Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein kinase C‐θ (PKCθ): it's all about location, location, location

Summary: Much progress has been made in understanding the function of protein kinase C‐θ (PKCθ) in the immune system since this Ca2+‐independent PKC isotype was isolated in 1993 as an enzyme that is highly expressed in T lymphocytes and in muscle cells. Biochemical and genetic approaches revealed that, while dispensable for T‐cell development, PKCθ is required for the activation of mature T cells and for interleukin (IL)‐2 production. This deficiency results from impaired receptor‐induced stimulation of the transcription factors AP‐1 and NF‐κB. PKCθ integrates T‐cell receptor (TCR)/CD28 costimulatory signals, which are essential for productive T‐cell activation and, most likely, for prevention of T‐cell anergy. A unique property of PKCθ is its highly selective recruitment to the central supramolecular activation complex (cSMAC) region of the immunological synapse (IS) in antigen‐stimulated T cells. Our work revealed that this highly selective localization is not entirely dependent on phospholipase C (PLC) activity and diacylglycerol (DAG) production. Instead, a novel signaling pathway that requires functional Vav1, phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3‐K), the small GTPase Rac and actin cytoskeleton reorganization regulates the localization and, perhaps, activation of PKCθ. PKCθ also provides a survival signal, which protects T cells from apoptosis. Additional work is required to identify the immediate targets of PKCθ and its immune functions in vivo. This work is likely to validate PKCθ as an attractive drug target.
Identification of Substrates and Chaperone from the Yersinia enterocolitica 1B Ysa Type III Secretion System

ABSTRACT All pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica strains carry the pYV plasmid encoding the Ysc-Yop type III secretion (TTS) system, which operates at 37°C. In addition, biovar 1B Y. enterocolitica strains possess a second, chromosomally encoded, TTS system called Ysa, which operates, at least in vitro, under low-temperature and high-salt (LTHS) conditions. Six open reading frames, sycB, yspB, yspC, yspD, yspA, and acpY, neighbor the ysa genes encoding the Ysa TTS apparatus. Here we show that YspA, YspB, YspC, and YspD are secreted by the Ysa TTS system under LTHS conditions. SycB is a chaperone for YspB and YspC and stabilizes YspB. YspB, YspC, and SycB share some similarity with TTS substrates and the chaperone encoded by the Mxi-Spa locus of Shigella flexneri and SPI-1 of Salmonella enterica. In addition, Ysa also secretes the pYV-encoded YopE under LTHS conditions, indicating that YopE is a potential effector of both Y. enterocolitica TTS systems. YspC could also be secreted by S. flexneri, but no functional complementation of ipaC was observed, which indicates that despite their similarity the Ysa and the Mxi-Spa systems are not interchangeable. When expressed from the yopE promoter, YspB and YspC could also be secreted via the Ysc injectisome. However, they could not form detectable pores in eukaryotic target cells and could not substitute for YopB and YopD for translocation of Yop effectors.
A key management scheme supporting node mobility in heterogeneous sensor networks

In recent years, Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs) have gained great attention and are composed of low power, resource constrained and short range communication devices are increasingly being adopted in different application scenarios including environmental monitoring, home and building automation, assisted living, logistics, transportation and industrial automation. In this context, mobility is becoming more important thus introducing new technological challenges also referring to security. The constrained devices should be protected from various security attacks and provided with secure data communication capabilities. To this aim, a proper key management scheme supporting mobility is required. In fact, a number of secure key management schemes have been proposed in literature only considering the static nature of sensor nodes. In this paper, we present a key management scheme supporting mobility in a heterogeneous WSN that consists of mobile sensor nodes with few fixed sensor nodes. In particular, the proposed solution addresses the minimization of required memory space, provides enhanced connectivity and network resilience against node capture attack compared to some existing schemes. We also proposed two levels of secure authentication methods for the mobile sensor nodes and the avoidance of replay attack and node replication attack.
Ultrastable neuroendocrine robot controller

The work of a simulated neuroendocrine controller with ultrastable neurons and glands is sketched and tested in terms of stability and adaptability. The artificial neurons connect to each other and to motors, while hormones produced by behaviour-related glands regulate their output. The ultrastable nature of the cells allows them to maintain their homeostasis by random reconfiguration of their connections and parameters without reference to the global goal of the system. Interactions of these ultrastable components cause individual robot behaviours to emerge to certain extents. The presented results show that the controller as a whole is capable of not only configuring itself to perform random walk, obstacle avoidance, mineral collection and recharging, but also to stay robust or adapt to a number of environmental and body perturbations without a need for a body model.
Rab5 Activation by Toll‐Like Receptor 2 is Required for Trypanosoma cruzi Internalization and Replication in Macrophages

Trypanosoma cruzi can infect and replicate in macrophages. During invasion, T. cruzi interacts with different macrophage receptors to induce its own phagocytosis. However, the nature of those receptors and the molecular mechanisms involved are poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate that T. cruzi metacyclic trypomastigotes but not epimastigotes were able to induce Rab5 activation and binding to the early endosomes in peritoneal macrophages. In this process, active Rab5 colocalized with parasites in the phagosome and with the Rab5A effector molecule early endosomal antigen 1. Phagosome formation and T. cruzi internalization were inhibited in Raw 264.7 macrophages expressing a dominant‐negative form of Rab5 [(S34N)Rab5]. Using T. cruzi membrane extracts, we verified that the Rab5 activation depends on the interaction between parasite surface molecules and macrophages surface molecule. In addition, during infection of macrophages, phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K) pathway was activated. Assays carried out using a selective PI3K inhibitor (LY294002) showed that the PI3K activation is essential for Rab5 activation by T. cruzi infection and for the entrance and intracellular replication of T. cruzi in macrophages. Moreover, using macrophages from knockout mice, we found that activation of Rab5, fusion of early endosomes and phagocytosis induced by T. cruzi infection involved Toll‐like receptor (TLR)2 but were independent of TLR4 receptors.
Measurement of Heme Concentration

Heme (iron protoporphyrin IX) is a prosthetic group for a number of hemoproteins in different tissues (e.g., hemoglobin, myoglobin, cytochrome P‐450s, mitochondrial cytochromes, catalases, and peroxidases). Mutations in the biosynthetic pathway can affect the synthesis and/or degradation of heme. Several assays are provided in this unit for quantifying heme: a spectophotometric assay based on the characteristic absorption spectrum of oxidized and reduced form of the hemochrome formed by replacing the nitrogen ligands with pyridine; a fluorescence assay based on removal of the iron by a heated, strong oxalic acid solution to produce fluorescent protoporphyrin; a reversed‐phase HPLC assay to measure heme and intermediates in the synthetic pathway; and a radiometric assay to measure newly synthesized heme in tissue culture cells.
Design, Implementation and Demonstration of Embedded Agents for Energy Management in Non-Residential Buildings

With the building sector being responsible for 30% of the total final energy consumption, great interest lies in implementing adequate policies and deploying efficient technologies that would decrease this number. However, building comfort and energy management systems (BCEM) are challenging to manage on account of their increasing complexity with regard to the integration of renewable energy sources or the connection of electrical, thermal and gas grids. Multi-agent~systems (MAS) deal well with such complex issues. This paper presents an MAS for non-residential buildings from the design, implementation and demonstration, both simulation based and in a field test. Starting from an ontology and an attached data model for BCEM application, we elaborated use cases for developing and testing the MAS framework. The building and technical equipment are modeled using the modeling language Modelica under Dymola. The agents are programmed in JADE and communicate with Dymola via TCP/IP and with the real devices via BACnet. Operatively, the~agents can take on different control strategies: normal operation with no optimization, optimization of energy costs, where energy is delivered through the room through the devices that have the lowest operating costs, and relaxation of the comfort constraint, where the costs of the productivity loss under sub-optimal comfort conditions is taken into account during optimization. Comfort is expressed as a function of indoor air temperature. Simulation, including a comparison with a benchmark system, and field test results are presented to demonstrate the features of the proposed BCEM.
Shear stress regulates aquaporin-5 and airway epithelial barrier function

As the interface with the outside world, the airway epithelial barrier is critical to lung defense. Because of respiratory efforts, the airways are exposed to shear stress; however, little is known regarding the effects of shear on epithelial function. We report that low-level shear stress enhances epithelial barrier function, an effect that requires serial activation of the transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV) 4 and L-type voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) and an increase in intracellular calcium. These changes lead to a selective decrease in aquaporin-5 (AQP5) abundance because of protein internalization and degradation. To determine whether AQP5 plays a role in mediating the shear effects on paracellular permeability, we overexpressed hAQP5 in 16HBE cells, an airway epithelial cell line without endogenous AQP5. We found that AQP5 expression was needed for shear-induced barrier enhancement. These findings have direct relevance to the regulation of epithelial barrier function, membrane permeability, and water homeostasis in the respiratory epithelia.
Le syndrome LPAC ou lithiase biliaire avec phospholipides bas

Le syndrome LPAC (Low phospholipid-associated cholelithiasis) est une maladie genetique caracterisee par une lithiase cholesterolique vesiculaire et/ou intrahepatique. Elle est causee par une mutation du gene ABCB4 qui code la proteine du canalicule biliaire MDR3, une floppase qui joue un role crucial dans la secretion de la phosphatidyl choline dans la bile. Le diagnostic doit etre suspecte en presence des manifestations suivantes : 1) Symptomes biliaires (douleur biliaire, angiocholite, ictere, pancreatite aigue) survenant avant 40 ans. 2) Recidive des symptomes biliaires apres cholecystectomie. 3) Antecedents de cholestase gravidique. 4) Histoire familiale de lithiase chez les apparentes du premier degre. 5) Presence d’images echogenes intrahepatiques, de « queue de comete », ou d’un artefact de scintillement en echographie Doppler couleur, traduisant la presence de calculs ou de boue biliaire dans le foie. Dans les cas douteux, le diagnostic peut etre confirme par une recherche de la mutation. Le traitement par l’acide ursodesoxycholique entraine une amelioration rapide, spectaculaire et durable des symptomes dans la majorite des cas et il previent les complications. Dans quelques cas cependant, la chirurgie peut etre necessaire.
SELECTIVE CARBON DIOXIDE ADSORPTION FROM N 2CH 4-CO 2 MIXTURE ON CARBON MOLECULAR SIEVES

Cărbunii sită moleculară sunt adsorbanţi carbonici de o mare importanţă. Lucrarea prezintă rezultatele studiului privind prepararea cărbunilor sită moleculară şi modificarea tratamentului cu hidrocarburi care crachează. De asemenea se prezintă procesul de adsorbţie selectivă a dioxidului de carbon din amestecul N2-CH4-CO2 care se realizează într-un echipament special creat în acest scop, bazat pe procesul de adsorbţie la presiune variabilă.
Distributed Stream Processing of RNN Query in Mobile Computing

Reverse Nearest Neighbor (RNN) queries are a pipeline of complimentary problems, and have aroused a vast concern in the world in the past few years, such as location based services, profile based marketing, resource allocation and traffic monitoring system etc. Now the one of the most important disadvantages for the RNN is that it has inherent sequential nature and using for memory algorithm, which limits its use in data processing of large scale spatial data queries. Scalable algorithms for Reverse Nearest Neighbor queries in distributed environment are the key problem in this paper. First of all, we investigate the SRNN initialization query method based on the inverted grid index. Then, Eager-SRNN has effective treatment on the problem of the scalable Multi-dimensional RNN. Eager-SRNN tries to prune spatial objects step by step as soon as they are accessed. Beyond that, SRNN algorithm is the first attempt for the exact scalable RNN algorithms in a distributed environment on multi-dimensional datasets. An evaluation which we proved through a lot of experiments has been widely applied on the new method of the synthetic data scalability and the performance.
Outcomes of and for Diabetes Education Research

PURPOSE The purpose of this paper is to review outcome measures used to evaluate diabetes self-management education and make recommendations for future research. METHODS Three perspectives were used: (1) the frequency with which different measures were collected prior to 1990 was compared with a sample of the 1997 to 1999 literature, (2) a multilevel pyramid model of psychosocial-environmental factors was used to evaluate the level of outcomes assessed, and (3) the RE-AIM evaluation framework was used to assess the public health impact of studies reported in the literature. RESULTS Knowledge and HbA1c measures are often collected to the exclusion of other, possibly more appropriate outcomes. Research has focused almost exclusively on individual or family level outcomes and paid little attention to effects at systems levels, such as neighborhoods, communities, or healthcare systems. More recent studies have been evaluating the reach of interventions, but more practice-oriented research needs to be conducted with representative patients, providers, and settings. CONCLUSIONS Much has been learned about the efficacy of diabetes selfmanagement and about measurement issues. Future research should now focus on effectiveness and generalization issues.
Qualitative and quantitative analysis of phytochemicals of Taraxacum officinale

The present study investigates the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major bioactive constituents of medicinally important plant Taraxacum officinale in its aqueous and methanol extract of root, stem and flower. Saponins, flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols were highly concentrated in the stem, root and flower, with the higher concentration of flavonoids in the flower extracts. Phenols and steroids were also found present in the investigated plant parts. The percentage value of plant extracts in water and methanol are, stem (water extract 21%, methanol 18%), root (water extract 22%, methanol 17.8%), flower (water extract 19%, methanol 16%). The significance of the plant in traditional medicine and the importance of the distribution of these chemical constituents are discussed with respect to the role of the plant in ethnomedicine in Kashmir region of India.
Perte de la parole, ramouissement chronique et destruction partielle du lobe antérieur gauche du cerveau

M. Broca, à l'occasion du procès-verbal, présente le cerveau d'un homme de cinquante et un ans qui est mort dans son service a l'hôpital de Bicêtre, et qui avait perdu depuis vingt et un ans l'usage de la parole. La piece devant être déposée dans le musée Dupuytren, et l'observation complète devant être publiée dans le Bulletin de la Société anatomique, nous nous bornerons à donner ici un court résumé de ce fait, qui est tout à fait semblable à quelques-uns de ceux dont M. Auburtin a parlé dans la dernière séance.
Simultaneous Detection of Antibodies against Apx Toxins ApxI, ApxII, ApxIII, and ApxIV in Pigs with Known and Unknown Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae Exposure Using a Multiplexing Liquid Array Platform

ABSTRACT Surveillance for the presence of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae infection in a population plays a central role in controlling the disease. In this study, a 4-plex fluorescent microbead-based immunoassay (FMIA), developed for the simultaneous detection of IgG antibodies to repeat-in-toxin (RTX) toxins (ApxI, ApxII, ApxIII, and ApxIV) of A. pleuropneumoniae, was evaluated using (i) blood serum samples from pigs experimentally infected with each of the 15 known A. pleuropneumoniae serovars or with Actinobacillus suis, (ii) blood serum samples from pigs vaccinated with a bacterin containing A. pleuropneumoniae serovar 1, 3, 5, or 7, and (iii) blood serum samples from pigs with an unknown A. pleuropneumoniae exposure status. The results were compared to those obtained in a previous study where a dual-plate complement fixation test (CFT) and three commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were conducted on the same sample set. On samples from experimentally infected pigs, the 4-plex Apx FMIA detected specific seroconversion to Apx toxins as early as 7 days postinfection in a total of 29 pigs inoculated with 14 of the 15 A. pleuropneumoniae serovars. Seroconversion to ApxII and ApxIII was detected by FMIA in pigs inoculated with A. suis. The vaccinated pigs showed poor humoral responses against ApxI, ApxII, ApxIII, and ApxIV. In the field samples, the humoral response to ApxIV and the A. pleuropneumoniae seroprevalence increased with age. This novel FMIA (with a sensitivity of 82.7% and a specificity of 100% for the anti-ApxIV antibody) was found to be more sensitive and accurate than current tests (sensitivities, 9.5 to 56%; specificity, 100%) and is potentially an improved tool for the surveillance of disease and for monitoring vaccination compliance.
Distribution of allele frequencies for two tetranucleotide repeats (FES and D2S1328) among five Indian population groups.

POPULATION The distribution of allele frequencies have been analyzed at two short tandem repeat (STR) loci FES and D2S1328 among five anthropologically distinct ethnic groups of India namely Ezhavas, Nairs, Arayas, Vishwakarma and Muslims. Muslims are religio-ethnic group while other populations mentioned above belong to distinct section of Hindu religion. All these populations are from Kollam district of Kerala in South India and speak Malayalam, an Indo-Dravidian language. A total of 264 random, healthy individuals of FES and 197 individuals for D2S1328 were analyzed.
Qualitative case studies of five cochlear implant recipients' experience with music

Abstract Cochlear implantation has revolutionized the management of those who suffer from severe-to-profound hearing loss because many patients now achieve excellent speech understanding with objective testing. Nevertheless, speech understanding in noisy conditions and music appreciation remain significant challenges to cochlear implant (CI) users. Music appreciation is an extremely complex experience that is difficult to quantify through a conventional outcome study. This paper aims at documenting the experience of five CI patients with regard to music appreciation using qualitative techniques. This information was obtained through a semi-structured interview process. The interviews were then transcribed and analysed using a constant comparative method of qualitative description. The results together with medical case records were used to identify emerging themes. The common themes that evolved were: musical background, the experience of receiving the implant, current experience with music, attention, musical prediction ability, internal hearing, hedonic vs. critical listening, determination, and timbre perception. By documenting their experiences in this manner, novel insights into the patient perspective are provided that are unique to the literature. These descriptions will aid clinicians and researchers who work in the area of cochlear implantation to better understand the needs of their patients.
The Hops Tethering Complex and the Dynamin Homolog Vps1 Coordinate Distinct Stages in Intracellular Membrane Fusion

Cells in almost all eukaryotes ranging from yeast to humans contain membrane-enclosed compartments called organelles. To survive and proliferate, cells must communicate signals within themselves and with their environment and this is achieved through membrane trafficking. It involves generation of a vesicle carrying specific soluble or membrane-anchored cargo from a precursor membrane, transport of the vesicle to its destination and ultimately fusion of the vesicle with the target membrane. Soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor Attachment protein Receptors (SNAREs) have been identified as key components of membrane fusion in the endomembrane system. SNARE proteins typically consist of a single transmembrane domain at the carboxy terminal and a coiled-coil SNARE domain and are designated as Qa, Qb, Qc and R depending upon the presence of a Glutamine or Arginine residue at a conserved position in the SNARE domain. A critical intermediate in the membrane fusion pathway is the trans-SNARE complex generated by the assembly of SNAREs residing in opposing membrane compartments destined to fuse. Mechanistic details of trans-SNARE complex formation and topology in a physiological system remain largely unresolved. This study on native yeast vacuoles revealed that SNAREs alone are insufficient to form trans-SNARE complexes and that additional factors, potentially tethering complexes and Rab GTPases, are required for the process. HOmotypic fusion and vacuole Protein Sorting (HOPS) is a tethering complex that is known to function in endosome to vacuole/lysosome transport and is well conserved across multiple species. Ypt7 is the Rab7 homolog in yeast that coordinates endolysosomal trafficking. I found that the HOPS complex exists as a dimer on the surface of yeast vacuoles. I report a new finding that a HOPS tethering complex dimer catalyzes Ypt7-dependent formation of a topologically preferred QbQcR-Qa trans-SNARE complex in yeast vacuole fusion.