Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Controlled-release mitochondrial protonophore reverses diabetes and steatohepatitis in rats

Special delivery for fatty liver disease Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is one of many unwelcome consequences of the global rise in obesity rates. Fat accumulation within the liver can lead to inflammation and cirrhosis, a predisposing factor for liver cancer. Treatment options are limited. Perry et al. revisit a mitochondrial uncoupling agent (2,4-dinitrophenol) that was used as a drug for weight loss in the 1930s but was discontinued because of serious toxicities. Encouragingly, an altered formulation of the drug that ensures its controlled release at low levels ameliorated fatty liver and diabetes in rodent models, without side effects. Science, this issue p. 1253 A modified version of a mitochondrial uncoupling agent can ameliorate fatty liver disease in rats, without apparent toxicity. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major factor in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The mitochondrial protonophore 2,4 dinitrophenol (DNP) has beneficial effects on NAFLD, insulin resistance, and obesity in preclinical models but is too toxic for clinical use. We developed a controlled-release oral formulation of DNP, called CRMP (controlled-release mitochondrial protonophore), that produces mild hepatic mitochondrial uncoupling. In rat models, CRMP reduced hypertriglyceridemia, insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, and diabetes. It also normalized plasma transaminase concentrations, ameliorated liver fibrosis, and improved hepatic protein synthetic function in a methionine/choline–deficient rat model of NASH. Chronic treatment with CRMP was not associated with any systemic toxicity. These data offer proof of concept that mild hepatic mitochondrial uncoupling may be a safe and effective therapy for the related epidemics of metabolic syndrome, T2D, and NASH.
The European Photon Imaging Camera on XMM-Newton: The pn-CCD camera

The European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) consortium has provided the focal plane instruments for the three X-ray mirror systems on XMM-Newton. Two cameras with a reflecting grating spectrometer in the optical path are equipped with MOS type CCDs as focal plane detectors (Turner 2001), the telescope with the full photon flux operates the novel pn-CCD as an imaging X-ray spectrometer. The pn-CCD camera system was developed under the leadership of the Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Garching. The concept of the pn-CCD is described as well as the dierent operational modes of the camera system. The electrical, mechanical and thermal design of the focal plane and camera is briefly treated. The in-orbit performance is described in terms of energy resolution, quantum eciency, time resolution, long term stability and charged particle background. Special emphasis is given to the radiation hardening of the devices and the measured and expected degradation due to radiation damage of ionizing particles in the rst 9 months of in orbit operation.
Pulmonary Function Tests, Respiratory Muscle Strength, and Endurance of Patients with Osteoporosis

Background It has been shown that patients with thoracic kyphosis due to osteoporosis have diminished pulmonary function. The aim of this study was to determine the pulmonary function, respiratory muscle strength, and endurance of patients with osteoporosis who did not have compression fractures. Methods The patient group consisted of 88 recently diagnosed postmenopausal osteoporotic women without spinal fractures. They were matched for age and body mass index with 54 healthy women, who formed the control group. Bone mineral density, pulmonary function test (PFT), maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV), maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP), and maximal expiratory pressure (MEP) measurements of both groups were performed. Results There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding PFT parameters and MIP and MEP. However, osteoporotic patients had significantly lower MVV values. Conclusion Women with postmenopausal osteoporosis without spinal compression fractures have normal PFT, MIP, and MEP values, but they have reduced respiratory muscle endurance.
Selectable heterogeneous integrated III-V /SOI single mode laser based on vernier effect

A novel heterogeneous integrated III-V/SOI single mode laser is proposed. Owing to the vernier effect between III-V Fabry-Perot resonator (FPR) and split silicon racetrack resonator (SSRR), single longitudinal mode can be obtained and selected by thermally tuned silicon waveguide.
MITF and PU.1 Recruit p38 MAPK and NFATc1 to Target Genes during Osteoclast Differentiation*

Transcription factors NFATc1, PU.1, and MITF collaborate to regulate specific genes in response to colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) and receptor activator of NF-κB ligand (RANKL) signaling during osteoclast differentiation. However, molecular details concerning timing and mechanism of specific events remain ill-defined. In bone marrow-derived precursors, CSF-1 alone promoted assembly of MITF-PU.1 complexes at osteoclast target gene promoters like cathepsin K and acid 5 phosphatase without increasing gene expression. The combination of RANKL and CSF-1 concurrently increased the levels of MAPK-phosphorylated forms of MITF, p38 MAPK, and SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complexes bound to these target promoters and markedly increased expression of the genes. NFATc1 was subsequently recruited to complexes at the promoters during terminal stages of osteoclast differentiation. Genetic analysis of Mitf and Pu.1 in mouse models supported the critical interaction of these genes in osteoclast differentiation. The results define MITF and PU.1 as nuclear effectors that integrate CSF-1/RANKL signals during osteoclast differentiation to initiate expression of target genes, whereas a complex that includes NFATc1 may act to maintain target gene expression in differentiated cells.
How do we evaluate facial emotion recognition

The adequate interpretation of facial expressions of emotion is crucial for social functioning and human interaction. New methods are being applied, and a review of the methods that are used to evaluate facial emotion recognition is timely for the field. An extensive review was conducted using the Web of Science, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases. The following keywords were used to identify articles that were published within the past 20 years: emotion recognition, face, expression, and assessment. The initial search yielded 291 articles. After applying the exclusion criteria, 115 articles were included in this review. Articles were analyzed using 3 different approaches: (a) non-behavior-dependent methodologies (MRI and electroencephalography [EEG]), (b) behavioral instruments that were used to assess facial emotion recognition, and (c) instruments or methods that were used to assess facial recognition impairment in health conditions. The behavioral instruments were further subdivided into 7 groups. Static human face stimuli were the most frequently used method, although there are some criticisms concerning the ecological validity of these types of stimuli. Nonvalidated instruments were also commonly used, especially in psychopathological studies. Computer-based morphing has been used to develop new visual stimuli, and brief videos are also being applied. Drawings, which may have lower validity, were often used for assessment in children. Research that uses functional and structural MRI or EEG as methodological alternatives has increased in the last decade. This is a rapidly changing field, and more studies are needed to compare methodologies that are used to explore impairments in facial emotion recognition.
Semantics for relevant logics

In what follows there is presented a unified semantic treatment of certain “paradox-free” systems of entailment, including Church's weak theory of implication (Church [7]) and logics akin to the systems E and R of Anderson and Belnap (Anderson [3], Belnap [6]). We shall refer to these systems generally as relevant logics. The leading idea of the semantics is that just as in modal logic validity may be defined in terms of certain valuations on a binary relational structure so in relevant logics validity may be defined in terms of certain valuations on a semilattice—interpreted informally as the semilattice of possible pieces of information. Completeness theorems can be given relative to these semantics for the implicational fragments of relevant logics. The semantical viewpoint affords some insights into the structure of the systems—in particular light is thrown upon admissible modes of negation and on the assumptions underlying rejection of the “paradoxes of material implication”. The systems discussed are formulated in fragments of a first-order language with → (entailment), &, ⋁, ¬,(x) and (∃x) primitive, omitting identity but including a denumerable list of propositional variables (p, q, r, p1,…etc.), and (for each n > 0), a denumerable list of n-ary predicate letters. The schematic letters A, B, C, D, A1,… are used on the meta-level as variables ranging over formulas. The conventions of Church [9] are followed in abbreviating formulas. The semantics of the systems are given in informal terms; it is an easy matter to turn the informal descriptions into formal set-theoretical definitions.
A preprocessing of outlier using KERNEL PCA and factor scores in regression model

Data analysis including outlier is more difficult to the analysis without outlier. The outlier has a chance to increase the misclassification rate and the variance of estimate in the supervised learning like classification and regression. Also the outlier becomes a cluster in the clustering as unsupervised learning. So we are hard to represent the clustering result. Because of the previous problems, it is removed generally for constructing model in data mining. But when the outlier has some information on given data, we must not remove it from training data set. In this paper, using kernel PCA(principal component analysis) and factor scores, we propose a preprocessing method to contain the outlier in the modeling. The outlier effect of given training data set is reduced by the values of kernel PCA and factor scores. We verify improved performance of our work by the experimental results using simulation data sets in regression model.
Multimodal MRI assessment of damage and plasticity caused by status epilepticus in the rat brain

Status epilepticus or other brain‐damaging insults launch a cascade of events that may lead to the development of epilepsy. MRI techniques available today, including T2‐ and T1‐weighted imaging, functional MRI, manganese enhanced MRI (MEMRI), arterial spin labeling (ASL), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and phase imaging, can detect not only damage caused by status epilepticus but also plastic changes in the brain that occur in response to damage. Optimal balance between damage and recovery processes is a key for planning possible treatments, and noninvasive imaging has the potential to greatly facilitate this process and to make personalized treatment plans possible.
Detection of nonintegrated plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid in the folded chromosome of Escherichia coli: physiochemical approach to studying the unit of segregation

Physiocochemical evidence presented indicates plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can associate with host chromosome without linear insertion of the former into the latter. This conclusion is based on the observation that covalently closed circular (CCC) plasmid DNA can cosediment with undegraded host chromosome in a neutral sucrose gradient. When F plus bacteria are lysed under conditions that preserve chromosome, approximately 90% of CCC F sex factor plasmid (about 1% of the total DNA) is found in folded chromosomes sedimenting at rates between 1,500 and 4,000s. The remaining 10% of the CCC F DNA sediments at the rate (80S) indicative of the free CCC plasmid form. Reconstruction experiments in which 80S, CCC F DNA is added to F plus or F minus bacteria before cell lysis show that exogenous F DNA does not associate with folded chromosomes. In F plus bacteria, F plasmid is harbored at a level of one or two copies per chromosomal equivalent. In bacteria producing colicin E1, the genetic determinant of this colicin, the Col E1 plasmid, is harbored at levels of 10 to 13 copies per chromosomal equivalent; yet, greater than 90% of these plasmids do not cosediment with the 1,800S species of folded chromosome. However, preliminary evidence suggests one or two Col E1 plasmids may associate with the 1,800S folded chromosome. Based on evidence presented in this and other papers, we postulate F plasmid can link to folded chromosome because the physicochemical structure of the plasmid resembles a supercoiled region of the chromosome and, therefore, is able to interact with the ribonucleic acid that stabilizes the folded chromosome structure. Implications of this model for F plasmid replication and segregation are discussed.
New variant of norovirus GII/4 strains prevalent in Yokohama City, October 2006-March 2007.

Norovirus (NV) is usually prevalent in the winter season and causes acute gastroenteritis symptoms such as diarrhea or vomiting when it infects humans. In recent years, numerous outbreaks in nursing homes for the aged have been reported (1). NV is separated into two genogroups, GI and GII; GI has at least 14 and GII 17 different genotypes (2). Globally GII strains are predominant; in particular, GII/4 has been the predominant NV genotype circulating worldwide in recent years (3,4). From October 2006 to March 2007, 87 outbreaks of gastroenteritis caused by NV were recorded in Yokohama City, Japan. Suspected transmission modes were person-to-person infection in 93% of cases (81 outbreaks) and food-borne infection through food handlers (i.e., cooks) in 7% (6). Among the 87 outbreaks, nursing homes for the aged were most often implicated as the place of the outbreak (Table 1). Examination of stool samples collected from October 2006 to March 2007 were performed by the TaqMan based realtime PCR with separate reactions for GI (5) and GII (6) as the primary testing. No NV GI positive sample was detected. Positive GII samples by real-time PCR were subjected to reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR using the primer set COG2F and G2SKR (7,8). One positive NV specimen from each outbreak was subjected to further sequence analysis by direct sequencing and phylogenetically analyzed at the 5 ́end of ORF2 encoding the capsid protein. As a result, of the 84 of 87 outbreaks in which the NV GII strain could be identified, there were 3 cases of GII/2 outbreak, 4 of GII/3, 76 of GII/4, and 1 of GII/5, demonstrating that the GII/4 genotype accounted for 87% of all the outbreaks derived from NV strains in Yokohama. Furthermore, all of the outbreaks occurring in nursing homes for the aged except for two undetermined cases were due to the GII /4 genotype (Table 1). At least one stool specimen of a food handler showed positive for NV GII in each outbreak of suspected food-borne infection. It is noteworthy that no oyster-related food-borne outbreak was observed as has often been seen before (9). Compared with GII/4 strains detected in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons in Yokohama City, GII/4 strains in 2006/07 season had a different cluster (Fig. 1). According to a surveillance report (10) by Foodborne Viruses in Europe Network (FBVE Network), two new GII/4 variants (GII/4 2006a and GII/4 2006b) appeared during the 2005/06 season and became predominant in the summer of 2006. The 2006/ 07 season GII/4 strains circulating in Yokohama belonged to the GII/4 2006b variant by comparison of the partial capsid gene using the Norovirus database, quicktyping Region C 280b (https://hypocrates.rivm.nl/bnwww/Divine-Event/ Quick_typingregionC280b.HTM) produced by FBVE Network. It was confirmed that the GII/4 2006b variant was indeed prevalent in Yokohama. These results show that the GII/4 genotype has evolved and shifted between 2005/06 and 2006/07 season, and that further research like Okada’s study (4) is needed on the genetic shift of NV strains in the protruding (P) region of the capsid protein.
A Cross-Layer Approach to Minimize the Energy Consumption in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy efficiency represents one of the primary challenges in the development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Since communication is the most power consuming operation for a node, many current energy-efficient protocols are based on duty cycling mechanisms. However, most of these solutions are expensive from both the computational and the memory resources point of view and; therefore, they result in being hardly implementable on resources constrained devices, such as sensor nodes. This suggests to combine new communication protocols with hardware solutions able to further reduce the nodes' power consumption. In this work, a cross-layer solution, based on the combined use of a duty-cycling protocol and a new kind of active wake-up circuit, is presented and validated by using a test bed approach. The resulting solution significantly reduces idle listening periods by awakening the node only when a communication is detected. Specifically, an MAC scheduler manages the awakenings of a commercial power detector connected to the sensor node, and, if an actual communication is detected, it enables the radio transceiver. The effectiveness of the proposed cross-layer protocol has been thoroughly evaluated by means of tests carried out in an outdoor environment.
Stimulation of Gαq-coupled M1 muscarinic receptor causes reversible spectrin redistribution mediated by PLC, PKC and ROCK

Spectrin is a cytoskeletal protein that plays a role in formation of the specialized plasma membrane domains. However, little is known of the molecular mechanism that regulates responses of spectrin to extracellular stimuli, such as activation of G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). We have found that αII spectrin is a component of the Gαq/11-associated protein complex in CHO cells stably expressing the M1 muscarinic receptor, and investigated the effect of activation of GPCR on the cellular localization of yellow-fluorescent-protein-tagged αII spectrin. Stimulation of Gαq/11-coupled M1 muscarinic receptor triggered reversible redistribution of αII spectrin following a rise in intracellular Ca2+ concentration. This redistribution, accompanied by non-apoptotic membrane blebbing, required an intact actin cytoskeleton and was dependent on activation of phospholipase C, protein kinase C, and Rho-associated kinase ROCK. Muscarinic-agonist-induced spectrin remodeling appeared particularly active at localized domains, which is clear contrast to that caused by constitutive activation of ROCK and to global rearrangement of the spectrin lattice caused by changes in osmotic pressure. These results suggest a role for spectrin in providing a dynamic and reversible signaling platform to the specific domains of the plasma membrane in response to stimulation of GPCR.
Women and Suicide in Historical Perspective

"Women," wrote William Knighton in 1881, "cling to life much more strongly than [do] men. " In his widely republished article entitled "Suicidal Mania," Knighton suggested that "religious restraints" and the possession of "a larger measure of that hope which springs eternal in the human breast" accounted for the fact that women "were less prone to commit suicide . than men. "' Almost a century later, Louis Dublin concluded that "suicide . may be called a masculine type of behavior. "2 Since the nineteenth century, investigators relying on official statistics have reported that men are much more likely to kill themselves than women are. In this article I will challenge that conclusion, suggesting instead that the portrayal of suicide as a male behavior tells us more about the assumptions that inform the collection of official statistics than it does
Dispersion et colonisation chez le champignon ectomycorhizien Tricholoma scalpturatum

Tricholoma scalpturatum est un champignon ectomycorrhizien cosmopolite qui forme une association symbiotique avec les racines de nombreux arbres et arbustes. Notre travail a consiste a etudier les populations naturelles de cette espece et se proposait d'apporter un eclairage nouveau sur (1) la diversite genetique au sein de ce taxon et sa distribution et (2) sur les strategies de dispersion et de colonisation des champignons en general. Le typage moleculaire a partir de carpophores a mis en evidence (i) l'existence d'une forte diversite genetique chez T. scalpturatum, (ii) la presence de deux entites genetiques distinctes (groupes 1 & 2) a une echelle locale mais aussi a une plus large echelle, en Europe, (iii) un investissement preferentiel dans la reproduction sexuee pour la colonisation de l'habitat et (iv) une dispersion efficace limitee chez les deux groupes. Finalement, une analyse de la diversite a partir de mycorhizes montre une bonne correspondance carpophores - mycorhizes.
Indexing to situated interactions

This paper describes ongoing research into the understanding and modeling of physical environments for the development of mobile location aware information services. The value of a location aware information service relies fundamentally on the relations to its physical surroundings within the context of the social settings of its users. Based on methods developed within architecture proposing the use of ethnographic field studies for acquiring insight into people’s use of physical environments, a research design is proposed for describing and analyzing the relations between architectural, social and informational space of the recently built Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia. Preliminary outcomes of this study indicate that the proposed research design assists in understanding and modeling a physical environment and identifying a number of shortcomings valuable for the development of location aware information services for such environments.
A study of Wilson disease mutations in Britain

Wilson disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disease of copper transport. The disease is caused by a large number of mutations in the ATP7B gene, some of which appear to be population specific, whereas others are found in probands from a variety of different ethnic backgrounds. This study presents the results of screening the ATP7B gene by SSCP and sequencing in order to define the spectrum of mutations seen in British referrals for WD. The 52 patients screened included 10 with a non‐British mixed ethnicity origin. This study identified 19 novel mutations and 18 mutations that had been previously described. The novel mutations included seven nonconservative missense mutations, eight small insertions, or deletions causing frameshift, two nonsense mutations, and two splice‐site mutations. Seven of the 10 mixed ethnicity patients harboured homozygous mutations, whereas only four of the larger British group were homozygotes. The detection rate by SSCP analysis in the British group of 42 consecutive unrelated WD probands was 70%. However, SSCP screening of just three exons (exons 8, 14, and 18) is predicted to identify 60% of mutations present in WD referrals. Hum Mutat 14:304–311, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.