Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Arf1 and Arf6 promote ventral actin structures formed by acute activation of protein kinase C and Src

Arf proteins regulate membrane traffic and organelle structure. Although Arf6 is known to initiate actin‐based changes in cell surface architecture, Arf1 may also function at the plasma membrane. Here we show that acute activation of protein kinase C (PKC) induced by the phorbol ester PMA led to the formation of motile actin structures on the ventral surface of Beas‐2b cells, a lung bronchial epithelial cell line. Ventral actin structures also formed in PMA‐treated HeLa cells that had elevated levels of Arf activation. For both cell types, formation of the ventral actin structures was enhanced by expression of active forms of either Arf1 or Arf6 and by the expression of guanine nucleotide exchange factors that activate these Arfs. By contrast, formation of these structures was blocked by inhibitors of PKC and Src and required phosphatidylinositol 4, 5‐bisphosphate, Rac, Arf6, and Arf1. Furthermore, expression of ASAP1, an Arf1 GTPase activating protein (GAP) was more effective at inhibiting the ventral actin structures than was ACAP1, an Arf6 GAP. This study adds to the expanding role for Arf1 in the periphery and identifies a requirement for Arf1, a “Golgi Arf,” in the reorganization of the cortical actin cytoskeleton on ventral surfaces, against the substratum. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA
VHF/UHF range bioultrasonic spectroscopy system and method

A new system and method for characterizing biological tissues in vitro and liquids in the VHF and UHF ranges is described. Bulk acoustic properties such as the sound velocity, attenuation, acoustic impedance, and density are determined in reflection and transmission modes, with the biological tissue/liquid specimen sandwiched between the parallel surfaces of synthetic silica glass buffer rods having ZnO piezoelectric film transducers on their opposite ends. The method is an ultrasonic transmission line comparison method wherein the reference medium is distilled water, for which all acoustic properties are known. Measurement errors due to diffraction losses in the acoustic media and to mode conversion at the buffer/sample interfaces are corrected. Special techniques for achieving precise parallelism between the two rod surfaces, for movement to adjust the gap distance, and for signal processing are employed in order to obtain high measurement accuracy. Attenuation and reflection coefficients are determined using the gated pulse echo method. The sound velocity is determined with the gated pulse interference method by sweeping the ultrasonic frequency, or by changing the gap distance. Results of measurements on castor oil, cottonseed oil, silicone oil, and bovine liver, in the frequency range from 10 to 500 MHz, are presented and compared with results of earlier reports.
Rotavirus vaccination and infection induce VP6‐specific IgA responses

Rotavirus (RV) is the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis (GE) in young children, but RVGE has drastically been reduced with the introduction of live oral RV vaccines into childhood immunization program in many countries. Serum IgA antibody is a marker of clinical protection against severe RVGE after RV infection and vaccination. This study investigated VP6‐specificity of anti‐RV IgA antibody levels in Finnish children aged 6–23 months before and after introduction of RotaTeq® into national immunization program. Although RV inner capsid protein VP6 is considered as antigenic target in clinical and seroepidemiological studies, at present VP6 protein is not commonly employed as a primary ELISA‐antigen. Thus, sera from 20 unvaccinated and 19 vaccinated children were examined in ELISA with recombinant VP6 (rVP6) protein, and the VP6‐specific responses were compared to responses observed with human RV Wa and bovine RV WC3 cell culture antigens. Moreover, fecal antibodies were tested with rVP6 and Wa cell culture antigen. Equal levels of serum anti‐RV IgA antibodies were detected by the three antigens. Fecal IgA titers against rVP6 and Wa antigen showed a correlation with the corresponding serum levels. The results suggest that the IgA response measured by virus‐capture ELISA is mainly directed to VP6 protein, supporting the usage of rVP6 in detection of anti‐RV IgA antibodies. Natural RV infections and vaccinations induced similar levels of serum VP6‐specific IgA antibodies. Serum IgA antibodies after RotaTeq® vaccination showed sustained levels up to two years of age in line with long term protection. J. Med. Virol. 89:239–245, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Neoplastic transformation of human breast epithelial cells by estrogens and chemical carcinogens

Sporadic breast cancer, the most common cancer diagnosed in American and Northern European women, is gradually increasing in incidence in most Western countries. Prevention would be the most efficient way of eradicating this disease. This goal, however, cannot be accomplished until the specific agent(s) or mechanisms that initiate the neoplastic process are identified. Experimental studies have demonstrated that mammary cancer is a hormone‐dependent multistep process that can be induced by a variety of compounds and mechanisms, that is, hormones, chemicals, radiation, and viruses, in addition to or in combination with genetic factors. Although estrogens have been shown to play a central role in breast cancer development, their carcinogenicity on human breast epithelial cells (HBECs) has not yet been clearly demonstrated. Breast cancer initiates in the undifferentiated lobules type 1, which are composed of three cell types: highly proliferating cells that are estrogen‐receptor negative (ER−), nonproliferating cells that are ER positive (ER+), and very few (<1%) ER+ cells that proliferate. Interestingly, endogenous 17β‐estradiol (E2) is metabolized by the cytochrome P450 enzyme isoforms CYP1A1 and CYP1B1, which also activate benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), a carcinogen contained in cigarette smoke. We postulate that if estrogens are carcinogenic in HBECs, they should induce the same transformation phenotypes induced by chemical carcinogens and ultimately genomic changes observed in spontaneously developing primary breast cancers. To test this hypothesis we compared the transforming potential of E2 on the HBEC MCF‐10F with that of B[a]P. Both E2 and B[a]P induced anchorage‐independent growth, colony formation in agar methocel, and loss of ductulogenic capacity in collagen gel, all parameters indicative of cell transformation. In addition, the DNA of E2‐transformed cells expressed LOH in chromosome 11 at 11q23.3, 11q24.2–q25, and LOH at 13q12–q13. B[a]P‐induced cell transformation was also associated with LOH at 13q12–q13 and at 17p13.2. The relevance of these findings is highlighted by the observation that E2‐ and B[a]P‐induced genomic alterations in the same loci found in ductal hyperplasia, ductal carcinoma in situ, and invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Environ. Mol. Mutagen. 39:254–263, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Survey of Tick Infestation of Cattle at Four Selected Grazing Sites in the Tropics

Survey of tick infestation of cattle was studied at different communities of Nsukka district, Enugu State, Nigeria from November 2010 to October, 2011. The prevalence of ticks in relation to age, sex, breed, weight, season of the year and different body parts of the host was studied. A total of 139 cattles were examined, of which 123(88.49%) cattle were tick infested. Four species of tick were identified namely Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, Amblyomma variegatum, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus and Amblyomma maculatum. The range of tick burden was 1 - 8 per four square inch of heavily infested area of Nsukka district. Mean tick burden was high in case of R. (B.) microplus (2.93±0.21), followed by A. variegatum (2.01±0.15), R. (B.) annulatus (0.74±0.08) and A. maculatum (0.25±0.04). Prevalence was significantly (p 2.0 years of age (48.94%). Infestation of tick was significantly higher (p 299kg body weight (27.15%). Ticks were widely distributed in different parts of the host body such as armpit, inner thigh, penis, udder, mammary gland, scrotum and vulva, of which inner tigh (26.66%) was most infected, while vulva (10.80%) was the least infected animal body part. It was concluded that R. (B.) microplus is the main tick species identified which was a threat to the cattle population in Nsukka district, irrespective of age, sex, breed of the animal, Season of the year, weight of the animal of the study area.
Glycoprotein H of pseudorabies virus is essential for entry and cell-to-cell spread of the virus

To study the function of the envelope glycoprotein gH of pseudorabies virus, a gH null mutant was constructed. A premature translation termination codon was introduced in the gH gene by linker insertion mutagenesis, and a mutant virus was rescued by using a cell line that expresses the wild-type protein. Mutant virus isolated from complementing cells was unable to form plaques on noncomplementing cells, indicating that gH is essential in the life cycle of the virus. Immunological staining and electron microscopy showed that the mutant virus produced noninfectious progeny and was unable to spread from infected to uninfected cells by cell-cell fusion. Thus, similar to gH of herpes simplex virus, gH of pseudorabies virus is required for entry and cell-to-cell spread.
Short communication: Establishment of a new polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based typing method for genotyping cattle major histocompatibility complex class II DRB3.

Sequence-based typing (SBT) is the most comprehensive method for characterizing major histocompatibility complex (MHC) gene polymorphisms. We report here a new PCR-SBT method for genotyping cattle MHC (BoLA) class II DRB3 using the Assign 400ATF ver. 1.0. 2.41 software (Conexio Genomics, Fremantle, Australia), which detects alleles in a semiautomated manner. We examined 12 sets of PCR reactions for their ability to amplify BoLA-DRB3 exon 2 and selected an optimal primer set, which used ERB3N-HL031 for first-round PCR and ALL-DRB3B for second-round PCR. Next, we constructed a BoLA-DRB3 allele database using the reference sequences of the Assign 400ATF software and successfully assigned heterozygous samples (including those with deletion alleles) using bidirectional sequencing, unlike our previously described method, which used unidirectional sequencing for detecting of deletion alleles. Next, blood samples of 128 Holstein cattle were used to correlate the results of our modified PCR-SBT method with those of our previously described PCR-SBT method. Each new PCR-SBT result corresponded completely with the DRB3 allele that was genotyped by our previously described PCR-SBT method. Moreover, we confirmed the accuracy of our modified PCR-SBT method by genotyping 7 sire cattle and their 22 calves using Japanese Black cattle. This new method will contribute to high-throughput genotyping of BoLA-DRB3 by sequence-based typing.
Region‐specific expression of chicken Sox2 in the developing gut and lung epithelium: Regulation by epithelial‐mesenchymal interactions

In situ analysis of the chicken cSox2 gene, a member of the transcription factor family containing an Sry‐like high‐mobility group (HMG) box, demonstrated localized expression in the embryonic endoderm. Transcripts of cSox2 appeared before commencement of morphogenesis and cytodifferentiation in the rostral gut epithelium from the pharynx to the stomach. The caudal limit of cSox2 expression coincided with that of the region competent for proventricular differentiation and to the rostral limit of the domain of CdxA, a homologue of Drosophila caudal. During morphogenesis, the level of transcripts of cSox2 decreased in epithelia invaginating into surrounding mesenchyme to form glandular or tubular structures, such as the primordia of the thyroid and lung, glandular epithelium of the proventriculus, and secondary bronchus of the lung. Tissue recombination experiments demonstrated that cSox2 expression is regulated by the underlying mesenchyme as well as morphogenesis and cytodifferentiation. The results suggest that cSox2 plays pivotal roles in generating morphologically and physiologically distinct types of epithelial cells in the gut. Dev. Dyn. 1998;213:464–475. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Whose choice is it anyway? Decision making, control and conception

Contemporary societies in the developed world are characterized by the expectation that women wish to and are able to control their experiences of fertility. Changes in medical technology and advances in reproductive medicine have played an important role in strengthening this expectation, together with other changes, such as the availability of free contraception. However, this article draws on data from two qualitiative sociological research projects which demonstrate that women's expectations of reproductive choice and control are not always realized. Women's experiences of fertility are mediated by a dominant discourse which assumes that women both want and will achieve biological motherhood. The data indicate that women actively ‘try’ to achieve conception with the expectation that this is both controllable and easy. In some instances this seems to be the case, but many women soon realize that achieving conception is sometimes problematic or, indeed, impossible. This article concludes by arguing that although women may wish to control their experiences of fertility, their expectations of choice and control are frequently an illusion.
Mutation screening of the peropsin gene, a retinal pigment epithelium specific rhodopsin homolog, in patients with retinitis pigmentosa and allied diseases.

PURPOSE To investigate the peropsin gene (RRH), encoding a retinal pigment epithelium homolog of the rod-expressed opsin (rhodopsin), for the presence of pathogenic mutations causing retinitis pigmentosa (RP) or other retinal degenerations. METHODS All seven exons composing the RRH open reading frame and the immediate intron sequences were analyzed by direct nucleotide sequencing of 613 patients with forms of retinal degeneration. RESULTS One patient with retinitis punctata albescens was a heterozygote with the missense change Cys98Tyr (TGT>TAT, c.293G>A). This change affects the homologous residue that is the target of the rhodopsin mutation Cys110Tyr, a reported cause of dominant RP. Unfortunately, none of the patient's relatives were available for a segregation analysis to determine if this change is unambiguously associated with disease. No definite pathogenic mutation was found in any of the other 612 patients who were evaluated. CONCLUSIONS The Cys98Tyr is a possible cause of retinitis punctata albescens, although this conclusion is tentative because the change was found in only one patient. Our results indicate that the peropsin gene is not a common cause of RP or some related retinal degenerations, at least in the set of patients we analyzed.
Spot measurement of heart rate based on morphology of PhotoPlethysmoGraphic (PPG) signals

Abstract Due to increasing health consciousness among people, it is imperative to have low-cost health care devices to measure the vital parameters like heart rate and arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2). In this paper, an efficient heart rate monitoring algorithm based on the morphology of photoplethysmography (PPG) signals to measure the spot heart rate (HR) and its real-time implementation is proposed. The algorithm does pre-processing and detects the onsets and systolic peaks of the PPG signal to estimate the heart rate of the subject. Since the algorithm is based on the morphology of the signal, it works well when the subject is not moving, which is a typical test case. So, this algorithm is developed mainly to measure the heart rate at on-demand applications. Real-time experimental results indicate the heart rate accuracy of 99.5%, mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 1.65%, mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.18 BPM and reference closeness factor (RCF) of 0.988. The results further show that the average response time of the algorithm to give the spot HR is 6.85 s, so that the users need not wait longer to see their HR. The hardware implementation results show that the algorithm only requires 18 KBytes of total memory and runs at high speed with 0.85 MIPS. So, this algorithm can be targeted to low-cost embedded platforms.
One year of RFI detection and quantification with L1a signals provided by SMOS reference radiometers

The SMOS mission is a European Space Agency project aimed at global monitoring of surface Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity from radiometric L-band observations. This work is concerned with the contamination of the data collected by SMOS by radio frequency interferences (RFI) which degrade the performance of the mission. RFI events are evidenced on both reference radiometers measurements and interferometric ones. It is explained why well-known standard RFI detection methods cannot be used. A specific method for the SMOSmission is presented and illustrated with data acquired with the reference radiometers during the first year of the mission. The aim of this method is not to localize nor to quantify the RFI sources but only to detect, to quantify and possibly to mitigate the corresponding RFI effects in the signals measured by the three reference radiometers.
Excessive Deposition of Fibrin, Platelets and Platelet Thrombi on Vascular Subendothelium During Contraceptive Drug Treatment

Summary We investigated the effect of oral contraceptives on thrombogenesis induced by subendothelium of rabbit aorta (SE), exposed to flowing non-anticoagulated blood in an annular flow chamber. Six healthy women on sequential contraceptive drugs (0.05 mg aethinylestradiol/day, 0.125 mg desogestrel/day) were compared with 6 women without hormonal contraception and 6 men. On contraceptive drug treatment, blood values were significantly increased for fibrinogen (2.6±0.2vsl.9±0.1 g/1) and fibrinopeptide A (3.9 ± 0.9 vs 0.9 ± 0.1 ng/ml), whereas antithrombin III was decreased (81 ± 4 vs 97 ± 6%). Fibrin deposition on vascular subendothelium was more than four-fold increased when measured morphologically (63.4 ± 2.5 vs 14.6 ± 6.8% coverage of SE surface with fibrin) as well as immunologically (29.3 ± 2.2 vs 4.5 ± 1.9 pg fibrin/cm2 of SE). Thrombus volumes were more than two-fold increased in women with contraceptives (9.0 ± 1.4 vs 3.7 ± 1.0 μm3/μm2). Our study shows that during contraceptive drug treatment the exposure of flowing blood to vascular subendothelium leads to excessive deposition of fibrin and platelet thrombi. Measurement of blood interactions with subendothelium might be of predictive value in hypercoagulable states such as contraceptive treatment.
The Effect of Interference Cancellation on Spectrum-Sharing Transmission Capacity

The efficiency of spectrum sharing can be improved by interference suppression and/or cancellation. This paper analyzes the performance of spectrum sharing networks with interference cancellation (IC) based on the spectrum-sharing transmission capacity (S-TC), defined as the number of successful transmissions per unit area while guaranteeing all target outage probabilities of spectrum-sharing systems. The effectiveness of IC can be characterized by the coefficient of cancellation (CoC) and a specific CoC for strong interferer cancellation (S-IC) method is derived. It is verified that the performance of S-IC is affected solely by system parameters of its own system and the S-TC region can increase in various forms depending on CoCs, which should be considered in analysis of spectrum-sharing efficiency.
Sleep electroencephalogram in children with a parental history of alcohol abuse/dependence

We examined the sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) in 9‐ and 10‐year‐old children with (PH+) and without (PH−) a parental history of alcohol abuse/dependence to determine whether sleep disturbances associated with alcohol precede the onset of alcohol use. Participants slept on a fixed sleep schedule that ensured at least a 10‐h time in bed for 1 week before an adaptation and baseline night. Data were collected in a four‐bed sleep research laboratory. Thirty healthy boys and girls aged 9 or 10 years were classified as either PH+ or PH− based on DSM‐IV criteria applied to structured parental interviews. All‐night polysomnography was performed, sleep data were scored visually in 30‐s epochs, and EEG power spectra were calculated for each epoch. All‐night EEG spectra were calculated for rapid eye movement (REM) and non‐REM (NREM) sleep, and cycle‐by‐cycle spectra were calculated for NREM sleep. The two groups did not differ on any sleep stage variable. All‐night analyses revealed normalized power in the delta band and spindle range were lower in PH+ children. Within NREM sleep cycles PH+ children exhibited less normalized power in the delta band and spindle range compared with PH− children. This effect occurred in the first four cycles and was most pronounced in the first sleep cycle of the night. We found no signs of sleep disruption in sleep stages for PH+ children. Sleep EEG spectral differences, however, suggest that certain circuits responsible for ‘protecting’ sleep may be impaired in PH+ children, which may lead to disrupted sleep later in life.
SENSIBle: A Highly Scalable SENsor DeSIgn for Path-Based Age Monitoring in FPGAs

This paper proposes a highly scalable sensor design for late transition detection in FPGA based platforms. Transition delays occur because of aging mechanisms such as Biased Temperature Instability (BTI) and Hot Carrier Injection (HCI). We propose a sensor clock (SCLK) that is a function of minimum slack time of a set of paths selected for age monitoring. There will be one such clock for many sensors as are needed in an entire FPGA. Our proposed sensor architecture makes it possible for a single SCLK to be shared by all sensors. Additionally, the proposed sensor occupies one slice (basic FPGA logic block), which leads to low area, power, and performance overhead. Using Artix-7-based board, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed aging sensor detects aging earlier than existing sensors and provides less power and performance overheads.
Characterization of the bovine herpesvirus 4 major immediate-early transcript

The major immediate-early (IE) RNA of bovine herpesvirus 4 (BHV-4) has been identified and characterized by analyzing cytoplasmic polyadenylated RNA isolated from Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells infected with BHV-4(DN-599) in the presence of cycloheximide. Hybridization of cDNA to Southern blots of viral DNA, Northern (RNA) blot analysis, and S1 nuclease analyses showed that the major BHV-4 IE RNA is a spliced, 1.7-kb RNA, which is transcribed from right to left on the restriction map of the BHV-4 genome from DNA contained in the 8.3-kb HindIII fragment E. The major IE RNA contains three small exons at its 5' end, spliced to a 1.3-kb 3' exon. This RNA is present in much-reduced amounts when cells are infected in the absence of cycloheximide. However, late in infection, the major IE RNA gene region encodes abundant RNAs which differ in structure from the major IE RNA. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the gene encoding the major IE RNA revealed an open reading frame encoding 284 amino acids. A homology search of amino acid sequence data bases showed that a 141-amino-acid region near the amino terminus of the predicted amino acid sequence is similar to sequences near the amino terminus of herpes simplex virus type 1 IE110. This region of homology includes CXXC pairs, which could be involved in zinc finger structures. The region encoding this putative zinc finger domain is also found in RNAs transcribed from this IE region late in infection, but it is spliced to different sequences than those used in IE RNA. Thus, the major IE region of the BHV-4 genome could encode a family of proteins sharing a zinc finger domain.