Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mapping the Binding Site of Six Nonpeptide Antagonists to the Human V2-Renal Vasopressin Receptor

Whereas arginine vasopressin binds to its receptor subtypes V1R and V2R with equal affinity of approximately 2 nM, nonpeptide antagonists interact differently with vasopressin receptor subtypes. The V2R antagonist binding site was mapped by site-directed mutagenesis at six selected amino acid positions, K100D, A110W, M120V, L175Y, R202S, and F307I, predicted to be involved in antagonist binding differences between V2 R and V1R. These mutations did not alter the affinity for arginine vasopressin. However, the affinity for six nonpeptide receptor antagonists SR121463B [1-[4-(N-tert-butylcarbamoyl)-2-methoxybenzenesulfonyl]-5-ethoxy-3-spiro-[4[(2 morpholinoethoxy)cy-clohexane]indoline-2-one, phosphate monohydrate cis-isomer], SR49059 [(2S)1-[(2R3S)-(5-chloro-3-(2 chlorophenyl)-1-(3,4-dimethoxybenzene-sulfonyl)-3-hydroxy-2,3-dihydro-1H-indole-2-carbonyl]-pyrrolidine-2-carboxamide], SSR149415 [(2S,4R)-1-[5-chloro-1-[(2,4-dimethoxyphenyl)sulfonyl]-3-(2-methoxyphenyl)-2-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-indol-3-yl]-4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyl-2pyrrolidine carboxamide, isomer(-)], OPC21268 [1-[1-[4-(3-acetylaminopropoxy)benzoyl]-4-piperidyl]-3,4-dihydro-2(1H)-quinolinone], OPC41061 [(±)-4′-[(7-chloro-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-5-hydroxy-1H-1-benzazepin-1-yl)carbonyl]-o-tolu-m-toluidide], and OPC31260, [(±)-5-dimethylamino-1-[4-(2-methylbenzoylamino)benzoyl]-1,2, 3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-benzazepine monohydrochloride], was altered to varying degrees, resulting in differences up to 6000-fold. Replacement of the small alanine for the bulky tryptophan in position 110 resulted in a reduced affinity for all six antagonists. In contrast, replacement of the large methionine for the smaller valine in position 120 caused a dramatic increase in affinity, up to a Ki of 7 fM for OPC31260. Molecular modeling revealed that the binding sites for arginine vasopressin and the nonpeptide antagonists are partially overlapping. Whereas arginine vasopressin binds on the extracellular surface of V2 R, the nonpeptide antagonists penetrate deeper into the transmembrane region of the receptor, in particular OPC21268. The mutagenesis data point to significant differences in the shape of the V1R and V2R antagonist binding pockets. The most important factor determining the specificity of nonpeptide antagonists seems to be the shape of the binding pocket on the receptor.
Compliance of Clinical Microbiology Laboratories in the United States with Current Recommendations for Processing Respiratory Tract Specimens from Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

ABSTRACT Respiratory tract specimens from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) require unique processing by clinical microbiology laboratories to ensure detection of all potential pathogens. The present study sought to determine the compliance of microbiology laboratories in the United States with recently published recommendations for CF respiratory specimens. Microbiology laboratory protocols from 150 of 190 (79%) CF care sites were reviewed. Most described the use of selective media for Burkholderia cepacia complex (99%), Staphylococcus aureus (82%), and Haemophilus influenzae (89%) and identified the species of all gram-negative bacilli (87%). Only 52% delineated the use of agar diffusion assays for susceptibility testing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Standardizing laboratory practices will improve treatment, infection control, and our understanding of the changing epidemiology of CF microbiology.
An improvised oxygen supply system for pandemic and disaster use.

BACKGROUND Current disaster planning for pandemic influenza anticipates overwhelming numbers of patients in need of hospitalization. The anticipated use of extra, or "surge," beds is common in both hospital and community disaster response planning. In a pandemic of respiratory illness, supplemental oxygen will be a life-saving intervention. There are currently few options to provide these proposed surge beds with the necessary oxygen. OBJECTIVES A method of providing an improvised oxygen delivery system for use in a disaster was developed and tested. This system was designed to use readily available commercial materials to assemble an oxygen delivery system. METHODS The study consisted of a laboratory design, assembly, and testing of an improvised oxygen system. RESULTS A liquid oxygen (LOX) Dewar container was used to supply oxygen systems built from inexpensive commercially available plastic tubing and fittings. The system will drive ventilators without significant pressure drop or ventilator malfunction. The final developed system will supply 30 patients with up to 6 L/min (l pm) oxygen each by nasal cannula from a single oxygen Dewar. CONCLUSIONS An improvised system to deliver oxygen for patient beds or ventilator use can be easily assembled in the event of a disaster. This could be life-saving in the event of a pandemic of respiratory illness.
Strategy Composition in Dynamic Games with Simultaneous Moves

Sometimes, in dynamic games, it is useful to reason not only about the existence of strategies for players, but also about what these strategies are, and how players select and construct them. We study dynamic games with simultaneous moves, repeated normal form games and show that this reasoning can be carried out by considering a single game, and studying composition of “local” strategies. We study a propositional modal logic in which such reasoning is carried out, and present a sound and complete axiomatization of the valid
Information Security Best Practices: First Steps for Startups and SMEs

Consider the scale of malware threats facing a business today. Hundreds of thousands of new malicious files are detected every single day, and almost a third of user computers encountered an online malware attack in 2017 (Kaspersky Lab, 2017). Tens of thousands of phishing sites are created each day (Webroot, 2017). Ransomware, a form of malware that encrypts files on a computer demanding a ransom in exchange for (the possibility of) getting the decryption key, has, according to the European Union’s law enforcement organization Europol, “eclipsed most other global cybercrime threats” (Europol, 2017a, see also 2017b). In June of 2017, shipping giant Moller-Maersk was hit by ransomware. Maersk’s losses, according to a statement by CEO Soren Skou, were estimated to reach up to $300 million USD (Novet, 2017). The attack wreaked such devastation on the company’s IT infrastructure that Maersk employees, with both company email and address systems down, had to rely on using WhatsApp on their personal phones to do their work (Thomson, 2017). Two things are worth noting about the specific form of ransomware Maersk was infected with. First, it was designed to be self-replicating, meaning that every infected computer immediately started looking for new machines to infect. Second, researchers believe the ransomware in question, called NotPetya, was designed not for financial gain, but rather “to spread fast and cause damage” (Mathews, 2017), with little hope for companies of getting their data back even if they paid the ransom (Burton, 2017). However, malware is just one of many IT-related risks companies face. The abundance of Internet-connected computers in the array of devices known as the Internet of Things has introduced a host of new risks and vulnerabilities (Hypponen & Nyman, 2017). Consider the peculiar case of a North American casino where attackers used an Internet-connected thermometer in a fish tank in the casino lobby to gain access to the casino’s network and steal a database containing the casino’s highroller list (Williams-Grut, 2018). Data breaches can carry a high cost both financially as well as to a company’s reputation, as Yahoo! experienced first-hand after news broke, in the middle of a corporate merger, that all 3 billion existing Yahoo! accounts had been compromised (Oath, 2017).
Diverse patterns of recognition of hepatitis C virus core and nonstructural antigens by antibodies present in Egyptian cancer patients and blood donors

Serum samples from 429 cancer patients, 82 unpaid blood donors, and 74 paid blood donors were tested for hepatitis C virus (HCV) markers in two commercially available enzyme immunoassays (EIAs). A total of 229 of 429 (53.4%) cancer patients were positive by the two EIAs. A total of 34 of 156 (21.8%) of the blood donors were positive by the EIAs, with a higher prevalence among paid blood donors (20/74; 27%) compared with that among the unpaid blood donors (14 of 82; 17%). EIA-positive sera were tested for confirmation of the results in an immunoblot assay (LiaTek) in which reactivities to four synthetic peptides representing the HCV core protein and two synthetic peptides representing nonstructural proteins 4 and 5 were measured. Of 243 first and/or second EIA-positive samples from cancer patients, 188 (77.2%) were confirmed to be positive in the synthetic peptide immunoblot. A total of 33 of 35 (94.3%) blood donor samples were confirmed to be positive. A great diversity in reactivity patterns was seen. However, all sera from the group of paid blood donors were exclusively reactive to core peptides 1 and 2. A subset of LiaTek assay-positive samples were tested by the four-antigen RIBA-2 assay. The sera from the paid blood donors were all nonreactive. A subset of the LiaTek-positive sera was analyzed for the presence of the HCV genome by reverse transcriptase-PCR. Eleven of the 20 serum samples with reactivity to LiaTek core peptides 1 and 2 only were HCV reverse transcriptase-PCR positive, as were the majority of the sera with other reactivity patterns by the LiaTek assay. The results confirm the very high prevalence of HCV infection in Egypt. Furthermore, the results indicate that there is circulating in Egypt, particularly in the group of blood donors paid for their donation, an HCV variant which elicits an immune response that is not detected by the RIBA-2 assay.
Osmium Tetroxide Labeling of (Poly)Methyl Methacrylate Corrosion Casts for Enhancement of Micro-CT Microvascular Imaging

Abstract In order to enhance micro-computer tomography (micro-CT) imaging of corrosion casts of fine vasculature, metals can be added to the casting resin before perfusion. However, perfused metals lead to vasoconstriction or vessel damage resulting in nonphysiologic vascular casts. A novel method for coating methyl methacrylate vascular casts with osmium tetroxide has been developed in order to increase micro-CT contrast without affecting the vascular structure. This technique was verified using corrosion casts of the lung vasculature of New Zealand white rabbits. Osmium tetroxide coating of methyl methacrylate vascular corrosion casts resulted in an increase in overall sample contrast that translated into an increase in the resolution of the vasculature. This method can therefore lead to increased resolution in the characterization of fine vascular structures.
Revenue Sharing in Mining in Africa: Empirical Proxies and Determinants of Government Take

Revenues from mining constitute a significant development opportunity, particularly in income-poor but resource-rich countries in Africa. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the extent to which such countries have benefitted from the recent global mineral boom from 2003-2013. This paper finds existing approaches to testing rent theory to be a complicated basis for the assessment of resource revenue sharing between government and companies. Exploring instead a proxy focusing on the ratio of the adjusted mining contribution to government revenues compared to its contribution to gross domestic product, this paper finds levels of mining revenue sharing from 1994-2013 to be well below optimal, although improving in recent years. One exception was Botswana, where ownership interest also constituted an important element, contributing to 58 per cent of total government revenue from mining from 2000-2012. If the other African case countries examined (Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia) had achieved the same relative ratio of mining contribution to the revenue and economy, we estimate that government revenue from mining could have been from 2-13 per cent of GDP higher per year on average. The paper finds that the main determinants of revenue sharing were tax, price and production levels, with the cost of investment and operation much less significant.
Low-Voltage Transient/Biodegradable Transistors Based on Free-Standing Sodium Alginate Membranes

In this letter, we report a novel transient/ biodegradable transistor. The Al:ZnO (AZO) source, drain, and gate electrodes are directly self-assembled on the free-standing sodium alginate (SA) membrane by magnetron sputtering, and the SA membrane is used simultaneously as the substrates and dielectrics for the transistor. Due to the strong lateral electrostatic coupling effects of SA membrane, the transistor can operate at a low voltage of 1 V. Dissolution tests of the transistor in deionized water suggest its completely physical transience within 1 h.
Feasibility of Pure Ultrasonography Guided Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy in Flank Position

Background: Although percutaneous nephrolithotomy is most commonly performed with fluoroscopic access, yet, phobia and risks of radiation exposure are 2 important dilemmas. Herein the feasibility of flank position ultrasound guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy for management of renal stones was assessed. Methods: Between September 2012 and June 2016, 250 cases (134 males and 116 females) with renal stone underwent ultrasonography-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy under lateral decubitus position. The exclusion criteria were active urinary tract infection and bleeding status. The peri-operative surgical outcomes were recorded and analyzed. Results: The mean age of patients was 42.0 ± 13.4 years. Twelve patients were children under 12 years old. Mean size of the stones was 4.2 ± 1.1 cm (range from 2.5 to 5.3 cm). Mean access and operative times were 15.5 ± 2.3 and 68 ± 14.5 minutes, respectively. In 45% of patients, superior calyx was selected for access. History of previous open stone surgery was obtained in 24 cases. Early complete stone free rate (SFR) was 68%, and after auxiliary procedures (SWL and TUL), this increased to 88%. The mean hemoglobin reduction was 1.9 ± 0.9 gr/dL. Blood transfusion was needed in 6 cases (2.4%). Prolonged or delay hemorrhage did not occur in any of the patients. One patient was complicated by moderate degree of pneumothorax and managed with chest tube insertion. Solid or viscus abdominal organ injury had not happened. Conclusions: This study suggested that the feasibility and outcomes of ultrasonography-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy are comparable with the standard fluoroscopic approach. Also flank position can facile this procedure.
Repeatability of ocular aberration measurements in patients with keratoconus

Citation information: Jinabhai A, Radhakrishnan H & O’Donnell C. Repeatability of ocular aberration measurements in patients with keratoconus. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt 2011, 31, 588–594. doi: 10.1111/j.1475‐1313.2011. 00868.x
Testosterone 5α-Reductase Inhibitors, Menaquinone 7 Produced by a Bacillus and Phenazine Methosulfate

Menaquinone 7 (MW : 649, C46H64O2), a natural electron acceptor for steroid ring A dehydrogenations, produced by Bacillus sp. SNU-299, was isolated as a rat prostate testosterone 5α-reductase inhibitor with an IC50 value of 4.0×10-5 M from the cultured broth. Phylloquinone was as active as the purified microbial metabolite with an IC50 value of 6.6×10-4 M. On the basis of this evidence, the inhibitory activities of electron carriers, menadione, phenazine methosulfate, and 2, 6-dichlorophenolindophenol, for rat prostate testosterone 5α-reductase were tested, and the IC50 values were 3.1×10-6 M, 4.9×10-8 M, 8.9×10-5 M, respectively. A product of the 5α-reductase enzyme reaction and an electron and proton carrier, NADP+, inhibited the 5α-reduction by rat prostate testerone 5α-reductase with an IC50 value of 9.2×10-5 M. However, the inhibition effect of a proton carrier, carbonylcyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone, for rat prostate testosterone 5α-reductase was substantially inactive.
Senior Executives’ Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Psychological Well-being: Is It Different at the Top?

Senior executives’ decisions can have a substantial impact on their own lives, their families, their organizations’ workers and employees, and society. This quantitative study (1) investigated the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) at work and psychological well-being (PWB) in 142 senior executives as antecedent of their decision making and (2) compared the results to two other managerial level samples of 260 managers and 445 employees. The results have implications for theory and practice. Our findings contribute the new theoretical perspectives of differences in the relationship between BPNS at work and PWB by managerial level and senior executives’ gender (“complementarity effect”). In turn, our research provides evidence for practical organizational applications such as the design and implementation of effective human resource development programs based on BPNS. Our findings further underscore the importance of senior executive psychology as a field of academic inquiry and provide directions for future research focused on further improving senior executives’ optimal functioning.
The Impacts of Mobile Platform Openness on Application Developers’ Intention to Continuously Use a Platform: From an Ecosystem Perspective

With the development of information and communication technologies and the emergence of the Internet of things, the open-platform strategy has come into the spotlight. Opening a platform allows external firms or individuals to enter the platform ecosystem without any restriction. Even though a platform connects diverse products and services, previous studies have focused on the bilateral relationship between a platform and a single group of product or service. This research investigates platform openness to multiple groups of products and services in an ecosystem simultaneously; research has especially focused on how the openness of the Android platform to both applications and devices influences application developers’ intention to continuously participate. First, openness to applications influences not only the participation intention of application developers directly but also the user base of the platform and competition among developers. An increased user base leads to an enhanced participation intention of developers through indirect network effects, while intense competition does not have a significant effect on intention. Second, openness to devices also influences the participation intention of application developers indirectly. Openness to devices contributes to enlargement of the user base which positively influences the intention of application developers. Openness to device also incurs coordination costs between applications and devices, which have a partially negative effect on the participation of application developers. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive model that explains the impact of platform openness on application developers in order to offer a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of platform openness.
Query Recommendation with TF-IQF Model and Popularity Factor

Query recommendation is a technique that provides better queries to help users to get the needed documents when the original query submitted by the user may be insufficient or imprecise to retrieve those. In this paper a novel method for query recommendation is proposed. It is different from traditional methods in two aspects: (1) it breaks URLs into independent tokens and uses a TF-IQF model to present the queries, and calculates the query similarity based on that model in further steps, while traditional query log related methods take the clicked URLs recorded in query log as whole; and (2) it introduces a query popularity factor. The popularity factor adds weight to the queries that receive more user clicks, with the assumption that the quality of these popular queries is proven by previous users. In our experiments based on real commercial search engine query logs, our method out performs others, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed TF-IQF model and popularity factor.
Emerging evidence from using an ecological data framework for student learning and development

Many university co-curricular programs or services are under pressure to demonstrate performance excellence and justify their continued existence. Many of these programs or services also resort to collating easily accessible data such as input, transactional and overall satisfaction data; produce some descriptive statistics; and subsequently write business reports that show the programs’ effectiveness or efficiency. However, this common practice is arguably the wrong place to start. A better starting point would be locating these programs within an ecological educational environment, and one that is aligned with the sector’s regulatory compliance requirements and expectations. A metaphor for this would be Russian dolls. Presented here is an initiative where an ecological data framework was designed by a student learning and development unit, which was then deployed with a vision of collecting significant data that can ascertain their programs’ impacts on student outcomes of progression and academic achievement.
Analysis of Immunohistochemical Label of Fos Protein in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus: Comparison of Different Methods of Quantification

The induction of the proto-oncogene c-fos, and its phosphoprotein product Fos, has been extensively used to study the effects of light on the circadian pacemaker in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). Experimental approaches to the quantification of Fos induction have mainly been based on immunohistochemistry and subsequent measure of Fos immunoreactivity (IR) in sections of the SCN. In this study, the authors compare several methods of quantification using optical density image analysis or counts of Fos-IR labeled cells. To assess whether optical density measures using image analysis reflect the amount of Fos in brain tissue, the authors developed standards of known concentrations of Fos protein in an agar matrix. The agar standards were sectioned and treated simultaneously with sections of the SCN from animals exposed to different levels of irradiance. Optical density was found to be proportional to the quantity of Fos in the sections, indicating that this measure accurately reflects relative levels of Fos protein induction. Quantification by optical density analysis allows an objective measure in which the various parameters, conditions of illumination, and threshold can be maintained constant throughout the analysis. Counting cells by visual observation is more subjective because threshold values cannot be precisely defined and can vary according to the observer, illumination, degree of label, and other factors. In addition, cell counts involving direct visual observation, automated cell counts, or stereological methods do not take into account the difference in the density of label between cells, thus giving equal weight to lightly or densely stained cells. These measures are more or less weakly correlated with measures of optical density and thus do not accurately reflect the amount of bound Fos protein in the tissue sections. In contrast, labeled surface area as measured by image analysis shows a linear relationship with optical density. The main outcome of this study is that computer-assisted image analysis provides an accurate and rapid method to determine the relative amount of Fos protein in the SCN and the effects of light on intracellular signaling mechanisms involved in the circadian clock.