Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Properties of Small Heat Shock Protein Hsp25 in MAPK-activated Protein Kinase 2 (MK2)-deficient Cells

Small heat shock proteins (sHsps) exist in dynamic oligomeric complexes and display diverse biological functions ranging from chaperone properties to modulator of apoptosis. So far, the role of stress-dependent phosphorylation of mammalian sHsps for its structure and function has been analyzed by using various phosphorylation site mutants overexpressed in different cell types as well as by non-exclusive inhibitors of the p38 MAPK cascade. Here we investigate the role of phosphorylation of endogenous sHsp in a genetic model lacking the major Hsp25 kinase, the MAP kinase-activated protein kinase MK2. We demonstrate that in MK2-deficient fibroblasts, where no stress-dependent phosphorylation of Hsp25 at Ser86 and no in vitro binding to 14-3-3 was detectable, stress-dependent disaggregation of endogenous Hsp25 complexes is impared and kinetics of arsenite-dependent, H2O2-dependent, and sublethal heat shock-induced insolubilization of Hsp25 is delayed. Similarly, green fluorescent protein-tagged Hsp25 shows retarded subcellular accumulation into stress granules in MK2-deficient cells after arsenite treatment. Decreased insolubilization of Hsp25 in MK2-deficient cells correlates with increased resistance against arsenite, H2O2, and sublethal heat shock treatment and with decreased apoptosis. In contrast, after severe, lethal heat shock MK2-deficient embryonic fibroblasts cells show fast and complete insolubilization of Hsp25 independent of MK2 and no increased stress resistance. Hence, MK2-dependent formation of insoluble stress granules and irreversible cell damage by oxidative stresses and sublethal heat shock correlate and only upon severe, lethal heat shock MK2-independent processes could determine insolubilization of Hsp25 and are more relevant for cellular stress damage.
Planet Formation in the Outer Solar System

This paper reviews coagulation models for planet formation in the Kuiper belt, emphasizing links to recent observations of our and other solar systems. At heliocentric distances of 35–50 AU, single‐annulus and multiannulus planetesimal accretion calculations produce several 1000 km or larger planets and many 50–500 km objects on timescales of 10–30 Myr in a minimum‐mass solar nebula. Planets form more rapidly in more massive nebulae. All models yield two power‐law cumulative size distributions, NC∝r-q with q = 3.0–3.5 for radii r≳10 km and NC∝r-2.5 for radii r≲1 km. These size distributions are consistent with observations of Kuiper belt objects acquired during the past decade. Once large objects form at 35–50 AU, gravitational stirring leads to a collisional cascade where 0.1–10 km objects are ground to dust. The collisional cascade removes 80%–90% of the initial mass in the nebula in ∼1 Gyr. This dust production rate is comparable to rates inferred for α Lyr, β Pic, and other extrasolar debris disk systems.
Comparative Study of Mode Control in Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers With Photonic Crystal and Micropillar Etching

The dependence of spectral, power versus current and small-signal modulation characteristics versus the etch depth in two types of surface-etched vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are experimentally and theoretically investigated. One type has a photonic crystal (PC) fabricated in the top distributed Bragg reflector (DBR), whereas the second type has a micropillar (MP) created by removing the DBR surrounding it. The aim of both fabrication designs is to improve the single-mode high-power output. Theoretical and experimental results are found to be in qualitative agreement. It is shown that mode-selective optical losses, introduced by the etched holes of the PC in the DBR, control the optical modes of the PC-VCSEL. Single-fundamental-mode radiation is observed for deeply etched PC- and MP-VCSELs. In contrast, improved modulation characteristics are found for shallowly etched devices. Higher-order single-mode generation with improved modulation characteristics is demonstrated for PC-VCSELs with an etch depth of 1.54 μm. PC-VCSELs demonstrate higher slope efficiency, lower threshold current, and series resistance compared with MP-VCSELs of the same etching depth.
Monte Carlo docking of oligopeptides to proteins

A new two‐step procedure has been developed for the docking of flexible oligopeptide chains of unkown conformation to static proteins ofknown structure. In the first step positions and conformations are sampled and the association energy, minimized starting from an approximate preselected docking position. The resulting conformations are further optimized in the second step by a Metropolis Monte Carlo minimization, which optimizes each of these structures. The method has been tested on the HIV‐1 aspartic proteinase complex with an inhibitor, whose crystallographic structure is known at 2.3 Å resolution. Furthermore, the application of this method to the docking of the hendecapeptide 58–68 of the influenza A virus matrix protein to the HLA‐A2 molecule produced results which are in agreement with experimental observations in identifying side chains critical for T cell recognition and residues responsible of MHC protein binding. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of Transportation and Delay in Processing on the Stability of Nutritional and Metabolic Biomarkers

The effects of transportation and delay in processing of blood samples on the concentration of biomarkers are significant in epidemiological studies for which specimens are collected from participants at locations other than a designated center or laboratory. These sources of variability in measurement were studied by collecting two sets of blood samples from 51 men between 26 and 50 years of age. The first set was sent immediately to the laboratory for processing. The second set was transported by car for one hour and then returned to the laboratory for processing. Both sets were stored together at -80°C until the end of the study. Several blood constituents were evaluated. Vitamins, liver enzymes, and electrolytes showed no changes in concentration after transport by car for one hour. There were decreases in the concentrations of red and white blood cells, high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, glucose, and creatinine after transportation. The transported total cholesterol, total testosterone, free testosterone, alkaline phosphatase, total bilirubin, and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances increased in concentration. Although transportation and delay in processing of blood samples do not appear to greatly impact relative risk estimates, epidemiologists should be aware of these potential sources of variability in measurement and consider the consequences in their particular study.
Semantic Annotation for Web Services Based on DBpedia

The vast majority of Web services on the Internet lack explicit and sufficient semantic information. As a result, we cannot provide all the relevant services during service discovery, and have difficulty in service composition. In this paper, we propose an automated approach to semantic annotation for Web services based on the DBpedia knowledge base. Through rich, open Linked Data resources, and taking advantage of the DBpedia Ontology, a consistent and cross-domain ontology, and its application DBpedia Spotlight, we can match the appropriate Linked Data concepts to the corresponding parameter concepts of Web services. The annotated Web services contain the same semantic relationships as those within their corresponding Linked Data resources. Moreover, we also present an evaluation framework in accordance with our annotation approach. We performed experiments on two different datasets which incorporate altogether 30743 parameter concepts. An analysis of our experimental results indicates that our methods produce a high annotation rate with great accuracy.
Working memory capacity predicts listwise directed forgetting in adults and children

In listwise directed forgetting, participants are cued to forget previously studied material and to learn new material instead. Such cueing typically leads to forgetting of the first set of material and to memory enhancement of the second. The present study examined the role of working memory capacity in adults' and children's listwise directed forgetting. Working memory capacity was assessed with complex span tasks. In Experiment 1 working memory capacity predicted young adults' directed-forgetting performance, demonstrating a positive relationship between working memory capacity and each of the two directed-forgetting effects. In Experiment 2 we replicated the finding with a sample of first and a sample of fourth-grade children, and additionally showed that working memory capacity can account for age-related increases in directed-forgetting efficiency between the two age groups. Following the view that directed forgetting is mediated by inhibition of the first encoded list, the results support the proposal of a close link between working memory capacity and inhibitory function.
Differential effect of quinpirole and 7‐OH‐DPAT on the spontaneous [3H]‐dopamine efflux from rat striatal synaptosomes

The effect of quinpirole and 7‐OH‐DAPT, two D2‐like agonists, were examined using superfused rat striatal synaptosomes to study the autoregulation of spontaneous [3H]‐dopamine ([3H]‐DA) release. Basal [3H]‐DA efflux was Ca2+‐dependent by ∼45% and was inhibited by cadmium 10 μM by 24%. Quinpirole (1 nM to 3 μM) inhibited spontaneous [3H]‐DA efflux in a concentration‐dependent manner (pEC50 = 7.56 ± 0.07 and Emax = 26 ± 0.09%) and this effect was competitively antagonized by haloperidol (0.3–1 nM) (apparent pA2 = 9.61 ± 0.08). In addition, activation of the D2 DA autoreceptor by quinpirole only modulates the calcium‐dependent component of [3H]‐DA efflux. Low concentrations of a putative‐selective D3 DA agonist, (±)‐7‐OH‐DPAT (0.03–0.1 μM), inhibited spontaneous [3H]‐DA release by 13% (P < 0.05), but higher drug concentrations (≥1 μM) increased basal [3H]‐DA efflux in a concentration‐dependent, nonsaturable, but reversible manner. Haloperidol (1–10 nM) reversed the (±)‐7‐OH‐DPAT‐induced inhibition, but not the increase in [3H]‐DA outflow. The effect of (±)‐7‐OH‐DPAT was mimicked by (+)‐7‐OH‐DPAT. However, another putative D3 DA agonist, PD 128,907 (1 nM to 3 μM), decreased spontaneous tritium efflux (maximal inhibition of 19 ± 3.06% at 3 μM, P < 0.01). The effect of 7‐OH‐DPAT 10 μM was independent of the presence of extracellular Ca2+, since its effect on basal [3H]‐DA outflow was not significantly modified in a 200 nM free‐Ca2+ medium. In addition, the 7‐OH‐DPAT‐induced enhancement of basal [3H]‐DA efflux does not involve depolarization of nerve terminals or the reversal of the DA uptake system, as tetrodotoxin (1 μM) and nomifensine (1μM) did not modify the effect of 7‐OH‐DPAT 10 μM. The present data indicate that activation of D2 DA autoreceptor subtype by quinpirole inhibits Ca2+‐dependent spontaneous [3H]‐DA efflux. 7‐OH‐DPAT activates the D2 DA autoreceptor at low concentrations, whereas its action in releasing [3H]‐DA effect is not receptor‐mediated and could involve other mechanisms other than either conventional vesicular exocytosis or the DA uptake system. Synapse 40:65–73, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
TRUNK MUSCLES’ RESPONSE TO CORE STABILITY EXERCISES IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Materials and Methods: Thirty male patients who had nonspecific chronic low back pain were randomly assigned to either core stability training or dynamic strength training for 8 weeks. Peak torque of trunk flexors and extensors were evaluated using the Biodex Isokinetic System; and endurance time for flexors, extensors, and lateral trunk musculatures were evaluated through McGill’s core endurance tests.
Testing new dairy cattle for disease can boost herd health, cut costs

Dairy producers seldom test or examine incoming cattle, although these important biosecurity practices are recommended. This pilot project examined risk management decisions that producers make when faced with test-positive animals in purchased groups of dairy cattle, in order to provide information on disease risks and conditions that could affect animal health and performance. New arrivals to seven herds at dairy farms in four California counties were examined and tested for a range of conditions. The most common findings were bovine leukosis virus (33% of cattle purchased) and male reproductive abnormalities (16% of bulls purchased). Once testing results were known, producers made a variety of risk management decisions. Although testing costs for some conditions outweigh the benefits of finding an infected animal, an individual producer's decision to test new animals most likely depends on their knowledge of the pros and cons as well as their risk tolerance.
A Comparative Study on the Intention of Using Blockchain Technology in Korea and Vietnam

Blockchain recently has drawn attention in various fields especially financial sector and is expected to play an important role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution as well as to bring fundamental changes. In this study, we investigated Blockchain technology and designed the research model with a setup of five factors (security, availability, reliability, diversity, and economic efficiency). Also, we would like to elucidate the differences in using blockchain technology in Korea and Vietnam. The results of this study will enhance the understanding of blockchain technology, and help organizations adopting the technology do so successfully.
The Retrograde Ventriculosinusal Shunt in an Animal Experimental Model of Hydrocephalus

Currently, hydrocephalus treatment is performed mainly with ventriculoperitoneal shunting. This experimental study aims at assessing whether the experimental model of hydrocephalus in dogs is applicable to the laboratory study of the retrograde ventriculosinusal shunt (RVSS). Four mongrel dogs were assessed. After randomization, the animals were divided into two groups: an experimental group that underwent the induction of hydrocephalus/RVSS and a control group, for the measurement of the mean arterial pressure, intracranial pressure and pressure in the superior sagittal sinus (SSS). The controls presented a mean arterial pressure of 68 mm Hg (71 and 65), an intracranial pressure of 163 mm H2O (149.6 and 176.8) and a pressure at the SSS of 40 mm H2O (40 and 40). The kaolin injection into the cisterna magna at a concentration of 0.3 mg/ml was capable of inducing the clinical and radiological mechanism of hydrocephalus (intracranial pressure = 250 mm H2O, pressure at the SSS = 50 mm H2O). The caliber of the SSS was 2.5 ± 1.0 mm. The fact that the SSS caliber of the dog was the same size as the external diameter of the catheter used resulted in the complete obstruction of the SSS when the catheter was inserted. We believe we could design and perform an experimental model to test the RVSS. It is applicable and feasible. The model of hydrocephalus, the surgical apparatus and the scenario were adequate, but the shunt system needs to be proportionally made to the canine anatomy.
Interrogation of MS/MS search data with an pI Filter algorithm to increase protein identification success

In high‐throughput proteomics, the bottom‐up approach has become a widely used method for the identification of proteins that is based on tryptic peptide MS/MS analysis. Separation methodologies that use IEF of tryptic peptides have recently been introduced and provide an extra dimension of peptide separation. In addition to its great fractionation capability, tryptic peptide prefractionation by IEF can also increase the protein identification success. The pI information of the peptide gained can be successfully used in a post‐database search filtering step. We introduce a filtering algorithm that is based on the comparison of the experimental and theoretical pI's to validate peptide identifications by MS/MS data search engines.
Timing and Frequency Synchronization for Cooperative Relay Networks

This paper deals with timing and frequency synchronization in multi-relay cooperative networks operating with both large and small carrier frequency offset (CFO) over frequency-selective channels. A novel preamble based on constant amplitude zero auto-correlation (CAZAC) sequence is proposed, and a corresponding practical multistage scheme is presented. Joint timing and integral frequency synchronization is involved to resist multi-relay interference (MRI). Then, fractional frequency estimation is carried out, and fine timing estimation completes the synchronization scheme. The performance is evaluated in terms of the mean square error (MSE). Simulation results show that the method is robust under both flat-fading and multipath fading channels, and provides accurate estimation results in the presence of both large and small multiple CFO values.
Influence of retailers’ website system quality factors on online shopping in South Africa†

Online shopping, which has grown significantly over the years, has become a popular form of shopping. To succeed, it is important that online retailers ensure that their shopping websites function well and adhere to all aspects of system quality. The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of website system quality factors on online shopping in South Africa. Convenience sampling was used to gather the responses of 123 consumers who shop online, using self-administered internet-based surveys. The research found that almost half of the respondents (45.5%) shop online at least once a month, and that all system quality factors influence their online shopping. The study further found that shopping websites that provide a safe shopping environment, ensure the authenticity of products or services and have a fast response time were the most important factors influencing respondents. Given the influence of system quality factors on online shopping, the research aimed to provide recommendations on how South African retailers can deal with such factors when developing websites.
Investment Manager Discussions and Stock Returns : a Word Embedding Approach

Background. It has been debated for a long time whether institutional investment managers have superior ability to pick stocks and to time the market. If so, the next question is whether the investment managers deliver their market insights to investors. As more and more investors delegate their portfolios to investment managers in the U.S. financial market, the questions above are critical to understanding the value created by investment professionals. Aim. This paper investigates whether institutional investment managers are capable in predicting market aggregate returns and whether their public discussions contain valuable market information. Data. The stock return data are from the Center for Research in Security Prices database, and the textual data are letters to shareholders extracted from N-CSR(S) files from the Security and Exchange Commission Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval database. The N-CSR(S) files are annual (semi-annual) certified shareholder reports of registered management investment companies. Methods. I quantify textual documents by mapping words and documents into a low dimensional vector space using the continuous bag-of-words (CBOW) neural network model. Then I use the document vectors to predict value-weighted market portfolio returns using elastic-net. Results. The out-of-sample predictions show that the root mean square error can be reduced by about 6.6% when document vectors are included in the prediction model, in comparison to benchmark models including a constant, a momentum factor and a value factor. The in-sample regressions show that when the proportion of risk aversion related words increases by 1%, the expected annual stock return increases by 1-5%, which is both statistically and economically significant. Conclusions. Investment managers have insights to predict market aggregate returns, and they convey valuable information to their investors in the letters to shareholders in their regulatory reports. The CBOW neural network wordembedding model provides an efficient way to retrieve information from textual documents. Textual features that predict stock returns contain information about the degree of risk aversion of investors.
Estimation dans des modèles à variables cachées

Cette these porte sur des problemes d'estimation dans des modeles a variables cachees. Le Chapitre 1 est consacre a l'etude d'un modele de Markov cache ou la chaine de Markov, non-necessairement stationnaire, est supposee a valeurs dans un espace d'etats compact et les observations dans un espace metrique separable complet. La loi de la chaine cachee ainsi que la loi conditionnelle dependent d'un parametre. Nous prouvons que l'estimateur du maximum de vraisemblance du parametre est consistant, asymptotiquement normal et efficace. Le Chapitre 2 porte sur l'etude du modele de convolution. Les observations sont issues d'un signal compose de variables aleatoires i.i. d. de densite inconnue g et d'un bruit blanc Gaussien centre de variance inconnue \sigma. Nous montrons que la non-connaissance de \sigma degrade nettement la vitesse d'estimation de g : dans la plupart des cas ``reguliers'' cette vitesse est toujours plus lente que (log n)^(-1/2). Nous proposons alors un estimateur de \sigma qui est presque minimax lorsque g possede un support inclus dans un compact fixe. Nous construisons egalement un estimateur consistant universel de \sigma (i.e. sans contrainte sur g autre que celle d'identifiabilite du modele). Dans le Chapitre 3, nous considerons ce meme modele de convolution mais lorsque le bruit possede une variance connue (fixee egale a 1) et nous nous interessons aux proprietes d'estimation de fonctionnelles lineaires integrales de de la forme \int f(x)\Phi_1(y-x) g(x)dx ou \Phi_1 designe la densite du bruit et f est une fonction connue. Nous etendons les resultats de Taupin dans le cas ou la fonction f est soit une fonction polynomiale, soit un polynome trigonometrique, en etablissant des minorations du risque quadratique ponctuel et du risque par rapport a la norme infinie, ainsi que des majorations et minorations du risque par rapport a la norme p (1 \geq p <\infty). Nous montrons que l'estimateur propose par Taupin atteint les vitesses optimales dans le cas ou f est un polynome et est presque minimax dans le cas ou f est un polynome trigonometrique, avec une perte pour le risque quadratique et pour le risque en norme infinie.
Initial Characterization of a Nonpixelated Scintillator Detector in a PET Prototype Demonstrator

Previous experimental results have demonstrated that a PET detector module based on a 20times10times10 mm LSO block read out by a Hamamatsu S8550 APD array is able to determine the impinging position of perpendicularly incident 511-keV photons with a resolution better than 2-mm FWHM. A prototype PET demonstrator using two of these detector heads was build and evaluated. The axial and transaxial resolution measured in two-dimensional (2-D) OSEM and 2-D FBP reconstructed images is better than 1.5- and 2-mm FWHM, respectively, for radial distances less than 15 mm. A Monte Carlo simulation showed that a four-ring PET scanner based on these monolithic scintillator blocks has a sensitivity which is about 2.5 times higher than the sensitivity of a similar system equipped with detector heads using a 4times8 matrix of 2times2times10 mm LSO pixels