Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lyophilization, a Practical Way to Store and Transport Tissues Prior to Protein Extraction for 2DE Analysis?

To date, lyophilized samples are rarely utilized in proteomics experiments. This is most likely because researchers are concerned about inducing cross‐linking of proteins via amide bonds, leading to artefactual charge modification and thus resulting in irreproducible results and bad gels. Indeed, it is known that lyophilization can cause crosslinking. The potential reaction is a reaction of free amino groups of a protein (N‐terminal α‐amino groups and ε‐amino groups from lysine) with the reducing group of sugar molecules. The rate and extent of this reaction depends on the sugar content of the sample, the efficiency of lyophilization process, the residual water content of the material and the storage temperature. Lyophilization is a cheap, practical and safe alternative for the storage and transportation of samples prior to protein extraction, separation and quantification via 2DE, when care is taken (i) to dry the samples to the lowest practicable moisture content, (ii) to transport and store them under water‐ and airtight conditions and (iii) to avoid heating of the sample.
Functional Microdomains in G-protein-coupled Receptors

An Arg present in the third transmembrane domain of all rhodopsin-like G-protein-coupled receptors is required for efficient signal transduction. Mutation of this Arg in the gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor to Gln, His, or Lys abolished or severely impaired agonist-stimulated inositol phosphate generation, consistent with Arg having a role in receptor activation. To investigate the contribution of the surrounding structural domain in the actions of the conserved Arg, an integrated microdomain modeling and mutagenesis approach has been utilized. Two conserved residues that constrain the Arg side chain to a limited number of conformations have been identified. In the inactive wild-type receptor, the Arg side chain is proposed to form an ionic interaction with Asp3.49(138). Experimental results for the Asp3.49(138) → Asn mutant receptor show a modestly enhanced receptor efficiency, consistent with the hypothesis that weakening the Asp3.49(138)-Arg3.50(139)interaction by protonation of the Asp or by the mutation to Asn favors activation. With activation, the Asp3.49(138)-Arg3.50(139) ionic bond would break, and the unrestrained Arg would be prevented from orienting itself toward the water phase by a steric clash with Ile3.54(143). The mutation Ile3.54(143) → Ala, which eliminates this clash in simulations, causes a marked reduction in measured receptor signaling efficiency, implying that solvation of Arg3.50(139) prevents it from functioning in the activation of the receptor. These data are consistent with residues Asp3.49(138) and Ile3.54(143) forming a structural motif, which helps position Arg in its appropriate inactive and active receptor conformations.
Ischemic stroke risk and passive exposure to spouses' cigarette smoking. Melbourne Stroke Risk Factor Study (MERFS) Group.

OBJECTIVES This study investigated the association between ischemic stroke risk and passive exposure to cigarette smoking. METHODS Risk factors among 452 hospitalized cases of first-episode ischemic stroke were compared with 452 age- and sex-matched "neighbor-hood" controls. RESULTS The risk of stroke was twice as high for subjects whose spouses smoked as for those whose spouses did not smoke (95% confidence interval = 1.3, 3.1), after adjustment for the subject's own smoking, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and education level. These results were confirmed when analysis was limited to those who never smoked. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide evidence that spousal smoking may be a significant risk factor for ischemic stroke.
Cell delamination in the mesencephalic neural fold and its implication for the origin of ectomesenchyme

The neural crest is a transient structure unique to vertebrate embryos that gives rise to multiple lineages along the rostrocaudal axis. In cranial regions, neural crest cells are thought to differentiate into chondrocytes, osteocytes, pericytes and stromal cells, which are collectively termed ectomesenchyme derivatives, as well as pigment and neuronal derivatives. There is still no consensus as to whether the neural crest can be classified as a homogenous multipotent population of cells. This unresolved controversy has important implications for the formation of ectomesenchyme and for confirmation of whether the neural fold is compartmentalized into distinct domains, each with a different repertoire of derivatives. Here we report in mouse and chicken that cells in the neural fold delaminate over an extended period from different regions of the cranial neural fold to give rise to cells with distinct fates. Importantly, cells that give rise to ectomesenchyme undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition from a lateral neural fold domain that does not express definitive neural markers, such as Sox1 and N-cadherin. Additionally, the inference that cells originating from the cranial neural ectoderm have a common origin and cell fate with trunk neural crest cells prompted us to revisit the issue of what defines the neural crest and the origin of the ectomesenchyme.
Penetration and insecticidal activity of diflubenzuron in Tenebrio molitor pupae

Diflubenzuron was found to be effective on the pupae of Tenebrio molitor L. (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) when applied topically, by dipping, or by injection. Death occurred before or at adult ecdysis, or during the first few days after emergence. Its effectiveness decreases with increasing age of the pupa. Diflubenzuron delays adult ecdysis and decreases the longevity of normally ecdysed adults. After diflubenzuron had been applied topically or by dipping, the compound was determined, on the pupal cuticle, in the body and on the rearing tray, by highperformance liquid chromatography. The results showed that diflubenzuron penetrated rapidly into the body and was not degraded during the pupal life. The level of incorporation of the insecticide, in dipping experiments on pupae at the same stage, varied from one individual to another. Moreover, the mean amount of insecticide incorporated was lower after dipping of older pupae than of younger pupae. It is suggested that the lower efficacy of diflubenzuron on older pupae may be caused by the decrease both in the permeability of the cuticle and in the sensitivity of the target cells.
Workload-Dependent Dynamic Priority for the Multiclass Queue with Reneging

Scheduling control for a single-server queue with I customer classes and reneging is considered, with linear holding or reneging cost. An asymptotically optimal (AO) policy in heavy traffic is identified where classes are prioritized according to a workload-dependent dynamic index rule. Denote by ci, μi, and θi, i ∈ ℐ := {1, …, I} the queue length cost, service rate, and reneging rate, for class-i customers. Then, a relabeling of the classes and a partition 0 = w0 < w1 < ⋯ < wK = ∞, K ≤ I are identified such that the policy acts to always assign least priority to the class i when the rescaled workload is in the interval [wi−1, wi). The relabeling is such that when workload is withing the lowest [resp. , highest] interval [wi−1, wi), the least priority class is the one with smallest cμ [resp. , greatest θ] value. This result stands in sharp contrast to known fluid-scale results where it is AO to prioritize by the fixed cμ/θ index. One of the technical challenges is the discontinuity of the limiting queue len.
Dietary Zinc Effects on Growth Performance and Immune Response of Endotoxemic Growing Pigs

A 2×3 factorial arrangement of treatments was used in a completely randomized design to determine the effects of dietary Zn on performance and immune response of acutely endotoxemic growing pigs (n=96, mean BW=24.9 kg). Factors included 1) intramuscular injection of 10 µg/kg BW of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or control and 2) supplemental Zn at 10, 50, or 150 ppm. Diets were fed beginning after weaning (initial body weight=7.6 kg) in the nursery and continued for 16 d into the grower phase. The basal corn-soybean meal grower diet contained 1% lysine and 34.3 ppm Zn. Pigs were acclimated for 12 d in the grower- finishing facility before LPS treatment on d 13. Gain, feed intake, and feed efficiency were unaffected by dietary Zn. Feed intake decreased (p<0.10) and gain/feed was greater (p<0.10) from d 13 to d 16 for pigs injected with LPS. Serum Zn and alkaline phosphatase activity increased (p<0.05) with increasing Zn levels. The febrile response to LPS peaked at 6 h post exposure and pigs were afebrile within 12 h. Rectal temperature was greater (p<0.05) in pigs receiving 50 and 150 ppm Zn than in pigs supplemented with 10 ppm Zn. In vivo cellular immune response, measured on d 13 by skin thickness response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA), was greater after 6 h (p< 0.05) in pigs fed 10 ppm Zn and exposed to LPS compared to all other treatments, but was not affected at 12, 24 or 48 h. Zinc did not affect mitogen induced lymphocyte proliferation. Zinc supplemented at 50 or 150 ppm resulted in an enhanced febrile response in pigs subjected to iatrogenic endotoxemia, but did not affect pig performance or immune response measurements. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2002. Vol 15, No. 10 : 1496-1501)
Teachers’ authority; a reflection in the context of contemporary Indian society

Teachers’ authority, which I argue is a multidimensional concept, is undergoing transition under the current educational policy changes in India. These changes that are a result of economic, political and civil society intervention are changing the way education and its aims are being perceived within the country. Whereas some of these changes are reflected in a shift from the traditional authority of teachers that was expressed in archaic practices like corporal punishment, there are other changes which, on the one hand neglect the cultural-social position of the teachers with roots in religious practices of the country, while on the other hand impose a child-centered notion of the teacher as a facilitator. This neglect is articulated in the voices and actions of the teachers in the various interviews conducted among Social Science teachers in Government schools in India. At the same time, the imposition of a facilitating role on teachers is ill suited to the current educational context in schools, given the availability of cell phones and other technologies to students. In such a scenario, the teachers’ authority has not been reduced but rather finds a renewed focus and importance. Dispensing with traditional notions of authority has resulted in discontent and loss of faith among teachers towards new policies, which fail to acknowledge teachers’ voices. Thus, in the current transitional phase where new policies have successfully initiated an alternative discourse of education, i.e. moving away from examoriented education, reducing teachers to facilitators is unhelpful due to the social realities that teachers face, highlighting the need for some form of teacher's authority.
Correction: Mechanisms of organelle biogenesis govern stochastic fluctuations in organelle abundance

Fluctuations in organelle abundance can profoundly limit the precision of cell biological processes from secretion to metabolism. We modeled the dynamics of organelle biogenesis and predicted that organelle abundance fluctuations depend strongly on the specific mechanisms that increase or decrease the number of a given organelle. Our model exactly predicts the size of experimentally measured Golgi apparatus and vacuole abundance fluctuations, suggesting that cells tolerate the maximum level of variability generated by the Golgi and vacuole biogenesis pathways. We observe large increases in peroxisome abundance fluctuations when cells are transferred from glucose-rich to fatty acid-rich environments. These increased fluctuations are significantly diminished in mutants lacking peroxisome fission factors, leading us to infer that peroxisome biogenesis switches from de novo synthesis to primarily fission. Our work provides a general framework for exploring stochastic organelle biogenesis and using fluctuations to quantitatively unravel the biophysical pathways that control the abundance of subcellular structures.
Dominant forces in protein folding.

T e purpose of this review is to assess the nature and magnitudes of the dominant forces in protein folding. Since proteins are only marginally stable at room temperature,’ no type of molecular interaction is unimportant, and even small interactions can contribute significantly (positively or negatively) to stability (Alber, 1989a,b; Matthews, 1987a,b). However, the present review aims to identify only the largest forces that lead to the structural features of globular proteins: their extraordinary compactness, their core of nonpolar residues, and their considerable amounts of internal architecture. This review explores contributions to the free energy of folding arising from electrostatics (classical charge repulsions and ion pairing), hydrogen-bonding and van der Waals interactions, intrinsic propensities, and hydrophobic interactions. An earlier review by Kauzmann (1959) introduced the importance of hydrophobic interactions. His insights were particularly remarkable considering that he did not have the benefit of known protein structures, model studies, high-resolution calorimetry, mutational methods, or force-field or statistical mechanical results. The present review aims to provide a reassessment of the factors important for folding in light of current knowledge. Also considered here are the opposing forces, conformational entropy and electrostatics. The process of protein folding has been known for about 60 years. In 1902, Emil Fischer and Franz Hofmeister independently concluded that proteins were chains of covalently linked amino acids (Haschemeyer zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA & Haschemeyer, 1973) but deeper understanding of protein structure and conformational change was hindered because of the difficulty in finding conditions for solubilization. Chick and Martin (191 1) were the first to discover the process of denaturation and to distinguish it from the process of aggregation. By 1925, the denaturation process was considered to be either hydrolysis of the peptide bond (Wu & Wu, 1925; Anson & Mirsky, 1925) or dehydration of the protein (Robertson, 1918). The view that protein denaturation was an unfolding process was
The role of personality in Canada’s burden sharing decisions during coalition operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the burden sharing decisions of two Canadian prime ministers, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau, regarding the U.S.-led coalition that sought to “degrade and ultimately defeat” the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, primarily through an aerial bombing campaign initiated on 8 August 2014. More specifically, it explains Harper’s decision in October 2014 to contribute six CF-18 fighters to take part in combat operations during this intervention and Trudeau’s decision in February 2016 to recall these aircraft by the end of that month. Many studies of burden sharing focus on static rational incentives to explain long-term trends in a state’s contributions to an alliance or coalition, which suggest that both prime ministers should have made consistent, minimal contribution to the intervention. In contrast, this study argues that the leader of a small, weak state’s decisions about contributing combat resources to coalition military interventions are strongly influenced by the leader’s willingness to adhere to the constraints associated with being a small, weak member of a coalition. Leaders whose personalities encourage them to challenge constraints are less likely, all else being equal, to contribute combat resources to coalition military interventions than leaders whose personalities encourage them to respect constraints.
Ethyl tertiary-Butyl Ether: A Toxicological Review

A number of oxygenated compounds (oxygenates) are available for use in gasoline to reduce vehicle exhaust emissions, reduce the aromatic compound content, and avoid the use of organo-lead compounds, while maintaining high octane numbers. Ethyl tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE) is one such compound. The current use of ETBE in gasoline or petrol is modest but increasing, with consequently similar trends in the potential for human exposure. Inhalation is the most likely mode of exposure, with about 30% of inhaled ETBE being retained by the lungs and distributed around the body. Following cessation of exposure, the blood concentration of ETBE falls rapidly, largely as a result of its metabolism to tertiary-butyl alcohol (TBA) and acetaldehyde. TBA may be further metabolized, first to 2-methyl-1,2-propanediol and then to 2-hydroxyisobutyrate, the two dominant metabolites found in urine of volunteers and rats. The rapid oxidation of acetaldehyde suggests that its blood concentration is unlikely to rise above normal as a result of human exposure to sources of ETBE. Single-dose toxicity tests show that ETBE has low toxicity and is essentially nonirritant to eyes and skin; it did not cause sensitization in a maximization test in guinea pigs. Neurological effects have been observed only at very high exposure concentrations. There is evidence for an effect of ETBE on the kidney of rats. Increases in kidney weight were seen in both sexes, but protein droplet accumulation (with α2u-globulin involvement) and sustained increases in cell proliferation occurred only in males. In liver, centrilobular necrosis was induced in mice, but not rats, after exposure by inhalation, although this lesion was reported in some rats exposed to very high oral doses of ETBE. The proportion of liver cells engaged in S-phase DNA synthesis was increased in mice of both sexes exposed by inhalation. ETBE has no specific effects on reproduction, development, or genetic material. Carcinogenicity studies have been conducted with ETBE, TBA, and ethanol (included in this review as an endogenous precursor of acetaldehyde in the absence of TBA). A single experiment with ETBE in rats and several experiments with ethanol in rats and mice were not considered adequate for an evaluation of ETBE carcinogenicity. In male rats only, TBA induced α2u-globulin nephropathy-related renal tubule adenomas. These are generally considered to have no human relevance. In addition, increases in thyroid follicular cell adenoma incidence were associated with TBA treatment in female mice. This result lacks independent confirmation and is not supported by experiments in which similar or higher internal doses of TBA were delivered.
Inhibition of nitric oxide‐activated guanylyl cyclase by calmodulin antagonists

Background and purpose: Nitric oxide (NO) controls numerous physiological processes by activation of its receptor, guanylyl cyclase (sGC), leading to the accumulation of 3′‐5′ cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). Ca2+‐calmodulin (CaM) regulates both NO synthesis by NO synthase and cGMP hydrolysis by phosphodiesterase‐1. We report that, unexpectedly, the CaM antagonists, calmidazolium, phenoxybenzamine and trifluoperazine, also inhibited cGMP accumulation in cerebellar cells evoked by an exogenous NO donor, with IC50 values of 11, 80 and 180 µM respectively. Here we sought to elucidate the underlying mechanism(s).
Absorption, translocation, and metabolism of glufosinate in five weed species as influenced by ammonium sulfate and pelargonic acid

Absorption, translocation, and metabolism of 14C-glufosinate were studied in three annual and two perennial weed species. Young seedlings of Setaria faberi, Chenopodium album, Cassia obtusifolia, Solanum carolinense, and Asclepias syriaca were treated with foliar-applied 14C-glufosinate, and plant tissues were harvested 12, 48, and 72 h after treatment (HAT). Absorption of 14C-glufosinate was initially rapid, but increased only slightly after 12 h in all species. Glufosinate absorption was highest in S. carolinense (73% of applied radioactivity), followed by S. faberi (54%), C. obtusifolia (44%), C. album (41%), and A. syriaca (37%) 72 HAT. Translocation of radioactivity out of the treated leaf was species dependent and did not increase much with time in all weed species. S. carolinense and S. faberi translocated the highest amounts of absorbed radioactivity out of the treated leaf with 49 to 59% moving to the upper foliage. S. faberi translocated the highest amount of absorbed radioactivity to the roots (12 to 14%), while C. album translocated the least (2 to 3%). TLC analysis of plant extracts showed that 14C-glufosinate was not metabolized in S. faberi, C. obtusifolia, S. carolinense, and A. syriaca. A glufosinate metabolite with an Rf value matching that of methyl-phosphinico propionate was detected in C. album. Treatment with ammonium sulfate (AMS) increased glufosinate absorption in S. faberi and C. obtusifolia 12 HAT, but decreased absorption in C. album. Treatment with pelargonic acid (PA) did not affect glufosinate absorption in any of the species tested. Treatment with AMS and PA did not affect glufosinate translocation in any of the five weed species. Treatment with AMS and PA did not influence the metabolism of glufosinate in any of the five weed species studied. These results show that differential absorption and translocation seem to explain the greater sensitivity of the annual and perennial weeds to glufosinate. Treatment with ammonium sulfate may increase the efficacy of glufosinate in perennial weeds.
Family size and support of older adults in urban and rural China: Current effects and future implications

Change in China’s age structure is creating concerns about whether reductions in family size undermine traditional support mechanisms for older adults. Future generations may expect less support as the availability of children declines. In this article, the association between number of children and the receipt of instrumental and financial support is examined for rural and urban populations. Probabilities are modeled as bivariate probits. Coefficients are used to conduct simulations in which support is examined across hypothetical distributions of number of children. The results show that the number of children is an important determinant of support, but future reductions in support may not be as dramatic as anticipated.
Composición, estructura y diversidad de especies arbóreas en un bosque templado del Noroeste de México

Se caracterizo la estructura y diversidad de especies arboreas en un bosque templado del noroeste de Mexico. Se establecieron nueve sitios de muestreo de 50 x 50 m (2 500 m 2 ) y se realizo un censo de todas las especies arboreas. A cada individuo se le realizaron mediciones de altura total y diametro a la altura del pecho. Se obtuvo el indice de valor de importancia (IVI), calculado a partir de las variables, abundancia, dominancia y frecuencia. Tambien se calcularon los indices diversidad y riqueza. En total se registraron 12 especies, cuatro generos y cuatro familias. El bosque presenta una densidad de 575.11 individuos ha −1 y un area basal de 23.54 m 2 ha −1 . La especie Pinus cooperi fue la de mayor IVI (79.05 %), y para el indice de Shannon tuvo un valor de 1.74.