Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of the Plasmodium Motor Complex

Background: Recent phosphoproteome data reveal the extent of post-translational phosphorylation in selected apicomplexan parasites. Results: Binding site mutants that mimic the effect of MTIP phosphorylation in vivo severely decrease MyoA binding. Conclusion: Phosphorylation of selected binding site residues modulates the activity of the actomyosin motor. Significance: Study of Apicomplexa phosphosites can inform on the regulation of functions involved in pathogenesis. The interaction between the C-terminal tail of myosin A (MyoA) and its light chain, myosin A tail domain interacting protein (MTIP), is an essential feature of the conserved molecular machinery required for gliding motility and cell invasion by apicomplexan parasites. Recent data indicate that MTIP Ser-107 and/or Ser-108 are targeted for intracellular phosphorylation. Using an optimized MyoA tail peptide to reconstitute the complex, we show that this region of MTIP is an interaction hotspot using x-ray crystallography and NMR, and S107E and S108E mutants were generated to mimic the effect of phosphorylation. NMR relaxation experiments and other biophysical measurements indicate that the S108E mutation serves to break the tight clamp around the MyoA tail, whereas S107E has a smaller but measurable impact. These data are consistent with physical interactions observed between recombinant MTIP and native MyoA from Plasmodium falciparum lysates. Taken together these data support the notion that the conserved interactions between MTIP and MyoA may be specifically modulated by this post-translational modification.
Game coloring the Cartesian product of graphs

This article proves the following result: Let G and G′ be graphs of orders n and n′, respectively. Let G* be obtained from G by adding to each vertex a set of n′ degree 1 neighbors. If G* has game coloring number m and G′ has acyclic chromatic number k, then the Cartesian product G□G′ has game chromatic number at most k(k + m − 1). As a consequence, the Cartesian product of two forests has game chromatic number at most 10, and the Cartesian product of two planar graphs has game chromatic number at most 105. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 59: 261–278, 2008
Scanning force microscopy for the study of domain structure in ferroelectric thin films

A piezoresponse technique based on scanning force microscopy (SFM) has been used for studying domain structure in ferroelectric thin films. Studies were performed on Pb(Zrx,Ti1−x)O3(PZT) thin films produced by a sol–gel method. The piezoresponse images of the PZT films were taken before and after inducing polarization in the films by applying a direct current voltage between the bottom electrode and the SFM tip. Polarization induced patterns were written with 20 V pulses and subsequently imaged by the SFM piezoresponse technique. The effect of the film structure on the imaging resolution of domains is discussed.
On-farm evaluation of the effect of concentrate and urea treated wheat straw supplementation on milk yield and milk composition of local cows

On-farm feeding trial was conducted in Bure district of the Amhara National Regional State with the objective of evaluating the effect of feed supplementation on milk yield and milk composition of local cows. The study was conducted on 20 lactating cows of uniform parity and stage of lactation. Average body weight and initial milk yield of cows were 231.7 ± 36.7 kg and 1.08 ± 0.11 kg/cow/day respectively. The treatment groups included control (T1), noug seed cake (T2), ad libitum urea treated wheat straw (T3), noug seed cake ad libitum urea treated wheat straw (T4) and concentrate comprising 74% maize grain 25% noug seed cake 1% salt (T5). A significant difference (P0.05), for increased milk protein, solids-not-fat and ash contents. The highest and the lowest milk yield per cow per day were recorded for cows fed urea treated wheat straw and the control group, respectively. The intervention diets increased the net profit/cow/day by ETB 3.40 (T2), 6.33 (T3), 3.58 (T4), and 3.84 (T5) over the control (T1). In general, urea treated wheat straw supplementation improved milk yield, and economic return. Hence, the government and other concerned bodies should pay due attention to scale up the feeding package developed in this study considering the respective milk production systems to capitalize market-oriented milk industry in the district and similar areas.
Normal Approximation by Stein ’ s Method

The aim of this paper is to give an overview of Stein’s method, which has turned out to be a powerful tool for estimating the error in normal, Poisson and other approximations, especially for sums of dependent random variables. We focus on the normal approximation of random variables posessing decompositions of Barbour, Karoński, and Ruciński (1989), which are particularly useful in combinatorial structures, where there is no natural ordering of the summands. We highlight two applications: Nash equilibria and linear rank statistics.
A randomised controlled trial of the effect of automated interactive calling combined with a health risk forecast on frequency and severity of exacerbations of COPD assessed clinically and using EXACT PRO.

BACKGROUND We have developed a winter forecasting service to predict when patients with COPD are at higher risk of an exacerbation and alert them via an automated telephone call. AIMS To assess the effect of the service and its ability to predict periods of increased risk. METHODS A 4-month prospective randomised controlled trial using clinical criteria and the EXACT PRO questionnaire to identify exacerbations. Patients were randomly allocated to receive alert calls. All patients completed a diary including the EXACT PRO questionnaire on a BlackBerry Smartphone each day. They were contacted and assessed if they appeared to be exacerbating. RESULTS 79 patients participated, 40 received alert calls. The exacerbation frequency per patient per week was significantly greater during periods of predicted high risk (0.086 ± 0.010 v 0.055 ± 0.010). The exacerbation frequency (± standard error of the mean, SEM) in patients receiving alert calls was lower (0.95 ± 0.27 v 1.17 ± 0.29) but this was not statistically significant. Fewer patients receiving alert calls had one or more EXACT event compared to the controls (34% v 53%, p=0.11), their duration was shorter (8.2 ± 2.0 v10.1 ± 1.9 days, p=0.481) and they were less severe (AUC 65 ± 21 v 115 ± 22, p=0.118). There were no significant differences in the mean change (± SEM) in SGRQ scores between the groups. CONCLUSIONS The ability of the forecast to predict high risk periods was confirmed unequivocally. Alert calls appeared to reduce the frequency and severity of exacerbations but these effects did not reach statistical significance, perhaps because of the number of participants, lower than expected exacerbation rates, and the fact that there was contact with patients in both groups whenever they appeared to be exacerbating.
Presurgical Columellar Elongation and Primary Retrograde Nasal Reconstruction in One‐Stage Bilateral Cleft Lip and Nose Repair

&NA; We present a new combined approach to primary bilateral cleft lip, nose, and alveolus repair using presurgical nasoalveolar molding combined with a one‐stage lip, nose, and alveolus repair. Presurgical alveolar molding is used to bring the protruding premaxilla back into proper alignment with the lateral segments in the maxillary arch. Presurgical nasal molding produces tissue expansion of the short columella and nasal lining. A coordinated surgical approach involves a one‐stage repair of the lip, nose, and alveolus. The nasal repair uses a retrograde approach in which the prolabial flap and columella are reflected over the nasal dorsum by continuing the dissection behind the prolabium up the membranous septum and over the septal angle. Tissues are dissected out from between the tip cartilages, and the domes are sutured together in the midline. This method joins a new class of bilateral cleft repairs that place the primary emphasis on correction of the deformity of the nasal tip cartilages.
From geometry to lighting to material models

Image-based rendering and modeling has lead to major advances in computer graphics. Using images as input has enabled the creation of more realistic and convincing computer generated images. Many of the current image-based rendering algorithms, however, use primarily geometric information. The next logical step are to incorporates more photometric information, including lighting and material properties. Material properties are particularly important, since understanding the optical properties of materials - or appearance models - requires interdisciplinary research involving expertise in both vision and graphics. In this paper, we review the current work and suggest directions for future research.
An artificial lipid bilayer formed on an agarose-coated glass for simultaneous electrical and optical measurement of single ion channels.

The purpose of this study is to develop an apparatus for simultaneous measurement of electrical and spectroscopic parameters of single ion channels. We have combined the single channel recording apparatus with an artificial lipid bilayer and a fluorescence microscope designed to detect single fluorescent molecules. The artificial membranes were formed on an agarose-coated glass and observed with an objective-type total internal reflection fluorescence microscope (TIRFM). The lateral motion of a single lipid molecule (beta-BODIPY 530/550 HPC) was recorded. The lateral diffusion constant of the lipid molecule was calculated from the trajectories of single molecules as D = 8.5 +/- 4.9 x 10(-8) cm(2)/s. Ionic channels were incorporated into the membrane and current fluctuations were recorded at the single-channel level. After incorporation of Cy3-labeled alametithin molecules into the membrane, bright spots were observed moving rather slowly (D = 4.0 +/- 1.6 x 10(-8) cm(2)/s) in the membrane, simultaneously with the alametithin-channel current. These data show the possibility of the present technique for simultaneous measurement of electrical and spectroscopic parameters of single-channel activities.
Childhood physical and sexual abuse in patients with anxiety disorders and in a community sample.

OBJECTIVE The authors investigated whether histories of childhood physical or sexual abuse were reported more frequently in a clinical sample of patients with anxiety disorders than in a matched community comparison sample. METHOD A standardized interview with an extensive series of trauma probes was administered to 125 patients with DSM-IV anxiety disorders (panic disorder, social phobia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder) and to 125 age- and gender-matched subjects drawn from a random community sample. RESULTS Childhood physical abuse was higher among both men (15.5%) and women (33.3%) with anxiety disorders than among comparison subjects (8.1%). Childhood sexual abuse was higher among women with anxiety disorders (45.1%) than among comparison women (15.4%) and was higher among women with panic disorder (60.0%) than among women with other anxiety disorders (30.8%). CONCLUSIONS These findings confirm the association between anxiety disorders and reported childhood physical and sexual abuse and extend earlier findings by pointing to a particular association between sexual abuse and panic disorder in women.
apoA-IV tagged with the ER retention signal KDEL perturbs the intracellular trafficking and secretion of apoB Published, JLR Papers in Press, July 16, 2004. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M400188-JLR200

To examine the role of apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) in the intracellular trafficking and secretion of apoB, COS cells were cotransfected with microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP), apoB-41 (amino terminal 41% of apoB), and either native apoA-IV or apoA-IV modified with the carboxy-terminal endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal, KDEL (apoA-IV-KDEL). As expected, apoA-IV-KDEL was inefficiently secreted relative to native apoA-IV. Coexpression of apoB-41 with apoA-IV-KDEL reduced the secretion of apoB-41 by ∼80%. The apoA-IV-KDEL effect was specific, as neither KDEL-modified forms of human serum albumin or apoA-I affected apoB-41 secretion. Similar results were observed in McA-RH7777 rat hepatoma cells, which express endogenous MTP. The full inhibitory effect of apoA-IV-KDEL on apoB secretion was observed only for forms of apoB containing a minimum of the amino-terminal 25% of the protein (apoB-25). However, apoA-IV-KDEL inhibited the secretion of both lipid-associated and lipid-poor forms of apoB-25. Dual-label immunofluorescence microscopy of cells transfected with native apoA-IV and apoB-25 revealed that both apolipoproteins were localized to the ER and Golgi, as expected. However, when apoA-IV-KDEL was cotransfected with apoB-25, both proteins localized primarily to the ER. These data suggest that apoA-IV may physically interact with apoB in the secretory pathway, perhaps reflecting a role in modulating the process of triglyceride-rich lipoprotein assembly and secretion.
Nonlinear Spectral Unmixing of Landsat Imagery for Urban Surface Cover Mapping

The high spatial diversity of man-made structures, the spectral variability of urban materials, and the three-dimensional structure of the cities make the mapping of urban surfaces using Earth Observation data, one of the most challenging tasks in remote sensing field. Spectral unmixing techniques can be proven useful with medium spectral resolution data to assess urban surface cover information on a subpixel level. Due to the large spectral variability of urban materials and the multiple scattering of light between surfaces in urban areas, multiple endmembers should be used, and the nonlinearity of spectral mixture should be accounted for. In this study, these issues are addressed using an artificial neural network trained with endmember and nonlinearly mixed synthetic spectra to inverse the pixel spectral mixture in Landsat imagery. A spectral library is built, consisting of endmember spectra collected from the image and synthetic spectra, produced using a nonlinear model specifically developed for urban areas. The method was tested over a case study, and the validation against higher resolution products revealed an accuracy of around 90% for all abundance maps. The comparison performed between the linear and nonlinear implementation of the method proved the need for including the nonlinear term, especially for improving the built-up abundance map. The proposed method is easily transferable to any city and fast in terms of computations, which makes it ideal for the implementation of operational urban services.
Violence Recognition in Spanish Words using Data Mining

Violent behavior in our society has been studied from many points of view, yet many cause-effect relations remain unexplained. Security personnel are normally trained to be alert and recognize potential violent behavior, but they cannot be 100% effective in recognizing it due to the monotonous nature of their job. This paper presents the first results of a work in progress detecting violence from the analysis of words in conversations. We used a set of videos with two person conversations in Spanish and classified them as violent and non violent. The audio of the conversations was extracted and converted to text. We used âWardâ, âK-meansâ and âPAMâ (clValid, 2014) to group words, performing a clValid analysis we found that the hierarchical technique was the best. The percentages of frequency were computed for each term and the SVM (Meyer, 2014) technique was applied, from which we found that there were unclassifiable terms. In three of the tests the prediction was erroneous and in another three we obtained good predictions with respect to the test set.
Hindi translation of Berlin questionnaire and its validation as a screening instrument for obstructive sleep apnea

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a fairly common problem with adverse health consequences. However, any screening questionnaire is not available in Hindi to screen sleep apnea. Materials and Methods: Subjects undergoing video-synchronized in laboratory attended polysomnography were requested to participate in this study. They were screened with the help of Hindi version of Berlin questionnaire (BQ). Outcome of the BQ was tested against the gold standard polysomnography. Descriptive statistics, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of Hindi version were calculated. Results: 38 patients with polysomnography diagnosed OSA and 12 controls were included in this study. Average body mass index (BMI) in the OSA group was 33.12 + 6.66 kg/m2 whereas in the control group BMI was 25.01 + 4.20 kg/m2. Average age in the OSA group was 48.9 + 10.2 years whereas the control group was older (56.9 + 12.1 years). Hindi version had sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 58%. PPV of the instrument was 0.87 whereas NPV was 0.63. Conclusion: Hindi version of BQ is a valid tool for screening the OSA irrespective of the literacy status of the subjects.
Localization of the RAR interaction domain of cellular retinoic acid binding protein-II.

The pleiotropic effects of retinoic acid (RA) in mammalian cells are mediated by two classes of proteins: the retinoic acid receptors (RAR), and cellular retinoic acid binding proteins (CRABP-I and CRABP-II). The high conservation across species and the differential expression patterns of the two CRABPs suggest that they serve distinct biological functions. We previously showed that CRABP-II, but not CRABP-I, delivers RA to RAR through direct protein-protein interactions between the binding protein and the receptor. "Channeling" of RA between CRABP-II and RAR markedly facilitates the formation of the holo-receptor and, as a consequence, enhances the transcriptional activity of RAR in cells. Here, we localize the region of CRABP-II that mediates the interactions of this protein with RAR. Comparison between the electrostatic surface potential of CRABP-I and II revealed the presence of a sole region displaying a dramatic potential change between the two isoforms. Examination of the underlying model revealed that the change stemmed from CRABP-I/CRABP-II substitution of three spatially aligned residues E75Q, K81P, and E102 K, located on a protrusion above the entrance to the ligand binding pocket of the protein. Substituting the corresponding CRABP-II residues onto CRABP-I conferred upon this protein the ability to channel RA to RAR and to enhance the transcriptional activity of RAR in cells. Conversely, converting these amino acid residues in CRABP-II to the homologous CRABP-I residues resulted in loss of the ability of CRABP-II to interact with RAR and to augment the receptor's activity. The data demonstrate that the surface region of CRABP-II containing residues Gln75, Pro81, and Lys102 is necessary and sufficient for mediating the interactions of this protein with RAR, facilitating the formation of the holo-receptor, and enhancing the transcriptional activity of RA.
The perceptions of high school careers advisers regarding nursing: An Australian study

Abstract Effective promotion of nursing as a career to high school students can potentially have a positive impact on the shortage of nurses. This study identified the perceptions of high school careers advisers of the Bachelor of Nursing program as a career choice, their perceptions of the attributes and characteristics necessary for nurses, and their perceptions of nurses’ roles and responsibilities. These perceptions have not been previously identified in Australia and may not have been adequately considered in the planning of recruitment and retention strategies for nursing. The study findings suggest that careers advisers recognise the complexity of nursing practice in providing direct patient care and the range of attributes required for the registered nurse who provides this care. Careers advisers recognised that nursing had changed over the past ten years, although few perceived the roles and responsibilities of nurses to extend beyond activities related to patient care. There were few requests for information about nursing as a career from careers advisers and the findings indicates that they do not actively promote nursing as a career. This suggests that despite a range of initiatives to promote registered nursing as a career choice, careers advisers are not influencing significant numbers of school students to consider registered nursing as career.
Partitioning of physical and biogeochemical contributions to short-term variability of pCO2 in a coastal upwelling system: a quantitative approach

A considerable body of literature has addressed the role that coastal upwelling systems may play in global processes, especially in the ocean carbon cycle. It is often difficult to separate the effects of physical and biogeochemical processes on the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) in coastal upwelling systems due to the tight coupling between these processes. In this work we propose a novel approach to quantify physical (advection and diffusion of inorganic carbon species, in situ warming) and biogeochemical (production and consumption of inorganic carbon species) effects on surface pCO2 using an inverse method. It is applied to the Ria de Vigo, a large coastal indentation in the NW Iberian shelf. Physical and biogeochemical processes affecting surface pCO2 variability are quantified during spring, summer, autumn and winter. Our results show the dominance of vertical advection, turbulent diffusion and net ecosystem production of organic carbon (∆Corg) components over other processes (calcification and surface warming) on a short timescale (2 to 4 d). The study reveals that physical transport of inorganic carbon species explains ∼50% of the observed pCO2 vari- ability and ∆ Corg accounts for most of the remaining 50%.
The Open-Multinet Upper Ontology Towards the Semantic-based Management of Federated Infrastructures

The Internet remains an unﬁnished work. There are several approaches to enhancing it that have been experimentally validated within federated testbed environments. To best gain scientiﬁc knowledge from these studies, reproducibility and automation are needed in all areas of the experiment life cycle. Within the GENI and FIRE context, several architectures and protocols have been developed for this purpose. However, a major open research issue remains, namely the description and discovery of the heterogeneous resources involved. To remedy this, we propose a semantic information model that can be used to allow declarative interoperability, build dependency graphs, validate requests, infer knowledge and conduct complex queries. The requirements for such an information model have been extracted from current international Future Internet research projects and the practicality of the model is being evaluated through initial implementations. The main outcome of this work is the deﬁnition of the Open-Multinet Upper Ontology and related sub-ontologies, which can be used to describe and manage federated infrastructures and their resources.