Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Author ' s personal copy D 184 E MUTATION IN AQUAPORIN-4 GENE IMPAIRS WATER PERMEABILITY AND LINKS TO DEAFNESS

Aquaporins (AQPs) play a physiological role in several organs and tissues, and their alteration is associated with disorders of water regulation. The identification of molecular interactions, which are crucial in determining the rate of water flux through the channel, is of pivotal role for the discovery of molecules able to target those interactions and therefore to be used for pathologies ascribable to an altered AQP-dependent water balance. In the present study, a mutational screening of human aquaporin-4 (AQP4) gene was performed on subjects with variable degrees of hearing loss. One heterozygous missense mutation was identified in a Spanish sporadic case, leading to an Asp/Glu amino acid substitution at position 184 (D184E). A BLAST analysis revealed that the amino acid D184 is conserved across species, consistently with a crucial role in the structure/function of AQP4 water channels. The mutation induces a significant reduction in water permeability as measured by the Xenopus laevis oocytes swelling assay and by the use of mammalian cells by total internal reflection microscopy. By Western blot, immunofluorescence and 2D Blue Native/SDS-PAGE we show that the reduction in water permeability is not ascribable to a reduced expression of AQP4 mutant protein or to its incorrect plasma membrane targeting and aggregation into orthogonal arrays of particles. Molecular dynamics simulation provided a molecular explanation of the mechanism whereby the mutation induces a loss of function of the channel. Substituting glutamate for aspartate affects the mobility of the D loop, which acquires a higher propensity to equilibrate in a “closed conformation”, thus affecting the rate of water flux. We speculate that this mutation, combined with other genetic defects or concurrently with certain environmental stimuli, could confer a higher susceptibility to deafness. © 2011 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Proinflammatory mediators released by activated microglia induces neuronal death in Japanese encephalitis

While a number of studies have documented the importance of microglia in central nervous system (CNS) response to injury, infection and disease, little is known regarding its role in viral encephalitis. We therefore, exploited an experimental model of Japanese Encephalitis, to better understand the role played by microglia in Japanese Encephalitis Virus (JEV) infection. Lectin staining performed to assess microglial activation indicated a robust increase in reactive microglia following infection. A difference in the topographic distribution of activated, resting, and phagocytic microglia was also observed. The levels of various proinflammatory mediators, such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase‐2 (Cox‐2), IL‐6, IL‐1β, TNF‐α, and MCP‐1 that have been implicated in microglial response to an activational state was significantly elevated following infection. These cytokines exhibited region selective expression in the brains of infected animals, with the highest expression observed in the hippocampus. Moreover, the expression of neuronal specific nuclear protein NeuN was markedly downregulated during progressive infection indicating neuronal loss. In vitro studies further confirmed that microglial activation and subsequent release of various proinflammatory mediators induces neuronal death following JEV infection. Although initiation of immune responses by microglial cells is an important protective mechanism in the CNS, unrestrained inflammatory responses may result in irreparable brain damage. Our findings suggest that the increased microglial activation following JEV infection influences the outcome of viral pathogenesis. It is likely that the increased microglial activation triggers bystander damage, as the animals eventually succumb to infection. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Analysis for large-scale integration of PV system in Japan with a high time-resolution optimal power generation mix model

This paper assesses the possible integration of a massive PV resource into the power generation mix in Japan using a high time-resolution optimal power generation mix model. The feature of the model allows us to explicitly consider actual PV and wind output variability in 10-minute resolution on 365 days. Simulation results reveal that both the suppression control of PV output and rechargeable battery installation show a significant increase when PV installs at more than the similar scale of the peak demand or PV fraction in total power generation exceeds the level of around 20 percent. The calculated results imply as well that a large-scale integration of PV potentially decreases the usage ratio of LNG combined cycle (LNGCC) in specific seasons, which suggests the challenge for utility companies to assure LNGCC serving as a profitable ramp generator for treating the PV variability.
Efficient extraction of closed motivic patterns in multi-dimensional symbolic representations of music

An efficient model for discovering repeated patterns in symbolic representations of music is presented. Combinatorial redundancy inherent in the pattern discovery paradigm is commonly filtered using global selective mechanisms, based on pattern frequency and length. We propose an alternate approach founded on the concept of closed pattern and enabling detailed analyses through adaptive selection of most specific descriptions in a multidimensional parametric space. A notion of cyclic pattern is introduced, enabling an adapted filtering of another form of combinatorial redundancy caused by successive repetitions of patterns. The use of cyclic patterns implies a necessary chronological scanning of the piece, and the addition of mechanisms formalizing particular Gestalt principles. This study shows therefore that automated analysis of music cannot rely on simple mathematical or statistical approaches, but needs rather complex and detailed modeling of the cognitive system ruling listening processes. The resulting algorithm is able to offer for the first time compact and relevant motivic analyses of simple monodies, and may therefore be applied to automated indexing of symbolic music databases. Numerous additional mechanisms need to be added in order to consider all aspects of music expression, including polyphony and complex musical transformations.
Benzotriazole-Mediated Synthesis and Antibacterial Activity of Novel N-Acylcephalexins

Cephalexin (1) was acylated using N-acylbenzotriazoles (3a–k′) derived from various carboxylic acids including aromatic, heterocyclic and N-Pg-α-amino acid to afford N-acylcephalexins in excellent yields (82%–96%). Antibacterial screening of the novel cephalosporins revealed that all targets (4a–j) retained the antibacterial activity of cephalexin against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538). N-Nicotinylcephalexin (4c) and N-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoyl)cephalexin (4g) exhibited a broader spectrum of antibacterial activity towards standard strains of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Paenibacillus polymyxa (ATCC 842), and Escherichia coli (ATCC 10536) as well as a resistant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853).
Design and Implementation of Practical Induction Heating Cooker

Induction heating is a famous technology and very usually used for cooking appliances because of its high-energy efficiency. This paper presents a practical design procedure for small induction heating devices. Also, we model the magneto thermal phenomena of the system by a finite element method (FEM) to determine the temperature evolution in the bottom of the pan, taking into account the nonlinearity of the system.
Genetic immunotherapy of established tumours with adenoviral vectors transducing murine interleukin‐12 (mIL12) subunits in a rat medullary thyroid carcinoma model

Interleukin‐12 (IL12) is a heterodimeric cytokine that plays an important role in the development of cellular immunity. Studies have demonstrated antitumour activity after systemic administration of recombinant IL12. As with other cytokines, with increasing dosage and longer exposure, systemic toxicity is observed. To reduce systemic toxicity and obtain local production of IL12, we developed a replication defective adenovirus transducing two subunits of the murine IL12 (AdCMVmIL12) gene.
Existence Theorems for First-Order Equations on Time Scales with -Carathéodory Functions

This paper concerns the existence of solutions for two kinds of systems of first-order equations on time scales. Existence results for these problems are obtained with new notions of solution tube adapted to these systems. We consider the general case where the right member of the system is -Carathéodory and, hence, not necessarily continuous.
Hold-Up and Durable Trading Opportunities

This paper examines a contractual settingwith unverifiable investment and a durable trading opportunity, in which trade can take place in any one of an infinite number of periods. The contractual setting features cross-investment, meaning that the seller’s investment affects the buyer’s benefit of trade. The analysis shows that durability of the trading opportunity does not complicate the hold-up problem; more precisely, the set of outcomes supported in the durability setting is equivalent to the set supported in the related setting without durability. Thus, the technology of investment and trade— in particular, whether investment and trade actions are divided or unified (Buzard and Watson 2009)— plays an important role in determining whether the seller can be induced to invest at the efficient level. The issue of multiple equilibrium is analyzed and it is shown that particular non-stationary contracts can achieve unique implementation. The modeling exercise thus qualifies the recent view that durability may contribute to the hold-up problem
Selection for Genetic Variation Inducing Pro-Inflammatory Responses under Adverse Environmental Conditions in a Ghanaian Population

Background Chronic inflammation is involved in the pathogenesis of chronic age-associated, degenerative diseases. Pro-inflammatory host responses that are deleterious later in life may originate from evolutionary selection for genetic variation mediating resistance to infectious diseases under adverse environmental conditions. Methodology/Principal Findings In the Upper-East region of Ghana where infection has remained the leading cause of death, we studied the effect on survival of genetic variations at the IL10 gene locus that have been associated with chronic diseases. Here we show that an IL10 haplotype that associated with a pro-inflammatory innate immune response, characterised by low IL-10 (p = 0.028) and high TNF-α levels (p = 1.39×10−3), was enriched among Ghanaian elders (p = 2.46×10−6). Furthermore, in an environment where the source of drinking water (wells/rivers vs. boreholes) influences mortality risks (HR 1.28, 95% CI [1.09–1.50]), we observed that carriers of the pro-inflammatory haplotype have a survival advantage when drinking from wells/rivers but a disadvantage when drinking from boreholes (pinteraction = 0.013). Resequencing the IL10 gene region did not uncover any additional common variants in the pro-inflammatory haplotype to those SNPs that were initially genotyped. Conclusions/Significance Altogether, these data lend strong arguments for the selection of pro-inflammatory host responses to overcome fatal infection and promote survival in adverse environments.
Calculation of the current carrying capability of duct laying electric cable and analysis of the influential factors

A common characteristic of modern power transmission and distribution is the extensive use of underground electric cables. Because of tight economical constraints and limitation on space availability, public utilities around the world are striving to attain higher cable current carrying capability (ampacity), by means of improved designs and, at the same time, trying to achieve better accuracy of cable parameter values so that the simulated results would match as closely as possible the real-life situation. The traditional method of computing cable ampacity is based on IEC-60287, and a much more accurate and versatile approach would use numerical method. In this paper a newer approach to duct laying cable thermal field and ampacity computation using finite element method is formulated. In this method, a temperature field distribution model was constructed to analyze the temperature distribution of duct laying electric cable area, and the linear interpolation method is employed to calculate the cable ampacity. The developed model was applied to the 8.7/15KV YJV1×400 XLPE electric cable, from the example, one can note that the duct laying cable ampacity depends on many of the installation properties and conditions, of which the soil thermal resistance, the soil temperature, the environment temperature and the external heat source exercised predominant influences. The cable ampacity increases as the soil thermal conductivity and the distance from the external heat source increases, while it decreases linearly with the increases of the environment temperature and the soil temperature.
Plasma alkylresorcinols, biomarkers of whole-grain wheat and rye intake, and risk of type 2 diabetes in Scandinavian men and women.

BACKGROUND Studies that use dietary biomarkers to investigate the association between whole-grain intake and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) are lacking. OBJECTIVE We examined the association between plasma total alkylresorcinols and the alkylresorcinol C17:0-to-C21:0 ratio, biomarkers of whole-grain wheat and rye intake and relative whole-grain rye over whole-grain wheat intake, respectively, and the risk of T2D among Scandinavian men and women. DESIGN A nested case-control study was established within the Northern Sweden Health and Disease Study and the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort. Alkylresorcinol concentrations and the ratios of C17:0 to C21:0 were determined in plasma samples from 931 case-control pairs. ORs for T2D were calculated for plasma total alkylresorcinol concentration or C17:0-to-C21:0 ratio in quartiles with the use of conditional logistic regression that was adjusted for potential confounders. Additional analyses with whole-grain wheat and rye intake estimated from food-frequency questionnaires (FFQs) as exposures were also performed. RESULTS The plasma total alkylresorcinol concentration was not associated with T2D risk (OR: 1.34; 95% CI: 0.95, 1.88) for the highest compared with the lowest quartiles in multivariable adjusted models. However, the C17:0-to-C21:0 ratio was associated with a lower diabetes risk (OR: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.37, 0.78). Analyses with whole-grain intake estimated from FFQs yielded similar results. CONCLUSIONS Total whole-grain wheat and rye intake, reflected by alkylresorcinols in plasma, was not associated with a lower risk of T2D in a population with high whole-grain intake. In contrast, the proportion of whole-grain rye to whole-grain wheat intake, indicated by the plasma C17:0-to-C21:0 ratio, was inversely associated with T2D. This suggests that whole-grain intake dominated by rye may be favorable for T2D prevention.
Team AnnieWAY's autonomous system for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge

This paper reports on AnnieWAY, an autonomous vehicle that is capable of driving through urban scenarios and that successfully entered the finals of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge competition. After describing the main challenges imposed and the major hardware components, we outline the underlying software structure and focus on selected algorithms. Environmental perception mainly relies on a recent laser scanner that delivers both range and reflectivity measurements. Whereas range measurements are used to provide three‐dimensional scene geometry, measuring reflectivity allows for robust lane marker detection. Mission and maneuver planning is conducted using a hierarchical state machine that generates behavior in accordance with California traffic laws. We conclude with a report of the results achieved during the competition. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
On the Selection of an Optimal Set of Indexes

A problem of considerable interest in the design of a database is the selection of indexes. In this paper, we present a probabilistic model of transactions (queries, updates, insertions, and deletions) to a file. An evaluation function, which is based on the cost saving (in terms of the number of page accesses) attributable to the use of an index set, is then developed. The maximization of this function would yield an optimal set of indexes. Unfortunately, algorithms known to solve this maximization problem require an order of time exponential in the total number of attributes in the file. Consequently, we develop the theoretical basis which leads to an algorithm that obtains a near optimal solution to the index selection problem in polynomial time. The theoretical result consists of showing that the index selection problem can be solved by solving a properly chosen instance of the knapsack problem. A theoretical bound for the amount by which the solution obtained by this algorithm deviates from the true optimum is provided. This result is then interpreted in the light of evidence gathered through experiments.
Towards English-Czech Parallel Valency Lexicon via Treebank Examples

The paper describes an ongoing project of building a bilingual valency lexicon in the framework of Functional Generative Description. The bilingual lexicon is designed as a result of interlinking frames and frame elements of two already existing valency lexicons. First, we give an overall account of the character of the lexicons to be linked, second, the process of frame linking is explained, and third, a case study is presented to exemplify what the information contained in frame links tells us about crosslinguistic di erences in general and the linguistic theory applied.
Evaluating query log segmentation for frustration detection

We explore the problem of identifying and grouping information needs within a stream of queries. Our dataset contains sequences of queries issued by medical specialists to a domain-specific search system. Because the system allows for group logins, a sequence of queries could come from any number of specialists sharing an access point (for example, in an emergency room). We present several approaches for segmenting the stream of queries into tasks. Our ultimate goal is to detect frustrated searchers who are unsuccessful at satisfying their information needs. With that task in mind, we present an alternative evaluation measure and compare it to task-agnostic measures.
Adverse reactions to contrast media in CT: effects of temperature and ionic property.

PURPOSE To assess the severity of adverse reactions to contrast media in outpatient computed tomographic (CT) examinations in a conventional clinical setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 4,936 patients, CT was performed with four protocols: ionic contrast medium with sodium meglumine as the cation (in one protocol, contrast material was warmed to 35 degrees C before injection; in another protocol, it was administered at ambient temperature); warmed, ionic contrast medium with nonsodium pure meglumine as the cation; and warmed, nonionic iopamidol. RESULTS Adverse reactions to ionic contrast material statistically significantly decreased (P<.05) when it was warmed before administration. Reactions to ionic contrast media without a sodium cation were statistically significantly fewer (P<.001) than reactions to those with a sodium cation. In all protocols, pediatric patients had fewer reactions than adult patients. CONCLUSION In outpatient CT examinations, nonionic, warmed contrast medium was the best option because no severe reactions resulted from its use. Prevalence of adverse reactions was comparable to that in controlled randomized studies.
EARLY FLOWERING 4 Functions in Phytochrome B-Regulated Seedling De-Etiolation1

To define the functions of genes previously identified by expression profiling as being rapidly light induced under phytochrome (phy) control, we are investigating the seedling de-etiolation phenotypes of mutants carrying T-DNA insertional disruptions at these loci. Mutants at one such locus displayed reduced responsiveness to continuous red, but not continuous far-red light, suggesting a role in phyB signaling but not phyA signaling. Consistent with such a role, expression of this gene is induced by continuous red light in wild-type seedlings, but the level of induction is strongly reduced in phyB-null mutants. The locus encodes a novel protein that we show localizes to the nucleus, thus suggesting a function in light-regulated gene expression. Recently, this locus was identified as EARLY FLOWERING 4, a gene implicated in floral induction and regulating the expression of the gene CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED 1. Together with these previous data, our findings suggest that EARLY FLOWERING 4 functions as a signaling intermediate in phy-regulated gene expression involved in promotion of seedling de-etiolation, circadian clock function, and photoperiod perception.
Serotyping of human group A rotavirus with oligonucleotide probes.

Rotaviruses (RV) in stools of children with diarrhea in Thailand were serotyped by monoclonal enzyme immunoassay (MEIA), and RNA extracted from these specimens were tested for hybridization with oligonucleotides constructed from the nucleotide sequences of VP7 of human serotypes 1, 2, 3, and 4. Of 178 specimens that contained RV as identified with a monoclonal antibody to group A RV, 84% (149/178) hybridized with serotype-specific oligonucleotides, and 42% (74/178) were serotyped by MEIA (P less than .001). Of the 74 specimens that were serotyped by MEIA, 92% (35/38) of type 1, 97% (34/35) of type 2, and the one type 4 RV hybridized with the HuG1Ac, HuG2Ac, and HuG4Ac oligonucleotides, respectively. RV strains identified in children in Thailand in 1987 and 1988 to which a serotype could be assigned by either method were either type 1, type 2, or, less often, type 4. Testing RV for hybridization with oligonucleotides for genes encoding VP7 is an alternate method of determining RV serotypes.
Acute Postoperative Pain Management

One of the most important concerns of the patients in postoperative period is postoperative pain. This phenomenon is a combination of sensation, emotions and thoughts presents as pain behaviour. Pain is commonly defined as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage”. 1 Pain, as a sensory experience, varies in its severity and life impact according to the individual's subjective meaning associated with a pain situation, the patient's emotional responses, attention given to the pain and other personal appraisals.2
Dynamic control of posture across locomotor tasks

Successful locomotion depends on postural control to establish and maintain appropriate postural orientation of body segments relative to one another and to the environment and to ensure dynamic stability of the moving body. This article provides a framework for considering dynamic postural control, highlighting the importance of coordination, consistency, and challenges to postural control posed by various locomotor tasks, such as turning and backward walking. The impacts of aging and various movement disorders on postural control are discussed broadly in an effort to provide a general overview of the field and recommendations for assessment of dynamic postural control across different populations in both clinical and research settings. Suggestions for future research on dynamic postural control during locomotion also are provided and include discussion of opportunities afforded by new and developing technologies, the need for long‐term monitoring of locomotor performance in everyday activities, gaps in our knowledge of how targeted intervention approaches modify dynamic postural control, and the relative paucity of literature regarding dynamic postural control in movement disorder populations other than Parkinson's disease. © 2013 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society