Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A rapid and reliable method for metabolite extraction in yeast using boiling buffered ethanol

A simple and reliable method for the efficient inactivation of metabolism and for quantitative metabolite extraction from yeast cells is presented. It is based on the use of a boiling solution made of 75% ethanol (volume/final volume) buffered with 70 mm‐Hepes (final concentration), pH 7·5, to guarantee the stability throughout the whole procedure of a large variety of metabolites, including all glycolytic intermediates, nucleotides, pyridine nucleotides and organic acids compounds. The extraction is fast, requiring only 3 min incubation of yeast cells in the ethanol‐buffered mixture maintained at 80°C. It can be carried out either directly by spraying the cells into the boiling mixture, or after quenching the whole culture in 60% methanol kept at −40°C. Extracts are subsequently concentrated by evaporation under partial vacuum and the residue is resuspended in a small volume of water. This concentration step and the use of a highly sensitive analytical method allow us to quantify metabolites in less than 10 mg dry weight cells. This method, which can be applied to other fungi, could be very helpful for the determination of true metabolites in mutants generated through the EUROFAN programme and for metabolic flux analysis. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Superconducting Magnetic Separation of Powdered Activated Carbon From Aqueous Phase

Magnetic separation can be combined with several environmental technologies and the proper combination helps overcome the limitations of current technologies. One of the most popular adsorbent for environmental uses is activated carbon, especially for water and wastewater treatments. Powdered activated carbon (PAC) has several advantages such as relatively short equilibrium time and easy regeneration in a very short period of time due to a short pore depth over granular activated carbon but the separation of PAC out of water is challenging. In the current study, commercially available PAC was magnetized and tested for separation out of water using a superconducting magnet. The magnetization process might block the pores and decrease the sorption capacity. The surface area and the sorption capacity of PAC were compared before and after the magnetization. The removal efficiency of PAC was highly dependent on the magnetic field and magnetizing method. Complete removal of magnetized PAC was achieved by a superconducting magnet indicating a superconducting magnet system with magnetized PAC and can be useful for physical treatment of water and wastewater.
Pre-colonial Sto:lo-Coast Salish community organization : an archaeological study

ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES . viii LIST OF FIGURES . ix GLOSSARY OF HALQ’EMÉYLEM TERMS. xvii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.xviii DEDICATION. xx CHAPTER
Adaptive robust fuzzy control for robot manipulators

This paper presents an adaptive robust fuzzy control architecture for robot manipulators motion. The control objective is to adaptively compensate for the unknown nonlinearity of robot manipulators, which is represented as a fuzzy rule-base consisting of a collection of if-then rules. The algorithm embedded in the proposed architecture can automatically update fuzzy rules and, consequently, it is guaranteed to be globally stable and to drive the tracking errors to a neighborhood of zero. Focused on realization, hardware limitations such as traditional long computation line and excessive memory-space usage are also related by incorporating heuristic concepts, which reveals the flexible feature of this architecture. The present work is applied to the control of a five degree-of-freedom (DOF) articulated robot manipulator. Simulation results show that the proposed control architecture is featured in fast convergence. <<ETX>>
Science against microbial pathogens : communicating current research and technological advances

Staphylococcus epidermidis is the staphylococci species most commonly associated with bacteremia and hospital-acquired infections and has recently arisen as the leading cause of infections related to indwelling medical devices such as vascular catheters, prosthetic joints and artificial heart valves. The prevalence of S. epidermidis in hospital-acquired infections is due to its ability to adhere and form biofilms on biomaterial surfaces. This feature is one of the most important virulence factors found in S. epidermidis. In biofilm form, bacteria are protected from antimicrobial agents and the host immune system contributing to the persistence of biofilm infections. In addition, the emergence of S. epidermidis resistance to conventional therapies, based in the use of traditional antibiotics, leads to the failure of the current treatments used in the combat of S. epidermidis infections and is becoming a major concern. These facts are stimulating the continuous search for novel agents able to eradicate S. epidermidis biofilm infections or that can work in synergy with the currently available antimicrobial agents. New strategies have been showing encouraging in vitro results in controlling S. epidermidis biofilms and seem to be promising alternatives to standard antibiotics usually used in the treatment of S. epidermidis related infections.
Spectroscopic Analysis of Changes in Remitted Illumination: The Response to Increased Neural Activity in Brain

Imaging of neural activation has been used to produce maps of functional architecture and metabolic activity. There is some uncertainty associated with the sources underlying the intrinsic signals. It has been reported that following increased neural activity there was little increased oxygen consumption ( approximately 5%), although glucose consumption increased by approximately 50%. The research we describe uses a modification of the Beer-Lambert Law called path-length scaling analysis (PLSA) to analyze the spectra of the hemodynamic and metabolic responses to vibrissal stimulation in rat somatosensory cortex. The results of the PLSA algorithm were compared with those obtained using a linear spectrographic analysis method (we refer to this as LMCA). There are differences in the results of the analysis depending on which of the two algorithms (PLSA or LMCA) is used. Using the LMCA algorithm, we obtain results showing an increase in the volume of Hbr at approximately 2 s, following onset of stimulation but no complementary decrease in oxygenated haemoglobin (HbO(2)). These results are similar to a previous report. In contrast, after using the PLSA algorithm, the time series of the chromophore changes shows no evidence for an increase in the volume of deoxygenated haemoglobin (Hbr). However, after further analysis of the time series from the PLSA using general linear models (GLM) to remove contributions from low frequency baseline oscillations, both the HbO(2) and Hbr times series of the response to stimulation were found to be biphasic with an early decrease in saturation peaking approximately 1 s after onset of stimulation followed by a larger increase in saturation peaking at approximately 3 s. Finally, following the PLSA-then-GLM analysis procedure, we do not find convincing evidence for an increase in cytochrome oxidation following stimulation, though we demonstrate the PLSA algorithm to be capable of disassociating changes in cytochrome oxidation state from changes in hemoglobin oxygenation.
Contrasting effects of rising CO2 on primary production and ecological stoichiometry at different nutrient levels.

Although rising CO2 concentrations are thought to promote the growth and alter the carbon : nutrient stoichiometry of primary producers, several studies have reported conflicting results. To reconcile these contrasting results, we tested the following hypotheses: rising CO2 levels (1) will increase phytoplankton biomass more at high nutrient loads than at low nutrient loads, but (2) will increase their carbon : nutrient stoichiometry more at low than at high nutrient loads. We formulated a mathematical model to predict dynamic changes in phytoplankton population density, elemental stoichiometry and inorganic carbon chemistry in response to rising CO2 . The model was tested in chemostat experiments with the freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. The model predictions and experimental results confirmed the hypotheses. Our findings provide a novel theoretical framework to understand and predict effects of rising CO2 concentrations on primary producers and their nutritional quality as food for herbivores under different nutrient conditions.
Olanzapine treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder: an open-label study

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and increasingly diagnosed mental illness. Recent pharmacotherapeutic research on treatments for this condition has focused on antidepressant drugs with scrotonergic actions. However, the presence of intrusive, psychotic-like symptoms in a substantial portion of PTSD patients raises the possibility that antipsychotics with serotonergic properties might also prove useful in treating PTSD. We conducted an open-label 8-week study of olanzapine treatment in veterans with combat-induced PTSD. Primary outcome measures in this study were the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and the Clinical Global Impressions Improvement scale. Secondary outcome measures included the Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression (HRSD) and Anxiety (HRSA). Forty-eight patients enrolled in the study, and 30 completed the 8-week trial. Results of intent-to-treat and completer analyses demonstrated that all outcome measures improved significantly during treatment. Secondary analyses indicate that improvement in the intrusive symptom cluster of the CAPS was independent of improvement on the HRSD and HRSA. In conclusion, the study indicates that olanzapine treatment is useful in alleviating the symptoms of combat-induced PTSD.
Estimating the length of transmembrane helices using Z‐coordinate predictions

Zpred2 is an improved version of ZPRED, a predictor for the Z‐coordinates of α‐helical membrane proteins, that is, the distance of the residues from the center of the membrane. Using principal component analysis and a set of neural networks, Zpred2 analyzes data extracted from the amino acid sequence, the predicted topology, and evolutionary profiles. Zpred2 achieves an average accuracy error of 2.18 Å (2.17 Å when an independent test set is used), an improvement by 15% compared to the previous version. We show that this accuracy is sufficient to enable the predictions of helix lengths with a correlation coefficient of 0.41. As a comparison, two state‐of‐the‐art HMM‐based topology prediction methods manage to predict the helix lengths with a correlation coefficient of less than 0.1. In addition, we applied Zpred2 to two other problems, the re‐entrant region identification and model validation. Re‐entrants were able to be detected with a certain consistency, but not better than with previous approaches, while incorrect models as well as mispredicted helices of transmembrane proteins could be distinguished based on the Z‐coordinate predictions.
Training of familiar face recognition and visual scan paths for faces in a child with congenital prosopagnosia

In the current report we describe a successful training study aimed at improving recognition of a set of familiar face photographs in K. , a 4-year-old girl with congenital prosopagnosia (CP). A detailed assessment of K. 's face-processing skills showed a deficit in structural encoding, most pronounced in the processing of facial features within the face. In addition, eye movement recordings revealed that K. 's scan paths for faces were characterized by a large percentage of fixations directed to areas outside the internal core features (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth), in particular by poor attendance to the eye region. Following multiple baseline assessments, training focused on teaching K. to reliably recognize a set of familiar face photographs by directing visual attention to specific characteristics of the internal features of each face. The training significantly improved K. 's ability to recognize the target faces, with her performance being flawless immediately after training as well as at a follow-up assessment 1 month later. In addition, eye movement recordings following training showed a significant change in K. 's scan paths, with a significant increase in the percentage of fixations directed to the internal features, particularly the eye region. Encouragingly, not only was the change in scan paths observed for the set of familiar trained faces, but it generalized to a set of faces that was not presented during training. In addition to documenting significant training effects, our study raises the intriguing question of whether abnormal scan paths for faces may be a common factor underlying face recognition impairments in childhood CP, an issue that has not been explored so far.
Comorbidities of hidradenitis suppurativa (acne inversa)

Comorbidities of hidradenitis suppurativa (acne inversa) were reviewed by extracting original and review publications included in MEDLINE, EMBASE and COCHRANE libraries using the terms "hidradenitis," "Verneuil" and "acne inversa. " Follicular occlusion disorders, inflammatory bowel diseases, especially Crohn's disease, spondylarthropathy, other hyperergic diseases, genetic keratin disorders associated with follicular occlusion and squamous cell carcinoma were the most common hidradenitis suppurativa comorbid diseases. A first classification of these major comorbidities and their possible genetic background reveals a list of chromosome loci and genes, which could be hidradenitis suppurativa candidates. Most of these diseases belong to the group of autoinflammatory disorders, where Th17 cell cytokines seem to play a central role.
Regulation von Spannungsgesteuerten Kaliumkanälen durch Häm

Ham ist seit langem als stabile prosthetische Gruppe in Proteinen bekannt, denen dadurch Reaktionen mit Sauerstoff oder anderen Gasen moglich werden. Klassische Beispiele sind die Cytochrome, Hamoglobin, Myoglobin oder die losliche Guanylatzyklase. Daruber hinaus gibt es aber auch neue Befunde, die zeigen, dass Ham als sehr potenter nicht-genomischer Regulator von Ionenkanalen wirken kann. Der spannungs- und kalziumabhangige Kaliumkanal Slo1 (BK) war das erste Beispiel fur eine Regulation durch direkte Bindung von Ham. Bindung an das klassische Ham-Bindemotiv „CxxCH“ im C-Terminus des Kanalproteins fuhrt zu einer Reduktion des Kaliumstromes von Slo1. Nach dieser Entdeckung stellte sich die Frage, ob auch andere Kanalproteine auf ahnliche Weise durch Ham reguliert werden konnen. Aufgabe dieser Arbeit war es daher, mit Hilfe von patch-clamp-Studien an heterolog exprimierten Kaliumkanalen nach bisher unbekannten Wechselwirkungen von Ham mit Kanalproteinen zu suchen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit konnten zwei neue Klassen Ham-sensitiver Kaliumkanale nachgewiesen werden: A-Typ-Kanale und Kanale der EAG-Familie.
Overview: brain tumour diagnosis and management/Royal College of Physicians guidelines

This article is intended to reflect the current level of services for patients with brain tumours in the UK, “warts and all”. I have taken the evidence from first hand experiences auditing practice and implementation of the Royal College of Physicians guidelines for good practice in three of the four neuroscience centres in Scotland. I anticipate the findings are no better or no worse than what you will find in your local neuroscience centre. I hope it encourages you to work closely with neuropathology, neuro-radiology, neurosurgical and clinical oncological colleagues to improve the standard of care for patients with brain tumours. Hopefully this review will provide some evidence and support for submissions to improve the service in your local centre. Primary brain tumours, although numerically fairly uncommon (incidence 8/100 000 per year), have a major impact on family and working life as they are the most common solid tumour in children and the eighth most common cancer in people of working age.1 Cerebral gliomas account for > 90% of primary brain tumours and are the fifth most common cause of death from cancer under the age of 65 years. They have a five year survival of only 18%. Patients with brain tumours are rare in general practice (four or five new cases in one general practitioner’s (GP’s) working lifetime), yet they remain a common concern of patients and GPs. Primary and secondary brain tumours present with similar symptoms and can be difficult to distinguish either clinically or by imaging. Usually, patients are referred to a physician or neurologist at their local major hospital. Brain imaging demonstrates an abnormality that could be a tumour. The patient may then be referred to a neurosurgeon. Care pathways can be depicted as a “timeline” (fig 1). At each decision time point patients are …
Effects of ELF fields on calcium-ion efflux from brain tissue in vitro.

It has been previously demonstrated that carrier waves of 50 and 147 MHz, when sinusoidally amplitude modulated at 16 Hz (ELF), can cause enhanced efflux of radiolabeled calcium ions from chick brain tissue in vitro. This phenomenon occurs only when the samples are exposed to specific intensity ranges of the carrier wave. Unmodulated carrier waves do not affect the ion efflux. Since the ELF signal must be demodulated from the carrier wave to be effective, a study of the efflux ehnancement due to the ELF signal alone may lead to an identification of the site of demodulation, as well as provide clues to the underlying mechanism. We report here that 16-Hz sinusoidal fields in the absence of a carrier wave can alter the efflux rate of calcium ions. The results show a frequency-dependent, field-induced enhancement of calcium-ion efflux within the ranges 5 to 7.5 V/m and 35 to 50 V/m (peak-to-peak incident field in air) with no enhancement within the ranges 1 to 2, 10 to 30, and 60 to 70 V/m.
Hypertrophy and hyperplasia of smooth muscle cells of small intramyocardial arteries in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Hearts of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were investigated by means of stereology and were compared with those of normotensive. Wistar-Kyoto controls. At the age of 9 months, hypertensive rats showed cardiac hypertrophy, marked myocardial fibrosis, activation of nonvascular interstitium, focal myocytial degeneration, reduction of capillarization, and microarteriopathy of small intramyocardial arteries. Stereologically, a significant increase in the total left ventricular arterial wall volume (+180% versus controls) was found in SHR hearts. By using new stereological techniques, the orientator and the nucleator, we investigated whether this significant increase in total left ventricular arterial wall volume was due to hyperplasia of smooth muscle cells in addition to the process of vascular smooth muscle cell hypertrophy that is common in SHR. Additionally, the nuclear size and ratio of cell volume to nuclear volume were determined using another new stereological technique, the selector. The stereological data indicate a significant increase in mean cell and nuclear volumes as well as in the total number of left ventricular arterial smooth muscle cells of SHR. Additionally, the total length of intramyocardial arteries was also significantly increased in hypertensive rats. The volume and number of arterial smooth muscle cells per arterial length were significantly (P < .001 and P < .05, respectively) higher in SHR than in normotensive controls. Thus, we conclude that hypertrophy and hyperplasia of smooth muscle cells are involved in intramyocardial arterial growth processes in hypertensive heart remodeling. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Displacement Sensing by Repetition Rate Pulling in a Passively Mode Locked Laser Under Feedback

We propose and experimentally validate a simple displacement sensing technique, which relies on the optical feedback-induced pulling of the repetition rate in a passively mode-locked semiconductor laser. Depending on the setup parameters, different realizations of the technique permit displacement and vibration sensing of the reflecting object. Other physical parameters that modify the optical length of the external cavity could also be measured. The technique is particularly well adapted for fast phenomena and offers a subwavelength theoretical displacement resolution, which is limited only by the RF linewidth of the laser and resolution of the repetition frequency measurement.
Selectively distributed processing of visual object recognition in the temporal and frontal lobes of the human brain

Evoked potentials to visually driven cognitive tasks were recorded through depth electrodes placed bilaterally within the amygdala, hippocampus, midtemporal and inferotemporal cortex, and lateral frontal cortex of 6 epileptic patients. Task‐related differential response patterns were used to identify the recording sites engaged by specific aspects of visual encoding. In this group of 6 patients, the amygdala was most frequently engaged in encoding the familiarity of faces; midtemporal and inferotemporal cortex, in encoding perceptual identity and object categorization; and lateral frontal cortex, in holding visual object information in working memory. The two aspects of encoding that most frequently engaged the hippocampal region were related to working memory and object categorization. The processing of complex visual knowledge is thus anatomically distributed but regionally specialized. These experiments also showed that identical input and output parameters can engage different areas of the brain depending on the nature of the instructional set.
Efficient conditioned pain modulation despite pain persistence in painful diabetic neuropathy

Introduction: Alleviation of pain, by either medical or surgical therapy, is accompanied by transition from less efficient, or pro-nociceptive, to efficient conditioned pain modulation (CPM). Spontaneous decrease or resolution of pain with disease progression is reported for some patients with painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN). Objectives: To explore whether CPM changes similarly in parallel to spontaneous resolution of pain in PDN patients. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, thirty-three patients with PDN underwent psychophysical assessment of pain modulation on the forearm, remote from the clinical pain. Results: Pain duration was not correlated with neuropathic pain intensity, yet, it correlated with CPM efficiency; patients with longer pain duration had same pain level, but more efficient CPM than those with short-pain duration (&rgr; = −0.417; P = 0.025, Spearman correlation). Patients with pain more than 2 years (median split) expressed efficient CPM that was not different from that of healthy controls. These patients also had lower temporal summation of pain than the short-pain duration patients group (P < 0.05). The 2 patient groups did not differ in clinical pain characteristics or use of analgesics. Conclusion: Pro-nociception, expressed by less efficient CPM and high temporal summation that usually accompanies clinical painful conditions, seems to “normalize” with chronicity of the pain syndrome. This is despite continuing pain, suggesting that pro-nociceptivity in pain syndromes is multifactorial. Because the pain modulation profile affects success of therapy, this suggests that different drugs might express different efficacy pending on duration of the pain in patients with PDN.