Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vivo cleavage of Escherichia coli BIME‐2 repeats by DNA gyrase: genetic characterization of the target and identification of the cut site

The Escherichia coli chromosome contains about 300 bacterial interspersed mosaic elements (BIMEs). These elements, located at the 3′ end of genes, are composed of three types of alternating repetitive extragenic palindromes (REPs). Based on the type of REP they contain and on their ability to interact with the integration host factor (IHF), BIMEs are subdivided into two families: BIME‐1 elements contain an IHF binding site flanked by converging Y and Z1 REPs, whereas BIME‐2 elements contain a variable number of alternating Y and Z2 REPs without an IHF site. Although some BIMEs have been implicated in the protection of mRNA against 3′ exonucleolytic degradation, the main role of elements belonging to both families remains to be elucidated. In this paper, we used oxolinic acid, a drug that reveals potential sites of DNA gyrase action, to demonstrate that DNA gyrase interacts in vivo with BIME‐2 elements. The frequency of cleavage varied from one element to another, and the cleavage pattern observed in elements containing several REPs indicated that DNA gyrase cut DNA every two REPs. A single cleavage site has been identified in the Y REP in six out of seven instances, and the nucleotide sequence of a 44 bp fragment containing the scission point displayed conserved residues at six positions. The lack of one of the conserved residues accounted for the absence of cleavage in most of the Z2 REPs. Our results also showed that cleaved REPs were always associated with another REP, suggesting that a pair of diverging REPs constitutes the target of DNA gyrase. DNA gyrase cleavage at repetitive BIME‐2 elements may have consequences for DNA topology and genomic rearrangements.
An improved image magnification algorithm for color images

Preserving both edge and texture structures is a challenge to most magnification methods. In this paper an improved image magnification algorithm for color images is presented to cater for this challenge. A proposed estimation method to decide on a strong edge is utilized using a global threshold that has been determined automatically based on image statistics. Better performance compared to the original directional cubic convolution interpolation algorithm is achieved with no need for parameters settings. Simulation results demonstrate that our improved algorithm is able to faithfully reconstruct the magnified image, preserve edges and textures and reduce the common interpolation artifacts. Furthermore, it generates a higher visual quality of the magnified images and achieves higher peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity (SSIM) compared to other methods.
Social Integration, Psychological Distress, and Smoking Behaviors in a Midwest LGBT Community

BACKGROUND: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations have smoking rates twice that of their heterosexual counterparts. To design effective outreach, prevention, and treatments for these individuals, a comprehensive understanding of associated factors is needed. OBJECTIVE: To increase understanding of how social integration and psychological distress are related to smoking behaviors among LGBT populations. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, descriptive study of 135 LGBT adults using an online data collection strategy. Multivariate analyses were performed to examine factors associated with current smoking status. RESULTS: Social integration was not significantly related to smoking behaviors in this LGBT population, although psychological distress was higher among smokers than nonsmokers. CONCLUSIONS: Although social support has been reported to have an impact on health behaviors in the general population, the present findings suggest that the benefits of social support may not apply to the smoking activities of LGBT individuals.
Trade liberalisation, poverty, and inequality in Vietnam: a quantile regression approach

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of trade liberalisation on rural household welfare, poverty, and inequality in Vietnam, with the use of multiple estimation strategies, including the panel quantile regression approach based on Canay's two-step estimator. Taking account of the multi-faceted nature of trade liberalisation, we consider a set of household-level trade-related variables, including employment in export, import-competing, and manufacturing sectors. A unique panel data set is constructed from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys conducted in 2002, 2004 and 2006. We find that employment in trade-related sectors contributes significantly to rural household welfare. Moreover, the effects of trade-related employment on welfare are heterogeneous across the welfare/income distribution, in that trade-related employment sectors have different influences on different groups/quantiles of households.
A Novel Itraconazole Bioadhesive Film for Vaginal Delivery: Design, Optimization, and Physicodynamic Characterization

The purpose of this work was to design and optimize a novel vaginal drug delivery system for more effective treatment against vaginal candidiasis. Itraconazole was formulated in bioadhesive film formulations that could be retained in the vagina for prolonged intervals. The polymeric films were prepared by solvent evaporation and optimized for various physicodynamic and aesthetic properties. In addition, percentage drug retained on vaginal mucosa was evaluated using a simulated dynamic vaginal system as function of time. A polymeric film containing 100 mg itraconazole per unit (2.5 cm × 2.5 cm) have been developed using generally regarded as safe listed excipients. The pH of vaginal film was found to be slightly acidic (4.90 ± 0.04) in simulated vaginal fluid and alkaline (7.04 ± 0.07) in water. The little moisture content (7.66 ± 0.51% w/w) was present in the film, which helps them to remain stable and kept them from being completely dry and brittle. The mechanical properties, tensile strength, and percentage elongation at break (9.64 N/mm2 and 67.56% for ITRF65) reveal that the formulations were found to be soft and tough. The films (ITRF65) contained solid dispersion of itraconazole (2.5)/hydroxypropyl cellulose (1)/polyethylene glycol 400 (0.5), which was found to be the optimal composition for a novel bioadhesive vaginal formulation, as they showed good peelability, relatively good swelling index, and moderate tensile strength and retained vaginal mucosa up to 8 h. Also, the film did not markedly affect normal vaginal flora (lactobacillus) and was noncytotoxic as indicated by the negligible decrease in cell viability.
Patients With Severe Aortic Stenosis and Reduced Ejection Fraction: Earlier Recovery of Left Ventricular Systolic Function After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation Compared With Surgical Valve Replacement

Only 50% of patients with aortic stenosis (AS) and low ejection fraction (EF) improve their contractility after surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR). Long‐term prognosis of these patients is strongly correlated to EF recovery after the surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the postoperative left ventricular function recovery in patients with severe AS and reduced EF after AVR and transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).
Exposure of Adult Mice to Environmental Tobacco Smoke Fails to Enhance the Immune Response to Inhaled Antigen

Epidemiologic evidence supports a role for environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in the occurrence and severity of allergies/asthma. However, neither the precise combination of ETS and allergen exposure nor the mechanism (or mechanisms) by which these factors interact and contribute to asthma induction is known. Animal model studies have failed to establish a convincing relationship between ETS exposure and asthma induction, perhaps because of methodological inadequacies. Here, we tested the hypothesis that ETS inhalation would provoke an asthmatic response by overcoming normal airway tolerance to inhaled antigens. Our protocol combined daily ETS exposure with nose-only sensitization to ovalbumin. Three strains of mice were tested, each with a different level of susceptibility to airway hypersensitivity. Immunological responses were assessed by immunoglobulin production. Airway inflammation was assessed by bronchoalveolar lavage differentials and lung histopathology. Airway hyperresponsiveness was determined by methacholine challenge. The mice produced ovalbumin-specific antibodies following ovalbumin exposure in a strain-dependent manner. Only the A/J mice produced detectable levels of ovalbumin-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E. Both A/J and BALB/c mice produced ovalbumin-specific IgG1 antibodies. The C57Bl/6 mice did not produce detectable levels of antibodies. The A/J mice also exhibited airway inflammation following ovalbumin exposure. Neither the C57Bl/6 nor the BALB/c mice exhibited signs of airway inflammation. Exposure to ETS failed to enhance ovalbumin-specific antibody production, airway inflammation, or hyperresponsiveness. Together these results indicate that ETS exposure accompanied by nose-only allergen sensitization fails to overcome aerosol tolerance in adult mice.
Facing complexity, crisis, and risk: Opportunities and challenges in international human resource management

International human resource management (IHRM) as a field of practice involves heightened levels of complexity compared to domestic HRM based on the multitude of contexts in which multinational firms operate. As complexity increases, so do levels of risk and the chance the firm must deal with crisis situations. Based on articles presented at the 3rd Global Conference on IHRM, this special issue focuses on how IHRM can contribute to organization success when faced with extreme operating conditions. This editorial provides a backdrop to the articles by describing the challenging economic, political, and social environments impacting organizations, exploring conditions from the recent past and current day such as the global financial crisis, trends toward political nationalism, aging populations, and growing immigrant workforces. The focus lies on exploring how HRM can respond to such challenging external contexts to continue to contribute added value to the firm.
Performance evaluation of algorithms for the State of Charge estimation of storage devices in microgrid operation

This paper analyzes different Kalman filtering algorithms for the real-time State of Charge (SoC) estimation of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). Accurate SoC estimation is a key issue for microgrid real-time operation involving optimal model-based control. A BESS composed of Li-ion battery equipped with a Battery Management System (BMS) is characterized by fitting the parameters of a dynamic model, validated through experimental tests. Particular attention is devoted to the identification and representation of model nonlinearities in order to design robust Kalman filtering SoC estimation methods. Performance evaluation of the proposed algorithms are carried out by statistical simulations and experimental real-time tests. The analysis also takes in consideration the computational performances of the different methods in order to match the requirements of real-time control routines.
Acidification of methyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside: a useful test to differentiate Enterococcus casseliflavus and Enterococcus gallinarum from Enterococcus faecium species group and from Enterococcus faecalis

Enterococcus gallinarum and E. casseliflavus are difficult to differentiate from other enterococci, particularly E.faecium. The former two species were found to produce acid from methyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside in phenol red broth, while E.faecalis strains and strains of the E.faecium species group, including E.faecium, E.durans, E. hirae, and E.mundtii, failed to produce acid from this substrate.
Crystal structure of a near-full-length archaeal MCM: Functional insights for an AAA+ hexameric helicase

The minichromosome maintenance protein (MCM) complex is an essential replicative helicase for DNA replication in Archaea and Eukaryotes. Whereas the eukaryotic complex consists of 6 homologous proteins (MCM2–7), the archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus has only 1 MCM protein (ssoMCM), 6 subunits of which form a homohexamer. Here, we report a 4.35-Å crystal structure of the near-full-length ssoMCM. The structure shows an elongated fold, with 5 subdomains that are organized into 2 large N- and C-terminal domains. A near-full-length ssoMCM hexamer generated based on the 6-fold symmetry of the N-terminal Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus (mtMCM) hexamer shows intersubunit distances suitable for bonding contacts, including the interface around the ATP pocket. Four unusual β-hairpins of each subunit are located inside the central channel or around the side channels in the hexamer. Additionally, the hexamer fits well into the double-hexamer EM map of mtMCM. Our mutational analysis of residues at the intersubunit interfaces and around the side channels demonstrates their critical roles for hexamerization and helicase function. These structural and biochemical results provide a basis for future study of the helicase mechanisms of the archaeal and eukaryotic MCM complexes in DNA replication.
Regulation of Raf-1-dependent signaling during early Xenopus development

The Raf-1 gene product is activated in response to cellular stimulation by a variety of growth factors and hormones. Raf-1 activity has been implicated in both cellular differentiation and proliferation. We have examined the regulation of the Raf-1/MEK/MAP kinase (MAPK) pathway during embryonic development in the frog Xenopus laevis. We report that Raf-1, MEK, and MAPK activities are turned off following fertilization and remain undetectable up until blastula stages (stage 8), some 4 h later. Tight regulation of the Raf-1/MEK/MAPK pathway following fertilization is crucial for embryonic cell cycle progression. Inappropriate reactivation of MAPK activity by microinjection of oncogenic Raf-1 RNA results in metaphase cell cycle arrest and, consequently, embryonic lethality. Our findings demonstrate an absolute requirement, in vivo, for inactivation of the MAPK signaling pathway to allow normal cell cycle progression during the period of synchronous cell divisions which occur following fertilization. Further, we show that cytostatic factor effects are mediated through MEK and MAPK.
Examining the role of culture in assessing individual ethical reasoning on multidisciplinary engineering project teams

Engineering is becoming an increasingly global profession, requiring interaction with diverse sets of people from different countries, cultures, and traditions. This diversity introduces more social and ethical complexity to the profession and highlights the importance of enabling engineers to work collaboratively and develop strong ethical decision-making skills. This study examines the relationship between cultural differences and students' individual ethical decision-making and reasoning skills. We conducted this study across four universities with distinct project-based multidisciplinary engineering programs. We developed an instrument for assessing individual ethical reasoning based on a neo-Kohlbergian framework as part of a larger project. This study employs a mixed methods approach to investigate the ways cultural differences in this instrument might affect findings. We conducted statistical tests to examine how the instrument performs across different cultural factors of primary language, ethnicity, and gender. In addition to administering the instrument, we conducted semi-structured interviews with students from all four programs to probe how they understand and handle ethics in the context of their project teams, as well as how cultural differences may play in to these perceptions. This study contributes to our understanding of the cultural perspectives embedded in participants' discourses and reasoning about engineering ethics in general and ethical decision-making processes in engineering project teams.
Identifying host species driving transmission of schistosomiasis japonica, a multihost parasite system, in China

Understanding disease transmission dynamics in multihost parasite systems is a research priority for control and potential elimination of many infectious diseases. In China, despite decades of multifaceted control efforts against schistosomiasis, the indirectly transmitted helminth Schistosoma japonicum remains endemic, partly because of the presence of zoonotic reservoirs. We used mathematical modeling and conceptual frameworks of multihost transmission ecology to assess the relative importance of various definitive host species for S. japonicum transmission in contrasting hilly and marshland areas of China. We examine whether directing control interventions against zoonotic reservoirs could further reduce incidence of infection in humans or even eliminate transmission. Results suggest that, under current control programs, infections in humans result from spillover of transmission among zoonotic reservoirs. Estimates of the basic reproduction number within each species suggest that bovines (water buffalo and cattle) maintained transmission in the marshland area and that the recent removal of bovines from this area could achieve local elimination of transmission. However, the sole use of antifecundity S. japonicum vaccines for bovines, at least at current efficacies, may not achieve elimination in areas of comparable endemicity where removal of bovines is not a feasible option. The results also suggest that rodents drive transmission in the hilly area. Therefore, although targeting bovines could further reduce and potentially interrupt transmission in marshland regions of China, elimination of S. japonicum could prove more challenging in areas where rodents might maintain transmission. In conclusion, we show how mathematical modeling can give important insights into multihost transmission of indirectly transmitted pathogens.
Spatially Explicit Power Analyses for Occupancy‐Based Monitoring of Wolverine in the U.S. Rocky Mountains

Conservation scientists and resource managers often have to design monitoring programs for species that are rare or patchily distributed across large landscapes. Such programs are frequently expensive and seldom can be conducted by one entity. It is essential that a prospective power analysis be undertaken to ensure stated monitoring goals are feasible. We developed a spatially based simulation program that accounts for natural history, habitat use, and sampling scheme to investigate the power of monitoring protocols to detect trends in population abundance over time with occupancy‐based methods. We analyzed monitoring schemes with different sampling efforts for wolverine (Gulo gulo) populations in 2 areas of the U.S. Rocky Mountains. The relation between occupancy and abundance was nonlinear and depended on landscape, population size, and movement parameters. With current estimates for population size and detection probability in the northern U.S. Rockies, most sampling schemes were only able to detect large declines in abundance in the simulations (i.e., 50% decline over 10 years). For small populations reestablishing in the Southern Rockies, occupancy‐based methods had enough power to detect population trends only when populations were increasing dramatically (e.g., doubling or tripling in 10 years), regardless of sampling effort. In general, increasing the number of cells sampled or the per‐visit detection probability had a much greater effect on power than the number of visits conducted during a survey. Although our results are specific to wolverines, this approach could easily be adapted to other territorial species.
Quantitative Easing and Sovereign Bond Yields: A Global Perspective

We document the existence of a global monetary policy factor in sovereign bond yields in a panel of 45 countries, consisting of both developed and emerging economies. This global factor is related to the size of the aggregate balance sheet of the four major central banks (Fed, ECB, Bank of Japan and Bank of England). Our estimates suggest that large-scale asset purchases and liquidity provision of major central banks following the Global Financial Crisis have contributed to a significant and permanent decline in long-term yields globally, ranging from 250 basis points for AAA rated sovereigns to 330 basis points for B rated sovereigns. Fiscally weaker Eurozone countries benefited most from Quantitative Easing, with their sovereign yields declining by 600-750 basis points, depending on the rating of their sovereigns. Our findings have important policy implications: normalizing monetary policy by scaling down the expanded balance sheets of major central banks to pre-crisis levels may lead to sharp increases in sovereign bond yields globally with severe consequences for financial stability, vulnerable sovereigns and the global economy
Preparation of Entamoeba histolytica antigens without enzymatic inhibitors

The goal of this work is to report a novel assay that preserves antigenicity of extracts with high protease content without using enzymatic inhibitors. A great reduction of proteolytic activity in the insoluble chloroform/methanol and heated amoebic fraction (IC[ratio ]MC) was obtained by this method, even in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate and 2-mercaptoethanol. The substrates azo-casein and the hide powder azure were used to determine the reduction of proteolytic activity of IC[ratio ]MC compared with the activity of crude extract and crude extract with iodoacetamide. The IC[ratio ]MC SDS-PAGE pattern shows a higher quantity of bands than extract with the inhibitor iodoacetamide or than crude extract. In addition, anti-Entamoeba histolytica antibodies from amoebic liver abscess patients recognized a richer antigenic Western blot pattern in the IC[ratio ]MC fraction than in crude extract alone or with inhibitor. The described method has proved to be suitable to preserve amoebic antigens for its use in diagnostic tests and it can be used for immunological response studies against E. histolytica antigens. Furthermore we propose that this method to obtain the IC[ratio ]MC fraction can be applied for the study of other microorganisms or cells with high enzymatic content.
Increased 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine in high-grade gliomas is associated with activation of autophagy

Aim of the study: To understand the interaction between oxidative stress and autophagy in gliomas of different grades. Materials and Methods: In the present study, we analyzed levels of oxidative stress in 45 human glioma tumors, using the DNA oxidation marker 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). In addition, we determined activation of autophagy in gliomas samples by assessing expression of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain-3B (LC3B). To confirm our in vivo findings, in vitro studies using U87 cells were conducted. Results: It was determined that the grade of gliomas, that is, different malignant degrees according to WHO classification, significantly affected level of 8-OHdG. High levels of 8-OHdG were present in high-grade gliomas. This trend was significant in male patients and in young adult patients (<50 years old). Further study showed increased expression of LC3B in high-grade gliomas. In addition, levels of 8-OHdG and expression of LC3B were positively correlated. Reducing autophagic activity by 3-methyladenine resulted in significantly increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in U87 cells. Conclusions: Our study provides evidence that high levels of oxidative stress in high-grade gliomas are associated with autophagy activation that may play a protective role promoting the survival of high-grade gliomas under severe oxidative stress.