Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nuclear Factor of Activated T Cells (NFAT) Proteins Repress Canonical Wnt Signaling via Its Interaction with Dishevelled (Dvl) Protein and Participate in Regulating Neural Progenitor Cell Proliferation and Differentiation*

The Ca2+ signaling pathway appears to regulate the processes of the early development through its antagonism of canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. However, the underlying mechanism is still poorly understood. Here, we show that nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT), a component of Ca2+ signaling, interacts directly with Dishevelled (Dvl) in a Ca2+-dependent manner. A dominant negative form of NFAT rescued the inhibition of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway triggered by the Ca2+ signal. NFAT functioned downstream of β-catenin without interfering with its stability, but influencing the interaction of β-catenin with Dvl by its competitively binding to Dvl. Furthermore, we demonstrate that NFAT is a regulator in the proliferation and differentiation of neural progenitor cells by modulating canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the neural tube of chick embryo. Our findings suggest that NFAT negatively regulates canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling by binding to Dvl, thereby participating in vertebrate neurogenesis.
Who Drives Market Access for Genetically Modified Organisms and Products in Korea? A Political Economy Approach to Sustainable Development

This study explores the definition of the industrial use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), factors that affect it, and how it influences a firm’s economic performance to understand who drives market access for GMOs and GM products, considering the two premises related to sustainable development: 1) the continuing use of GMOs is one of the most prominent driving forces behind a bio-based economy’s growth, and 2) social system members seek protection from the potential risks of GMOs. The results show compelling evidence of a structural relationship between sociopolitical/economic pressures and economic performance. Additionally, these pressures vary by industry, and activities to secure both social and economic legitimacy due to these pressures have a positive impact on overall firm performance.
Transcription Factor Nuclear Factor κB Regulates the Inducible Expression of the Human B1 Receptor Gene in Inflammation*

Expression of the bradykinin B1receptor gene is up-regulated in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in response to a variety of inflammatory stimuli. We isolated the 5′-flanking region of the human bradykinin B1 receptor gene and examined its promoter activity by transient transfection analysis. This region (−2582 to +34) showed promoter activity inducible by lipopolysaccharide (LPS), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in VSMCs. Further deletion analysis revealed that constructs containing 111 base pairs of 5′-flanking sequence were sufficient for transcriptional induction. Mutagenesis of a nuclear factor κB (NF-κB)-like site at −64 to −55 abolished most of the LPS, TNF-α, and IL-1β inducibility, whereas a mutation of a cyclic AMP response element at −50 to −43 markedly reduced the basal promoter activity, and a mutation of the activator protein 1 (AP-1) site at −78 to −72 had minimal effects. Nuclear extracts from LPS, TNF-α, and IL-1β-treated VSMCs, IL-1β-treated human hepatoma HepG2, and human lung fibroblast IMR-90 cells showed strong inducible binding activity to the NF-κB-like site by gel shift assays. These results demonstrated that NF-κB-like nuclear factor was involved in the inducible expression of the human bradykinin B1 receptor gene during inflammatory processes.
Is Differentiated Vulval Intraepithelial Neoplasia the Precursor Lesion of Human Papillomavirus-Negative Vulval Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

Vulval squamous cell carcinoma appears to arise via 2 distinct pathways. A significant minority are associated with oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and undifferentiated vulval intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN). However, the majority arises in the absence of HPV, on a background of chronic inflammation. Until recently, it was assumed that lichen sclerosus was the underlying inflammatory condition in the majority of HPV-negative cancers. This pathway of carcinogenesis has been less well studied than the HPV pathway. Emerging evidence implicates differentiated VIN (DVIN), rather than lichen sclerosus, as the most likely precursor lesion in HPV-negative vulval squamous cell carcinoma. Here we discuss the clinical and molecular evidence that implicates DVIN as a lesion with a high malignant potential. This lesion is probably underdiagnosed and may be undertreated. Better recognition of DVIN by gynecologists and pathologists may therefore offer an opportunity to prevent some vulval cancers.
Epidemiology of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle in Hokkaido, Japan, between September 2001 and December 2006

Between October 2001 and December 2006 an estimated total of 6 million cattle in Japan were tested for bse, with 31 returning a positive result. Exploratory mapping, the space-time scan statistic, and ordinal logistic regression have been used to describe the epidemiology of the 24 cases identified in the prefecture of Hokkaido, and to quantify the risk factors for the disease. Two birth cohort groups were affected: cattle born during a period of seven months in 1996, and cattle born between 1999 and 2001. The descriptive spatial analyses showed that eight of the 10 cases born in 1996 were born in areas with a relatively high density of dairy farms in the east of Hokkaido, but that the 14 later cases were more widely distributed throughout the prefecture, with equal numbers of cases in the east and the west. These findings provide indirect evidence of a single localised contamination of the cattle feed supply in 1996, and recycling of the infection after 1999.
Objectivity in psychoanalytic judgements

Background There is widespread scepticism concerning the reliability and validity of psychoanalytic judgements of patient–therapist transactions. We predicted that (a) in reviewing the initial part of 14 videotaped assessment interviews with borderline and dysthymic subjects, dynamic psychotherapists would agree in their ratings of psychoanalytically relevant characteristics of subjects' interpersonal relations; (b) inter-correlations among the ratings would conform with those expected from psychoanalytic descriptions of ‘paranoid-schizoid’ and ‘depressive position’ states of mind; and (c) these ratings would differentiate between borderline and dysthymic groups. Method Six trained psychotherapists who were blind to the design of the study, independently rated qualities of interpersonal relatedness during the first 30 minutes of each interview, on & 30-item ‘personal relatedness profile’ Results There was satisfactory interrater reliability in judgements among the raters, and evidence that the items were interrelated. There was also & significant difference between the two subject groups. Conclusions It is possible to make reliable psychoanalytic judgements about qualities of interpersonal relatedness. Moreover, there is evidence that paranoid–schizoid and depressive positive aspects of psychological functioning do constitute & meaningful constellation of clinically grounded phenomena.
Active Input Line Current Shaping using Support Vector Machines

A strategy to minimize the harmonics injection to the mains, generated by static converters and further correcting power factor is adding to the converter an active current waveform shaper block based in a step-up dc-dc converter; the typical control scheme shows the disadvantage of being highly no-linear. In this paper is described an alternative control scheme based in "support vector machines" (SVM). SVM are algorithms of emergent computation that have demonstrated an excellent acting in classification and regression applications. This study case showed the correct performance and interesting results as control block, for the case of a full-bridge, single-phase rectifier under computer simulation
ATSUM: Extracting Attractive Summaries for News Propagation on Microblogs

In this paper, we investigate how to automatically extract attractive summaries for news propagation on microblogs and propose a novel system called ATSUM to achieve this goal via text attractiveness analysis. It first analyzes the sentences in a news article and automatically predict the attractiveness score of each sentence by using the support vector regression method. The predicted attractiveness scores are then incorporated into a summarization system. Experimental results on a manually labeled dataset verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Combined Use of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis Recombinant 27-Kilodalton and Purified 87-Kilodalton Antigens in an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Serodiagnosis of Paracoccidioidomycosis

ABSTRACT The diagnosis of paracoccidioidomycosis (PCM) has relied on the identification of the host's humoral response by using a variety of immunological methods, such as complement fixation and immunodiffusion. Although these approaches are useful, historically their sensitivity and specificity have often been compromised by the use of complex mixtures of undefined antigens. The use of combinations of purified, well-characterized antigens appears preferable and may yield optimum results. Accordingly an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using combinations of the previously described 27-kDa recombinant antigen and the 87-kDa heat shock protein were used for diagnosis and follow-up of patients with PCM. A total of 37 patients classified according to their clinical presentations (7 with the acute or subacute form of the disease, 22 with the chronic form of the disease, and 8 with the chronic unifocal form) were studied. Eighteen of these patients were also evaluated at every follow-up appointment. Forty serum samples from patients with other diseases and 50 serum samples from healthy individuals were also studied. Detection of anti-27-kDa and anti-87-kDa antibodies in sera of patients with PCM by ELISA using a combination of the two purified proteins showed a sensitivity of 92% with a specificity of 88% in comparison with normal human sera and 90% in comparison with the heterologous sera. These results demonstrated a significant increase in sensitivity and specificity compared to results when the antigens were used separately. Thus, the use of combinations of well-defined antigens appears to offer clear advantages over the use of single antigens when diagnosing PCM.
Comparing the intensity of scrutiny for ‘domestic’ and implementing bills: does transposition of EU law reduce political contestation in national parliaments?

ABSTRACT Research on the role of national parliaments in European Union (EU) matters dominantly concentrates on ex ante scrutiny and mostly neglects that many parliaments are constitutionally obliged to play an important part in the implementation of EU law into domestic legal orders. The low interest is tied to an argument that even if national parliaments are involved in transposition, they only serve as constrained agents of the EU. This article tests this assumption and inquires whether there are differences between parliaments’ scrutiny of bills (laws) transposing EU impulses and ‘purely domestic’ bills. Analysis is based on quantitative data from the Czech Chamber of Deputies and the Slovak National Council. While the project remains essentially exploratory, results suggest that while the implementing bills are debated considerably less than the domestic bills, for the remaining included indicators the intensity of scrutiny for the former group of bills on average does not differ from the latter group. The findings might therefore challenge the thesis that that the implementation process is mere formality that consequently reduces political contestation in the legislatures.
Eigenfilter design of higher-order digital differentiators

An effective approach is proposed for designing higher order differentiators by the eigenfilter method. By minimizing a quadratic measure of the error in the frequency band, an eigenvector of an appropriate matrix is computed to get the filter coefficients. This method is not only simple and fast, but also optimal in the least-squares sense. Comparison to the McClellan-Parks algorithm for minimax equiripple filters shows that both are optimal in the sense of different minimum norms of the error function, but much better performance is obtained with the proposed approach in most of the frequency band, except in the narrowband region near the cutoff edge. >
Analogue Phase Shifter based on Stacked CBCPW

This paper demonstrates a novel analogue phase shifter based on two-layer stacked conductor-backed coplanar waveguide (CBCPW), a regular CBCPW sticking to a substrate with chambers. The performance has been analyzed both numerically and experimentally from 1GHz to 3GHz. The measured results have a good agreement with simulated results, with maximum phase shifting of 81deg at 2.4GHz as well as maximum insertion loss of 4dB and minimum insertion loss of 0.5dB at room temperature. The performance attenuated reasonably when more chambers were filled in. With electronically controlled micropumps, pumping the fluid inside and outside the chambers, this phase shifter has the advantage of lower cost, lower power consumption and smaller size and weight than large number of digital phase shifters and mechanical phase shifters
P‐glycoprotein stability is affected by serum deprivation and high cell density in multidrug‐resistant cells

The control of P‐glycoprotein (Pgp) expression in multidrug‐resistant cells (MDR) is complex and may be regulated at different levels. We have investigated Pgp stability in four different human and hamster MDR cell lines. Using a pulse‐chase procedure we show that Pgp half‐life is between 14 and 17 h in all these cell lines when they are growing exponentially. However, in the presence of a low level of serum, Pgp half‐life is increased four to sixfold. A similar effect is observed when the cell cultures are maintained in high cell density. The increased Pgp stability appears to be differently regulated as serum deprivation results in a general enhanced degradation of total cytoplasmic and membrane proteins. Moreover, the observed serum effect suggests the involvement of growth factors in the control of Pgp stability. These findings suggest that protein stability may be an important factor in the regulation of Pgp expression. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1)-mediated Phosphorylation Is Governed by Competition between Substrates for Interaction with Raptor*

Background: mTORC1 targets p70S6K1 and 4E-BP1 are phosphorylated in response to nutrient and hormonal signals. Results: Loss of 4E-BP1/2 enhances the rate of p70S6K1 phosphorylation. Conclusion: By competitively interacting with raptor, 4E-BP1 impairs p70S6K1 phosphorylation. Significance: Altered 4E-BP1 expression potentially governs phosphorylation of p70S6K1 under pathophysiological states. In this study, the interaction of mTORC1 with its downstream targets p70S6K1 and 4E-BP1 was evaluated in both mouse liver and mouse embryonic fibroblasts following combined disruption of the genes encoding 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2. Phosphorylation of p70S6K1 was dramatically elevated in the livers of mice lacking 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2 following feeding-induced activation of mTORC1. Immunoprecipitation of mTORC1 suggested that elevated phosphorylation was the result of enhanced interaction of p70S6K1 with raptor. These findings were extended to a cell culture system wherein loss of 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2 resulted in elevated interaction of p70S6K1 with IGF1-induced activation of mTORC1 in conjunction with an enhanced rate of p70S6K1 phosphorylation at Thr-389. Furthermore, cotransfecting HA-p70S6K1 with 4E-BP1, but not 4E-BP1(F114A), reduced recovery of mTORC1 in HA-p70S6K1 immunoprecipitates. Together, these findings support the conclusion that, in the absence of 4E-BP proteins, mTORC1-mediated phosphorylation of p70S6K1 is elevated by a reduction in competition between the two substrates for interaction with raptor.
Neuromorphic Hardware System for Visual Pattern Recognition With Memristor Array and CMOS Neuron

This paper presents a neuromorphic system for visual pattern recognition realized in hardware. A new learning rule based on modified spike-timing-dependent plasticity is also presented and implemented with passive synaptic devices. The system includes an artificial photoreceptor, a Pr0.7Ca0. 3MnO3-based memristor array, and CMOS neurons. The artificial photoreceptor consisting of a CMOS image sensor and a field-programmable gate array converts an image into spike signals, and the memristor array is used to adjust the synaptic weights between the input and output neurons according to the learning rule. A leaky integrate-and-fire model is used for the output neuron that is built together with the image sensor on a single chip. The system has 30 input neurons that are interconnected to 10 output neurons through 300 memristors. Each input neuron corresponding to a pixel in a 5 × 6 pixel image generates voltage pulses according to the pixel value. The voltage pulses are then weighted and integrated by the memristors and the output neurons, respectively, to be compared with a certain threshold voltage above which an output neuron fires. The system has been successfully demonstrated by training and recognizing number images from 0 to 9.
Nonadditive changes to cytosine methylation as a consequence of hybridization and genome duplication in Senecio (Asteraceae)

The merger of two or more divergent genomes within an allopolyploid nucleus can facilitate speciation and adaptive evolution in flowering plants. Widespread changes to gene expression have been shown to result from interspecific hybridisation and polyploidy in a number of plant species, and attention has now shifted to determining the epigenetic processes that drive these changes. We present here an analysis of cytosine methylation patterns in triploid F1Senecio (ragwort) hybrids and their allohexaploid derivatives. We observe that, in common with similar studies in Arabidopsis, Spartina and Triticum, a small but significant proportion of loci display nonadditive methylation in the hybrids, largely resulting from interspecific hybridisation. Despite this, genome duplication results in a secondary effect on methylation, with reversion to additivity at some loci and novel methylation status at others. We also observe differences in methylation state between different allopolyploid generations, predominantly in cases of additive methylation with regard to which parental methylation state is dominant. These changes to methylation state in both F1 triploids and their allohexaploid derivatives largely mirror the overall patterns of nonadditive gene expression observed in our previous microarray analyses and may play a causative role in generating those expression changes. These similar global changes to DNA methylation resulting from hybridisation and genome duplication may serve as a source of epigenetic variation in natural populations, facilitating adaptive evolution. Our observations that methylation state can also vary between different generations of polyploid hybrids suggests that newly formed allopolyploid species may display a high degree of epigenetic diversity upon which natural selection can act.
The soil microbial community predicts the importance of plant traits in plant-soil feedback.

Reciprocal interaction between plant and soil (plant-soil feedback, PSF) can determine plant community structure. Understanding which traits control interspecific variation of PSF strength is crucial for plant ecology. Studies have highlighted either plant-mediated nutrient cycling (litter-mediated PSF) or plant-microbe interaction (microbial-mediated PSF) as important PSF mechanisms, each attributing PSF variation to different traits. However, this separation neglects the complex indirect interactions between the two mechanisms. We developed a model coupling litter- and microbial-mediated PSFs to identify the relative importance of traits in controlling PSF strength, and its dependency on the composition of root-associated microbes (i.e. pathogens and/or mycorrhizal fungi). Results showed that although plant carbon: nitrogen (C : N) ratio and microbial nutrient acquisition traits were consistently important, the importance of litter decomposability varied. Litter decomposability was not a major PSF determinant when pathogens are present. However, its importance increased with the relative abundance of mycorrhizal fungi as nutrient released from the mycorrhizal-enhanced litter production to the nutrient-depleted soils result in synergistic increase of soil nutrient and mycorrhizal abundance. Data compiled from empirical studies also supported our predictions. We propose that the importance of litter decomposability depends on the composition of root-associated microbes. Our results provide new perspectives in plant invasion and trait-based ecology.
Economic study of the value of expanding HCV treatment capacity in Germany

Background Today's highly efficacious, low-toxicity interferon-free treatment regimens for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) can cure most patients with HCV in 12–24 weeks. The aim of this study was to understand how the introduction of shorter duration treatment regimens for HCV will impact the capacity for treatment and value to society. Methods A Markov model of HCV transmission and progression was constructed, incorporating nationally representative data on HCV prevalence, incidence and progression; mortality, treatment costs, medical expenditures, employment probabilities and disability payments in Germany. The model was stratified by HCV genotype and exposure route (1-time healthcare exposure, injection drug use and sexual activity). Treatment scenarios were based on German treatment guidelines and projected treatment capacity. The impact of different treatment scenarios on disease transmission and prevalence, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), treatment costs, medical expenditures, employment and disability expenditures was calculated. Results Depending on their adoption profile, new treatment regimens and protocols introduced over the next several years will increase HCV treatment capacity in Germany by 8–30%, reducing disease transmission and prevalence, increasing QALYs and adding €94–310 million in discounted social value (QALYs plus medical savings net of treatment costs) over a 30-year horizon. Additional social value in the form of higher employment and lower disability would also result. Conclusions The introduction of shorter HCV treatment regimens and the resulting increased treatment capacity in Germany would result in large gains to society by reducing disease transmission and prevalence, resulting in longer, healthier, more productive lives for current and future generations.