Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Analysis of the Carboxy-Terminal Region of Bacillus subtilis TnrA, a MerR Family Protein

ABSTRACT The Bacillus subtilis TnrA transcription factor belongs to the MerR family of proteins and regulates gene expression during nitrogen-limited growth. When B. subtilis cells are grown with excess nitrogen, feedback-inhibited glutamine synthetase forms a protein-protein complex with TnrA that prevents TnrA from binding to DNA. The C-terminal region of TnrA is required for the interaction with glutamine synthetase. Alanine scanning mutagenesis of the C-terminal region of TnrA identified three classes of mutants that altered the regulation by glutamine synthetase. While expression of the TnrA-regulated amtB gene was expressed constitutively in the class I (M96A, Q100A, and A103G) and class II (L97A, L101A, and F105A) mutants, the class II mutants were unable to grow on minimal medium unless a complex mixture of amino acids was present. The class III tnrA mutants (R93A, G99A, N102A, H104A, and Y107A mutants) were partially defective in the regulation of TnrA activity. In vitro experiments showed that feedback-inhibited glutamine synthetase had a significantly reduced ability to inhibit the DNA-binding activity of several class I and class II mutant TnrA proteins. A coiled-coil homology model of the C-terminal region of TnrA is used to explain the properties of the class I and II mutant proteins. The C-terminal region of TnrA corresponds to a dimerization domain in other MerR family proteins. Surprisingly, gel filtration and cross-linking analysis showed that a truncated TnrA protein which contained only the N-terminal DNA binding domain was dimeric. The implications of these results for the structure of TnrA are discussed.
Identification of miRNAs Involved in Reprogramming Acinar Cells into Insulin Producing Cells

Reprogramming acinar cells into insulin producing cells using adenoviral (Ad)-mediated delivery of Pdx1, Ngn3 and MafA (PNM) is an innovative approach for the treatment of diabetes. Here, we aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in this process and in particular, the role of microRNAs. To this end, we performed a comparative study of acinar-to-β cell reprogramming efficiency in the rat acinar cell line AR42J and its subclone B13 after transduction with Ad-PNM. B13 cells were more efficiently reprogrammed than AR42J cells, which was demonstrated by a strong activation of β cell markers (Ins1, Ins2, IAPP, NeuroD1 and Pax4). miRNome panels were used to analyze differentially expressed miRNAs in acinar cells under four experimental conditions (i) non-transduced AR42J cells, (ii) non-transduced B13 cells, (iii) B13 cells transduced with Ad-GFP vectors and (iv) B13 cells transduced with Ad-PNM vectors. A total of 59 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed between non-transduced AR42J and B13 cells. Specifically, the miR-200 family was completely repressed in B13 cells, suggesting that these cells exist in a less differentiated state than AR42J cells and as a consequence they present a greater plasticity. Adenoviral transduction per se induced dedifferentiation of acinar cells and 11 miRNAs were putatively involved in this process, whereas 8 miRNAs were found to be associated with PNM expression. Of note, Ad-PNM reprogrammed B13 cells presented the same levels of miR-137-3p, miR-135a-5p, miR-204-5p and miR-210-3p of those detected in islets, highlighting their role in the process. In conclusion, this study led to the identification of miRNAs that might be of compelling importance to improve acinar-to-β cell conversion for the future treatment of diabetes.
Development of Activity and Participation Norms among General Adult Populations in Taiwan

Based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) and the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS 2.0), The Functioning Disability Evaluation Scale-Adult version (FUNDES-Adult) began development in 2011. The FUNDES-Adult was designed to assess the difficulty level of an individual’s activities and participation in daily life. There is a lack of research regarding the profile of activity and participation for the general adult population. The purposes of this study were to establish activity and participation norms for the general adult population in Taiwan and to describe, discuss, and compare the activity and participation profile with other population. Method: A population-based survey was administered in 2013 using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system (CATI system). Using probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling and systematic sampling with random digit dialing (RDD), 1500 adults from Taiwan’s general population were selected to participate in the survey. The FUNDES-Adult with six domains and two dimensions (performance and capability) was used to obtain data on activities and participation levels. A higher domain score indicated higher participation restriction. Results: Approximately 50% of the respondents were male, and the average age of the respondents was 45.23 years. There were no significant differences in the demographic features between the sample and the population. Among the six domains, the self-care domain score was the lowest (least restriction) and the participation domain score was the highest (most restriction). Approximately 90% of the sample scored were less than 15, and only 0.1% scored more than 80. This is the first cross-national population-based survey to assess norms of activity and participation relevant to the general population of Taiwan. As such, the results of this survey can be used as a reference for comparing the activity and participation (AP) functioning of other countries and subgroups.
Piecewise Planar Decomposition of 3D Point Clouds Obtained from Multiple Static RGB-D Cameras

In this paper, we address the problem of segmenting a 3D point cloud obtained from several RGB-D cameras into a set of 3D piecewise planar regions. This is a fundamental problem in computer vision, whose solution is helpful for further scene analysis, such as support inference and object localisation. In existing planar segmentation approaches for point clouds, the point cloud originates from a single RGB-D view. There is however a growing interest to monitor environments with computer vision setups that contain a set of calibrated 3D cameras located around the scene. To fully exploit the multi-view aspect of such setups, we propose in this paper a novel approach to perform the planar piecewise segmentation directly in 3D. This approach, called Voxel-MRF (V-MRF), is based on discrete 3D Markov random fields, whose nodes correspond to scene voxels and whose labels represent 3D planes. The voxelization of the scene permits to cope with noisy depth measurements, while the MRF formulation provides a natural handling of the 3D spatial constraints during the optimisation. The approach results in a decomposition of the scene into a set of 3D planar patches. A by-product of the method is also a joint planar segmentation of the original images into planar regions with consistent labels across the views. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach using a benchmark dataset of objects with known geometry. We also present qualitative results on challenging data acquired by a multi-camera system installed in two operating rooms.
Inhibition of mitochondrial function in astrocytes: implications for neuroprotection

Much evidence suggests that astrocytes protect neurons against ischemic injury. Although astrocytes are more resistant to some insults than neurons, few studies offer insight into the real time changes of astrocytic protective functions with stress. Mitochondria are one of the primary targets of ischemic injury in astrocytes. We investigated the time course of changes in astrocytic ATP levels, plasma membrane potential, and glutamate uptake, a key protective function, induced by mitochondrial inhibition. Our results show that significant functional change precedes reduction in astrocytic viability with mitochondrial inhibition. Using the mitochondrial inhibitor fluorocitrate (FC, 0.25 mmol/L) that is preferentially taken by astrocytes we found that inhibition of astrocyte mitochondria increased vulnerability of co‐cultured neurons to glutamate toxicity. In our studies, the rates of FC‐induced astrocytic mitochondrial depolarization were accelerated in mixed astrocyte/neuron cultures. We hypothesized that the more rapid mitochondrial depolarization was promoted by an additional energetic demand imposed be the co‐cultured neurons. To test this hypothesis, we exposed pure astrocytic cultures to 0.01–1 mmol/L aspartate as a metabolic load. Aspartate application accelerated the rates of FC‐induced mitochondrial depolarization, and, at 1 mmol/L, induced astrocytic death, suggesting that strong energetic demands during ischemia can compromise astrocytic function and viability.
Satisfaction evaluation of power customer based on interval type-2 fuzzy sets

Satisfaction evaluation indexes of power customer are given in this paper according to the characteristics of power supply quality and customer satisfaction model. Because of the uncertainty of power customer satisfaction, this paper discusses a method for satisfaction evaluation and improvement model of power customer. Interval type-2 fuzzy sets and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method are used to analyze and evaluate power customer satisfaction and related indexes. Improvement objectives are set and improvement measures are determined. In addition, the feasibility and effectiveness of this method is validated by an example.
Productivity Dynamics and the Cleansing Effect of Two Recessions: Evidence from the Manufacturing Sector in Korea

In general, recessions provoke the exit of a greater number of firms from the market. Less productive firms are more likely to exit and release their former resources to the remaining, more productive firms. The present study investigates two recessions in Korea: the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis. The main objective of the present study is to analyse the process of creative destruction in a recession, specifically the cleansing effect. We measured total factor productivity using micro&#8208;level manufacturing plant data from 1993 to 2013. We decomposed the source of the changes in total factor productivity to measure the cleansing effect in two large recessions. During the first recession in the 1990s, there was no evidence to support a cleansing effect hypothesis. In contrast, during the second recession in the 2000s, there was evidence of a cleansing effect. In addition, we found differences in market selection criteria in the two recessions; by the second crisis, the market selection criteria had changed to enable a more conducive environment for the creative destruction process.
Outward stabilization of the S4 segments in domains III and IV enhances lidocaine block of sodium channels

The anti‐arrhythmic drug lidocaine has been shown to have a lower affinity for block of voltage‐gated sodium channels at hyperpolarized potentials compared to depolarized potentials. Concomitantly, lidocaine reduces maximum gating charge (Qmax) by 40% resulting from the complete stabilization of the S4 in domain III in an outward, depolarized position and partial stabilization of the S4 in domain IV in wild‐type Na+ channels (NaV1.5). To investigate whether the pre‐positioning of the S4 segments in these two domains in a depolarized conformation increases affinity for lidocaine block, a cysteine residue was substituted for the 3rd outermost charged residue in the S4 of domain III (R3C‐DIII) and for the 2nd outermost Arg in S4 of domain IV (R2C‐DIV) in NaV1.5. After biotinylation by exposure to extracellular MTSEA‐biotin the mutated S4s became stabilized in an outward, depolarized position. For Na+ channels containing both mutations (R3C‐DIII + R2C‐DIV) the IC50 for rested‐state lidocaine block decreased from 194 ± 15 μm in control to 28 ± 2 μm after MTSEA‐biotin modification. To determine whether an intact inactivation gate (formed by the linker between domains III and IV) was required for local anaesthetic drugs to modify Na+ channel gating currents, a Cys was substituted for the Phe in the IFM motif of the inactivation gate (ICM) and then modified by intracellular MTSET (WT‐ICMMTSET) before exposure to intracellular QX‐222, a quarternary amine. Although WT‐ICMMTSET required higher concentrations of drug to block INa compared to WT, Qmax decreased by 35% and the V1/2 shifted leftward as previously demonstrated for WT. The effect of stabilization of the S4s in domains III and IV in the absence of an intact inactivation gate on lidocaine block was determined for R3C‐DIII + ICM, R2C‐DIV + ICM and R3C‐DIII + R2C‐DIV + ICM, and compared to WT‐ICM. IC50 values were 1360 ± 430 μm, 890 ± 70 μm, 670 ± 30 μm and 1920 ± 60 μm, respectively. Thermodynamic mutant‐cycle analysis was consistent with additive (i.e. independent) contributions from stabilization of the individual S4s in R3C‐DIII + ICM and R2C‐DIV + ICM. We conclude that the positions of the S4s in domains III and IV are major determinants of the voltage dependence of lidocaine affinity.
Absolute Vs. Relative Machine Strength as Predictors of Function in Older Adults

This study examined the relationship between absolute and relative (1 repetition maximum/LBM) strength vs. 13 different functional measurements in 143 older adults (mean = 70.28, standard deviation = 7.90 years). Strength for 11 machine lifts was determined using a predicted 1-repetition maximal strength measurement. Zero-order correlation results between absolute and relative strength vs. function measures demonstrated very weak to moderate correlations in the range of 0.02–0.57 and 0.01–0.44, respectively, with the lowest correlations present between strength and balance measures and the highest correlations present between strength and the carrying task (p ≤ 0.05). Step wise multiple regression results also confirmed the low predictability of functional tasks using strength measures, with absolute and relative strength measures accounting for only 3–38% and 3–33% of the various functional measures, respectively. This study identified specific strength measurements that contribute to the variance in a functional task but also clearly indicated that strength alone cannot serve as a predictor of function in older adults.
Evolution of antibiotic resistance: several different amino acid substitutions in an active site loop alter the substrate profile of β‐lactamase

In order to understand how TEM‐1 β‐lactamase substrate specificity can be altered by mutation, amino acid residues 161 through to 170 were randomly mutagenized to sample all possible amino acid substitutions. The 161–170 region includes a portion of an omega loop structure, which is involved in the formation of the active‐site pocket. The percentage of random sequences that provide bacterial resistance to either ampicillin or to the extended‐spectrum cephalosporin ceftazidime was determined. It was found that the sequence requirements for wild‐type levels of ampicillin resistance are much more stringent than the sequence requirements for ceftazidime resistance. Surprisingly, more than 50% of all amino acid substitutions in the 161‐170 region result in levels of ceftazidime resistance at least three times greater than wild type. In addition, by increasing the level of the selection for ceftazidime resistance, substitutions that result in a greater than 100‐fold increase in ceftazidime resistance were identified. Characterization of altered β‐lactamase enzymes indicated that while their catalytic efficiency (Kcat/Km) for ceftazidime hydrolysis is higher, the enzymes are poorly expressed relative to wild‐type TEM‐1 β‐lactamase.
The Future of Chemical Weapons: Implications from the Syrian Civil War

Abstract With chemical weapons (CW) use in Syria raising questions about the health of the CW norm, this article analyzes whether the Syrian case will lead to further proliferation and use of chemical weapons by states. We examine the use of chemical weapons at Ghouta in 2013 and on the Hama Plains in 2014 and find that: first, chemical weapons have demonstrated limited military utility in Syria, either tactically or as a tool of civilian victimization; second, the costs of use have been repeatedly demonstrated by the international reaction to their use; and third, the use of sarin—a nerve agent—has attracted a stronger international response than the use of chlorine, a less lethal agent. Consequently, we conclude that the Syrian case is unlikely to lead to significant proliferation and use of chemical weapons; any that does occur is most likely to involve states already outside the CW norm.
Table 2 : Age of Patients and Various Vascular Complications of Type 2 Diabetes Table 3 : Results of Logistic Regression Analysis Showing Parameters Associated with Different Complications

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of microvascular and macrovascular complications in type 2 diabetes in our center and to identify the major risk factors for these complications. This cross sectional study was conducted on 4067 patients out of 4400 type 2 diabetic patients attending the diabetic clinic during Jan 99 to Dec 2000. All patients underwent the specific tests for retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy, peripheral vascular diseases (PVD) and cardio-vascular diseases using relevant investigations. We observed evidence of retinopathy in 1176 patients (28.9%), nephropathy in 1323 (32.5%), neuropathy in 1225 (30.1%), CAD in 780 (19.2%) and PVD in 735 patients (18.1%). Logistic regression analysis revealed that age, duration of diabetes and hypertension were significantly associated with all these complications. Poor glycemic control (increased HbA1C) had definite contribution for increased prevalence of nephropathy and retinopathy. This study highlights the high prevalence of various microvascular and macrovascular complications especially nephropathy and neuropathy in Indian population.
Inhibition of cholesteryl ester deposition in macrophages by calcium entry blockers: an effect dissociable from calcium entry blockade

1 The effects of calcium entry blockers on stimulated cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition in cultured macrophages were characterized in order to elucidate mechanisms underlying possible antiatheros‐clerotic effects. Stimulation of intracellular cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition was initiated by incubation of macrophages with β‐very low density lipoproteins (β‐VLDL). 2 Nifedipine (Class I) markedly reduced cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition at all concentrations tested. However, Bay K 8644, a dihydropyridine which is known to stimulate calcium entry, also reduced cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition with a similar potency to nifedipine. 3 The effects of three Class II calcium entry blockers were evaluated: verapamil, methoxyverapamil, and diltiazem. Verapamil inhibited cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition in a concentration‐dependent manner. Similarly, methoxyverapamil reduced cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition in a concentration‐dependent manner although the reduction was not as great as that produced by verapamil. In contrast, diltiazem at any concentration tested did not inhibit cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition. 4 Flunarizine (a Class III calcium entry blocker) produced a modest stimulation of cholesteryl [3H]‐oleate deposition at the lowest concentration used (10−7 m) but marked depression at the highest concentration (10−5 m). 5 The results indicate calcium entry blockers may exert protective effects on the development of atherosclerosis in animal models of diet‐induced hyperlipidaemia by inhibiting intracellular cholesteryl ester deposition, but this effect may not be related to their calcium entry‐blocking effects.
Performance analysis of LDA, QDA and KNN algorithms in left-right limb movement classification from EEG data

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) improve the lifestyle of the normal people by enhancing their performance levels. It also provides a way of communication for the disabled people with their surrounding who are otherwise unable to physically communicate. BCI can be used to control computers, robots, prosthetic devices and other assistive technologies for rehabilitation. The dataset used for this study has been obtained from the BCI competition II 2003 databank provided by the University of Technology, Graz. After pre-processing of the signals from their electrodes (C3 & C4), the wavelet coefficients, Power Spectral Density of the alpha and the central beta band and the average power of the respective bands have been employed as features for classification. In one of the approaches we fed all the extracted features individually and in the other approach we considered all features together and submitted them to LDA, QDA and KNN algorithms distinctly to classify left and right limb movement. The aim of this study is to analyze the performance of linear discriminant analysis (LDA), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) and K-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithms in differentiating the raw EEG data obtained, into their associative movement, namely, left-right movement. Also the importance of the feature vectors selected is highlighted in this study. The total set to feature vector comprising all the features (i.e., wavelet coefficients, PSD and average band power estimate) performed better with the classifiers without much deviation in the classification accuracy, i.e., 80%, 80% and 75.71% with LDA, QDA and KNN respectively. Wavelet coefficients performed best with QDA classifier with an accuracy of 80%. PSD vector resulted in superior performance of 81.43% with both QDA and KNN. Average band power estimate vector showed highest accuracy of 84.29% with KNN algorithm. Our approach presented in this paper is quite simple, easy to execute and is validated robustly with a large dataset.
Impact of Reflective Mulch on Yield of Strawberry Plants and Incidence of Damage by Tarnished Plant Bug (Heteroptera: Miridae)

Abstract The current study investigated the impact of reflective mulch on yield of strawberry plants and incidence of damage by tarnished plant bugs, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), for three strawberry cultivars: ‘Honeoye’, ‘Earliglow’, and two sibling Dayneutrals (‘Tribute’ and ‘Tristar’, herein considered as one cultivar). Of all cultivars tested, Honeoye was the most productive and least susceptible to tarnished plant bug. For Earliglow and Honeoye, reflective mulch enhanced productivity of strawberry plants and suppressed density of nymphs per flower cluster and proportion of damaged fruits, but did not significantly impact numbers of nymphs or damaged fruits per hectare. Results with Dayneutrals were not consistently significant. Both in the presence or absence of reflective mulch, proportion of damaged fruits increased with increasing density of nymphs per flower cluster and with decreasing number of fruits harvested per row section, suggesting that planting productive strawberry cultivars or maintaining cultural practices that promote high yield may provide an effective line of defense against tarnished plant bug. These results also suggest that reflective mulch may suppress incidence of damage by tarnished plant bug both directly, by reducing number of nymphs per flower cluster, and indirectly, by enhancing productivity of strawberry plants. Economic analyses evaluating costs and benefits of using reflective mulch, as well as studies investigating mechanisms that underlie the impact of reflective mulch on yield and incidence of damage by tarnished plant bug, are still needed before reflective mulch can be implemented as a management strategy in commercial strawberry fields.
Gesture recognition with inertial sensors and optimized DTW prototypes

In this work our approach for human gesture recognition with inertial sensors is presented. The proposed method utilizes a dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm for online time series recognition. Our DTW implementation is able to deal with gesture signals varying in amplitude and to resolve ambiguities in the recognition result when DTW is used for multiclass classification.