Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toxin-Antitoxin Systems in the Mobile Genome of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are genetic modules composed of a pair of genes encoding a stable toxin and an unstable antitoxin that inhibits toxin activity. They are widespread among plasmids and chromosomes of bacteria and archaea. TA systems are known to be involved in the stabilization of plasmids but there is no consensus about the function of chromosomal TA systems. To shed light on the role of chromosomally encoded TA systems we analyzed the distribution and functionality of type II TA systems in the chromosome of two strains from Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (ATCC 23270 and 53993), a Gram-negative, acidophilic, environmental bacterium that participates in the bioleaching of minerals. As in other environmental microorganisms, A. ferrooxidans has a high content of TA systems (28-29) and in twenty of them the toxin is a putative ribonuclease. According to the genetic context, some of these systems are encoded near or within mobile genetic elements. Although most TA systems are shared by both strains, four of them, which are encoded in the active mobile element ICEAfe1, are exclusive to the type strain ATCC 23270. We demostrated that two TA systems from ICEAfe1 are functional in E. coli cells, since the toxins inhibit growth and the antitoxins counteract the effect of their cognate toxins. All the toxins from ICEAfe1, including a novel toxin, are RNases with different ion requirements. The data indicate that some of the chromosomally encoded TA systems are actually part of the A. ferrooxidans mobile genome and we propose that could be involved in the maintenance of these integrated mobile genetic elements.
Role of Late Jurassic intra-oceanic structural inheritance in the Alpine tectonic evolution of the Monviso meta-ophiolite Complex (Western Alps)

Abstract The eclogite-facies Monviso meta-ophiolite Complex in the Western Alps represents a well-preserved fragment of oceanic lithosphere and related Upper Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous sedimentary covers. This meta-ophiolite sequence records the evolution of an oceanic core complex formed by mantle exhumation along an intra-oceanic detachment fault (the Baracun Shear Zone), related to the opening of the Ligurian–Piedmont oceanic basin (Alpine Tethys). On the basis of detailed geological mapping, and structural, stratigraphic and petrological observations, we propose a new interpretation for the tectonostratigraphic architecture of the Monviso meta-ophiolite Complex, and discuss the role played by structural inheritance in its formation. We document that subduction- and exhumation-related Alpine tectonics were strongly influenced by the inherited Jurassic intra-oceanic tectonosedimentary physiography. The latter, although strongly deformed during a major Alpine stage of non-cylindrical W-verging folding and faulting along exhumation-related Alpine shear zones (i.e. the Granero–Casteldelfino and Villanova–Armoine shear zones), was not completely dismembered into different tectonic units or subduction-related mélanges as suggested in previous interpretations. The present-day architecture of the Monviso meta-ophiolite Complex results from nappe-scale folding with a significant component of shearing, and strain partitioning of the Alpine deformation, which were controlled by the inherited occurrence of (i) lateral and vertical variations of facies and thickness of sediments, (ii) an intra-oceanic fault-rock assemblage, which acted as weak horizons in concentrating deformation, and (iii) remnants of a volcanic ridge, which consists of massive metabasalt. Thus, the recognition of pre-collisional, intra-oceanic, tectonostratigraphic inheritance represents an important step in reconstructing the tectonic evolution of meta-ophiolite units in orogenic belts.
Impaired Role of Epoxyeicosatrienoic Acids in the Regulation of Basal Conduit Artery Diameter During Essential Hypertension

In young healthy subjects, epoxyeicosatrienoic acids synthesized by endothelial cytochrome P450 epoxygenases maintain basal conduit artery diameter during altered NO availability. Whether this compensatory mechanism is effective during essential hypertension is unknown. Radial artery diameter, blood flow, and mean wall shear stress were determined in 14 nontreated essential hypertensive patients and 14 normotensive control subjects during 8 minutes of brachial infusion for inhibitors of cytochrome P450 epoxygenases (fluconazole, 0.4 µmol/min) and NO synthase (NG-monomethyl-L-arginine, 8 µmol/min) alone and in combination. In controls, the radial artery diameter was reduced by fluconazole (−0.034 ± 0.012 mm) and NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (−0.037 ± 0.010 mm) and to a larger extent by their combination (−0.137 ± 0.011 mm), demonstrating a synergic effect. In contrast, the radial diameter in hypertensive patients was not affected by fluconazole (0.010 ± 0.014 mm) but was reduced by NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (−0.091 ± 0.008 mm) to a larger extent than in controls. In parallel, NG-monomethyl-L-arginine decreased local plasma nitrite to a lesser extent in hypertensive patients (−14 ± 5 nmol/L) than in controls (−50 ± 10 nmol/L). Moreover, the addition of fluconazole to NG-monomethyl-L-arginine did not further decrease radial diameter in patients (−0.086 ± 0.011 mm). Accordingly, fluconazole significantly decreased local epoxyeicosatrienoic acid plasma level in controls (−2.0 ± 0.6 ng/mL) but not in patients (−0.9 ± 0.4 ng/mL). Inhibitors effects on blood flow and endothelium-independent dilatation to sodium nitroprusside were similar between groups. These results show that, in contrast to normotensive subjects, epoxyeicosatrienoic acids did not contribute to the regulation of basal conduit artery diameter and did not compensate for altered NO availability to maintain this diameter in essential hypertensive patients.
Alcohol dehydrogenases from a facultative methylotrophic bacterium

Alcohol-oxidizing enzymes of the facultative methylotroph PAR were investigated after growth of the bacteria on methanol and ethanol. During methanol growth only a phenazine methosulfate-linked alcohol dehydrogenase was detected. This enzyme had broad specificity for primary alcohols and was also capable of oxidation of secondary alcohols. It had a molecular weight of 112,000, was composed of two subunits of equal molecular weight, and showed an absolute requirement for ammonium ion for activation. During ethanol growth this enzyme was absent and was replaced by a typical nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-linked alcohol dehydrogenase of molecular weight 150,000. The latter enzyme also had broad specificity but could not oxidize methanol. This enzyme was not found during methanol growth. These data show that the organism has two distinctly separate mechanisms for oxidation of alcohols.
Photostimulator allowing independent control of rods and the three cone types

This report describes a second-generation photostimulator with four primary lights that allows independent control of the stimulation of the four receptor types in the human eye. The new design uses LEDs (with light levels controlled by eight drivers that include voltage-to-frequency converters that provide 1-μs pulses at frequencies up to 250 kHz), with four center channels being combined by use of a fiber optic assembly, and likewise for four surround channels. Four fiber optic bundles are merged into a single bundle whose output is fed into a spatial homogenizer terminated by a diffuser. An interference filter is sandwiched between each LED and the fiber optic bundle. Two camera lenses collimate light from the diffusers, one for center and one for surround. The center-surround field configuration is formed by a photometric cube with a mirrored ellipse on the hypotenuse. A field lens places images of the diffusers in the plane of an artificial pupil. The fields are highly uniform. Following alignment and calibration, the center and surround fields are indistinguishable. An observer calibration procedure, designed to compensate for prereceptoral filtering, is shown by calculation to correct also for normal observer receptoral spectral sensitivity variation. With the instrument calibrated for the individual observer, a peripherally fixated 200-ms 40% contrast rod center field pulse, highly conspicuous under dark adaptation, is invisible following light adaptation.
Behavioral and physiological responses to male handicap in chick-rearing black-legged kittiwakes

Parental investment entails a trade-off between the benefits of effort in current offspring and the costs to future reproduction. Long-lived species are predicted to be reluctant to increase parental effort to avoid affecting their survival. We tested this hypothesis in black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla by clipping flight feathers of experimental males at the beginning of the chick-rearing period. We analyzed the consequences of this handicap on feeding and attendance behavior, body condition, integument coloration, and circulating levels of corticosterone and prolactin in handicapped males and their mates in comparison to unmanipulated controls. Chicks in both groups were compared in terms of aggressive behavior, growth, and mortality. Handicapped males lost more mass, had less bright integuments, and attended the nest less often than controls. Nevertheless, they fed their chicks at the same rate and had similar corticosterone and prolactin levels. Compared with control females, females mated with handicapped males showed a lower provisioning rate and higher nest attendance in the first days after manipulation. Their lower feeding rate probably triggered the increased sibling aggression and mortality observed in experimental broods. Our findings suggest that experimental females adaptively adjusted their effort to their mate's perceived quality or that their provisioning was constrained by their higher nest attendance. Overall, our results suggest that kittiwake males can decrease their condition for the sake of their chicks, which seems to contradict the hypothesis that kittiwakes should be reluctant to increase parental effort to avoid affecting their survival. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.
Improvisation and the self-organization of multiple musical bodies

Understanding everyday behavior relies heavily upon understanding our ability to improvise, how we are able to continuously anticipate and adapt in order to coordinate with our environment and others. Here we consider the ability of musicians to improvise, where they must spontaneously coordinate their actions with co-performers in order to produce novel musical expressions. Investigations of this behavior have traditionally focused on describing the organization of cognitive structures. The focus, here, however, is on the ability of the time-evolving patterns of inter-musician movement coordination as revealed by the mathematical tools of complex dynamical systems to provide a new understanding of what potentiates the novelty of spontaneous musical action. We demonstrate this approach through the application of cross wavelet spectral analysis, which isolates the strength and patterning of the behavioral coordination that occurs between improvising musicians across a range of nested time-scales. Revealing the sophistication of the previously unexplored dynamics of movement coordination between improvising musicians is an important step toward understanding how creative musical expressions emerge from the spontaneous coordination of multiple musical bodies.
PCDH20 functions as a tumour-suppressor gene through antagonizing the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway in hepatocellular carcinoma

Several members of protocadherins have been found involved in human carcinogenesis, but little is known about PCDH20 in HCC. Here in this study, using quantitative real‐time RT‐PCR assay, we demonstrated the downregulation of PCDH20 expression in 6 of 7 HCC cell lines tested. Similarly, PCDH20 expression in primary HCC tissues was also significantly downregulated in comparison with that in either disease‐free normal liver tissues or the adjacent nontumour liver tissues (P < 0.001, respectively). Among HCC tumour tissues studied, about 48% (51/107) of them showed reduced PCDH20 mRNA level. Further statistic analysis revealed that the reduced PCDH20 mRNA level in tumour tissues was much more common in younger patients group (aged <50 years) than that in older group (≥50 years) (60% vs 33%, P = 0.0303). Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and promoter hypermethylation analysis revealed that deletion and/or aberrant epigenetic modulation of PCDH20 gene account for its downregulation, at least in a fraction of tumour specimens. Moreover, ectopic expression of PCDH20 in HCC cells significantly suppressed cell proliferation, clonogenicity, migration and tumour formation. Notably, we proved for the first time that, via activating GSK‐3β, PCDH20 could inhibit Wnt/β‐catenin signalling pathway. Furthermore, our data suggest that PCDH20 may conduct its Wnt/β‐catenin signalling antagonizing function through suppressing Akt and Erk activities and promoting GSK‐3β signalling activities. However, the detailed mechanism remained undiscovered. In conclusion, our data here strongly suggested that PCDH20 may act as a candidate tumour suppressor in HCC.
Global Optimization for Multiple Agents (Extended Abstract)

In many situations, agents optimize their own operations locally but their local problems are interdependent. We consider the problem of coordinating these local problems to find a globally optimal solution. We model the coordination problem as a Distributed Constraint Optimization Problem that can take advantage of the locality of interactions, and then show how incremental elicitation and solving techniques can minimize the effort required. We illustrate the approach on an example of coordinating logistics service providers, for example couriers in a delivery company.
Integral input-to-state stability of switched nonlinear systems

This paper addresses the issues of the input-to-state stability (ISS) and integral input-to-state stability (iISS) for a class of switched nonlinear systems. Based on a piecewise Lyapunov function method, some sufficient conditions are explicitly given to guarantee the ISS and iISS of the switched nonlinear system under a certain class of switching signals, respectively. Moreover, the Lyapunov function considered in this paper decays in a more general form, which is presented as the negative definite function of the state instead of just some negative multiple of the Lyapunov function. This gives a more general sufficient conditions of input-to-state stability for switched nonlinear systems.
Optimizing HgA1C and glucose monitoring frequency in patients with Type 2 diabetes

Summary Background The primary objective of our study is to compare HgA1C to self monitoring frequency in diabetes subjects. A secondary objective is to evaluate the influence of family support and gender on glucose monitoring frequency and HgA1C. Material/Methods We studied the glucose monitoring frequency and HgA1c outcome of 67 subjects treated with diet alone, 350 subjects treated with tablets, 155 subjects treated with insulin, and 228 subjects treated with both tablets and insulin. Results Eleven percent of the subjects monitoring 4–7 times per week produced a positive significant coefficient (p<.05). Self monitoring less than 4 times per week showed no statistical significance and self monitoring more than 8 times per week showed no statistical significance. Forty-eight percent of subjects treating with insulin alone and tablet plus insulin produced positive significant coefficients (p<.05). The percentage lowering of HgA1C of tablet plus insulin is 15.64% as the mean HgA1C at the first visit was 9.35 compared to 7.89. The percentage lowering of HgA1C for insulin alone was 12.24% as the mean HgA1C at the first visit was 9.37 compared to 8.23 at the later visit. Conclusions We conclude that (1) frequency of self monitoring should be based on individualized goals and willingness to participate, (2) both insulin alone and tablet plus insulin levels of medication are effective at lowering HgA1C levels; however, using the tablet and insulin combined produced lower HgA1C levels than using insulin alone; (3) family support and gender have no effect on glucose monitoring frequency and lowering HgA1C levels.
Human monocytes synthesize hyaluronidase

Summary. The involvement of hyaluronic acid (HA) oligosaccharides and blood‐derived mononuclear cells in inflammatory processes prompted us to determine whether peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) possess hyaluronidase activity. PBMC were incubated with macromolecular‐tritiated HA at pH 3·8 and supernatants were analysed by size exclusion chromatography to reveal digestion of HA. This digestion was due to the CD14‐positive (CD14+), adherent, non‐specific esterase‐positive, subpopulation of PBMC. Hyaluronidase activity (72 kDa) was found in aqueous and non‐ionic detergent PBMC extracts but not in the medium in which the cells had been cultured. These results indicate that hyaluronidase is, at least in part, linked to the membrane rather than excreted. Hence, monocytes have one or more hyaluronidases that can generate a pool of active HA fragments within tissues. Hyaluronidase activity was also found in 3/3 myelomonocytic lineage leukaemias but not in 3/3 lymphoblastic leukaemias.
Inertial graphic gravitational random walk for network structure image segmentation

Network structure image, such as retinal blood vessels, has many important applications in medicine, biometric identification and other fields. The traditional image segmentation methods for network structure images usually face the challenge that the region of interest (ROI) is broken. To tackle this challenge, this paper presents a mechanism of random walk walker movement based on the central gravity of ROI. The proposed approach exploits the gravity of the seed point in the walker's visual field, and the continuity of the ant movement path, to segment the network structure region without broken. Experimental results are presented to show the superior performance of the proposed approach against the conventional image segmentation approaches.
Reanimating Faces in Images and Video

This paper presents a method for photo‐realistic animation that can be applied to any face shown in a single imageor a video. The technique does not require example data of the person's mouth movements, and the image to beanimated is not restricted in pose or illumination. Video reanimation allows for head rotations and speech in theoriginal sequence, but neither of these motions is required.
Arthroscopic Meniscus Repair: Clinical and Isokinetic Results

The importance of the menisci for transmitting workloads in the knee joint to protect the articular cartilage is widely acknowledged. Therefore various techniques have been introduced to repair the damaged meniscus. We performed an arthroscopic meniscus repair with a modified outside-in technique on 29 patients (average 25 years) between 2/91 and 10/94. The average time between trauma and operation was 29 weeks (1–186) – the follow-up 16.3 months (4–49). All the patients were interviewed by phone – 23 were available for clinical respectively isokinetic examination, and categorized following the Lysholm and Lais scores. Twenty-eight patients were happy with the result of the procedure. Following the Lysholm score we found 78% good/excellent results (Lais score 74%). Isokinetic testing showed a muscular deficit of less than 20% in 91% of the cases for flexion (extension 69%). No significant influence neither of the age of the patient nor the time period between trauma and operation on the outcome of the procedure could be found. No complications were reported. Based on our results and well aware of the deleterious long term effects of total meniscectomy the arthroscopic menical repair performed by an experienced surgeon should be generous choice of therapy for the treatment of the ruptured meniscus.
Sustainable Forest Management Plan Deep River Forest Reserve

In the past years the Government of Belize has granted nearly 150,000 hectares of tropical forest to the country’s forest industry. However, strong efforts are needed towards ensuring responsible forest management and natural resources sustainability. Most Forest Management Units´ rotation cycles have been estimated without of research and monitoring of forest response to current harvesting practices and regeneration. Under this scenario both forest integrity and sustainability demand on more attention to ensure that Sustainable Forest Management principles are accomplished.
Real-Time Stereo Visual SLAM in Large-Scale Environments based on SIFT Fingerprints

This paper presents a new method for real-time SLAM calculation applied to autonomous robot navigation in large-scale environments without restrictions. It is exclusively based on the visual information provided by a cheap wide-angle stereo camera. Our approach divide the global map into local sub-maps identified by the so-called SIFT fingerprint. At the sub-map level (low level SLAM), 3D sequential mapping of natural land-marks and the robot location/orientation are obtained using a top-down Bayesian method to model the dynamic behavior. A high abstraction level to reduce the global accumulated drift, keeping real-time constraints, has been added (high level SLAM). This uses a correction method based on the SIFT fingerprints taking for each sub-map. A comparison of the low SLAM level using our method and SIFT features has been carried out. Some experimental results using a real large environment are presented.
GMDH-based Approach for Analysis of Mass Spectra in Clinical Proteomics

Several architectures and algorithms of feed-f orward networks and neural associative memories as well as GMDH-based polynomial NNs are t ried for proteomic data analysis. The problem of chemotherapy responsiveness prediction b y data of mass-spectroscopy is considered to explore potential applications of different neural p radigms for this domain.
The use of confidence measures in vector based call-routing

In previous work, we experimented with different techniques of vector-based call routing, using the transcriptions of the queries to compare algorithms. In this paper, we base the routing decisions on the recogniser output rather than transcriptions and examine the use of confidence measures (CMs) to combat the problems caused by the "noise" in the recogniser output. CMs are derived for both the words output from the recogniser and for the routings themselves and are used to investigate improving both routing accuracy and routing confidence. Results are given for a 35 route retail store enquiry-point task. They suggest that although routing error is controlled by the recogniser error-rate, confidence in routing decisions can be improved using these techniques.