Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential expression of TGFBR3 (betaglycan) in mouse ovary and testis during gonadogenesis

TGFBR3 is an accessory receptor that binds to and modulates the activities of both transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ) and inhibin, two members of the TGFβ superfamily of growth factors that regulate many aspects of reproductive biology. Tgfbr3 is known to be expressed in adult testis and ovary, but little is known about this receptor during gonadogenesis. Herein, we describe Tgfbr3 expression in the male and female fetal and neonatal murine gonad. Real-time PCR analysis revealed that Tgfbr3 mRNA was expressed at higher levels in the developing testis compared to ovary. TGFBR3 was expressed within the fetal testis interstitium, predominantly by Leydig cells, but expression shifted inside the seminiferous cords at birth. In contrast, TGFBR3 was detected in both the somatic and germ cell lineages in the fetal and neonatal ovary. This differential expression pattern suggests divergent roles for this TGFBR3 in developing testis and ovary.
On the trellis complexity of root lattices and their duals

Trellis complexity of root lattices A/sub n/, D/sub n/, E/sub n/, and their duals is investigated. Using N, the number of distinct paths in a trellis, as the measure of trellis complexity for lattices, a trellis is called minimal if it minimizes N. It is proved that the previously discovered trellis diagrams of some of the above lattices (D/sub n/, n odd, A/sub n/, 4/spl les/n/spl les/9, A/sub 4/*, A/sub 5/*, A/sub 6/*, A/sub 9/*, E/sub 6/, E/sub 6/*, and E/sub 7/*) are minimal. We also obtain minimal trellises for A/sub 7/* and A/sub 8/*. It is known that the complexity N of any trellis of an n-dimensional lattice with coding gain /spl gamma/ satisfies N/spl ges//spl gamma//sup n/2/. Here, this lower bound is improved for many of the root lattices and their duals. For A/sub n/ and A/sub n/* lattices, we also propose simple constructions for low-complexity trellises in an arbitrary dimension n, and derive tight upper bounds on the complexity of the constructed trellises. In some dimensions, the constructed trellises are minimal, while for some other values of n they have lower complexity than previously known trellises.
Mechanical Failures of eight-PlateGuided Growth System for Temporary Hemiepiphysiodesis

Background For decades, the Blount staple has been used to perform temporary hemiepiphysiodesis for angular deformity correction in children with open growth plates. Recently, the eight-PlateGuided Growth System (Orthofix, McKinney, TX) has gained popularity for use in this procedure. The eight-Plate is said to be superior to the Blount staple, as it is less likely to break or migrate out of the bone. However, some centers have observed mechanical failures of the eight-Plate cannulated screws. Methods The purpose of our study was to conduct a multicenter survey to determine which factors increase the risk of mechanical failure with this device. We distributed a questionnaire in 2007 to 841 members of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America that asked about their experience with the eight-Plate and whether they had observed any mechanical failures. Follow-up surveys were distributed to determine the background of the failed cases. Results Of the 445 (53%) surgeons who responded, 314 (71%) reported that they use the eight-Plate in their practice. Forty-eight (15%) of the 314 surgeons who use the eight-Plate observed a total of 65 cases of mechanical failure. In every case, the screws failed, not the plate. The average body mass index of these patients was 37.8 kg/m2 (range, 19.2 to 70.2 kg/m2). Conclusions Overweight and obese patients with Blount disease were among those most likely to experience eight-Plate screw failure. Fractures occurred almost always in the metaphyseal screw—not where the head meets the shank but where the shank enters the lateral cortex, presumably because of 3-point bending. No broken plates were reported. In high-risk cases, we now consider using 2 parallel eight-Plates or using solid (not cannulated) screws for plate fixation. Level of Evidence Level IV.
Shotgun Sequencing of the Human Genome

The recent public announcement by TIGR and Perkin-Elmer that they intend to form a new company whose goal is to sequence the human genome four years faster and at lower cost than the government-backed Human Genome Project caught the immediate attention of the community. Venter et al . now describe the scientific rationale for their proposal and outline the business plan of the company.
Pubertal onset in children with perinatal HIV infection in the era of combination antiretroviral treatment

Objective:To evaluate associations of perinatal HIV infection, HIV disease severity, and combination antiretroviral treatment with age at pubertal onset. Design:Analysis of data from two US longitudinal cohort studies (IMPAACT 219C and PHACS AMP), conducted during 2000–2012, including perinatally HIV-infected (PHIV) and HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) youth. Tanner stage assessments of pubertal status (breast and pubic hair in girls; genitalia and pubic hair in boys) were conducted annually. Methods:We compared the timing of pubertal onset (Tanner stage ≥2) between PHIV and HEU youth using interval-censored models. For PHIV youth, we evaluated associations of HIV disease severity and combination antiretroviral treatment with age at pubertal onset, adjusting for race/ethnicity and birth cohort. Results:The mean age at pubertal onset was significantly later for the 2086 PHIV youth compared to the 453 HEU children (10.3 vs. 9.6, 10.5 vs. 10.0, 11.3 vs. 10.4, and 11.5 vs. 10.7 years according to female breast, female pubic hair, male genitalia, and male pubic hair staging, respectively, all P < 0.001). PHIV youth with HIV-1 RNA viral load above 10 000 copies/ml (vs. ⩽10 000 copies/ml) or CD4% below 15% (vs. ≥15%) had significantly later pubertal onset (by 4–13 months). Each additional year of combination antiretroviral treatment was associated with a 0.6–1.2-month earlier mean age at pubertal onset, but this trend did not persist after adjustment for birth cohort. Conclusion:Pubertal onset occurs significantly later in PHIV than in HEU youth, especially among those with more severe HIV disease. However, in the current era, combination antiretroviral treatment may result in more normal timing of pubertal onset.
Sumoylation by Ubc9 regulates the stem cell compartment and structure and function of the intestinal epithelium in mice.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Small ubiquitin-like modifiers (SUMOs) are attached to other proteins to regulate their function (sumoylation). We investigated the role of Ubc9, which covalently attaches SUMOs to proteins, in the gastrointestinal tract of adult mice. METHODS We investigated the effects of decreased sumoylation in adult mammals by generating mice with an inducible knockout (by injection of 4-hydroxytamoxifen) of the E2 enzyme Ubc9 (Ubc9fl/-/ROSA26-CreERT2 mice). We analyzed the phenotypes using a range of histologic techniques. RESULTS Loss of Ubc9 from adult mice primarily affected the small intestine. Ubc9fl/-/ROSA26-CreERT2 mice died within 6 days of 4-hydroxytamoxifen injection, losing 20% or less of their body weight and developing severe diarrhea on the second day after injection. Surprisingly, other epithelial tissues appeared to be unaffected at that stage. Decreased sumoylation led to the depletion of the intestinal proliferative compartment and to the rapid disappearance of stem cells. Sumoylation was required to separate the proliferative and differentiated compartments from the crypt and control differentiation and function of the secretory lineage. Sumoylation was required for nucleus positioning and polarized organization of actin in the enterocytes. Loss of sumoylation caused detachment of the enterocytes from the basal lamina, as observed in tissue fragility diseases. We identified the intermediate filament keratin 8 as a SUMO substrate in epithelial cells. CONCLUSIONS Sumoylation maintains intestinal stem cells and the architecture, mechanical stability, and function of the intestinal epithelium of mice.
Mutational analysis of the Prt1 protein subunit of yeast translation initiation factor 3

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae PRT1 gene product Prt1p is a component of translation initiation factor eIF-3, and mutations in PRT1 inhibit translation initiation. We have investigated structural and functional aspects of Prt1p and its gene. Transcript analysis and deletion of the PRT1 5' end revealed that translation of PRT1 mRNA is probably initiated at the second in-frame ATG in the open reading frame. The amino acid changes encoded by six independent temperature-sensitive prt1 mutant alleles were found to be distributed throughout the central and C-terminal regions of Prt1p. The temperature sensitivity of each mutant allele was due to a single missense mutation, except for the prt1-2 allele, in which two missense mutations were required. In-frame deletion of an N-terminal region of Prt1p generated a novel, dominant-negative form of Prt1p that inhibits translation initiation even in the presence of wild-type Prt1p. Subcellular fractionation suggested that the dominant-negative Prt1p competes with wild-type Prt1p for association with a component of large Prt1p complexes and as a result inhibits the binding of wild-type Prt1p to the 40S ribosome.
Outcomes of total hip and knee replacement: preoperative functional status predicts outcomes at six months after surgery.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether patients with knee or hip osteoarthritis (OA) who have worse physical function preoperatively achieve a postoperative status that is similar to that of patients with better preoperative function. METHODS This study surveyed an observational cohort of 379 consecutive patients with definite OA who were without other inflammatory joint diseases and were undergoing either total hip or knee replacement in a US (Boston) and a Canadian (Montreal) referral center. Questionnaires on health status (the Short Form 36 and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index) were administered preoperatively and at 3 and 6 months postoperatively. Physical function and pain due to OA were deemed the most significant outcomes to study. RESULTS Two hundred twenty-two patients returned their questionnaires. Patients in the 2 centers were comparable in age, sex, time to surgery, and proportion of hip/knee surgery. The Boston group had more education, lower comorbidity, and more cemented knee prostheses. Patients undergoing hip or knee replacement in Montreal had lower preoperative physical function and more pain than their Boston counterparts. In patients with lower preoperative physical function, function and pain were not improved postoperatively to the level achieved by those with higher preoperative function. This was most striking in patients undergoing total knee replacement. CONCLUSION Surgery performed later in the natural history of functional decline due to OA of the knee, and possibly of the hip, results in worse postoperative functional status.
Reproduction in the two species of grey kangaroos, Macropus giganteus Shaw and M. fuliginosus (Desmarest). I. Sexual maturity and oestrus.

Eastern grey kangaroos, M. giganteus, and the western grey kangaroos M. f. fuliginosus, M.J melanops and M. f, ocydromus were bred in enclosures over a period of 10 y. Testis biopsies indicated sexual maturity in males, as follows: in both species, changes in the tubules from age 15 months; some spermatozoa seen by 20 months; active spermatogenesis with sperm free in the lumen by 31 (some western greys) or 48 months (eastern greys). In females, onset of sexual maturation, indicated by eversion of the teats, was from 14 and 18 months in western and eastern greys respectively; initial mating at c. 16.4 and 19 months with births not less than 1 month later. Crosses occurred only between western males and eastern females. Male hybrids were sterile; females were fertile, invariably mated with western males but also twice with eastern males. Smears taken from the anterior urogenital sinus showed that in both species and in their hybrids oestrus was accompanied by a marked increase in long narrow epithelial cells ('long cells'). The cycle was 34.85+-4.42 days in western females, 38.06h+-3.51 days in hybrids and 45.58+-19.82 days in eastern females. Variation in cycle length between and within females in each species was not significant, although variation between fuliginosus and melanops was significant at the 5% level. Oestrus occurred in all months of the year but least often in winter when some females entered anoestrus. Variance ratios for cycle length in relation to month of year were not significant for eastern or hybrid females but were, at the 5 % level, for western females. On loss or removal of pouch young the mean delay in return to oestrus was 10.92f 4.78 days in eastern and 8.2515. 84 days in western females, significantly different at the 5% level. Females which retain their young may return to oestrus by 150 days after the birth and may mate at any or all of up to nine oestruses before conceiving again. Differences between eastern and western females were not significant, but those between western subspecies were, particularly between fuliginosus and melanops at the 0.1 % level. Embryonic diapause was observed seven times, all in eastern females, and followed matings not less than 160 days after the birth of a current pouch young.
Liaison Patterns and Usage in Jersey Norman French

Abstract This study aims to provide the first systematic analysis of liaison in a dialect spoken within French linguistic territory. It focuses on Jersey Norman French (Jèrriais to its speakers), an obsolescent (langue d'oïl) variety spoken in the Channel Islands. Using methodology based on the protocol developed by the Phonologie du français contemporain project (Durand and Lyche 2003), it investigates liaison usage in a number of different syntactic contexts and across two different speech styles. On the whole, the contexts that trigger obligatory liaison in standard French do the same in Jèrriais. However, very different patterns emerge for optional liaison and for conversational vs. reading style. Moreover, despite the fact that high degrees of individual variation are often present in obsolescent speech communities, a striking uniformity of liaison usage-patterns was recorded across informants.
Functional Domains of Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase (*)

Soluble guanylyl cyclase is a heterodimer consisting of an α and β subunit and stimulation occurs upon binding of NO to a prosthetic group. Little is known about the localization of catalytic and regulatory domains within the subunits of soluble guanylyl cyclase. We used deletion mutagenesis to identify the regions of α1 and β1 subunits that are responsible for cGMP production or NO-heme-mediated activation. The amino terminus of the β1 subunit was necessary for NO stimulation since deletion of the 64 NH2-terminal amino acids resulted in a mutant with intact basal activity but complete loss of NO activation. The amino terminus of the α1 subunit also appeared to be essential for NO sensitivity since deletion of 131 NH2-terminal amino acids of α1 led to markedly reduced NO activation. These results suggest that NH2-terminal regions of α1 and β1 are involved in NO-heme-mediated signal transduction. The NH2 terminally truncated β1 subunit exerted a dominant negative effect exclusively on the NO-stimulated activity of the wild type enzyme, further underlining that the regulatory domain is located within the NH2 terminus of the enzyme. Aside from the structural implications, the mutant represents a powerful tool to investigate nitric oxide-sensitive signaling pathways. Coexpression of the COOH-terminal halves of α1 and β1 were sufficient for basal cGMP production while either of the halves expressed alone was inactive. Therefore the COOH-terminal regions appear to contain sufficient information for dimerization and basal enzymatic activity. Thus, we provide the first evidence that the regulatory and catalytic properties of soluble guanylyl cyclase can be attributed to different regions of the subunits and that the catalytic domain can be functionally expressed separately from the NH2-terminal regulatory domain. Taken together with findings on the membrane bound enzyme form, guanylyl cyclases, appear to resemble fusion proteins where different regulatory domains have been joined with a common cGMP-forming segment.
Metabolic consequences of 5-year growth hormone (GH) therapy in children treated with GH for idiopathic short stature. Genentech Collaborative Study Group.

In a multicenter study the metabolic effects of 5 yr of GH therapy in children with idiopathic short stature were evaluated. Patients received 0.3 mg/kg.week recombinant human GH. Of the 121 patients who entered the study, data for 62 were analyzed at the final 5 yr point. Routine laboratory determinations were available for all 62 subjects at the 5 yr point. Special laboratory determinations, such as postprandial glucose and insulin, were available for only a subset of patients. Mean insulin-like growth factor I levels rose to 283 +/- 101 micrograms/L, within the normal range using age-appropriate reference standards. T4, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood chemistries, and blood pressure showed no significant changes during the 5-yr period. Mean baseline and 2-h postprandial glucose levels remained unchanged. Both fasting and postprandial insulin levels rose substantively from low normal levels to the normal range (median, 4.9-43 mU/L). Mean hemoglobin A1c levels remained within the normal range throughout the study. In summary, careful monitoring has not revealed any currently discernible metabolic side-effects of clinical significance after GH therapy in this 5-yr study of children with idiopathic short stature.
Somatic MMR Gene Mutations as a Cause for MSI‐H Sebaceous Neoplasms in Muir–Torre Syndrome‐Like Patients

Sebaceous neoplasms are a major clinical feature of Muir–Torre syndrome (MTS) associated with visceral malignancies, especially colorectal and endometrial tumors. The diagnosis of MTS relies largely on the microsatellite instability (MSI) phenotype in tumors, suggesting germline mutations in DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes responsible for the inherited disease. We hypothesized that in some MSI‐H sebaceous tumors, acquired rather than inherited mutations in MMR genes could be involved. Using next‐generation sequencing, we screened MMR gene mutations in 18 MSI‐H sebaceous tumors. We found mutations in 17 samples (94%). Indeed, 12/17 (71%) were shown to carry acquired somatic mutations and among 12 samples, seven were shown to be associated with additional somatic alterations like loss of heterozygosity or multiple mutations, suggesting somatic second hits. Our findings strongly suggest that somatic MMR deficiency is responsible for a proportion of MSI‐H sebaceous tumors.
Survey on major challenges in humanitarian logistics

In this work we present the results of a survey on major challenges in humanitarian logistics. The survey was conducted among logistics managers of relief organizations, logistic service providers, and universities investigating in humanitarian logistics. The following issue areas were consulted: (1) Information and Technology, (2) Processes, Organization, Coordination, (3) Infrastructure, (4) Politics, Government. The results in the first issue area focus mainly on needs for action in the context of the transparency, compatibility, and functionality of IT-systems for humanitarian logistics. The transferability of classical and the establishment of specific concepts of logistics and supply chain management were identified as an important challenge in the second issue area. The need for an improved information situation was noticed within the areas “Infrastructure” and “Politics, Government”. Additionally, it can be highlighted that the assessments of the three questioned groups differ in important points, although a common ground for further research was identified.
Evaluation of the Occlusion and Arch Dimensions in the Primary Dentition of an Iranian Population

Introduction: The objective of this study was to gather information about normal occlusion and arch dimensions in the primary teeth of the children belonging to an Iranian population. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 68 children from the city of Mashhad in the 3-5 age range. Dental arch dimensions, interrelationships of primary canine and second molars, overbite and overjet were evaluated. Results: Primate space was observed on both sides of the arch in 82.2% of the subjects. The most prevalent type of primary molar relationship was flush terminal plane (52.1%) followed by distal step (31.3%) and then mesial step (16.7%). The primary canine relationship was ranked in the descending order of prevalence as Class I (77.1%), Class II (13.5%), end-to-end (5.2%) and Class III (4.2%). Normal overbite and normal overjet was observed in 50% and 81.3% of cases, respectively. Conclusion: This study provides an insight into the dental arch dimensions, occlusion, spacing and crowding in primary dentition in Iranian children. In most of the cases, primate space and flush terminal plane were observed.
Dynamics of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus at Station ALOHA Revealed through Flow Cytometry and High-Resolution Vertical Sampling

The fluorescence and scattering properties of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus at Station ALOHA as measured by flow cytometry (FCM phenotype) vary with depth and over a variety of time scales. The variance in phenotype may reflect genetic selection or physiological acclimation to local conditions. Observations before, during, and after a storm with deep water mixing show a short-term homogenization of the FCM phenotypes with depth, followed by a return to the stable pattern over the time span of a few days. These dynamics indicate that, within the upper mixed-layer, the FCM phenotype distribution represents acclimation to ambient light. The populations in the pycnocline (around 100 m and below), remain stable and invariant with light conditions. In samples where both cyanobacteria coexist, fluorescence properties of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus are tightly correlated providing further evidence that FCM phenotype variability is caused by a common environmental factor(s). Measurements of the dynamics of FCM signatures provide insights in phytoplankton physiology and adaptation. More importantly, an FCM phenotype census of a water mass provides information about its origin and illumination history.
Calculation of ionization within the close-coupling formalism.

We present a method for calculation of differential ionization cross sections from theories that use the close-coupling expansion for the total wave function. It is shown how, from a single such calculation, elastic, excitation, and ionization cross sections may be extracted using solely the T-matrix elements arising from solution of the coupled equations. To demonstrate the applicability of this formalism, the convergent close-coupling theory is systematically applied at incident energies of 150–600 eV to the calculation of e-He ionization. Comparison with available measurements is generally very good.