Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fertilizer Formulations and Methods of their Application Influences Vegetative Growth and Productivity in Organic Greenhouse Tomato

Investigations were conducted from 2006-2010 in order to develop a package of cultivation practices for producing organic greenhouse vegetables under Kuwait's environmental conditions. One of the objectives of these investigations was to evaluate different organic fertilizer formulations with a view to select fertilizers for organic greenhouse vegetable production. Commercial organic fertilizer formulations viz. Earth juice, fish hydrosylate (Neptunes Harvest), seaweed and desert bat guano (Squantos secret) were evaluated in different proportions, either as soil drench or foliar applications in tomato. Results revealed that soil application of Earth juice products and fish hydrosylate produced equally good or even better vegetative growth and fruit yields as compared to conventional fertilizers. Soil application of organic fertilizers was found to be significantly effective than the foliar application.
The structural design of the bat wing web and its possible role in gas exchange

The structure of the skin in the epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi) wing and body trunk was studied with a view to understanding possible adaptations for gas metabolism and thermoregulation. In addition, gas exchange measurements were performed using a respirometer designed for the purpose. The body skin had an epidermis, a dermis with hair follicles and sweat glands and a fat‐laden hypodermis. In contrast, the wing web skin was made up of a thin bilayered epidermis separated by a connective tissue core with collagen and elastic fibres and was devoid of hair follicles and sweat glands. The wings spanned 18–24 cm each, with about 753 cm2 of surface exposed to air. The body skin epidermis was thick (61 ± 3 µm, SEM), the stratum corneum alone taking a third of it (21 ± 3 µm). In contrast, the wing web skin epidermis was thinner at 9.8 ± 0.7 µm, with a stratum corneum measuring 4.1 ± 0.3 µm (41%). The wing capillaries in the wing web skin ran in the middle of the connective tissue core, with a resultant surface‐capillary diffusion distance of 26.8 ± 3.2 µm. The rate of oxygen consumption (V̇O2) of the wings alone and of the whole animal measured under light anaesthesia at ambient temperatures of 24 ºC and 33 ºC, averaged 6% and 10% of the total, respectively. Rate of carbon dioxide production had similar values. The membrane diffusing capacity for the wing web was estimated to be 0.019 ml O2 min−1 mmHg−1. We conclude that in Epomophorus wahlbergi, the wing web has structural modifications that permit a substantial contribution to the total gas exchange.
Coiled‐coil length: Size does matter

Protein evolution is governed by processes that alter primary sequence but also the length of proteins. Protein length may change in different ways, but insertions, deletions and duplications are the most common. An optimal protein size is a trade‐off between sequence extension, which may change protein stability or lead to acquisition of a new function, and shrinkage that decreases metabolic cost of protein synthesis. Despite the general tendency for length conservation across orthologous proteins, the propensity to accept insertions and deletions is heterogeneous along the sequence. For example, protein regions rich in repetitive peptide motifs are well known to extensively vary their length across species. Here, we analyze length conservation of coiled‐coils, domains formed by an ubiquitous, repetitive peptide motif present in all domains of life, that frequently plays a structural role in the cell. We observed that, despite the repetitive nature, the length of coiled‐coil domains is generally highly conserved throughout the tree of life, even when the remaining parts of the protein change, including globular domains. Length conservation is independent of primary amino acid sequence variation, and represents a conservation of domain physical size. This suggests that the conservation of domain size is due to functional constraints. Proteins 2015; 83:2162–2169. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Android Adiposity and Lack of Moderate and Vigorous Physical Activity Are Associated With Insulin Resistance and Diabetes in Aging Adults.

BACKGROUND Physical inactivity and excess adiposity are thought to be interdependent "lifestyle" factors and thus, many older adults are at exaggerated risk for preventable diseases. The purposes of this study were to determine the degree of discordance between body mass index (BMI) and adiposity among adults older than 50 years, and to determine the extent to which direct measures of adiposity, and objectively measured sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA) are associated with insulin resistance (IR) or diabetes. METHODS A population representative sample of 2,816 individuals, aged 50-85 years, was included from the combined 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) datasets. BMI, percent body fat (%BF) and android adiposity as determined by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, objectively measured SB and PA, established markers of cardiometabolic risk, IR, and type 2 diabetes were analyzed. RESULTS Approximately 50% of the men and 64% of the women who were normal weight according to BMI had excessive %BF. Adults with the least SB and greatest moderate and vigorous PA exhibited the healthiest cardiometabolic profiles, whereas adults with the greatest SB and lowest activity had highest risk. Greater android adiposity stores were robustly associated with IR or diabetes in all adults, independent of SB and activity. Among men, less moderate-to-vigorous PA was associated with IR or diabetes; whereas among women, less lifestyle moderate activity was associated with IR or diabetes. CONCLUSIONS Android adiposity and low moderate and vigorous PA are the strongest predictors of IR or diabetes among aging adults.
Was Induction of HIV-1 Through TLR9?

Equils et al. ([1][1]) reported implication of simultaneous activation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) on HIV replication. When spleen cells from HIV-1 transgenic mice were exposed to agonists of TLR2, TLR4, and TLR9, p24 production was induced. The agonist of TLR9 used in this study was bacterial CpG
How does cachexia influence survival in cancer, heart failure and other chronic diseases?

Purpose of reviewMetabolic, immunological and neurohormonal disturbances, body wasting, and poor patient performance frequently accompany chronic disease. Ultimately, cachexia may develop in 10–15% of patients, who usually perish soon after. We currently have neither a globally accepted definition of cachexia nor any treatment to prevent or treat cachexia. Recent findingsCachexia remains an unresolved issue in modern medicine. Despite its significant prevalence and poor prognosis, debate on the global definition of cachexia continues. We require a clinical definition, which should include the significant weight loss and its dynamics. There is accumulating evidence that various chronic diseases share pathophysiological mechanisms that lead to wasting and ultimately cachexia. Reversal of traditional cardiovascular risk factors is of value not only in chronic heart failure but also in chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. SummaryFuture trials to improve prognosis in patients with cachexia will require a global definition of cachexia and identification of key underlying mechanisms. Results with neurohormonal antagonists are intriguing, and clinical use of these agents would be feasible. While searching for treatments for full-blown cachexia, we should also aim to identify treatments directed at the causes in order to prevent its development.
Nosocomial bloodstream infections in children and adolescents in southern Israel: A 10-year prospective study (1992–2001)

We studied the epidemiology, microbiology, clinical presentation and outcome of nosocomial bloodstream infections (NBI) in children and adolescents in southern Israel during 1992–2001. Information on NBI was collected prospectively by active surveillance. NBI was diagnosed when a clinically significant positive blood culture was drawn in a patient during >48 h after admission. 469 episodes occurred in 370 children and adolescents aged 1 m–18 y. The overall incidence of NBI was 5.3/1000 patients, with no increase during the study period. A significant decrease in NBI incidence was recorded at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during 1997–2001 vs 1992–1996. The incidences of NBI at the paediatric ICU (PICU), paediatric wards and paediatric surgery departments (PSD) were 24.1, 2.8 and 2.5/1000 patients, with an increase in NBI cases at PICU and PSD during 1997–2001 vs 1992–1996. Of 661 pathogens, Gram-negative, Gram-positive and fungal organisms were isolated in 54.3%, 36.6% and 9.1% of cases, respectively. Enterobacteriaceae (34.6% of all isolates) were the most frequently isolated Gram-negative organisms. Enterococcus spp. , coagulase-negative staphylococci and Staphylococcus aureus (9.5% of all isolates each) were the most frequently isolated Gram-positive organisms. A significant increase was recorded in the incidence of NBI caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae and Pseudomonas spp. A significant decrease in the susceptibility of Enterobacteriaceae spp. to piperacillin, ceftazidime, gentamicin and ceftriaxone was recorded during the study period. 33 (8.9%) patients with NBI died.
Utility of Diagnostic and Prognostic Markers in Urothelial Carcinoma of the Bladder

Urothelial carcinoma (UCC) of the bladder demonstrates diverse morphologic features, often leading to diagnostic challenges in the discrimination between UCC and benign mimickers of neoplasia, and between primary UCC and secondary neoplasms involving the bladder. In situ lesions also provide diagnostic difficulty in some instances, most prominently in the distinction between normal, reactive urothelium and flat urothelial carcinoma in situ. The use of ancillary techniques, including panels of immunohistochemical markers, in distinguishing these entities has aided not only in the diagnosis of UCC, but has also provided insight into the molecular pathogenesis and prognostic value of numerous molecular pathways in UCC. This review focuses on some of the more commonly encountered biomarkers in UCC and their role in addressing key diagnostic and prognostic issues in this disease process.
Organizational Learning and New Product Introductions

Organizational learning widely is believed to be important to competitive performance of companies. The purpose of this article is to examine how organizations learn from their experiences in new product introductions. Theory suggests that organizations will display a “competency trap” that reduces their ability to learn from organizational experience. Often initial success can cause a firm to rely on a single or a few experiences to develop routines, discounting later experiences. Therefore it is expected that organizations will have trouble learning from experience. The theory was tested by examining all new product introductions in the U.S. shampoo industry from 1974–1987. The dynamic nature of the business—the average brand survives about two years—made this an attractive research venue. Using the econometric technique of survival time modeling, a model was fitted of survival of brands as a function of organizational experience and organizational experience squared. The model also included controls for financial resources available to the firm and the level of first year's advertising. The model confirmed the general hypothesis that firms' brands are less successful the more experience they have. This study interprets this as evidence of a competency trap in new product introductions. The results broadly are supportive of the hypothesis that organizations find it harder to learn from experience as experience grows. Untangling the source of this problem is a goal of further research. For practice, the article suggests caution to brand managers in experienced companies. There is no guarantee that firms grow in their ability to build brands; results here suggest the opposite. Formal reviews of the new product, its process, and its performance by senior managers for lessons learned is desirable. Management of individuals and organizations may facilitate learning from experience. For managing individuals, often product success brings about a reassignment of successful personnel; care should be taken to insure that individuals' learning is captured by the new product organization before reassignment. On the organizational level, formal brand management may be a highly effective method for managing an ongoing stable of long-lived brands but may be a poor choice in a dynamic market like shampoo. Companies may explore new organizational structures and departments to conceive and to develop new products since the skills required for managing ongoing brands may be different from creating new ones.
Ammonia Prevents Activation of NMDA Receptors by Glutamate in Rat Cerebellar Neuronal Cultures

Acute ammonia toxicity is mediated by activation of NMDA receptors and is prevented by chronic moderate hyperammonaemia. The aim of this work was to assess whether the protective effect of chronic hyperammonaemia is due to impaired activation of the NMDA receptor. It is shown that chronic hyperammonaemia in rats decreases the binding of [3H]MK‐801 to synaptosomal membranes from the hippocampus but not the amount of NMDAR1 receptor protein as determined by immunoblotting. In primary cultures of cerebellar neurons, long‐term treatment with 1 mM ammonia also decreased significantly the binding of [3H]MK‐801. These results suggest that ammonia impairs NMDA receptor activation. To confirm this possibility we tested the effect of long‐term treatment of the cultured neurons with 1 mM ammonia on three well known events evoked by activation of the NMDA receptor: neuronal death induced by glutamate, increase in aspartate aminotransferase activity and increase in free intracellular [Ca2+]. Long‐term treatment with ammonia prevented noticeably the effects of glutamate or NMDA on all these parameters. These results indicate that long‐term treatment of neurons with 1 mM ammonia leads to impaired function of the NMDA receptor, which cannot be activated by glutamate or NMDA. Activation of protein kinase C by a phorbol ester restored the ability of the NMDA receptor to be activated in neurons treated with ammonia. This suggests that ammonia impairs NMDA receptor function by decreasing protein kinase C‐dependent phosphorylation.
Performance Evaluation of Mutual Funds in Indonesia

This paper is an empirical assessment of the performance of mutual fund managers in terms of “market timing” and “selectivity”, within the framework suggested by Treynor and Mazuy (1966) and Henriksson and Merton (1981). The relevant data set is a balanced panel of fifty five mutual funds, over a seventeen-month period beginning on February 2008 until June 2009. The result find that only four mutual fund have a good performance in market timing and four mutual fund have a good performance in stock selection. Both methods have a good indicator to reflect mutual funds performance.
HIGH PREVALENCE AND EARLY COMPLICATION OF SYMPTOMATIC VERTEBRAL FRACTURE IN ELDERLY PEOPLE TREATED WITH HIGH‐DOSE GLUCOCORTICOIDS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Conflict of Interest: None of the authors have received financial support for the purpose of this study. The authors do not have a conflict of interest to report related to this letter. Author Contributions: The first three authors were involved to an equal extent in the design and execution of the study. For the analysis of the data and production of the manuscript they collaborated with the other authors. All authors take full responsibility for the final manuscript. Sponsor’s Role: Not applicable.
Human chorionic gonadotropin decreases human breast cancer cell proliferation and promotes differentiation

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a glycoprotein produced by placental trophoblasts. Previous studies indicated that hCG could be responsible for the pregnancy‐induced protection against breast cancer in women. It is reported that hCG decreases proliferation and invasion of breast cancer MCF‐7 cells. Our research also demonstrates that hCG can reduce the proliferation of MCF‐7 cells by downregulating the expression of proliferation markers, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and proliferation‐related Ki‐67 antigen (Ki‐67). Interestingly, we find here that hCG elevates the state of cellular differentiation, as characterized by the upregulation of differentiation markers, β‐casein, cytokeratin‐18 (CK‐18), and E‐cadherin. Inhibition of hCG secretion or luteinizing hormone/hCG receptors (LH/hCGRs) synthesis can weaken the effect of hCG on the induction of cell differentiation. Furthermore, hCG can suppress the expression of estrogen receptor alpha. hCG activated receptor‐mediated cyclic adenosine monophosphate/protein kinase A signaling pathway. These findings indicated that a protective effect of hCG against breast cancer may be associated with its growth inhibitory and differentiation induction function in breast cancer cells. © 2014 IUBMB Life, 66(5):352–360, 2014
Perpetual Asset Management of Customer-Based Brand Equity-The PAM Evaluator

Customers and brands are the two most important intangible assets of any organization. This is a study about managing brands from customers viewpoints named as perpet ual asset management. A model named as PAM evaluator has been formulated to discuss the importance of the effect of the brand assets treated as antecedents like brand name, awareness, personality and consequences like brand preference and purchase intention on customer based brand equity. The brand Nokia has been taken for the research. Hypotheses have been proposed and tested by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).
Maternal immunity to insulin does not affect diabetes risk in progeny of non obese diabetic mice

It has been suggested that maternal environment, in particular maternal autoantibodies, modify the risk of developing autoimmune diabetes in offspring. The aim of this study was to determine whether modification of maternal environment and maternal diabetes risk through immunization affects autoimmune diabetes risk in the progeny. The risk of developing insulin antibodies and of developing diabetes was determined in 113 female progeny of non obese diabetic (NOD) dams that were immunized with insulin, control antigen or vehicle before or during pregnancy. Although NOD dams immunized with insulin were rendered diabetes resistant (40% diabetes by age 36 weeks versus 100% in control dams), diabetes development in their female offspring (72%, 26/36) was similar to that in female offspring of dams immunized with glucagon (82%, 22/27) or vehicle (76%, 19/25). Furthermore, no significant differences in diabetes development or insulin autoantibody titres were observed between female progeny of insulin autoantibody positive NOD dams (82% diabetes by age 36 weeks, 18/22), insulin autoantibody negative NOD dams (75%, 41/55), and NOD dams that had antibodies against exogneous insulin (71%, 22/31). The findings suggest that modification of the maternal risk for autoimmune diabetes via antigen‐specific immunization is not transferred to progeny and that fetal exposure to insulin autoantibodies does not increase the risk for diabetes development.
A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 33 protein in patients with asthma: Relevance to airflow limitation.

BACKGROUND ADAM33 has been identified as a novel asthma susceptibility gene in genomewide screening and association studies. High-level expression in smooth muscles and fibroblasts suggests that ADAM33 plays a role in airway remodeling in patients with asthma. METHODS The ADAM33 protein was identified in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluids of patients with asthma and normal control subjects using Western blotting antibody against the catalytic domain. ADAM33 expression was analyzed using immunohistochemical staining of mucosal biopsy specimens. The levels of ADAM33 protein in the BAL fluids were measured by dot blotting, and were correlated with the FEV1 values of the patients with asthma. RESULTS Western blot analysis revealed the presence of the ADAM33 protein, with a molecular mass of approximately 55 kD in the BAL fluids. ADAM33 was expressed in the smooth muscles and basement membranes of almost all the patients with asthma, but was absent in the normal control subjects. The ADAM33 levels were increased significantly in patients with moderate to severe asthma and in patients with mild asthma, as compared with normal control subjects (p = 0.001 and p = 0.016, respectively). The ADAM33 protein levels correlated inversely with the FEV(1)% predicted in the patients with asthma (r = -0.486, p = 0.018). CONCLUSIONS ADAM33 is associated with asthma development, and the levels of ADAM protein are related to asthma severity.
Selective Autophagy of BES 1 Mediated by DSK 2 Balances Plant Growth and Survival

Plants encounter a variety of stresses and must fine-tune their growth and stress-response programs to best suit their environment. BES1 functions as a master regulator in the brassinosteroid (BR) pathway that promotes plant growth. Here, we show that BES1 interacts with the ubiquitin receptor protein DSK2 and is targeted to the autophagy pathway during stress via the interaction of DSK2 with ATG8, a ubiquitin-like protein directing autophagosome formation and cargo recruitment. Additionally, DSK2 is phosphorylated by the GSK3-like kinase BIN2, a negative regulator in the BR pathway. BIN2 phosphorylation of DSK2 flanking its ATG8 interacting motifs (AIMs) promotes DSK2-ATG8 interaction, thereby targeting BES1 for degradation. Accordingly, loss-of-function dsk2 mutants accumulate BES1, have altered global gene expression profiles, and have compromised stress responses. Our results thus reveal that plants coordinate growth and stress responses by integrating BR and autophagy pathways and identify the molecular basis of this crosstalk. Disciplines Cell Biology | Developmental Biology | Genetics | Plant Biology Comments This is a manuscript of an article published as Nolan, Trevor M. , Benjamin Brennan, Mengran Yang, Jiani Chen, Mingcai Zhang, Zhaohu Li, Xuelu Wang, Diane C. Bassham, Justin Walley, and Yanhai Yin. "Selective autophagy of BES1 mediated by DSK2 balances plant growth and survival. " Developmental cell 41, no. 1 (2017): 33-46.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.devcel. 2017.03. 013. Posted with permission. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Authors Trevor M. Nolan, Benjamin Brennan, Mengran Yang, Jiani Chen, Mingcai Zhang, Zhaohu Li, Xuelu Wang, Diane C. Bassham, Justin Walley, and Yanhai Yin This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/gdcb_las_pubs/210 Selective Autophagy of BES1 Mediated by DSK2 Balances Plant Growth and Survival Trevor M. Nolan1, Benjamin Brennan1, Mengran Yang2, Jiani Chen1, Mingcai Zhang3, Zhaohu Li3, Xuelu Wang2, Diane C. Bassham1, Justin Walley4, and Yanhai Yin1,*,5 1Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA 2College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China 3Department of Agronomy, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China 4Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA