Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Mechanism and Substrate Specificity of the NADPH:Flavin Oxidoreductase from Escherichia coli(*)

The NAD(P)H:flavin oxidoreductase from Escherichia coli, Fre, is a monomer of 26.2 kDa that catalyzes the reduction of free flavins by NADPH or NADH. Overexpression in E. coli now allows the preparation of large amounts of pure protein. Structural requirements for recognition of flavins as substrates and not as cofactors were studied by steady-state kinetics with a variety of flavin analogs. The entire isoalloxazine ring was found to be the essential part of the flavin molecule for interaction with the polypeptide chain. Methyl groups at C-7 and C-8 of the isoalloxazine ring and the N-3 of riboflavin also play an important role in that interaction, whereas the ribityl chain of the riboflavin is not required for binding to the protein. On the other hand, the presence of the 2′-OH of the ribityl chain stimulates the NADPH-dependent reaction significantly. Moreover, a study of competitive inhibitors for both substrates demonstrated that Fre follows a sequential ordered mechanism in which NADPH binds first followed by riboflavin. Lumichrome, a very good inhibitor of Fre, may be used to inhibit flavin reductase in E. coli growing cells. As a consequence, it can enhance the antiproliferative effect of hydroxyurea, a cell-specific ribonucleotide reductase inactivator.
Improved Direct Power Control of a DFIG-Based Wind Turbine During Network Unbalance

This paper proposes an improved coordinate direct power control (DPC) strategy for the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) and the grid side converter (GSC) of a wind power generation system under unbalanced network conditions. Two improved DPC schemes for the DFIG and the GSC are presented, respectively. The DPC for DFIG is to eliminate the torque and stator reactive power pulsations, while the DPC for GSC is to compensate for the pulsations of stator active power. In order to provide enhanced control performance of the overall system, the resonant controllers tuned at the fundamental and double grid frequency are applied in the improved DPC to eliminate the torque and power pulsations produced by the transient unbalanced grid faults, so that the output power of DFIG and GSC can be directly regulated without any necessity of the positive and negative sequence decomposition. The effectiveness of the proposed DPC strategy is verified by the simulation results of a 2-MW DFIG system under unbalanced grid voltage conditions.
Frequency and Polarization Characteristics of Correlated Photon-Pair Generation Using a Silicon Wire Waveguide

We report the frequency and polarization characteristics of correlated photon pairs generated in a Si wire waveguide (SWW). We confirmed that the bandwidth for correlated photon-pair generation was at least >2.8 THz. Moreover, we carried out a classical four-wave mixing experiment using strong pump and idler lights to estimate the bandwidth for correlated photon-pair generation. The results indicated that it is possible to generate photon pairs over a bandwidth as large as ~12 THz. We also showed that the generation efficiencies of the signal and idler photons for the horizontal polarization mode were much higher than those for the vertical polarization mode. This is probably caused by the large efficiencies in the group indexes and the effective cross-sectional areas for the two polarization modes. Furthermore, the bandwidth for the correlated photon-pair generation in the vertical polarization mode was ~±1 THz, and this was much narrower than that for the horizontal polarization mode. The difference between the bandwidths of the two polarization modes indicates that the SWW dispersion for the vertical polarization mode is significantly larger than that for the horizontal polarization mode. We then confirmed that the noise photons generated by spontaneous Raman scattering in an SWW were suppressed to below the detection limit of our setup.
PARAGON (ANZGOG-0903): a phase 2 study of anastrozole in asymptomatic patients with estrogen and progesterone receptor-positive recurrent ovarian cancer and CA125 progression

Objective A subset of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer (ROC) may benefit from antiestrogen therapy with higher response rates reported in tumors that are strongly estrogen receptor (ER)-positive (ER+). PARAGON is a basket trial that incorporates 7 phase 2 trials investigating the activity of anastrozole in patients with ER+ and/or progesterone receptor (PR)-positive (PR+) recurrent/metastatic gynecological cancers. Methods Postmenopausal women with ER+ and/or PR+ ROC, who were asymptomatic and had cancer antigen 125 (CA125) progression after response to first line chemotherapy, where chemotherapy was not clinically indicated. Patients received anastrozole 1 mg daily until progression or unacceptable toxicity. Results Fifty-four patients were enrolled (52 evaluable). Clinical benefit at three months (primary endpoint) was observed in 18 patients (34.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI]=23%–48%). Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.7 months (95% CI=2.1–3.1). The median duration of clinical benefit was 6.5 months (95% CI=2.8–11.7). Most patients progressed within 6 months of starting anastrozole but 12 (22%) continued treatment for longer than 6 months. Anastrozole was well tolerated. In the exploratory analysis, ER histoscores and the intensity of ER staining did not correlate with clinical benefit rate or PFS. Conclusion A subset of asymptomatic patients with ER+ and/or PR+ ROC and CA125 progression had durable clinical benefit on anastrozole, with acceptable toxicity. Anastrozole may delay symptomatic progression and the time to subsequent chemotherapy. The future challenge is to identify the subset of patients most likely to benefit from an aromatase inhibitor and whether the clinical benefit could be increased by the addition of other agents.
The Human gp39 Promoter

gp39, a cytokine expressed on the surface of activated T cells, is essential for T cell-dependent antibody responses in vivo. We cloned and sequenced 1.2 kilobases of the 5′ flank region of the human gp39 gene promoter and determined its transcription start site. When used in reporter gene assays, this DNA segment conferred promoter activity in response to T cell activation. gp39 promoter function in transfectants was inhibited by cyclosporin A, as is expression of the endogenous gp39 gene in T-lineage cells. At least 0.5 kilobase of the 5′ flank region was required for promoter activity. Two putative binding sites for the NF-AT family of transcriptional activator proteins were identified at −259 to −265 and −62 to −69 with respect to the transcription start site. Both sites contributed significantly and independently to promoter activity in response to T cell activation. Additionally, when incubated in vitro with nuclear protein purified from activated human CD4 T cells, both of these sites preferentially bound the NF-AT family member, NF-ATp. These results suggest that NF-ATp, via binding to at least two cis-elements, is essential for the induction of gp39 gene expression in response to T cell activation.
Effective Candidate Component Extraction for Text Localization in Born-Digital Images by Combining Text Contours and Stroke Interior Regions

Extracting candidate text connected components (CCs) is critical for CC-based text localization. Based on the observation that text strokes in born-digital images mostly have complete contours and the text pixels have high contrast with the adjacent non-text pixels, we propose a method to extract candidate text CCs by combining text contours and stroke interior regions. After segmenting the image into non-smooth and smooth regions based on local contrast, text contour pixels in non-smooth regions are detached from adjacent non-text pixels by local binarization. Then, obvious non-text contours can be removed according to the spatial relationship of text and non-text contours. While smooth regions include stroke interior regions and non-text smooth regions, some non-text smooth regions can be easily removed because they are not surrounded by candidate text contours. At last, candidate text contours and stroke interior regions are combined to generate candidate text CCs. The CCs undergo CC filtering, text line grouping and line classification to give the text localization result. Experimental results on the born-digital dataset of ICDAR2013 robust reading competition demonstrate the efficiency and superiority of the proposed method.
cis Elements That Control the Expression of Chick Aggrecan*

Aggrecan is a large chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan whose expression is both cell-specific and developmentally regulated. Cloning and sequencing of the 1.8-kilobase genomic 5′-flanking sequence of the chick aggrecan gene revealed the presence of potential tissue-specific control elements including a consensus sequence found in the cartilage-associated silencers, CSIIS1 and CSIIS2, that were first characterized in the type II collagen promoter sequences, as well as numerous other cis elements. Transient transfections of chick sternal chondrocytes and fibroblasts with reporter plasmids bearing progressively deleted portions of the chick aggrecan promoter and enhancer region demonstrated cell type-specific promoter activity and identified a 420-base pair region in the genomic 5-flanking region responsible for negative regulation of the aggrecan gene. In this report, three complementary methods, DNase I footprinting assays, transient transfections, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA), provided an integral approach to better understand the regulation of the aggrecan gene. DNase I footprinting revealed that six regions of this genomic sequence bind to nuclear proteins in a tissue-specific manner. Transient transfection of reporter constructs bearing ablations of these protected sequences showed that four of the six protected sequences, which contain the sequence TCCTCC or TCCCCT, had repressor activities in transfected chick chondrocytes. Cross-competition EMSA using nuclear protein extracted from chondrocytes or fibroblasts explored the contributions of the different sequence elements in formation of DNA-protein complexes specific to cell type. This is the first parallel examination of the EMSA patterns for six functionally defined ciselements with highly similar sequences, using protein from primary cultured cells.
Di-tert-butylbis(N-isopropyl-N-methyldithiocarbamato-κ2 S,S′)tin(IV)

The dithiocarbamate anions in the title compound, [Sn(C4H9)2(C5H10NS2)2], chelate to the SnIV atom, which is six-coordinated in a skew-trapezoidal-bipyramidal geometry. The molecule lies across a twofold rotation axis. The crystal studied was a non-merohedral twin, the ratio of the twin components being 0.82 (1):0.18 (1).
A Review of the Causes and Effects of Disparities in Global Financial Performances of Cooperative Societies

Unlike small and medium scale enterprises, there is no doubt that cooperative societies have attracted little attention from both the public and private sectors. This is not the case in industrialized countries such as Denmark, USA, Great Britain, etc; where they have contributed immensely to the GDP of their respective economies. A review by various scholars of the various ways of financing cooperatives in Nigeria reveals that there is no adequate nation-wide financing agency. This study aims among others to review through historical data the operational and policy frameworks of the global and Nigerian cooperatives societies and other dependent cooperatives scattered all over the globe and their emerging trends in sourcing for funds. The methodology used is the content analysis. Historical (secondary data) such as journals, articles, textbooks, newspapers and Internet etc are employed. The paper identified the financing gap existing in cooperative movement in order for them to assume their proper position in the scheme of things in an emerging global economy. This paper recommends that amongst others that the Small and Medium Industries Equity Investment Scheme (An initiative of the Bankers Committee) should be extended to Nigerian Cooperative Societies.
The transcobalamin receptor knockout mouse: a model for vitamin B12 deficiency in the central nervous system

The membrane receptor (TCblR/CD320) for transcobalamin (TC)‐bound cobalamin (Cbl) facilitates the cellular uptake of Cbl. A genetically modified mouse model involving ablation of the CD320 gene was generated to study the effects on cobalamin homeostasis. The nonlethal nature of this knockout and the lack of systemic cobalamin deficiency point to other mechanisms for cellular Cbl uptake in the mouse. However, severe cobalamin depletion in the central nervous system (CNS) after birth (P<0.01) indicates that TCblR is the only receptor responsible for Cbl uptake in the CNS. Metabolic Cbl deficiency in the brain was evident from the increased methylmalonic acid (P < 0.01–0.04), homocysteine (P<0.01), cystathionine (P<0.01), and the decreased S‐adenosylmethionine/S‐adenosyl homocysteine ratio (P<0.01). The CNS pathology of Cbl deficiency seen in humans may not manifest in this mouse model; however, it does provide a model with which to evaluate metabolic pathways and genes affected. —Lai, S. ‐C. , Nakayama, Y. , Sequeira, J. M. , Wlodarczyk, B. J., Cabrera, R. M. , Finnell, R. H. , Bottiglieri, T. , Quadros, E. V. The transcobalamin receptor knockout mouse: a model for vitamin B12 deficiency in the central nervous system. FASEB J. 27, 2468–2475 (2013). www.fasebj. org
Novel Energy-Harvesting AF Relaying Schemes With Channel Estimation Errors

Three novel structures using simultaneous wireless information and power transfer in energy-harvesting (EH) amplify-and-forward relaying are investigated in this paper. Different combinations of time-switching and power-splitting (PS) EH protocols are studied. Three dynamic schemes are proposed as channel estimation PS (CEPS), data transmission PS (DTPS), and combination PS (CPS). From source to relay in these schemes, the data packet includes three parts: channel estimation, data transmission, and EH. From relay to destination in these schemes, the data packet includes two parts: data transmission and channel estimation. Closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio for the three structures are derived. Using these expressions, achievable rate and bit-error-rate are derived. Different parameters are examined. Numerical results show the optimal splitting ratio for the channel estimation, EH, and data transmission, when the packet size is fixed.
Association of baseline C-reactive protein and prior anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy with need for weekly dosing during maintenance therapy with adalimumab in patients with moderate to severe Crohn’s disease

Abstract Objective: A post hoc analysis of data from the adalimumab Crohn’s disease (CD) maintenance trial (CHARM, NCT00077779), examining the relationship between adalimumab dosing and maintenance of remission and response in subgroups stratified by previous anti-TNF use and baseline CRP. Methods: All patients received open-label induction (adalimumab: 80 mg, week [wk] 0; 40 mg, wk 2). At wk 4, all patients were randomized to double-blind maintenance adalimumab (40 mg weekly or every other week [eow]) or placebo for 52 weeks. In this analysis, clinical remission (CDAI <150) and clinical response (CR-100) at wk 26 and wk 56 by baseline CRP (high: ≥10 mg/L, or low: <10 mg/L) and prior anti-TNF use were determined for patients with CR-70 at wk 4. Results: Of 498 patients in this analysis, 260 (52.2%) were anti-TNF-naïve. For anti-TNF-naïve patients, the wk 56 remission rates in the adalimumab groups were significantly greater than placebo (P < 0.05) for both high and low CRP cohorts, with no statistically significant differences between remission rates with eow and weekly dosing within each CRP cohort (high: 52.8% eow, 53.5% weekly; low: 34.7% eow, 41.9% weekly). For anti-TNF-exposed patients, wk 56 remission rates were higher than placebo with both eow and weekly dosing within each cohort; weekly dosing in the high CRP cohort and eow dosing in the low CRP cohort achieved statistical significance (P < 0.05). In the high CRP cohort, remission rate with weekly dosing (46.9%) was statistically significantly greater compared with eow dosing (22.5%). There were no significant differences between eow (23.1%) and weekly (37.0%) dosing in the low CRP group. For all subgroups, clinical remission (wk 26) and clinical response (wk 26 and wk 56) patterns were similar to those observed for wk 56 remission. Conclusions: These subgroup analyses suggest that in patients with moderately to severely active CD, weekly dosing may be most effective in the anti-TNF-experienced patients with elevated CRP at baseline.
Synchronously separating the area and crop condition of mixed pixel using ICA

Independent component analysis (ICA) is a powerful new method that use information contained in higher order cross-moments of multivariate data to find a linear representation of non-Gaussian data, so that the components are statistically independent. As the perpendicular vegetation index (PVI) of mixed pixel can be expressed by the linear summation of the PVI value of components, we can use remotely sensed time series of PVI to retrieve the area proportion and crop condition of components in mixed pixel by ICA. In this paper an ICA based approach is proposed for quantitatively separating the area and crop condition of mixed pixel and solving uncertainty of ICA. Because the area proportion of components is fixed during the growing period, and the sum of area proportion of components in pixel is equal to 1, the uncertainty of ICA, therefore is solved perfectly. The numerical simulation shows the area of soil and wheat and the multi-temporal perpendicular vegetation index of the wheat can be quantitatively retrieved synchronously by ICA. Three components: rape, wheat and soil in mixed pixel can also be separated exactly. Even the difference of crop condition among pixels can be retrieved exactly. The retrieval error of area proportion and PVI value of crop is less than 5 %, when no input error is added. As adding 20% input error, the retrieval error can also be restricted within 10%. In order to make the method in use, we try to inverse the area proportion and crop condition of components in mixed pixels using MODIS reflectivity product. The study area lies in Hebei Province. The main crop in the period is wheat. The area and PVI value calculated by ETM image validated the retrieval result
Numerical Investigation on the X-Ray Production of Aluminum-Wire-Array $Z$-Pinch Implosion

In this paper, the processes and mechanisms of X-ray production are discussed by numerically investigating a typical aluminum-wire-array Z-pinch implosion on the S-300 facility. It is shown that the line emission accounts for over 70% of the total radiation, and the continuum including free-free and free-bound transitions occupies less than 30%. In the line emission, most photons are generated from L-shell transitions which take place everywhere, while high-energy K-shell photons are much fewer and are mainly produced in the interior region, where the electron temperature is relatively high. Corresponding to the variation of plasma conditions in different phases of the implosion, the dominant atomic processes and radiation mechanisms show great difference. In the run-in phase, the ionization and excitation processes dominate with the increase of electron temperature, thus causing a large number of ions in excited states and, in turn, the increase of the line emission. However, the share of the line emission decreases slightly because of the strong self-absorption of lines and much weaker opacity effect on the continuum. At stagnation, the plasma is compressed to the state of high density; three-body recombination plays a key role in determining the populations of ions. Consequently, the populations of some important excited states increase rapidly, resulting in an increase of the share of line emission. After stagnation, the plasma expands, and the electron number density decreases, and the three-body recombination decreases more quickly than the radiation recombination, thus again leading to a gradual decrease in the share of line emission.
A Regime Switching Examination of the Gilt-Equity Yield Ratio

A crucial issue for financial markets valuation is the interrelationship between the balance sheet figures in stock markets and economic conditions. In this framework empirical research has concentrated on the derivation of the aggregate fair values in stock markets through the examination of the equilibrium relationship between bonds, stocks and dividends. In this paper we contribute to the aforementioned literature by examining the issue of the Bond Equity Yield Ratio (BEYR) for UK markets by lifting the restriction of linearity in the long run cointegration relations and the underlying VECM. Specifically we apply the regime switching framework of Gregory and Hansen (1996) for the long-run equilibriums and the one of Krolzig (1997) for the short run, examining the allocation of capital among the UK bond and stock market for the period of 1987:1-2007:1. Our findings confirm the substitution effect among stocks and bonds in the long run and highlight the importance of market conditions for the allocation of capital among stocks and bonds.
Temporal proteome profiling of taxol‐induced mitotic arrest and apoptosis

Taxol (Paclitaxel) is a mitotic inhibitor widely used in cancer therapy. Temporal proteome profiling was performed to study changes of proteins during the different cellular states of HeLa cells caused by exposure to taxol. The changes of proteins over time could be associated with various cellular processes such as mitotic arrest, an intermediate between mitotic arrest and apoptosis, apoptosis, and late apoptosis. Calumenin, stress‐induced phosphoprotein 1 (STIP1), and translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) were assigned to mitotic arrest and selected for further experiments using immunoblotting and subcellular fractionation. Calumenin translocated from membranes to the cytosol during mitotic arrest and late apoptosis, but was significantly reduced in the cytosol during apoptosis. Translocation of STIP1 to the nucleus was observed at apoptosis and to the cytoskeleton at late apoptosis. TCTP increased in the cytosol at mitotic arrest and in membranes at apoptosis. In addition, the quantitative time courses of Bim isoforms revealed differences between BimL and BimS in comparison with BimEL. In summary, temporal proteome profiling of HeLa cells incubated with taxol allowed the assignment of proteins to certain processes and additional experiments with complementary approaches enabled a more comprehensive understanding of spatial changes of selected proteins during mitotic arrest and apoptosis.