Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Unstable Competence-Induced Protein, CoiA, Promotes Processing of Donor DNA after Uptake during Genetic Transformation in Streptococcus pneumoniae

ABSTRACT Natural genetic transformation in Streptococcus pneumoniae entails transcriptional activation of at least two sets of genes. One set of genes, activated by the competence-specific response regulator ComE, is involved in initiating competence, whereas a second set is activated by the competence-specific alternative sigma factor ComX and functions in DNA uptake and recombination. Here we report an initial characterization of CoiA, a ComX-dependent gene product that is induced during competence and is required for transformation. CoiA is widely conserved among gram-positive bacteria, and in streptococci, the entire coiA locus composed of four genes is conserved. By use of immunoblot assay, we show that, similar to its message, CoiA protein is transient, appearing at 10 min and largely disappearing by 30 min post-competence induction. Using complementation analysis, we establish that coiA is the only gene of this induced locus needed for transformability. We find no indication of CoiA having a role in regulating competence. Finally, using 32P- and 3H-labeled donor DNA, we demonstrate that a coiA mutant can internalize normal amounts of donor DNA compared to the wild-type strain but is unable to process it into viable transformants, suggesting a role for CoiA after DNA uptake, either in DNA processing or recombination.
Developmental competence of oocytes showing increased cytoplasmic viscosity.

BACKGROUND The objective of the study was to investigate the developmental fate of oocytes with increased cytoplasmic viscosity as assessed by the persistence of the injection funnel after withdrawal of the ICSI pipette. METHODS For this purpose, 1008 oocytes showing a characteristic injection funnel during ICSI were subdivided into two groups according to the oocyte's ability to restore its spherical shape within 2-3 min after ICSI. Fertilization and further development was evaluated in both groups. In addition, implantation and pregnancy rates were analysed. RESULTS In the funnel positive cohort (group 1) significantly fewer oocytes degenerated after injection (P < 0.01) compared with oocytes without persistent funnel (group 2). However, at zygote stage, presence of a halo (P < 0.05) and a optimal pronuclear pattern 0 (P < 0.01) was increased in group 2. In addition, significantly fewer poor quality embryos were found in this group (P < 0.01). The number of good quality blastocysts but not blastocyst formation was increased in group 2 (P < 0.05). This resulted in an increased clinical pregnancy rate if embryos which derived exclusively from funnel negative oocytes were transferred (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest that cytoplasm of higher viscosity delays development up to cleavage stage and impairs optimal development. Injection funnel persistence was found to be a negative prognostic marker of preimplantation development.
Degradation of Hexagonal Silicon Carbide-based Bipolar Devices

Silicon carbide displays multiple characteristics that make it ideally suited for efficient high voltage switching devices. However, the commercialization of this technology has been hampered by degradation of SiC p-n junctions due to the expansion of Shockleytype stacking faults. The faults gradually cover most of the junction area and impede current flow. This talk will on physics and materials science of this phenomenon including: properties of faults in hexagonal SiC polytypes and their bounding dislocations, mechanism and driving force for fault expansion, and their nucleation sites. The approaches to materials growth and processing leading to elimination of this effect will be discussed.
Metabotropic glutamate receptors contribute to neocortical synaptic plasticity in vivo

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) have been shown to be important for hippocampus-dependent memory, as well as activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. In this study, we examined the role of mGluRs in the induction of two forms of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), in the neocortex of awake, freely-moving rats. The mGluR antagonist AIDA was administered during the induction of LTP or LTD in the motor cortex. There was a 50% reduction of LTP induced in the early component of the evoked response, but there was no effect on the late component and no effect on the induction of LTD. Thus, mGluRs contribute to at least one form of activity dependent synaptic plasticity in the neocortex.
The contribution of satellite glial cells to chemotherapy‐induced neuropathic pain

Chemotherapy‐induced peripheral neuropathy is a serious side effect in cancer treatment, a major manifestation being neuropathic pain that can be debilitating and can reduce the quality of life of the patient. Oxaliplatin and taxol are common anti‐cancer drugs that induce neuropathic pain by an unknown mechanism. We tested the hypothesis that satellite glial cells in dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) are altered in chemotherapy‐induced peripheral neuropathy models and contribute to neuropathic pain.
Profile of Indian patients with premature canities

Background: Premature canities is a common yet incompletely understood dermatological entity with scarce demographic and clinical data. Aim: Evaluation of the demographic and clinical profile of cases with premature canities and to look for systemic associations. Methods: Fifty two self-reported cases of premature canities (onset before 20 years of age) and an equal number of healthy controls were recruited from the outpatient department of the Department of Dermatology, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital Delhi, India from November 2011 to March 2013. A detailed history including onset, duration and pattern of involvement, a family history with pedigree charting and scalp examination were recorded on a predesigned proforma. A history of atopy was looked for in all study subjects and they were screened for thyroid disorder and diabetes. Results: The mean age of cases and controls was comparable. The mean age of onset of graying was 11.6 ± 3.6 years. The mean duration at the time of presentation was 39.8 ± 37.2 months. The frontal region was the earliest affected area in 25 (48.1%) cases. Positive family history of premature canities was reported in 39 (75%) cases with an equal prevalence on paternal and maternal sides. More than half of the cases, 29 (55.8%) reported having a first degree relative affected by premature canities, 13 (25%) had a second degree and 20 (38.5%) had a third degree relative affected. Atopy was found to be strongly associated with premature canities with an odds ratio of 3.8. No association with thyroid abnormality or diabetes mellitus was seen. Limitation: The study suffered from the limitation of a small sample size. Conclusion: It was observed that the process of graying mostly starts in the frontal region. It was also found to be associated with a strong family history and atopic predisposition. Larger studies are recommended to arrive at a definite conclusion.
F360 and F6 Skytaper: SEM evaluation of cleaning efficiency.

AIM Root canal preparation may produce a large quantity of smear layer that covers canal walls. Single-file systems have recently appeared, with the aim of reducing the number of steps and files to reach a correct endodontic treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate by SEM the root canal walls after instrumentation with F360 (Komet, Brasseler GmbH & Co., Lemgo, Germany) and F6 Skytaper (Komet, Brasseler GmbH & Co., Lemgo, Germany), in order to evaluate the presence/absence of smear layer and the presence/absence of open tubules on the root canal walls at coronal, middle, and apical third of each sample. METHODS Twenty single-rooted freshly extracted teeth were selected and divided into 2 groups. For each group root canals were shaped with F360 (Komet, Brasseler GmbH & Co., Lemgo, Germany) and F6 Skytaper (Komet, Brasseler GmbH & Co., Lemgo, Germany) instruments under irrigation with 5,25% NaOCl and 17% EDTA. Specimens were fractured longitudinally and analyzed by SEM at standard magnification of 5000x. The presence/absence of smear layer and the presence/absence of open tubules at the coronal, middle, and apical third of each canal were evaluated using a 5-step scale for scores. Numeric data were analyzed using Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U statistical tests and significance was predetermined at P <0.05. RESULTS This study did not reveal differences among two groups at the coronal and apical third. The apical third showed the highest values of scores for all Ni-Ti systems used. Significant differences in smear layer scores were recorded among the Ni-Ti systems at middle canal level (P < 0.05), where F6 Skytaper showed significantly lower scores than F360. CONCLUSIONS Within the limitation of this study, F360 and F6 Skytaper rotary instruments seem to be effective in shaping root canals with good debridement from canal walls, without significant differences between the two systems as it regards the coronal third and the apical third, the area where more debris is still visible. Instead, in the middle third F6 Skytaper seems to be more effective than F360, with statistically significative differences between the two systems.
An efficient algorithm for the generation of DeBruijn cycles

An algorithm is presented for the generation of binary DeBruijn sequences using feedback shift registers (FSRs). The algorithm is based on the principle of cycle joining, through which all the cycles in the cycle structure of a FSR can be joined together to one complete cycle, thereby producing a DeBruijn sequence of period 2/sup n/, where n is the length of the FSR. By a proper choice of the feedback function of the FSR O(2/sup 2n///sup log2n/) DeBruijn sequences of period 2/sup n/ can be generated, requiring only 3n bits of storage and at most 4n FSR shifts for the generation of the next bit in the sequence. >
Variational calculus with conformable fractional derivatives

Invariant conditions for conformable fractional problems of the calculus of variations under the presence of external forces in the dynamics are studied. Depending on the type of transformations considered, different necessary conditions of invariance are obtained. As particular cases, we prove fractional versions of Noether U+02BC s symmetry theorem. Invariant conditions for fractional optimal control problems, using the Hamiltonian formalism, are also investigated. As an example of potential application in Physics, we show that with conformable derivatives it is possible to formulate an Action Principle for particles under frictional forces that is far simpler than the one obtained with classical fractional derivatives.
Study Design Affects Participant Expectations: A Survey

Introduction: Evidence suggests that clinical trial participants have higher expectations of improvement when they know they are receiving active treatment versus when they are aware they may receive placebo, but this has not been directly tested. The goal of this survey was to determine whether respondents report higher expectations of improvement in comparator versus placebo-controlled clinical trials. Method: A questionnaire describing 2 hypothetical clinical trials was distributed to undergraduates in an introductory psychology course. The questionnaire describes 1 trial in which medication is compared with placebo and another in which the same medication is compared with another medication. Respondents rated their expectations of improvement should they participate in each trial without knowing their specific treatment assignment. Questions measured the magnitude and the likelihood of expected improvement on a 9-point Likert scale. Results: Thirty-seven undergraduates, 69% female and mean age of 22.4 ± 6.8 years, participated in the study. Respondents reported a significantly higher expected likelihood of improvement in a comparator trial compared with a placebo-controlled trial (7.2 ± 2.1 vs 5.3 ± 1.6, t(36) = −4.96, P < 0.001). Similarly, they reported a significantly higher expected magnitude of improvement in a comparator trial compared with a placebo-controlled trial (7.2 ± 1.9 vs 4.9 ± 1.4, t(35) = −6.74, P < 0.001). Discussion: These results support the hypothesis that clinical trial design influences participant expectations of improvement. Study design may affect clinical outcomes and should be kept in mind when interpreting the results of antidepressant clinical trials.
The Complicated Relationship of Disability and Well-Being

It is widely assumed that disability is typically a bad thing for those who are disabled. Our purpose in this essay is to critique this view and defend a more nuanced picture of the relationship between disability and well-being. We first examine four interpretations of the above view and argue that it is false on each interpretation. We then ask whether disability is thereby a neutral trait. Our view is that most disabilities are neutral in one sense, though we cannot make simple generalizations about disability's relationship to well-being in other important senses. After defending this view, we discuss its practical implications for selective abortion for disability, nondisabled people's interactions with disabled people, and the use of QALYs in health policy.
Complete Autotrophic Process for Nitrogen Removal from Ink-jet Printing Wastewater

Lab-scale results on the treatability of ammonium-rich wastewater from textile digital printing highlight the feasibility of an innovative biological process, based on purely autotrophic bacterial populations: ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) and anaerobic ammonium oxidisers (AAO). Activity of AOB has been measured through pH/DO-stat titration and that of AAO has been assessed through manometric tests, on raw mixed wastewater coming from textile-print factories (0.5 to 0-6 gN/L as ammonium nitrogen). AOB activity showed a reduction of 20-40% if compared with maximum activity on a synthetic medium. AAO activity tests showed a residual specific maximum anammox activity (SAA) of 0.1-0.4 gN2-N/gVSS/d, 40-60% of the control values obtained with synthetic wastewater. Activity tests confirmed treatability of the textile wastewater by AAO. Tests have been performed also on concentrated wastewater (2 to 3 gN/L as ammonium nitrogen) from the first rinsing bath. In this case, strong inhibition (between 80 and 100%) of anammox activity was observed. Careful operation of a continuous-flow completely mixed bioreactor can overcome this drawback, as pH and effluent ammonium concentration in the reactor are controlled.
The HLA-B27 Transgenic Rat, a Model of Spondyloarthritis, Has Decreased Bone Mineral Density and Increased RANKL to Osteoprotegerin mRNA Ratio

Objective. Bone metabolism in spondyloarthritis (SpA) is not well elucidated. We investigated alterations in bone in the HLA-B27 transgenic rat, a model of SpA. Methods. Femur, tibia, and lumbar vertebral bodies of disease-prone HLA-B27 transgenic, healthy HLA-B7 transgenic, and nontransgenic control rats were used for bone histomorphometric and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) analysis. Serum levels of type I collagen C-telopeptides (CTX), N-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (P1NP), and osteocalcin, as well as receptor activator of nuclear factor-κ B ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG), were measured. RNA was isolated from the bone tissue of the femura to analyze gene expression of RANKL, OPG, and osteocalcin. Results. Histomorphometric analysis indicated a significant decrease in bone volume as well as trabecular number and thickness in the HLA-B27 rats. Trabecular separation was increased. Numbers of osteoblasts, osteoclasts, and osteoid volume were not altered significantly. The decrease in bone mineral density was confirmed using DEXA. Levels of RANKL mRNA were significantly increased in the bone tissue of HLA-B27 transgenic rats, resulting in an increased RANKL to OPG ratio. Osteocalcin mRNA expression was also significantly elevated in bone of HLA-B27 rats. Serum levels of CTX, RANKL, OPG, P1NP, and osteocalcin did not differ significantly. Conclusion. Our data indicate that, similarly to SpA in humans, HLA-B27 transgenic rats show a reduced bone mass, and suggest an involvement of the RANKL/OPG system in the mechanism of bone loss in this disease. This model may be adequate to study osteoporosis in SpA.
An assessment of downward trends in neurodevelopmental disorders in the United States following removal of Thimerosal from childhood vaccines.

BACKGROUND The US is in the midst of an epidemic of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs). Thimerosal is an ethylmercury-containing compound added to some childhood vaccines. Several previous epidemiological studies conducted in the US have associated Thimerosal-containing vaccine (TCV) administration with NDs. MATERIAL/METHODS An ecological study was undertaken to evaluate NDs reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) from 1991 through 2004 by date of receipt and by date of vaccine administration. The NDs examined included autism, mental retardation, and speech disorders. Statistical trend analysis was employed to evaluate the effects of removal of Thimerosal on the proportion of NDs reported to VAERS. RESULTS There was a peak in the proportion of ND reports received by VAERS in 2001-2002 and in the proportion of ND reports by date of vaccine administration in 1998. There were significant reductions in the proportion of NDs reported to VAERS as Thimerosal was begun to be removed from childhood vaccines in the US from mid-1999 onwards. CONCLUSIONS The present study provides the first epidemiological evidence showing that as Thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines, the number of NDs has decreased in the US. The analysis techniques utilized attempted to minimize chance or bias/confounding. Additional research should be conducted to further evaluate the relationship between TCVs and NDs. This is especially true because the handling of vaccine safety data from the National Immunization Program of the CDC has been called into question by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2005.
Disrupting diagnostic reasoning: do interruptions, instructions, and experience affect the diagnostic accuracy and response time of residents and emergency physicians?

PURPOSE Others have suggested that increased time pressure, sometimes caused by interruptions, may result in increased diagnostic errors. The authors previously found, however, that increased time pressure alone does not result in increased errors, but they did not test the effect of interruptions. It is unclear whether experience modulates the combined effects of time pressure and interruptions. This study investigated whether increased time pressure, interruptions, and experience level affect diagnostic accuracy and response time. METHOD In October 2012, 152 residents were recruited at five Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination Part II test sites. Forty-six emergency physicians were recruited from one Canadian and one U.S. academic health center. Participants diagnosed 20 written general medicine cases. They were randomly assigned to receive fast (time pressure) or slow condition instructions. Visual and auditory case interruptions were manipulated as a within-subject factor. RESULTS Diagnostic accuracy was not affected by interruptions or time pressure but was related to experience level: Emergency physicians were more accurate (71%) than residents (43%) (F = 234.0, P < .0001) and responded more quickly (54 seconds) than residents (65 seconds) (F = 9.0, P < .005). Response time was shorter for participants in the fast condition (55 seconds) than in the slow condition (73 seconds) (F = 22.2, P < .0001). Interruptions added about 8 seconds to response time. CONCLUSIONS Experienced emergency physicians were both faster and more accurate than residents. Instructions to proceed quickly and interruptions had a small effect on response time but no effect on accuracy.
Individual Versus Peer Grit: Influence on Later Individual Literacy Achievement of Dual Language Learners

The objective of this short-term longitudinal study was to examine individual versus classroom peer effects of grit on later individual literacy achievement in elementary school. The dual language learner, largely Latina/o sample included students from the 3rd through the 5th grades. Participants completed a literacy achievement performance task at 3 time points over 4 months, in addition to student-reported grit at the first time point. Classroom peer grit, not individual grit, was a strong, significant predictor of an individual’s later literacy achievement, adjusting for previous literacy achievement, age, gender, home language, and classroom clusters.
Dissociation of attention and intention in human posterior parietal cortex: an fMRI study

In natural environments, the orienting of attention to an object of interest occurs jointly with selecting it as a potential target for action. This coupling of perceptual selection and motor planning has led to ‘the premotor theory of attention’, which argues that attention and intention share the same neural mechanism. Here we used fMRI to test this hypothesis by examining neural activity in the temporal parietal junction (TPJ) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) while subjects searched for a target among distractors with the presence of color singletons. Task‐relevant salience of stimuli and the variability of response time were used to characterize the behavior of attention and intention components of the visuomotor transformation performed in these two cortical regions, respectively. We found that TPJ responses were significantly higher when the color singletons were distractors (vs. targets), suggesting that the TPJ was involved in attentional control of interference from task‐irrelevant but salient stimuli. In contrast, signals in the IPS were closely related to the variability of response time, with a larger BOLD response associated with longer RTs, suggesting that the IPS plays a pivotal role in intention by translating encoded information into action through evidence accumulation. Our data help to specify the functional division of labor between the IPS and TPJ and to further dissociate process components in visual search.
The speech of two- and three-year-olds to infant siblings: ‘baby talk’ and the context of communication

ABSTRACT Adjustments in speech made by 2- and 3-year-old children when talking to their 14-month-old siblings are described and compared with those made by mothers addressing their babies. ‘Clarification’ adjustments were made by all the children, but there were marked individual differences in the frequency of questions and ‘affective-expressive’ features – differences related to the quality of the relationship between the siblings. The pattern of speech adjustments reflected the social contexts in which the children addressed their siblings; within these contexts (prohibitory and playful) children as young as 2 make appropriate use of communicative devices. The individual differences between the children indicate two sources of influence on the adjustments made – pragmatic and emotional.