Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Rpb9 Subunit of RNA Polymerase II Binds Transcription Factor TFIIE and Interferes with the SAGA and Elongator Histone Acetyltransferases*

Rpb9 is a small subunit of yeast RNA polymerase II participating in elongation and formed of two conserved zinc domains. rpb9 mutants are viable, with a strong sensitivity to nucleotide-depleting drugs. Deleting the C-terminal domain down to the first 57 amino acids has no detectable growth defect. Thus, the critical part of Rpb9 is limited to a N-terminal half that contacts the lobe of the second largest subunit (Rpb2) and forms a β-addition motif with the “jaw” of the largest subunit (Rpb1). Rpb9 has homology to the TFIIS elongation factor, but mutants inactivated for both proteins are indistinguishable fromrpb9 single mutants. In contrast, rpb9 mutants are lethal in cells lacking the histone acetyltransferase activity of the RNA polymerase II Elongator and SAGA factors. In a two-hybrid test, Rpb9 physically interacts with Tfa1, the largest subunit of TFIIE. The interacting fragment, comprising amino acids 62–164 of Tfa1, belongs to a conserved zinc motif. Tfa1 is immunoprecipitated by RNA polymerase II. This co-purification is strongly reduced in rpb9-Δ, suggesting that Rpb9 contributes to the recruitment of TFIIE on RNA polymerase II.
The influence of musical training on patterns of EEG asymmetry during musical and non-musical self-generation tasks.

Musically proficient and non-proficient right-handed subjects were requested to list in a pre-experimental questionnaire three familiar songs, whose words and melody were well known. They were then instructed in two separate experiments, to whistle the melody of a song, talk the lyrics to a song, or sing a song each for 3 1-min trials performed with eyes closed. EEG was recorded from the left and right occipital areas (O1 and O2) in Experiment I and from the left and right parietal areas (P3 and P4) in Experiment II, and filtered for 8–13 Hz activity on-line. Comparable results were obtained in both experiments and indicated that non-musically trained subjects show significantly greater relative right hemisphere activation while whistling the melody of a song vs talking the lyrics to a song. Musically trained subjects show no differences in EEG asymmetry between these tasks. In addition, there were no group differences in asymmetry during the talking and singing conditions. These data are consistent with recent evidence suggesting that musical training is associated with the adoption of an analytic and sequential processing mode toward melodic information, and suggest that long term training in complex cognitive skills has functional neural concomitants.
Airway dilator muscle activity and lung volume during stable breathing in obstructive sleep apnea.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Many patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have spontaneous periods of stable flow limited breathing during sleep without respiratory events or arousals. In addition, OSA is often more severe during REM than NREM and more severe during stage 2 than slow wave sleep (SWS). The physiological mechanisms for these observations are unknown. Thus we aimed to determine whether the activity of two upper airway dilator muscles (genioglossus and tensor palatini) or end-expiratory lung volume (EELV) differ between (1) spontaneously occurring stable and cyclical breathing and (2) different sleep stages in OSA. DESIGN Physiologic observation. SETTING Sleep physiology laboratory. STUDY PARTICIPANTS 15 OSA patients with documented periods of spontaneous stable breathing. INTERVENTION Subjects were instrumented with intramuscular electrodes for genioglossus and tensor palatini electromyograms (EMG(GG) and EMG(TP)), chest and abdominal magnetometers (EELV measurement), an epiglottic pressure catheter (respiratory effort), and a mask and pneumotachograph (airflow/ventilation). Patients slept supine overnight without CPAP. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Peak and Tonic EMG(GG) were significantly lower during cyclical (85.4 +/- 2.7 and 94.6 +/- 4.7 % total activity) than stable breathing (109.4 +/- 0.4 and 103 +/- 0.8% total activity, respectively). During respiratory events in REM, tonic EMG(GG) activity was lower than during respiratory events in stage 2 (71.9 +/- 5.1 and 119.6 +/- 5.6% total activity). EMG(GG) did not differ between stable stage 2 and stable SWS (98.9 +/- 3.2 versus 109.7 +/- 4.4% total activity), nor did EMG(TP) or EELV differ in any breathing condition/sleep stage. CONCLUSIONS Increased genioglossus muscle tone is associated with spontaneous periods of stable flow limited breathing in the OSA subjects studied. Reductions in genioglossus activity during REM may explain the higher severity of OSA in that stage. Increased lung volume and tensor palatini activity do not appear to be major mechanisms enabling spontaneous stable flow limited breathing periods.
Cortical Specializations Underlying Fast Computations

The time course of behaviorally relevant environmental events sets temporal constraints on neuronal processing. How does the mammalian brain make use of the increasingly complex networks of the neocortex, while making decisions and executing behavioral reactions within a reasonable time? The key parameter determining the speed of computations in neuronal networks is a time interval that neuronal ensembles need to process changes at their input and communicate results of this processing to downstream neurons. Theoretical analysis identified basic requirements for fast processing: use of neuronal populations for encoding, background activity, and fast onset dynamics of action potentials in neurons. Experimental evidence shows that populations of neocortical neurons fulfil these requirements. Indeed, they can change firing rate in response to input perturbations very quickly, within 1 to 3 ms, and encode high-frequency components of the input by phase-locking their spiking to frequencies up to 300 to 1000 Hz. This implies that time unit of computations by cortical ensembles is only few, 1 to 3 ms, which is considerably faster than the membrane time constant of individual neurons. The ability of cortical neuronal ensembles to communicate on a millisecond time scale allows for complex, multiple-step processing and precise coordination of neuronal activity in parallel processing streams, while keeping the speed of behavioral reactions within environmentally set temporal constraints.
CD8+ T-Cell Priming against a NonsecretedListeria monocytogenes Antigen Is Independent of the Antimicrobial Activities of Gamma Interferon

ABSTRACT Sublethal infection of mice with recombinant Listeria monocytogenes expressing a model epitope in either secreted or nonsecreted form results in similar CD8+ T-cell priming. Since nonsecreted bacterial proteins have no obvious access to the endogenous major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I presentation pathway, presentation of these antigens requires destruction of the bacterium to reveal the nonsecreted molecules to an exogenous MHC class I presentation pathway. Gamma interferon (IFN-γ), a cytokine made by multiple cell types in response to L. monocytogenesinfection, could be required for exogenous presentation of nonsecreted bacterial antigens via its capacity to upregulate the expression of molecules involved in antigen presentation, its capacity to activate macrophages to kill bacteria to expose nonsecreted molecules or both. IFN-γ knockout (KO) mice were used to address the requirement for IFN-γ in CD8+ T-cell priming against (i) a model exogenous antigen and (ii) secreted and nonsecreted L. monocytogenes antigens. We demonstrate that IFN-γ KO mice are capable of cross-presenting the model exogenous antigen ovalbumin to prime CD8+ T-cell responses that are only slightly weaker than that in wild-type (WT) mice. Despite their extreme susceptibility to primary L. monocytogenes infection, previously immunized and naive IFN-γ KO mice were able to generate CD8+ T-cell responses against both secreted and nonsecreted L. monocytogenes antigens which were similar to responses of WT mice. Interestingly, IFN-γ KO mice were as capable as WT mice in mediating the characteristic drop in bacterial load in the liver at 4 h postinfection, although the IFN-γ KO mice have exacerbated bacterial loads as early as 24 h postinfection. These results demonstrate that the regulatory functions of IFN-γ are not required for priming of CD8+ T cells by cross-presentation of a model exogenous antigen or in response to a nonsecreted L. monocytogenes antigen. In addition, the capacity of IFN-γ to activate the microbicidal activities of macrophages is not required for the very early innate immune response to L. monocytogenesor priming of CD8+ T cells against a nonsecreted bacterial antigen.
A Novel Chinese Domain Ontology Construction Method for Petroleum Exploration Information

Ontology is playing an important role in knowledge management and sharing, both users and system can communicate with each other using a common understanding knowledge of a domain. This study proposes a context-based ontology construction method for extracting petroleum exploration domain information from unstructured Chinese text documents. The proposed mechanism of domain ontology construction includes four steps. First, domain documents preprocessing aims to separates the text into sentences, including a Chinese Part-of-Speech (POS) Tag and a Chinese corpus extract from the HowNet. Next, the concept clustering based on the fuzzy c-means aims to cluster concepts and instances from documents. In third step, context extraction aims to obtain the contexts. Finally, domain ontology construction aims to generate a petroleum exploration Chinese domain ontology. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can effectively construct Chinese domain ontology from unstructured text documents. This study implements a context-based ontology construction mechanism that can automatically mine domain concepts out of domain document, thereby reducing cost and burden that would be incurred in a manual construction process.
Spatiotemporal Recapitulation of Central Nervous System Development by Murine Embryonic Stem Cell‐Derived Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells

Neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) can generate a wide variety of neural cells. However, their fates are generally restricted, depending on the time and location of NS/PC origin. Here we demonstrate that we can recapitulate the spatiotemporal regulation of central nervous system (CNS) development in vitro by using a neurosphere‐based culture system of embryonic stem (ES) cell‐derived NS/PCs. This ES cell‐derived neurosphere system enables the efficient derivation of highly neurogenic fibroblast growth factor‐responsive NS/PCs with early temporal identities and high cell‐fate plasticity. Over repeated passages, these NS/PCs exhibit temporal progression, becoming epidermal growth factor‐responsive gliogenic NS/PCs with late temporal identities; this change is accompanied by an alteration in the epigenetic status of the glial fibrillary acidic protein promoter, similar to that observed in the developing brain. Moreover, the rostrocaudal and dorsoventral spatial identities of the NS/PCs can be successfully regulated by sequential administration of several morphogens. These NS/PCs can differentiate into early‐born projection neurons, including cholinergic, catecholaminergic, serotonergic, and motor neurons, that exhibit action potentials in vitro. Finally, these NS/PCs differentiate into neurons that form synaptic contacts with host neurons after their transplantation into wild‐type and disease model animals. Thus, this culture system can be used to obtain specific neurons from ES cells, is a simple and powerful tool for investigating the underlying mechanisms of CNS development, and is applicable to regenerative treatment for neurological disorders.
Large Interindividual Variations in the Pharmacokinetics of Oral 6‐Mercaptopurine in Maintenance Therapy of Children with Acute Leukaemia and Non‐Hodgkin Lymphoma

ABSTRACT. The concentrations of 6‐mercaptopurine were studied in plasma and red blood cells from 10 children with acute leukaemia or non‐Hodgkin lymphoma receiving oral maintenance therapy. The doses varied between 25 and 79 mg/m2 body surface once daily. Large interindividual differences were found in the concentrations both in plasma and in red blood cells. There was no clear relationship between the dose administered and the concentrations obtained. However, in each patient the concentrations in plasma and in red blood cells were very similar. In most patients, the peak concentrations were reached 1‐2 hours after dose intake and the concentrations then declined with half‐lives less than 1 hour. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the potential value of drug level monitoring in optimizing treatment with oral 6‐mercaptopurine.
Adjuvants in the relief of chronic pain

It is a matter for regret that the motto of the Association of Anasthetists of Great Britain and Ireland In sornno securitas does not embrace all the practices that can come within the full meaning of the word ‘anasthesia. ’ Its literal translation, while most frequently associated with obliterating the painful sensations inflicted by the surgeon’s knife, must include the relief of pain from other causes. A disturbed sensation causing suffering and distress often persists long after recovery from anasthesia and within recent years this has attracted much attention from anasthetists. In other types of pain the services of the anasthetist are requested mainly because of his ability to perform various nerve blocks. It rarely comes within the practice of our specialty to deal with intractable pain which is not amenable to relief by nerve blocks, yet in no other branch of medicine does the training require so intimate a knowledge of the actions of powerful narcotics and analgesics. This presentation is not directly concerned with the use of nerve blocks for relief of chronic pain, about which much has already been writtenl-6, but rather with the management of patients, who for various reasons, need analgesics and other drugs for complete comfort and relief of pain. Data to be presented is based on over five years’ experience at a pain and diagnostic clinic, staffed by anasthetists. No mention will be made of the cases referred for diagnostic purposes and it is not proposed to discuss the pros and cons of such a clinic, with which some of our American colleagues are not in full agreement ! 7 The majority of subjects were ambulant out-patients who were seen at intervals of not less than one week. A few were seen in hospital or on domiciliary visits. The cause of pain and forms of treatment employed are shown in TABLE 1. In this series nerve blocking alone
[The effects of a support group intervention on the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients].

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of a support group intervention on the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients. METHOD A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The subjects were 36 primary family caregivers of stroke patients [experimental(N=18) and control(N=18) groups] in a neurosurgery ward of a university hospital. The experimental group members participated in six sessions of a support group intervention for two weeks and the degree of their caregiving burden was evaluated. Data was analyzed by Chi-square tests, t-tests, and paired t-tests using SPSS 10.0. RESULT The experimental group had a significantly lower total burden score (t=2.061, p= .047)and sub-scales of emotional(t=-3.319, p= .002), time-dependent(t=-2.045, p= .049) and developmental(t=-2.656, p= .012) burden scores than the control group, while no significant differences were found in physical, social or financial burden scores between the two groups. Within the experimental group, there was a significant decrease in physical(t=2.507, p= .023), emotional(t=4.754, p= .000), social(t=2.932, p= .009), time- dependent(t=5.015, p= .000) and developmental(t=7.541, p= .000) burden scores but not the financial burden score. CONCLUSION The results suggest that a support group intervention can be utilized as an effective nursing program to reduce the burden of primary family caregivers of stroke patients.
A Strategy for Rotation of Different Bacteriophage Defenses in a Lactococcal Single-Strain Starter Culture System

A new strategy for starter culture rotations was developed for a series of phage-resistant clones genetically derived from a single strain of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis. Phage-resistant derivatives carrying different defense systems were constructed via conjugation with various plasmids encoding abortive infection (Abi/Hsp) and/or restriction and modification (R/M) systems of different specificity. The plasmids included pTR2030 (Hsp+ R+/M+), pTN20 (Abi+ R+/M+), pTRK11 (R+/M+), and pTRK68 (R+/M+). Selected phage-resistant transconjugants or transformants were evaluated in different rotation sequences through cycles of the Heap-Lawrence starter culture activity test in milk contaminated with phage and whey from the previous cycle. When used in consecutive sequence, derivative strains carrying the R/M systems encoded by pTN20, pTRK11, and pTRK68 retarded phage development when the initial levels of phage contamination were below 102 PFU/ml but not when levels were increased to 103 PFU/ml. Use of a derivative bearing pTR2030 (Hsp+ R+/M+) at the beginning of the rotation prevented phage development, even when the initial levels of phage contamination were high (106 PFU/ml). Alternating the type and specificity of R/M and Abi defenses through the rotation prevented phage proliferation and in some cases eliminated contaminating phages. A model rotation sequence for the phage defense rotation strategy was developed and performed successfully over nine cycles of the Heap-Lawrence starter culture activity test in the presence of high-titer commercial phage composites. This phage defense rotation strategy is designed to protect a highly specialized Lactococcus strain from phage attack during continuous and extended use in the dairy industry.
Development and characterization of 16 polymorphic microsatellite loci in the Tibet endemic fish Glyptosternum maculatum

Sixteen novel polymorphic microsatellite loci were developed and characterized in Glyptosternum maculatum, an endemic fish inhabiting the Yarlung Zangbo River valley, Tibet, China. These loci were developed after the enrichment of microsatellite‐containing genomic DNA fragments with a subtractive hybridization protocol. The polymorphism of these loci was analysed with 36 individuals representing a geographical population. The number of alleles found at these loci ranged from 3 to 10. The observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0 to 1 and from 0.31 to 0.75, respectively. These microsatellite loci will certainly facilitate the determination of the genetic structure of G. maculatum and the conservation of its genetic resource.
The saccus endolymphaticus in the rabbit. Further studies.

On admet generalement que le sac endolymphatique absorbe l'endolymphe et participe a la phagocytose et a la digestion des debris cellulaires produits ailleurs dans le labyrinthe. Dans certaines especes le sac serait capable d'une certaine forme de secretion comme un mucopolysaccharide sinon d'une substance dissoute hydrosoluble. La participation du sac a la regulation de la pression des liquides labyrinthiques ne peut encore etre rejetee
Hematologic toxicity in radioimmunotherapy: dose-response relationships for I-131 labeled antibody therapy.

UNLABELLED Bone marrow toxicity is generally dose-limiting for radioimmunotherapy (RIT) with beta-emitting radionuclides. Treatment may be prescribed on the basis of administered activity or absorbed dose. An optimal definition of maximum tolerated dose will enable the clinical benefits of RIT to be maximized. METHODS We examined data from six clinical studies of RIT with various 131-I labeled antibodies and antibody fragments that treated a total of 114 patients. We also examined a sub-set of 36 patients with minimal prior chemotherapy who were treated with 131I-labeled intact murine IgG at a single institution. For both these groups the ability of absorbed dose-based methods to predict bone marrow tolerance was compared with that of activity-based methods. RESULTS Marrow toxicity was more accurately predicted by absorbed dose than by activity in the general case where a variety of different antibodies and antibody fragments were used. For the more homogeneous smaller group, well defined "dose-response" relationships were observed for both absorbed dose and administered activity. However, absorbed dose-based definitions of maximally tolerated dose yielded a better stratification of patients than activity-based definitions (including per meter squared) such that fewer patients had major toxicity when treated below "tolerance", and fewer patients had minor toxicity when treated above "tolerance". CONCLUSIONS Absorbed dose-based definitions of maximum tolerated dose and escalation variables are optimal for 131I-labeled antibody therapy. The ability of pre-therapy dosimetry studies to predict the behavior of therapeutic administrations must be validated for prospective clinical applications.
2D-PAGE Database for Studies on Energetic Metabolism of the Denitrifying Bacterium Paracoccus denitrificans

The chapter describes the development of methods for the analysis of Paracoccus denitrificans proteome with major focus on web-accessible 2-D PAGE dataset of P.denitrificans proteome. The most important findings revealed by P.denitrificans proteomics research are also discussed from biological point of view.
Academic Motivation and Achievement Among Urban Adolescents

Although researchers report that motivational variables, such as interest and self-efficacy, positively relate to forms of achievement (e.g., standardized test scores, grades, number of problems solved correctly), other studies indicate that motivation's contribution to achievement is not consistent. Fewer studies, however, have examined these connections within African American samples. This 2-year, cross-sectional investigation of eighth- and ninth-grade students specifically focused on motivation and GPA in a large, urban, predominantly African American, school district in the Midwest. Regression analyses of self-report levels of three motivational variables (i.e., self-efficacy beliefs, goal orientations, and domain interest) revealed that significant gender differences existed in goal orientation and achievement scores in both grades. Furthermore, self-efficacy and learning goals contributed to domain interests but the predictive value of these three motivational variables on achievement differed at each grade level.
Weighted Bearing-Compass Dynamics: Edge and Leader Selection

This paper considers the design and effective interfaces of a distributed robotic formation running planar weighted bearing-compass dynamics. We present results that support methodologies to construct formation topologies using submodular optimization techniques. Further, a convex optimization framework is developed for the selection of edge weights which increase performance. We explore a method to select leader agents that can translate and scale the formation, and a corresponding controller that promotes the formation keeping its overall shape intact during manipulation. The results are supported with examples that illustrate the approach and their differing levels of performance.