Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential expression of p160 steroid receptor coactivators in the rat testis and epididymis.

OBJECTIVE Androgens are critical for the development and maintenance of male sexual characteristics. Their action is mediated through the androgen receptor (AR). Ligand-bound AR interacts with coactivator proteins that mediate transcriptional activation. Such coactivators include three members of the 160 kDa proteins (p160s): SRC-1, TIF2/GRIP1, and p/CIP/RAC3/ACTR/AIB1/TRAM-1. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the three p160 coactivators and their association with AR in testis and epididymis. METHODS We determined the localization of these three p160 coactivators in immature and mature rat testis, and epididymis by immunohistochemistry using the specific monoclonal antibodies. We also performed double immunofluorescence staining to examine whether p160s are colocalized with AR in these tissues. RESULTS In seminiferous tubules of mature rat testis, SRC-1 and TRAM-1 immunoreactivity was found predominantly in spermatogonia and spermatocytes. In contrast, TIF2 was expressed predominantly in Sertoli cells. AR was coexpressed with TIF2 in this cell type. In immature rat testis, however, all three coactivators were expressed in both germ cells and Sertoli cells. In the epididymis, SRC-1 and TIF2 immunoreactivities were localized in nuclei of epithelial cells. However, TRAM-1 immunostaining was observed in the luminal portion of the cytoplasm with greater intensity than in the nucleus, especially in the caput epididymidis. CONCLUSIONS The cell-type-specific expression of p160 coactivators suggests specific roles in male reproductive organs. Further, the strong cytoplasmic localization of TRAM-1 protein in epithelial cells of epididymis suggests that TRAM-1 may have additional role(s) in transcriptional regulation.
Research Portfolio Analysis in Science Policy: Moving from Financial Returns to Societal Benefits

Funding agencies and large public scientific institutions are increasingly using the term “research portfolio” as a means of characterizing their research. While portfolios have long been used as a heuristic for managing corporate R&D (i.e. R&D aimed at gaining tangible economic benefits), they remain ill-defined in a science policy context where research is aimed at achieving societal outcomes. In this article we analyze the discursive uses of the term “research portfolio” and propose some general considerations for their application in science policy. We explore the use of the term in private R&D and related scholarly literature in existing science policy practices, and seek insight in relevant literature in science policy scholarship. While the financial analogy can in some instances be instructive, a simple transposition from the world of finance or of corporate R&D to public research is problematic. However, we do identify potentially fruitful uses of portfolio analysis in science policy. In particular, our review suggests that the concept of research portfolio can indeed be a useful analytical instrument for tackling complex societal challenges. Specifically, the strands of scholarship identified suggest that the use of research portfolio should: i) recognize the diversity of research lines relevant for a given societal challenge, given the uncertainty and ambiguity of research outcomes; ii) examine the relationships between research options of a portfolio and the expected societal outcomes; and iii) adopt a systemic perspective to research portfolios – i.e. examine a portfolio as a functional whole, rather than as the sum of its parts. We argue that with these considerations, portfolio-driven approaches may foster social inclusion in science policy decisions, help deliberation between “alternative” portfolios to tackle complex societal challenges, as well as promote cost-effectiveness and transparency.
Power Loading Algorithms for OFDM-Based Cognitive Radio Systems with Imperfect Sensing

In this letter, we investigate power allocation schemes for OFDM-based cognitive radio (CR) systems while taking errors due to imperfect sensing of primary user (PU) into account. The interference is introduced into PU band by CR user not only because of co-existence in side-by-side bands but also by missed detection due to imperfect sensing. We propose an optimal scheme such that the transmission capacity of CR users is maximized while keeping the total interference within a prescribed threshold and keeping the total power within a budget. As the optimal scheme can have a high complexity, low complexity suboptimal schemes have also been proposed. The performance of the proposed schemes is compared to the schemes that do not take sensing errors into consideration. Presented numerical results demonstrate the strength of our proposed schemes.
Estimated and Accurate System Reliabilities of a Maintainable Computer Network subject to Maintenance Budget

This paper proposes a performance index to evaluate the capability of a maintainable computer network (MCN) that is required to send d units of data from the source to the sink through two paths within time T. The proposed system reliability performance index quantifies the probability that a MCN delivers a sufficient capacity with a maintenance budget no greater than B. Two procedures are integrated in the algorithm — an estimation procedure for estimated system reliability and an adjusting procedure utilizing the branch-and-bound approach for accurate system reliability. Subsequently, the estimated system reliability with lower bound and upper bound, and accurate system reliability can be derived by applying the recursive sum of disjoint products (RSDP) algorithm.
Effects of cinnamon, thyme and turmeric infusions on the performance and immune response in of 1- to 21-day-old male broilers

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of the replacement of drinking water by herb infusions on the performance, relative weight of internal organs, hematocrit and immune response to Newcastle disease virus of broiler chickens. A total of 540 male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were divided into five groups, corresponding to four different treatments and one control group. Treatments were replicated eight times, and the control group four times. Experimental treatments included infusions (5 grams per liter) of cinnamon, thyme and turmeric in equal ratios in replacement of drinking water. Experimental period lasted 21 days and all chicks were fed with a corn-soybean based diet. Results showed that all herbs infusions caused significant (p<0.05) decrease in live body weight compared with the control group at 21 days of age. Mix treatment significantly decreased relative carcass weight relative to the control group (p<0.05). Herbs infusions increased the relative weight of some organs. None of herb additives affected hematocrit in comparison to control group. Cinnamon and herb mix infusion significantly improved bird immune response to the NDV vaccine in comparison to the control group and those that received only turmeric infusion. When all in-water additives were compare to each other, the birds supplemented with turmeric infusion showed the worst performance and immunity. The results of this experiment suggest that these herbs infusions did not favor the performance of broiler chickens.
Muscleblind‐like 1 is a negative regulator of TGF‐β‐dependent epithelial–mesenchymal transition of atrioventricular canal endocardial cells

The development of the valves and septa of the heart depends on the formation and remodeling of endocardial cushions. Here, we report that the alternative splicing regulator muscleblind‐like 1 (MBNL1) exhibits a regionally restricted pattern of expression in canal region endocardium and ventricular myocardium during endocardial cushion development in chicken. Knockdown of MBNL1 in atrioventricular explants leads to a transforming growth factor β‐dependent increase in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) of endocardial cells. This reveals a novel role for MBNL1 during embryonic development, and represents the first evidence that an alternative splicing regulator is a key player in endocardial cushion development. Developmental Dynamics 238:3266–3272, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Age- and gender-related differences in blood amphetamine concentrations in apprehended drivers: lack of association with clinical evidence of impairment.

BACKGROUND New legislation aimed at combating driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) in Sweden stipulated zero-concentrations in blood for scheduled substances. DUID suspects (n = 300), with amphetamine as the only psychoactive drug identified in blood, were investigated in relation to age and gender. In a smaller retrospective sample (n = 70) the relationship between clinical tests of impairment were compared with the concentration of amphetamine in blood. MEASUREMENTS All forensic blood samples were subjected to a broad toxicological screening analysis by immunoassay methods [enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique/cloned enzyme donor immunoassay (EMIT/CEDIA)] and positive results were verified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The limit of quantitation (LOQ) for determination of amphetamine in blood was 0.03 mg/l. People suspected of being under the influence of drugs were examined by a physician who asked various questions about state of health and use of drugs and also administered simple psychomotor and cognitive tests of impairment. After conducting these tests the physician concluded whether the suspects were not impaired, slightly, moderately or highly impaired by drugs other than alcohol. FINDINGS Among 300 DUID suspects with amphetamine in blood there were 246 men (82%) and 54 women (18%). Mean age (+/- SD) of the men was 37.1 +/- 8.7 years compared with 35.5 +/- 7.1 years for the women (P > 0.05). The frequency distribution of blood amphetamine concentration was positively skewed with mean, median and highest values of 1.0 mg/l, 0.9 mg/l and 7.1 mg/l, respectively. The mean concentrations were slightly higher in the women 1.11 mg/l (median 1.0 mg/l) compared with 0.97 mg/l (median 0.8 mg/l) in the men (P > 0.05). There was a weak but statistically significant correlation between the person's age and the concentration of amphetamine in blood (r = 0.18, P < 0.05). The results of clinical tests of impairment showed no relationship with the concentration of amphetamine in blood according to analysis of variance (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The lack of association between degree of drug influence and the concentration of amphetamine in blood speaks against the notion of introducing concentration per se limits or graded penalties depending on the blood-concentration of this stimulant. Zero-concentration limits or LOQ-limits are a much more pragmatic way to enforce DUID legislation.
Survival in metastatic ocular melanoma

Of 35 patients with metastatic ocular melanoma, 71.4% manifested liver involvement either initially (45.7%) or later in the course of the disease (25.7%). With liver involvement, the median survival was 2.2 months, whereas with pulmonary involvement it was 19.2 months after the first evidence of metastatic disease (P < 0.01). Survival after recurrence varied also with age, those younger than 50 years having median survival of 14 months, with those 50 years or older having median survival 3.5 months (P < 0.01). It also varied with the patient's sex, males having median survival 3 months after recurrence, and females 10.4 months (P < 0.05). Younger patients and females had also longer disease‐free intervals prior to recurrence. Surgical removal of metastases, when feasible, in combination with chemotherapy, seems to offer improved palliation, since a subsequent median survival thus of 18.4 months was observed with 3/15 patients alive disease‐free 1 to 3 years later, while the median survival of 20 patients not treated with surgery was 2.5 months. Most of this difference in survival, however, is due to a difference in tumor load between the two groups, with patients subjected to surgery having lesser amounts of tumor and/or more favorable sites. Cancer 52:334‐336, 1983.
Benchmark Hadoop and Mars : MapReduce on cluster versus on GPU

MapReduce[5] is an emerging programming model that utilizes distributed processing elements (PE) on large datasets. With this model, programmers can write highly parallelized code without explicitly dealing with task scheduling and code parallelism in distributed systems. In this paper, we comparatively evaluate the performance of MapReduce model on Hadoop[2] and on Mars[3]. Hadoop is a software framework for MapReduce on large clusters, whereas Mars builds the framework on graphics processors using CUDA[4]. We design and implement two practical programs, Document Similarity Score and Matrix Multiplication, to benchmark these two frameworks. Based on the experiment results, we conclude that Mars is up to two orders of magnitude faster than Hadoop, whereas Hadoop is more flexible in dependency to dataset size and shape. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the parallel design of the two benchmarks, Document Similarity Score and Matrix Multiplication, as well as their target architecture. Section 3 presents our evaluation implementation and result. Finally, we conclude our work in section 4.
Identification of a New Site for Ferrichrome Transport by Comparison of the FhuA Proteins of Escherichia coli,Salmonella paratyphi B, Salmonella typhimurium, and Pantoea agglomerans

ABSTRACT The fhuA genes of Salmonella paratyphi B,Salmonella typhimurium, and Pantoea agglomeranswere sequenced and compared with the known fhuA sequence ofEscherichia coli. The highly similar FhuA proteins displayed the largest difference in the predicted gating loop, which inE. coli controls the permeability of the FhuA channel and serves as the principal binding site for the phages T1, T5, and φ80. All the FhuA proteins contained the region in the gating loops required in E. coli for ferrichrome and albomycin transport. The three subdomains required for phage binding were contained in the gating loop of S. paratyphi B which is infected by theE. coli phages, whereas two of the subdomains were deleted in S. typhimurium and P. agglomerans which are resistant to the E. coli phages. Small deletions in a surface loop adjacent to the gating loop, residues 236 to 243 and 236 to 248, inactivated E. coli FhuA with regard to transport of ferrichrome and albomycin, but sensitivity to T1 and T5 was fully retained and sensitivity to φ80 and colicin M was reduced 10-fold. Full-size FhuA hybrid proteins of S. paratyphi B and S. typhimurium displayedS. paratyphi B FhuA activity when the hybrids contained two-thirds of either the N- or the C-terminal portions ofS. paratyphi B and displayed S. typhimurium FhuA activity to phage ES18 when the hybrid contained two-thirds of the N-terminal region of the S. typhimurium FhuA. The central segment of the S. paratyphi B FhuA flanked on both sides by S. typhimurium FhuA regions conferred full sensitivity only to phage T5. The data support the essential role of the gating loop for the transport of ferrichrome and albomycin, identified an additional loop for ferrichrome and albomycin uptake, and suggest that several segments and their proper conformation, determined by the entire FhuA protein, contribute to the multiple FhuA activities.
An M-Learning System Based on Mobile Phones and Quick Response Codes

Problem statement: Many instructors in academia wish to know how much their students understand the content of the lecture; however, doing this manually will be very difficult and time consuming. Similarly, most students have communication problems with their instructors and they wish if they can ask their questions without any fear. So a need for a technology to bridge these gaps is becoming apparent in our rapidly changing world. Approach: The development and implementation of a Mobile Snapshot Response system, which uses the camera integrated within mobile phones and QR Codes to leverage student interaction in the classroom. The potential objective of the system is to increase the connectivity between the instructor and the student by offering the student the opportunity to evaluate the lecture content and send inquires to the instructor after class. Results: The Mobile Snapshot Response system has been developed, implemented and tested and user evaluation has proved the system’s ease of use. Conclusions: The mobile snapshot response system can help in improving the communications between teachers and their students and in providing students with the ability to raise questions and comments without embarrassment. Moreover, the students will be able to answer short assessments at the end of each class in an easy and convenient way. Thus, our system will benefit the teachers as well as the students and improve the delivery of lectures by getting a timely feedback and by automatically analyzing student’s answers.
Mitochondrial Respiration in Human Colorectal and Breast Cancer Clinical Material Is Regulated Differently

We conducted quantitative cellular respiration analysis on samples taken from human breast cancer (HBC) and human colorectal cancer (HCC) patients. Respiratory capacity is not lost as a result of tumor formation and even though, functionally, complex I in HCC was found to be suppressed, it was not evident on the protein level. Additionally, metabolic control analysis was used to quantify the role of components of mitochondrial interactosome. The main rate-controlling steps in HBC are complex IV and adenine nucleotide transporter, but in HCC, complexes I and III. Our kinetic measurements confirmed previous studies that respiratory chain complexes I and III in HBC and HCC can be assembled into supercomplexes with a possible partial addition from the complex IV pool. Therefore, the kinetic method can be a useful addition in studying supercomplexes in cell lines or human samples. In addition, when results from culture cells were compared to those from clinical samples, clear differences were present, but we also detected two different types of mitochondria within clinical HBC samples, possibly linked to two-compartment metabolism. Taken together, our data show that mitochondrial respiration and regulation of mitochondrial membrane permeability have substantial differences between these two cancer types when compared to each other to their adjacent healthy tissue or to respective cell cultures.
The A wave of the apex cardiogram in idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis.

Idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis was first clearly described as a clinical entity by Brock in 1957. Since then its specific clinical aspects have been reviewed among others by Braunwald et al. in 1964. The condition is characterized by hypertrophy of the left ventricle, and particularly of the ventricular septum. The left ventricular cavity is small and its outflow tract narrowed by hypertrophy of the musculature in the subvalvular region. Low frequency precordial pulsations, which are inaudible, were recorded by Marey as early as 1878, and represent the impulse felt at the apex of the heart. A review of present-day methods of recording these low frequencies was made by Agress et al., in 1964, the records obtained being either displacement (first derivative) or acceleration (second derivative) tracings. At least three methods of recording displacement tracings are available: the apex cardiogram (Benchimol and Dimond, 1963a), the kinetocardiogram (Eddleman et al., 1953), and the method of Beilin and Mounsey (1962). Reviews of recent studies of apex cardiograms have been made (Rorvik, 1963; Benchimol and Dimond, 1963a). It is the purpose of this paper to describe the changes in the apex cardiogram in muscular subaortic stenosis, and of particular interest has been the increase in size of the A wave.
Bragg gratings for 1.55-μm wavelength fabricated on semiconductor material by grating-period doubling using a phase mask

A 240-nm-period grating has been fabricated in photoresist on semiconductor material by doubling of the phase-mask grating period. A standard mask aligner retrofitted with a UV laser was used for lithography. The phase mask was optimized via numerical simulation of the distribution of optical power in the photoresist. <<ETX>>
CBP / p 300-Interacting Transactivator , with Glu / Asp-Rich C-Terminal Domain , 2 , and Pre-B-Cell Leukemia Transcription Factor 1 in Human Adrenal Development and Disease

Developmental Endocrinology Research Group (B.F.-d.-S., R.E.H.-D., L.L., J.C.A.) and Neural Development Unit (P.C., D.G.), University College London Institute of Child Health, University College London, London WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom; Children’s Hospital (F.M., A.H.), Technical University Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany; Molecular Endocrinology and Rare Diseases (D.M., Y.M.), Centre de Biologie et Pathologie Est, 69677 Bron, France; Endocrine Research (F.B.), Department of Medicine Innenstadt, University Hospital Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany
Improved determination of total serum lipids by the sulfo-phospho-vanillin reaction.

We have modified and improved a colorimetric method for determining total serum lipids [ Amer. J. Clin. Pathol. 53, 89 (1970)]. The improved procedure requires only 20 µl of serum, and the entire determination is done in one tube, thus eliminating the tedious pipetting of a concentrated sulfuric acid-serum digest. The phospho-vanillin reagent has been modified so that the linearity of the method now extends to 1250 mg/dl. Concentrations up to 1240 mg/dl or of bilirubin up to 20 mg/dl in the serum do not interfere. The relative standard deviation for the method (day-to-day) is 4.9%.
A genomically/chemically complete module for synthesis of lipid membrane in a minimal cell

A minimal cell is a hypothetical cell defined by the essential functions required for life. We have developed a module for the synthesis of membrane precursors for a mathematical minimal cell model. This module describes, with chemical and genomic detail the production of the constituents required to build a cell membrane and identifies the corresponding essential genes. Membranes allow selective nutrient passage, harmful substance exclusion, and energy generation. Bacterial membrane components range from lipids to fatty acids with embedded proteins and are structurally similar to eukaryotic cell membranes. Membranes are dynamic structures and experimental analyses show great variations in bacterial membrane composition. The flexibility of the model is such that different membrane compositions could be obtained in response to simulated changes in culture conditions. The model's predictions are in close agreement with the observed biological trends. The model's predictions correspond well with the experimental values of total lipid content in cells grown in chemostat culture, but less well with data from batch growth. Cell shape and size results agree especially well for data for growth rate relative to maximum growth rate larger than 0.5; and DNA, RNA, and protein predictions are consistent with experimental observations. A better understanding of the simplest bacterial membrane should lead to insights on the more complex behavior of membranes of higher species as well as identification of potential targets for antimicrobials. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;97: 397–409. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.