Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resistance to Quorum-Quenching Compounds

ABSTRACT Bacteria have the remarkable ability to communicate as a group in what has become known as quorum sensing (QS), and this trait has been associated with important bacterial phenotypes, such as virulence and biofilm formation. Bacteria also have an incredible ability to evolve resistance to all known antimicrobials. Hence, although inhibition of QS has been hailed as a means to reduce virulence in a manner that is impervious to bacterial resistance mechanisms, this approach is unlikely to be a panacea. Here we review the evidence that bacteria can evolve resistance to quorum-quenching compounds.
Emerging Perspectives on Judgment and Decision Research

This volume offers answers by a top group of experts to the question “Where is judgment and decision research heading as we forge into the 21st century? ” The chapters represent state-of-the-art perspectives developed by some of the most innovative thinkers in the field. The book is organized around five themes: fortifying traditional models of decision making – looking at traditional topics in new ways; elaborating cognitive processes in decision making – exploring the interplay between decision research and cognitive psychology; integrating affect and motivation in decision making – relating how affect and motivation interact with decision making; understanding social and cultural influences on decision making – recognizing the importance of social and cultural contexts for decisions; and facing the challenge of real-world complexity in decision research – seeing the challenges and rewards of research outside the laboratory. The book concludes with a commentary based on an analysis and synthesis of the new ideas presented here.
Lack of Smad 3 signaling leads to impaired skeletal muscle regeneration

Xiaojia Ge, Anuradha Vajjala, Craig McFarlane, Walter Wahli, Mridula Sharma, and Ravi Kambadur School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Brenner Center for Molecular Medicine, Singapore; Center for Integrative Genomics, NCCR Frontiers in Genetics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Spider-Bots : A Low Cost Cooperative Robotics Platform

Multi-robot teams with many members can be very demanding in terms of both monetary and spatial resources, major limitations in both laboratory and classroom settings. A reduction in both the size and cost of robots that remain capable of testing a myriad of algorithms allows for much more research and education in the field of swarm robotics. The developed platform seeks to achieve all of these goals with centimeterscale mobile robots that can interact with their environment and communicate wirelessly, along with easy to use software libraries. It was validated by testing its ability to execute and record data from two separate algorithms: Set-point navigation and object manipulation.
Enhanced Proteolytic Clearance of Plasma Aβ by Peripherally Administered Neprilysin Does Not Result in Reduced Levels of Brain Aβ in Mice

Accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain is believed to contribute to the pathology of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Aβ levels are controlled by the production of Aβ from amyloid precursor protein, degradation by proteases, and peripheral clearance. In this study we sought to determine whether enhancing clearance of plasma Aβ with a peripherally administered Aβ-degrading protease would reduce brain Aβ levels through a peripheral sink. Neprilysin (NEP) is a zinc-dependent metalloprotease that is one of the key Aβ-degrading enzymes in the brain. We developed a NEP fusion protein with in vitro degradation of Aβ and a 10 day plasma half-life in mouse. Intravenous administration of NEP to wild-type and APP23 transgenic mice resulted in dose-dependent clearance of plasma Aβ. However, this did not correspond to reduced levels of soluble brain Aβ with treatment up to 5 weeks in WT mice or formic acid-extractable brain Aβ with 3 month treatment in aged APP23. In contrast, intracranial injection of NEP resulted in an acute decrease in soluble brain Aβ. We found no change in amyloid precursor protein gene expression in mice treated with intravenous NEP, suggesting that the lack of effects in the brain following this route of administration was not caused by compensatory upregulation of Aβ production. Taken together, these results suggest a lack of a robust peripheral Aβ efflux sink through which brain amyloid burdens can be therapeutically reduced.
Nonlinear expectations and nonlinear pricing ∗

As the generalizations of mathematical expectations,coherent and convex risk measures, Choquet expectation and Peng’s g-expectations all have been widely used to study the question of hedging contingent claims in incomplete markets. Obviously, the different risk measures or expectations will typically yield different pricing. In this paper we investigate differences amongst these risk measures and expectations in the framework of the continuous-time asset pricing. We show that the coherent pricing is always less than the corresponding Choquet pricing. This property and inequality fails in general when one uses pricing by convex risk measures. Finally, we show that g-expectations are the best way for the pricing options for some continuous models.
Receptor-mediated folate accumulation is regulated by the cellular folate content.

Cultured monkey kidney cells are shown to possess a cell-surface receptor that binds 5-methyltetrahydro[3',5',7,9-3H4]folic acid (5-methyltetrahydro[3H]folic acid) with high affinity (Kd = 3 nM at 4 degrees C). The cell-surface binding capacity for [3H]folic acid or [3H]methotrexate is equivalent to that for 5-methyltetrahydro[3H]folate, but the Kd values are 0.4 and 20 nM, respectively. These nonlabeled folates also inhibit cellular binding and accumulation of 5-methyltetrahydro[3H]folate, whereas specific moieties of folic acid (i.e., p-aminobenzoylglutamic acid, pteroic acid, and glutamic acid) had no effect. Surface-bound folate(s) can be released by incubation of the cells at pH 3.5. At 37 degrees C the bound material is slowly transferred into cells, where it becomes resistant to acid release. Within 4 hr the cells internalize about 3-4 times as much folate as is bound to the surface in the steady state. The amount of receptor activity increases markedly when cells are depleted of folate through growth in folate-depleted medium. Binding of folate was inhibited by an antibody raised against a soluble plasma folate-binding protein, suggesting that the cell-surface receptor and the circulating folate-binding protein are immunologically related. These data indicate that cells possess a high-affinity, high-specificity folate receptor whose expression is regulated by the folate content of the cell. They also suggest that a small molecule such as folate can enter cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis.
Imaging Synaptic Activity in Intact Neurotechnique Brain and Slices with FM1-43 in C. elegans, Lamprey, and Rat

Summary than membranes and efficiently removes FM1-43 from the extracellular space, allowing it to be washed away, The fluorescent probe FM1-43 has been used exten- greatly reducing background staining.sively for imaging vesicle recycling; however, high To demonstrate the utility of the approach, we have nonspecific adsorption resulting in elevated back- shown that it is possible to image synaptic activity in a ground levels has precluded its use in certain tissues, range oforganisms, namely, thenematode C.elegans ,a notably brain slices. We have found that a sulfobuty- powerfulmodelorganismforgeneticanddevelopmental lated derivative of b -cyclodextrin (ADVASEP-7) has a studies that has proved difficult to probe with electro- higher affinity for FM1-43 than the plasma membrane. physiological methods; the lamprey, an organism with ADVASEP-7 was used as a carrier to remove FM1-43 a unique flat spinal cord with particularly large axons; nonspecificallyboundtotheouterleafletoftheplasma and rat brain slices, which have been used extensively
Cognitive-Behaviorally-Oriented Group Rehabilitation of Adults With ADHD

Objective: Recently, novel psychological treatments for adult ADHD have been reported with promising results. However, studies about long-term treatment effects are scanty. The authors study effects of cognitive-behaviorally-oriented group rehabilitation during a 6-month follow-up. Method: Participating in the rehabilitation were 29 adults, of whom 25 were reached 3 and 6 months later. ADHD and other psychiatric symptoms were assessed with self-ratings (Brown ADD Scale for Adults, Symptom Check List—90 [SCL-90], 16 ADHD-related items of SCL-90, Beck Depression Inventory). Participants from the pretreatment period served as their own controls. Results: Participants having improvement in ADHD symptoms during treatment (n = 11) maintained most of the benefit during follow-up. They also had a decrease in other psychiatric symptoms, but this did not fully persist through the follow-up. Of all participants, 72% found their overall situation improved as compared to the pretreatment situation. Conclusion: Results suggest that cognitive-behaviorally-oriented group rehabilitation of ADHD adults might have long-term benefits.
A simplified space vector PWM scheme for any N-level inverter

A simplified space-vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) scheme for any N-level inverter is presented. The method involves the conversion of space vector diagram of NN-level inverter to that of a 2-level inverter. 60° coordinate system is used to represent space vectors instead of using cartesian coordinate system. In 60° coordinate system only integer coordinates are involved. So the computational complexity is reduced. The proposed scheme is experimentally verified for a three level inverter realised by cascading two 2-level inverters.
A new thermal neutron detector for protein crystallography

A new position-sensitive detector is being developed for protein crystallography studies at a spallation source. Based on eight, independent, wire proportional chamber segments housed in a curved pressure vessel, the device covers a scattering angle of 120 degrees, and has a collecting area of 1.5 m by 20 cm. The position resolution will be about 1.3 mm FWHM, with a total counting rate in excess of one million per second. Timing resolution, essential for a spallation source application, is of order 1 /spl mu/s and provides neutron energy determination that is well suited for crystallography. Advanced features of this device include a digital centroid finding scheme, a seamless readout between segments, and a wire array design that minimizes anode modulation. Details of the mechanical design are given, together with digital centroid measurements that illustrate accurate, uniform response.
Sample size calculations for population‐ and family‐based case‐control association studies on marker genotypes

Most previous sample size calculations for case‐control studies to detect genetic associations with disease assumed that the disease gene locus is known, whereas, in fact, markers are used. We calculated sample sizes for unmatched case‐control and sibling case‐control studies to detect an association between a biallelic marker and a disease governed by a putative biallelic disease locus. Required sample sizes increase with increasing discrepancy between the marker and disease allele frequencies, and with less‐than‐maximal linkage disequilibrium between the marker and disease alleles. Qualitatively similar results were found for studies of parent offspring triads based on the transmission disequilibrium test (Abel and Müller‐Myhsok, 1998, Am. J. Hum. Genet. 63:664–667; Tu and Whittemore, 1999, Am. J. Hum. Genet. 64:641–649). We also studied other factors affecting required sample size, including attributable risk for the disease allele, inheritance mechanism, disease prevalence, and for sibling case‐control designs, extragenetic familial aggregation of disease and recombination. The large sample‐size requirements represent a formidable challenge to studies of this type. Genet Epidemiol 25:136–148, 2003. Published 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An extended temperature range UHF RFID front-end in CMOS 350 nm

This paper describes the architecture and the transistor-level implementation of a UHF RFID front-end designed in CMOS 0. 35μm technology with limited analog options to comply with EPC Class1/Generation2 standard. Since power acquisition is critical to RFID tag performance, two rectifier architectures are proposed and their performance is assessed by simulation in extended temperature range. In spite of technology constraints, good performance and low power consumption are obtained by the RFID front-end.
Determination of the MDa , TaC , lactate , and pyruvate levels in liver homogenate

and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php). Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management 2016:12 287–294 Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management Dovepress
Identification of an Emergent Porcine Circovirus-2 in Vaccinated Pigs from a Brazilian Farm during a Postweaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome Outbreak

ABSTRACT Three porcine circovirus-2 strains were isolated from pigs on a Brazilian farm during an outbreak, indicating a vaccine failure. They present identical genomic sequences, with high identities to other isolates that were also related to vaccination failures, supporting the recent theory about an antigen drift being associated with vaccine failures throughout the world.
High-efficiency Cre/loxp based system for construction of adenovirus vectors

In the present invention, viruses, plasmids or both are constructed which contain viral DNA and lox sites positioned such that site-specific recombination between lox sites in separate plasmids results in generation of infectious viral DNA at high-efficiency in cotransfected host cells that have been engineered to express the Cre recombinase. Because of the high-efficiency and specificity of the Cre enzyme, suitably engineered plasmids can be readily recombined to produce infectious virus at high-efficiency in cotransfected 293 cells, without, at the same time, producing wild-type adenovirus, with the attendant problems for removal thereof. Use of recombinases besides Cre and recombinase recognition sites besides lox sites, and use of cells other than 293 cells are also disclosed and enabled, as are kits incorporating the site-specific vector system, as well as compositions and methods for using such compositions as vaccines or in gene therapeutic applications.
Chemotherapeutic Drugs Inhibit Ribosome Biogenesis at Various Levels*

Drugs for cancer therapy belong to different categories of chemical substances. The cellular targets for the therapeutic efficacy are often not unambiguously identified. Here, we describe the process of ribosome biogenesis as a target of a large variety of chemotherapeutic drugs. We determined the inhibitory concentration of 36 chemotherapeutic drugs for transcription and processing of ribosomal RNA by in vivo labeling experiments. Inhibitory drug concentrations were correlated to the loss of nucleolar integrity. The synergism of drugs inhibiting ribosomal RNA synthesis at different levels was studied. Drugs inhibited ribosomal RNA synthesis either at the level of (i) rRNA transcription (e.g. oxaliplatin, doxorubicin, mitoxantrone, methotrexate), (ii) early rRNA processing (e.g. camptothecin, flavopiridol, roscovitine), or (iii) late rRNA processing (e.g. 5-fluorouracil, MG-132, homoharringtonine). Blockage of rRNA transcription or early rRNA processing steps caused nucleolar disintegration, whereas blockage of late rRNA processing steps left the nucleolus intact. Flavopiridol and 5-fluorouracil showed a strong synergism for inhibition of rRNA processing. We conclude that inhibition of ribosome biogenesis by chemotherapeutic drugs potentially may contribute to the efficacy of therapeutic regimens.
Influence de l'angulation de l'implant et du délogement cyclique sur la force de rétention de deux différents attachements pour overdentures: une étude in vitro

Objectif: Evaluation de l’influence de l’angulation des implants sur la retention de deux systemes d’attachement differents en utilisant un test de desinsertion cyclique. Methodes: 5 modeles simulant une situation d’overdenture sur deux implants ont ete fabriques, avec des angulations implantaires differentes (0°, 20°, 30°, 40° et 60°). Chacun des modeles a ete teste avec le systeme de fixation controle (LOCATOR®) ou test (SFI-Anchor®). Les forces de retention ont ete enregistrees apres 10’000 cycles en conditions humides. Resultats: Quelle que soit l’angulation testee, la retention des SFI-Anchor n’etait pas modifiee. De plus, SFI-Anchor augmentait significativement la force de retention des overdentures par rapport a LOCATOR® (20o:p=0,041 ; 30o:p<0,0001 ; 40o:p<0,0001 ; 0o:non-significatif). Conclusions: Cette etude confirme que le comportement de resistance de SFI-Anchor® n’est pas influence par l’inclinaison des implants. Ce systeme est donc particulierement indique en cas d’implants desaxes.
Initialization of 3D pose graph optimization using Lagrangian duality

Pose Graph Optimization (PGO) is the de facto choice to solve the trajectory of an agent in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). The Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) for PGO is a non-convex problem for which no known technique is able to guarantee a globally optimal solution under general conditions. In recent years, Lagrangian duality has proved suitable to provide good, frequently tight relaxations of the hard PGO problem through convex Semidefinite Programming (SDP). In this work, we build from the state-of-the-art Lagrangian relaxation [1] and contribute a complete recovery procedure that, given the (tractable) optimal solution of the relaxation, provides either the optimal MLE solution if the relaxation is tight, or a remarkably good feasible guess if the relaxation is non-tight, which occurs in specially challenging PGO problems (very noisy observations, low graph connectivity, etc.). In the latter case, when used for initialization of local iterative methods, our approach outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches converging to better solutions. We support our claims with extensive experiments.
Identification of Activin A and Follistatin in Human Milk

Activin A is a dimeric protein member of the transforming growth factor- g (TGF- g ) family: it is synthesized by a variety of organs and follistatin is an activin-binding protein. A sensitive and specific assays for bioactive dimeric activin A and follistatin have recently allowed to measure these proteins in blood and other biological fluids, giving a new insights into their possible physiological role. Since human breast is able to produce activin A, the aim of the present study was to evaluate whether it and follistatin are measurable in breast milk of women during lactation. Concentrations of activin A and follistatin were measured in milk samples collected at 3, 5 and 30 days after delivery by using specific and sensitive two-site ELISAs. For the first time the presence of immunoreactive activin A and follistatin in human milk has been shown; no significant different concentration between the third and the fifth day after delivery was found. Furthermore, no difference of activin A and follistatin concentration between the whole and the skim milk or between spontaneous delivery and cesarean section was found. Milk activin A and follistatin concentrations after 1 month of lactation were significantly decreased (P <0.01). Activin A and follistatin are present in human milk in high concentrations in the first week of lactation, while decrease after a month suggesting a possible role as growth factors in human milk.
NBTI Reliability of SiGe and Ge Channel pMOSFETs With $ \hbox{SiO}_{2}/\hbox{HfO}_{2}$ Dielectric Stack

Due to a significantly reduced negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI), (Si)Ge channel pMOSFETs are shown to offer sufficient reliability at ultrathin equivalent oxide thickness. The intrinsically superior NBTI robustness of the MOS system consisting of a Ge-based channel and a SiO2/HfO2 dielectric stack is ascribed to a reduced availability of interface precursor defects and to a significantly reduced interaction of channel carriers with gate dielectric defects due to a favorable energy decoupling. Owing to this effect, a significantly reduced time-dependent variability of nanoscale devices is also observed. The superior reliability is shown to be process and architecture independent by comparing both our results on a variety of Ge-based device families and published data of other groups.
Mechanisms of endothelial P 2 Y 1-and P 2 Y 2-mediated vasodilatation involve differential [ Ca 2 1 ] i responses

Marrelli, Sean P. Mechanisms of endothelial P2Y1and P2Y2-mediated vasodilatation involve differential [Ca]i responses. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 281: H1759–H1766, 2001. —The present study was designed to evaluate the role of endothelial intracellular Ca21 concentration ([Ca]i) in the difference between P2Y1and P2Y2-mediated vasodilatations in cerebral arteries. Rat middle cerebral arteries were cannulated, pressurized, and luminally perfused. The endothelium was selectively loaded with fura 2, a fluorescent Ca21 indicator, for simultaneous measurement of endothelial [Ca]i and diameter. Luminal administration of 2-methylthioadenosine 59triphosphate (2-MeS-ATP), an endothelial P2Y1 agonist, resulted in purely nitric oxide (NO)-dependent dilation and [Ca]i increases up to ;300 nM (resting [Ca]i 5 145 nM). UTP, an endothelial P2Y2 agonist, resulted in dilations that were both endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF)and NO-dependent with [Ca]i increases to . 400 nM. In the presence of NG-nitro-L-arginine-indomethacin to inhibit NO synthase and cyclooxygenase, UTP resulted in an EDHF-dependent dilation alone. The [Ca]i threshold for NO-dependent dilation was 220 vs. 340 nM for EDHF. In summary, the differences in the mechanism of vasodilatation resulting from stimulation of endothelial P2Y1 and P2Y2 purinoceptors result in part from differential [Ca]i responses. Consistent with this finding, these studies also demonstrate a higher [Ca]i threshold for EDHF-dependent responses compared with NO.