Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein misfolding and cardiac disease: Establishing cause and effect

Numerous neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the accumulation of misfolded amyloidogenic proteins. Recent data indicate that a soluble pre-amyloid oligomer (PAO) may be the toxic entity in these diseases and the visible amyloid plaques, rather than causing the disease, may simply mark the terminal pathology. In prior studies, we observed PAO in the cardiomyocytes of many human heart failure samples. To test the hypothesis that cardiomyocyte-restricted expression of a known PAO is sufficient to cause heart failure, transgenic mice were created expressing polyglutamine repeats of 83 (PQ83) or 19 (PQ19). Long PQ repeats (>50) form PAOs and result in neurotoxicity in Huntington’s disease, whereas shorter PQ repeats are benign. PQ83 expression caused the intracellular accumulation of PAOs and aggregates leading to cardiomyocyte death and heart failure. Evidence of increased autophagy and necrosis accompanied the PQ83 cardiomyocyte pathology. The data confirm that protein misfolding resulting in intracellular PAO accumulation is sufficient to cause cardiomyocyte death and heart failure. Addendum to: Pattison JS, Sanbe A, Maloyan A, Osinska H, Klevitsky R, Robbins J. Cardiomyocyte expression of a polyglutamine pre-amyloid oligomer causes heart failure. Circulation 2008 117:2743-51.
Cryptochrome 1 interacts with PIF4 to regulate high temperature-mediated hypocotyl elongation in response to blue light

Significance Blue light and temperature are two key environmental signals that profoundly affect plant growth and development responses, but how these two abiotic factors integrate remains largely unknown. This study demonstrates a mechanism of multiple photoreceptors and temperature coactions. Arabidopsis blue light photoreceptor cryptochrome 1 (CRY1) represses high temperature-induced hypocotyl elongation through PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4). CRY1 physically interacts with PIF4 in a blue light-dependent manner to repress the transcription activity of PIF4. Because PIF4 also plays a role in ambient temperature, PIF4 appears to be the molecular basis of cross-talk among blue and red light and ambient temperature signal pathways. Cryptochrome 1 (CRY1) is a blue light receptor that mediates primarily blue-light inhibition of hypocotyl elongation. Very little is known of the mechanisms by which CRY1 affects growth. Blue light and temperature are two key environmental signals that profoundly affect plant growth and development, but how these two abiotic factors integrate remains largely unknown. Here, we show that blue light represses high temperature-mediated hypocotyl elongation via CRY1. Furthermore, CRY1 interacts directly with PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) in a blue light-dependent manner to repress the transcription activity of PIF4. CRY1 represses auxin biosynthesis in response to elevated temperature through PIF4. Our results indicate that CRY1 signal by modulating PIF4 activity, and that multiple plant photoreceptors [CRY1 and PHYTOCHROME B (PHYB)] and ambient temperature can mediate morphological responses through the same signaling component—PIF4.
Observation of Apoptosis and Bone Lamella Structures in the Human Mastoid

Hypothesis To investigate the localization of apoptotic cells and the lamellar bone structure in mastoid bone tissue, focusing on the mechanism of the development of mastoid pneumatization in humans. Background The biological mechanism of poor development of the mastoid air cells found in patients with otitis media (OM) has not yet been fully clarified, as there have been few immunohistochemical research studies to examine the cell biology involved. Methods We evaluated the localization of apoptotic cells and the lamellar bone structure in 112 human mastoid bones harvested during various ear surgeries from 57 patients with OM and 55 patients without OM. We used the TdT-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) method and a polarizing microscope for observing the apoptotic cells and lamellar bone structure, respectively. Results The TUNEL-positive cell ratio in an arbitrary 500 cells in the specimen (apoptotic index: AI) was 13.8 in the healthy group and 1.2 in the OM group (Mann-Whitney U test, p < 0.001). From their localization, these apoptotic cells were considered to be osteocytes. The observation of lamellar structures revealed many eroded surfaces in the circumference of the appositional bone in the healthy group. In contrast, apposition of bone without an eroded surface was evident in the bone circumference in the OM group. Conclusion Apoptosis of osteocytes was significantly suppressed in the mastoid bone of the OM patients. Apoptotic osteocytes may be one of the signals of bone resorption in the process of development of the mastoid air cells. The lamellar structure of the mastoid bone suggested that poor development of the mastoid air cells was caused by decreased resorption of the appositional bone.
The first clinical application of planning software for laparoscopic microwave thermosphere ablation of malignant liver tumours.

BACKGROUND Liver tumour ablation is an operator-dependent procedure. The determination of the optimum needle trajectory and correct ablation parameters could be challenging. The aim of this study was to report the utility of a new, procedure planning software for microwave ablation (MWA) of liver tumours. METHODS This was a feasibility study in a pilot group of five patients with nine metastatic liver tumours who underwent laparoscopic MWA. Pre-operatively, parameters predicting the desired ablation zones were calculated for each tumour. Intra-operatively, this planning strategy was followed for both antenna placement and energy application. Post-operative 2-week computed tomography (CT) scans were performed to evaluate complete tumour destruction. RESULTS The patients had an average of two tumours (range 1-4), measuring 1.9 ± 0.4 cm (range 0.9-4.4 cm). The ablation time was 7.1 ± 1.3 min (range 2.5-10 min) at 100W. There were no complications or mortality. The patients were discharged home on post-operative day (POD) 1. At 2-week CT scans, there were no residual tumours, with a complete ablation demonstrated in all lesions. CONCLUSIONS This study describes and validates pre-treatment planning software for MWA of liver tumours. This software was found useful to determine precisely the ablation parameters and needle placement to create a predicted zone of ablation.
3D body scans retrieval based on intersection views

Nowadays, the methods and tools of the 3D technology and human body modeling are developed rapidly, learning and analyzing 3D body scans will accelerate the development of 3D modeling. In this research, a novel algorithm using intersection views is proposed for retrieving 3D body scans. An Asian Female Body Scan (AFBS) database is established by analyzing various 3D body scan data at first, and then, intersection views are extracted for each 3D body scan, and the Fourier and Wavelet features of the intersection views are extracted for description the 3D body scans. Experiment simulation results proved that the presented algorithm could achieve better retrieval performance than other descriptors used for retrieving 3D body scans.
Structure and evolution of global cluster networks: evidence from the aerospace industry

We use a new panel dataset to study the network of formal firm linkages within and across 52 aerospace clusters in North America and Europe. Our theoretical framework, built upon the knowledge-based cluster and global value chains literature, suggests that a reduction in spatial transaction costs has induced clusters to specialize in increasingly fine-grained value chain stages. This should cause the overall network to evolve from a geographically localized structure to a trans-local hierarchical structure that is stratified along value chain stages. Applying community structure detection techniques and organizing sub-networks by linkage type, we find empirical evidence in support of this proposition.
A theoretical investigation of the development of physical activity habits in retirement.

OBJECTIVES This study examined the impact of retirement on physical activity (PA) patterns. More specifically, the process of initiating and maintaining behaviour changes in PA were explored using a self-determination theory perspective. DESIGN Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the formation of lifestyle habits post-retirement, and the role of PA within these. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis and an informal comparison made between physically active and inactive retired adults. METHODS A total of 11 participants (7 female, 4 male; 6 physically active, 5 physically inactive) were recruited from churches and a local newspaper advertisement in South West England. On average, participants (M age=62.91 years; SD=2.3) had been retired 2 years and 8 months (SD=20.03). RESULTS Three main themes emerged from the interviews specific to retired adults; social factors, lifelong tendencies, and sense of purpose. All retired adults searched for purpose in their lives, and for physically active adults having an exercise schedule contributed to this on a daily basis. PA also represented a source of personal challenge, whereas physically inactive retirees sought meaning and challenge from non-exercise domains. All participants were acutely aware of their mortality, but active participants felt that PA would increase their chances of enjoying a healthy retirement, rather than accepting a decline in physical function. CONCLUSIONS The results highlighted how global aspirations for life after retirement can influence one's post-retirement lifestyle. The implications for future research and potential health promotion approaches are discussed.
Sustainable and Low Carbon Practices at Schools in Iskandar Malaysia

In Malaysia, environmental education is not taught as a specific subject in the formal school curriculum; rather its general principles are embedded across the whole of the curriculum. Hence, informal education plays an important role in raising low carbon awareness. Schools in Malaysia organise various green projects but often these best practices were not shared nor recognised. This paper discusses the organising of a sustainable and low carbon schools exhibition. The objective of the exhibition is three-fold. First, from the research point of view, to understand green activities conducted at schools in Iskandar Malaysia; second to give recognition to schools that contributed to sustainable and low carbon Johor and third, to provide a platform for schools to showcase their effort and an opportunity to build network among them. This school exhibition was conducted for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016), inviting all primary and secondary schools to showcase their school effort in promoting sustainable and low carbon practices. For both years, 21 and 23 schools were accepted respectively into the exhibition after sending in their school profiles for preliminary screening. The profiles detailed the activities organised and participated by teachers, students and community around their school area. During the exhibition, each school presented one poster detailing their effort, followed by an oral presentation to a panel of judges. A group interview were conducted after the exhibition among committee members accompanying judges assessing school projects. Drawing data from these three sources (the school profiles, posters and group interview), several main themes of programmes emerged including 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), Reducing CO2, Indirect Programmes and Low Carbon Education Programme. Some of these activities are able to generate income to sustain the activities themselves or support other school projects.
Self-Association of Antithrombin III Relates to Multimer Formation of Thrombin-Antithrombin III Complexes

Summary During the reaction of antithrombin III (AT III) with target proteases the inhibitor serves as pseudo-substrate and undergoes profound conformational changes, becomes incorporated into a covalent stoichiometric enzyme-inhibitor complex which is, in contrast to native AT III, recognized by monoclonal antibody 4C9. In the absence of the target enzyme thrombin, incubation of AT III with 1–2 M guanidine, 0.6% deoxycholate, heating to 56° C, or buffer at pH 4 resulted in inactivation of the inhibitor with concomitant exposure of the epitope for 4C9 and formation of AT III multimers (from 3.9S to 7.1–7.4 S). Loss of activity, formation of multimers and exposure of neoepitope(s) of AT III occurred in a concerted fashion and followed second order kinetics with an activation energy of E a = 31 kcal/mol. AT III-multimerization induced by treatment with 1 M guanidine (mainly AT III-tetramers with M r of 250,000) and formation of the binary AT III-thrombin complex revealed similar self-association patterns as judged by gel electrophoresis under non-denaturing conditions. In the presence of heparin, even higher multimers of AT III-thrombin complexes were noted. Moreover, self-association products of the ternary vitronectin-thrombin-AT III complex, which is the ultimate reaction product following thrombin inhibition in the circulation, could be recognized and quantitated due to exposure of the 4C9 epitope on AT III, indicating that AT III exists in multimeric forms within binary and ternary complexes. It is proposed that the ability of these complexes to form high M r association products is at least in part mediated by the propensity of AT III to multimerize and that multimeric forms of AT III may be involved during clearance of AT III-enzyme complexes.
Cerebral blood flow changes during rat cardiopulmonary bypass and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest model: A preliminary study

Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) are important techniques often used in complex cardiac surgery for neonates and infants heart diseases. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) serves as an important physiological parameter and provides valuable hemodynamic information during the surgery. Laser speckle imaging (LSI), as an optical imaging technique, can provide full-field CBF information with a high spatiotemporal resolution. In this preliminary study, we acquired the real-time CBF images with a self-developed miniaturized head-mounted LSI system during the whole CPBillHCA rat model. Relative CBF velocity in veins and arteries in bilateral hemispheres dropped significantly during cooling period and reached to nearly zero during arrest period (n = 5). More interestingly, two rats showing more dramatic CBF variations in veins than in arteries during cooling period exhibited severe cerebral edema after surgery. The real-time full-field CBF imaging during the CPBillHCA surgery could add more insights into the operation and be utilized to study the surgical protocols with the ultimate goal ofreducing neurologic injury after surgery.
Quantification in Enzyme‐Linked Immunosorbent Assay of a C3 Neoepitope Expressed on Activated Human Complement Factor C3

A sensitive double antibody enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantification of C3 activation products in human plasma, synovial fluid, and cerebrospinal fluid is described. The monoclonal antibody MoAb bH6, which is specific for a C3 neoepitope expressed on C3b, iC3b, and C3c, was used as capture antibody. Detection antibody was a polyclonal rabbit anti‐human C3c followed by development with a peroxidase‐conjugated anti‐rabbit Ig antiserum. The activity in normal human EDTA plasma was 1.5% of that in zymosan‐activated serum (ZAS). The interassay and intra‐assay coefficients of variation were 15% and 3%, respectively. The lower detection limit was 0.00035% of the ZAS standard. Reference range (1.1–2.1% of ZAS) was obtained by measuring EDTA plasma from 40 healthy blood donors. A positive correlation r3=+0.92; P<0.0002) was found between the present assay and an already established C3′g'activation ELISA, when samples from 16 patients were examined in both assays simultaneously. The present assay and an assay detecting the terminal complement complex showed virtually identical activation patterns in consecutively drawn samples from a patient undergoing extracorporal circulation.
Transcriptional control of the invariant chain gene involves promoter and enhancer elements common to and distinct from major histocompatibility complex class II genes

The invariant chain (Ii) is a glycoprotein coexpressed with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II antigens. Although Ii is encoded by a single gene unlinked to the MHC gene complex, Ii and MHC class II appear to have similar patterns of tissue specific expression and generally are coordinately regulated by cytokines. Here we present evidence that transcription of the murine Ii gene is controlled by multiple cis-acting elements. The 5' regulatory region of the Ii gene appears to be combined of conserved class II regulatory elements with promoter elements commonly found in other eucaryotic genes. A region containing characteristic class II promoter elements (H box, X box, and a modified Y box) serves as an upstream enhancer in the Ii gene and might contribute to the coexpression of MHC class II and Ii genes. A series of positive control elements, the kappa B element, Sp1-binding site, and CCAAT box, are present in the Ii promoter and apparently serve distinct regulatory functions. The kappa B site in the Ii gene is a cell type-specific element, contributing to expression in a B-cell line but not in a fibroblast cell line, and the Sp1 site is required by the H-X-Y' enhancer element to stimulate promoter activity. In addition, an Ii enhancer in the first intron that specifically stimulates its own promoter has been identified. Our results suggest that a sequence match between enhancers and certain promoter elements is critical.
Involvement of Auxin and Brassinosteroid in the Regulation of Petiole Elongation under the Shade1[W]

Plants grown under a canopy recognize changes in light quality and modify their growth patterns; this modification is known as shade avoidance syndrome. In leaves, leaf blade expansion is suppressed, whereas petiole elongation is promoted under the shade. However, the mechanisms that control these responses are largely unclear. Here, we demonstrate that both auxin and brassinosteroid (BR) are required for the normal leaf responses to shade in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). The microarray analysis of leaf blades and petioles treated with end-of-day far-red light (EODFR) revealed that almost half of the genes induced by the treatment in both parts were previously identified as auxin-responsive genes. Likewise, BR-responsive genes were overrepresented in the EODFR-induced genes. Hence, the auxin and BR responses were elevated by EODFR treatment in both leaf blades and petioles, although opposing growth responses were observed in these two parts. The analysis of the auxin-deficient doc1/big mutant and the BR-deficient rot3/cyp90c1 mutant further indicates that auxin and BR were equally required for the normal petiole elongation response to the shade stimulus. In addition, the spotlight irradiation experiment revealed that phytochrome in leaf blades but not that in petioles regulated petiole elongation, which was probably mediated through regulation of the auxin/BR responses in petioles. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that auxin and BR cooperatively promote petiole elongation in response to the shade stimulus under the control of phytochrome in the leaf blade.
Real Estate Returns by Strategy: Have Value‐Added and Opportunistic Funds Pulled Their Weight?

Real estate strategies broadly fall into three categories: core, value‐added and opportunistic. This empirical examination of net returns from these three strategies indicates that, on a risk‐adjusted basis, the value‐added funds have strongly underperformed and the returns from opportunistic funds have weakly underperformed the returns available from core funds. In so concluding, this article departs from standard asset‐pricing models in two important respects: the total risk is used and the cost of borrowing increases as leverage increases. While the first departure has no substantive effect, the second departure lowers the estimate of the underperformance of noncore funds.
Rasch analysis of the International Wellbeing Index in older adults

ABSTRACT Background: The International Wellbeing Index is a measure of general quality of life formed by two scales: the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the National Wellbeing Index (NWI). This paper studies the psychometric properties of the PWI and NWI, using Rasch analysis and classic psychometric methods. Methods: The PWI and NWI were applied to a representative sample of 1106 community-dwelling adults, aged 60 years and over, residing in Spain. Mean ± standard deviation age was 72.07 ± 7.83 years and 56.3% were women. Results: Five PWI items (achieving in life, relationships, safety, community connectedness, and future security), and five NWI items (economic situation, state of environment, social conditions, business, and national security of the country) fitted the Rasch model. After adjusting the response scale format, satisfactory fit was obtained, with good reliability (person separation index of 0.91 for both the PSI and NWI), local independency of items, and strict unidimensionality. The measures showed adequate external construct validity with related measures. Conclusions: The PWI and the NWI, with fewer items and simpler response scale formats, provided valid and reliable linear measures in older adults, according to Rasch and classic psychometric analyses.
Multiobjective optimization of preventive maintenance schedule on traction power system in high-speed railway

5000kM high-speed railway with 350km/h speed will be constructed in China in the next five years. Traction substations convert the high voltage electricity from the public power system to 25kV single phase electricity, which are implemented to support the high-speed locomotives through the catenary system. These substations and the catenary system form the Traction Power Supply System (TPSS). Researches show that the reliability of TPSS is mainly dependent upon the catenary system [2] which is essentially a multi-component mechanical system. Three types of maintenance actions have been categorized: (1a)-maintenance (mechanical service), (1b)-maintenance (repair) and (2p)-maintenance (replacement).
Abnormal Stock Returns Using Supply Chain Momentum and Operational Financials

Knowledge about a company’s supply chain provides an edge for investors. In this article, the authors propose a new trading approach in which a company’s stock is purchased only if its main customer’s quarterly sales evolve favorably. This method yields backtested annual returns in excess of 8.7% to the market return, net of real world transaction costs for a stock portfolio built on supply chain considerations. This portfolio is practically uncorrelated with the market, and the abnormal return is robust for risk adjustment. The method is applicable at least to U.S.-listed small- and mid-cap product-manufacturing companies with a strong dependency on their main customer company. According to the authors, a review of past publications could not identify research applying a similar method, thereby confirming the novelty of this fundamental facts-based approach.