Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apoptosis Induced by Nicotinamide-related Compounds and Quinolinic Acid in HL-60 Cells

In our previous paper, we have reported that niacin-related compounds, particularly picolinic acid, dipicolinic acid, and isonicotinamide, induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells but that niacin did not. Moreover, picolinamide, N 1-methylnicotinamide, 6-aminonicotinamide, quinolinic acid, and cinchomeronic acid also had the function of DNA fragmentation in HL-60 cells analyzed by flow cytometry, the ratio of DNA fragmentation finally being about 40% after treatment with these compounds at 10 mM for 24 h. In this study, we found that these compounds also induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells. The wide-spectrum caspase inhibitors prevented DNA fragmentation induced by these compounds. Interestingly, 6-aminonicotinamide induced apoptosis at a comparatively low concentration, while picolinic acid, dipicolinic acid, and isonicotinamide did not at 1 mM. Our results suggest that both NAD metabolism and NAD biosynthesis may be related to the process of apoptosis induced by niacin-related compounds.
The use of a Rapid Salmonella Latex Serogrouping Test (Spectate) to assist in the confirmation of ELISA‐based Rapid Salmonella Screening tests

S. CHEESBROUGH AND C. DONNELLY. 1996. Spectate, a 10 min, simple, latex‐based agglutination test for serogrouping of salmonellae, has been investigated as a tool to assist in the confirmation of ELISA presumptive positive broth samples when screening for salmonellae in foods. When obtaining a combined ELISA and Spectate positive result, there was a 90% (27/30) confidence limit of a genuine positive result, some one or two working days quicker than the traditional methods. Of the 10% (3/30) that were not confirmed as salmonellas, two gave a Spectate result which is advised as being a possible Citrobacter spp. and one sample gave a positive confirmation by Spectate only, which suggested a failure of the traditional confirmation process, a finding confirmed at other sites. Extensive studies performed at several food company microbiology laboratories showed Spectate to be a useful additional tool in the confirmation process of ELISA screening techniques for salmonellae in food. Additionally the concept of a ‘false positive’ may need to be refined to that of a ‘not culturally’ positive, given the apparent possible failure of the traditional confirmation methods.
Estimation of Luminal Mucin Content in Rats by Measurement of O-Linked Oligosaccharide Chains and Direct ELISA

Changes in the small intestinal mucin contents in rats were evaluated by two methods, viz., a newly established ELISA and a method based on the measurement of O-linked oligosaccharide chains (OSC) as a mucin marker. Significant correlation was observed between the values of ELISA-derived mucins and OSC. The results confirm the usefulness of measurement of OSC as an alternative method for mucin determination.
The Soul of a Polarized Democracy

This study explores the relationships between discussion networks and the development of extreme attitudes toward stem cell research during the 2004 presidential election. The authors test competing theoretical models that address discrepancies in previous attitude polarization research—whether interpersonal discussion leads to attitude extremity or extremity leads to discussion, within the deliberating American public. Using data from a nationwide mail panel survey carried out between 2002 and 2005, the authors explore within-wave and between-wave causal paths, revealing patterns difficult to discern in cross-sectional survey or lab experimental designs. Our findings show that political talk plays a substantial role in shaping and polarizing attitudes on stem cell research, with discussion in networks composed of like-minded others leading directly to the development of extreme attitudes.
Progesterone and estrogen concentrations in gilts with delayed parturition.

Twelve pregnant gilts were assigned to three treatments (four gilts per treatment): (1) corn oil (control) injected subcutaneously four times daily from day 110 of gestation until onset of lactation; (2) 25 mg progesterone (P4) injected subcutaneously four times daily from day 110 of gestation through day 113, or (3) 25 mg P4 injected subcutaneously from day 110 through day 115 of gestation. Excluding one gilt on treatment 2 which farrowed on day 110, average lengths of gestation for control gilts and gilts receiving treatments 2 and 3 were 113.3 +/- 1.2 (SE), 115.6 +/- . 7 and 118.0 +/- . 4 days. Associated mean percentages of live births were 87.4 +/- 5.9, 48.8 +/- 24.4 and 2.5 +/- 2.5, respectively. P4 averaged 2.9 +/- . 6 ng/ml in blood serum of control gilts during the 24 hr preceding parturition. P4 was released in a sporadic pattern by gilts on treatment 3, resulting in higher P4 concentrations (9.0 +/- 1.7 ng/ml) for the same prepartum period. Concentrations of P4 in serum of gilts on treatment 2 averaged 7.6 +/- 1.6 ng/ml, intermediate to, but not different from, concentrations of P4 in controls and gilts on treatment 3. Concentrations of estrogen in serum of control gilts averaged 6.2 +/- 1.3 ng/ml during the 24 hr preceding parturition, whereas concentrations of estrogen in gilts treated with P4 were reduced (P less than .01) to below 2 ng/ml during the same prepartum period. The erratic pattern of concentration of P4 during and after administration of exogenous P4 may reflect a disturbance of the secretion or metabolism of endogenous P4. We suggest that failure to suppress P4 post-treatment plus reduced estrogenic stimulation impedes the birth process and contributes to the high incidence of stillbirths observed in gilts with progestin-delayed parturition.
III. Applying molecular phenotyping in practice

Morphologic heterogeneity in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBL) was recognized under historic classification systems for lymphoma, and the application of cytogenetics with in situ hybridisation gave some indication of the variable molecular pathogenesis, but it was really only with gene expression profiling that a biologically plausible way was found to characterize the different entities. The examination of a very large number of different mRNA sequences led to the first demonstration of groups with different prognosis according to their apparent cell of origin [1]. Since then, there has been a progressive accumulation of information about the molecular characteristics in the two main groups, germinal centre B-cell (GCB) type and activated B-cell (ABC) type, with genomic analyses [2–4] and RNA knockdown library screens [5–7] adding to knowledge of the different pathogenic pathways, and the potential targets for intervention using selective inhibitors. Retrospective studies have confirmed the worse prognosis for patients with ABC type DLBL [8,9], although when multivariate analyses are used, it is clear that some of the difference may well be related to older age at diagnosis and other adverse features of their presentation [10]. The challenge now is to use this information to improve the results of treatment for patients. This requires two key elements: a reliable test and an effective intervention. To what extent are these currently available, or about to become so?
The nucleocapsid protein isolated from HIV-1 particles binds zinc and forms retroviral-type zinc fingers.

The role of zinc in retroviral gag protein function has been addressed through the application of high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to samples of the nucleocapsid protein (NCP, p7) isolated directly from infectious HIV-1 particles. Unlike reports for the NCP from avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV) particles [Jentoft et al. (1988) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 85, 7094], we find that the HIV-1 NCP binds 2 equiv of zinc tightly and stoichiometrically. Two-dimensional NMR spectroscopic studies reveal that zinc binding induces formation of folded domains that are conformationally similar to (if not identical with) structures observed previously for relevant retroviral-type (RT) zinc finger peptides [formerly called zinc fingerlike peptides; Summers et al. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 329]. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that the inability of mutant proteins (with substituted Cys and His residues) to package viral RNA results from deficient zinc-binding capability, which may have significant consequences in the development of vaccines for the prevention of AIDS.
The kanamycin biosynthetic gene cluster from Streptomyces kanamyceticus.

Kanamycin is an aminoglycoside antibiotic produced by Streptomyces kanamyceticus1). Although it possesses broad range antibacterial activity, bacteria resistant to this antibiotic readily appear, and therefore its clinical use has been restricted to tuberculosis. Resistant bacteria inactivate kanamycin by modifying its specific aminoor hydroxygroup using acetyltransferase, phosphotransferase and nucleotidyltransferase2). Investigations concerning bacterial resistance mechanisms led to the development of semisynthetic kanamycin derivatives such as dibekacin3), amikacin4) and arbekacin5). These derivatives show good activities against kanamycin-resistant bacteria and, except arbekacin, have been used as chemotherapeutic agents against resistant bacteria of clinical importance. Arbekacin has been used as an effective anti-MRSA (methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus) orphan drug in Japan since 1990. Combinatorial biosynthesis, which has mainly dealt with investigations concerning polyketide synthases and nonribosomal peptide synthetases, is an attractive and potential technology for the production of modified or novel antibiotics6). The identification of biosynthetic gene clusters for other type secondary metabolites can offer additional possibilities for combinatorial biosynthesis. In the case of aminoglycosides, biosynthetic gene clusters have been isolated and characterized for streptomycin7), fortimicin A8), butirosin9), tobramycin10) and gentamicin (only sequence data available; AY524043). Concerning kanamycin, however, molecular biological studies have been restricted to its resistance genes11-15) and little is known about kanamycin biosynthetic genes. In this report we describe the isolation of the kanamycin biosynthetic gene cluster from S. kanamyceticus. Streptomyces kanamyceticus 21-18, a strain from our collection which is highly developed for kanamycin
Evaluating Enhanced Hydrological Representations in Noah LSM over Transition Zones: Implications for Model Development

Abstract The authors introduce and compare the performance of the unified Noah land surface model (LSM) and its augments with physically based, more conceptually realistic hydrologic parameterizations. Forty-five days of 30-min data collected over nine sites in transition zones are used to evaluate (i) their benchmark, the standard Noah LSM release 2.7 (STD); (ii) a version equipped with a short-term phenology module (DV); and (iii) one that couples a lumped, unconfined aquifer model to the model soil column (GW). Their model intercomparison, enhanced by multiobjective calibration and model sensitivity analysis, shows that, under the evaluation conditions, the current set of enhancements to Noah fails to yield significant improvement in the accuracy of simulated, high-frequency, warm-season turbulent fluxes, and near-surface states across these sites. Qualitatively, the versions of DV and GW implemented degrade model robustness, as defined by the sensitivity of model performance to uncertain parameters. Q.
Effect of compatibilizer concentration and weight fraction on model immiscible blends with interfacial crosslinking

Reactive compatibilization, in which a compatibilizer is formed by an interfacial coupling between two reactive polymers, is commonly used when blending immiscible homopolymers. We consider reactive compatibilization using two multifunctional reactive polymers, which leads to a crosslinked copolymer at the interface. Experiments were conducted on model blends of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyisoprene (PI). Compatibilizer was formed by a chemical reaction between amine-functional PDMS and maleic anhydride-functional PI. Droplet-matrix blends with a PI:PDMS ratio of 30:70 or 70:30 and reactive compatibilizer loadings from 0.1% to 3% were examined by optical microscopy and rheometry. Experiments reveal that the effects of interfacial crosslinking are highly asymmetric, with PI-continuous blends showing altogether different behaviors from PDMS-continuous blends. The PI-continuous blends show unusual features including drop clusters and nonspherical drops. In contrast, PDMS-continuous blends displayed a .
CAPPS II: A Risky Choice Concerning an Untested Risk Detection Technology

Professor Barnett makes a cogent case that the new Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) may fail as a “Foundation of Aviation Security. ” Not only might CAPPS II not improve safety, it could even reduce security if it crowded out other initiatives or if scrutiny were reduced for people not flagged by the system. On the other hand, Professor Barnett notes circumstances under which CAPPS II could improve security, at least relative to CAPPS I, which uses limited data and has an architecture ill-suited to the task. Furthermore, data mining, the method underpinning CAPPS II, can do impressive things. Ironically, on the day I first read Professor Barnett’s paper, I got a call from Discover Card. By mining for suspicious purchase patterns, they had figured out before I did that my credit card had been stolen. Detecting terrorist attacks may be much harder. For credit card theft, the suspicious purchase patterns are easy to describe, e.g., purchase at a gas station followed by multiple high-value purchases at stores not commonly visited. Likewise, there is little strategic behavior. Credit card thieves do not coordinate their actions or plan as carefully as the September 11 attackers. Perhaps most importantly, for credit card fraud there are many more “true positives” in the historical data that can be used to train search algorithms. Hence, we face a risky choice: stick with CAPPS I—a system that failed to prevent the September 11 attacks—or deploy CAPPS II and perhaps make things worse. Even leaving privacy concerns aside, Professor Barnett’s analysis of CAPPS II is
Variation in internal polysaccharide synthesis among Streptococcus mutans strains

Five strains, representative of Streptococcus mutans genetic group III antigenic group d, synthesized and degraded less intracellular polysaccharide (IPS) then 17 strains representative of other S. mutans groups. The strains that synthesize IPS degraded it rapidly. The production of acid in titratable amounts from endogenous IPS was usually complete within 1 h. IPS synthesis in S. mutans increased abruptly at culture glucose concentrations between 0.2 and 0.5% and was quantitated as both iodine-and glucose oxidase-positive material in cell hyrolysates. IPS degradation was measured by acid production in a pH-stat maintained at 7. The existence within group III d of a strain recently shown to be cariogenic in experimental animals suggest that IPS may not be a prerequisite for virulence in these cariogenic bacteria.
Robot for weed species plant‐specific management

The rapid evolution of herbicide‐resistant weed species has revitalized research in nonchemical methods for weed destruction. Robots with vision‐based capabilities for online weed detection and classification are a key enabling factor for the specialized treatment of individual weed species. This paper describes the design, development, and testing of a modular robotic platform with a heterogeneous weeding array for agriculture. Starting from requirements derived from farmer insights, technical specifications are put forward. A design of a robotic platform is conducted based on the required technical specifications, and a prototype is manufactured and tested. The second part of the paper focuses on the weeding mechanism attached to the robotic platform. This includes aspects of vision for weed detection and classification, as well as the design of a weeding array that combines chemical and mechanical methods for weed destruction. Field trials of the weed detection and classification system show an accuracy of 92.3% across a range of weed species, while the heterogeneous weed management system is able to selectively apply a mechanical or chemical control method based on the species of weed. Together, the robotic platform and weeding array demonstrate the potential for robotic plant‐species–specific weed management enabled by the vision‐based online detection and classification algorithms.
Pneumococcal resistance in the UK.

The first case reports of infection with penicillin-resistant pneumococci (PRP, MIC > 0.1 mg/L) and multidrug-resistant pneumococci were made in Australia in 1967 and South Africa in 1977, respectively. Since this time these organisms have spread to become a worldwide problem. In Europe PRP prevalence rates of up to 40% have been reported from Spain and 58% from Hungary, although there has been considerable national, regional and local variation in these figures. Until recently the UK was considered to have low prevalence of PRP. As recently as 1990, 100% of 7255 strains of pneumococci from 61 centres across the UK were found to be penicillin sensitive. However, there have now been several reports of significant and rising levels of resistance nationwide. Erythromycin resistance has also risen from 2.8% to 8.6% between 1990 and 1995 in England and Wales. At the Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory (NIPHL) 3171 strains of pneumococci were examined using the oxacillin screening test between 1988 and 1995, during which time the annual rate of penicillin resistance was found to increase from <1% to 10.6%. The proportion of PRP with high-level resistance (MIC > 1 mg/L) increased from 0% to 36% and levels of PRP cross-resistance to cephalosporins and ciprofloxacin were 89% and 78%, respectively, which are amongst the highest in the UK. Similar rates of penicillin resistance have now been reported from several geographically disparate regions in the UK including Liverpool, Manchester and London. The number of laboratories in England and Wales reporting the isolation of PRPs to the Central Public Health Laboratory increased from 23 (3%) in 1987 to 72 (21%) in 1991 and a recent study from this reference laboratory showed that the prevalence of pneumococcal resistance to penicillin had increased 2.5-fold between 1990 and 1995. Clearly both PRP and multidrug-resistant pneumococci are increasing in prevalence in the UK, and this increase is likely to continue. A recent model of the evolution of national PRP prevalence rates describes a slow emergence phase, followed by an exponential growth phase of around 10 years reaching a stationary phase when the proportion of PRP reaches 50%. It is possible that the UK is currently at the beginning of the exponential growth phase of PRP. This has implications for the future treatment of pneumococcal infections in this country and emphasizes the need for new anti-pneumococcal agents. The new quinolone grepafloxacin, which has an MIC90 of 0.25 mg/L for pneumococci, may represent a future alternative oral treatment for multidrug-resistant strains. The activity of this antibiotic against 70 PRPs is compared with that of two other quinolones and macrolides.
Comparison between statistical and multiresolution wavelets analysis methods for speech classifications

This paper considers the use of MultiResolution Wavelets Analysis (MRWA) to classify speech for multifunctional control applications. While the classification problem is the focus of this paper, the ultimate goal is to improve speech analysis and their application performances. The proposed method performance was compared to that of temporal-time domain features with ANN classification. Results have shown that MRWA resulted in higher recognition rate and consistent output demonstrating higher reliability.
Lecture Notes on Testing Dictatorships , Juntas , and Monomials

1. Dictatorship: The case where the value of f depends on a single Boolean variable (i.e., f(x) = xi ⊕ σ for some i ∈ [l] and σ ∈ {0, 1}). 2. Junta (of size k): The case where the value of f depends on at most k Boolean variables (i.e., f(x) = f (xI) for some k-subset I ⊂ [l] and f ′ : {0, 1}k → {0, 1}). 3. Monomial (of size k): The case where the value of f is the conjunction of exactly k Boolean variables (i.e., f(x) = ∧i∈I(xi ⊕ σi) for some k-subset I ⊆ [l] and σ1, . , σl ∈ {0, 1}).
Measuring Bank Performance with Gray Relational Analysis: The Case of Turkey

Banking sector is one of the most important factors in development of economy. A strong and healthy banking sector is considered to be a prerequisite for sustainable economic growth. In this study, the aim is to apply Gray Relational Analysis (GRA) to measure and compare financial performances of 10 banks with common stock trading in Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) between the years of 2005–2011. Another aim of the study is to reduce the number of financial rates, which determine bank performance, and by doing so, identify which financial rate is more important in measuring performance. As a result of GRA method, “Akbank” was the first and “Yapi Kredi Bank” was the last in terms of financial performance. Another finding of the study was that a bank with high “Return on Assets” could also have a high financial performance.
DNA replication in early S phase pauses near newly activated origins

During the S phase of the cell cycle, the entire genome is replicated. There is a high level of orderliness to this process through the temporally and topologically coordinated activation of many replication origins situated along chromosomes. We investigated the program of replication from origins initiating in early S phase by labeling synchronized normal human fibroblasts (NHF1) with nucleotide analogs for various pulse times and measuring labeled tracks in combed DNA fibers. Our analysis showed that replication forks progress 9-35 kilobases from newly initiated origins, followed by a pause in synthesis before replication resumes. Pausing was not observed near origins that initiated in the middle of S phase. No evidence for pausing near origins was found at the beginning of the S phase in glioblastoma T98G cells. Treatment with the S phase checkpoint inhibitor caffeine abrogated pausing in NHF1 cells in early S phase. This suggests that pausing may comprise a novel aspect of the intra-S phase checkpoint pathway or a related new early S checkpoint. Further, it is possible that the loss of this regulatory process in cancer cells such as T98G could be a contributing factor in the genetic instability that typifies cancers.
Models of Successful Collaboration

This chapter uses case studies to develop a model of productive collaborative research. In contrast to the privileged position academician-researchers may accord themselves, true collaborations recognize full agency in all key participants and attempt to align their disparate aims. More than in the business world, collaborations in language documentation and revitalization require active bridging the motivations of multiple actors to establish and maintain a community of practice. Ingredients for successful collaborations are closely tied to emerging models of research ethics, and include establishing working relationships based on inclusiveness; fully consultative planning; clear goal-setting; mutual training; a smooth workflow; flexibility; and the empowerment of indigenous capacities beyond the scope of the original project.