Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of tegumental aquaporin from the human parasitic worm, Schistosoma monsoni, in osmoregulation and drug uptake

Schistosomes are parasitic platyhelminths that constitute an important public health problem globally. Infection is characterized by the presence of adult worms within the vasculature of their hosts, where they can reside for many years. The worms are covered by an unusual dual lipid bilayer through which they import nutrients. How the parasites import other vital molecules, such as water, is not known. Recent proteomic analysis of the schistosome tegumental membranes revealed the presence of an aquaporin homologue at the host‐interactive surface whose cDNA we have cloned and characterized. The cDNA encodes a predicted 304‐aa protein (SmAQP) that is found largely in the parasite tegument by immunolocalization and is most highly expressed in the intravascular life stages. Treatment of parasites with short interfering RNAs targeting the SmAQP gene results in potent (>90%) suppression. These suppressed parasites resist swelling when placed in hypotonic medium, unlike their control counterparts, which rapidly double in volume. In addition, SmAQP‐suppressed parasites, unlike controls, resist shrinkage when incubated in hyperosmotic solution. While suppressed parasites exhibit lower viability in culture relative to controls and exhibit a stunted appearance following prolonged suppression, they are nonetheless more resistant to killing by the drug potassium antimonyl tartrate (PAT). This is likely because SmAQP acts as a conduit for this drug, as is the case for aquaporins in other systems. These experiments reveal a heretofore unrecognized role of the schistosome tegument in controlling water and drug movement into the parasites and highlight the importance of the tegument in parasite osmoregulation and drug uptake. — Faghiri, Z. , Skelly, P. J. The role of tegumental aquaporin from the human parasitic worm, Schistosoma mansoni, in osmoregulation and drug uptake. FASEB J. 23, 2780–2789 (2009)
Automatic Feedback Generation in Software Performance Engineering: A Review

Automation in generation of architectural feedback from performance indexes like probability distributions, mean values and variances has been of interest to the researchers from last decade. It is well established that due to the complexity in interpreting the performance indices obtained from performance analysis of software architecture and short time to the market, an automated approach is vital for acceptance of architecture based software performance engineering approach by software industry. In last decade some work has beendone in this direction. Aim of this paper is to explore the existing research in the field, which will be valuable for researchers looking forward to contributing to this research.
Age-Dependent Seroprevalence of Toscana Virus in Central Italy and Correlation with the Clinical Profile

ABSTRACT In order to estimate the antibody prevalence rates for Toscana virus (TOSV) among children and adults, we evaluated the seroprevalence of TOSV in a population (n = 2,737) living in Tuscany during the period of 1999 to 2006. The seroprevalence rate was 19.8% in adults and 5.8% in children, showing an age-dependent increase in TOSV-specific immunity. Meningitis due to TOSV infection was more frequent in adults than in children.
Harmonic-Suppressed Bandpass Filter Based on Discriminating Coupling

This letter presents a novel method to suppress harmonic responses of parallel-coupled bandpass filters. The harmonic suppression is based on discriminating coupling. The coupling coefficient at fundamental resonant frequency can be tuned to desirable values whereas it is zero at the second harmonic. Hence, the coupling region blocks the second harmonic but still allows the transmission of signals at passband frequency. Benefiting from this feature, the second harmonic can be suppressed without degrading the passband performance. Furthermore, no additional circuit is needed. For demonstration purpose, two example filters are implemented. The experimental results are presented to verify the proposed method.
Poly[[diaquadeca-μ-cyanido-hexacyanidobis(4-cyanopyridine)di-μ-pyrimidine-tricopper(II)ditungsten(V)] dihydrate]

In the polymeric title compound, {[Cu3W2(CN)16(C4H4N2)2(C6H4N2)2(H2O)2]·2H2O}n, the coordination geometry of W is an eight-coordinated bicapped trigonal prism. Five of the CN groups of [W(CN)8] are bridged to Cu ions. The coordination geometries of the Cu atoms are each pseudo-octahedral; one Cu atom is located on a centre of inversion. The cyano-bridged W–Cu layers are linked by Cu-containing pillars, to form a three-dimensional network with cavities occupied by noncoordinated water and 4-cyanopyridine molecules.
Controlled dropout: A different dropout for improving training speed on deep neural network

Dropout is a technique widely used for preventing overfitting while training deep neural networks. However, applying dropout to a neural network typically increases the training time. This paper proposes a different dropout approach called controlled dropout that improves training speed by dropping units in a column-wise or row-wise manner on the matrices. In controlled dropout, a network is trained using compressed matrices of smaller size, which results in notable improvement of training speed. In the experiment on feed-forward neural networks for MNIST data set and convolutional neural networks for CIFAR-10 and SVHN data sets, our proposed method achieves faster training speed than conventional methods both on CPU and GPU, while exhibiting the same regularization performance as conventional dropout. Moreover, the improvement of training speed increases when the number of fully-connected layers increases. As the training process of neural network is an iterative process comprising forward propagation and backpropagation, speed improvement using controlled dropout would provide a significantly decreased training time.
Loss of Pink1 modulates synaptic mitochondrial bioenergetics in the rat striatum prior to motor symptoms: concomitant complex I respiratory defects and increased complex II‐mediated respiration

Mutations in PTEN‐induced putative kinase 1 (Pink1), a mitochondrial serine/threonine kinase, cause a recessive inherited form of Parkinson's disease (PD). Pink1 deletion in rats results in a progressive PD‐like phenotype, characterized by significant motor deficits starting at 4 months of age. Despite the evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction, the pathogenic mechanism underlying disease due to Pink1‐deficiency remains obscure.
Automated Fine Tuning of Probabilistic Self-Stabilizing Algorithms

Although randomized algorithms have widely been used in distributed computing as a means to tackle impossibility results, it is currently unclear what type of randomization leads to the best performance in such algorithms. This paper proposes three automated techniques to find the probability distribution that achieves minimum average recovery time for an input randomized distributed self-stabilizing protocol without changing the behavior of the algorithm. Our first technique is based on solving symbolic linear algebraic equations in order to identify fastest state reachability in parametric discrete-time Markov chains. The second approach applies parameter synthesis techniques from probabilistic model checking to compute the rational function describing the average recovery time and then uses dedicated solvers to find the optimal parameter valuation. The third approach computes over- and under-approximations of the result for a given parameter region and iteratively refines the regions with minimal recovery time up to the desired precision. The latter approach finds sub-optimal solutions with negligible errors, but it is significantly more scalable in orders of magnitude as compared to the other approaches.
Lignin-stimulated protection of polypropylene films and DNA in cells of mice against oxidation damage

The blending of polypropylene with lignin derived from chemical wood pulp manufacture makes it possible to prepare optically transparent films (thickness 50-60μm) with acceptable mechanical properties in the absence of a commercial stabilizer. The lignin preparation in the concentration 1-2 wt% possessed the ability to act as a processing stabilizer and as an antioxidant during thermal aging of polypropylene films. A DNA-protective effect of lignin in mice testicular cells and mice peripheral blood lymphocytes against oxidation stress was examined using in vitro experiments. Hydrogen peroxide and visible light-excited methylene blue (MB) were used as DNA damaging agents. The isolated cells were preincubated with lignin before treatment with the oxidative agents. The level of breaks in the DNA was measured by a comet assay. The results showed that preincubation with lignin significantly decreased the level of strand breaks induced by both oxidants in mice lymphocytes and testicular cells.
Derivation and validation of simple equations to predict total muscle mass from simple anthropometric and demographic data 1 – 3

Background: Muscle mass reflects and influences health status. Its reliable estimation would be of value for epidemiology. Objective: The aim of the study was to derive and validate anthropometric prediction equations to quantify whole-body skeletal muscle mass (SM) in adults. Design: The derivation sample included 423 subjects (227 women) aged 18–81 y with a body mass index (BMI; in kg/m) of 15.9–40.8. The validation sample included 197 subjects (105 women) aged 19– 83 y with a BMI of 15.7–36.4. Both samples were of mixed ethnic/ racial groups. All underwent whole-body magnetic resonance imaging to quantify SM (dependent variable for multiple regressions) and anthropometric variables (independent variables). Results: Two prediction equations with high practicality and optimal derivation correlations with SM were further investigated to assess agreement and bias by using Bland-Altman plots and validated in separate data sets. Including race as a variable increased R by only 0.1% in men and by 8% in women. For men: SM (kg) = 39.5 + 0.665 body weight (BW; kg) 2 0.185 waist circumference (cm) 2 0.418 hip circumference (cm) 2 0.08 age (y) (derivation: R = 0.76, SEE = 2.7 kg; validation: R = 0.79, SEE = 2.7 kg). Bland-Altman plots showed moderate agreement in both derivation and validation analyses. For women: SM (kg) = 2.89 + 0.255 BW (kg) 2 0.175 hip circumference (cm) 2 0.038 age (y) + 0.118 height (cm) (derivation: R = 0.58, SEE = 2.2 kg; validation: R = 0.59, SEE = 2.1 kg). Bland-Altman plots had a negative slope, indicating a tendency to overestimate SM among women with smaller muscle mass and to underestimate SM among those with larger muscle mass. Conclusions: Anthropometry predicts SM better in men than in women. Equations that include hip circumference showed agreement between methods, with predictive power similar to that of BMI to predict fat mass, with the potential for applications in groups, as well as epidemiology and survey settings. Am J Clin Nutr doi: 10.3945/ajcn.113. 070466.
Mechanical performance of aquatic rowing and flying

Aquatic flight, performed by rowing or flapping fins, wings or limbs, is a primary locomotor mechanism for many animals.We used a computer simulation to compare the mechanical performance of rowing and flapping appendages across a range of speeds. Flapping appendages proved to be more mechanically efficient than rowing appendages at all swimming speeds, suggesting that animals that frequently engage in locomotor behaviours that require energy conservation should employ a flapping stroke. The lower efficiency of rowing appendages across all speeds begs the question of why rowing occurs at all. One answer lies in the ability of rowing fins to generate more thrust than flapping fins during the power stroke. Large forces are necessary for manoeuvring behaviours such as accelerations, turning and braking, which suggests that rowing should be found in slow–swimming animals that frequently manoeuvre. The predictions of the model are supported by observed patterns of behavioural variation among rowing and flapping vertebrates.
Symptom-limited graded treadmill exercise testing in young adults in the CARDIA study.

Symptom-limited, graded exercise treadmill testing was performed by 4,968 white and black adults, ages 18-30 yr, during the baseline examination for the CARDIA study. The mean estimated maximal exercise capacity by race/gender, expressed as metabolic units (METS), was: white men 13.8, black men 13.0, white women 11.1, and black women 9.4. Exercise test duration was higher in nonsmokers, positively related to physical activity score and pulmonary function (FEV1.ht-2), and inversely related to body mass index. Men had higher mean values than women for both test duration and a measure of submaximal performance, the workload 130 (WL130, the exercise test duration to a heart rate of 130 beats.min-1). Adjusted for age and education, white men had a longer mean test duration than black men (53 s longer, P less than 0.001), but nearly equal mean WL130. White women had higher mean values than black women for both test duration (114 s longer, P less than 0.001) and WL130 (36 s longer, P less than 0.001). Men had higher mean values than women for both outcome measures (P less than 0.001). Thus, in young adults significant gender and ethnic differences exist for exercise test performance, part of which can be explained by personal habits or traits.
Patient phenotyping in clinical trials of chronic pain treatments: IMMPACT recommendations

Abstract There is tremendous interpatient variability in the response to analgesic therapy (even for efficacious treatments), which can be the source of great frustration in clinical practice. This has led to calls for “precision medicine” or personalized pain therapeutics (ie, empirically based algorithms that determine the optimal treatments, or treatment combinations, for individual patients) that would presumably improve both the clinical care of patients with pain and the success rates for putative analgesic drugs in phase 2 and 3 clinical trials. However, before implementing this approach, the characteristics of individual patients or subgroups of patients that increase or decrease the response to a specific treatment need to be identified. The challenge is to identify the measurable phenotypic characteristics of patients that are most predictive of individual variation in analgesic treatment outcomes, and the measurement tools that are best suited to evaluate these characteristics. In this article, we present evidence on the most promising of these phenotypic characteristics for use in future research, including psychosocial factors, symptom characteristics, sleep patterns, responses to noxious stimulation, endogenous pain-modulatory processes, and response to pharmacologic challenge. We provide evidence-based recommendations for core phenotyping domains and recommend measures of each domain.
Genetic factors in activity motivation.

A study of 61 pairs of identical (MZ) and fraternal (DZ) grade-school twin girls found moderate genetic contributions to individual differences in several aspects of activity motivation: reaction time, variety of activity, anxiety, and impatience. Activity motivation was defined by empirical clusters of related measures including ratings, experimental tasks, and interviews. Intraclass correlation coeficients for the MZ and DZ groups were compared, and heritability estimates were computed for every measure. Possible biases in twin research were examined with special emphasis on the environmental similarity of MZ and DZ co-twins.
An ultra low-power output feedback flip-flop

In this paper, we proposed a new low-power output feedback single edge-triggered flip-flop (FBFF) that eliminates unnecessary internal transitions at the precharge node. As a result, the proposed FBFF is able to achieve substantial power reduction with no impact on its latency. The comparison of simulation results had indicated a maximum power saving of 87.9% during low input activities and an enhanced power-delay-product (in terms of the clock-to-output delay) of 8%-50%
Bioelectric impedance. New developments and clinical application.

The various applications of bioelectric impedance to clinical medicine are illustrated by its use in seven patients. Detection of fluid collections in the pleura, mediastinum, and lung parenchyma; changes in cardiac output; pulsatile flow in an ischemic limb; and lower extremity venous obstruction have all been possible. Bioelectric impedance appears to have promise as a noninvasive, simple, and accurate means of monitoring vital functions.
Endovascular therapy for stroke: getting to the "heart" of the matter.

> Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.1 > > — George Santayana, 1863 to 1952 In the late 1970s, Gruentzig’s groundbreaking reports on a series of successfully performed coronary angioplasties created the field of endovascular medicine, setting the precedent for the Food and Drug Administration’s 510(k) approval of the procedure in 1981.2 Over the next decade, the number of angioplasties performed in the United States grew exponentially from 1000 procedures in 1980 to >300 000 by 1995.3 Despite robust growth, however, clinical trials failed to demonstrate the benefits of angioplasty over thrombolysis for the treatment of ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). 4–7 The Primary Angioplasty in Myocardial Infarction (PAMI) and ZWOLLE trials in 1993 were the first randomized, controlled studies to demonstrate the efficacy of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) over fibrinolytic therapy,8,9 nearly 10 years after reimbursement by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (diagnosis-related group 108) was granted.10 Although subsequent studies disputed the merits of PCI,11–13 several meta-analyses provided definitive evidence that PCI was superior for STEMI.14,15 In 1996, the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association incorporated PCI as a Class I recommendation for STEMI if performed in a “timely fashion…by personnel in high volume center[s]. ”16 The use of PCI as a facilitated or rescue strategy after fibrinolysis, however, remained controversial, having only recently been shown to be effective.17–19 As history repeats itself, many challenges encountered by cardiology are being revisited by acute stroke trialists. Since the publication of the nonpositive results of the Interventional Management of Stroke (IMS) III, The Mechanical Retrieval and Recanalization of Stroke Clots Using Embolectomy (MR RESCUE), and SYNTHESIS Expansion trials,20–22 endovascular procedures for stroke are being met with skepticism, similar …
DISORDERED GLOBIN SYNTHESIS IN THALASSEMIA

During the last few years, methods have become available for separating the aand @-chains of human hemoglobin using small quantities of starting material. This has permitted studies of incorporation of radioactive amino acids into the peptide chains of hemoglobin in reticulocytes from both thalassemic and nonthalassemic individuals (Weatherall et al., 1965; Heywood et al., 1965; Bank & Marks, 1966; Bargellesi et al., 1967). This paper summarizes the results of studies of this type in reticulocytes of patients with aand @-thalassemia and various nonthalassemic disorders. These investigations have been carried out to determine the rate of production of globin chains in the thalassemia syndromes, and to attempt to define the level a t which globin synthesis is defective in these conditions.
Shift from Acetoclastic to H2-Dependent Methanogenesis in a West Siberian Peat Bog at Low pH Values and Isolation of an Acidophilic Methanobacterium Strain

ABSTRACT Methane production and archaeal community composition were studied in samples from an acidic peat bog incubated at different temperatures and pH values. H2-dependent methanogenesis increased strongly at the lowest pH, 3.8, and Methanobacteriaceae became important except for Methanomicrobiaceae and Methanosarcinaceae. An acidophilic and psychrotolerant Methanobacterium sp. was isolated using H2-plus-CO2-supplemented medium at pH 4.5.
Isolation and Identification of potential diazotrophic Endophytic Bacteria from Sweet flag ( Acorus calamus ) medicinal plant

An endophytic bacterium was isolated from Acorus calamus rhizomes, which is an important medicinal plant. The rhizome is an important medicinal nutrient source of microorganisms, in the rhizosphere. The isolate was evaluated for various biochemical tests. Further the isolate PPAU01 was subjected to 16S rRNA sequencing. The isolate was identified as Enterobacter cloacae sub sp dissolvens which was selected for further studies. The isolate was able to exhibit the plant growth promoting traits such as IAA production, ARA activity, Phosphate solubilization and siderophore production. The ability of this isolate was tested under pot culture condition. The isolate PPAU01 treated plants recorded the maximum germination percentage (93.3%), vigour index (1156.23), plant height (61.03 cm), rhizome dry weight (37.02g) and β-asarone compound (2.26%) compared to control.
Engrailed cooperates with extradenticle and homothorax to repress target genes in Drosophila

Engrailed is a key transcriptional regulator in the nervous system and in the maintenance of developmental boundaries in Drosophila, and its vertebrate homologs regulate brain and limb development. Here, we show that the functions of both of the Hox cofactors Extradenticle and Homothorax play essential roles in repression by Engrailed. Mutations that remove either of them abrogate the ability of Engrailed to repress its target genes in embryos, both cofactors interact directly with Engrailed, and both stimulate repression by Engrailed in cultured cells. We suggest a model in which Engrailed, Extradenticle and Homothorax function as a complex to repress Engrailed target genes. These studies expand the functional requirements for extradenticle and homothorax beyond the Hox proteins to a larger family of non-Hox homeodomain proteins.
Frequency hopping mobile ad hoc and sensor network synchronization

The time synchronization is one of the main issues in frequency hopping mobile ad hoc networks (FH MANET) or time synchronous wireless sensor networks (TWSN). In the former case a network wide time reference is needed in FH code phase synchronization and in the latter case, e.g., in time stamping of the sensed phenomenon. Herein, a distributed decision making method (s) that solves the problems considering initial time synchronization, FH code phase synchronization, late-entry nodes and subnetwork merging cases of tactical FH MANETs and TWSNs is proposed. One of the starting points is a recently developed robust control channel method that enables the nodes to exchange the necessary synchronization messages prior the frequency hopping synchronism, i.e., out-of-phase. The proposed method is master free and based on node identifiers and local information that a node collects from the surroundings, namely local density and local data-activity. Simulation results are given that prove the functionality and the potentiality of the proposed methods.
An Agent Based Negotiation Protocol for Cloud Service Level Agreements

In an agent-based cloud scenario, when two agents, provided with different ontologies exchange messages to negotiate a Service Level Agreement for a cloud service, they could fail to understand both the correct meaning of their messages and the offered service quality, due to the differences present in their ontologies. In all these cases, a semantic negotiation is required to reciprocally making understandable the messages exchanged about the cloud service characteristics. In this work we propose a protocol for supporting the SLA negotiation process, involving semantic issues, which do not require the use of a common global agent ontology sharing knowledge in advance. In detail, this protocol considers that each agent is able to partition the other agents based on both their expertise in cloud services and similarity with their own ontologies.