Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular Characterisation and Structural Relationship of the Synapse‐Enriched Glycoproteins gp65 and gp55

Abstract: gp65 and gp55 are glycoprotein components of CNS synapses that are recognised by a single monoclonal antibody, SMgp65. This antibody has now been used to investigate the molecular properties of these two glycoproteins and the structural relationship between them. Both gp65 and gp55 occur in most brain regions as doublets of apparent molecular masses of 63 and 67 kDa, and 52 and 57 kDa, respectively. Striatal samples, however, are enriched in a novel gp65 iso‐form of 69 kDa. Removal of oligosaccharide residues from gp65 and gp55 with trifluoromethanesulphonic acid shows that gp65 and gp55 are composed of single polypeptide chains of 40 and 28 kDa, respectively. Removal of sialic acid residues with neuraminidase lowers the apparent molecular mass of both glycoproteins by 5–6 kDa. Triton X‐114 phase partitioning and alkaline extraction of synaptic membranes indicate that both gp65 and gp55 are integral membrane glycoproteins. Treatment of synaptic membranes with phosphatidylinositol‐specific phospholipase C does not solubilise either glycoprotein. One‐dimensional peptide and epitope maps obtained by digestion of gp65 and gp55 with endoproteinase lys C or subtilisin are consistent with a close structural relationship between the two molecules. Tryptic digestion of samples enriched in gp65 and/or gp55 results in the formation of a novel immunoreactive 53‐kDa species that is resistant to further trypsin degradation except in the presence of 0.1% (wt/vol) sodium dodecyl sulphate. Trypsin treatment of cultures of forebrain neurones in situ lowers the apparent molecular mass of gp65 to 53 kDa. These results confirm the structural similarity ofgp6 5 andgp5 5 and suggest that the major difference between the two glycoproteins is likely to be a single 12‐kDa cell surface‐located polypeptide fragment.
WONOEP appraisal: Imaging biomarkers in epilepsy

Neuroimaging offers a wide range of opportunities to obtain information about neuronal activity, brain inflammation, blood–brain barrier alterations, and various molecular alterations during epileptogenesis or for the prediction of pharmacoresponsiveness as well as postoperative outcome. Imaging biomarkers were examined during the XIII Workshop on Neurobiology of Epilepsy (XIII WONOEP) organized in 2015 by the Neurobiology Commission of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE). Here we present an extended summary of the discussed issues and provide an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding the biomarker potential of different neuroimaging approaches for epilepsy.
Racial difference in the relationship of an angiotensin I-converting enzyme gene polymorphism to serum angiotensin I-converting enzyme activity.

An insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism of the angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) gene that has been associated with certain cardiovascular disorders accounts for nearly half the variation in serum ACE level in white subjects. Whether a similar association of serum ACE with the I/D polymorphism occurs in other racial groups is not known. We studied the I/D polymorphism of ACE in relation to serum ACE activity in 141 white and 62 black healthy, unrelated children and adolescents (mean age, 14.7 years). The mean level of ACE activity in whites homozygous for the D allele was higher than in heterozygotes (P = .002) and in homozygotes for the I allele (P = .0001), consistent with an earlier study. In blacks, on the other hand, no significant difference in serum ACE activity between genotypes was observed. An additional finding was a significantly positive relationship between serum ACE activity and diastolic pressure (P = .009). In children and adolescents, serum ACE activity is related to the ACE gene I/D polymorphism in whites but not in blacks. The results indicate a potentially important ethnic variation in genetic regulation of serum ACE activity and the relationship of the I/D polymorphism to cardiovascular disease.
Expansion of the miRNA Pathway in the Hemipteran Insect Acyrthosiphon pisum

The pathways that allow short noncoding RNAs such as the microRNAs (miRNAs) to mediate gene regulation and control critical cellular and developmental processes involve a limited number of key protein components. These proteins are the Dicer-like RNases, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-binding proteins, and the Argonaute (AGO) proteins that process stem-loop hairpin transcripts of endogenous genes to generate miRNAs or long dsRNA precursors (either exogenous or endogenous). Comparative genomics studies of metazoans have shown the pathways to be highly conserved overall; the major difference observed is that the vertebrate pathways overlap in sharing a single Dicer (DCR) and AGO proteins, whereas those of insects appear to be parallel, with distinct Dicers and AGOs required for each pathway. The genome of the pea aphid is the first available for a hemipteran insect and discloses an unexpected expansion of the miRNA pathway. It has two copies of the miRNA-specific dicr-1 and ago1 genes and four copies of pasha a cofactor of drosha involved in miRNA biosynthesis. For three of these expansions, we showed that one copy of the genes diverged rapidly and in one case (ago1b) shows signs of positive selection. These expansions occurred concomitantly within a brief evolutionary period. The pea aphid, which reproduces by viviparous parthenogenesis, is able to produce several adapted phenotypes from one single genotype. We show by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction that all the duplicated copies of the miRNA machinery genes are expressed in the different morphs. Investigating the function of these novel genes offers an exciting new challenge in aphid biology.
Chronic Bronchitis in Great Britain

Chronic bronchitis presents general practitioners with one of their most frequent and intractable problems. Since the decline in pulmonary tuberculosis it is now, with cancer of the lung, the most pressing in the field of respiratory disease. Although palliative treatment is possible and often rewarding, prevention should be the aim; and in a disease of such insidious onset general practitioners may have to carry the main burden. To advise and treat their patients with early bronchitis effectively they must have a more detailed knowledge of the nature and aetiology of the disease than any single experience can provide. With these needs in mind, the Research Committee of the College of General Practitioners formed in 1957, from its 600-strong " research register," a small group* to plan and execute a series of investigations into chronic bronchitis. This paper presents some preliminary findings of an epidemiological inquiry conducted within the framework of the National Health Service. The excessive mortality from bronchitis in industrial areas and in poorer families is well known: and morbidity studies (Fairbairn and Reid, 1958; Logan and Cushion, 1958) have suggested a close relationship between air pollution and chronic bronchitis. Both these conclusions, however, derive from certificates of causes of disability or death usually given by general practitioners, so that the apparent social or geographical patterns may reflect differences between doctors in diagnostic habits and standards of certification. At the same time there have been suggestions that the effect of air pollution (Higgins and Cochran, 1958) and of cigarette smoking (Fry, 1954) on the prevalence of chronic bronchitis may be less than previous work had indicated. For these reasons the present survey was designed with four aims in mind:
Emergence mondiale de la maladie des raies noires du bananier : histoire de l'invasion et stratégie de vie du champignon phytopathogène Mycosphaerella fijiensis

La comprehension des mecanismes ecologiques et evolutifs sous-tendant l'emergence des maladies de plantes cultivees est un enjeu majeur, ancre dans la problematique generale des invasions biologiques. Nous l'abordons ici via l'etude du champignon phytopathogene Mycosphaerella fijiensis, responsable de la recente pandemie de maladie des raies noires du bananier. Une etude de la structure genetique mondiale a differents marqueurs neutres confirme l'aire d'origine sud-est asiatique de M. fijiensis, et suggere des scenarios d'invasion contrastes entre continents. L'invasion africaine decoulerait ainsi d'un evenement de fondation unique tandis que l'invasion de l'Amerique deriverait d'un melange de differentes sources. Utilisant des methodes d'analyse recentes (ABC " Approximate Bayesian Computation "), nous verifions la pertinence de ces deux scenarios dans un cadre statistique et estimons des parametres demographiques, qui suggerent que la dissemination continentale s'est accompagnee de goulots d'etranglement drastiques. Par ailleurs, nous explorons les fondements du succes competitif de M. fijiensis, qui a systematiquement supplante l'espece proche M. musicola precedemment etablie, a l'aide d'une comparaison experimentale des strategies de vie des deux especes. Notre etude suggere une importance cruciale et sousestimee de la reproduction asexuee dans le succes de M. fijiensis et souleve des questions fondamentales dans le cadre de la theorie de l'evolution des histoires de vie. Nos travaux illustrent enfin l'interet d'une approche multidisciplinaire a visee fondamentale pour l'optimisation des strategies de prevention et de lutte. (Resume d'auteur)
ELECTRON MICROSCOPY OF PLASMOLYSIS IN ESCHERICHIA COLI

Cota-Robles, Eugene H. (University of California, Riverside). Electron microscopy of plasmolysis in Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol. 85:499–503. 1963. —Escherichia coli cells plasmolyzed in 0.35 m sucrose reveal plasmolysis at one tip of a cell or in the center of dividing cells in which protoplast partition has been complete. Central plasmolysis reveals that protoplast separation can be completed before the invagination of the cell wall is complete. These studies support the concept that these cells divide by constriction. The strength of the union between cell wall and cytoplasm is not uniform around the entire cell. It is strongest along the sides of these rod-shaped cells and weakest at one tip of the single cell. Thus, a single cell generally forms one cup-shaped vacuole in which the cytoplasm has collapsed away from one tip of the cell.
Capacitor-Coupled Built-Off Self-Test in Analog and Mixed-Signal Embedded Systems

Design-for-test (DfT) circuitry that employs differential terminals inherently suffers from an imbalance in the output of its differential pair. By providing the imbalanced differential test stimulus from the DfT circuitry, nonlinearity is eventually introduced in a differential mixed-signal circuit under test, resulting in low test accuracy and significant yield loss during production testing. Consequently, in only rare cases are attempts made to measure dynamic performance of differential mixed-signal circuits using a self-test approach. This brief suggests an efficient testing technique based on built-off self-test for differential analog and mixed-signal circuits. This technique precisely predicts individual device-under-test (DUT) specifications by resolving the imbalance problem using simple variable capacitors in loopback mode. The variable capacitor generates predefined imbalances to give different weights on the spectral loopback responses. Nonlinear models are derived to characterize the DUT specifications using the differently weighted loopback responses. The hardware measurement results can be used to validate that the proposed method should be able to replace the conventional test method.
On the anisotropy and Lefschetz property for PL-spheres

A simplicial sphere ∆ is said to be generically anisotropic over a field F if, for a certain purely transcendental field extension k of F, a certain Artinian reduction A of the face ring k[∆] has the following property: For every nonzero homogeneous element α ∈ A of degree at most (dim∆+1)/2, its square α is also nonzero. The importance of this property is that the hard Lefschetz property for simplicial spheres can be derived from it. A rencet result of Papadakis and Petrotou shows that every simplicial sphere is generically anisotropic over any field of characteristic 2. In this paper, we give an equivalent condition of being generically anisotropic, and use it to present a simplified proof of PapadakisPetrotou theorem for PL-spheres. We also prove that the simplicial spheres of dimension 2 are generically anisotropic over any field F.
A Technology Transition Model Derived from Field Investigation of GSS Use Aboard the U.S.S. CORONADO

There are several thousand group support systems (GSS) installations worldwide, and, while that number is growing, GSS has not yet achieved critical mass. One reason may be that it can take one to three years for an organization to complete a transition to GSS. Studying GSS transition in the field could yield insights that would allow for faster, lower-risk transitions elsewhere. This article presents a thirty-two-month qualitative field investigation of an effort to introduce GSS into the daily work of the staff of the U.S. Navy's Commander, Third Fleet. Using the principles of action research, the project began with interventions based on the precepts of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The goal of the interventions was to engender sufficient acceptance for GSS to create a self-sustaining, growing community of GSS users.Throughout the study, building on a base of experience developed in other private-and public-sector transition projects, we revised and extended TAM based on insights that emerged in the field. The resulting model, the Technology Transition Model (TTM), frames acceptance as a multiplicative function of the magnitude and frequency of the perceived net value of a proposed change, moderated by the perceived net value associated with the transition period itself. TTM frames net value as having a number of dimensions, including cognitive, economic, political, social, affective, and physical. It posits that cognitive net value derives from at least three sources: changes in access, technical, and conceptual attention loads.GSS transition proceeded at different speeds in different segments of the Third Fleet; the intelligence and battle staffs became self-sustaining within weeks, while others are still not self-sustaining. TTM appears to explain the differences that emerged in the Navy community.The article presents TAM, then argues the propositions of TTM. It then presents background information about Third Fleet, and describes critical incidents in the transition effort that gave rise to the model. It summarizes the lessons learned in the field by comparing the differing transition trajectories among Fleet staff segments in light of the model.
Pregnancy and post-partum breast cancer: a prospective study.

BACKGROUND The concomitant occurrence of breast cancer and pregnancy remains a challenging clinical situation combining ethical and medical problems. There are few prospective data on pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) whose incidence continuously increases. PATIENTS AND METHODS Forty patients with PABC were compared with 61 non-pregnant, age-matched patients with infiltrative breast carcinomas (BC) diagnosed and followed since 1982. RESULTS Although PABC and BC tumor size, grade and type, and lymphovascular and lymphnode invasion were similar, the BC cases showed better overall--(p=0.0001) and disease-free (p-0.015) survival. Moreover, the outcome of pregnant patients was worse than post-partum patients (p=0.017). Importantly, the number of PABC patients receiving hormonotherapy was lower than the BC patients (p<0.0004), due to lower estrogen receptor (ER) (p=0.038) and progesterone receptor (PR) (p=0.008) immunohisto-chemical (IH) levels. Retrospective estrogen-regulated pS2/trefoil factor 1 (pS2/TFF1) immunohistochemitry showed no difference between PABC and BC. All the children delivered were healthy. CONCLUSION Pregnancy and the post-partum period increase breast cancer aggressiveness, pregnancy being the most detrimental. PABC hormone-dependence is under-estimated using ER and PR, and pS2/TFF1 might help in its determination. Appropriate treatment does not impair child outcome.
FUNDC1 is a novel mitochondrial-associated-membrane (MAM) protein required for hypoxia-induced mitochondrial fission and mitophagy

ABSTRACT Mitochondria need to be fragmented prior to engulfment by phagophores, the precursors to autophagosomes. However, how these 2 processes are finely regulated and integrated is poorly understood. We have shown that the outer mitochondrial membrane protein FUNDC1 is a novel mitochondrial-associated membrane (MAM) protein, enriched at the MAM by interacting with the ER resident protein CANX (calnexin) under hypoxia. As mitophagy proceeds, it dissociates from CANX and preferably recruits DNM1L/DRP1 to drive mitochondrial fission in response to hypoxic stress. In addition, knocking down of FUNDC1, DNM1L or CANX in hypoxic cells increases the number of elongated mitochondria and also reduces the colocalization of autophagosome and mitochondria, thus preventing mitophagy. These findings identify FUNDC1 as a molecular hub integrating mitochondrial fission and mitophagy at the MAM in response to hypoxia.
Deixis, personal reference, and the use of pronouns by blind children

Blind children are considered to use personal reference terms late and with a great deal of reversal errors. However, in previous research, there has been a dearth of both quantitative and qualitative data on their use of pronouns. In the present paper data from a longitudinal study of five children (three totally blind, one partially sighted, and one sighted) is presented. The children had different ages at the begining of the study, ranging from 0;9 to 2;5, and were followed for a time span of over 12 months. Every spatial deictic term and personal reference term used by the children was analysed. Special attention was given to the analysis of the reversal errors. The data obtained clearly showed that the blind children began to use personal reference terms as early as the sighted children, and that the use of reversals was not a general characteristic of the language of the blind children, since only one of the four blind or partially sighted children produced a noticeable percentage of reversals. The analysis of the contexts in which reversal errors were produced showed that imitation does not fully explain them, and some proposals for a multiplex explanation of reversals are offered. Thus, the data do not give support to the idea that blind children in general show problems with pronouns, nor to those claims that link blind children with autistic children in this regard.
Empacado discontinuo a pie de tocón de residuos selvícolas: gestión integral de biomasa forestal

Las masas repobladas de pinaceas en Andalucia Oriental han sufrido una perdida progresiva de importancia para las economias locales por diversos motivos, entre ellos la falta de cultura industrial en el sector forestal. Estas condiciones de abandono y deterioro no permiten dar valor anadido a los productos que se obtienen y, por lo tanto, no se ejecutan los tratamientos selvicolas necesarios para la conservacion de estas masas forestales, que realmente constituyen un recurso renovable de gran potencial economico, dentro de una politica de produccion-conservacion, en un esquema economico de desarrollo sostenible de alto valor anadido. En esta tesis se analizan los ensayos de empacado de residuos forestales procedentes de claras de Pinus sylvestris L. realizados con la empacadora Valmet WoodPac en 17 ha de la Sierra de Los Filabres (Almeria). El objeto de este estudio es conocer la productividad y los costes de la empacadora Valmet WoodPac, asi como el sistema logistico de aprovechamiento de la biomasa forestal empacada. La empacadora elaboro 463 balas trabajando 19 dias entre los meses de mayo y junio de 2005. El estudio del empacado discontinuo con esta maquina se basa en tres premisas o condicionantes: El aprovechamiento del residuo forestal ha de estar integrado en el sistema de aprovechamiento de la madera, es decir, ha de utilizar los mismos medios logisticos. Esta premisa viene dada por la experiencia en este tipo de trabajos, tal y como figura en los antecedentes. El procesado en monte del residuo forestal se ha de realizar a pie de tocon y la maquinaria tiene que transitar por calles con anchura no superior a 4 metros. La maquinaria tiene que trabajar en pendientes superiores al 30%. Los resultados de esta tesis son: Cuantificacion y caracterizacion del residuo selvicola. Rendimientos y modelos de productividad de la empacadora y el autocargador. Costes del sistema logistico de empacado para el suministro de balas. Rendimientos y costes del sistema logistico integrado de biomasa forestal, maderable y no maderable, que permita el suministro a una industria transformadora. Rentabilidad de la inversion contemplada en una propuesta de gestion integral de la biomasa forestal.
Activation of Rat Alveolar Macrophages by Gamma Interferon to Inhibit Toxoplasma gondii In Vitro

We have investigated the effects of murine interferons on the ability of rat alveolar macrophages (AM) to inhibit the proliferation of the intracellular protozoan Toxoplasma gondii. This activity was determined by measuring suppression of 3H‐uracil uptake into the Toxoplasma and by microscopic enumeration of the intracellular organisms. Recombinant gamma interferon (rMuIFN‐γ), but not alpha/beta interferon (IFN‐α/β) was able to activate AM for antimicrobial activity in vitro. Maximum activation was achieved by incubation with 50‐200 units/ml rMuIFN‐γ and the activity was lost at one unit/ml. The highest levels of activation were obtained when macrophages were incubated with interferon for 48‐72 h prior to the challenge with Toxoplasma organisms. Activation could still be obtained, however, when the interferon was added to the cultures as late as 2 h after the phagocytosis of Toxoplasma. Neither MDP nor low concentrations (1‐1‐ng/ml) of S. typhosa lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were able to activate these cells to inhibit the growth of Toxoplasma. Phagocytosis of Toxoplasma by AM did not result in the release of O2 −, in fact the spontaneous release of O2 − by these cells was inhibited by Toxoplasma. This inhibition was reversed by preincubation of the cells with rMuIFN‐γ.
Expected-Outcome: A General Model of Static Evaluation

The expected-outcome model, in which the proper evaluation of a game-tree node is the expected value of the game's outcome given random play from that node on, is proposed. Expected outcome is considered in its ideal form, where it is shown to be a powerful heuristic. The ability of a simple random sampler that estimates expected outcome to outduel a standard Othello evaluator is demonstrated. The sampler is combined with a linear regression procedure to produce efficient expected-outcome estimators. Overall, the expected-outcome model of two-player games is shown to be precise, accurate, easily estimable, efficiently calculable, and domain-independent. >