Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modulation of Cellular Proliferation Alters Glutamine Transport and Metabolism in Human Hepatoma Cells

OBJECTIVE The authors determined the effects of growth inhibition on glutamine transport and metabolism in human hepatoma cells. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA Hepatoma cells exhibit markedly higher (10- to 30-fold) glutamine uptake than normal human hepatocytes, via a disparate transporter protein with a higher affinity for glutamine. Currently, little is known about the effects of growth arrest on glutamine transport and metabolism in hepatoma cells. METHODS The authors determined proliferation rates, glutamine transport, and glutaminase activities in the human hepatoma cell lines HepG2, Huh-7, and SK-Hep, both in the presence and absence of the chemotherapeutic agents novobiocin and sodium butyrate. The transport activities for alanine, arginine, and leucine also were determined in both treated and untreated cells. Glutaminase activity was determined in normal human liver tissue and compared with that present in hepatoma cells. RESULTS Glutaminase activities were similar in all three cell lines studied, despite differences in proliferation rates, and were sixfold higher than the activity in normal human liver. In contrast to normal hepatocytes, which expressed the liver-specific glutaminase, hepatomas expressed the kidney-type isoform. Sodium butyrate (1 mmol/L) and novobiocin (0.1 mmol/L) inhibited cellular proliferation and reduced both glutamine transport and glutaminase activity by more than 50% after 48 hours in the faster-growing, less differentiated SK-Hep cells. In contrast, the agents required 72 hours to attenuate glutamine uptake by 30% and 50% in the slower-growing, more differentiated HepG2 and Huh-7 cell lines, respectively. Treatment of all three cell lines with novobiocin/butyrate also resulted in a 30% to 60% attenuation of the transport of alanine, arginine, and leucine, and glutamine, indicating that inhibition of cellular proliferation similarly affects disparate amino acid transporters. CONCLUSIONS Hepatocellular transformation is characterized by a marked increase in glutamine transport and metabolism. Inhibition of cellular proliferation attenuates glutamine transport and metabolism, especially in fast-growing, relatively undifferentiated hepatoma cells. Because the uptake of other amino acids is similarly reduced under cytostatic conditions, plasma membrane amino acid transport activity in hepatoma cells is regulated by the proliferation state of the cells.
Governance of strategies to manage organizational knowledge: a mechanism to oversee knowledge needs

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This chapter introduces the theory and model of governance as a means of implementing knowledge management strategies in large organizations. It draws on case study research into the governance of knowledge management strategy implementation in a major scientific research and development facility. It suggests that the implementation of strategy through such a framework operates to ensure the delivery of anticipated benefits in an authorized and regulated manner. Furthermore, the authors hope that an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of internal governance processes will not only inform researchers of a better design for studying knowledge management systems, but will also assist in the understanding of risks and the role of evaluation and review in the implementation of those strategies. IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING
Formalizing Type Theory in PVS: a case study

In this case study we investigate the use of PVS for developing type theoretical concepts and verifying the correctness of a typing algorithm. PVS turns out to be very useful for efficient development of a sound basic theory about polymorphic typing. This research contributes to the PoplMark challenge on mechanizing metatheory. The correctness of the typing algorithm is expressed as the so-called Contextual Principal Type Property, which is interesting in its own right.
Three new genera representing novel lineages of Sordariomycetidae (Sordariomycetes, Ascomycota) from tropical freshwater habitats in Costa Rica

Three new genera are established in the Sordariomycetidae based on morphological and molecular data (SSU and LSU nrDNA) to accommodate five ascomycete species collected from submerged woody debris in freshwater habitats from Costa Rica. The genus Bullimyces contains three new species, B. communis, B. costaricensis and B. aurisporus. Bullimyces is characterized by globose to subglobose, membranous, black, ostiolate ascomata; deliquescent, hyaline, globose cells that fill the center of the centrum; unitunicate asci that deliquesce early in some species; and septate, thick-walled ascospores with or without gelatinous sheaths or appendages. Bullimyces species form a well supported clade with 100% bootstrap support, but the position of the genus in the Sordariomycetidae remains unclear. The second genus, Riomyces, is represented by a single species, R. rotundus. Riomyces is characterized by globose to subglobose, membranous, black, ostiolate ascomata, unitunicate, cylindrical asci, hyaline, globose cells that fill the hamathecium and septate, thick-walled ascospores with a gelatinous sheath. Although Riomyces is morphologically similar to Bullimyces, the two genera did not group together with support in any analysis. The third genus, Hydromelitis, is represented by a single species, H. pulchella. Hydromelitis is characterized by pyriform, membranous, black, ostiolate ascomata, unitunicate asci lacking an apical structure, simple, thin-walled, septate paraphyses and hyaline to golden yellow, multiseptate, thick-walled ascospores with a gelatinous sheath. Bullimyces, Riomyces and Hydromelitis were nested within an unsupported clade consisting of members of the Ophiostomatales, Magnaporthales and freshwater Annulatacaceae sensu lato and sensu stricto.
Demographic Consequences of Larval Development Mode: Planktotrophy vs. Lecithotrophy in Streblospio Benedicti.

This paper examines the demographic consequences of planktotrophic and lecithotrophic development in an estuarine polychaete. Two strains of Streblospio benedicti (Spionidae) were reared in the laboratory from birth through death at 20°C and salinity 34%. Survivorship and reproductive data were collected weekly and were used to construct life tables and population projection matrices for each development mode. Planktotrophic females reproduced earlier, and had higher fecundity and a shorter generation time than lecithotrophic females, but also exhibited higher mortality early in life. Despite the apparently opportunistic nature of the planktotrophic life history traits, the finite rate of increase (l) in the lecithotrophic strain (1.319 wk-1 ) exceeded that of the planktotrophic strain (1.205 wk-1 ). Net reproductive rate (R0 ) was also higher for the lecithotrophs (93.4) than for the planktotrophs (17.6) Peak reproductive values were attained earlier in planktotrophs than in lecithotrophs. Sensitivity analyses indicate that l is most sensitive to changes in larval and juvenile survivorship, and that the differences in l were almost completely determined by life table differences during the first 15 wk of life. The potential population growth rates obtained in this study agree well with those estimated for other opportunistic polychaete species such as Capitella sp. I and Polydora ligni. Under uniform conditions the two strains of S. benedicti achieved similar growth rates with very different life history traits. We hypothesize that each combination of traits may be adaptive under different circumstances in the field.
Optical OFDM Synchronization With Symbol Timing Offset and Sampling Clock Offset Compensation in Real-Time IMDD Systems

End-to-end real-time Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OOFDM) signal synchronization that is capable of simultaneously compensating for both Symbol Timing Offset (STO) and Sampling Clock Offset (SCO) is experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, over 64-quadrature amplitude modulated (QAM)-encoded, 11.25-Gb/s, 25-km, Intensity-Modulation and Direct-Detection (IMDD) single mode fiber (SMF) systems employing directly modulated distributed feedback lasers. In comparison with manual synchronization, almost-perfect compensations of arbitrary STOs are achieved. The OOFDM synchronization technique can also compensate for the SCO effect with an accuracy of <; 1 ppm for initial SCOs as large as 4000 ppm. The technique has a number of salient advantages including low complexity, fast tracking speed, high accuracy, and suitability for high-speed optical transmission systems.
Nonlinear Fiber Loop Mirror Optimization to Enhance the Performance of Multiwavelength Brillouin/Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser

The performance of multiwavelength BEFL based on nonlinear fiber loop mirror (NOLM) optimization has been experimentally investigated. The NOLM is optimized to act as highly reflective mirror, which results in reducing the threshold power and enhancing the number of the generated Stokes lines at low EDF pump power as well. This design presents a low threshold power of 2 mW and generates up to 26 Stokes lines at EDF pump power of 25 mW.
Mediating role of access to finance on the relationship between strategic orientation and SMES performance in Nigeria: A proposed research framework

Even thoughthe importance of SMEs ininfluencing economic growthis acknowledged, Nigerian enterprises performance is not as anticipated. The low contribution to GDP and employment shows a gross underperformance. Besides, SMEs high failure rate is another indication of low performance. However, inadequate access to finance occupies a central position for the low performance of SMEs in Nigeria. Similarly, previous studies suggest that strategic orientations have a significant influence on firm performance, even though the role of access to finance in understanding the mechanism through which these variables are related is neglected.Hence, this paper aims to undertake a review of the related literature to develop and propose a research conceptual framework for SMEs performance.Based on the combination of four strategic orientations and the role of access to finance, this study proposes that access to finance may further explain the relationship.It highlights the importance of the research on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, learning orientation, technology orientation, access to finance and SMEs performance in Nigeria.
Energy harvesting from the tail beating of a carangiform swimmer using ionic polymer–metal composites

In this paper, we study energy harvesting from the beating of a biomimetic fish tail using ionic polymer–metal composites. The design of the biomimetic tail is based on carangiform swimmers and is specifically inspired by the morphology of the heterocercal tail of thresher sharks. The tail is constituted of a soft silicone matrix molded in the form of the heterocercal tail and reinforced by a steel beam of rectangular cross section. We propose a modeling framework for the underwater vibration of the biomimetic tail, wherein the tail is assimilated to a cantilever beam with rectangular cross section and heterogeneous physical properties. We focus on base excitation in the form of a superimposed rotation about a fixed axis and we consider the regime of moderately large-amplitude vibrations. In this context, the effect of the encompassing fluid is described through a hydrodynamic function, which accounts for inertial, viscous and convective phenomena. The model is validated through experiments in which the base excitation is systematically varied and the motion of selected points on the biomimetic tail tracked in time. The feasibility of harvesting energy from an ionic polymer–metal composite attached to the vibrating structure is experimentally and theoretically assessed. The response of the transducer is described using a black-box model, where the voltage output is controlled by the rate of change of the mean curvature. Experiments are performed to elucidate the impact of the shunting resistance, the frequency of the base excitation and the placement of the ionic polymer–metal composite on energy harvesting from the considered biomimetic tail.
Improving CPU Performance Through Dynamic GPU Access Throttling in CPU-GPU Heterogeneous Processors

Heterogeneous chip-multiprocessors with integrated CPU and GPU cores on the same die allow sharing of critical memory system resources among the applications executing on the twotypes of cores. In this paper, we explore memory system management driven by the quality of service (QoS) requirement of the GPU applications executing simultaneously with CPUapplications in such heterogeneous platforms. Our proposal dynamically estimates the level of QoS (e.g., frame rate in 3D scene rendering) of the GPU application. Unlike the priorproposals, our algorithm does not require any profile information and does not assume tile-based deferred rendering. If the estimated quality of service meets the minimum acceptable QoS level, our proposal employs a light-weight mechanism to dynamically adjust the GPU memory access rate so that the GPU is able to just meet the required QoS level. This frees up memory system resources which can be shifted to the co-running CPU applications. Detailed simulations done on a heterogeneous chip-multiprocessor with one GPU and four CPU cores running heterogeneous mixes of DirectX, OpenGL, and CPU applications show that our proposal improves the CPU performance by 18% on average.
Shotgun glycomics of pig lung identifies natural endogenous receptors for influenza viruses

Significance Studies using novel “shotgun glycan microarray” technology identify, for the first time to our knowledge, the endogenous receptors for influenza viruses from a natural host, the pig. Libraries of total N-glycans from pig lung were probed for binding properties using a panel of influenza viruses isolated from humans, birds, and swine. Natural glycan receptors were identified for all viruses examined, and although some displayed the rather broad α2,3 or α2,6 sialic acid linkage specificity conventionally associated with avian or human viruses, other strains were highly specific, revealing a complexity that has not been demonstrated previously. Because pigs are often implicated as intermediate hosts for pandemic viruses, these results and the approaches described will transform our understanding of influenza host range, transmission, and pathogenicity. Influenza viruses bind to host cell surface glycans containing terminal sialic acids, but as studies on influenza binding become more sophisticated, it is becoming evident that although sialic acid may be necessary, it is not sufficient for productive binding. To better define endogenous glycans that serve as viral receptors, we have explored glycan recognition in the pig lung, because influenza is broadly disseminated in swine, and swine have been postulated as an intermediary host for the emergence of pandemic strains. For these studies, we used the technology of “shotgun glycomics” to identify natural receptor glycans. The total released N- and O-glycans from pig lung glycoproteins and glycolipid-derived glycans were fluorescently tagged and separated by multidimensional HPLC, and individual glycans were covalently printed to generate pig lung shotgun glycan microarrays. All viruses tested interacted with one or more sialylated N-glycans but not O-glycans or glycolipid-derived glycans, and each virus demonstrated novel and unexpected differences in endogenous N-glycan recognition. The results illustrate the repertoire of specific, endogenous N-glycans of pig lung glycoproteins for virus recognition and offer a new direction for studying endogenous glycan functions in viral pathogenesis.
Modeling energy utilization in broiler breeders, laying hens and broilers

The factorial approach has been used to partition the energy requirements into maintenance, growth, and production. The coefficients determined for these purposes can be used to elaborate energy requirement models. These models consider the body weight, weight gain, egg production, and environmental temperature to determine the energy requirements for poultry. Predicting daily energy requirement models can help to establish better and more profitable feeding programs for poultry. Studies were conducted at UNESP-Jaboticabal to determine metabolizable energy (ME) requirement models for broiler breeders, laying hens, and broilers. These models were evaluated in performance trials and provided good adjustments. Therefore, they could be used to establish nutritional programs. This review aims to outline the results found at UNESP studies and to show the application of models in nutritional programs for broiler breeders, laying hens, and broilers.
Leisure‐time physical activity and endometrial cancer risk: Dose–response meta‐analysis of epidemiological studies

Although considerable evidence suggests that leisure‐time physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of endometrial cancer (EC), the shape of dose–response relationship has not been investigated and previous meta‐analyses have not accounted for differences in measures of physical activity. To address such issues, we conducted linear and nonlinear dose–response meta‐analyses by metabolic equivalent of task (MET)‐hour/week and hour/week, respectively, based on observational studies published up to September 2013 identified from PubMed and Embase databases. Summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random‐effects model. In the linear dose–response analysis, an increase in leisure‐time physical activity by 3 MET‐hour/week was associated with an ∼2% reduced risk of EC (summary RR = 0.98, p = 0.02, 95% CI = 0.95–1.00, I2 = 53%, pheterogeneity = 0.06, three case–control studies and three cohort studies, 3,460 cases, range of activity = 0–50 MET‐hour/week) and an increase by an hour/week was associated with an ∼5% reduced risk of EC (summary RR = 0.95, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.93–0.98, I2 = 31%, pheterogeneity = 0.20, four case–control studies and two cohort studies, 3,314 cases, range of activity = 0–12 hour/week). Nonlinear dose–response meta‐analysis suggested that the curve may plateau at 10 MET‐hour/week (pchange in slope = 0.04) but this statistical significance was sensitive to one study. No evidence of a nonlinear association was indicated by hour/week (pchange in slope > 0.69). In conclusion, an increase in leisure‐time physical activity may continue to decrease EC risk, within the range of 0–50 MET‐hour/week or 0–15 hour/week. Future studies should evaluate possible independent role of intensity of physical activity and effect modification by obesity.
Single Phase Matrix Converter as an ‘all silicon solution’

This paper presents the SPMC topology which offers many advantages with unrestricted switch control or with minimal reactive device use, as an all silicon solution. It elucidates the implementation of SPMC as an inverter and as a Controlled Rectifier. Also, with proper switching control algorithm, a type of converter that can buck and boost with step-changed frequency called a Single-Phase Z-Source Buck-Boost Matrix Converter is proposed. It employs a safe-commutation strategy which results in the elimination of voltage spikes on switches without the need of a snubber circuit. The operating principles of this converter for all these configurations are described and the circuit behaviour is confirmed by MATLAB / Simulink simulation results.
Assessment of post-traumatic amnesia after severe closed head injury: retrospective or prospective?

BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic amnesia is considered to be the best single indicator of the severity of closed head injury. Usually, it has been estimated retrospectively. For practical reasons this also tends to be the most common clinical method. It has been argued that prospective assessment is more accurate and reliable, but this has never been evaluated empirically in severe head injury. METHODS: Post-traumatic amnesia was initially assessed prospectively and later retrospectively by a separate observer in the same patients. RESULTS: The correlation between the two methods was high. In addition, both measures significantly correlated with other measures of severity of brain injury and with measures of outcome. CONCLUSION: Retrospective measurement of post-traumatic amnesia is a valid method.
The use of olive mill wastewater by wild type Yarrowia lipolytica strains: medium supplementation

BACKGROUND: The aim of this work was to study the ability of two different wild type strains of the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to grow on olive mill wastewater (OMW) and their potential to produce high-value products such as lipases. Factors that affect cellular growth and OMW degradation were studied, such as nitrogen supplementation, cells concentration and surfactant addition. RESULTS: Both strains, W29 and IMUFRJ 50682, were able to grow in OMW with 19 g L −1 of COD and approximately 800 mg L −1 of total phenols concentration. The strain W29 presented the highest potential for extracellular lipase production in OMW medium. Lipase productivity was improved by the medium supplementation with ammonium sulphate up to 6 g L −1 , leading to 80% of COD degradation and 70% of total phenols reduction. The surfactant Tween 80 enhanced cell growth and COD degradation, but had a negative effect on lipase activity. CONCLUSIONS: Y. lipolytica has a great potential for OMW valorisation by its use as culture medium for biomass and enzymes production. The operating conditions that favoured lipase production differ from the conditions that improve COD reduction. c � 2008 Society of Chemical Industry
Linking the Allee Effect, Sexual Reproduction, and Temperature‐Dependent Sex Determination Via Spatial Dynamics

We develop a spatially explicit, two‐sex, individual‐based model (IBM) and a derived spatially homogeneous model (SHM) to describe the Allee effect due to scarcity of mating possibilities at low population sizes or densities. The SHM, based on coupled difference equations, represents the first spatially homogeneous approach to this phenomenon, which differentiates between sexes and relies only on measurable population parameters. The IBM reinforces the findings of the SHM by adopting more realistic mate search strategies of diffusive movement and active search. Both models are characterized by a hyperbolic‐shaped extinction boundary in the male‐female state space, which contrasts with a linear boundary in one‐dimensional models of the Allee effect. We examine how the position of the extinction boundary depends on population demography (primary sex ratio, reproduction and mortality probabilities) and adopted mate search strategies. The investigation of different phases in the IBM dynamics emphasizes the differences between local and global densities and shows the importance of scale when assessing the Allee effect. To demonstrate the potential application of our models, we combine the SHM and available data to predict the impact of environmental temperature changes on two turtle species with temperature‐dependent sex determination.