Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence That Protein Kinase Cε Mediates Phorbol Ester Inhibition of Calphostin C- and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α-induced Apoptosis in U937 Histiocytic Lymphoma Cells*

Protein kinase C (PKC) activators, such as the tumor-promoting phorbol esters, have been reported to protect several cell lines from apoptosis induced by a variety of agents. Recent evidence suggests that PKCε is involved in protection of cardiac myocytes from hypoxia-induced cell death (Gray, M. O., Karliner, J. S., and Mochly-Rosen, D. (1997) J. Biol. Chem.272, 30945–30951). We investigated the protective effects of the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) on U937 histiocytic lymphoma cells induced to undergo apoptosis by tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) or by the specific PKC inhibitor calphostin C. U937 cells were transiently permeabilized with a peptide (εV1-2) derived from the V1 region of PKCε that has been reported to specifically block translocation of PKCε. The εV1-2 peptide blocked the inhibitory effect of TPA on both TNF-α- and calphostin C-induced apoptosis. A scrambled version of εV1-2 and a peptide reported to inhibit PKCβ translocation (βC2-4) had no effect on the ability of TPA to inhibit apoptosis. These results suggest that PKCε is required for the protective effect of TPA in TNF-α- and calphostin C-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, calphostin C reduced membrane-associated PKCε activity and immunoreactivity, suggesting that PKCε may play an important role in leukemic cell survival.
Morphological variation in Tyrrhenian Emys orbicularis revisited

The European pond turtle, Emys orbicularis (L., 1758), was considered monotypic by most authors for more than a century (e.g., Boulenger, 1889; Siebenrock, 1909; Wermuth and Mertens, 1961, 1977; Ernst and Barbour, 1989). In the past decade a complicated taxonomic differentiation was detected, resulting in the recognition of up to 13 subspecies. Until now, many studies focusing on taxonomy in this species were based on simple descriptive statistics and color and pattern characters (see reviews in Fritz, 1998, 2001). Phylogeographic investigations (Lenk et al., 1999), using sequence data of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, produced largely congruent results. A major difference between both approaches concerns some populations from the western Mediterranean. Fritz (1995) described the subspecies Emys orbicularis galloitalica from southern France and the Tyrrhenian coast of the Italian peninsula (type locality: Departement Var, France), and two further subspecies from Sardinia (E. o. capolongoi) and Corsica (E. o. lanzai), acknowledging mainly differences in coloration and ecology. Whereas on Corsica dark colored specimens predominate, most specimens from Sardinia are lighter colored. In the mainland subspecies E. o. galloitalica both types occur at approximately the same frequency. Hence, Fritz (1995) speculated that the populations on Corsica and Sardinia might have undergone a genetic bottleneck, resulting in the selection of different genotypes on each island. Emys orbicularis galloitalica, E. o. capolongoi and E. o. lanzai are characterized by a shared distinctmitochondrialhaplotype,which differentiated in pre-Pleistocene times from other lineages. However, no sequence differences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were found between the three subspecies (Lenk et al., 1999), leading to considerations about the validity of E. o. capolongoiand E. o. lanzai (Zuf , 2000). Here we reanalyze morphological data of E. o. galloitalica, E. o. capolongoi and E. o. lanzai, in part based on the same specimens and measurements as in Fritz (1995). In addition, data of several live turtles were included, studied in 1995 and 1996 by UF during excursions to southern France (Departement Var), northern Sardinia, and western Corsica (see appendix).
Laboratory evaluation of diatomaceous earth against main stored product insects

The sensitivity of the main external and internal stored product insect pests to the commercial formulation of Detia Degesch Diatomaceous Earth – DDDE - Inerto (DE) was studied in laboratory experiments. The tested insects were adults of internal feeders Sitophilus oryzae Rhyzopertha dominica and external feeders Oryzaephilus surinamensis, Tribolium castaneum , and larvae (third instar) of T.castaneum . The DE was applied to wheat grain of 12% moisture content at concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 g/kg of grain. The treated and untreated (control) grain were kept at 28°C and 65 ± 5% r.h. The numbers of dead and survived insects were counted two, three and four weeks after treatment. The number of adult progeny was counted nine weeks after treatment. At a concentration of 0.5 g/kg, mortality of S. oryzae and O. surinamensis after three weeks of exposure to DE were 92 and 86%, respectively. In contrast, mortality of T. castaneum and R. dominica adults was 3 and 37%, respectively. Progeny production of O. surinamensis and T. castaneum at a concentration of 2 g/kg was negligible, since only few individuals were recorded nine weeks after treatment, in comparison with the high progeny production in the control grain. The progeny of S. oryzae was also reduced. In contrast, for R. dominica was reduced only twice, in comparison with the control. In the case of T. castaneum larvae, at a concentration of 2 g/kg, after 4 weeks of exposure, 37% of the larvae emerged to adults, compared with 95% in control. Nine weeks after treatment, the number of F 1 adults was 100% suppressed. DE efficacy was similar at 4 g/kg. Based on the findings of the present study, the efficacy of the tested DE was influenced by DE concentration, insect species, developmental stage and exposure interval to the treated commodity. Keywords : Diatomaceous earth, Stored product insects, Wheat grain
Transport of carnitine in RBE4 cells - an in vitro model of blood-brain barrier

Accumulation of carnitine was studied in immortalized rat brain capillary endothelial cells RBE4, as an in vitro model of blood-brain barrier. Both uptake and efflux phenomena were found independent on [Na+] gradient. A quick acylation of carnitine in RBE4 cells was observed, especially leading to formation of long-chain acylcarnitines (46%), while 38% of the accumulated compound was found in the form of free carnitine. Exposure of basolateral membrane to carnitine-free medium induced a quick efflux, leaving, however, about 50% of accumulated carnitine inside the cells. The process of accumulation was found to be sensitive to butyrobetaine and cysteine, but not to choline or Hemicholinium-3, pointing to sterical demands of a transporter responsible for carnitine uptake.
Flagellar Sensilla of Sphecodes Bees (Hymenoptera, Halictidae)

The antenna of Sphecodes bees were investigated as regards the type and distribution of the sensilla. Eleven species originating from Sweden were used. Totally 325 specimens were studied. The distribution of sensilla placodea and sensilla trichodea on the antennal segments were studied in the light stereomicroscope. One to three antennae per species were also examined by SEM. The following types of sensilla were found: s. placodea; pit organs; s. campaniformia; s. basiconica; s. trichodea A, B and CD; and setae. The distribution of sensilla, especially s. placodea and s. trichodea A, was found to be species‐specific in the male sex and their diagnostic value in taxonomy is stressed. In the female sex no specific characteristics were found, although two groups could be distinguished.
Egg mass and incubation period allometry in birds and reptiles: effects of phylogeny

Here we test the hypothesis that the relationship between egg mass at oviposition (IEM) and incubation period (Ip) is a function of the taxonomic relatedness of bird and reptile species. Allometric relationships between IEM and Ip were examined for 1525 bird species and 201 reptilian species. Treating species as independent data revealed the allometric exponent linking Ip to IEM to be 0.234 for birds and 0.138 for reptiles. However, ANCOVA revealed that within both birds and reptiles the elevation and slope of the regression lines were dependent on the taxonomic order studied, indicating that the exponents were confounded by the phylogenetic relatedness of species. Thus, allometric exponents were recalculated based on the method of comparative analysis using independent contrasts. This technique revealed that the allometric exponent in both birds and reptiles was confounded by phylogeny. In birds the allometric relationship between Ip and IEM was almost halved to 0.122, whereas in reptiles the exponent increased to 0.185. Importantly, the results demonstrate that some results of allometric analyses can be artefacts of the method of analysis of the dataset. That for bird eggs Ip is not determined in large part by egg mass allows new questions to be posed regarding the ecological and physiological factors affecting the length of incubation, and hence rates of embryonic growth, for different taxa and habitats.
Conserved Regions in Mitochondrial Genome Sequences of Small Mammals in Korea

Comparative sequence analyses were conducted on complete mtDNA sequences from four small mammal species in Korea and revealed the presence of 30 well conserved sequences in various regions of the complete mtDNA sequences. The conserved sequences were found in 9 regions in protein coding genes, 10 regions in tRNA genes, 10 in rRNA genes, one region in replication origin and 2 regions in D loop. They could be used to design primers for amplifying complete mtDNA sequences of small mammals.
On the design of an architecture framework and quality evaluation for automotive software systems

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Estimation of nisin in foods

Methods for the estimation of nisin in solution and in foods are described and the nisin unit is redefined. The presence of interfering substances in certain food extracts has been demonstrated. In the foods examined compensation for the effect on the plate assay could be made by inactivating the nisin by an alkali treatment, and using these treated extracts as a basis for controls. For quantitative determination of suspensions of nisin alone and in food extracts, a large plate diffusion method requiring no prediffusion and using M. flavus as test organism is described. For semi-quantitative estimations, or for sorting purposes, a simple reverse-phase disk assay technique based on B. stearothermophilus spores, with overnight incubation at 55°, is proposed.
Cambial Anatomy, Development and Structural Changes in the Wood of Teak (Tectona grandisL.f.) Associated with Insect Defoliation

Abstract Periodicity of vascular cambium, development and structural changes in the juvenile wood of teak (Tectona grandisL.f.) associated with insect defoliation were examined histologically. In affected trees cambial activity and development of secondary xylem began in June and reached its peak in August. Activity declined suddenly in September when the leaves were highly damaged by the insects and sluggish growth was observed until the cessation of cambial cell division in November. In the normal trees, cambium cells, which began to divide in June, culminated in August-September, activity declined in November and the cambium was surrounded with mature xylem and phloem in December. Differentiation of xylem and phloem occurred simultaneously, whereas a phloem development ceased first followed by xylem in both normal and affected trees. Xylem is ring porous with distinct growth rings. Teak plants affected by insect defoliation showed narrow growth rings while in normal trees such narrow rings were observed occasionally. As compared to normal trees, vessel lumen diameter remained more or less the same but its frequency was more in the affected trees. Other dimensional details like length, width, lumen diameter, frequency, etc., of individual xylem elements also showed considerable variation as compared to normal trees.
Patterns of temporal variation in goshawk reproduction and prey resources

To investigate whether Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) reproduction is food-limited, we evaluated the reproductive output from 401 goshawk breeding opportunities on the Kaibab Plateau, Arizona during 1999¨C2002. Concurrently, we estimated densities of 10 goshawk prey species (seven birds, three mammals) using distance sampling. We then assessed the relationship between goshawk productivity (number of fledglings produced) and prey density within and among years by relating the contribution of individual prey species and total prey density to goshawk productivity. We also estimated the proportion of total diet and biomass for each species that contributed iÝ3% of all prey items. Total prey density was highly correlated with variation in goshawk productivity (r2 = 0.98, P = 0.012). Red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) density explained more variation in goshawk productivity than any other species (r2 = 0.94, P = 0.031), but density could not be estimated for every predominant prey species in goshawk diets. However, only red squirrels had a positive and significant relationship to goshawk productivity in terms of frequency (r2 = 0.97, P = 0.014) and biomass (r2 = 0.95, P = 0.033). Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) and cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus spp.), which contributed the greatest frequency and biomass, respectively, to goshawk diets, showed no relationship with goshawk productivity. Even though goshawks on the Kaibab Plateau have a diverse diet and will readily switch to alternate prey species, goshawk productivity showed significant interannual variation. Our results suggest that the magnitude of goshawk productivity was determined by total prey density and annual variation was driven by differences in the densities of critical prey species.
ANTIGENICITY OF POLYPEPTIDES (POLY ALPHA AMINO ACIDS)

A new group of synthetic random polymers of α-L-amino acids has been studied for immunogenicity. With the glutamic acid and alanine copolymers, those consisting of almost equimolar amounts of the two (G60A40 and G40A60) were effective antigens in rabbits whereas those with higher glutamic acid contents (G75A25, G90A10) were poor antigens. The substitution of alanine by valine or leucine (G75V25 and G80Leu20) produced copolymers which were poor antigens in rabbits but effective in guinea pigs. L70A30, although capable of "non-specifically" precipitating serum proteins, was shown not to be antigenic in either rabbits or guinea pigs. The introduction of alanine into glutamic acid and lysine polymers (GLA series) enhanced the immunogenicity of the terpolymers, i.e., GLA30 > GLA20 > GLA10 > GL. The mechanism by which this may be accomplished is discussed as possibly being related to the reduction of the interactions between glutamyl and lysyl residues which allows the carboxyl groups to act as strong immunogenic determinants.
Loop analysis: evaluating life history pathways in population projection matrices.

A new way of analyzing life histories is presented, based on the use of elasticities as derived from the limit properties of population projection matrices. In general there is not a simple relation between life history traits and matrix elements and their corresponding elasticity values. By recognizing the fact that a life history trait always is part of a life history pathway that can be contrasted to other pathways, this problem can be overcome. The various life history pathways form loops within the life cycle graph, the graphical representation of the projection matrix. It is shown that one can calculate the elasticities of such loops from the single elasticity values in the matrix in an unequivocal way. This presents a new and meaningful decomposition of total elasticity in population projection matrices and provides a potentially powerful tool to evaluate the importance of alternative life history options in demographic studies. This point is demonstrated using two previously published sets of data.
DCT-JPEG Image Coding Based on GPU

In this paper, the parallel algorithm of JPEG coding based on GPU is proposed, most image compression systems have efficiency problem and the real-time of wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSN) which used in image compression and transmission is also an issue need to be solved, so in this paper parallel computation is used in JPEG coding, it is an effective ways to solve these problems. The system of JPEG coding system mainly has eight parts: discrete cosine transform (DCT) and inverse DCT, quantization and inverse quantization, Zig-zag ordering and inverse Zig-zag ordering, Huffman coding and decoding. The proposed parallel algorithm of JPEG coding makes all the parts of JPEG system run on GPU, so the speed of JPEG coding is improved significantly. DCT and Huffman coding are wildly used in image processing; therefore the proposed parallel algorithm can be used in many fields about image compression and processing. We use the CUDA toolkit based on GPU which is released by NVIDIA to design the parallel algorithm of DCT-JPEG algorithm. The experimental results show that compared with conventional JPEG coding, the maximum speedup ratio of parallel algorithm of JPEG coding can reach more than 120 times, and the reconstructed image has almost the same performance with the serial algorithm in terms of objective quality and subjective effect.
Some Sparse Methods for High Dimensional Data

High dimensional data means that the number of variables p is far larger than the number of observations n . This occurs in several fields such as genomic data or chemometrics. When p>n the OLS estimator does not exist for linear regression. Since it is a case of forced multicollinearity, one may use regularized methods such as ridge regression, principal component regression or PLS regression: these methods provide rather robust estimates through a dimension reduction approach or constraints on the regression coefficients. The fact that all the predictors are kept may be considered as a positive point in some cases. However if p>>n, it becomes a drawback since a combination of thousands of variables cannot be interpreted. Sparse combinations, ie with a large number of zero coefficients are preferred. Lasso, elastic net, sPLS perform simultaneously regularization and variable selection thanks to non quadratic penalties: L1, SCAD etc. Group-lasso is a generalization fitted to the case where explanatory variables are structured in blocks. Recent works include sparse discriminant analysis and sparse canonical correlation analysis. In PCA, the singular value decomposition shows that if we regress principal components onto the input variables, the vector of regression coefficients is equal to the factor loadings. It suffices to adapt sparse regression techniques to get sparse versions of PCA. Sparse Multiple Correspondence Analysis is derived from group-lasso with groups of indicator variables. Finally when one has a large number of observations, it is frequent that unobserved heterogeneity occurs, which means that there is no single model, but several local models: one for each cluster of a latent variable. Clusterwise methods optimize simultaneously the partition and the local models; they have been already extended to PLS regression. We will present here CS-PLS (Clusterwise Sparse PLS) a combination of clusterwise PLS and sPLS which is well fitted for big data: large n , large p.
The Role of PP2A Methylation in Susceptibility and Resistance to TBI and AD-Induced Neurodegeneration

Abstract : The goal of the current study is to identify the molecular mechanisms that contribute to TBI or AD-related impairment so that this information can then be used to identify at-risk individuals and develop effective therapeutic approaches. Specifically we will test the hypothesis that level of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) methylation affects sensitivity to behavioral impairments resulting traumatic brain injury caused by shockwave exposure. The primary bases for this hypothesis are the observations that 1) aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau are a common feature of multiple neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury-associated degeneration, and 2) that PP2A is the principal tau phosphatase. To test this hypothesis, we generated two lines of transgenic mice, one that over expresses the PP2A methylesterase, PME, and a second that over expresses the PP2A methyltransferase, LCMT. In previous work we found that transgenic PME over expression sensitized animals to electrophysiological and behavioral impairments caused by exogenous beta-amyloid exposure and that LCMT over expression protected animals from these impairments. Our prediction is that over expression of these transgenes will exert similar effects with respect to shockwave-induced impairments. In the past year of the project, we identified shockwave exposure conditions that reliably elicit acute increases in tau phosphorylation in mice, and assessed the effect of PME over expression on these increases. We also identified shockwave-induced behavioral impairments in these animals and similarly assessed the effect of PME over expression on these impairments. We also conducted a preliminary histological analysis of eyes from shockwave-exposed mice that identified shockwave related tissue damage at 24 days after injury. Additional, planned behavioral and histological analyses are ongoing that will allow us to complete our test of the hypothesis and provide n
Short notes and reviews Poecilia kykesis nom. nov., a new name for Mollienesia petenensis Günther, 1866, and redescription, revalidation and the designation of a lectotype for Poecilia petenensis Günther, 1866 (Teleostei: Poeciliidae)

Poecilia petenensis Gunther, 1866 (= Mollienesia gracilis Regan, 1913) is redescribed and is revalidated from synonymy of P. sphenops Valenciennes, 1846 and a lectotype is designated. Mollienesia petenensis Gunther, 1866 is renamed as P. kykesis to avoid homonymy with Poecilia petenensis.
Habitat fragmentation disrupts the demography of a widespread native mammal

Fragmentation theory predicts that population persistence should be positively correlated with the size of habitat fragments. The patterns of occurrence of many species are consistent with this prediction, but the demographic processes that determine how species respond to fragmentation are poorly understood. In addition, habitat quality may interact with fragment size as an influence on demographic performance. We investigated these predictions for the native bush rat Rattus fuscipes by testing the following hypotheses: 1) population performance (i.e. viability as determined by various demographic parameters) is positively correlated with fragment size; and 2) population performance is positively correlated with habitat quality. Populations of R. fuscipes were censused in two large (>49 ha) and eight small ( R. fuscipes populations are profoundly impacted by habitat fragmentation, with population performance declining with fragment size. Studies based on patterns of species occurrence should be interpreted with caution as they may mask critical processes occurring at the population level. For a thorough understanding of the effects of habitat fragmentation, population-level studies are required.