEV long-distance movement, failed to infect V20 systemically. In contrast, chimeric viruses encoding the TEV-Oxnard VPg domain of NIa were able to infect V20 systemically. The critical region controlling the infection phenotype in V20 was mapped to a 67-nucleotide segment containing 10-nucleotide differences, but only five amino acid differences, between TEV-HAT and TEV-Oxnard. In V20 coinfection experiments, a restricted strain had no effect on systemic infection by a long-distance movement-competent chimeric strain, suggesting that the restricted strain was not inducing a generalized systemic resistance response. These data suggest that the VPg domain, which is covalently attached to the 5' end of genomic RNA, interacts either directly or indirectly with host components to facilitate long-distance movement.
DNA methylation and demethylation: A pathway to gametogenesis and development

The generation of gametes falls between two reprogramming phases. These phases are characterised by profound periods of transcriptional activity, which define and reinforce lineage decisions. The control of these transcriptional programs and the interpretation of the underlying genetic instruction is the task of the epigenome. As such, dynamic processes during reprogramming are critical for the development of the germ line and its resetting, which propels that developmental process forward and provides the transfer of genetic and epigenetic information between generations. Central in this reprogramming is the addition and subtraction of DNA methylation and its oxidative products, coupled to the mechanisms at play to achieve this goal. The activities competent to add DNA methylation, and identification of those enzymes able to modify it, have heralded a new chapter in our understanding of the complexities that dictate and direct cellular fates. How the early embryos makes use of these marks and how they are modulated will give us insight into cellular differentiation and reprogramming critical for health and into the process of aging. This review details some of these processes and the activities essential to achieve the immortality of the mammalian germ line. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 81: 113–125, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Missing Link in Coronavirus Assembly

One missing link in the coronavirus assembly is the physical interaction between two crucial structural proteins, the membrane (M) and envelope (E) proteins. In this study, we demonstrate that the coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus E can physically interact, via a putative peripheral domain, with M. Deletion of this domain resulted in a drastic reduction in the incorporation of M into virus-like particles. Immunofluorescent staining of cells coexpressing M and E supports that E interacts with M and relocates M to the same subcellular compartments that E resides in. E was retained in the pre-Golgi membranes, prior to being translocated to the Golgi apparatus and the secretory vesicles; M was observed to exhibit similar localization and translocation profiles as E when coexpressed with E. Deletion studies identified the C-terminal 6-residue RDKLYS as the endoplasmic reticulum retention signal of E, and site-directed mutagenesis of the −4 lysine residue to glutamine resulted in the accumulation of E in the Golgi apparatus. The third domain of E that plays a crucial role in virus budding is a putative transmembrane domain present at the N-terminal region, because deletion of the domain resulted in a free distribution of the mutant protein and in dysfunctional viral assembly.
Low-Carbon Off-Grid Electrification for Rural Areas: Lessons from the Developing World

Low-carbon off-grid electrification for rural areas is becoming increasingly popular in developed nations such as the United Kingdom. However, many developing countries have been electrifying their rural areas in this way for decades. Case study fieldwork in Nepal and findings from UK-based research will be used to examine how developed nations can learn from the experience of developing countries with regards the institutional environment and delivery approach adopted in renewable energy off-grid rural electrification. A clearer institutional framework and more direct external assistance during project development are advised. External coordinators should also engage the community in a mobilization process a priori to help alleviate internal conflicts of interest that could later impede a project. ©2010 IEEE.
The influence of mobile instant messaging in language education: perceptions of current and future teachers

ABSTRACT The globalisation of mobile instant messaging (MIM) in applications like WhatsApp encourages the use of a non-standard linguistic register. The purpose of this study is to determine and assess the perception of school teachers and teaching students on this issue in relation to the language education. This descriptive transectional study has been carried out with a non-probabilistic sample of 652 people, of whom 321 are active teachers at public schools (Infant, Elementary and Secondary School) in the province of Málaga (Spain), and 331 are students of the four courses in Primary Education at the University of Málaga. The data were collected through an own questionnaire, validated through a pilot test of the instrument, which yielded both qualitative and quantitative information. The results show no significant differences between the perceptions of teachers and students regarding the influence of MIM on the increasingly less normative linguistic uses of school-age children. Finally, the conclusion discusses the benefits and difficulties of the use of this kind of app in the classroom. Both groups agree on the need to work with this issue outside of school and to use instant messaging as a resource to improve language education.
A scaling relation for disc galaxies: Circular-velocity gradient versus central surface brightness

For disc galaxies, a close relation exists between the distribution of light and the shape of the rotation curve. We quantify this relation by measuring the inner circular-velocity gradient dRV(0) for spiral and irregular galaxies with high-quality rotation curves. We find that dRV(0) correlates with the central surface brightness μ0 over more than two orders of magnitude in dRV(0) and four orders of magnitudes in μ0. This is a scaling relation for disc galaxies. It shows that the central stellar density of a galaxy closely relates to the inner shape of the potential well, also for low-luminosity and low-surface-brightness galaxies that are expected to be dominated by dark matter.
Functional Similarity between E6 Proteins of Cutaneous Human Papillomaviruses and the Adenovirus E1A Tumor-Restraining Module

ABSTRACT The adenovirus E1A C-terminal region restrains oncogenic transformation through interaction with three distinct cellular protein complexes that include the DYRK1A/1B/HAN11 complex. The E6 proteins of beta-human papillomaviruses (beta-HPVs) also interact with the DYRK1/HAN11 complex. A variant of HPV5 E6 frequently found in epidermodysplasia verruciformis skin lesions interacted less efficiently with DYRK1A/HAN11. The E6 variant and E7 of HPV5 efficiently coimmortalized primary epithelial cells, suggesting that naturally arising variants may contribute potential oncogenic activities of beta-HPV E6 proteins.
Specific detection and confirmation of Campylobacter jejuni by DNA hybridization and PCR

Conventional detection and confirmation methods for Campylobacter jejuni are lengthy and tedious. A rapid hybridization protocol in which a 1,475-bp chromogen-labelled DNA probe (pDT1720) and Campylobacter strains filtered and grown on 0.22-micron-pore-size hydrophobic grid membrane filters (HGMFs) are used was developed. Among the environmental and clinical isolates of C. jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter jejuni subsp. doylei, Campylobacter lari, and Arcobacter nitrofigilis and a panel of 310 unrelated bacterial strains tested, only C. jejuni and C. jejuni subsp. doylei isolates hybridized with the probe under stringent conditions. The specificity of the probe was confirmed when the protocol was applied to spiked skim milk and chicken rinse samples. Based on the nucleotide sequence of pDT1720, a pair of oligonucleotide primers was designed for PCR amplification of DNA from Campylobacter spp. and other food pathogens grown overnight in selective Mueller-Hinton broth with cefoperazone and growth supplements. All C. jejuni strains tested, including DNase-producing strains and C. jejuni subsp. doylei, produced a specific 402-bp amplicon, as confirmed by restriction and Southern blot analysis. The detection range of the assay was as low as 3 CFU per PCR to as high as 10(5) CFU per PCR for pure cultures. Overnight enrichment of chicken rinse samples spiked initially with as little as approximately 10 CFU/ml produced amplicons after the PCR. No amplicon was detected with any of the other bacterial strains tested or from the chicken background microflora. Since C. jejuni is responsible for 99% of Campylobacter contamination in poultry, PCR and HGMF hybridization were performed on naturally contaminated chicken rinse samples, and the results were compared with the results of conventional cultural isolation on Preston agar. All samples confirmed to be culture positive for C. jejuni were also identified by DNA hybridization and PCR amplification, thus confirming that these DNA-based technologies are suitable alternatives to time-consuming conventional detection methods. DNA hybridization, besides being sensitive, also has the potential to be used in direct enumeration of C. jejuni organisms in chicken samples.
Magnetic resonance imaging with an optical atomic magnetometer

We report an approach for the detection of magnetic resonance imaging without superconducting magnets and cryogenics: optical atomic magnetometry. This technique possesses a high sensitivity independent of the strength of the static magnetic field, extending the applicability of magnetic resonance imaging to low magnetic fields and eliminating imaging artifacts associated with high fields. By coupling with a remote-detection scheme, thereby improving the filling factor of the sample, we obtained time-resolved flow images of water with a temporal resolution of 0.1 s and spatial resolutions of 1.6 mm perpendicular to the flow and 4.5 mm along the flow. Potentially inexpensive, compact, and mobile, our technique provides a viable alternative for MRI detection with substantially enhanced sensitivity and time resolution for various situations where traditional MRI is not optimal.
A Modern Theory of Kuznets’ Hypothesis

The Kuznets hypothesis The character of evolution of the distribution of income along an economy’s development process has been a theme with a long history in economic enquiry. The literature starts with the classic contribution of Simon Kuznets (1955), who was the first to identify economic growth as a determinant cause of long term changes in the distribution of income. Establishing his proposition on data from the time of industrialization of currently advanced nations, Kuznets (1955) initiated the idea that the inequality characterizing income distribution exhibits a non-monotonic trend along the process of economic development: it appears to widen during a society’s transition from a pre-industrial to an industrial system, it remains stable for a while and narrows as more mature stages of growth are reached.1This systematic evolution of income distribution along a country’s development path became known as the Kuznets Curve –an inverted U-shape relationship between income per capita and personal income inequality.
Dietary Benzo[a]pyrene Intake from Meat and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Introduction: One possible mechanism for the postulated link between high consumption of meat and colorectal cancer (CRC) is the content of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) in meat. Methods: We investigated this association in a population-based case-control study in Western Australia (567 cases and 713 controls). Participants' self-report of meat consumption and lifestyle was used in conjunction with the CHARRED carcinogen database to estimate their BaP intake. Results: Dietary exposure to BaP from meat consumption was not associated with the risk of CRC. Conclusions: Our findings do not support the hypothesis that BaP exposure from meat consumption is a risk factor for CRC. Impact statement: This large-scale case-control study used a detailed meat questionnaire in conjunction with the CHARRED database in a large population with high meat intake but was unable to find any association between intake of BaP and colorectal cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(12); 3182–4. ©2010 AACR.
Existence of two D-alanine:D-alanine ligases in Escherichia coli: cloning and sequencing of the ddlA gene and purification and characterization of the DdlA and DdlB enzymes.

Two distinct genes encoding D-alanine:D-alanine (D-Ala-D-Ala) ligase (ADP forming) activity in Escherichia coli have been cloned by complementation of E. coli strain ST640(lambda 112) deficient in D-Ala-D-Ala ligase activity with a lambda library of E. coli DNA. One of the two genes, designated as ddlB, is identical with the ddl gene already sequenced [Robinson, A.C. , Kenan, D.L. , Sweeney, J., & Donachie, W.D. (1986) J. Bacteriol. 167, 809-817]. We describe the subcloning and DNA sequencing of the other gene, designated as ddlA on the basis of similarities with the Salmonella typhimurium ddlA gene [Daub, E. , Zawadzke, L.E. , Botstein, D. , & Walsh, C.T. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 3701-3708]. The predicted amino acid sequence of the E. coli DdlA enzyme shows 90% homology with the S. typhimurium DdlA sequence. The ddlB gene was subcloned by use of the polymerase chain reaction into an expression vector containing an optimized ribosome binding site, which expressed the DdlB enzyme to greater than 50% soluble cell protein. Both DdlA and DdlB enzymes were purified to greater than 90% homogeneity and characterized kinetically.