Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protein Structure-Function Relationship at Work: Learning from Myopathy Mutations of the Slow Skeletal Muscle Isoform of Troponin T

Troponin T (TnT) is the sarcomeric thin filament anchoring subunit of the troponin complex in striated muscles. A nonsense mutation in exon 11 of the slow skeletal muscle isoform of TnT (ssTnT) gene (TNNT1) was found in the Amish populations in Pennsylvania and Ohio. This single nucleotide substitution causes a truncation of the ssTnT protein at Glu180 and the loss of the C-terminal tropomyosin (Tm)-binding site 2. As a consequence, it abolishes the myofilament integration of ssTnT and the loss of function causes an autosomal recessive nemaline myopathy (NM). More TNNT1 mutations have recently been reported in non-Amish ethnic groups with similar recessive NM phenotypes. A nonsense mutation in exon 9 truncates ssTnT at Ser108, deleting Tm-binding site 2 and a part of the middle region Tm-binding site 1. Two splicing site mutations result in truncation of ssTnT at Leu203 or deletion of the exon 14-encoded C-terminal end segment. Another splicing mutation causes an internal deletion of the 39 amino acids encoded by exon 8, partially damaging Tm-binding site 1. The three splicing mutations of TNNT1 all preserve the high affinity Tm-binding site 2 but still present recessive NM phenotypes. The molecular mechanisms for these mutations to cause myopathy provide interesting models to study and understand the structure-function relationship of TnT. This focused review summarizes the current knowledge of TnT isoform regulation, structure-function relationship of TnT and how various ssTnT mutations cause recessive NM, in order to promote in depth studies for further understanding the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of TNNT1 myopathies toward the development of effective treatments.
Self-Sensing Property of Cementitious Nanocomposites Hybrid with Nanophase Carbon Nanotube and Carbon Black

Cementitious composite filled with only 0.1 wt% multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) (MNTCC), or hybrid with 0.1 wt% MWCNT and 0.5 wt% nanophase carbon black (NCB) (NB/MNTCC), were prepared employing surfactant ultrasonic dispersion and subsequently high-speed mixing process. The electrical resistivities (ρ), compressive stresses (σ), and longitudinal strains (εl) of these cured nanocomposites under cyclic loading (10 times) were simultaneously collected, to investigate their piezoresistivty properties. Results revealed that, hybrid of NCB is very effective for enhancement on the stress/strain sensitivity of NB/MNTCC (the strain sensitivity up to 107, much higher than that of MNTCC 67), but there is almost no improvement on the self-sensing repeatability and variation stability of the corresponding nanocomposite.
Aspirin can stimulate luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence of activated platelets

A preliminary investigation was conducted into the influence of aspirin on the luminol-enhanced chemiluminiscence of platelets stimulated with platelet-activating factor (PAF). Ten coronary artery disease patients and six volunteers without coronary artery disease were included in the study. All the patients received aspirin (daily dose, 100 mg) for at least 10 days before in vitro experiments. Luminol-enhanced luminescence of platelet-rich plasma samples mixed with a PAF solution was measured. After stimulation of platelets with PAF, we did not find a luminol-enhanced chemiluminescent response either in the non-coronary artery disease volunteers or in eight out of the 10 coronary artery disease patients examined. However, in samples from two patients where platelets were stimulated with PAF reactive oxygen species were formed. This ability was expressed as an intensive luminol-enhanced luminescence of activated platelets. Such a reaction was observed against the background of the administration of aspirin. The addition of aspirin to a test tube considerably enhanced the intensity of chemiluminescence. In one case, the cancellation of aspirin was accompanied by diminution of the intensity of luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence of platelets. The clinical significance of this phenomenon is unknown.
Prognosis of Childhood Seizure Disorders: Present and Future

Summary: The prognoses for seizure disorders have been examined since the beginnings of epileptology, and only recently has the realization emerged that, ultimately, prognosis depends on causation, which, in turn, determines whether a condition is self‐limited or progressive. This factor is more important than either mode or alacrity of therapeutic intervention. The epilepsies are a series of conditions that have the final common path of either increasing cerebral irritability or synchronizing normally occurring electrical activity in such a manner that seizures result. In turn, some seizure disorders are characterized by secondary changes in neuronal synaptogenesis, leading to the development of circuits of predilection, which then render the process autonomous. Epilepto‐genesis has then become epilepsy, which is the norm in acquired rather than genetic epileptogenesis. An understanding of the basic differences between the primary (idiopathic) epilepsies and the secondary (acquired or symptomatic) epilepsies is basic to a discussion concerning prognosis and to the development of a definitive individualized treatment plan. An elucidation of the genetic factors in idiopathic epilepsy and their neurochemical consequences represents a major frontier in epileptology.
The alveolar macrophage.

The pulmonary macrophagic system is critical to the defense of the lung, keeping the alveoli clean and sterile and responding on demand with an adaptive outpouring of new cells into the air sacs. Under basal conditions alveolar macrophages, in common with other mononuclear phagocytes, are derived from the bone marrow. A population of macrophage precursors within the pulmonary interstitium provides a reserve pool capable of proliferation and delivery of phagocytes in response to unusually heavy loads of inhaled particles. This reserve system also produces macrophages when monocytic precursors in the bone marrow are depleted by diseases such as leukemia. The alveolar macrophage is destined to ingest particulate matter and to be eliminated along the mucociliary pathway; clearance by lymphatics is of minor importance and macrophages probably do not recross the alveolar epithelium to reach the pulmonary interstitial compartment. Although the protective role of the macrophage is dominant, this cell may participate, directly or indirectly, in the genesis of two major groups of chronic pulmonary disease, interstitial fibrosis and emphysema. Such inappropriate responses involve interactions with fibroblastic cells and tissue injury initiated by proteases secreted by the macrophage. ImagesFIGURE 3.FIGURE 4.FIGURE 6. AFIGURE 6. BFIGURE 7.FIGURE 8.FIGURE 12.FIGURE 13. AFIGURE 13. BFIGURE 14.FIGURE 15.FIGURE 16.FIGURE 17.FIGURE 18.FIGURE 19.FIGURE 20.
Immunologic characteristics of a Streptococcus mutans glucosyltransferase B sucrose-binding site peptide-cholera toxin B-subunit chimeric protein

Glucosyltranferases (Gtfs) produced by the mutans streptococci are recognized as virulence factors in dental caries, and the inhibition of Gtfs by secretory immunoglobulin A is predicted to provide protection against this disease. The basis of such mucosal immunity is linked to the ability to reliably stimulate production of secretory immunoglobulin A against Gtfs. In this regard, we are exploring the immunogenicities of various Gtf peptides genetically fused to the B subunit of cholera toxin (CTB), a known mucosal adjuvant. In this work, we have created a gene fusion linking the GtfB active-site (AS) peptide DANFDSIRVDAVDNVDADLLQIA to the amino terminus of CTB. This sequence, deduced from the nucleotide sequence of gtfB from Streptococcus mutans GS5, has been found to be strongly conserved in Gtfs from several mutans streptococci. We have purified this recombinant protein (AS:CTB) from Escherichia coli carrying the fusion gene under the control of the lactose operon promoter. This protein was immunogenic in rabbits and produced specific serum antibodies against both the Gtf peptide and the CTB moiety. The antiserum was tested for its ability to inhibit GtfB activity obtained from a mutant of S. mutans able to make only this enzyme and none of the other usual Gtfs or fructosyltransferase. Approximately 50% of the GtfB activity was inhibited in such assays. These results suggest that the AS of this enzyme is accessible to antibody binding and that this region of the protein may be considered a vulnerable target for vaccine design and development. The AS:CTB was able to bind GM1, ganglioside in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, indicating that the recombinant protein retained this property, which is though to be critical to the mucosal immunoadjuvant properties of CTB. Thus, this protein may be promising as a candidate anticaries vaccinogen alone or in combination with other Gtf peptides or conjugates.
Infrared transmission characteristic of indium-tin-oxide thin films prepared by femtosecond pulsed laser deposition

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were deposited on sapphire substrates at temperatures ranging from 30°C to 700°C and oxygen background pressure changing from 0.05 Pa to 0.25 Pa by femtosecond pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The films were characterized using metallurgical microscope, film resistance meter and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer to study the effect of substrate temperature and oxygen background pressure on the surface topography, sheet resistance and infrared transmission. The photographs of metallurgical microscope show that substrate temperature plays a dominant role on the surface morphology of the films. The sheet resistance test suggests that the sheet resistance of the film decreases with increase of substrate temperature but increases with increase of oxygen background pressure. The results of infrared transmission show that the infrared transmission through the ITO film is about 40% at the wavelength of 1. 5μm to 1. 8μm and is very low at other infrared band. The films deposited at higher substrate temperatures show lower value of transmittance, and which at higher oxygen background pressure show higher value of transmittance.
Age- and Diabetes-related Changes in Tissue Glucose Uptake and Estradiol Accumulation in the C57BL/KsJ Mouse

The effect of the diabetes (db/db) mutation on the agerelated changes in glucose uptake and estradiol incorporation in peripheral tissues were investigated in C57BL/KsJ mice between 2 and 16 wk of age. Glucose uptake in the uterus, ovaries, pancreas, lung, liver, heart, kidney, and spleen were markedly increased in diabetic mice after the development of the hyperglycemic condition, as compared with control mice. The age-related increase in glucose uptake observed in control mice was enhanced in hyperglycemic (i.e., ≥4 wk of age) animals. In contrast, the diabetes mutation caused a decreased estradiol uptake by the uteri, ovaries, and mesometrial fat pads at 16 wk, while having little effect in nontarget tissues of diabetic mutants. These data indicate that the diabetes mutation enhances glucose uptake, especially in estradiol target tissues (i.e., uterus, ovary), at the same time that estradiol incorporation is depressed. These results suggest that an alteration in glucose utilization by steroid-sensitive reproductive tract tissue may underlie the impaired reproductive ability in these animals. Other peripheral tissues did not demonstrate any remarkable changes in estradiol uptake, but the enhanced carbohydrate metabolism observed may relate to the subsequent age- and diabetes-related changes in tissue structure and function in these animals.
Mining Multiple-Level Association Rules in Large Databases

A top-down progressive deepening method is developed for efficient mining of multiple-level association rules from large transaction databases based on the a priori principle. A group of variant algorithms is proposed based on the ways of sharing intermediate results, with the relative performance tested and analyzed. The enforcement of different interestingness measurements to find more interesting rules, and the relaxation of rule conditions for finding "level-crossing" association rules, are also investigated. The study shows that efficient algorithms can be developed from large databases for the discovery of interesting and strong multiple-level association rules.
The Study about Microstructure Characterization of AlCoCrTiNiCu_x High Entropy Alloy System with Multi-Principal Element

The microstructure and phase structure of AlCoCrTiNiCu_x which are made of six class transition metal elements have been studied in this paper. The results indicated that the change process of microcosmic crystal-structure of the five group high entropy alloy of AlCoCrTiNiCu_x system is transformed from FCC（mainly）+ BCC crystal structure (X=0.5、X=0.8) to FCC+BCC+ primary lattice crystal structure (X=1.0、X=1.2), finally, the crystal-structure turn into BCC+ primary lattice crystal structure as the content of Cu further increasing.
A theory of the electrical properties of liquid metals

Abstract The simple theory of resistivity originally applied to pure liquid metals (Ziman 1961, Bradley et al. 1962) is formally extended to liquid alloys. In dilute solutions, size difference between solute and solvent ions can be allowed for, approximately, by a modification of the pseudo-potential of the solute, in a manner reminiscent of the modification of solute valency suggested by Harrison and Blatt (1957) in dealing with the resistance of solid alloys. The theory explains qualitatively a number of interesting features of the behaviour of liquid binary alloys, e.g. the failure of liquid solutions in polyvalent metals to obey the familiar rules of Nordheim and Linde. Some speculations on the anomalous behaviour of mercury amalgams are included. A bibliography of experimental results for both resistivity and density in liquid alloys is collected in Appendix II.
Comparison of blastocyst transfer with or without preimplantation genetic diagnosis for aneuploidy screening in couples with advanced maternal age: a prospective randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND It is generally accepted that the age-related increased aneuploidy rate is correlated with reduced implantation and a higher abortion rate. Therefore, advanced maternal age (AMA) couples are a good target group to assess the possible benefit of preimplantation genetic diagnosis for aneuploidy screening (PGD-AS) on the outcome after assisted reproductive technology (ART). METHODS A prospective randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) was carried out comparing the outcome after blastocyst transfer combined with PGD-AS using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the chromosomes X, Y, 13, 16, 18, 21 and 22 in AMA couples (aged > or =37 years) with a control group without PGD-AS. From the 400 (200 for PGD-AS and 200 controls) couples that were allocated to the trial, an oocyte pick-up was performed effectively in 289 cycles (148 PGD-AS cycles and 141 control cycles). RESULTS Positive serum HCG rates per transfer and per cycle were the same for PGD-AS and controls: 35.8% (19.6%) [%/per embryo transfer (per cycle)] and 32.2% (27.7%), respectively (NS). Significantly fewer embryos were transferred in the PGD-AS group than in the control group (P<0.001). The implantation rate (with fetal heart beat) was 17.1% in the PGD-AS group versus 11.5% in the control group (not significant; P=0.09). We observed a normal diploid status in 36.8% of the embryos. CONCLUSIONS This RCT provides no arguments in favour of PGD-AS for improving clinical outcome per initiated cycle in patients with AMA when there are no restrictions in the number of embryos to be transferred.
Bayesian Factor Analysis via Concentration

: We consider factor analysis when we assume the distribution form is known up to its mean and variance. A prior is placed on the mean and variance and then inference is made as to whether or not any latent factors exist. Inference is carried out by comparing the concentrations of the prior and posterior about various subsets of the parameter space that are speciﬁed by hypothesizing factor structures. An importance sampling algorithm is developed to handle the case where the prior on the correlation matrix is uniform, independent of the prior on the location and scale parameters.
Using a Mix of Languages in Formal Methods: The PET System

The PET project is a formal methods tool for determining necessary conditions for the execution of a path through a concurrent program. The user selects a path by selecting nodes in flow graphs displayed by the graphical user interface. The condition necessary for that path to be executable is then calculated and displayed for the user. This project mixes a graphical user interface with a back-end for the symbolic computation of the path conditions. The graphical user interface is written in TCL/TK and the back-end is written in SML. TCL/TK is a language specifically designed for the rapid construction of graphical user interfaces. SML is higher-order applicative programming language that is very well suited to symbolic computation. Interprocess communication is handled through pipelining strings. Both TCL/TK and SML are fairly good at string manipulation, so the overhead is tolerable. The ease and efficiency of writing each part in a language best suited for each task more than compensates for this additional overhead.
The BerbaTek project for Basque: Promoting a less-resourced language via language technology for translation, content management and learning

The Basque language is both a minority language (only a small proportion of the population of the Basque Country speaks it) and also a less-resourced language (being spoken only in a small region by few speakers). Fortunately, the Basque regional government is committed to its recovery, and has adopted policies for funding, among other things, language technologies, a field which a language aiming to survive cannot leave dispense with. BerbaTek is a 3-year (2009-2011) strategic research project on language, speech and multimedia technologies for Basque carried out by a consortium of 5 members, all prominent local organizations dedicated to research in the above-mentioned areas, and partially funded by the Departments for Industry and Culture of the Basque Government. The collaboration on BerbaTek has allowed not only a great amount of basic research to be done, but also a more applied research to be carried out and various prototypes to be developed to show the potential of integrating these technologies for the language industry sector, that is, companies working in the fields of translation, content management and learning.
Study of Formation Mechanism and Blocking in Giant Debris Flow at Hongchun Gully Yingxiu Town Wenchuan County

From Aug. 12th to 14th 2009, the catastrophic giant debris flow occurred in Hongchun gully Yingxiu town Wenchuan County, Du-Wen higyway in the period of heavy storm. It has cut off the Du-wen highway traffic totally and weir of Ming River became the damming body, which diverted the river plug body and rushed into Yingxiu doxens of new houses. The overflow river isolated Yingxiu towm serious and threat the post-disaster reconstruction triumph.It have important significance that to study the basic features，the deformation and failure mechanism ，the types and countermeasures to prevent and control the scale, the prevention and cure of high seismic intensity of debris flow in Hongchun gully. Base on the researches of geo-hazards background, conditions and basic features with the example of Hongchun gully debris flow, the author Analyzed the formation mechanism of debris flow and specific reason of blocking river and breaking highway, forecasted that causes of development of debris flow, also analyzed the stability of material sources in Hongchun gully’s debris flow. Then the author put forward that the formation of debris flow in Hongchun gully and blocking of Minjiang River are related closely to rich loose material sources induced by Wenchuan earthquake, the heavy rainfall, and its unique landform. Researches show that the giant debris flow in Hongchun gully started from Ganxipu lateral ditch in the upstream, the materials collected and dam-broke, It collected the material sources of the main ditch, crushed into Minjiang River, joined with the material sources of Shaofan gully debris flow in the river-upstream, blocked river and became dam lake. In a word,it is necessary to strengthen the control of the debris flow because that it is very rich material sources in Hongchun gully, and prevent hazard of the debris flow burst again.
Laser assisted patterning of hydrogenated amorphous silicon for interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction solar cell

This work reports on the elaboration of a new industrial process based on laser selective ablation of dielectric layers for Interdigitated Back Contact Silicon Heterojunction (IBC Si-HJ) solar cells fabrication. Choice of the process is discussed and cells are processed to validate its performance. A pulsed green laser (515nm) with 10-20ns pulse duration is used for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers patterning steps, whereas metallization is made by screen printed. High Open-Circuit Voltage (Voc=699mV) and Fill Factor (FF=78.5%) values are obtained simultaneously on IBC Si-HJ cells, indicating a high surface passivation level and reduced resistive losses. An efficiency of 19% on non textured 26 cm² solar cells has been reached with this new industrial process.
Administration of E2 and NS1 siRNAs Inhibit Chikungunya Virus Replication In Vitro and Protects Mice Infected with the Virus

Background Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) has reemerged as a life threatening pathogen and caused large epidemics in several countries. So far, no licensed vaccine or effective antivirals are available and the treatment remains symptomatic. In this context, development of effective and safe prophylactics and therapeutics assumes priority. Methods We evaluated the efficacy of the siRNAs against ns1 and E2 genes of CHIKV both in vitro and in vivo. Four siRNAs each, targeting the E2 (Chik-1 to Chik-4) and ns1 (Chik-5 to Chik-8) genes were designed and evaluated for efficiency in inhibiting CHIKV growth in vitro and in vivo. Chik-1 and Chik-5 siRNAs were effective in controlling CHIKV replication in vitro as assessed by real time PCR, IFA and plaque assay. Conclusions CHIKV replication was completely inhibited in the virus-infected mice when administered 72 hours post infection. The combination of Chik-1 and Chik-5 siRNAs exhibited additive effect leading to early and complete inhibition of virus replication. These findings suggest that RNAi capable of inhibiting CHIKV growth might constitute a new therapeutic strategy for controlling CHIKV infection and transmission.