Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuronal apoptosis does not correlate with dementia in HIV infection but is related to microglial activation and axonal damage

To characterize the distribution of apoptotic neurons and their relationships with the stage of disease, a history of HIV‐dementia, and the degree of productive HIV infection, microglial activation and axonal damage, we examined the brains of 40 patients. Samples of frontal and temporal cortex, basal ganglia and brain stem were taken post‐mortem from 20 patients with AIDS (including three with HIV‐dementia, and eight with cognitive disorders that did not fulfil the criteria for HIV‐dementia), 10 HIV‐positive asymptomatic cases and 10 seronegative controls. Neuronal apoptosis was demonstrated by in situ end labelling in 18 AIDS cases and two pre‐AIDS cases; a single apoptotic neuron was present in the temporal cortex of a control. Semiquantitative evaluation showed that the severity of neuronal apoptosis in the cerebral cortex correlated with the presence of cerebral atrophy, but not with a history of HIV dementia. There was no global quantitative correlation between neuronal apoptosis and HIV encephalitis or microglial activation. However, there was some topographical correlation between these changes. In the basal ganglia, apoptotic neurons were much more abundant in the vicinity of multinucleated giant cells and/or p24 expressing cells. Microglial activation was constantly present in these areas. Axonal damage was identified using β‐amyloid‐precursor protein (βAPP) immunostaining in 17 AIDS and eight pre‐AIDS brains. Although no global quantitative correlation could be established between axonal damage and neuronal apoptosis there was an obvious topographic correlation supporting the view that axonal damage, either secondary to local microglial activation or due to the intervention of systemic factors, may also contribute to neuronal apoptosis.
Cardiovascular response to exercise in elite ice hockey players.

BACKGROUND High-performance ice hockey requires unique strength and endurance, which are facilitated by training. OBJECTIVES To investigate the cardiovascular response to training and competition at rest and during recumbent bicycle echocardiography Doppler exercise in 26 elite ice hockey players, and to compare the results with those of 14 healthy, active, young male student volunteers. METHODS Two-dimensional echocardiography Doppler was applied to determine cardiac chamber size and wall thickness, and to estimate rest and exercise tricuspid regurgitation peak velocity (TRV), stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output. RESULTS The left atrium, interventricular septal thickness, and left ventricular end-systolic and end-diastolic diameters and volumes were larger in athletes. During exercise, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure increments were similar in the athletes and the control subjects, but the increase in heart rate (HR) per stage was greater in the control subjects. TRV was higher in the athletes and increased at each step to 240 W, while the TRV in the control group began to decline at 160 W. The cardiac output increased with each stage in both groups, but was determined by the increment of SV and HR in the athletes, and primarily by HR in the control subjects. CONCLUSIONS Myocardial adaptation for elite ice hockey players is characterized by increased chamber size and wall thickness typical of combined endurance and sprint sports. The systemic blood pressure response to exercise is similar in athletes and nonathletes. The higher TRV at rest and at each level of exercise appears to be related to the higher SV, an expression of a physiological phenomenon.
Low incidence rates by birth of symptomatic coeliac disease in a Danish population of children

Using the original diagnostic criteria of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition for symptomatic coeliac disease in children, we found an average incidence rate by birth of 0.10 per 1000 live births in a demographically homogeneous Danish population over a 15‐year period. This incidence rate by birth is the lowest described in an epidemiological study in contrast with rates of 0.33 to 8 per 1000 live births found in other western countries. This difference may be explained by the different diagnostic criteria used for coeliac disease. Another contributing factor may be a late and gradual introduction of gluten‐containing cereals into the diet of Danish infants.
Heme Is Not Required for Aquifex aeolicus Cytochrome c 555 Polypeptide Folding

In cytochrome c, it has been supposed that heme must bind to the apo polypeptide for structure formation. We constructed a C12A/C15A variant of hyperthermophilic Aquifex aeolicus cytochrome c 555 (AA c 555) in which the covalently heme-binding Cys residues were replaced by Ala, and characterized its molecular features. The apo C12A/C15A variant had almost the same helical content as holo AA c 555, and spontaneously incorporated heme in vitro with no helical content change. These results suggest that the apo AA c 555 polypeptide is intrinsically structured without heme binding, this being the first case of a cytochrome c polypeptide. This finding provides a new suggestion as to cytochrome c formation, that heme is not necessarily required for cytochrome c polypeptide folding.
Application of virtual synchronous generator technology in microgrid

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of the application of virtual synchronous generator(VSG) technology in a bidirectional DC/AC converter and a PV/battery system in a hybrid AC/DC microgrid. The battery unit in the DC sub-microgrid maintains DC bus voltage stable and the DC bus is equivalent to a storage system. The voltage-controlled type of VSG control strategy is applied to the bidirectional DC/AC converter being as the support node in hybrid AC/DC microgrid. And the DC/AC inverter of the PV/battery system adopts the current-controlled type of VSG control strategy to assist the bidirectional DC/AC converter with frequency and voltage regulation. Then the mathematical models of two types of VSG control strategy are introduced. Based on Matlab/Simulink, the simulation model of a hybrid AC/DC microgrid with two types of VSG control strategy is established. The simulation results show that the VSG control technology can effectively improve the operation stability of hybrid AC/DC and realize the smooth switching between the island mode and grid-connected mode.
Declining morbidity and mortality among patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection.

To the Editor: Palella et al. (March 26 issue)1 reported that the use of more intensive antiretroviral therapies is responsible for declines in both morbidity and mortality in patients with AIDS. We conducted a study to evaluate the impact of protease inhibitors on the rates of selected opportunistic processes and mortality and found similar results. Our study population came from a public human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) outpatient clinic in New Orleans. All subjects and data were from the Adult Spectrum of Disease study, a prospective study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examining the natural history of .
Unique dicistronic operon (ptsI‐crr) in Mycoplasma capricolum encoding Enzyme I and the glucose‐specific Enzyme IIA of the phosphoenolpyruvate: Sugar phosphotransferase system: Cloning, sequencing, promoter analysis, and protein characterization

The region of the genome of Mycoplasma capricolum encompassing the genes for Enzymes I and IIAglc of the phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS) was cloned and sequenced. Examination of the sequence revealed a unique arrangement of the pts operon. In all other bacterial species characterized thus far, the gene encoding Enzyme I (ptsI) in the pts operon is located immediately downstream of the gene (ptsH) encoding HPr, a general energy coupling protein of the PTS. In M. capricolum, ptsH and ptsI reside on 2 distinct operons at separate loci on the chromosome (Zhu PP, Reizer J, Reizer A, Peterkofsky A, 1993, J Biol Chem 268:26531–26540). In the present work, it is shown that the Mycoplasma Enzyme I gene is preceded by an open reading frame homologous to the product of the Escherichia coli kdtB gene and is followed by the gene (crr) encoding Enzyme IIAglc. Northern blot analysis indicated that ptsI and crr constitute a dicistronic operon that includes an independent promoter for the crr gene. Primer extension studies established the transcription start sites for the ptsI and crr genes. The products of the ptsI and crr genes are homologous to previously sequenced Enzymes I and IIAglc proteins but are more similar to the counterpart proteins from gram‐positive than to those from gram‐negative organisms. The deduced amino acid sequence of the Mycoplasma Enzyme I shows that it differs from other Enzymes I by having fewer acidic amino acids and more basic, amidated, and aromatic amino acids. The deduced amino acid sequence of the Mycoplasma Enzyme IIAglc indicates that it is the shortest (154 residues) of the proteins in this class and it is the only Enzyme IIAglc with a tryptophan and a cysteine residue. In vitro sugar phosphorylation studies with extracts from E. coli and Bacillus subtilis and purified proteins indicated that the Mycoplasma HPr is not a phosphoacceptor from the E. coli Enzyme I, whereas the Mycoplasma Enzyme IIAglc accepts and transfers phosphate from both E. coli and B. subtilis PTS components.
Endoplasmic reticulum stress response and bone loss in experimental periodontitis in mice.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is the cell response that activates the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway in a variety of conditions, such as inflammation and bone metabolism. The UPR may be associated with the pathogenesis of periodontal disease because the disease is inflammatory in nature, and alveolar bone resorption is a characteristic feature of the disease. However, the relationship between ER stress and alveolar bone resorption observed in periodontal disease remains elusive. MATERIAL AND METHODS C57BL/6 mice were orally administered Porphyromonas gingivalis, a representative periodontopathic bacterium, in the presence or absence of a chemical chaperone, 4-phenylbutyrate (4-PBA). The gene expression of UPR-related molecules and cytokines in gingival tissues were analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction, and alveolar bone resorption and osteoclast numbers were evaluated histologically. The in vitro effect of 4-PBA on the differentiation of mouse bone marrow cells induced by receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand in the presence of macrophage colony-stimulating factor was analyzed. RESULTS The gene expression levels of UPR-related molecules and proinflammatory cytokines and alveolar bone resorption were significantly increased in P. gingivalis-administered mice. UPR-related gene expression and alveolar bone resorption were significantly suppressed by the administration of 4-PBA. However, no effect of 4-PBA was observed for proinflammatory cytokine expression in gingival tissues. Osteoclastic differentiation of bone marrow cells was also suppressed by 4-PBA with a concomitant reduction in the gene expression of cathepsin K and tartrate-resistant alkaline phosphatase genes. CONCLUSION ER stress induced by oral administration of P. gingivalis is involved in alveolar bone resorption independent of inflammatory cytokines in mice.
K starvation inhibits water-stress-induced stomatal closure via ethylene synthesis in sunflower plants

The effect of water stress on stomatal closure in sunflower plants has been found to be dependent on K nutrient status. When plants with different internal K content were subjected to a water-stress period, stomatal conductance was reduced more markedly in plants with an adequate K supply than in K-starved plants. K starvation promoted the production of ethylene by detached leaves, as well as by the shoot of whole plants. Water stress had no significant effect on this synthesis. The effect on stomatal conductance of adding 5 mM cobalt (an ethylene synthesis inhibitor) to the growing medium of plants subjected to water stress was also dependent on their K nutritional status: conductance was not significantly affected in normal K plants whereas it was reduced in K-starved plants. Cobalt had no harmful effects on growth, and did not alter the internal K content in the plants. These results suggest that ethylene may play a role in the inhibiting effect of K starvation on stomatal closure.
Analysis of Fertilin α (ADAM1)-mediated Sperm-Egg Cell Adhesion during Fertilization and Identification of an Adhesion-mediating Sequence in the Disintegrin-like Domain*

Fertilin α (also known as ADAM1) is a member of the ADAM (A disintegrin and A metalloprotease domain) family of proteins. In this study, we examine the mechanism of mouse fertilin α's in adhesion of sperm to the egg plasma membrane during fertilization. We find that recombinant forms of fertilin α corresponding to either the disintegrin-like domain or the cysteine-rich domain and the EGF-like repeat can perturb sperm-egg binding, suggesting that both of these domains can participate in fertilin α-mediated adhesion events. In further examination of the fertilin α disintegrin-like domain, we find that a subdomain of disintegrin-like domain with the sequence DLEECDCG outside the putative disintegrin loop but with homology to the fertilin β disintegrin loop can inhibit the binding of both sperm and recombinant fertilin α to eggs, suggesting that this is an adhesion-mediating motif of the fertilin α disintegrin-like domain. This sequence also inhibits the binding of recombinant fertilin β to eggs and thus is the first peptide sequence found to block two different sperm ligands. Finally, a monoclonal antibody to the tetraspanin protein CD9, KMC.8, inhibited the binding of recombinant fertilin α to eggs in one type of binding assay, suggesting that, under certain conditions, fertilin α may interact with a KMC.8-sensitive binding site on the egg plasma membrane.
A-myb is expressed in bovine vascular smooth muscle cells during the late G1-to-S phase transition and cooperates with c-myc to mediate progression to S phase

The Myb family of transcription factors is defined by homology within the DNA binding domain and includes c-Myb, A-Myb, and B-Myb. The protein products of the myb genes all bind the Myb-binding site (MBS) [YG(A/G)C(A/C/G)GTT(G/A)]. A-myb has been found to display a limited pattern of expression. Here we report that bovine aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs) express A-myb. Sequence analysis of isolated bovine A-myb cDNA clones spanning the entire coding region indicated extensive homology with the human gene, including the putative transactivation domain. Expression of A-myb was cell cycle dependent; levels of A-myb RNA increased in the late G1-to-S phase transition following serum stimulation of serum-deprived quiescent SMC cultures and peaked in S phase. Nuclear run-on analysis revealed that an increased rate of transcription can account for most of the increase in A-myb RNA levels. Treatment of SMC cultures with 5,6-dichlorobenzimidazole riboside, a selective inhibitor of RNA polymerase II, indicated an approximate 4-h half-life for A-myb mRNA during the S phase of the cell cycle. Expression of A-myb by SMCs was stimulated by basic fibroblast growth factor, in a cell density-dependent fashion. Cotransfection of a human A-myb expression vector activated a multimerized MBS element-driven reporter construct approximately 30-fold in SMCs. The activity of c-myb and c-myc promoters, which both contain multiple MBS elements, were similarly transactivated, approximately 30- and 50-fold, respectively, upon cotransfection with human A-myb. Lastly, A-myb RNA levels could be increased by a combination of phorbol ester plus insulin-like growth factor 1. To test the role of myb family members in progression through the cell cycle, we comicroinjected c-myc and myb expression vectors into serum-deprived quiescent SMCs. The combination of c-myc and either A-myb or c-myb but not B-myb synergistically led to entry into S phase, whereas microinjection of any vector alone had little effect on S phase entry. Thus, these results suggest that A-myb is a potent transactivator in bovine SMCs and that its expression induces progression into S phase of the cell cycle.
Individual Life Expectancy Estimation Using Validated Prognostic Scores for Patients with Cancer of Unknown Primary

Purpose: To implement 3 published prognostic scores in an independent set of patients with cancer of unknown primary (CUP), and compare their performance on individual life expectancy prediction. Patients and Method: The survival of 430 consecutive patients with CUP was measured after they had allocated to their prognostic group (good prognosis vs. poor prognosis) according to each prognostic score. Using a 2 × 2 contingency table, we measured the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and accuracy of each score in predicting individual outcome (survival <90 days or >180 days). Results: The median overall survival was 189 days (1–4,801 days). Survival was <90 days in 143/421 cases and >180 days in 208/413 cases. The three PPVs were within the same range for prediction of survival <90 days (from 43 to 49%) as well as for prediction of survival >180 days (from 70 to 80%), and underestimate individual life expectancy of 40–50% of the patients. None of the 3 scores appeared significantly better. Conclusion: The main finding of this retrospective analysis is that the published prognostic scores cannot be used for rational decision making.
Facial image database mining and classification analysis using different distance metrics

This paper discusses two important works. First work deals with extraction of key features from standard face databases. The data mined from the face databases consist of information related to number of facial images, male and female, different facial expressions, different poses, illumination conditions, facial image file format, synthetic faces, masked faces, infrared faces and number of subjects. The second work involves testing the recognition rate of faces available in these databases. It compares the recognition accuracies obtained by different distance metrics such as L1 norm, L2 norm and Mahalanobis distance. Along with classification rate, the other parameters such as mean squared error, peak signal to noise ratio and rank are also compared for different face databases. Tested results are tabulated and plotted and a detail analyzed report is given in this paper.
2 . 2 Anaerobic Digestion of Slurries and Biowaste

Anaerobic technology has been traditionally applied for the treatment of carbon rich wastewater and organic residues. Anaerobic processes can be fully integrated in the biobased economy concept for resource recovery . After a brief introduction about applications of anaerobic processes to industrial wastewater treatment, agriculture feedstock and organic fraction of municipal solid waste, the position of anaerobic processes in biorefinery concepts is presented. Integration of anaerobic digestion with these processes can help in the maximisation of the economic value of the biomass used, while reducing the waste streams produced and mitigating greenhouse gases emissions . Besides the integration of biogas in the existing full-scale bioethanol and biodiesel production processes, the potential applications of biogas in the second generation lignocellulosic, algae and syngasbased biorefinery platforms are discussed. J. C. Costa · D. Z. Sousa · M. A. Pereira · A. J. M. Starns · M. M. Alves (181) IBB-Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Centre of Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal e-mail: madalena.alves@deb.uminho. pt J. C. Costa e-mail: carloscosta@deb.uminho. pt D. Z. Sousa e-mail: dianasousa@deb.uminho. pt M. A. Pereira e-mail : alcina@deb.uminho. pt A. J. M. Starns e-mail : fons . stams@wur.nl A. J. M. Starns Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, Dreijenplein 10 6703 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands V. K. Gupta and M. G. Tuohy (eds.), Biofuel Tech11ologies, 369 DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-34519-7_ 15, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 370 J. C. Costa et at.
Multihop cellular networks toward LTE-advanced

This article presents the architecture of MCN toward 3G LTE-Advanced with TDD. On the assumption that L2 RN and L3 RN can provide their own RRM functions, several important RRM functions including routing, link adaptation, and scheduling in MAC layers at RNs can help the eNB to handle the radio resources efficiently. In general, the RN with higher implementation complexity has the ability to provide more flexible RRM with more overhead. Our dynamic system-level simulations show that the MCN outperform the networks without relaying in terms of SINR and throughput.
Analysis of coupling capacitance between TSV and adjacent RDL interconnections

This paper proposes an equivalent model of the coupling capacitance between TSVs and adjacent RDL. Based on the scalar potential integral equation and cylindrical accumulation mode basis functions, an efficient method of extracting the coupling capacitance is present. The scalability of the proposed model is verified by simulation and our results show that an accuracy of 10% is achieved from the analytic models, compared with the values that were simulated by 3-D numerical field solvers.
PAZ: In-Vehicle Personalized Audio Zones

The modern vehicle has evolved into a multimedia hub, becoming a vital integration and delivery point for a panoply of media and devices. However, the resulting in-vehicle noise pollution created by this multitude of services has significant potential to become annoying to all vehicle occupants. This problem motivated the authors to build a system that enables the configuration of in-vehicle personalized audio zones (PAZs) that don't require earphones. The PAZ system comprises a novel user interface, custom-designed headrests, and an infotainment noise-control subsystem. The performance evaluations of PAZ in a BMW 5 series sedan delivered approximately 20 decibels of isolation, which resulted in an overwhelmingly positive subjective experience for the occupants. PAZ not only ameliorates noise pollution, but also provides a unique solution to sound personalization via configurable audio zones and individual media selection that doesn't require headphones.
A Semi-deterministic Ensemble Strategy ForImbalanced Datasets (SDEID) Applied ToBankruptcy Prediction

In the last decade, there was a rapid growth in the availability and use of credit for Brazilian companies. Until recently, the decision to grant credit was based on human trial to evaluate the risk of insolvency. Increased demand from companies for credit has led to the use of more accurate models for bankruptcy prediction. In recent years much progress has occurred in the process of drawing up a model fostered by increased competition among financial institutions, changes in the economic environment for businesses and advances in computational techniques. This article discusses and presents alternatives for some of the main problems in the preparation of models for bankruptcy prediction with the application of data mining techniques. The first problem approached is the class imbalance that may cause a poor classification performance and it is treated jointly with an ensemble strategy. The other one rely on the selection of the most significant combination of attributes, the financial variables, which have been widely studied in insolvency prediction. Finally, it is presented a case study in a real world data base of Brazilian companies.