Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glycosylated Lipopeptides—Synthesis and Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity and Cytotoxicity

Ultrashort cationic lipopeptides (USCLs) are promising antimicrobial agents that may be used to combat pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. USCLs consist of a few basic amino acid residues and at least one lipid moiety, usually a fatty acid chain. Generally, USCLs are potent antimicrobials but their major shortcoming is a relatively high cytotoxicity and hemolytic activity. Glycopeptide antibiotics (e.g. vancomycin) are essential in combating bacterial infections and are popular in medicinal practice. However, literature concerning the effect of glycosylation of peptides on their antimicrobial activity is rather scarce. For the first time, this study highlights the effect of USCLs glycosylation on in vitro biological activity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of glycosylation of a series of USCLs on antimicrobial activity, cytotoxicity and hemolytic activity. Straight-chain fatty acids (C14, C16, C18) were attached to the N-terminal amino group of tripeptides—SRR-NH2, RSR-NH2 and RRS-NH2. Two groups of the lipopeptides were synthetized, the first with unmodified L-serine (USCLs) and the other with L-serine O-glycosylated by N-acetyl-β-d-glucosamine to produce new class of glycosylated ultrashort cationic lipopeptide (gUSCLs). Both USCLs and gUSCLs were tested against planktonic and biofilm cultures of ESKAPE strains (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter spp.) and Candida glabrata, and hemolytic activity on human erythrocytes and cytotoxicity against the HaCaT cell line was examined. Generally, USCLs and gUSCLs proved to be active against all the tested strains. The highest activity displayed was by lipopeptides containing the C18 fatty acid. Antimicrobial, hemolytic and cytotoxic activities were mainly correlated with amino acid sequence (position of serine/glycosylated serine) and hydrophobicity of molecule and were found to be highly strain-dependent. In general, glycosylation did not guarantee an increased antimicrobial activity or a decreased hemolytic and cytotoxic activities. However, in some cases, gUSCLs proved to be superior to their USCLs analogs. The most pronounced differences were found for peptides with C18 fatty acid and serine at the first and second position against both planktonic cells and biofilm of C. glabrata, as well as the second and third position against S. aureus. It is noteworthy that gUSCLs were also more active against biofilm than were USCLs.
Key Company Success Factors in Creating High-Quality Innovative Food Products

Technological advancements have triggered many lifestyle changes and indirectly created two important issues that must be addressed in Indonesia: the increase in non-communicable diseases and the rise of national health costs. One effort to curtail these problems involves consuming innovative food products with health benefits, commonly known as functional foods. The present study aims to identify and analyze the key success factors that companies in the functional food industry must consider to produce high-quality functional foods. To date, no previous study has paid close attention to this issue. Data collection was performed in a two-step process. First, interviews with academics, businesses, and the government were conducted. Second, surveys using a pairwise comparison questionnaire were completed. Data from the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, while survey data were assessed using the analytic hierarchy process. The results indicate the presence of five key success factors, including top management commitment (weight = 0.233), research resources and networks (0.077), food safety management systems (0.303), access to the required raw materials (0.218), and access to information on consumer needs (0.168). This research is believed to be the first to identify key company success factors in producing high-quality, innovative food products. This research fills the void of functional food literature related to producers.
A Preliminary Examination of Treatment Barriers, Preferences, and Histories of Women with Symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder

Abstract Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common mental health condition that is characterised by a persistent fear of social or performance situations. Despite effective treatments being available, many individuals with SAD do not seek treatment or delay treatment seeking for many years. The aim of the present study was to examine treatment barriers, treatment histories, and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) delivery preferences in a sample of women with clinically relevant SAD symptoms. Ninety-nine women (Mage = 34.90, SD = 11.28) completed the online questionnaires and were included in the study. Participants were recruited from advertisements on community noticeboards and posts on social media. The results demonstrated that less than 5% of those who received psychological treatment in the past were likely to have received best-practice CBT. The most commonly cited barriers to accessing treatment for women with SAD related to direct costs (63%) and indirect costs (e.g., transport/childcare) (28%). The most preferred treatment delivery method overall was individual face-to-face treatment (70%). The study demonstrates a need to provide a variety of treatment options in order to enhance access to empirically supported treatment for women with SAD.
Fabrication of YBCO tapes on Ag substrates by the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method

15 cm long YBCO superconducting tapes with Jc of 104 A cm−2 were fabricated by the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method. Predeposition for 15 min at 700 °C can effectively prevent the Ag substrate from vaporizing and diffusing into YBCO films, and improve the coarse surface of Ag, and the surface morphology and connectivity of YBCO films, and therefore increase the superconducting properties. Holding the temperature at 900 °C for 30 min after deposition improves the texture and connectivity of YBCO films.
Lipid Metabolic Alterations in KRAS Mutant Tumors: Unmasking New Vulnerabilities for Cancer Therapy

KRAS is one of the most commonly mutated genes, an event that leads to development of highly aggressive and resistant to any type of available therapy tumors. Mutated KRAS drives a complex network of lipid metabolic rearrangements to support the adaptation of cancer cells to harsh environmental conditions and ensure their survival. Because there has been only a little success in the continuous efforts of effectively targeting KRAS-driven tumors, it is of outmost importance to delineate the exact mechanisms of how they get rewired, leading to this distinctive phenotype. Therefore, the aim of this review is to summarize the available data acquired over the last years with regard to the lipid metabolic regulation of KRAS-driven tumors and elucidate their specific characteristics in an attempt to unravel novel therapeutic targets.
The physical mechanism for vortex merging

In this paper, we study the interaction of two co-rotating trailing vortices. It is well-known that vortices of like-sign ultimately merge to form a single vortex, and there has been much work on measuring and predicting the initial conditions for the onset of merger, especially concerning the critical vortex core radius. However, the physical mechanism causing this merger has received little attention. In this work, we directly measure the structure of the antisymmetric vorticity field that causes the co-rotating vortices to be pushed towards each other during merger. We discover that the form of the antisymmetric vorticity comprises two counter-rotating vortex pairs, whose induced velocity field readily pushes the two centroids together. The merging velocity computed from the antisymmetric vorticity field agrees closely with the merging velocity measured directly from the total (original) flow field. The co-rotating vortex pair evolves through four distinct phases. The initial stage comprises a diffusive growth, which can be either viscous or turbulent. In either case, the number of turns that they rotate around one another until the vortices start to merge increases with Reynolds number (Re). If one observes the streamlines in a rotating reference frame (moving with the vortices), then one finds an inner and outer recirculating region of the flow bounded by a separatrix streamline. When the vortices grow large enough in the first stage, diffusion across the separatrix places vorticity into the outer recirculating region of the flow, and this leads to the generation of the antisymmetric vorticity, causing convective merger. This second (convective) stage corresponds to the motion of the vortex centroids towards each other, and is a process which is almost independent of viscosity. During the late part of this stage, the antisymmetric vorticity is diminished by a symmetrization process, and the final merging into one vorticity structure is achieved by a second diffusive stage. The fourth and ultimate phase is one where the merged vortex core grows by diffusion.
Significance of Interleukin 23 in Systemic Lupus Patients: Relation to Disease Activity and Damage Indices

Background Dysregulation of both cellular and humoral immune responses is central in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) pathogenetic mechanisms. Proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin 23 (IL23), and their roles in promoting such dysregulation have recently been highly considered. This research compared IL23 serum levels in 85 Egyptian SLE patients and 85 healthy controls. Then, IL23 level was correlated to various SLE disease parameters, disease activity, and damage indices. Results IL23 serum levels were significantly elevated in SLE patients versus healthy individuals. Furthermore, IL23 levels were positively correlated with SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) and were positively correlated with arthritis, seizures, consumption of complements (C3, C4), and with parameters of nephritis (hematuria, pyuria, casts, and proteinuria). A positive correlation was also found between IL23 levels and oral prednisolone dose. Conclusion IL23 has higher levels in the serum of SLE patients, and is correlated to activity of the disease, especially lupus nephritis. Further researchis needed to explore its exact role in SLE pathogenesis and whether it can be considered a potential biomarker or therapeutic target in SLE.
Response from the author

We appreciate Dr Heinze’s letter with thoughtful comments. In our article, we have clearly defined our definition of average absolute bias on page 625. We agree that the average absolute bias in our paper is not a measure of location; it is rather a measure of variation. In all stated four points, Dr Heinze argued against dropping all separation cases in computing the average absolute bias, mean squared error, mean of Cordeiro and McCullagh and other methods. We completely agree with his point samples subject to separation usually give rise to a stronger association of the covariate with the outcome (as separation is more likely with high parameter values); in fact, we have demonstrated this in Figure 9. We concur that, in case of separation, replacing the maximum likelihood estimate from Firth with Cordeiro and other methods, as stated in Heinze and Puhr, would enable us to compare all methods directly. Therefore, in the same simulation setup of our article, for model HIV 1⁄4 0:5þ 1 CD4þ 1:5 CD8, we simulated 1000 y-vectors to compute the MSE with replacing all undefined estimates due to separation from maximum likelihood estimation or from conditional maximum likelihood estimation by the corresponding estimates from Firth. The results are shown in Figures 1 and 2. Figures 1 and 2 explicate that the MSE from Firth method, and Cordeiro and McCullagh method are equally well; though, the MSE from Cordeiro and McCullagh method is slightly but may not be substantially better.
Boron doping in Si molecular beam epitaxy by co‐evaporation of B2O3 or doped silicon

We report on controlled boron doping of silicon molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) films by two techniques: sublimation of saturated boron‐doped silicon from a boron nitride crucible and evaporation of B2O3 from a tungsten crucible. Both methods were performed with the simultaneous evaporation of undoped silicon from an electron beam source. Sharp doping profiles and constant evaporation rates were obtained for both methods. Doping levels between 2×1017 and 1.5×1020 cm−3 were realized. The evaporations require only relatively low temperatures: 700–1150 °C for B2O3 and 1000–1400 °C for subliming silicon. These results make it possible to replace gallium as the p‐type evaporative dopant in silicon MBE with the more desirable boron without using ion imbedding or a very high crucible temperature.
Locating Culturally Safe Care in Narratives of Historical Trauma and Health in Guam

We sought to understand contemporary health beliefs and practices of the CHamorus of Guam in the context of their perceptions of historical trauma. Narrative analysis of 20 story-eliciting interviews with 10 CHamoru adults identified stories of health and illness and living in-betweenness, wherein participants described navigation between health practices of Traditional and Western cultures in the centuries-long involvement with the colonizing culture. Those connections pointed to a conceptual third-space, informed by Homi Bhabha, in which historical trauma and the in-betweenness of Traditional and Western health open new possibilities of what culturally safe health care might look like for CHamorus.
NDR kinase tricornered genetically interacts with Ccm3 and metabolic enzymes in Drosophila melanogaster tracheal development

Abstract The Germinal Center Kinase III (GckIII) pathway is a Hippo-like kinase module defined by sequential activation of Ste20 kinases Thousand and One (Tao) and GckIII, followed by nuclear dbf2-related (NDR) kinase Tricornered (Trc). We previously uncovered a role for the GckIII pathway in Drosophila melanogaster tracheal (respiratory) tube morphology. The trachea form a network of branched epithelial tubes essential for oxygen transport, and are structurally analogous to branched tubular organs in vertebrates, such as the vascular system. In the absence of GckIII pathway function, aberrant dilations form in tracheal tubes characterized by mislocalized junctional and apical proteins, suggesting that the pathway is important in maintaining tube integrity in development. Here, we observed a genetic interaction between trc and Cerebral cavernous malformations 3 (Ccm3), the Drosophila ortholog of a human vascular disease gene, supporting our hypothesis that the GckIII pathway functions downstream of Ccm3 in trachea, and potentially in the vertebrate cerebral vasculature. However, how GckIII pathway signaling is regulated and the mechanisms that underpin its function in tracheal development are unknown. We undertook biochemical and genetic approaches to identify proteins that interact with Trc, the most downstream GckIII pathway kinase. We found that known GckIII and NDR scaffold proteins are likely to control GckIII pathway signaling in tracheal development, consistent with their conserved roles in Hippo-like modules. Furthermore, we show genetic interactions between trc and multiple enzymes in glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, suggesting a potential function of the GckIII pathway in integrating cellular energy requirements with maintenance of tube integrity.
Outcomes of Periacetabular Osteotomy for Borderline Acetabular Dysplasia

Background: The optimal surgical treatment (hip arthroscopy compared with periacetabular osteotomy [PAO]) for borderline acetabular dysplasia (lateral center-edge angle [LCEA], 18° to 25°) remains a topic of debate. To date, the literature has focused primarily on arthroscopy outcomes, with only a few small reports on PAO outcomes. The purpose of this study was to define PAO outcomes in a large cohort of borderline hips. In a secondary analysis, we assessed the effect of prior failed arthroscopy, concurrent hip arthroscopy, and concurrent femoral osteoplasty on PAO outcomes in this cohort. Methods: A prospective database was retrospectively reviewed for patients who underwent PAO for symptomatic instability in the setting of borderline dysplasia (LCEA, 18° to 25°). Of the 232 identified hips, 186 (80.2%) were assessed at a mean follow-up of 3.3 ± 2.0 years postoperatively. The mean patient age was 25.2 ± 8.5 years (range, 14 to 45 years), and 88.2% were female. Thirty hips (16.1%) had undergone a failed prior arthroscopy. Arthroscopy was performed concurrently with the PAO in 130 hips (69.9%), and femoral osteoplasty was performed concurrently in 120 hips (64.5%). The modified Harris hip score (mHHS) was assessed relative to the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) of 8 and patient acceptable symptom state (PASS) of 74. Clinical failure was defined as a reoperation for persistent symptoms or a failure to achieve either the mHHS MCID or PASS. Results: Of the 156 hips undergoing a primary surgical procedure, clinical success was achieved in 148 hips (94.9% [95% confidence interval (CI), 90.2% to 97.4%]). Two hips (1.3% [95% CI, 0.4% to 4.6%]) underwent reoperation (hip arthroscopy) for persistent symptoms and an additional 6 hips (3.8% [95% CI, 1.8% to 8.1%]) failed to achieve the mHHS MCID or PASS, for a clinical failure rate of 5.1% (95% CI, 2.6% to 9.8%); 8.8% reported dissatisfaction with the surgical procedure. Clinical failure was more frequent among the 30 hips (23.3% [95% CI, 11.8% to 40.9%]; p = 0.001) that had undergone a prior failed arthroscopy. There were no outcome differences between hips that had or had not undergone concurrent hip arthroscopy or femoral osteoplasty. Conclusions: This study demonstrates excellent early outcomes of PAO for borderline acetabular dysplasia, with significant clinical improvement in 94.9% of patients undergoing a primary surgical procedure; 91.2% were satisfied with the surgical procedure. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Quantitative design of a class of nonlinear systems with parameter uncertainty

This paper considers the case in which a linear time-invariant (LTI) but uncertain plant suffers from nonlinearities y=n(x) which can be expressed as y=Kn+η(x), |η(x)|≤M, with K, a possibly uncertain scalar. This covers a large and very important class of nonlinearities encountered in practice such as friction, backlash, dead zone and quantization. Quantitative design techniques are presented for this class for the satisfaction of specifications. Special attention is paid to the avoidance of limit cycles using describing function theory, although the design method is also amenable of application using other stability criteria such as the circle criteria. Numerical examples are developed illustrating the design procedure.
The τ Decomposition Method for PID Controllers of First Order Delayed Unstable Processes

The stabilization of first‐order delayed (FOD) unstable processes with proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controllers is considered, and all the feasible PID controllers are determined. Different from the existing results which are based on the D‐partition technique and partitioning complex's real and imaginary parts, a novel procedure enlightened by the τ decomposition method is proposed to characterize the space of controller parameters. Generally speaking, the parameter space is mainly divided into four regions: delay independent stable region, delay independent unstable region, delay interval dependent stable region, and delay interval dependent unstable region. The depiction of the space partition boundaries and the determination of stable intervals become the main problems. In our work, these boundaries are related to the existence of the purely imaginary roots (PIRs) of the systems' characteristic equation, and the determination of stable intervals refers to the number and value of the PIRs. Thus, the key points are the number and calculation of PIRs. According to our discussion, analytical results on both topics are obtained in explicit form. Finally, vivid numerical simulations are given to illustrate the results.
Galaxy clusters and the amplitude of primordial fluctuations

The distributions of velocity dispersion, gas temperature, and mass-to-light ratio for Abell clusters are calculated here in the standard cold dark matter (CDM) cosmogony in order to test the validity of the hierarchical clustering model for the formation of cosmic structure and to fix the value of the biasing parameter b which quantifies the segregation between galaxies and mass. To compare model predictions with optical data, catalogs of galaxies are constructed from N-body simulations and subjected to projection effects similar to those in Abell's cluster catalog. It is found that a significant fraction of rich clusters identified in projection do not correspond to rich three-dimensional clusters, but result instead from superpositions of foreground groups on poorer clusters. A similar fraction of true rich clusters are missed in the projected catalogs. Combining the simulations with recent hydrodynamical models, it is found that CDM models with b of 2-2.5 provide an acceptable match to present data. 52 refs.
Selecting the Number of Knots for Penalized Splines

Penalized splines, or P-splines, are regression splines fit by least-squares with a roughness penalty.P-splines have much in common with smoothing splines, but the type of penalty used with a P-spline is somewhat more general than for a smoothing spline. Also, the number and location of the knots of a P-spline is not fixed as with a smoothing spline. Generally, the knots of a P-spline are at fixed quantiles of the independent variable and the only tuning parameters to choose are the number of knots and the penalty parameter. In this article, the effects of the number of knots on the performance of P-splines are studied. Two algorithms are proposed for the automatic selection of the number of knots. The myopic algorithm stops when no improvement in the generalized cross-validation statistic (GCV) is noticed with the last increase in the number of knots. The full search examines all candidates in a fixed sequence of possible numbers of knots and chooses the candidate that minimizes GCV.The myopic algorithm works well in many cases but can stop prematurely. The full-search algorithm worked well in all examples examined. A Demmler–Reinsch type diagonalization for computing univariate and additive P-splines is described. The Demmler–Reinsch basis is not effective for smoothing splines because smoothing splines have too many knots. For P-splines, however, the Demmler–Reinsch basis is very useful for super-fast generalized cross-validation.