Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE GENETICS OF AN ACID PHOSPHATASE IN DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER AND DROSOPHILA SIMULANSI

very recently, genes whose effects are described at the protein level uNzv! been unknown in Drosophila. Gel electrophoresis, however, has remedied this situation. Within the past few years, the following gene-enzyme systems have been elucidated by means of this technique: Amylase (KIKKAWA 1964), Esterase 6 (WRIGHT 1963), Esterase C (BECKMAN and JOHNSON 1964a), Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (YOUNG, PORTER and CHILDS 1964), Alcohol dehydrogenase ( JOHNSON and DENNISTON 1964; GRELL, JACOBSON and MURPHY 1965), Alkaline phosphatase (BECIIMAN and JOHNSON 1964b), Leucine aminopeptidases A and D ( BECKMAN and JOHNSON 1964c), and 6-phosphogluconic acid dehydrogenase (KAZAZIAN, YOUNG, and CHILDS 1965). Electrophoretic techniques are being used in solving fundamental problems unique to higher organisms. For example, it is now feasible to study linkage relationships and controlling mechanisms of genes whose enzymes catalyze sequential biochemical reactions in higher organisms. In evolutionary genetics, too, questions concerning the evolution of genes and the existence of biochemical polymorphisms are now open to experimental analysis (see WRIGHT and MACINTYRE 1963; HUBBY and THROCKMORTON 1965). The present paper reports the discovery of still another gene-enzyme system, an acid phosphatase, in the two sibling species, D. melanogaster and D. simulans. It also provides evidence that the responsible genes in the two species are homologous, even though at this time no allele is known to be shared by both.
Adaptive evolution of the MHC class III‐encoded receptor RAGE in primates and murine rodents

The receptor for advanced glycation end products is associated with a series of physiological and pathological processes. Here, we studied the evolution of this multiligand receptor in primates and murine rodents. The evolutionary analyses reveal that adaptive selection had contributed to the variation at a number of amino acid sites in both taxa. Further, the major adaptively selected sites of both taxa are located on the extracellular ligand‐ and intracellular adaptor‐binding regions and receptor oligomerization‐related surfaces. The co‐occurrence of adaptive evolution on the homologue domains suggests that they could play similar roles in these taxa. In terms of advantage fitness, the adaptive changes at these sites could contribute to host defence against the potential challenges towards these interactions and relevant signalling pathways, or the specificity of these essential points.
Design of a dual-band rectifier for wireless power transmission

This paper presents a dual-band rectifying circuit for wireless power transmission working at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz. A modified dual-band matching network is adopted to realize the highly efficient dual-band rectifier. Source-pull simulations are performed, to determine the proper impedances at the two different frequencies. The proposed dual-band rectifier has been implemented and the measurements show good agreement with simulation. With a dual-band input matching network, the measurement results for an input power level of 10 mW show peak RF-to-DC efficiencies of 66.8% and 51.5% at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively.
Role of serum albumin as a nanoparticulate carrier for nose‐to‐brain delivery of R‐flurbiprofen: implications for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease

R‐flurbiprofen (R‐FP) was found to offer neuroprotective effects by inhibiting mitochondrial calcium overload induced by β‐amyloid peptide toxicity in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, poor brain penetration after oral administration posed a challenge to its further development for AD treatment. In this study, we investigated the potential of serum albumin as nanoparticulate carriers for nose‐to‐brain delivery of R‐FP to improve its brain accumulation.
Maximizing the Conditional likelihood

There are often times in statistical data analysis when a specific methodology is called for, which is not provided by SAS/STAT® software. In many situations, the analysis involves maximizing a certain function that is nonlinear in the unknown parameters. The. estimation of these parameters requires an iterative scheme, which is often difficult to program. Starting in Version 6.08, SAS/IML ® software provides many nonlinear optimization functions that are useful for implementing specific inhouse methodology. As an illustration, this paper implements the methodology of computing the classical estimates (Peto 1973, Turnbull 1978) of the survival curve for interval-censored data. The regression analysis of Finkelstein (1986) is also considered.
A Transformation Model to Express Business Rules from Natural Language to Formal Execution: An Application to Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract Expressing and implementing business rules is a way to enhance product or business models efficiency. However, business rules are made of, by and for the business. Because information system experts do not master business issues and business experts do not master formal languages and computational issues, expressing business rules within an IS system is a challenge. To overcome the semantic part of this challenge, we propose a semantic transformation framework in four steps, from natural language assertions to formal rules. This transformation model uses semantic web technologies. The application domain is the nuclear industry.
Subsurface damages of fused silica developed during deterministic small tool polishing.

The subsurface damages (SSD) of fused silica developed during deterministic small tool polishing are experimentally investigated in this study. A leather pad (i.e., poromeric) is validated to be nearly SSD-free and superior to pitch and polyurethane. Rough abrasives are found to obviously increase SSD depth, and a leather pad can efficiently suppress the adverse effect of rough abrasives. The SSD depth induced by pitch and polyurethane pads (with rough abrasive) ranges from 0.77 to 1. 49μm (~1/7-1/5 of abrasive size). High pressure, low velocity and slurry concentration can slightly increase SSD depth. Material removal rate of leather pad is also validated to be comparable with polyurethane and much higher than pitch tool; surface roughness polished by leather pad is Ra = 1.13nm, which is close to that of pitch but much better than polyurethane.
An investigation of topological choices in FS-NEAT and FD-NEAT on XOR-based problems of increased complexity

Feature Selective Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies (FS-NEAT) and Feature De-selective Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies (FD-NEAT) are two well-known methods for optimizing the topology and the weights of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) while simultaneously performing feature selection. Literature has shown that starting the evolution with ANNs of one hidden layer can affect FD-NEAT's and FS-NEAT's performances. However, no study exists that investigates the effects of changing the networks' initial connectivity. In this paper we investigate how the choice of the number of initially connected inputs affects the performance of FD-NEAT and FS-NEAT in terms of accuracy, number of generations required for convergence, ability of performing feature selection and size of the evolved networks. For this purpose we employ artificial datasets of increasing complexity based on the exclusive-or (XOR) problem with irrelevant features. The different initial topological settings are compared using Kruskal-Wallis hypothesis tests with Bonferroni correction (p<0.01), while FD-NEAT and FS-NEAT are compared using Wilcoxon rank sum hypothesis tests (p<0.01). The results show that the initial connectivity setting does not affect the performance of FD-NEAT and FS-NEAT.
Differences in stress-related ratings between research center and home environments in dementia caregivers using ecological momentary assessment

ABSTRACT Background: Clinicians and researchers working with dementia caregivers typically assess caregiver stress in a clinic or research center, but caregivers’ stress is rooted at home where they provide care. This study aimed to compare ratings of stress-related measures obtained in research settings and in the home using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Methods: EMA of 18 caregivers (mean age 66.4 years ±7.8; 89% females) and 23 non-caregivers (mean age 66.4 years ±7.9; 87% females) was implemented using a personal digital assistant. Subjects rated their perceived stress, fatigue, coping with current situation, mindfulness, and situational demand once in the research center and again at 3–4 semi-random points during a day at home. The data from several assessments conducted at home were averaged for statistical analyses and compared with the data collected in the research center. Results: The testing environment had a differential effect on caregivers and non-caregivers for the ratings of perceived stress (p < 0.01) and situational demand (p = 0.01). When tested in the research center, ratings for all measures were similar between groups, but when tested at home, caregivers rated their perceived stress as higher than non-caregivers (p = 0.02). Overall, caregivers reported higher perceived stress at home than in the research center (p = 0.02), and non-caregivers reported greater situational demand in the research center than at home (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The assessment method and environment affect stress-related outcomes. Evaluating participants in their natural environment provides a more sensitive measure of stress-related outcomes. EMA provides a convenient way to gather data when evaluating dementia caregivers.
Wolbachia induces sexual isolation in Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans

Wolbachia are a group of intracellular bacteria, ma-ternally transmitted from infected females to their offspring, which affect a wide range of arthropods. Their presence is associated with Cytoplasmic Incompatibility (CI) in crosses between infected males and uninfected females and between populations carrying different strains of Wolbachia. The negative influence of Wolbachia a infection on progeny fitness in incompatible crosses can be considered a first step in the appearance of reproductive isolation between infected and uninfected individuals. In this work, we examined the possibility of assortative mating in response to Wolbachia infection, a response that evolved as an incipient mechanism of sexual isolation in the species D. melanogaster and D. simulans. We found that the females of each species could detect the presence of the bacterium in the other sex and chose to mate with males who had the same state of infection, whereas the males randomly attempted to mate with both infected and uninfected females. Thus, Wolbachia may act as an additive factor influencing sexual isolation in Drosophila populations and may play a role in speciation events.
Catabolism of aromatic acids in Trichosporon cutaneum

Trichosporon cutaneum readily metabolized protocatechuate, homoprotocatechuate, and gentisate, but lacked ring fission dioxygenases for these compounds. Benzoic, salicylic, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic, and gentisic acids were converted into beta-ketoadipic acid before entry into the Krebs cycle. Benzoic acid gave rise successively to 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, protocatechuic acid, and hydroxyquinol (1,3,4-trihydroxybenzene), which underwent ring fission to maleylacetic acid. Salicylate and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate were both initially metabolized to give catechol. 2,3-Dihydroxybenzoate was the substrate for a specific nonoxidative decarboxylase induced by salicylate, although 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate was not a catabolite of salicylate. Gentisate was metabolized to maleylacetic acid and was also readily attacked by salicylate hydroxylase at each stage of a partial purification procedure. Phenylacetic acid was degraded through 3-hydroxyphenylacetic, homogentisic, and maleylacetoacetic acids to acetoacetic and fumaric acids. All the reactions of these catabolic sequences were catalyzed by cell extracts, supplemented with reduced pyridine nucleotide coenzymes where necessary, except for the hydroxylations of benzoic and phenylacetic acids which were demonstrated with cell suspensions and isotopically labeled substrates.
A mechanised microtechnique for salmonella serotyping.

In the reference laboratory complete serological identification of salmonella requires the identification of 59 'O' (somatic) and 87 'H' (flagellar) antigens. When large numbers of strains are studied mechanisation of the serological techniques would be advantageous. Normally, slide and tube agglutination methods are used,' 2 and the latter is an essential confirmatory test. The antisera used are costly to produce, and although a mechanised system based on tube agglutination could be developed, an alternative system using smaller volumes of antisera would be preferable. A technique using microagglutination trays combined with a mechanised system to dispense antisera and suspensions is described.
7765 METABOLISM AND EXCRETION OF ERLOTINIB , A SMALL MOLECULE INHIBITOR OF EPIDERMAL GROWTH FACTOR RECEPTOR TYROSINE KINASE , IN HEALTHY MALE VOLUNTEERS

Department of Pharmacokinetic, Pharmacodynamic, and Bioanalytical Sciences, Genentech Incorporated, South San Francisco, CA (J.L., B.L.); Departments of Pharmacokinetics, Dynamics & Metabolism, Pfizer Global Research and Development, Groton, CT (K.A.J., C.P., Z.M.); Hoffmann-La Roche Pharmaceuticals, Nutley, NJ (A.R., M.P.); and OSI Pharmaceuticals, Boulder, CO (M.H.). DMD Fast Forward. Published on December 28, 2005 as doi:10.1124/dmd.105. 007765
Advances in Brief Loss of pRb Expression in Pituitary Adenomas Is Associated with Methylation of the RB 1 CpG Island 1

We recently showed loss of pRb in a proportion of pituitary tumors that was not associated with loss of heterozygosity of an RB1 intragenic marker. To further define the mechanism responsible for loss of retinoblastoma protein (pRb) expression, we have investigated the methylation status of the CpG island contained within the promoter region of the RB1 gene, together with sequence analysis of the essential promoter region and exons coding for the protein-binding pocket domain. Methylation of the CpG island within the RB1 promoter region was detected in 6 of 10 tumors that failed to express pRb. In contrast, 18 of 20 tumors and all six histologically normal postmortem pituitaries that expressed pRb were unmethylated. No inactivating mutations were found within the RB1 promoter region in the four unmethylated tumors that failed to express pRB. However, one or more exons comprising the coding region for the protein-binding pocket domain were shown to be homozygously deleted in three of four tumors available for analysis. This study describes an additional tumor type, in addition to retinoblastoma, in which methylation of the RB1 promoter is associated with loss of pRb expression. Furthermore, we show that in addition to methylation of the RB1 promoter region, deletion within the protein-binding pocket domain is associated with a loss of detectable pRb expression. The reactivation of tumor suppressor genes, silenced through methylation, represents a promising therapeutic target in sporadic pituitary adenomas.
Characterization of Group B Streptococcal Invasion of Human Chorion and Amnion Epithelial Cells In Vitro

Group B streptococci (GBS) have been cultured from the chorioamnionic membrane of pregnant women, usually in association with chorioamnionitis and premature labor (K. A. Boggess, D. H. Watts, S. L. Hillier, M. A. Krohn, T. J. Benedetti, and D. A. Eschenbach, Obstet. Gynecol. 87:779–784, 1996). Colonization and infection of placental membranes can be a prelude to neonatal GBS infections even in the presence of intact membranes (R. L. Naeye and E. C. Peters, Pediatrics 61:171–177, 1978), suggesting that GBS cause chorioamnionitis or establish amniotic fluid infections by partial or complete penetration of the placental membranes. We have isolated and grown cultures of primary chorion and amnion cells from human cesareansection placentas. This has provided a biologically relevant model for investigating GBS adherence to and invasion of the two epithelial barriers of the placental membrane. GBS adhered to chorion cell monolayers to a high degree. Pretreatment of GBS with trypsin reduced adherence up to 10-fold, which suggested that the bacterial ligand(s) was a protein. GBS invaded chorion cells at a high rate in vitro, and invasion was dependent on cellular actin polymerization. GBS could be seen within intracellular vacuoles of chorion cells by transmission electron microscopy. We also demonstrated that GBS were capable of transcytosing through intact chorion cell monolayers without disruption of intracellular junctions. GBS also adhered to amnion cells; in contrast, however, these bacteria failed to invade amnion cells under a variety of assay conditions. GBS interactions with the chorion epithelial cell layer shown here correlate well with epidemiological and pathological studies of GBS chorioamnionitis. Our data also suggest that the amnion cell layer may provide an effective barrier against infection of the amniotic fluid.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF THE CELL

Much of the research in the Pringle laboratory exploits the power of yeast as an experimentally tractable model eukaryote to investigate fundamental problems in cell and developmental biology such as the mechanisms of cell polarization and cytokinesis. In regards to cell polarization, the major current foci are the roles of cortical marker proteins and of a GTPase-based signal-transduction cascade in the selection of the polarization axes (as defined by the bud sites). Interestingly, the marker proteins appear to be delivered to polarized sites in the cell surface by an unconventional arm of the secretory pathway. In regards to cytokinesis, the major current foci are the roles of the septin proteins and the interactions among the actomyosin contractile ring, the enzymes of extracellular-matrix (cell-wall) synthesis, and proteins that appear to be involved in plasma-membrane reorganization. Our working hypothesis is that the conserved core mechanism is the rearrangements of the membrane during cleavage-furrow formation and that the actomyosin ring and extracellular matrix play accessory roles. In a departure from our many years of yeast work, a major new project involves developing the small sea anemone Aiptasia pallida as a model system for study of the molecular and cellular biology of the dinoflagellate-cnidarian symbiosis, which is critical for the survival of most reef-building corals but still very poorly understood. Processes to be investigated include the recognition and signaling events involved in symbiosis establishment, the temporal and spatial coordination of symbiont and host cell cycles during symbiosis maintenance, and the signaling and cellular processes involved in symbiosis breakdown under stress. Currently much of our effort is directed at genomic analysis and method development that will underpin later studies.
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Biomembranes : Local Characteristics of a Diunsaturated Bilayer

Bio membranes, like cell membrane and the surface monolayer of lipoproteins, serve both as interfaces and as regions for numerous essential functions in living organisms. Phospholipid molecules are the main building blocks of these biological membrane structures and it has become clear that the phospholipid matrix is not simply a solvent for the membrane proteins but in many cases an independent regulator of their function (Mouritsen & Kinnunen 1996; Slater et al. 1996). In addition, membrane lipids directly affect the characteristics of the membrane, e.g. permeability (van Deenen et al. 1972). It has thus become evident that understanding of membrane functions calls for structural and dynamic information about the membrane constituents at the molecular level. Powerful experimental tools exist, such as X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy. However, there are many difficulties that limit the experiments and detailed interpretation of the data. This, together with the improvements both in the simulation methodology and in the computational resources, have led to the increasing number of computational studies on biomembranes (Merz & Roux 1996). Mostly molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, using empirical force fields to describe the atomic interactions, have been applied to pure phospholipid systems, including studies of monoand bilayers and micelles. Recently also studies in which cholesterol, model peptides or proteins have been incorporated into the phospholipid systems have been carried out. Additionally, simulation approaches have been used to model diffusion across the bilayer. The studies have shown that many characteristic parameters produced by the MD simulations are consistent with available experimental data (see Merz & Roux 1996 for references). As an important consequence, the novel results provided by the MD simulations can be considered as independent information about the biomembrane structure and dynamics without direct comparison with experiments. MD simulations on biomembranes are, however, restrained with approximations both in the modeling and in the methodological side of the work. Particularly from the biochemical point of view, a simple phospholipid bilayer is a rather naive description of a biological membrane. Thus, a lot of endeavor is needed in order to be able to build up computational model systems, that resemble more their real counterparts, by incorporating various csc news
A Novel Risk Score for Mortality in Renal Transplant Recipients Beyond the First Posttransplant Year

Background. All-cause mortality is high after kidney transplantation (KT), but no prognostic index has focused on predicting mortality in KT using baseline and emergent comorbidity after KT. Methods. A total of 4928 KT recipients were used to derive a risk score predicting mortality. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups: a modeling population (n=2452), used to create a new index, and a testing population (n=2476), used to test this index. Multivariate Cox regression model coefficients of baseline (age, weight, time on dialysis, diabetes, hepatitis C, and delayed graft function) and emergent comorbidity within the first posttransplant year (diabetes, proteinuria, renal function, and immunosuppressants) were used to weigh each variable in the calculation of the score and allocated into risk quartiles. Results. The probability of death at 3 years, estimated by baseline cumulative hazard function from the Cox model [P (death)=1−0.993592764exp(score/100)], increased from 0.9% in the lowest-risk quartile (score=40) to 4.7% in the highest risk-quartile (score=200). The observed incidence of death increased with increasing risk quartiles in testing population (log-rank analysis, P<0.0001). The overall C-index was 0.75 (95% confidence interval: 0.72–0.78) and 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.70–0.77) in both populations, respectively. Conclusion. This new index is an accurate tool to identify high-risk patients for mortality after KT.
Frequency Measures of Epidemiological Studies

People are suffering from some diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, malaria, sickle cell anemia, among others. Polio is also one of the diseases suffered by children in some developing countries. A lot of health-related problems have been bedeviling people all over the world. How to measure the diseases, determining their causes and plan the appropriate means of controlling the diseases as well as their occurrences are very important issues address by ‘Epidemiology’. Measures of frequency and association are very useful for that purpose and they are regarded as the fundamental of descriptive epidemiology.