Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Schizosaccharomyces pombe Cdc7 Protein Kinase Required for Septum Formation Is a Client Protein of Cdc37

ABSTRACT Cdc37 is an essential molecular chaperone found in fungi and metazoa whose main specificity is for certain protein kinases. Cdc37 can act as an Hsp90 cochaperone or alone; in yeasts, the interaction with Hsp90 is weak and appears not to be essential for Cdc37 function. Numerous genetic interactions between Cdc37 and likely client proteins have been observed in yeasts, but biochemical confirmation has been reported in only a few cases. We and others have generated and characterized temperature-sensitive cdc37 alleles in S. pombe and have used them to investigate the cellular roles of Cdc37: previous work has shown that mitotic Cdc2 is a major client. In this paper, we describe a screen for mutations synthetically lethal with a cdc37ts mutant with the aim of identifying genes encoding further client proteins of Cdc37. Ten such strains were isolated, and genomic libraries were screened for rescuing plasmids. In one case, a truncated cdc7 gene was identified. Further experiments showed that the mutation in this strain was indeed in cdc7. Cdc7 is a protein kinase required for septum initiation, and we show that its kinase activity is greatly reduced when Cdc37 function is impaired. Cdc7 normally locates to the spindle pole body during mitosis, and this appears to be unaffected in the cdc37ts mutant. Other evidence suggests that, in addition to mitosis and septum initiation, Cdc37 may also be required for septum cleavage.
Standing thyroidectomy in 10 horses

OBJECTIVE To describe a surgical technique for thyroidectomy in horses with thyroid neoplasia under standing sedation and local anesthesia. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study. ANIMALS Client-owned horses (n = 10). METHODS Medical records of horses with a history of thyroid enlargement were included in the study if thyroid gland enlargement was treated surgically via hemi- or bilateral thyroidectomy, with the horse standing and sedated. Data derived from follow-up clinical examination, performance level, recurrence, and cosmetic outcome were evaluated. RESULTS Thyroid enlargement was unilateral in 8 and bilateral in 2 horses. Histopathological findings included adenomas (5/10), adenocarcinomas (2/10), cystic hyperplasia (2/10), and C-cell adenoma (1/10). No major complications were encountered during or after surgery. All horses resumed their previous level of exercise within 6 weeks. Recurrence was diagnosed in 1 horse, 7 months after excision, and a second surgery was required. Recurrent laryngeal nerve neuropathy and seroma formation subsequent to surgery were not recorded in any of the cases. CONCLUSION Thyroidectomy can safely be performed with the horse standing and sedated with local anesthesia. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Performing standing thyroidectomy does not increase intraoperative or postoperative complications and could be considered for horses with thyroid enlargement amenable to surgery.
Banks and economic growth in developing countries: What about Islamic banks?

Abstract Islamic banks (IBs) have a significant role in the growth of gross domestic product of the developing countries. The Islamic participatory schemes integrate the assets of lenders and borrowers. They allow enable IBs to lend on a longer term basis to create projects with higher risk-return profiles and, thus, to support economic growth. Our investigation examines the contribution of Islamic finance in economic growth. Using a panel data-set, we compare between IBs and conventional banks in their adding to economic growth. We studied a sample of 120 banks between 2005 and 2012. By means of three ordinary least-square regressions, our empirical investigation reveals that the development of non-usurious banks supports economic growth. Moreover, the cooperation between the two financing modes improves economic growth. The integration of this new funding never neglected the role of the conventional method of financing. The practice of IBs is also away from their theoretical mode in terms of participation results.
The Interface of Nutritional Practices of Selected Basketball Players of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, On Performance

The nutritional practices of athletes are critical to sports performance, since good result is the goal or expectations of all sports stake-holders, coaches, sports administrators/managers and spectators alike, therefore the issue of good nutrition regarding these “human machines” (athletes), calls for serious attention. This research, therefore tried to examine the nutritional practices of some selected Basketball players of Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) Awka, in Anambra State of Nigeria. Some 59 male and female Basketball (B/B) players were purposefully selected to participate in the study. A self developed questionnaire (r = 0.71) was administered on them and Weighted Mean Score (WMS). This was in an attempt to ascertain whether the dietary manipulations as practiced by these athletes immediately before competition, affect their performance, in any way. Findings revealed daily inadequate consumption of required proportion of nutrients and very poor timing of meals by the players.
Treating Osteomyelitis: Antibiotics and Surgery

Background: Osteomyelitis is an inflammatory disorder of bone caused by infection leading to necrosis and destruction. It can affect all ages and involve any bone. Osteomyelitis may become chronic and cause persistent morbidity. Despite new imaging techniques, diagnosis can be difficult and often delayed. Because infection can recur years after apparent “cure,” “remission” is a more appropriate term. Methods: The study is a nonsystematic review of literature. Results: Osteomyelitis usually requires some antibiotic treatment, usually administered systemically but sometimes supplemented by antibiotic-containing beads or cement. Acute hematogenous osteomyelitis can be treated with antibiotics alone. Chronic osteomyelitis, often accompanied by necrotic bone, usually requires surgical therapy. Unfortunately, evidence for optimal treatment regimens or therapy durations largely based upon expert opinion, case series, and animal models. Antimicrobial therapy is now complicated by the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant organisms, especially methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Without surgical resection of infected bone, antibiotic treatment must be prolonged (≥4 to 6 weeks). Advances in surgical technique have increased the potential for bone (and often limb) salvage and infection remission. Conclusions: Osteomyelitis is best managed by a multidisciplinary team. It requires accurate diagnosis and optimization of host defenses, appropriate anti-infective therapy, and often bone débridement and reconstructive surgery. The antibiotic regimen must target the likely (or optimally proven) causative pathogen, with few adverse effects and reasonable costs. The authors offer practical guidance to the medical and surgical aspects of treating osteomyelitis.
Social Protection for the Poorest

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) represent an innovation in social assistance policy by conditioning welfare benefits on recipients’ behaviors associated with human capital development. Although social assistance has expanded throughout the developing world in the 21st century, the political logic guiding CCT adoption differs sharply from that of unconditional cash transfers, and from the politics of social insurance development. Striking spatial and temporal correlations in their adoption also raise the specter of policy interdependence. A dynamic logit analysis of social assistance reforms in developing nations from 1990 to 2011 reveals that although CCTs have been impelled by democratization in developing countries, the model is not embraced systematically by the left or the right of the political spectrum. Rather, CCTs are more likely to be adopted in contexts of divided government and where regional neighbors, and more democratic countries in the region, have previously adopted them.
Autonomous Fall Detection With Wearable Cameras by Using Relative Entropy Distance Measure

Timely, precise, and reliable detection of fall events is very important for systems monitoring activities of elderly people, especially the ones living independently. In this paper, we propose an autonomous fall detection system by taking a completely different view compared with existing vision-based activity monitoring systems and applying a reverse approach. In our system, in contrast with static sensors installed at fixed locations, the camera is worn by the subject, and thus, monitoring is not limited only to areas where the sensors are located and extends to wherever the subject may travel. Moreover, the camera provides a richer set of data and helps lower the false positive rates compared with accelerometer-only systems. We employ a modified version of the histograms of oriented gradients (HOG) approach together with the gradient local binary patterns (GLBP). It is shown that, with the same training set, the GLBP feature is more descriptive and discriminative than HOG, histograms of template, and semantic local binary patterns. Moreover, we autonomously compute a threshold, for the detection of fall events, from the training data based on relative entropy, which is a member of Ali-Silvey distance measures. Experiments are performed with ten different people and a total of around 300 associated fall events indoors and outdoors. Experimental results show that, with the autonomously computed threshold, the proposed method provides 93.78% and 89.8% accuracy for detecting falls with indoor and outdoor experiments, respectively.
Anti‐pig antibody levels in naïve baboons and cynomolgus monkeys

Anti‐pig antibodies (APA) were analysed in serum from 28 naïve wild‐caught baboons (originating from Kenya) and 31 naïve captive‐bred cynomolgus monkeys (13 from the Philippines and 18 from Mauritius), using a haemolytic assay with pig erythrocytes (APA), flow cytometry on the porcine lymphoma T‐cell cell line L35, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using α‐Gal type II and type VI antigen. This was extended in baboon samples by the evaluation in two laboratories (Imutran, Cambridge, UK and Immerge, Boston, USA), and by antibody absorption using either immobilized α‐Gal type II or α‐Gal type VI. Anti‐porcine antibodies were demonstrated in all assays with substantial variability within and between the three non‐human primate groups. Immunoglobulin (Ig)M antibody levels tended to be similar to or higher than those in a pooled normal human standard serum while IgG levels tended to be lower. Highest antibody levels were recorded in Mauritius cynomolgus monkeys. There were statistically significant correlations between assays for IgM or IgG class anti‐Gal antibodies using either α‐Gal type II or α‐Gal type VI as antigen, both for different assays and two laboratories involved. Also, significant correlations were observed between the anti‐Gal and L35 binding assays. Baboon sera before and after absorption to immobilized α‐Gal type II or type VI were analysed for anti‐Gal type VI or type II antibody: levels were almost undetectable indicating that most anti‐Gal antibodies react to epitopes shared between α‐Gal type II and type VI oligosaccharides. Finally, the relation between APA and outcome of porcine heart xenotransplantation in cynomolgus monkeys and baboons showed no apparent relation between pre‐transplant APA levels and the occurrence of hyperacute rejection (HAR) when compared with non‐immunological cause of organ/recipient dysfunction or acute humoral xenograft rejection during the first 4 days post‐transplantation or survival exceeding 4 days post‐transplantation.
Negative Affect and Plasma Testosterone: A Longitudinal Human Study

&NA; The association between mood and plasma testosterone was investigated. Every second day for 2 months, a Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist was filled out by 20 young men. Blood samples taken at the same time were analyzed for testosterone concentration. Relationships between hostility, anxiety, and depression and plasma testosterone levels were tested both within and across individuals. Intrasubject correlation coefficients between affects and hormone were fairly evenly distributed between positive and negative values, some significant on either side. Intersubject correlation coefficients were all positivie. Between depression and testosterone, the correlation was significant only at the 10% level; between the other two affects and testosterone, the correlations were not significant.
Native chronic total occlusion recanalization after lower limb bypass graft occlusion: A series of nine cases

Objective: The aim of the study was to report the clinical utility of native chronic total occlusion (CTO) recanalization as an endovascular strategy in lower limb bypass graft occlusion. Background: There is no consensus on the best approach for threatened limbs in patients with graft occlusion. Methods: The subjects were nine consecutive patients with limb‐threatening ischemia after bypass graft occlusion. Native CTO recanalization was attempted endovascularly using conventional intraluminal and subintimal angioplasty techniques supported by stents. Results: The mean age of the bypass grafts was 6.7 ± 7.3 (range: 1–24) months and the mean number of previous lower limb bypass surgeries was 1.4 ± 0.5 (range: 1–2). Native CTO recanalization was performed in the iliofemoral (n = 2), iliac (n = 2), superficial femoral (n = 3), popliteal (n = 1), and popliteal‐tibial (n = 1) arteries. Technical success was achieved in 89% (8/9) of cases without complications or major adverse cardiovascular events. The ankle‐brachial index and skin perfusion pressure of the foot significantly increased after revascularization, with marked improvement of clinical symptoms (Rutherford class: 4.5 ± 1.1→0.9 ± 1.4, P < 0.001). Limb salvage was achieved in all successful recanalization cases during the mean follow‐up time of 25 ± 20 months (range: 9–60). Conclusions: In this preliminary study, endovascular recanalization of native CTO showed satisfactory outcomes in patients with bypass graft occlusion. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Impact of risperidone versus haloperidol on activities of daily living in the treatment of refractory schizophrenia.

Risperidone has been shown to improve verbal working memory, executive functioning, attention, reaction time, and verbal learning, which, in turn, have been associated with improved functional outcomes. We tested whether risperidone was associated with greater improvements than haloperidol in activities of daily living (ADLs) among persons having treatment-refractory schizophrenia. In a double-blind, controlled trial of fixed and flexible doses of haloperidol and risperidone, changes in ADLs were operationally monitored on a behavior therapy unit of a state hospital. While no differential effects were noted between risperidone and haloperidol in ADLS, these self-care skills significantly improved as subjects spent longer times on the behavior therapy unit. Working memory and verbal learning did correlate with improvements in ADLs, independent of drug condition. The contingencies of reinforcement and specific training programs on the behavior therapy unit may have been prepotent for the learning of ADLs, obscuring any differential impact of risperidone. Moreover, ADLs may be governed more by "procedural" learning than by working memory or verbal learning, with the former not differentially influenced by typical verus atypical antipsychotics.
BRD4 Coordinates Recruitment of Pause Release Factor P-TEFb and the Pausing Complex NELF/DSIF To Regulate Transcription Elongation of Interferon-Stimulated Genes

ABSTRACT RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and the pausing complex, NELF and DSIF, are detected near the transcription start site (TSS) of many active and silent genes. Active transcription starts when the pause release factor P-TEFb is recruited to initiate productive elongation. However, the mechanism of P-TEFb recruitment and regulation of NELF/DSIF during transcription is not fully understood. We investigated this question in interferon (IFN)-stimulated transcription, focusing on BRD4, a BET family protein that interacts with P-TEFb. Besides P-TEFb, BRD4 binds to acetylated histones through the bromodomain. We found that BRD4 and P-TEFb, although not present prior to IFN treatment, were robustly recruited to IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) after stimulation. Likewise, NELF and DSIF prior to stimulation were hardly detectable on ISGs, which were strongly recruited after IFN treatment. A shRNA-based knockdown assay of NELF revealed that it negatively regulates the passage of Pol II and DSIF across the ISGs during elongation, reducing total ISG transcript output. Analyses with a BRD4 small-molecule inhibitor showed that IFN-induced recruitment of P-TEFb and NELF/DSIF was under the control of BRD4. We suggest a model where BRD4 coordinates both positive and negative regulation of ISG elongation.
The benefit of oestrogens and progestogens in postnatal depression

Postnatal depression, with a prevalence of at least 10%, is a common complication of the puerperium. The aetiology is unclear, specific diagnostic criteria cannot be drawn and the treatment options are limited. As hormones are thought to contribute to its pathophysiology, the supplementation with either progesterone or oestrogen might be of prophylactic and/or therapeutic value in postnatal depression. Research into hormonal prophylaxis and treatment of postnatal depression (PND) is limited. This review article is aimed at exploring the evidence available regarding the use of oestrogen and progesterone in postnatal depression. A search of electronic databases Medline, Psychinfo, Embase and published books from 1970 to 2002 was carried out. The search strategy was limited to the English language. Of 193 articles, 30 were chosen and all 30 copies were identified and analysed critically. Prophylactic and treatment value were separately analysed for both oestrogen and progesterone. Some uncontrolled studies by Dalton (1982, 1985) report the benefit of progesterone in preventing postnatal depression. The value of oestrogen in preventing and treating this disorder is suggested by some articles but the methodological shortcomings in these studies make the study results unreliable. In addition, the use of oestrogen in the postnatal period may have significant side effects. Use of synthetic progesterone is associated with depression in the postnatal period and should be used with caution. Oestrogen therapy may be of modest value in severe postnatal depression.
Increased ALK Gene Copy Number and Amplification are Frequent in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Introduction: Translocation of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene is involved in the tumorigenesis of a subset of non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) and identifies patients sensitive to ALK inhibitors. ALK copy number changes and amplification, which plays an oncogenic role in tumors such as neuroblastoma, are poorly characterized in NSCLC. We aimed to study the prevalence of ALK copy number changes and their correlation to ALK protein expression, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) status, and clinicopathological data in patients with NSCLC. Methods: ALK status was evaluated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Specimens with ALK translocation were studied for echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4), KIF5B, and TFG status. ALK expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry. EGFR gene and protein status were evaluated in adenocarcinomas. Survival analysis was performed. Results: One hundred seven NSCLC cases were evaluated. There were two cases of EML4-ALK translocation and one with an atypical translocation of ALK. Both cases of EML4-ALK translocation had ALK protein expression, whereas in the rest, ALK was undetected. Eleven cases (10%) exhibited ALK amplification and 68 (63%) copy number gains. There was an association between ALK amplification and EGFR FISH positivity (p < 0.0001) but not with prognosis. In conclusion, EML4-ALK translocation is a rare event in NSCLC. Conclusion: The study reveals a significant frequency of ALK amplification and its association with EGFR FISH positivity in lung adenocarcinomas. Based on these findings, a potential role of ALK amplification in the response to ALK inhibitors alone or combined with EGFR inhibitors in NSCLC merits further studies.
Topical fulvestrant solution has no effect on male and postmenopausal female androgenetic alopecia: results from two randomized, proof‐of‐concept studies

Background Androgenetic alopecia (pattern baldness) affects approximately half of all white‐skinned men and women over the age of 40 years. Based on preclinical studies in mice in which topical fulvestrant (ICI182,780, an anti‐oestrogen) caused telogen hair follicles to enter anagen, thereby causing hair growth, a topical formulation of fulvestrant was developed for the potential treatment of androgenetic alopecia.
Compressive Preload Reduces Segmental Flexion Instability After Progressive Destabilization of the Lumbar Spine

Study Design. Biomechanical human cadaveric study. Objective. We hypothesized that increasing compressive preload will reduce the segmental instability after nucleotomy, posterior ligament resection, and decompressive surgery. Summary of Background Data. The human spine experiences significant compressive preloads in vivo due to spinal musculature and gravity. Although the effect of destabilization procedures on spinal motion has been studied, the effect of compressive preload on the motion response of destabilized, multisegment lumbar spines has not been reported. Methods. Eight human cadaveric spines (L1–sacrum, 51.4 ± 14.1 yr) were tested intact, after L4–L5 nucleotomy, after interspinous and supraspinous ligaments transection, and after midline decompression (bilateral laminotomy, partial medial facetectomy, and foraminotomy). Specimens were loaded in flexion (8 Nm) and extension (6 Nm) under 0-N, 200-N, and 400-N compressive follower preload. L4–L5 range of motion (ROM) and flexion stiffness in the high-flexibility zone were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance and multiple comparisons with the Bonferroni correction. Results. With a fixed set of loading conditions, a progressive increase in segmental ROM along with expansion of the high-flexibility zone (decrease of flexion stiffness) was noted with serial destabilizations. Application of increasing compressive preload did not substantially change segmental ROM, but did significantly increase the segmental stiffness in the high-flexibility zone. In the most destabilized condition, 400-N preload did not return the segmental stiffness to intact levels. Conclusion. Anatomical alterations representing degenerative and iatrogenic instabilities are associated with significant increases in segmental ROM and decreased segmental stiffness. Although application of compressive preload, mimicking the effect of increased axial muscular activity, significantly increased the segmental stiffness, it was not restored to intact levels; thereby suggesting that core strengthening alone may not compensate for the loss of structural stability associated with midline surgical decompression. This suggests that there may be a role for surgical implants or interventions that specifically increase flexion stiffness and limit flexion ROM to counteract the iatrogenic instability resulting from surgical decompression. Level of Evidence: N/A