Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glucocerebrosidase in Parkinson's disease: Insights into pathogenesis and prospects for treatment

PD involves several converging pathogenetic pathways to neurodegeneration; highlighted in specific cases by genetic mutations causing familial PD. Numerically, the most important genetic mutations associated with PD are those of the glucocerebrosidase gene. Approximately 10% of PD patients carry glucocerebrosidase mutations. This observation has enhanced focus on the autophagy‐lysosome system as important in pathogenesis. The relationship of the glucocerebrosidase pathway to the cause and progression of PD highlights the potential to use abnormalities identified as biomarkers and modify glucocerebrosidase activity or substrate accumulation as neuroprotection. Biomarkers relevant to the glucocerebrosidase pathway, for example, enzyme activity and substrate levels, may be identified in blood, urine, and CSF. These may be combined with clinical features to help identify mutation carriers that are at increased risk of PD. The molecular mechanisms by which glucocerebrosidase mutations may result in PD are not fully understood. There is evidence accumulating that there is a reciprocal interaction between glucocerebrosidase and alpha‐synuclein levels. This interaction may potentially be used to increase glucocerebrosidase enzyme activities and therefore reduce alpha‐synuclein levels to modify the course of PD. Substrate reduction therapy may be an alternative strategy, particularly if membrane abnormalities underlie the organellar dysfunction in PD neurodegeneration. © 2016 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
Methods for assessing positive and negative symptoms.

Once adequate reliability has been achieved, however, it is important to document internal consistency and external validity. This chapter has summarized some of our work with the former topic. It suggests that the SANS has high internal consistency, while the SAPS is somewhat less internally consistent. What are the clinical and research implications of these results concerning internal consistency? On a superficial and statistical level, these results might be considered to suggest that the SAPS is less valid than the SANS, and perhaps that therefore it is not useful. On the other hand, it might be argued that it is not necessary to measure all the items on the SANS, since they are highly intercorrelated with one another and any one might 'stand in place' for the others. While in a sense statistically correct, these conclusions are probably misleading in both clinical and research settings. The SANS and SAPS were designed primarily as descriptive instruments that are useful for encoding symptoms commonly observed in psychiatric patients. Essentially, these results document clinical common sense. Patients with one negative symptom tend to have several others, while patients with one positive symptom do not necessarily have others. In other words, affective flattening seems to be related to alogia and avolition, but delusions and hallucinations do not necessarily occur together. In a comprehensive description of an individual patient, it is important to document all the types of symptoms that are present. This is particularly crucial in pharmacologic studies, where one may wish to document that some symptoms or groups of symptoms are more responsive to treatment than are other symptoms. For example, although anhedonia and alogia are statistically correlated with one another in a population of schizophrenics, in an individual patient anhedonia might be more responsive to treatment with a specific medication than is alogia. In spite of the high intercorrelations, it remains important in clinical settings to evaluate all relevant symptoms. The results of the factor analyses in this second study do not suggest as clean and strong a separation between positive and negative symptoms as was indicated in our original study. Factor analysis is notoriously sample-dependent, but there is no reason to suspect that the sample in the second study was different in any way from that of the first. Both involved consecutive admissions of DSM-III schizophrenics to the Iowa Psychiatric Hospital. The individuals doing the clinical evaluation did change, however. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Evaluation of Regulated Delayed Attenuation Strategies for Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi Vaccine Vectors in Neonatal and Infant Mice

ABSTRACT We developed regulated delayed attenuation strategies for Salmonella vaccine vectors. In this study, we evaluated the combination of these strategies in recombinant attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium vaccine vectors with similar genetic backgrounds in vitro and in vivo. Our goal is to develop a vaccine to prevent Streptococcus pneumoniae infection in newborns; thus, all strains delivered a pneumococcal antigen PspA and the impact of maternal antibodies was evaluated. The results showed that all strains with the regulated delayed attenuated phenotype (RDAP) displayed an invasive ability stronger than that of the S. Typhi vaccine strain, Ty21a, but weaker than that of their corresponding wild-type parental strains. The survival curves of different RDAP vaccine vectors in vitro and in vivo exhibited diverse regulated delayed attenuation kinetics, which was different from S. Typhi Ty21a and the wild-type parental strains. Under the influence of maternal antibody, the persistence of the S. Typhimurium RDAP strain displayed a regulated delayed attenuation trend in nasal lymphoid tissue (NALT), lung, and Peyer's patches, while the persistence of S. Typhi RDAP strains followed the curve only in NALT. The bacterial loads of S. Typhi RDAP strains were lower in NALT, lung, and Peyer's patches in mice born to immune mothers than in those born to naive mothers. In accordance with these results, RDAP vaccine strains induced high titers of IgG antibodies against PspA and against Salmonella lipopolysaccharides. Immunization of mothers with S. Typhi RDAP strains enhanced the level of vaginal mucosal IgA, gamma interferon (IFN-γ), and interleukin 4 (IL-4) and resulted in a higher level of protection against S. pneumoniae challenge.
Three-way cascade power divider and combiner for satellite communications

In this paper, a Ka-band in-phase high isolation three-way cascade power divider/combiner for satellite applications is designed, simulated and measured. This three-way power divider/combiner is realized using microstrip line on Printed Circuit Board (PCB) substrate. The average insertion loss is about 5.50 dB over 17.7GHz to 20.7GHz frequency range with a maximum phase difference of 3 degrees.
The Helicase HAGE Expressed by Malignant Melanoma-Initiating Cells Is Required for Tumor Cell Proliferation in Vivo*

Background: ABCB5+ MMIC are a population of chemoresistant cancer stem cell-like cells responsible for melanoma initiation, growth, and progression. Results: HAGE promotes ABCB5+ MMIC-dependent tumorigenesis by enhancing RAS protein expression. Conclusion: ABCB5+ MMIC require the presence of HAGE for their tumorigenic activity. Significance: HAGE is expressed only by tumor cells. Hence, targeting HAGE helicase may have broad therapeutic applications. Malignant melanoma-initiating cells (MMIC) are a subpopulation of cells responsible for melanoma tumor growth and progression. They are defined by the expression of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) subfamily B member 5 (ABCB5). Here, we identified a critical role for the DEAD-box helicase antigen (HAGE) in ABCB5+ MMIC-dependent tumorigenesis and show that HAGE-specific inactivation inhibits melanoma tumor growth mediated by this tumor-initiating population. Knockdown of HAGE led to a significant decrease in RAS protein expression with a concomitant decrease in activation of the AKT and ERK signaling pathways implicated to play an important role in melanoma progression. To confirm that the reduction in NRAS (Neuroblastoma RAS) expression was dependent on the HAGE helicase activity, we showed that NRAS, effectively silenced by siRNA, could be rescued by reintroduction of HAGE in cells lacking HAGE. Furthermore, we provide a mechanism by which HAGE promotes NRAS unwinding in vitro. We also observed using tumor transplantation in Non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency mice that the HAGE knockdown in a ABCB5+ melanoma cell line displayed a significant decrease in tumor growth and compared with the control. Our results suggest that the helicase HAGE is required for ABCB5+ MMIC-dependent tumor growth through promoting RAS protein expression and that cancer therapies targeting HAGE helicase may have broad applications for treating malignant melanoma and potentially other cancer types.
Enzootic bovine leucosis

Enzootic bovine leucosis is associated with infection by bovine leucosis virus. The incubation period is measured in years and a minority of infected animals develop clinical signs. The disease is widespread in Europe and elsewhere and can cause significant economic loss. The epidemiology is incompletely understood and findings from one cattle production system may not be directly applicable to another. Major control programmes exist in Denmark and West Germany and control schemes are being developed elsewhere. Eradication of enzootic bovine leucosis has been established as a goal in the EEC and research is revealing the ways in which this goal may be attained. To be effective, control and epidemiological monitoring must be interactive. Recently introduced serological tests, of improved sensitivity, provide a valuable tool.
Collective identity construction in international collaborations

This article explores the dynamic processes of collective identity formation among the participating organizational members in interorganizational collaborations that cross national boundaries. A longitudinal, qualitative multi-case study research approach was adopted in the empirical investigation of collective identity in three international business collaborations that involve a Sino-British strategic partnership, a Sino-Australian, and a Sino-Polish joint venture. Based on the analyses of the data collected from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival materials, a theoretical framework of collective identity (re)formation is developed. It suggests that two inseparable elements (states and processes) constitute a cyclic and enduring process of collective identity formation through partners’ orchestrating discursive resources involving a common sense of ‘we-ness’. The shifts between various states are driven by partners’ processes of negotiation, integration, solidification, and reformation of collective identity. A deconstruction process may also emerge, giving rise to the termination of the collaborative relationship. The research presented in this article advances the understanding of collective identity formation in the field of organizational identity by extending the discursive perspective of collective identity into the context of interorganizational collaborations that cross national borders. This research also provides further empirical evidence on the active role played by organizational members in the use of cultural narratives as strategic resources to express their identity beliefs, which differs from the deterministic view of culture in shaping organizational members’ behaviors.
Screening of a new cadmium hyperaccumulator, Galinsoga parviflora, from winter farmland weeds using the artificially high soil cadmium concentration method

A new method, the artificially high soil cadmium (Cd) concentration method, was used to screen for Cd hyperaccumulators among winter farmland weeds. Galinsoga parviflora was the most promising remedial plant among 5 Cd accumulators or hyperaccumulators. In Cd concentration gradient experiments, as soil Cd concentration increased, root and shoot biomass decreased, and their Cd contents increased. In additional concentration gradient experiments, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities increased with soil Cd concentrations up to 75 mg kg−1, while expression of their isoenzymes strengthened. Catalase (CAT) activity declined and CAT isoenzyme expression weakened at soil Cd concentrations less than 50 mg kg−1. The maxima of Cd contents in shoots and roots were 137.63 mg kg−1 and 105.70 mg kg−1, respectively, at 100 mg kg−1 Cd in soil. The root and shoot bioconcentration factors exceeded 1.0, as did the translocation factor. In a field experiment, total extraction of Cd by shoots was 1.35 mg m−2 to 1.43 mg m−2 at soil Cd levels of 2.04 mg kg−1 to 2.89 mg kg−1. Therefore, the artificially high soil Cd concentration method was effective for screening Cd hyperaccumulators. Galinsoga parviflora is a Cd hyperaccumulator that could be used to efficiently remediate Cd‐contaminated farmland soil. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:2422–2428. © 2014 SETAC
Landmarking-Based Unsupervised Clustering of Human Faces Manifesting Labio-Schisis Dysmorphisms

Ultrasound scans, Computed Axial Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging are only few examples of medical imaging tools boosting physicians in diagnosing a wide range of pathologies. Anyway, no standard methodology has been dened yet to extensively exploit them and current diagnoses procedures are still carried out mainly relying on physician's experience. Although the human contribution is always fundamental, it is self-evident that an automatic procedure for image analysis would allow a more rapid and eective identication of dysmorphisms. Moving toward this purpose, in this work we address the problem of feature extraction devoted to the detection of specic dis- eases involving facial dysmorphisms. In particular, a bounded Depth Minimum Steiner Trees (D-MST) clustering algorithm is presented for discriminating groups of individu- als relying on the manifestation/absence of the labio-schisis pathology, commonly called cleft lip. The analysis of three-dimensional facial surfaces via Dierential Geometry is adopted to extract landmarks. The extracted geometrical information is furthermore elaborated to feed the unsupervised clustering algorithm and produce the classication. The clustering returns the probability of being aected by the pathology, allowing physi- cians to focus their attention on risky individuals for further analysis.
Changes in plasma antioxidant status following consumption of diets high or low in fruit and vegetables or following dietary supplementation with an antioxidant mixture

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of consumption of a high-fruit and vegetable diet, or a spray-dried extract of selected fruits and vegetables of high antioxidant content, on indices of antioxidant status of individuals consuming a background diet with minimal antioxidant intake. Plasma antioxidant concentrations were determined in twenty-five men following a 2-week depletion period during which they consumed self-selected low-antioxidant diets (less than three servings of fruit and vegetables with no tea, coffee, red wine or fruit juice). Following this period the volunteers consumed either a self-selected diet containing five to seven servings of fruit and vegetables/d, or 30 g of a spray-dried supplement designed to provide the equivalent antioxidant activity of five to seven servings of fruit and vegetables for 2 weeks in a crossover trial. Following consumption of a high-antioxidant diet for 2 weeks, plasma concentrations of ascorbic acid, α- and β-carotene and lutein+zeaxanthin were all significantly increased (P<0.05) over the depletion period. However, concentrations of lycopene, retinol and tocopherol were not affected. Consumption of the supplement also raised the concentrations of these same antioxidants in plasma. Despite the increases in the concentrations of measured antioxidant nutrients, the 6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid-equivalent antioxidant capacity of plasma, as estimated by inhibition of metmyoglobin activity, was not significantly affected by any of the dietary treatments.
Selective cerebral catheterization.

This paper describes a new method for selective cerebral catheterization based on the Pod catheter [6], [7], guided and propelled by means of external magnetic fields. The principles of the Pod catheter, and the necessary equipment are described, and conclusions are drawn from experiments with a glass model. The middle cerebral artery was catheterized selectively, and cytotoxic material was injected into it to treat a malignant tumor of the brain hemisphere.
Vertical Jumping Tests in Volleyball: Reliability, Validity, and Playing-Position Specifics

Abstract Sattler, T, Sekulic, D, Hadzic, V, Uljevic, O, and Dervisevic, E. Vertical jumping tests in volleyball: reliability, validity, and playing-position specifics. J Strength Cond Res 26(6): 1532–1538, 2012—Vertical jumping is known to be important in volleyball, and jumping performance tests are frequently studied for their reliability and validity. However, most studies concerning jumping in volleyball have dealt with standard rather than sport-specific jumping procedures and tests. The aims of this study, therefore, were (a) to determine the reliability and factorial validity of 2 volleyball-specific jumping tests, the block jump (BJ) test and the attack jump (AJ) test, relative to 2 frequently used and systematically validated jumping tests, the countermovement jump test and the squat jump test and (b) to establish volleyball position–specific differences in the jumping tests and simple anthropometric indices (body height [BH], body weight, and body mass index [BMI]). The BJ was performed from a defensive volleyball position, with the hands positioned in front of the chest. During an AJ, the players used a 2- to 3-step approach and performed a drop jump with an arm swing followed by a quick vertical jump. A total of 95 high-level volleyball players (all men) participated in this study. The reliability of the jumping tests ranged from 0.97 to 0.99 for Cronbach's alpha coefficients, from 0.93 to 0.97 for interitem correlation coefficients and from 2.1 to 2.8 for coefficients of variation. The highest reliability was found for the specific jumping tests. The factor analysis extracted one significant component, and all of the tests were highly intercorrelated. The analysis of variance with post hoc analysis showed significant differences between 5 playing positions in some of the jumping tests. In general, receivers had a greater jumping capacity, followed by libero players. The differences in jumping capacities should be emphasized vis-a-vis differences in the anthropometric measures of players, where middle hitters had higher BH and body weight, followed by opposite hitters and receivers, with no differences in the BMI between positions.
Improving the Sensitivity of Needs Assessment for Substance Abuse Prevention Planning: The Measurement of Differential Severity of Consequences for Individual Substance Types

There is an absence of systematic, comparative research examining the negative consequences that are experienced as a result of using specific substances. Further, techniques typically used for needs assessment (i.e., prevalence proportions) do not take into account the probability of experiencing a negative consequence as a result of using specific substances. An approximated severity index is proposed that: a) takes into account the probability of experiencing negative consequences as a result of using specific substances; and b) is comparable across substances. Data from the NSDUH and the ADSS are used to demonstrate these techniques. The findings suggest that substances typically considered priorities based on prevalence proportions are not the same substances that have a high probability of causing negative consequences. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.
Analysis of magnetically coupled wireless power transfer between two resonators based on power conservation

Based on an equivalent circuit in which the necessary elements for a magnetically coupled wireless power transfer (WPT) system are considered, its overall characteristics are formulated and analyzed. In particular, the WPT efficiencies are conveniently expressed as a function of a figure of merit and a load deviation factor, re-emphasizing the use of an optimal load for the maximum efficiency. Some useful closed-form formulas for extraction of circuit parameters and coupling coefficients are also presented. The theoretical and EM-simulated WPT efficiencies are shown to be in good agreement, validating the circuit modeling and presented formulation.
Measuring Individual-Level Analytical, Managerial and Political Policy Capacity: A Survey Instrument

There is no denying that policy actors matter in driving policy change. Most of the policy process frameworks argued for the centrality of policy actors but have similarly contended that the occurrence of policy change is contingent upon the dynamic interaction of policy actors, organizations and institutions. But the roles played by the actors in the policy process has been typically framed in terms of the technician-politician dichotomy. The burgeoning literature on the increasing complexity of policy work, however, shows a spectrum of roles instead of a binary distinction. Policy work is comprised of functions within and outside the government that transcend the political-analytical distinction. Despite this recognition, very limited attention has been given towards systematically and comprehensively measuring the set of skills and resources necessary for policy actors to perform this various functions. This paper discusses the development of instrument to address this gap in public policy literature. It builds on the framework of policy capacity developed by Wu, Ramesh and Howlett (2015) by integrating three separately assessed dimensions of policy capacity (analytical, managerial and political) into one measurement instrument. In doing so, we hope to measure not only the levels of individual policy capacity but also the dynamic interactions of the policy actors with resources at the levels of the organization and policy system.
A U-Shaped Channel SOI-LIGBT With Dual Trenches

This paper proposes a U-shaped channel silicon-on-insulator lateral insulated gate bipolar transistor (SOI-LIGBT) with dual trenches to reduce the turn-off loss while keep the low ON-state voltage drop. The device features a U-shaped gate trench (G1) and a U-shaped hole-barrier trench (G2). By introducing the dual trenches, enhanced carrier stored effect at the emitter side, more uniform carrier distribution in the drift region, and low carrier density at the collector are realized, resulting in decreases of ON-state voltage drop (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and turn-OFF loss (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}})$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The proposed SOI-LIGBT offers an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}}~52.3$ </tex-math></inline-formula>% lower than the conventional planar-gate U-shaped channel SOI-LIGBT at the same <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 1.22 V. Moreover, the proposed SOI-LIGBT exhibits a latch-up free characteristic at the current density larger than 1200 A/cm<sup>2</sup>.