Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1-Induced Overexpression of Activated Leukocyte Cell Adhesion Molecule (ALCAM) Facilitates Trafﬁcking of Infected Lymphocytes through the Blood-Brain Barrier

Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the etiological agent of a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disease, HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). This disease develops upon inﬁltration of HTLV-1-infected lymphocytes into the central nervous system, mostly the thoracic spinal cord. The central nervous system is normally protected by a physiological structure called the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which consists primarily of a continuous endothelium with tight junctions. In this study, we investigated the role of activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM/CD166), a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily, in the crossing of the BBB by HTLV-1-infected lymphocytes. We demonstrated that ALCAM is overexpressed on the surface of HTLV-1-infected lymphocytes, both in chronically infected cell lines and in primary infected CD4 (cid:2) T lymphocytes. ALCAM overexpression results from the activation of the canonical NF- (cid:3) B pathway by the viral transactivator Tax. In contrast, staining of spinal cord sections of HAM/TSP patients showed that ALCAM expression is not altered on the BBB endothelium in the context of HTLV-1 infection. ALCAM blockade or downregulation of ALCAM levels signiﬁcantly reduced the migration of HTLV-1-infected lymphocytes across a monolayer of human BBB endothelial cells. This study suggests a potential role for ALCAM in HAM/TSP pathogenesis. We studied the role of ALCAM in HTLV-1 infection and HAM/TSP pathogenesis. We found that ALCAM is overexpressed on HTLV-1-infected T lymphocytes as a consequence of Tax-in-duced NF- (cid:2) B activation. In contrast, ex vivo studies showed that ALCAM expression is not altered on the BBB endothelium during HAM/TSP. Finally, ALCAM blockade or downregulation of ALCAM reduced transmigration of HTLV-1-infected lymphocytes in an in vitro BBB model.
A TOPOLOGICAL PROOF OF THE PERRON-FROBENIUS THEOREM

In this article we prove a version of the Perron-Frobenius Theorem in linear algebra using the Brouwer's Fixed Point Theorem in topology. We will mostly concentrate on he qualitative aspect of the Perron-Frobenius Theorem rather than quantitative formulas, which would be enough for theoretical investigations in ergodic theory. By the nature of the method of the proof, we do not expect to obtain a numerical estimate. But we may regard it worthwhile to see why a certain type of result should be true from a topological and geometrical viewpoint. However, a geometric argument alone would give us a sharp numerical bounds on the size of the eigenvalue as shown in Section 2. Eigenvectors of a matrix A will be fixed points of a certain mapping defined in terms of A. We shall modify an existing proof of Frobenius Theorem and that will do the trick for Perron-Frobenius Theorem.
Perceptual Organization Based Technique for Segmenting the Outdoor Scene Images

— A novel outdoor scene image segmentation algorithm based on background recognition and perceptual organization is used to recognize the background objects such as the sky, the ground, and vegetation based on the color and texture information. For the structurally challenging objects, which usually consist of multiple constituent parts, a developed perceptual organization model that can capture the non-accidental structural relationships among the constituent parts of the structured objects and, hence, group them together accordingly without depending on a priori knowledge of the specific objects. The experimental results shows that the proposed method outperformed two state-of-the-art image segmentation approaches on two challenging outdoor databases (Gould data set and Berkeley segmentation data set) and achieved accurate segmentation quality on various outdoor natural scene environments.
THE PATH OF CARBON

The intermediates of carbon dioxide reduction by plants include phosphorylated derivatives of hydroxy acids and sugars. Their identification became possible when the use of labeled carbon dioxide permitted discrimination between the earliest products and the many other components of photosynthetic tissues. A number of compounds were identified by virtue of the chemical and physical properties of the radioactive compounds in tracer amounts and by direct comparison of these properties with those of suspected known metabolic intermediates. It became apparent that several labeled compounds found in short exposures of green tissue to radioactive carbon dioxide were not substances previously identified as metabolic intermediates. Two phosphate esters in particular were observed in the products of the first fern seconds of steady state photosynthesis by all the photosynthet’ic microorganisms and higher plants examined in this laboratory. These esters have been isolated by paper chromatography in tracer quantities and enzymatically hydrolyzed to give two sugars, ribulose and eedoheptulose. This paper contains a description of the chemical identification of these sugars and some observations and suggestions regarding the function of their esters. The general import’ance of t,hese compounds in photosynthesis was surmised before their identification. The products of photosynthesis with CL402 by each plant’ included phosphate esters of the same two compounds, then unknown, in addit,ion to those of the expected glucose, fructose, dihydroxyacetone, and glyceric acid (Fig. 1). As the time of steady st’ate phot’osynthesis in CL402 decreased, the fractions of total fixed radiocarbon in the esters of the two unidentified compounds increased. Kormally, the sugars involved in the early stages of photosynthesis are first isolated as phosphate esters (1). These are eluted and hydrolyzed enzymatically; chromatography then gives the pure sugars (Figs. 2 and 3).
Potential of Ethanol Production U sing Molasses Fermentation in

Due to globalization, privatization and liberalization; sugar industry has to face the domestic as well as international competition. Thus, for survival of the industry, cost effectiveness and economics of by-products become very vital. The aim of this work is to assess the potential, in the short term, for fuel ethanol production by using intermediate molasses in a sugar plant in central India. The by-product plant can support the existing plant to improve the general economy, financial viability, economic status of sugarcane growers and workers by way of paying higher prices for sugarcane crop and also create more employment opportunities in the rural areas by setting up industries based on sugarcane by-products. For assessing the amount of Ethanol production an experimental study has been carried out which find out the amount of ethanol production via fermentation process of molasses sample acquired from the plant. It gives more fine results as the quality of sugarcane changes from place to place.
May 09, 2020 Analysis of the acute phase responses of Serum Amyloid A, Haptoglobin and Type 1 Interferon in cattle experimentally infected with foot-and-mouth Analysis the acute Type

A series of challenge experiments were performed in order to investigate the acute phase responses to foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) infection in cattle and possible implications for the development of persistently infected “ carriers ” . The host response to infection was investigated through measurements of the concentrations of the acute phase proteins (APPs) serum amyloid A (SAA) and haptoglobin (HP), as well as the bioactivity of type 1 interferon (IFN) in serum of infected animals. Results were based on measurements from a total of 36 infected animals of which 24 were kept for observational periods exceeding 28 days in order to determine the carrier-status of individual animals. The systemic host response to FMDV in infected animals was evaluated in comparison to similar measurements in sera from 6 mock-inoculated control animals. There was a significant increase in serum concentrations of both APPs and type 1 IFN in infected animals coinciding with the onset of viremia and clinical disease. The measured parameters declined to baseline levels within 21 days after inoculation, indicating that there was no systemically measurable inflammatory reaction related to the carrier state of FMD. There was a statistically significant difference in the HP response between carriers and non-carriers with a lower response in the animals that subsequently developed into FMDV carriers. It was concluded that the induction of SAA, HP and type 1 IFN in serum can be used as markers of acute infection by FMDV in cattle.
The Hepatitis C Virus RNA 3 (cid:2) -Untranslated Region Strongly Enhances Translation Directed by the Internal Ribosome Entry Site (cid:1)

The positive-strand RNA genome of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is ﬂanked by 5 (cid:1) - and 3 (cid:1) -untranslated regions (UTRs). Translation of the viral RNA is directed by the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) in the 5 (cid:1) -UTR, and subsequent viral RNA replication requires sequences in the 3 (cid:1) -UTR and in the 5 (cid:1) -UTR. Addressing previous conﬂicting reports on a possible function of the 3 (cid:1) -UTR for RNA translation in this study, we found that reporter construct design is an important parameter in experiments testing 3 (cid:1) -UTR function. A translation enhancer function of the HCV 3 (cid:1) -UTR was detected only after transfection of monocistronic reporter RNAs or complete RNA genomes having a 3 (cid:1) -UTR with a precise 3 (cid:1) terminus. The 3 (cid:1) -UTR strongly stimulates HCV IRES-dependent translation in human hepatoma cell lines but only weakly in nonliver cell lines. The variable region, the poly(U · C) tract, and the most 3 (cid:1) terminal
Domains Necessary for G (cid:1) 12 Binding and Stimulation of Protein Phosphatase-2A (PP2A): Is G (cid:1) 12 a Novel Regulatory Subunit of PP2A?

Many cellular signaling pathways share regulation by protein phosphatase-2A (PP2A), a widely expressed serine/threonine phosphatase, and the heterotrimeric G protein G (cid:1) 12 . PP2A activity is altered in carcinogenesis and in some neurodegenerative diseases. We have identified binding of G (cid:1) 12 with the A (cid:1) subunit of PP2A, a trimeric enzyme composed of A (scaffold- ing), B (regulatory), and C (catalytic) subunits and demonstrated that G (cid:1) 12 stimulated phosphatase activity ( J Biol Chem 279: 54983–54986, 2004). We now show in substrate-velocity analysis using purified PP2A that V max was stimulated 3- to 4-fold by glutathione transferase (GST)-G (cid:1) 12 with little effect on K m values. To identify the binding domains mediating the A (cid:1) -G (cid:1) 12 interaction, an extensive mutational analysis was performed. Well-characterized mutations of A (cid:1) were expressed in vitro and tested for binding to GST-G (cid:1) 12 in pull-down assays. G (cid:1) 12 binds to A (cid:1) along repeats 7 to 10, and PP2A B subunits are not necessary for binding. To (cid:1) to (cid:1) 12 , a series of 61 G (cid:1) 12 mutants were engineered to contain the sequence Asn-Ala-Ala-Ile-Arg-Ser (NAAIRS) in place of 6 consecutive amino acids. Mutant G (cid:1) 12 proteins were individually expressed in human embryonic kidney cells and analyzed for interaction with GST or GST-A (cid:1) in pull-down assays. The A (cid:1) binding sites were localized to regions near the N and C termini of G (cid:1) 12 . The expression of constitutively activated G (cid:1) 12 (QL (cid:1) 12 ) in Madin Darby canine kidney cells stimulated PP2A activity as determined by decreased phosphorylation of tyrosine 307 on the catalytic subunit. Based on crystal structures of G (cid:1) 12 and PP2A A (cid:1) , a model describing the binding surfaces and potential mechanisms of G (cid:1) 12 -mediated PP2A activation is presented.
LIGHT-WEIGHT WEB-BASED CONTROL APPLICATIONS WITH THE WEB2CTOOLKIT

The Web2cToolkit is a frame-work for web-based control clients. Key elements are Java servlet and AJAX technologies. Applications based on the Web2cToolkit allow world-wide user access and provide user authentication and authorization. Typical use cases are overview panels, service panels for remote maintenance or user access to stored data for off-line analysis. The paper summarizes the conceptual design and presents example applications implemented for the PETRA3 project at DESY.
PIMl Encodes a Mitochondrial ATP-dependent Protease That Is Required for Mitochondrial Function in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae*

The PI" nuclear gene in the yeast Sarccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a mitochondrial ATP-dependent pro- tease that exhibits over 30% identity with ATP-depend-ent protease La from Escherichia coli, Lon from Barcillus brevis, and one from Myxococcue xanthus. In addition, Piml is 1133 amino acids long and has a putative mitochondrial import signal in the N-terminal region. Enzy- matic comparisons of normal PZMl' and deficient piml-A strains revealed that the ATP-dependent protease is located within the mitochondrial matrix. The piml-A strains are unable to utilize nonfermentable substrates as the sole carbon source and are unable to main- tain functional mitochondrial DNA, indicating that the Piml protease is required for mitochondrial function. PI" mRNA is constitutively expressed but is increased after thermal stress, suggesting that Piml may play a role in the heat shock response. Proteolysis occurs in all prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells by acting either in a limited and specific manner to activate proteins, such as in the secretory pathway, or in a more complete manner to degrade, eliminate, or modulate proteins. The intra-cellular proteolytic destruction of proteins in eukaryotes
Primary ciliary dyskinesia with normal ultrastructure: 3D tomography detects

In primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), motile ciliary dysfunction arises from ciliary defects usually confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In 30% of patients, such as those with DNAH11 mutations, apparently normal ultrastructure makes diagnosis difficult. Genetic analysis supports diagnosis but may not identify definitive causal variants. Electron tomography, an extension of TEM, produces 3D ultrastructural ciliary models with superior resolution to TEM. Our hypothesis is that tomography using existing patient samples will enable visualisation of DNAH11-associated ultrastructural defects. Dual axis tomograms from araldite-embedded nasal cilia were collected in 13 PCD patients with normal ultrastructure (7 DNAH11 , 2 HYDIN , 3 CCDC65 and 1 DRC1 ) and 6 healthy controls, then analysed using IMOD and Chimera software.
of changes in gene expression and biochemical pathways at low levels of exposure.

Benzene, a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, causes acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Recently, through transcriptome profiling of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), we reported dose-dependent effects of benzene exposure on gene expression and biochemical pathways in 83 workers exposed across four airborne concentration ranges (from , 1 ppm to . 10 ppm) compared with 42 subjects with non-workplace ambient exposure levels. Here, we further characterize these dose-dependent effects with continuous benzene exposure in all 125 study subjects. We estimated air benzene exposure levels in the 42 environmentally-exposed subjects from their unmetabolized urinary benzene levels. We used a novel nonparametric, data-adaptive model selection method to estimate the change with dose in the expression of each gene. We describe non-parametric approaches to model pathway responses and used these to estimate the dose responses of the AML pathway and 4 other pathways of interest. The response patterns of majority of genes as captured by mean estimates of the first and second principal components of the dose-response for the five pathways and the profiles of 6 AML pathway response-representative genes (identified by clustering) exhibited similar apparent supra-linear responses. Responses at or below 0.1 ppm benzene were observed for altered expression of AML pathway genes and CYP2E1 . Together, these data show that benzene alters disease-relevant pathways and genes in a dose-dependent manner, with effects apparent at doses as low as 100 ppb in air. Studies with extensive exposure assessment of subjects exposed in the low-dose range between 10 ppb and 1 ppm are needed to confirm these findings. Characterization of Changes in and Pathways at
Determination and Reduction of Utilities’ Power System Losses using Advanced Metering Infrastructure - The Case of Lebanon

Non-technical power losses (NTL) represent a significant proportion of electricity losses in developing as well as developed countries. More specifically, NTL in distribution sectors constitute the major part of the overall power losses at global level, and particularly in developing countries. They represent an avoidable financial loss for the utility thus imposing a substantial financial burden on governments as well as private utilities. The main objective of this paper is to determine, accurately, and to reduce, drastically, the NTL in the Lebanese power distribution sector by implementing a Power Line Carrier (PLC) based Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system. The mechanisim utilized to reduce system losses is based on correlating energy at various voltage levels, i.e., generation, transmission, distribution, and end users. In addition, this system has a significant impact on the loss reduction because it enables the local electric power utility to detect all types of electricity theft. The proposed PLC based AMI system is compared to other communication media taking into consideration several factors such as optimum solution to minimize NTL, costs of implementation, and others.
MASTER'S THESIS Steganography in Reed-Solomon Codes

In the thesis is described a steganographic system that embeds hidden data into communication channel that utilizes Reed-Solomon error-correction codes. A formal model of Reed-Solomon covert channel is proposed by stating requirements that are laid on such technique. The model was validated by experimental research methods. Findings indicate that the proposed model satisfies the primary attributes of steganography: capacity, imperceptibility and robustness. The research provides a stand base for further researches in the wide range of applications of Reed-Solomon codes. Table of
PRODUCTION, CHARACTERIZATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF A FUSION PROTEIN FOR THE TREATMENT OF OSTEOARTHRITIS

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that is the leading cause for disability in adults. Affecting the entire synovial joint, mechanical and chemical factors contribute to the release of inflammatory cytokines that degrade the articular cartilage and subchondral bone. With treatment options being ineffective and short lived, efforts are focused on developing disease modifying therapies that have a long-term effect. In hope to tackle this problem, we developed a biological recombinant fusion protein Avidin-IL1Ra. Avidin (+20 NC) is an ideal drug carrier as it utilizes electrostatic charge interactions to penetrate the negatively charged cartilage. IL-1Ra is a therapeutic that inhibits the cytokine IL-1 and has shown to halt the progression of OA. To fully characterize our fusion protein, we performed a series of chemical and biological confirmation steps. We characterized the protein in a size exclusion column on HPLC, which graphically shows us that we do have Avidin-IL-1Ra when comparing to an Avidin standard. Glycosaminoglycan (GAG) loss in bovine cartilage shows that our fusion protein has a significant suppression of IL-1 activity, but does not suppress GAG loss back to control levels. To understand why our fusion protein shows low bioactivity, we optimized the production and testing procedures. We focused on optimizing steps in the harvest, purification and dialysis protocols to increase purity, concentration and solubility of our protein. Next steps include a biological chondrocyte study that we outlined in the optimization process. We hope that our fusion protein from the recent production and harvest, that included all updated steps, will have increased bioactivity and show a larger suppression of IL-1 activity in vitro.
Neutrophil Chemotaxis In Vitro and In Vivo Glycoprotein G (gG) Efficiently Inhibits Herpesvirus Chemokine-Binding

Glycoprotein G (gG) of alphaherpesviruses has been described to function as a viral chemokine-binding protein (vCKBP). More recently, mutant viruses devoid of gG have been shown to result in increased virulence, but it remained unclear whether the potential of gG to serve as a vCKBP is responsible for this observation. In this study, we used equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) as a model to study the pathophysiological importance of vCKBP activity. First, in vitro chemotaxis assays studying migration of immune cells, an important function of chemokines, were established. In such assays, supernatants of EHV-1-infected cells signiﬁcantly inhibited IL-8-induced chemotaxis of equine neutrophils. Identiﬁcation of gG as the responsible vCKBP was achieved by repeating similar experiments with supernatants from cells infected with a gG-negative mutant, which were unable to alter IL-8-induced equine neutrophil migration. Furthermore, rEHV-1 gG was able to signiﬁcantly reduce neutrophil migration, es-tablishing gG as a bona ﬁde vCKBP. Second, and importantly, in vivo analyses in a murine model of EHV-1 infection showed that neutrophil migration in the target organ lung was signiﬁcantly reduced in the presence of gG. In summary, we demonstrate for the ﬁrst time that EHV-1 gG not only binds to chemokines but is also capable of inhibiting their chemotactic function both in vitro and in vivo, thereby contributing to viral pathogenesis and virulence. The Journal of Immunology, 2007, 179: 4161–4169.
Methods of Spherical Harmonic Analysis

Description et comparaison de 2 methodes d'analyse par harmoniques spheriques pour modeliser les mesures de donnees geomagnetiques. La methode de Fougere, basee sur le lissage par moindres carres, est simple d'utilisation et rapide. L'introduction de la theorie inverse par Gubbins permet d'ameliorer la modelisation (surtout lorsque les donnees sont bruitees) mais est bien plus longue a mettre en place
USING MACHINE LEARNING TO BUILD A SEMI-INTELLIGENT BOT

Nowadays, real-time systems and intelligent systems offer more and more control interface based on voice recognition or human language recognition. Robots and drones will soon be mainly controlled by voice. Other robots will integrate bots to interact with their users, this can be useful both in industry and entertainment. At first, researchers were digging on the side of "ontology reasoning". Given all the technical constraints brought by the treatment of ontologies, an interesting solution has emerged in last years: the construction of a model based on machine learning to connect a human language to a knowledge base (based for example on RDF). We present in this paper our contribution to build a bot that could be used on real-time systems and drones/robots, using recent machine learning technologies.
Running head : Dialister , microbial marker of disease activity in SpA . Dialister as microbial marker of disease activity in spondyloarthritis

3 Department of Gastroenterology, Gent University Hospital, Belgium. Corresponding author Dirk Elewaut, MD, PhD Ghent University Hospital Department of Rheumatology. VIB Inflammation Research Center, Unit for Molecular Immunology and Inflammation, Ghent University. De Pintelaan 185, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Tel: +3293322240 Fax: +3293323803 E-mail: Dirk.elewaut@ugent.be Or: Jeroen Raes, PhD KU Leuven, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Rega Institute. VIB, Center for the Biology of Disease. Campus Gasthuisberg: Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Tel: +32 16 37 22 22 E-mail: jeroen.raes@vib-kuleuven.be Brief Report Arthritis & Rheumatology DOI 10.1002/art.39802