Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A role for nautilus in the differentiation of muscle precursors.

In the Drosophila embryo, nautilus is expressed in a subset of muscle precursors and differentiated fibers and is capable of inducing muscle-specific transcription, as well as myogenic transformation. In this study, we examine the consequences of nautilus loss-of-function on the development of the somatic musculature. Genetic and molecular characterization of two overlapping deficiencies, Df(3R)nau-9 and Df(3R)nau-11a4, revealed that both of these deficiencies remove the nautilus gene without affecting a common lethal complementation group. Individuals transheterozygous for these deficiencies survive to adulthood, indicating that nautilus is not an essential gene. These embryos are, however, missing a subset of muscle fibers, providing evidence that (1) some muscle loss can be tolerated throughout larval development and (2) nautilus does play a role in muscle development. Examination of muscle precursors in these embryos revealed that nautilus is not required for the formation of muscle precursors, but rather plays a role in their differentiation into mature muscle fibers. Thus, we suggest that nautilus functions in a subset of muscle precursors to implement their specific differentiation programs.
[Community health workers' attitudes and beliefs toward the elderly].

OBJECTIVE To describe community health workers' attitudes and beliefs toward the elderly. METHODS Cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in with 213 community health workers (CHWs) at 12 primary care units and 29 family health centers in the city of Marília, State of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, in 2010. Data were collected by means of a sociodemographic questionnaire, a scale of attitudes toward aging (Neri Scale), and a questionnaire to assess gerontological knowledge (the Palmore-Neri-Cachioni Aging Quiz). The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences v. 16.0 was used for data analysis. RESULTS Community health workers predominantly consisted of young female adults, married, with more than 12 years of schooling and who worked in this activity for over 6 years. Most CHWs reported having experience with elderly people and having elderly people in the family. However, less than half of them received training on the topic of aging. As for attitudes towards the elderly, CHWs stressed both positive aspects such as their wisdom and generosity and negative aspects such as slowness and strictness. They showed low gerontological knowledge, which was directly associated with the training received. Many CHWs stereotyped the elderly as dissatisfied and dependent. CONCLUSIONS Changing attitudes and improving knowledge on aging are critical for meeting health care demands of elderly people. More appropriate training of CHWs is key for providing adequate primary care to elderly population.
Decision Support for Bids in Process Plant Engineering

The intensive competition in the international market for plant engineering is characterized by high pricing pressure, increase of local content requirement and decrease of project durations. This leads to intricate logistics problems with regard to production locations and project planning. These interacting decisions are to be considered in the bidding phase of a plant project already. This paper proposes an integrated optimization model to determine the project costs as the lower limit of the bid price. Its application is illustrated by means of a case study.
Targeting Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Type 2 Integrase Protein into HIV Type 1

ABSTRACT Integrase (IN) is the only retroviral enzyme necessary for the integration of retroviral cDNA into the host cell’s chromosomes. The structure and function of IN is highly conserved. The human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) IN has been shown to efficiently support 3′ processing and strand transfer of HIV-1 DNA substrate in vitro. To determine whether HIV-2 IN protein (IN2) could substitute for HIV-1 IN function in vivo, we used HIV-1 Vpr to deliver the IN2 into IN mutant HIV-1 virions by expression intrans as a Vpr-IN fusion protein.Trans-complementation with IN2 markedly increased the infectivity of IN-minus HIV-1. Compared with the homologous trans-IN protein, infectivity was increased to a level of 16%. Since IN has been found to play a role in reverse transcription (Wu et al., J. Virol. 73:2126–2135, 1999), cells infected with IN2-complemented HIV-1 were analyzed for DNA products of reverse transcription. DNA levels of approximately 18% of that of wild type were detected. The homologous trans-IN protein restored the synthesis of viral cDNA to approximately 86% of that of wild-type virus. By complementing integration-defective HIV-1 IN mutant viruses, which were not impaired in cDNA synthesis, thetrans-IN2 protein was shown to support integration up to a level of 55% compared with that of the homologoustrans-IN protein. The delivery of heterologous IN protein into HIV-1 particles in trans offers a novel approach to understand IN protein function in vivo.
Suppression of Vascular Artifacts in Functional Magnetic Resonance Images Using MR Angiograms

This paper describes a method for processing functional magnetic resonance images that suppresses signal changes originating from macroscopic veins visible in acquired magnetic resonance angiograms. Finger tapping experiments were performed on a 1.5-T scanner and the response was evaluated with voxel-by-voxel cross-correlation of the time course with a sinusoid at the paradigm frequency. After applying a vascular mask to suppress signal changes under macroscopic vessels, the vascular and nonvascular subpopulations of the data were compared. By visual inspection, the method was found to remove extracortical activation while preserving activation in the parenchyma. The observed higher signal amplitudes and temporal phase lags of the vascular population agree with theoretical models and previous studies. A significant portion of negatively correlated voxels occurs adjacent to through-plane vessels. Finally, comparing the centers of mass of the activated area before and after vascular suppression showed significant shifts in some subjects.
Mechanisms determining innate resistance to ectromelia virus infection in C57BL mice

The mechanism for innate resistance to ectromelia virus, which is controlled by a single gene in C57BL mice, was investigated. The cells or factors involved appear to be radioresistant and to impose an early barrier to viral penetration and spread via lymphatics or blood to the target organs, i.e., liver and spleen.
Methods for in Vivo Tissue Electroporation Using Surface Electrodes

AbstractElectroporation of tissues has many potential biomedical applications, including transdermal and targeted drug delivery. Although there are established protocols for electroporation of single cells, electroporation of tissues remains largely unexplored. Here we describe methods for in vivo tissue electroporation with surface electrodes, where either (a) molecules are provided at the outer surface of skin and electroporation is caused in order to transport molecules across the skin or (b) molecules are injected into an animal and internal tissue cells are electroporated to enhance up-take of the injected molecules. Factors considered in our experimental design include selection of electrode material and electrode/tissue geometry. Electrode materials were used which could accommodate a high instantaneous current density and were expected not to form harmful electrochemical products. Due to the complex heterogeneous nature of tissues, the choice of electrical pulse parameters was guided by, but not b.
Large-Scale Comparative Genomic Analyses of Cytoplasmic Membrane Transport Systems in Prokaryotes

The recent advancements in genome sequencing make it possible for the comparative analyses of essential cellular processes like transport in organisms across the three domains of life. Membrane transporters play crucial roles in fundamental cellular processes and functions in prokaryotic systems. Between 3 and 16% of open reading frames in prokaryotic genomes were predicted to encode membrane transport proteins, emphasizing the importance of transporters in their lifestyles. Hierarchical clustering of phylogenetic profiles of transporter families, which are derived from the presence or absence of a certain transporter family, showed distinct clustering patterns for obligate intracellular organisms, plant/soil-associated microbes and autotrophs. Obligate intracellular organisms possess the fewest types and number of transporters presumably due to their relatively stable living environment, while plant/soil-associated organisms generally encode the largest variety and number of transporters. A group of autotrophs are clustered together largely due to their absence of transporters for carbohydrate and organic nutrients and the presence of transporters for inorganic nutrients. Inside of each group, organisms are further clustered by their phylogenetic properties. These findings strongly suggest the correlation of transporter profiles to both evolutionary history and the overall physiology and lifestyles of the organisms.
Two Viral Kinases are Required for Sustained Long Distance Axon Transport of a Neuroinvasive Herpesvirus

Axonal transport is essential for the successful establishment of neuroinvasive herpesvirus infections in peripheral ganglia (retrograde transport) and the subsequent spread to exposed body surfaces following reactivation from latency (anterograde transport). We examined two components of pseudorabies virus (US3 and UL13), both of which are protein kinases, as potential regulators of axon transport. Following replication of mutant viruses lacking kinase activity, newly assembled capsids displayed an increase in retrograde motion that prevented efficient delivery of capsids to the distal axon. The aberrant increase in retrograde motion was accompanied by loss of a viral membrane marker from the transported capsids, indicating that the viral kinases allow for efficient anterograde transport by stabilizing membrane–capsid interactions during the long transit from the neuron cell body to the distal axon.
Antimicrobial policies in the neonatal units of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

OBJECTIVES To review antibiotic and antifungal policies in British and Irish neonatal units (NNUs). METHODS A telephone survey was performed regarding empirical antimicrobial guidelines of NNUs in the UK and Republic of Ireland. RESULTS The response rate was 91% (202 of 222 NNUs). The guidelines from all responding units covered group B Streptococcus and Escherichia coli, the most common causes of neonatal septicaemia and meningitis. However, 19% did not cover Listeria, the cause of meningitis in 5% to 7% of cases in England and Wales. Second-line recommendations varied greatly between units, with widespread use of broad-spectrum agents. Fungal prophylaxis and treatment guidelines were generally rudimentary. CONCLUSIONS Empirical antimicrobial recommendations on many NNUs include broad-spectrum antibiotics without ensuring universal coverage of important pathogens. We raise concerns about the selection pressures exerted for resistant pathogens and invasive fungal disease, especially as few units specify fungal prophylaxis or treatment guidance. Development of rational guidelines for the UK and Irish neonatal units might help to optimize treatment while minimizing overuse of broad-spectrum agents.
An investigation of the antecedents and the influence of social capital: A multilevel analysis based in Bhutan

The antecedents and consequences of social capital were investigated in this thesis, in the context of addressing the conceptual debate as to whether social capital is an individual or a group based phenomenon. The social status of individuals and the rurality of place of residence were both found to play a significant role in determining the social capital of an individual. Investigating the consequences of social capital on self-rated happiness and health status, it was found that both individual and context level social capital were important, particularly in determining an individual’s level of happiness. Findings showed that social capital comprised of both individual and group aspects. By investigating social capital in Bhutan, the thesis contributes to understanding the operation of social capital in a developing country context.
External acceleration elimination for complementary attitude filter

* This work is partially supported by Guangxi Natural Science Foundation Grant #2015GXNSFBA139253, and Guangxi Key Laboratory of Automatic Detecting & Instruments Grant #YQ15107, to X. Li. Abstract Generalized complementary filter (GCF) is an attractive solution for data fusion in attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) and inertial measurement unit (IMU), mainly because its computational efficiency. However, since the accelerometer in AHRS and IMU is sensitive to both the gravity and external acceleration, the performance of GCF will be degraded under dynamic circumstances, just as other types of attitude estimators. This paper introduce a novel approach to eliminate the external acceleration, which is computationally efficient and flexible. Numerical simulation and experiment results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the proposed method can cooperate with not only GCF, but various attitude estimators, such as extended Kalman filter (EKF) and unscented Kalman filter (UKF).
Chemical Composition, Olfactory Evaluation and Antioxidant Effects of Essential Oil from Mentha x piperita

The chemical composition of the essential oil from peppermint (Mentha x piperita L.) was analyzed by GC/FID and GC-MS. The main constituents were menthol (40.7%) and menthone (23.4%). Further components were (+/-)-menthyl acetate, 1,8-cineole, limonene, β-pinene and β-caryophyllene. Peppermint oil possessed antiradical activity with respect to DPPH (diphenyl picryl hydrazyl) and hydroxyl (OH•) radicals, exercising stronger antioxidant impact on the OH• radical. The concentrations required for 50% inhibition of the respective radical (IC50) were 860 μg/mL for DPPH and 0.26 μg/mL for OH•. Peppermint essential oil demonstrated antioxidant activity in a model linoleic acid emulsion system in terms of inhibiting conjugated dienes formation by 52.4% and linoleic acid secondary oxidized products generation by 76.9% (at 0.1% concentration).
The Gospel Oak Study: prevalence rates of dementia, depression and activity limitation among elderly residents in Inner London

SYNOPSIS The steps to setting up a population register of elderly residents are described. Based upon this, 87·2% of the elderly residents of an inner-city electoral area were screened for memory disorder, depression and activity limitation using the Short CARE. Contact with medical and social agencies was also recorded; 4·7% were classed as cases by the dementia diagnostic scale, sufferers being older and not living alone. Of the residents 15·9% were classed as depressed, this state being more prevalent in those not currently married. The depresse were, in contrast to the demented residents, likely to be in recent contact with hospital and general practitioner. Thirty-two per cent of the population showed impairment in daily activity, these individuals were usually older, not married and receiving hospital care. Sleep disorder and compliant of many somatic symptoms were associated with a diagnosis of depression. In contrast, most respondents with a subjective complaint of memory disorder, which was common in this population, were neither suffering from depression nor dementia. With this accurate sampling frame and a good response rate, the prevalence rate of clinical depression must be seen as disturbingly high. The prevalence rate of dementia approximated to that of other surveys. This study also indicated that general practitioners' lists may be inaccurate and that non-responders to first approaches for interview, although similar in demographic features to those responding, may contain among them many suffering from dementia.
Apolipoproteins C-III and E in apoB- and non-apoB-containing lipoproteins in two populations at contrasting risk for myocardial infarction: the ECTIM study. Etude Cas Témoins sur 'Infarctus du Myocarde.

Apolipoprotein (apo) C-III and apoE are components of two major classes of plasma lipoproteins, i.e., apoB- and non-apoB-containing lipoproteins. To analyze the relationship between the distribution of apoC-III and apoE among lipoproteins and coronary heart disease, we compared the distribution of these two apolipoproteins in survivors of myocardial infarction (MI) and control subjects, within and between populations at contrasting risk for MI. ApoC-III and apoE concentrations were determined in plasma devoid of apoB-containing lipoproteins by immunoprecipitation using a specific anti-apoB antiserum. These assays referred to apoC-III-Lp non-B and apoE-Lp non-B, respectively. By examining the difference with total plasma apoC-III and apoE levels, we calculated apoC-III and apoE in apoB-containing lipoproteins (apoCIII-LpB and apoE-LpB, respectively). These determinations were performed in control subjects and in survivors of MI, all males aged 25 to 64 years. They were recruited in Northern Ireland and France, countries characterized by a large difference in the incidence of coronary heart disease. In univariate analysis, apoCIII-LpB appeared significantly higher and the apoC-III ratio (apoC-III-Lp non-B/apoC-III-LpB) significantly lower in MI survivors than in control subjects in both countries. ApoE-LpB was higher in MI survivors than in control subjects in Northern Ireland but not in France. The two French and Irish control populations differed for apoC-ILL-Lp non-B, apoC-III ratio, and apoE ratio, which were higher in France than in Northern Ireland, and for apoC-III-LpB, apoE, and apoE-LpB, which were lower. Multivariate analysis showed that no parameter involving apoC-III and apoE was more discriminatory than HDL-cholesterol, cholesterol, and triglycerides or apoA-I, apoB, and triglycerides between controls and MI subjects. In contrast, the apoC-III ratio was a better discriminatory parameter between the two control populations than the listed parameters. The differences between the two control populations are of particular interest because they are not biased by the presence of disease or the large difference of the incidence in coronary heart disease between the two countries. It is suggested that the distribution of apoC-III among lipoproteins may play a role in the different susceptibility of the two populations to the atherogenic process.
Interpeak latency of auditory event‐related potentials (P300) in senile depression and dementia of the Alzheimer type

Abstract Most studies on event‐related potentials (ERP) in psychiatric illness or dementia have focused on the single‐peak latency of ERP components. In the present study, not only peak latencies of ERP components (N1, P2, N2, and P3) but also interpeak latencies (IPL; N1–P2, P2–N2, and N2–P3) were analyzed using the auditory oddball task. Thirty‐five senile depressed patients and 34 patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) were compared to 39 age‐matched healthy volunteers. The mean latencies of P2 and P3 were shorter in patients with senile depression than in controls. In DAT patients, the N2 and P3 latencies were longer. When the IPL was assessed, however, only the mean IPL of N1–P2 was shorter in patients with senile depression, while the P2–N2 IPL were longer in those with DAT. The IPL results suggest that in senile depression the early cognitive process is hastened and in DAT the middle process is disturbed. Based on these results, we conclude that IPL of the auditory ERP might be used to reveal the disturbed steps within the cognitive process.
Breeding virus resistant potatoes (Solanum tuberosum): a review of traditional and molecular approaches

Tetraploid cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the World’s fourth most important crop and has been subjected to much breeding effort, including the incorporation of resistance to viruses. Several new approaches, ideas and technologies have emerged recently that could affect the future direction of virus resistance breeding. Thus, there are new opportunities to harness molecular techniques in the form of linked molecular markers to speed up and simplify selection of host resistance genes. The practical application of pathogen-derived transgenic resistance has arrived with the first release of GM potatoes engineered for virus resistance in the USA. Recently, a cloned host virus resistance gene from potato has been shown to be effective when inserted into a potato cultivar lacking the gene. These and other developments offer great opportunities for improving virus resistance, and it is timely to consider these advances and consider the future direction of resistance breeding in potato. We review the sources of available resistance, conventional breeding methods, marker-assisted selection, somaclonal variation, pathogen-derived and other transgenic resistance, and transformation with cloned host genes. The relative merits of the different methods are discussed, and the likely direction of future developments is considered.
Mitogenomics and phylogenomics reveal priapulid worms as extant models of the ancestral Ecdysozoan

SUMMARY Research into arthropod evolution is hampered by the derived nature and rapid evolution of the best‐studied out‐group: the nematodes. We consider priapulids as an alternative out‐group. Priapulids are a small phylum of bottom‐dwelling marine worms; their tubular body with spiny proboscis or introvert has changed little over 520 million years and recognizable priapulids are common among exceptionally preserved Cambrian fossils. Using the complete mitochondrial genome and 42 nuclear genes from Priapulus caudatus, we show that priapulids are slowly evolving ecdysozoans; almost all these priapulid genes have evolved more slowly than nematode orthologs and the priapulid mitochondrial gene order may be unchanged since the Cambrian. Considering their primitive bodyplan and embryology and the great conservation of both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes, priapulids may deserve the popular epithet of “living fossil. ” Their study is likely to yield significant new insights into the early evolution of the Ecdysozoa and the origins of the arthropods and their kin as well as aiding inference of the morphology of ancestral Ecdysozoa and Bilateria and their genomes.
Peripheral vasodilatation determines cardiac output in exercising humans: insight from atrial pacing

Key points • During exercise, cardiac output is regulated to match oxygen delivery to the metabolic demand. • This study evaluated the role of heart rate and peripheral vasodilation in the regulation of cardiac output during exercise. • We increased heart rate by atrial pacing in 10 healthy male individuals during three different conditions: at rest, during exercise and during femoral arterial ATP infusion at rest. • Increasing the heart rate by atrial pacing by up to 54 beats min−1 did not increase cardiac output in any of the three given conditions as there was a proportional decrease in stroke volume. • These results indicate that cardiac output is regulated by changes in peripheral vasodilatation, whereas an increase in heart rate is less important.