Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quercetin reduces neural tissue damage and promotes astrocyte activation after spinal cord injury in rats

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is lead to locomotor impairment because of neurological damage after following trauma. Quercetin (Que) has been confirmed to have a neuro‐protective effect during nerve damage processes. The purpose of this study was to determine the roles of Que in functional recovery, cavity formation, astrocyte activation, and nerve regeneration following SCI. Sprague‐Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: Sham group, SCI group, and Que + SCI group. A rat model of SCI was made at T10 using the modified Allen's method. In the Que + SCI group, animals underwent laminectomy and were then intraperitoneally injected with 20 mg/kg Que for 7 days. Locomotor function was determined with the Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan (BBB) scores at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days post‐injury. At 7 days post‐injury, somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded. Hematoxylin‐Eosin (HE) staining was used to investigate cavity formation. Astrocyte activation was assayed by immunohistochemistry staining with an antibody specific for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), as well as the expression of GFAP and S100β. Axons were stained using an antibody specific for neurofilament 200 (NF200) and 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT). In addition, the protein level of BDNF, p‐JNK2, and p‐STAT3 was detected using Western blot. Que promoted locomotor function and electrophysiological recovery, reduced cavity formation, contributed to astrocyte activation and axonal regeneration after acute SCI. Moreover, Que up‐regulated the expression of BDNF, but reduced p‐JNK2 and p‐STAT3 expression after acute SCI. Taken together, Que promoted locomotor and electrophysiological functional recovery, astrocyte activation and axonal regeneration after acute SCI, possibly through BDNF and JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathways.
Positive Effect of Carbon Sources on Natural Transformation in Escherichia coli: Role of Low-Level Cyclic AMP (cAMP)-cAMP Receptor Protein in the Derepression of rpoS

ABSTRACT Natural plasmid transformation of Escherichia coli is a complex process that occurs strictly on agar plates and requires the global stress response factor σS. Here, we showed that additional carbon sources could significantly enhance the transformability of E. coli. Inactivation of phosphotransferase system genes (ptsH, ptsG, and crr) caused an increase in the transformation frequency, and the addition of cyclic AMP (cAMP) neutralized the promotional effect of carbon sources. This implies a negative role of cAMP in natural transformation. Further study showed that crp and cyaA mutations conferred a higher transformation frequency, suggesting that the cAMP-cAMP receptor protein (CRP) complex has an inhibitory effect on transformation. Moreover, we observed that rpoS is negatively regulated by cAMP-CRP in early log phase and that both crp and cyaA mutants show no transformation superiority when rpoS is knocked out. Therefore, it can be concluded that both the crp and cyaA mutations derepress rpoS expression in early log phase, whereby they aid in the promotion of natural transformation ability. We also showed that the accumulation of RpoS during early log phase can account for the enhanced transformation aroused by additional carbon sources. Our results thus demonstrated that the presence of additional carbon sources promotes competence development and natural transformation by reducing cAMP-CRP and, thus, derepressing rpoS expression during log phase. This finding could contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between nutrition state and competence, as well as the mechanism of natural plasmid transformation in E. coli. IMPORTANCE Escherichia coli, which is not usually considered to be naturally transformable, was found to spontaneously take up plasmid DNA on agar plates. Researching the mechanism of natural transformation is important for understanding the role of transformation in evolution, as well as in the transfer of pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance genes. In this work, we found that carbon sources significantly improve transformation by decreasing cAMP. Then, the low level of cAMP-CRP derepresses the general stress response regulator RpoS via a biphasic regulatory pattern, thereby contributing to transformation. Thus, we demonstrate the mechanism by which carbon sources affect natural transformation, which is important for revealing information about the interplay between nutrition state and competence development in E. coli.
Unsupervised Facial Pose Grouping via Garbor Subspace Affinity and Self-Tuning Spectral Clustering

Facial pose grouping plays an important role in the video face recognition. In this paper, we present an unsupervised facial pose grouping approach via Garbor subspace affinity and self-tuning spectral clustering. First, we utilize the local normalization method to reduce the impact of uneven illuminations, and then extract the discriminative appearance features via Gabor wavelet representation. Next, the Garbor subspace affinity method is presented to compute an affinity matrix in terms of the pair wise similarity, in which the facial frames of the same pose always share the smaller pair wise similarities. Finally, we employ the self-tuning spectral clustering algorithm to label the affinity matrix, through which the number of pose groups and the corresponding grouping results can be obtained automatically. Without any label priors, the proposed approach is able to well differentiate the distinct facial poses under uneven illuminations, and the experimental results have shown the satisfactory performances.
Proteomic profiling of the molecular targets of interactions of the mastoparan peptide Protopolybia MP‐III at the level of endosomal membranes from rat mast cells

It is well known that the activation of mast cells due to the binding of mastoparan to the Gα subunit of trimeric G proteins involves exocytosis regulation. However, experimental evidence in the literature indicates that mastoparan can also activate certain regulatory targets of exocytosis at the level of the mast cell endosomal membranes that have not yet been identified. Therefore, the aim of the present investigation was the proteomic identification of these targets. To achieve these objectives, mast cells were activated by the peptide Protopolybia MP‐III, and the proteins of the endosomal membranes were converted to proteoliposomes using sonication. Proteins were separated from one another by affinity chromatography using proteoliposomes as analytes and Protopolybia MP III‐immobilized Sepharose 4B resin as the ligand. This experimental approach, which used SDS‐PAGE, in‐gel trypsin digestion and proteomic analysis, permitted the identification of five endosomal proteins: Rho GTPase Cdc 42 and exocyst complex component 7 as components of the Ca2+‐independent FcεRI‐mediated exocytosis pathway, synaptosomal‐associated protein 29, and GTP‐binding protein Rab3D as components of the Ca2+‐dependent FcεRI‐mediated exocytosis pathway and Ras‐related protein M‐Ras, a protein that is related to the mediation of cell shaping and proliferation following exocytosis. The identification of the five proteins as targets of mastoparans may contribute in the near future to the use of this family of peptides as novel tools for dissecting the mechanism of exocytosis in mast cells.
Non-linear control of current-mode buck converter with an optimally scaled auxiliary phase

The main goal of this work is to de-couple the well-known efficiency/dynamic-response trade-off involved in scaling the inductance in dc-dc converters. This is achieved by introducing a low-cost auxiliary phase having an optimally scaled-down inductor and power-stage. The auxiliary phase is activated by a digital non-linear controller only during large transient events and thus does not affect the efficiency. An experimental 1 MHz, 10 V to 3.3 V current-mode buck converter prototype achieves a settling time below 2µs and a voltage drop of 50 mV (limited by Rc) for ΔIout=1 A, with an output capacitance of only 10 μF. A robust method was used for detecting the zero crossing of vc(t) and it is shown that if the auxiliary inductor is optimally scaled, charge balancing can easily be achieved for a range of load-steps.
Comparison of fMRI activation patterns for test and training procedures of alertness and focused attention.

PURPOSE Behavioural studies of attention training after brain damage have shown that only training procedures specifically related to the impaired attention function lead to significant improvements in the respective attention domain when using psychometric tests addressing these functions. The main objective of this fMRI study was to investigate specific as well as common neural correlates of alertness and focused attention and to assess the degree of neural overlap for two different tasks of the same attention function. METHODS To investigate how different attention functions are processed, we tested 32 healthy participants using fMRI. Each participant was randomly assigned to the alertness (n = 16) or the focused attention (n = 16) group, where participants underwent two different attention tasks, one being a diagnostic computerized test procedure and the other being a computer-game like training procedure. RESULTS The present results show similar activation patterns when assessing the same attention function with two different tasks. Activation overlap for test and training tasks of the same attention function was more clear-cut than the activation overlap for two different attention functions. CONCLUSIONS Clinically validated diagnostic test paradigms and computer game-like training paradigms for both alertness and focused attention activated common brain systems processing the respective attention function. These findings may help to explain the beneficial effect of specifically designed attentional training procedures and the validity of related psychometric tests in detecting specific changes in performance after training of the same attention functions.
Growth and hydrolytic enzyme production of Capnocytophaga gingivalis on different protein substrates.

Capnocytophaga gingivalis was grown with proteins (albumin, collagen, mucin and hemoglobin) as carbon and energy sources in chemostat culture. The mu max (0.34 h-1) and biomass yield (0.96 g.l-1) were as high with hemoglobin (3 g.l-1) as with glucose (3 g.l-1) (20). Albumin, collagen and mucin also supported an increased mu max, or yield or both, in comparison with basal (tryptone/thiamine) medium. In steady-state, trypsin-like protease specific activity increased 3- to 5-fold in the presence of albumin, collagen and hemoglobin: whereas the greatest increase (21-fold) in alpha-glucoside activity was in the presence of mucin. There were significant, but less substantial changes in other hydrolytic enzymes (aminopeptidase, acid and alkaline phosphatases). The bulk of the detected hydrolytic activity (> 66%) was associated with the cells. The data indicate that C. gingivalis regulates its production of hydrolytic enzymes in response to environmental conditions.
The use of significant others as proxy raters of the quality of life of patients with brain cancer.

OBJECTIVES The use of self-report questionnaires for the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is increasingly common in clinical research. This method of data collection may be less suitable for patient groups who suffer from cognitive impairment, however, such as patients with brain cancer. In such cases, one can consider employing the patients' significant others as proxy raters of the patients' health-related quality of life. The authors examined the response agreement between patients with brain cancer and their significant others on a health-related quality of life instrument commonly used in cancer clinical trials, the EORTC QLQ-C30, and on a brain cancer-specific questionnaire module, the QLQ-BCM. METHODS The study sample consisted of 103 pairs of patients, with either recently diagnosed or recurrent brain cancer, and their significant others (75% spouses, 22% relatives, and 3% friends). Patients and proxies independently completed the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the QLQ-BCM at three different times. RESULTS Approximately 60% of the patient and proxy scores were in exact agreement, with more than 90% of scores being within one response category of each other. For most HRQOL dimensions assessed, moderate to good agreement was found. Statistically significant differences in mean scores were noted for several dimensions, with proxies tending to rate the patients as having a lower quality of life than the patients themselves. With the exception of fatigue ratings, this response bias was of a limited magnitude. Less agreement and a more pronounced response bias was observed for the more impaired patients, and particularly for patients exhibiting mental confusion. This finding was confirmed by longitudinal analyses, which indicated lower levels of patient-proxy agreement at follow-up for those patients whose physical or neurologic condition had deteriorated over time. CONCLUSIONS In general, patients and their significant others provide similar ratings of the patients' quality of life. Lower levels of agreement and more biased ratings can be expected among those patients for whom the need for proxies is most salient. It is argued, however, that discrepancies between patient-proxy ratings should not be interpreted, a priori, as evidence of the inaccuracy or biased nature of proxy-generated data. Future studies are needed to examine the relative validity and reliability of patient-versus proxy-generated health-related quality of life scores.
Degeneration of dementia with Lewy bodies measured by diffusion tensor imaging

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is the second most common form of dementia. It is thought to involve impairment of the visual association area. In this study, we applied diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine the microstructural interruption of visual association areas in patients with DLB. The DTI metrics of three visual association fibres – the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), visual pathway, and splenial fibres – were compared between 14 patients with DLB and 13 healthy subjects. The fractional anisotropy value of the ILF was significantly lower in patients with DLB than in healthy subjects. The difference in the mean diffusivity value of ILF was at trend level. The λ2,3 of ILF were significantly lower in patients with DLB; however, there was no difference in λ1. DTI metrics of the visual pathway and splenial fibres showed no differences between the groups. Our results showed degeneration of the ILF, which is responsible for visuospatial cognition. ILF dysfunction may influence the clinical features in DLB. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Clinical Characteristics of Hepatocellular Carcinoma With an Extensive Lymph Node Metastasis at Diagnosis

Lymph node metastasis is reported to occur only rarely in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, we have encountered patients with HCC with extensive lymph node metastases. Here we report the clinical characteristics of HCC associated with extensive lymph node metastasis at diagnosis. Ten patients with HCC in whom extensive lymph node metastases were observed at the initial medical examination were studied. The degree of disease progression was documented with ultrasonography and dynamic computed tomography. Primary liver lesions were classified in the following three types according to imaging characteristics: type A, massive type with portal vein tumor thrombus; type B, multinodular, nonencapsulated type; and type C: multinodular, encapsulated type. In patients with types A and B HCC, a large number of lymph node metastases was observed, whereas a small number of isolated metastases was observed in patients with type C. All patients with types A and B HCC died within 7 months (median survival, 4 months), whereas those with type C survived for 4 years or more after treatment with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and surgery. A relationship exists between the type of primary HCC lesions and the pattern of lymph node metastasis. Long-term survival may be expected for patients with isolated lymph node metastases.
An automated and fuzzy approach for semantically annotating services

In the recent past, semantic technologies have played an significant role in service retrieval and service querying. Annotating services semantically enables machines to understand the purpose of services and can further assist in intelligent and precise service retrieval, selection and composition. A key issue in semantically annotating services is the manual nature of service annotation. Manual service annotation requires a large amount of time and updating happens infrequently, hence annotations may get out-of-date due to service description changes. Although some researchers have studied semantic service annotation, they have only focused on web services not business service information. Moreover, their approaches are semi-automated, and still require service providers to select appropriate service annotations. In this paper, we propose a completely automated semantic annotation approach for e-services. The aim of this paper is to semantically annotate a service to relevant service concepts in domain-specific ontologies. Services and service concepts are represented by an extended VSM model, based on fuzzy rules. Then, we link a service to a concept, based on the similarity value of the representing vectors. We found during the experimentation process that the performances of the proposed approach and the VSM-based approach were quite similar and, as a result, developed a system to retrieve services that are annotated to relevant concepts. Experiments using a high service retrieval threshold demonstrated a retrieval approach based on extended VSM annotation performed much better than an approach based on VSM annotation.
Functional analyses and identification of two arginine residues essential to the ATP-utilizing activity of the triple gene block protein 1 of bamboo mosaic potexvirus.

The TGBp1 of bamboo mosaic potexvirus (BaMV) is encoded by the first overlapping gene of the triple-gene-block (TGB), whose products are thought to play roles in virus movement between plant cells. This protein forms cytoplasmic inclusions associated with virus particles in the BaMV-infected tissues. It has been proposed that the inclusion is one of the active forms of TGBp1. To prove this idea, we purified the TGBp1 inclusions from both the BaMV-infected Chenopodium quinoa and Escherichia coli cells overexpressing this protein to test some of their biochemical activities. We found that the TGBp1 inclusions isolated from the infected plant leaves, but not from E. coli, possess the NTP-binding and NTPase activities. However, they lack the RNA-binding activity possessed by the soluble TGBp1. These results indicate that the TGBp1 proteins in the BaMV-infected tissues assume two different functional forms. Mutational analyses and competition experiments show that the two arginine residues, Arg-16 and Arg-21, essential to RNA binding, are also required for the ATP-utilizing activity of the soluble TGBp1. This indicates that a same-structure motif is required for the two functions of the soluble TGBp1. The location of the two arginine residues outside the seven conserved motifs of the NTP-utilizing superfamily I RNA helicases, to which TGBp1 belongs, suggests that an extra-structure motif, besides the seven conserved ones, is required for the NTP-utilizing activity of the TGBp1 protein of BaMV.
Cubitus interruptus Requires DrosophilaCREB-Binding Protein To Activate wingless Expression in theDrosophila Embryo

ABSTRACT CREB-binding protein (CBP) serves as a transcriptional coactivator in multiple signal transduction pathways. The Drosophilahomologue of CBP, dCBP, interacts with the transcription factors Cubitus interruptus (CI), MAD, and Dorsal (DL) and functions as a coactivator in several signaling pathways during Drosophiladevelopment, including the hedgehog (hh),decapentaplegic (dpp), and Tollpathways. Although dCBP is required for the expression of thehh target genes, wingless (wg) andpatched (ptc) in vivo, and potentiatesci-mediated transcriptional activation in vitro, it is not known that ci absolutely requires dCBP for its activity. We used a yeast genetic screen to identify several ci point mutations that disrupt CI-dCBP interactions. These mutant proteins are unable to transactivate a reporter gene regulated by cibinding sites and have a lower dCBP-stimulated activity than wild-type CI. When expressed exogenously in embryos, the CI point mutants cannot activate endogenous wg expression. Furthermore, a CI mutant protein that lacks the entire dCBP interaction domain functions as a negative competitor for wild-type CI activity, and the expression of dCBP antisense RNAs can suppress CI transactivation in Kc cells. Taken together, our data suggest that dCBP function is necessary forci-mediated transactivation of wg duringDrosophila embryogenesis.
Cloning and characterization of a serotonin N‐acetyltransferase from a gymnosperm, loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)

Serotonin N‐acetyltransferase (SNAT) is the penultimate enzyme in melatonin biosynthesis in both animals and plants. SNAT catalyzes serotonin into N‐acetylserotonin, an immediate precursor for melatonin biosynthesis by N‐acetylserotonin methyltransferase (ASMT). We cloned the SNAT gene from a gymnosperm loblolly pine (Pinus teada). The loblolly pine SNAT (PtSNAT) gene encodes 255 amino acids harboring a transit sequence with 67 amino acids and shows 67% amino acid identity with rice SNAT when comparing the mature polypeptide regions. Purified recombinant PtSNAT showed peak activity at 55°C with the Km (428 μm) and Vmax (3.9 nmol/min/mg protein) values. As predicted, PtSNAT localized to chloroplasts. The SNAT mRNA was constitutively expressed in all tissues, including leaf, bud, flower, and pinecone, whereas the corresponding protein was detected only in leaf. In accordance with the exclusive SNAT protein expression in leaf, melatonin was detected only in leaf at 0.45 ng per gram fresh weight. Sequence and phylogenetic analysis indicated that the gymnosperm PtSNAT had high homology with SNATs from all plant phyla (even with cyanobacteria), and formed a clade separated from the angiosperm SNATs, suggestive of direct gene transfer from cyanobacteria via endosymbiosis.
Advantage of (001)/<100> oriented channels in biaxially- and uniaxially strained-Ge-on-insulator pMOSFETs with NiGe metal source/drain

We compared current drivability between (001)/<;100> and (001)/<;110> strained Ge-on-insulator pMOSFETs under biaxial and uniaxial stress. Higher intrinsic transconductance (gm, int) was experimentally demonstrated for the first time in the (001)/<;100> devices with a gate length (Lg) less than 100 nm under the both strain conditions, although this is not the case for the long-channel devices. This is possibly attributable to more significant non-parabolicity of the valence band (VB) dispersion, i.e., heavier effective mass at energy apart from the VB minimum, along <;110> than along <;100>. It is also found that the parasitic resistance (RSD) governed by the contact resistance between the NiGe-source and the strained-Ge channel is lower along <;100> direction than the counterpart. As a result, higher drive current was observed for a <;100> device with Lg of 55 nm under both the biaxial-(644 μA/μm) and uniaxial stress (536 μA/μm) at Vd = -0.5 V than for <;110> counterpart, although mobility was highest in the <;110> channel under the uniaxial stress.