Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mammary gland factor activated by prolactin on mammary epithelial cells and acute-phase response factor activated by interleukin-6 in liver cells share DNA binding and transactivation potential.

We have studied transcription factors that are coupled to the activation of cytokine receptors in liver and in mammary epithelial cells. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) causes the rapid activation of the acute-phase response factor (APRF) in the liver of animals during acute inflammation and in cultured human hepatoma cells (HepG2) and induces the transcription of the acute-phase protein genes, e.g. alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2-M). In the mammary gland and in cultured HC11 mammary epithelial cells, milk protein genes, e.g. beta-casein, are induced by the lactogenic hormones, insulin, glucocorticoids, and PRL. The induction of the beta-casein gene promoter is preceded by the activation of the mammary gland factor (MGF). We have compared the DNA binding sequences of APRF and MGF, 5'-CTTCTT/GGGAATT-3', and have found that they coincide in 11 of 12 positions. Bandshift experiments and oligonucleotide competition experiments showed that both factors, MGF and APRF, are able to bind to the IL-6 response element of the alpha 2-M gene promoter and to the lactogenic hormone response element of the beta-casein gene promoter with very similar specificities. Partial proteolytic digestion of APRF and MGF DNA complexes yielded similar clipping patterns. The UV cross-linked DNA complexes of both transcription factors were of the same apparent molecular mass. IL-6 activation of APRF in HepG2 cells can be observed within minutes. MGF induction by PRL in HC11 cells occurs with similar kinetics. The synergistic action of glucocorticoids and PRL is necessary for the induction of the beta-casein gene, but PRL is sufficient for MGF activation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Behavioral Neuroscience

How can flexible phasing be generated in a CPG? We used a model of a core part of the leech heartbeat CPG that we constructed by extending an existing model CPG's timing network (Hill et al., 2002; Jezzini et al., 2004). In the heartbeat CPG, premotor interneu-rons are coordinated differently on the two sides in distinct peri-staltic and synchronous coordination modes. Phase and duty cycle of the activity of all the interneurons of the modeled CPG core have been rigorously quantified and animal-to-animal variability determined (Norris et al., 2006). Moreover, synaptic interactions in the CPG timing network have been extensively characterized (see Kristan et al., 2005 for a review). Thus we are in a strong position to constrain both the parameters and the output of our CPG model and to explore how parameters and output are related. The heartbeat central pattern generator (CPG) of medicinal leeches has been studied intensively for over two decades (for a recent review see Kristan et al., 2005) and has been characterized and modeled extensively. Medicinal leeches have two tubular hearts that run the length of the body and move blood through the closed circulatory system (Thompson and Stent, 1976; Krahl and Zerbst-Boroffka, 1983; Wenning et al., 2004a). The beating pattern (beat period 4–10 s) is asymmetric with one heart generating high systo-lic pressure through a front-directed peristaltic wave (peristaltic coordination mode) along its length, and the other generating low systolic pressure through near synchronous constriction (synchronous coordination mode) along its length. The fictive motor pattern
Blessing or curse? Proteomics in granzyme research

Granzymes (gzms) are a group of serine proteases that play an important role in innate and adaptive immunity, blood coagulation, apoptosis, and inflammation, but are also connected to atherosclerosis, diabetes, cardiovascular and inflammatory lung diseases, cancer, and sepsis. Humans have five gzms (gzms A, B, H, K, and M), which differ in their substrate specificity. It is widely accepted that they are delivered from cytotoxic lymphocytes via perforin into the cytoplasm of target cells where they initiate cell death, modulate cytokine signaling, or inactivate pathogen proteins. However, more recent evidence indicates gzms also act extracellularly in noncytotoxic processes. Proteomic approaches are directed at mapping gzm cleavage specificity, identifying substrates, and unraveling the (patho‐) physiological role of these proteases. These studies have refined our understanding of gzm species specificity, and collectively uncovered an enormous number of new substrates. However, with the exception of a very few human gzmB substrates supported by independent data (Bid, DNA‐PK, PARP, ICAD, and procaspase 7), it is presently unclear which are physiologically relevant. This review aims to summarize and analyze the different proteomic approaches used and discuss both their convincing and controversial outcomes.
Cerebral Gluconeogenesis and Diseases

The gluconeogenesis pathway, which has been known to normally present in the liver, kidney, intestine, or muscle, has four irreversible steps catalyzed by the enzymes: pyruvate carboxylase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase, and glucose 6-phosphatase. Studies have also demonstrated evidence that gluconeogenesis exists in brain astrocytes but no convincing data have yet been found in neurons. Astrocytes exhibit significant 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase-3 activity, a key mechanism for regulating glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. Astrocytes are unique in that they use glycolysis to produce lactate, which is then shuttled into neurons and used as gluconeogenic precursors for reduction. This gluconeogenesis pathway found in astrocytes is becoming more recognized as an important alternative glucose source for neurons, specifically in ischemic stroke and brain tumor. Further studies are needed to discover how the gluconeogenesis pathway is controlled in the brain, which may lead to the development of therapeutic targets to control energy levels and cellular survival in ischemic stroke patients, or inhibit gluconeogenesis in brain tumors to promote malignant cell death and tumor regression. While there are extensive studies on the mechanisms of cerebral glycolysis in ischemic stroke and brain tumors, studies on cerebral gluconeogenesis are limited. Here, we review studies done to date regarding gluconeogenesis to evaluate whether this metabolic pathway is beneficial or detrimental to the brain under these pathological conditions.
Engaging with Voices: Rethinking the Clinical Treatment of Psychosis

Although the hearing voices movement (HVM) has yet to take root in the US to the extent it has in the UK (and parts of Australia and Europe), recent publications and events, including a keynote presentation by UK hearing voices trainer Ron Coleman at the 2012 Annual NAMI convention and a TED 2013 talk in Los Angeles by British voice hearer and psychologist Eleanor Longden, suggest that the tide is starting to turn (Arenella, 2012; Grantham, 2012; Thomas, 2012). At its core, the HVM emphasizes a few basic, but important, points: that antipsychotic pharmacotherapy and various forms of psychotherapy that aim to suppress psychotic experiences are often—for too many people—ineffective or insufficient; that voices and other extreme experiences and beliefs carry important messages that need to be explored rather than silenced, and that voices themselves are often less of the problem than the difficulties individuals have in coping and negotiating with them (Corstens, Escher, & Romme, 2008; Longden, Corstens, Escher, & Romme, 2012; Place, Foxcroft, & Shaw, 2011).
Differential Impact of a Crew Resource Management Program According to Professional Specialty

Adverse events occur in 3% to 16% of hospital patients, half of these during surgery and related to human error. The authors’ objective was to determine the impact of a crew resource management program in collaboration with Swiss International Airlines. Participants included operating room personnel: surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and technicians. Outcome measures were a 10-item questionnaire evaluating participants’ satisfaction and a 32-item survey to analyze participants’ learning. Nine seminars included 99 participants: 22% surgeons, 19% anesthesiologists, 29% nurses, and 30% nurse’s aides/technicians. Satisfaction was very high for course organization (91%), group dynamics (74%), and teaching methods (68%). Significant improvements in learning were observed after the course in 17 out of 32 questions. Surgeons demonstrated the greatest improvement in knowledge (P = .018), specifically teamwork and safety-related issues. Less improvement was seen for all specialties in stress recognition areas. Crew resource management is valuable in improving operating room staff knowledge regarding teamwork, safety climate, and stress recognition. However, program impact varies with participant specialty.
Automated Network Load Balancing and Capacity Enhancing Mechanism in Future Network

The available 5G network is going to have various industrial applications. Mobile communication operators will be able more effectively to utilize their spectral assets, provide higher-speed data communication services, and increase network capacity. Traditional network parameters are manually set or adjusted by the network management system, so substantial room exists for improvement in operational speed. Self-organizing networks (SON) provide an automated means of simplifying operational tasks and improving operational efficiency. In future 5G networks, especially, in congested urban areas, difficulties of network management and load balancing will arise. The proposed novel SON management mechanism influences the overall network behavior by arranging the SON function parameters and adjusting the configuration of devices, user-equipment, and small cells. Simulation results indicate that implementing the proposed mechanism increases the throughput by an average of 4% and a maximum of 4.5%.
PSPACE has constant-round quantum interactive proof systems

We introduce quantum interactive proof systems, which are interactive proof systems in which the prover and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. It is proved that every language in PSPACE has a quantum interactive proof system that requires a total of only three messages to be sent between the prover and verifier and has exponentially small (one-sided) probability of error. It follows that quantum interactive proof systems are strictly more powerful than classical interactive proof systems in the constant-round case unless the polynomial time hierarchy collapses to the second level.
Relationship between blood peroxidases activity and visfatin levels in metabolic syndrome patients

BACKGROUND The observed relationships between visfatin, peroxidases activity, and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are inconsistent; therefore, this study was undertaken to understand these relationships. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted as a part of the Isfahan Healthy Heart Program, Iran. A blood sample of 90 MetS and non-MetS patients were used to estimate total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TGs), fasting blood glucose (FBG), waist circumference (WC), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), visfatin and peroxidases activity. Data analysis for MetS group was carried out in two ways. (1) MetS with three components and with > 3 components. (2) MetS with hyperglycemia and without hyperglycemia. RESULTS SBP, DBP, WC, FBG, TC, TG, LDL-C, and were higher and HDL-C levels was lower in MetS patients. There was a significant correlation between visfatin levels and peroxidases activity in MetS patients with three components. Levels of visfatin were significantly higher in male as compared to female subjects in the MetS with three components group. There was a significant decrease in peroxidases activity in > 45 years old subjects in the MetS with > 3 components group. A significant correlation was observed between serum visfatin levels and FBG in the MetS without hyperglycemia group. CONCLUSION Peroxidases activities in MetS patients can be related to visfatin levels. Gender influences on peroxidases activity probably and was lower in female patients with MetS. Hyperglycemia does not influence peroxidases activities and visfatin levels.
Metabolism, Excretion, and Pharmacokinetics of [14C]Tigecycline, a First-In-Class Glycylcycline Antibiotic, after Intravenous Infusion to Healthy Male Subjects

Tigecycline, a novel, first-in-class glycylcycline antibiotic, has been approved for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections and complicated skin and skin structure infections. The pharmacokinetics, metabolism, and excretion of [14C]tigecycline were examined in healthy male volunteers. Tigecycline has been shown to bind to bone; thus, to minimize the amount of radioactivity binding to bone and to maximize the recovery of radioactivity, tigecycline was administered intravenously (30-min infusion) as a single 100-mg dose, followed by six 50-mg doses, every 12 h, with the last dose being [14C]tigecycline (50 μCi). After the final dose, the pharmacokinetics of tigecycline in serum showed a long half-life (55.8 h) and a large volume of distribution (21.0 l/kg), whereas radioactivity in serum had a shorter half-life (6.9 h) and a smaller volume of distribution (3.3 l/kg). The major route of elimination was feces, containing 59% of the radioactive dose, whereas urine contained 32%. Unchanged tigecycline was the predominant drug-related compound in serum, urine, and feces. The major metabolic pathways identified were glucuronidation of tigecycline and amide hydrolysis followed by N-acetylation to form N-acetyl-9-aminominocycline. The glucuronide metabolites accounted for 5 to 20% of serum radioactivity, and approximately 9% of the dose was excreted as glucuronide conjugates within 48 h. Concentrations of N-acetyl-9-aminominocycline were approximately 6.5% and 11% of the tigecycline concentrations in serum and urine, respectively. Excretion of unchanged tigecycline into feces was the primary route of elimination, and the secondary elimination pathways were renal excretion of unchanged drug and metabolism to glucuronide conjugates and N-acetyl-9-aminominocycline.
Simulation model of converging-diverging (CD) nozzle to improve particle delivery system of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

Gene gun is a mechanical device which has been used to deliver DNA vaccine into the cells and tissues by increasing the uptake of DNA plasmid so it can generate a high immune response with less amount of DNA. Nozzle is an important part of the gene gun which used to accelerate DNA in particle form with a gas flow to reach adequate momentum to enter the epidermis of human skin and elicit immune response. We developed new designs of nozzle for gene gun to make DNA uptake more efficient in vaccination. We used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) by Autodesk® Simulation 2015 to simulate static fluid pressure and velocity contour of supersonic wave and parametric distance to predict the accuracy of the new nozzle. The result showed that the nozzle could create a shockwave at the distance parametric to the object from 4 to 5 cm using fluid pressure varied between 0.8–1.2 MPa. This is indication a possibility that the DNA particle could penetrate under the mammalian skin. For the future research step, this new nozzle model could be considered for development the main component of the DNA delivery system in vaccination in vivoGene gun is a mechanical device which has been used to deliver DNA vaccine into the cells and tissues by increasing the uptake of DNA plasmid so it can generate a high immune response with less amount of DNA. Nozzle is an important part of the gene gun which used to accelerate DNA in particle form with a gas flow to reach adequate momentum to enter the epidermis of human skin and elicit immune response. We developed new designs of nozzle for gene gun to make DNA uptake more efficient in vaccination. We used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) by Autodesk® Simulation 2015 to simulate static fluid pressure and velocity contour of supersonic wave and parametric distance to predict the accuracy of the new nozzle. The result showed that the nozzle could create a shockwave at the distance parametric to the object from 4 to 5 cm using fluid pressure varied between 0.8–1.2 MPa. This is indication a possibility that the DNA particle could penetrate under the mammalian skin. For the future research step, this new no.
Similarity measures for intersection of camera view frustums

For a moving camera recognizing that it has seen a place before now, is one the most important issues in the 3D reconstruction problems. In these problems, the main goal is to create a three-dimensional model from a sequence of 2D captured images during different times. That part of the scene which is rendered by a camera is often modeled by a frustum. Calculating the amount of intersection of two camera view frustums at different times can help to solve this problem. However, there are two major difficulties. First, calculating the intersection of two frustums, in general, is so complicated. And second, there are some uncertainties in the moving camera parameters over time. In this paper, we addressed these issues by estimating a camera view frustum with its circumscribed sphere and introducing some similarity measures based on this estimation.
The optical properties of bismuth nanowires

The optical absorption of bismuth nanowires in the energy (wavenumber) range of 600 4000cm-1 is studied. Optical reflection and transmission spectra reveal that bismuth nanowires have a large and intense absorption peak as well as several smaller absorption peaks which are not measured in bulk bismuth. The smaller absorption peaks fit reasonably well to theoretical models for intersubband absorption in bismuth nanowires. The wire diameter, polarization, and doping dependencies as well as the spectral shape of the dominant peak agree with simulations of the optical absorption resulting from an L-point valence to T-point valence band electronic transition. The large absorption peak is present even for nanowires too large to exhibit quantum confinement, thus showing that the absorption results from a surface-induced effect and not from quantum confinement. The enhanced optical absorption in nanowires over bulk bismuth is attributed to a surface term in the matrix element which results from the spacial gradient of the dielectric function and the large dielectric mismatch between bismuth and the surrounding alumina or air. A comparison of the measured spectra with simulations of optical absorption resulting from direct L-point electronic transitions demonstrated that this absorption mechanism is not dominant in our materials. In order to explore the optical properties of bismuth nanowires, two methods were developed. First, effective medium theory applied in reverse was used to deduce the dielectric function of materials smaller than the wavelength of light. Second, a technique to fabricate nanowires with diameters above 200nm was transfered into our laboratory. The enhanced coupling between the L-T point valence bands in nanowires may lead to a very accurate measurement of the band gap and band overlap in bismuth as a function of doping and temperature. In addition, the discovery of the enhanced interband coupling resulting from the surface contribution to the matrix element has many implications, especially if this result is applicable to other systems. Thesis Supervisor: Mildred S. Dresselhaus Title: Institute Professor
Topic : The Role of Inflammation in Cerebral Aneurysm

Multiple inflammatory factors, playing a crucial role in cerebral aneurysm formation, have been identified. Tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) has been revealed to have a close connection with several risk factors that affect aneurysm formation. Remarkable expression in aneurysm walls of mRNA for TNF‐α has been observed in humans. Possible therapeutic interventions to reduce the formation of cerebral aneurysms may include the inhibition of mediators of inflammation.
Amplification by Read-Once Formulas

Moore and Shannon have shown that relays with arbitrarily high reliability can be built from relays with arbitrarily poor reliability. Valiant used similar methods to construct monotone read-once formulas of size $O(n^{\alpha+2})$ (where $\alpha=\log_{\sqrt{5}-1}2\simeq 3.27$) that amplify $(\psi-\frac{1}{n},\psi+\frac{1}{n})$ (where $\psi=(\sqrt{5}-1)/2\simeq0.62$) to $(2^{-n},1-2^{-n})$ and deduced as a consequence the existence of monotone formulas of the same size that compute the majority of $n$ bits. Boppana has shown that any monotone read-once formula that amplifies $(p-\frac{1}{n},p+\frac{1}{n})$ to $(\frac{1}{4},\frac{3}{4})$ (where $0We extend Boppana's results in two ways. We first show that his two lower bounds hold for general read-once formulas, not necessarily monotone, that may even include exclusive-or gates. We are then able to join his two lower bounds together and show that any read-once, not necessarily monotone, formula that amplifies $(p-\frac{1}{n},p+\frac{1}{n})$ to $(2^{-n},1-2^{-n})$ has size $\Omega(n^{\alpha+2})$. This result does not follow from Boppana's arguments, and it shows that the amount of amplification achieved by Valiant is the maximal achievable using read-once formulas. In a companion paper we construct monotone read-once contact networks of size $O(n^{2.99})$ that amplify $(\frac{1}{2}-\frac{1}{n},\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{n})$ to $(\frac{1}{4},\frac{3}{4})$. This shows that Boppana's lower bound for the first amplification stage does not apply to contact networks, even if they are required to be both monotone and read-once.