Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Involvement of Global Genome Repair, Transcription Coupled Repair, and Chromatin Remodeling in UV DNA Damage Response Changes during Development

Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER), which removes a variety of helix-distorting lesions from DNA, is initiated by two distinct DNA damage-sensing mechanisms. Transcription Coupled Repair (TCR) removes damage from the active strand of transcribed genes and depends on the SWI/SNF family protein CSB. Global Genome Repair (GGR) removes damage present elsewhere in the genome and depends on damage recognition by the XPC/RAD23/Centrin2 complex. Currently, it is not well understood to what extent both pathways contribute to genome maintenance and cell survival in a developing organism exposed to UV light. Here, we show that eukaryotic NER, initiated by two distinct subpathways, is well conserved in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In C. elegans, involvement of TCR and GGR in the UV-induced DNA damage response changes during development. In germ cells and early embryos, we find that GGR is the major pathway contributing to normal development and survival after UV irradiation, whereas in later developmental stages TCR is predominantly engaged. Furthermore, we identify four ISWI/Cohesin and four SWI/SNF family chromatin remodeling factors that are implicated in the UV damage response in a developmental stage dependent manner. These in vivo studies strongly suggest that involvement of different repair pathways and chromatin remodeling proteins in UV-induced DNA repair depends on developmental stage of cells.
Relationship between leadership styles, emotional intelligence and organisational commitment in small and medium-sized enterprises

The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between leadership styles, emotional intelligence and organisational commitment in medium-sized manufacturing enterprises located in Selangor. A total of 408 employees comprising of executives and non-executives participated in this research. The employees were given a set of questionnaires which comprised of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ – 5X) by Avolio and Bass (2004), Genos Emotional Intelligence Questionnaires by Palmer and Stough (2006), Organisational Commitment questionnaires by Meyer and Allen (1997) and demographic questionnaires. Out of 408 questionnaires received from the respondents only 373 were usable for this study. The collected data were analysed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis were carried out to analyse the data. This study found that there were significant positive relationships between i) transformational leadership and organisational commitment, ii) transactional leadership and organisational commitment, iii) transformational leadership and emotional intelligence, iv) transactional leadership and emotional intelligence and v) emotional intelligence and organisational commitment. In this study, the findings showed that emotional intelligence partially mediated the relationship between leadership styles and organisational commitment. The test using Baron and Kenny (1986) showed that emotional intelligence only partially mediated the relationship between leadership styles and organisational commitment. The findings can be generalised as follows i) transformational and transactional leadership styles were the dominant form of leadership styles displayed by the managers of medium-sized enterprises ii) emotional intelligence of managers do have an effect on the organisational commitment of the employees iii) leadership styles of managers do determine the organisational commitment of employees. The findings showed that managers need to transcend their leadership style from transactional leadership to transformational leadership in order to enhance the commitment level of employees from moderate to high level. In ensuring that mediumsized enterprises continue to contribute to national economy, the human resource department should emphasize on developing and conducting appropriate training on leadership and emotional intelligence of the managers. This study also provides an opportunity to expand the research to other industries within SMEs such as services, constructions, agriculture and telecommunications
Causes of lifetime fitness of Darwin's finches in a fluctuating environment

The genetic basis of variation in fitness of many organisms has been studied in the laboratory, but relatively little is known of fitness variation in natural environments or its causes. Lifetime fitness (recruitment) may be determined solely by producing many offspring, modified by stochastic effects on their subsequent survival up to the point of breeding, or by an additional contribution made by the high quality of the offspring owing to nonrandom mate choice. To investigate the determinants of lifetime fitness, we measured offspring production, longevity, and lifetime number of mates in four cohorts of two long-lived species of socially monogamous Darwin's finch species, Geospiza fortis and G. scandens, on the equatorial Galápagos Island of Daphne Major. Regression analysis showed that the lifetime production of fledglings was predicted by lifetime number of clutches and that recruitment was predicted by lifetime number of fledglings and longevity. There was little support for a hypothesis of selective mating by females. The offspring sired by extrapair mates were no more fit in terms of recruitment than were half-sibs sired by social mates. These findings provide insight into the evolution of life history strategies of tropical birds. Darwin's finches deviate from the standard tropical pattern of a slow pace of life by combining tropical (long lifespan) and temperate (large clutch size) characteristics. Our study of fitness shows why this is so in terms of selective pressures (fledgling production and adult longevity) and ecological opportunities (pulsed food supply and relatively low predation).
Improving Performance in Replicated Databases through Relaxed Coherency

Applications in finance and telecommunications (intelligent network, network management, mobile computing) cause renewed interest in distributed and replicated data management. Since synchronous update of replicated data is experienced to degrade distributed systems performance substantially, relaxing the requirement of coherency (mutual consistency) has become a favorable approach to achieve high performance in replicated databases. In this paper we present formal concepts for specifying relaxed coherency which allows to calculate an independent measure of relaxation, called + coherency index. We incorporate this metric into a detailed analytical queueing model which emphasizes on the quality of replication to evaluate the impact of relaxed coherency on the performance of replicated databases. The model considers response time, throughput, scalability and network traffic as performance criteria. As it turns out, performance improvements through relaxed coherency depend significantly on various system parameters. We closely examine the trade off between consistency and performance, and show that in many situations a slight relaxation of coherency can increase performance remarkably. Finally, we verify these results by benchmarking an implementation of relaxed coherency.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa pyocyanin and 1-hydroxyphenazine inhibit fungal growth.

AIM: To examine strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa for specific antifungal factors. METHODS: Two clinical strains of P aeruginosa with strong in vitro inhibition (by cross streak assay) of Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus were examined. Both strains were isolated from sputum--one from a patient with cystic fibrosis and one from a patient with bronchiectasis. Bacterial extracts were fractionated by high performance liquid chromatography and examined by ultraviolet absorbance and mass spectroscopy. Antifungal activity against C albicans and A fumigatus was determined in a well plate assay. RESULTS: Pyocyanin was the major antifungal agent of P aeruginosa; 1-hydroxy-phenazine also possessed activity. Pyocyanin MICs for C albicans and A fumigatus were > 64 micrograms/ml. These phenazines were active against nine other yeast species pathogenic for man. Preliminary experiments also suggested possible inhibition of yeast mycelial transformation in C albicans by pyocyanin. CONCLUSIONS: There may be a role for pyocyanin and 1-hydroxyphenazine in the prevention of pulmonary candidiasis in patients colonised by P aeruginosa.
Computer-Aided Synthesis of Mixed Cascaded Quadruplet and Trisection (CQT) Filters

Mixed cascaded quadruplet and trisection (CQT) coupled-resonator structures are proposed for the design of high-performance RF/microwave filters. Computer-aided synthesis of this type of filter is described. Examples of the design of practical selective/linear-phase filters with asymmetric or symmetric responses are presented.
Collaborative Resource Planning with Distributed Agents

We study collaborative resource planning that arises when resource managers must coordinate their planning with internal or external customers. We envision a setting where geographically dispersed decision makers (agents) coordinate their resource planning using asynchronous, web-enabled mechanisms. We propose the design of such a mechanism where resource allocation is communicated in the form of schedules over which each agent involved has different preferences and financial incentives. Specifically, we design a “schedule selection game” where all participating agents state their preferences via a valuation scheme, and the mechanism selects a final schedule based on the collective input. We address the issue of incentive compatibility, recognizing that independent agents may not reveal their private information truthfully, and they may not behave in a way that is aligned with the overall system efficiency. Based on the principles of Vickrey-Groves-Clarke, we show that the proposed webbased mechanism is a direct revelation mechanism that implements the optimal resource allocation under agents’ dominant strategies. We analyze main properties of the mechanism such as budget balancedness and individual rationality. We illustrate the operation of the mechanism using a realworld example in coordinating electronics component manufacturing.
Personal Cloud Storage Benchmarks and Comparison

The large amount of space offered by personal cloud storage services (e.g., Dropbox and OneDrive), together with the possibility of synchronizing devices seamlessly, keep attracting customers to the cloud. Despite the high public interest, little information about system design and actual implications on performance is available when selecting a cloud storage service. Systematic benchmarks to assist in comparing services and understanding the effects of design choices are still lacking. This paper proposes a methodology to understand and benchmark personal cloud storage services. Our methodology unveils their architecture and capabilities. Moreover, by means of repeatable and customizable tests, it allows the measurement of performance metrics under different workloads. The effectiveness of the methodology is shown in a case study in which 11 services are compared under the same conditions. Our case study reveals interesting differences in design choices. Their implications are assessed in a series of benchmarks. Results show no clear winner, with all services having potential for improving performance. In some scenarios, the synchronization of the same files can take 20 times longer. In other cases, we observe a wastage of twice as much network capacity, questioning the design of some services. Our methodology and results are thus useful both as benchmarks and as guidelines for system design.
On the use of color appearance modeling for efficient compressed-domain image enhancement

In this paper we propose a compressed-domain image enhancement algorithm based on color appearance modeling. We aim at providing an efficient high-quality JPEG color image enhancement algorithm, in terms of color boosting and low computational cost. For that purpose, the high-performance recently proposed iCAM06 model has been adopted, where a wide range of color appearance phenomena are predicted in an efficient manner. In order to reduce the computational complexity, a pseudo-pixel extraction algorithm is applied to the four low-frequency DCT coefficients of each block, resulting in a scaled RGB version of the input image (directly in the DCT domain), where the iCAM06 model is then applied. To cope with the problem of inadequate information of small-sized images, as only 6.25% of the DCT coefficients are used, a 2-fold upsampling is performed at a preprocessing stage. The proposed algorithm outperforms relevant methods, as it is validated by the comparative results.
Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Model of Amphotericin B Disposition in Rats Following Administration of Deoxycholate Formulation (Fungizone®): Pooled Analysis of Published Data

The time course of tissue distribution of amphotericin B (AmB) has not been sufficiently characterized despite its therapeutic importance and an apparent disconnect between plasma pharmacokinetics and clinical outcomes. The goals of this work were to develop and evaluate a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model to characterize the disposition properties of AmB administered as deoxycholate formulation in healthy rats and to examine the utility of the PBPK model for interspecies scaling of AmB pharmacokinetics. AmB plasma and tissue concentration–time data, following single and multiple intravenous administration of Fungizone® to rats, from several publications were combined for construction of the model. Physiological parameters were fixed to literature values. Various structural models for single organs were evaluated, and the whole-body PBPK model included liver, spleen, kidney, lung, heart, gastrointestinal tract, plasma, and remainder compartments. The final model resulted in a good simultaneous description of both single and multiple dose data sets. Incorporation of three subcompartments for spleen and kidney tissues was required for capturing a prolonged half-life in these organs. The predictive performance of the final PBPK model was assessed by evaluating its utility in predicting pharmacokinetics of AmB in mice and humans. Clearance and permeability–surface area terms were scaled with body weight. The model demonstrated good predictions of plasma AmB concentration–time profiles for both species. This modeling framework represents an important basis that may be further utilized for characterization of formulation- and disease-related factors in AmB pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Generalist genes and the Internet generation: etiology of learning abilities by web testing at age 10

A key translational issue for neuroscience is to understand how genes affect individual differences in brain function. Although it is reasonable to suppose that genetic effects on specific learning abilities, such as reading and mathematics, as well as general cognitive ability (g), will overlap very little, the counterintuitive finding emerging from multivariate genetic studies is that the same genes affect these diverse learning abilities: a Generalist Genes hypothesis. To conclusively test this hypothesis, we exploited the widespread access to inexpensive and fast Internet connections in the UK to assess 2541 pairs of 10‐year‐old twins for reading, mathematics and g, using a web‐based test battery. Heritabilities were 0.38 for reading, 0.49 for mathematics and 0.44 for g. Multivariate genetic analysis showed substantial genetic correlations between learning abilities: 0.57 between reading and mathematics, 0.61 between reading and g, and 0.75 between mathematics and g, providing strong support for the Generalist Genes hypothesis. If genetic effects on cognition are so general, the effects of these genes on the brain are also likely to be general. In this way, generalist genes may prove invaluable in integrating top‐down and bottom‐up approaches to the systems biology of the brain.
Sensory circumventricular organs and brain homeostatic pathways

Circumventricular organs (CVOs), small structures bordering the ventricular spaces in the midline of the brain, have common morphological and endocrine‐like characteristics that distinguish them from the rest of the nervous system. Among their unique features are cellular contacts with two fluid phases — blood and cerebrospinal fluid — and neural connections with strategic nuclei establishing circuitry for communications throughout the neuraxis. A variety of additional morphological and functional characteristics of the CVOs implicates this group of structures in a wide array of homeostatic processes. For three of the circumventricular organs — the subfornical organ (SFO), the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT), and the area postrema (AP) — recent findings demonstrate these structures as targets for blood‐borne information reaching the brain. We propose that these three sensory CVOs interact with other nuclei in the maintenance of several homeostatic processes by way of neural and humoral links. We emphasize the collective role of brain CVOs in the maintenance of body fluid homeostasis as a model for the functional integration of these fascinating “windows of the brain” within central neurohumoral systems. —Johnson, A. K. , Gross, P. M. Sensory circumventricular organs and brain homeostatic pathways. FASEB J. 7: 678‐686; 1993.
The 5′ end of two redundant sRNAs is involved in the regulation of multiple targets, including their own regulator

Small RNAs are widespread regulators of gene expression in numerous organisms. This study describes the mode of action of two redundant Escherichia coli sRNAs, OmrA and OmrB, that downregulate the expression of multiple targets, most of which encode outer membrane proteins. Our results show that both sRNAs directly interact with at least two of these target mRNAs, ompT and cirA, in the vicinity of the translation initiation region, consistent with control of these targets being dependent on both Hfq and RNase E. Interestingly, these interactions depend on short stretches of complementarity and involve the conserved 5′ end of OmrA/B. A mutation in this region abolishes control of all OmrA/B targets tested thus far, thereby highlighting the crucial role of the OmrA/B 5′ end. This allowed us, by looking for mRNA sequences complementary to the OmrA/B 5′ end, to identify ompR as an additional direct target of these two sRNAs. Since the OmpR transcriptional regulator activates expression of both omrA and omrB genes, this newly identified control should result in an autoregulatory loop limiting the amount of OmrA/B sRNAs.
Islet cell transplantation

People with type 1 diabetes have normal exocrine pancreatic function, making islet cell rather than whole organ transplantation an attractive option. Achieving insulin independence in type 1 diabetes was the perceived goal of islet cell transplantation. The success of the Edmonton group in achieving this in a selected group of type 1 patients has led to renewed optimism that this treatment could eventually replace whole organ pancreas transplantation. However the long-term results of this treatment indicate that insulin independence is lost with time in a significant proportion of patients, although they may retain glycaemic stability. In this context, the indications for islet cell transplantation, which have evolved over the last 5 years, indicate that the patients who benefit most are those who experience severe hypoglycaemic reactions despite optimal insulin therapy. This review will summarise the history of islet cell transplantation, islet isolation techniques, the transplant procedure, immunosuppressive therapy, indications for islet cell transplantation, current clinical trials, the early UK islet cell transplant experience using the Edmonton protocol, and some of the challenges that lie ahead.
Approaches to Collaborative Software Development

Software development is becoming more and more complex. Traditionally and to date, the software development process rather corresponds to job-shop manufacturing. Therefore, the ever growing demands for different kinds of software as well as the ongoing globalization require more efficient development processes. Both scientific literature and practical experience hence postulate a necessary industrialization of software development and design of novel forms of specialization, task distribution, and collaboration. Existing approaches to collaborative software development can be classified and analyzed according to multiple categories. By evaluating these, current deficiencies are identified and discussed for further investigation.
Folate Decorated Nanomicelles Loaded with a Potent Curcumin Analogue for Targeting Retinoblastoma

The aim of this study was to develop a novel folate receptor-targeted drug delivery system for retinoblastoma cells using a promising anticancer agent, curcumin-difluorinated (CDF), loaded in polymeric micelles. Folic acid was used as a targeting moiety to enhance the targeting and bioavailability of CDF. For this purpose, amphiphilic poly(styrene-co-maleic acid)-conjugated-folic acid (SMA-FA) was synthesized and utilized to improve the aqueous solubility of a highly hydrophobic, but very potent anticancer compound, CDF, and its targeted delivery to folate overexpressing cancers. The SMA-FA conjugate was first synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR, FTIR and DSC. Furthermore, the chromatographic condition (HPLC) for estimating CDF was determined and validated. The formulation was optimized to achieve maximum entrapment of CDF. The particle size of the micelles was measured and confirmed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cytotoxicity studies were conducted on (Y-79 and WERI-RB) retinoblastoma cells. Results showed that the solubility of CDF could be increased with the newly-synthesized polymer, and the entrapment efficiency was >85%. The drug-loaded nanomicelles exhibited an appropriate size of <200 nm and a narrow size distribution. The formulation did not show any adverse cytotoxicity on a human retinal pigment epithelial cell (ARPE-19), indicating its safety. However, it showed significant cell killing activity in both Y-79 and WERI-RB retinoblastoma cell lines, indicating its potency in killing cancer cells. In conclusion, the folic acid-conjugated SMA loaded with CDF showed promising potential with high safety and pronounced anticancer activity on the tested retinoblastoma cell lines. The newly-formulated targeted nanomicelles thus could be a viable option as an alternative approach to current retinoblastoma therapies.
Grounding in musical interaction: Evidence from jazz performances

This study explores the issue of mutual understanding between musicians in improvised performance. It attempts to describe how improvising musicians indicate to each other that they have grasped each other's expressive intentions in order to collaboratively negotiate common expressive trajectories. The process of moment-to-moment monitoring of shared understanding is referred to as “grounding”. Shared knowledge, beliefs and assumptions provide an important basis for grounding and grounding in turn reinforces a “common ground” of shared representation. Based on research on “grounding” in conversational exchange and on studies of nonverbal mother-infant interaction, some possible indices of “grounding” in musical interaction are discussed. Grounding in conversational exchange is attained through acknowledgement, relevance and sustained attention. It is proposed here that displays of mutual understanding between musicians are rooted in a collaboratively negotiated embodied phrasing through which repetition, mirroring and matching, punctuation, and completion and synchronisation might constitute the musical basis for grounding.