Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Assembly of Caenorhabditis elegans Cytochrome b-2 (Cecytb-2) into Phospholipid Bilayer Nanodisc with Enhanced Iron Reductase Activity

Among seven homologs of cytochrome b561 in a model organism C. elegans, Cecytb-2 was confirmed to be expressed in digestive organs and was considered as a homolog of human Dcytb functioning as a ferric reductase. Cecytb-2 protein was expressed in Pichia pastoris cells, purified, and reconstituted into a phospholipid bilayer nanodisc. The reconstituted Cecytb-2 in nanodisc environments was extremely stable and more reducible with ascorbate than in a detergent-micelle state. We confirmed the ferric reductase activity of Cecytb-2 by analyzing the oxidation of ferrous heme upon addition of ferric substrate under anaerobic conditions, where clear and saturable dependencies on the substrate concentrations following the Michaelis–Menten equation were observed. Further, we confirmed that the ferric substrate was converted to a ferrous state by using a nitroso-PSAP assay. Importantly, we observed that the ferric reductase activity of Cecytb-2 became enhanced in the phospholipid bilayer nanodisc.
LIQUID–SOLID EXTRACTION OF SOLUBLE SOLIDS AND TOTAL PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS OF CAROB BEAN (Ceratonia siliqua L.)

Total mass transfer coefficients of soluble solids (SS) and total phenolic compounds (TPC) were determined during carob extraction. The Arrhenius equation was applied to determine the efficiency of process temperature, as an alternative approach to Fick's second law. Carob pod, cut into small pieces (internal diameter: 5-7 mm), was contacted with water in batch system to extract SS by continuous circulation of water at different temperatures (20, 50 and 85C). The process was also performed at 85C using an industrial-scale extractor. Activation energies for both SS and TPC diffusions were calculated as 5.84 and 0.072 × 10 -3 kJ/mol, respectively. As expected, higher extract concentrations were achieved with higher temperatures. In contrast, high extraction temperature, even at 85C, did not cause hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) formation. As the increase in temperature does not affect formation of HMF during carob pod extraction, higher operational temperatures such as 80-90C may be applied to obtain higher solute concentrations.
A Contemporary Report of Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Melanoma Brain Metastases

Background: Brain metastases are observed in more than 40% of all patients with stage 4 melanoma. In recent years, more extensive use of stereotactic radiation (STRT) and the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors have positively impacted outcomes in patients with metastatic melanoma.brain metastases. Here, we examined real world clinical outcomes of patients presenting with melanoma brain metastases (MBMs). Methods: This retrospective review evaluated MBMs patients treated at The Ottawa Hospital from April 2000 to July 2017. Clinical, radiologic, pathologic and treatment information were gathered from the electronic medical records. The primary outcome was overall survival. The proportional Cox regression model was employed for survival data, while the Fisher’s exact and Mann–Whitney U tests analyzed the relationship between categorical and continuous data, respectively. Results: This retrospective study included 276 patients. Brain metastases were detected symptomatically in 191 patients (69.2%); the rates of detection by routine screening were 4.6% in the pre-2012 era and 11.7% in the contemporary era (p = 0.029). Median survival was three months. Predictors of overall survival were age, higher lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values, multiple brain lesions, more extensive extracranial disease, neurological symptoms, infratentorial lesions and treatment type. Multivariable analysis demonstrated that stereotactic radiotherapy (STRT) was associated with a hazard ratio of 0.401 (p < 0.001) for survival; likewise, immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy was associated with a hazard ratio of 0.375 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The findings from this study as “real world” data are consistent with results of pivotal clinical trials in MBMs patients and support contemporary locoregional and immunotherapy practices.
Allele-specific alternative splicing and its functional genetic variants in human tissues

Alternative splicing is an RNA processing mechanism that affects most genes in human, contributing to disease mechanisms and phenotypic diversity. The regulation of splicing involves an intricate network of cis-regulatory elements and trans-acting factors. Due to their high sequence specificity, cis-regulation of splicing can be altered by genetic variants, significantly affecting splicing outcomes. Recently, multiple methods have been applied to understanding the regulatory effects of genetic variants on splicing. However, it is still challenging to go beyond apparent association to pinpoint functional variants. To fill in this gap, we utilized large-scale data sets of the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project to study genetically modulated alternative splicing (GMAS) via identification of allele-specific splicing events. We demonstrate that GMAS events are shared across tissues and individuals more often than expected by chance, consistent with their genetically driven nature. Moreover, although the allelic bias of GMAS exons varies across samples, the degree of variation is similar across tissues versus individuals. Thus, genetic background drives the GMAS pattern to a similar degree as tissue-specific splicing mechanisms. Leveraging the genetically driven nature of GMAS, we developed a new method to predict functional splicing-altering variants, built upon a genotype-phenotype concordance model across samples. Complemented by experimental validations, this method predicted >1000 functional variants, many of which may alter RNA-protein interactions. Lastly, 72% of GMAS-associated SNPs were in linkage disequilibrium with GWAS-reported SNPs, and such association was enriched in tissues of relevance for specific traits/diseases. Our study enables a comprehensive view of genetically driven splicing variations in human tissues.
Glycan-to-Glycan Binding: Molecular Recognition through Polyvalent Interactions Mediates Specific Cell Adhesion

Glycan-to-glycan binding was shown by biochemical and biophysical measurements to mediate xenogeneic self-recognition and adhesion in sponges, stage-specific cell compaction in mice embryos, and in vitro tumor cell adhesion in mammals. This intermolecular recognition process is accepted as the new paradigm accompanying high-affinity and low valent protein-to-protein and protein-to-glycan binding in cellular interactions. Glycan structures in sponges have novel species-specific sequences. Their common features are the large size >100 kD, polyvalency >100 repeats of the specific self-binding oligosaccharide, the presence of fucose, and sulfated and/or pyruvylated hexoses. These structural and functional properties, different from glycosaminoglycans, inspired their classification under the glyconectin name. The molecular mechanism underlying homophilic glyconectin-to-glyconectin binding relies on highly polyvalent, strong, and structure-specific interactions of small oligosaccharide motifs, possessing ultra-weak self-binding strength and affinity. Glyconectin localization at the glycocalyx outermost cell surface layer suggests their role in the initial recognition and adhesion event during the complex and multistep process. In mammals, Lex-to-Lex homophilic binding is structure-specific and has ultra-weak affinity. Cell adhesion is achieved through highly polyvalent interactions, enabled by clustering of small low valent structure in plasma membranes.
Temperature-Dependent 5D0→7F0 Luminescence of Sm2+ Ions Doped in Alkaline Earth Borophosphate Glass

Sm 2 0 3 -doped SrO―BaO―P 2 O 5 ―B 2 O 3 glass was prepared by a conventional melt quenching method in air. The glass was irradiated using X-rays to reduce the Sm 3+ ions to Sm 2+ ions. After the X-ray irradiation, photoluminescence studies at different temperatures showed that the conversion of Sm 3+ to Sm 2+ could be realized in this alkaline earth borophosphate glass. The luminescence of the Sm 2+ ions showed a strong dependence on temperature. Photo-stability of Sm 2+ ion was evaluated using a photo-bleaching method. Thermo-luminescence and life-time measurements were also investigated. The results of this study could be useful for understanding the reduction mechanism of Sm 3+ ions to Sm 2+ ions in alkaline earth borophosphate glass.
Don’t panic: Bringing complexity thinking to UK Government evaluation guidance

Central government guidance seeks to ensure and enhance the quality of practice and decision-making across – and sometimes beyond – government. The Magenta Book, published by HM Treasury, is the key UK Government resource on policy evaluation, setting out central government guidance on how to evaluate policies, projects and programmes. The UK Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus was invited to contribute its expertise to the UK Government’s 2020 update of the Magenta Book by developing an accompanying guide on policy evaluation and ‘complexity’. A small multidisciplinary team worked together to produce a set of guidance, going through multiple stages of work and drawing on a variety of sources including academic and practitioner literature and experts and stakeholders in the fields of evaluation, policy and complexity. It also drew on Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus’ own work developing and testing evaluation methods for dealing with complexity in evaluation. The resulting Magenta Book 2020 Supplementary Guide: Handling Complexity in Policy Evaluation explores the implications of complexity for policy and evaluation and how evaluation can help to navigate complexity. This article, designed primarily for practitioners who might be interested in this guidance and how it was developed, describes the processes involved, particularly related to the interdisciplinary dialogue and consultation with other key stakeholders that this involved. It also briefly outlines the content and key messages in the guidance, with reflections on the experiences of the authors in developing the guide – including the challenges and insights that arose during the process, particularly around the challenges of communicating complexity to a broad audience of readers.
“One ruler measures to the end”: Rule hardening in grassroots governance – taking a pilot project in urban renewal as an example

Regarding launching an urban renewal project, rising social pressure makes the grassroots state harden the rules while the remaining high pressure from the top makes them keep rules elastic, the contradiction between which causes a dilemma in urban development nowadays. Taking a landmark pilot project as an example, via the observation of the practice of the rule-hardening principle described as “one ruler measures to the end”, this article tries to answer the question of how it is possible for power to reproduce its operational space under recently rising regulatory constraints. In this case, the principle of “rule hardening” includes both “results” and “process” and is fulfilled through a three-step mechanism of hardening in external conditions, hardening in compromising rules and hardening in the limitation of introducing pressure. Through this mechanism, the grassroots state manages to mobilize the resources embedded in the system and extend the hidden boundaries of the hard and rigorous rules on the surface that make the rules elastic and soft again, but in a more formal institutional and organizational way. This could be considered the state’s response to the rising social protests during the last phase and indicates a more subtle and less obvious manner of governance, which shows the continuous interaction between the state and the society in the long view of history.
Nitrogen Fertilizer Affects Growth, Yield, and N Recovery in Cassava (Manihot esculenta L. Crantz)

Cassava is a very important tuber crop in Asia. As fertilizer application, especially nitrogen (N), is important to sustain yields, the impact of different rates of N fertilizer and their time of application on growth, yield, and N-recovery efficiency was evaluated over two major seasons in Asia. Applying N at planting increased leaf area index (LAI), especially at greater rates. Split application of 90 kg N at planting and 45 days later induced growth of more tubers, resulting in good yields, when compared to single or three split applications at 45 and 90 days after planting. Split application on two occasions also developed the greatest N-recovery efficiency by both shoots and roots. The correlations between N efficiency and yield parameters were significant and negative (P = 0.05). The importance of two split applications of moderate rates of fertilizer to cassava is presented.
Gendered Security Harms: State Policy and the Counterinsurgency Against Boko Haram

abstract:Scholars have critiqued the incorporation of gender into counterterrorism and countering violent extremism programs, noting they have instrumentalized the Women Peace and Security (WPS) agenda toward state-centric goals and essentialized the women (and men) they encounter. Furthermore, as Huckerby has outlined, the explicit inclusion of gender in security policy can produce specific gendered security harms: coercive and noncoercive practices, securitization of women's rights, and lack of attention to the gendered effects of seemingly genderneutral policy. This article engages Huckerby's work to explore the gendered security harms produced in Nigeria's counterinsurgency against "Boko Haram. " It suggests first that a simplistic approach to 'women', rather than gendered power relations, leaves Nigeria ill-equipped to respond to the complex gendered dynamics of jihadist actors in the Northeast. Second, a neglect of human rights and the role of state actors in abuses actively enables gendered security harms. The article concludes that Nigeria is therefore still failing to protect women.
Lattice parameter anomalies at the Curie point of pure iron

A high-temperature x-ray study of pure iron has shown that a small, but easily detectable, lattice parameter anomaly, representing a decrease in the mean linear thermal expansion coefficient, occurs over a narrow range of temperature (similar 35 degc) about the Curie point. The total volume change associated with the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition in pure iron obtained from the experimental measurements gave values in good agreement with those calculated directly from volume magnetostriction data, although for an alternative method of calculation the agreement was poor.
A Linguistic Analysis of Presupposition in Arabic

The paper looks upon the linguistic nature of presupposition in Arabic. Following Lyons (1977), Yule (1996), and Beaver (2010), Beaver (2001), among others, the researcher finds that Arabic presuppositions displays eight linguistic categories in addition to their triggers: existential, factive, counter-factive, lexical, structural, iterative, sortally restricted, and structural. This sortally devices indicate the argument structure of what is presupposed. Arabic presuppositions are lexically and structurally motivated and controlled. The speaker uses these devices to indicate to the listener what is presupposed.
APPLYING EMPIRICAL THRESHOLDING ALGORITHM FOR A KEYSTROKE DYNAMICS BASED AUTHENTICATION SYSTEM

Through the application of a password-based authentication technique, users are granted permission to access a secure system when the username and password matches with that logged in database of the system. Furthermore, anyone who provides the correct username and password of a valid user will be able to log in to the secure network. In current circumstances, impostors can hack the system to obtain a user’s password, while it has also been easy to find out a person’s private password. Thus, the existing structure is exceptionally flawed. One way to strengthen the password-based authentication technique, is by keystroke dynamics. In the proposed keystroke dynamics based authentication system, despite the password match, the similarity between the typing pattern of the typed password and password samples in the training database are verified. The timing features of the user’s keystroke dynamics are collected to calculate the threshold values. In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed to authenticate the legal users based on the empirical threshold values. The first step involves the extraction of timing features from the typed password samples. The password training database for each user is constructed using the extracted features. Moreover, the empirical threshold limits are calculated from the timing features in the database. The second step involves user authentication by applying these threshold values. The experimental analyses are carried out in MATLAB simulation, and the results indicate a significant reduction in false rejection rate and false acceptance rate. The proposed methodology yields very low equal error rate of 0.5% and the authentication accuracy of 99.5%, which are considered suitable and efficient for real-time implementation. The proposed method can be a useful resource for identifying illegal invasion and is valuable in securing the system as a correlative or substitute form of client validation.
Antimicrobials in chicken commercial feeds in Vietnam: a three-year longitudinal study before a nationwide ban of growth promoters

BackgroundAntimicrobial growth promoters (AGPs) are included in commercial animal feed rations in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We measured antimicrobial use (AMU) in commercial feed products consumed by 338 small-scale chicken flocks in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, before a nation-wide ban on AGPs which is to be introduced over the coming three years. We reviewed the labels of commercial feeds and calculated amounts of antimicrobial active ingredients (AAIs) given to flocks. We framed these results in the context of overall AMU in chicken production, and highlighted those products that did not comply with Government regulations. ResultsThirty five of 99 different antimicrobial-containing feed products (35.3%) included at least one AAI. Eight different AAIs (avilamycin, bacitracin, chlortetracycline, colistin, enramycin, flavomycin, oxytetracycline, virginamycin) belonging to 5 classes were identified. Brooding feeds contained antimicrobials the most (51.2%), followed by grower (34.6%) and finisher feeds (12.5%). The average amount of AAIs given to flocks per kg of chicken at consumption time was 84.8 (SEM ±9.3mg). Quantitatively, chlortetracycline was consumed most (42.2mg/kg SEM ±0.34; 50.0% of total use), followed by enramycin (18.4mg SEM ±0.03, 21.8%) and bacitracin (16.4mg SEM ±0.20, 19.4%). Antimicrobials in commercial feeds were more commonly given to flocks in the earlier part of the production cycle. A total of 10 (9.3%) products were not compliant with existing Vietnamese regulation (06/2016/TT-BNNPTNT) either because they included a non-authorised AAI (4), had AAIs over the permitted limits (4), or both (2). Conclusions and recommendationSome commercial feed formulations examined included colistin (polymyxin E), a critically important antimicrobial of highest priority for human medicine. A tenth of the formulations examined did not comply with Government regulations. We estimated that consumption of AGPs in feed represented ~10% of total AMU in chicken production. We advocate for restrictions on AMU in chicken production that go beyond phased bans on AGPs. Furthermore, these steps could be bolder and implemented without unnecessary delay. Results from this study should help encourage discussion about policies on AGPs in LMICs.
Syn-anti conformational analysis of regular and modified nucleosides by 1D 1H NOE difference spectroscopy: a simple graphical method based on conformationally rigid molecules

The 1D 1 H NOE difference spectra of 50 base- and/or sugar-modified nucleosides were measured in (CD 3 ) 2 SO with irradiation of various protons. The resulting NOE data were used for a conformational analysis with respect to their syn-anti conformer equilibrium. Measurement of the NOE spectra of sterically hindered nucleosides implied that both the chemical properties as well as the van der Waals radius of nucleobase substituent are of decisive importance for the conformation around the N-glycosylic bond
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HYPERTENSION AMONG COMMUNITY AT MUKIM

Background: Hypertension is a major cause of premature death worldwide and insufficient physical activity is a key risk for non-communicable disease (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes. Therefore, this study has been conducted to determine the prevalence of hypertension and its association with physical activity among community at Mukim Salak, Sepang Selangor. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among Malaysian, aged more than 18-year-old. Respondents who fulfiled the inclusion & exclusion criteria were interviewed with validated questionnaires and data were analysed using SPSS. Result: The prevalence of hypertension was 22.8% with majority from self-reported (15.6%). Those who were more than 40 years-age and had primary education were significantly 3.32 and 12.3 times the risk of having hypertension. Exercise is the most suggested management by healthcare professionals (82.19%) in controlling hypertension and 68.3% of the hypertensive patients were physically active. Conclusion: Most of people aged more than 40 years old were diagnosed with hypertension. It is important to practice healthy lifestyle such as physically active as the prevention and control of hypertension in the community.
The Effect of E-WOM and Structural Assurances Mediated by Guanxi towards Customer Behavioral Loyalty

In this study, we found that Structural Assurances had positive and significant direct effect on guanxi formation and it had positive and significant indirect effect toward customer loyalty behavior. We also found the facts that e-WoM had a positive and significant direct effect on guanxi formation. Where e-WoM at once had a positive and significant indirect impact on the occurrence of behavioral customer loyalty. In the end, the results of this study indicated that guanxi positively and significantly influenced the occurrence of customer loyalty behavioral when conducting E-Commerce transactions in Indonesia