Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dialysis of lactotropes with antisense oligonucleotides assigns guanine nucleotide binding protein subtypes to their channel effectors.

This article describes a new approach for determining the role of endogenous guanine nucleotide binding (G) protein subunits in signal transduction. Sequential patch-clamping was applied to BSA gradient-enriched cultured lactotropes from lactating rats, first to dialyze antisense oligodeoxyribonucleotides (AS) directed against G alpha protein mRNAs and 48 h later to record ion-current responses to the PRL release inhibitor, dopamine. The effectiveness and specificity of action of six types of AS were determined by their effects on the in vitro translation of alpha o, alpha i1, alpha i2, alpha i3, and alpha s. The specificity of AS could be enhanced by replacing guanine by cytosine bases within the center core of AS and by maximizing the number of mismatches against nontargeted mRNAs within the extremities of AS. A total of 59 out of 240 cells could be investigated using the sequential patch clamp procedure in the absence of antibiotics. The typical decrease of the voltage-activated calcium current in response to 10 nM dopamine was diminished or abolished by AS, in correlation with the inhibition of in vitro translation of the alpha o subunit. The typical increase of the voltage-activated potassium current in response to dopamine was abolished by AS directed against alpha i3 but not alpha o mRNA. Control experiments showed that culture conditions or loss of receptor affinity for dopamine were not responsible for the loss of response. The results suggest that dopamine D2 receptors are linked via alpha o to calcium channels and via alpha i3 to potassium channels. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Contributions of cognitive neuropsychology and neuropsychological assessment to human cognitive processing comprehension

Cognitive neuropsychology focuses on information pr ocessing, different mental operations that are necessary to execute tasks. It assumes that study of brain-injured patients and their performance patterns can contrib ute to comprehend how the mind works. Such knowledge helps practitioners to compre hend their patients limitations and to delineate more effective remediation procedures. Psychological assessment based on cognitive neuropsychology aims to explain the proce sses underlying human complex mental activities, and to correlate such processes to neurological functioning. In Brazil, different neuropsychology tests have been developed to assess attention, visuo-spatial processing, oral language, written language, execut ive functions and arithmetic abilities. Many of these tests are computerized, recording tem poral parameters, such as reaction time and response duration. Some of them can be app lied virtually using the Internet, which allows studying large samples of participants scattered over vast territories. In the present, precision and validity studies are bei ng conducted with a number of batteries applied to children and adults, with and without neuropsychiatric disorders, such as dyslexia, hyperactivity/attention deficit d isorder, and anxiety disorders. Such tests have contributed to expand neuropsychological assessment in Brazil, aiding the comprehension of cognitive processes and their neur ological bases, the improvement of evaluating processes, and the rehabilitation of pat ients with neurological disorders, in a more effective way.
Making heritage of modernity: provoking Atlantis as a catalyst for change

At first glance, the terms heritage and climate change appear to travel in opposite directions. Heritage is concerned with conserving the past, while climate change is about conserving the future. This paper tackles this temporal cross-roads by examining a tourist attraction that transforms modern, consumer culture into heritage in the form of a fast-tracked lost civilisation beneath the sea. Museo Subaquatico De Arte is a sunken sculpture museum in the Caribbean Sea that inaugurates a unique way of restoring the distressed habitats of the Meso-American Reef System, while offering a sobering glimpse into a world that asks tourists to consider ‘what have we done? ’ Visitors are invited to examine their own way of life as both precarious and implicated in climate changed futures by confronting them with an Atlantis-like eeriness that both reflects and portends the closure of the tumultuous Anthropocene. The experience promotes the immediacy of the present by concretising life-sized caricatures of consumer culture beneath the sea, bequeathing these to an aquatic environment that soon transforms them into a state of decaying modernity. This promotes a theatre for radical change as these caricatures, and by extension we, are overtaken by this environment and destined to a diminutive state.
Extent of Idealism and Relativism in Earnings Management Behaviour

The new millennium saw the uncharacteristic demise of several giant corporations, most notably Enron and WorldCom in the United States and Megan Media and Transmile in Malaysia. In the midst of the mayhem, the accounting profession bore the brunt of the blame since the main contributing factor to this debacle was dubious earnings management activities. Several studies have proven that ethical ideology is one of the important factors to determine if an individual possess a tendency to be involved in unethical behaviour viz. earnings management. This research examined the influence of ethical ideology on earnings management behaviour using a self administered questionnaire survey on accounting practitioners and students. Results revealed there is no significant difference in ethical ideology between the accounting practitioners and students. A binary logistic regression analysis indicates that there is a significant positive relationship between relativism and earnings management behaviour and a significant negative relationship between idealism and earnings management behaviour. This showed that idealism and relativism were significant predictors of earnings management behaviour. In conclusion, this study implied that ethical ideology able to influence the earnings management behaviour of the respondents
An Fgf 8 mouse mutant phenocopies human 22 q 11 deletion syndrome

Pharyngeal arches are transient bulges of tissue in the neck of vertebrate embryos consisting of mesenchyme separated by membranous clefts in which the surface ectoderm directly apposes evaginations of the pharyngeal endoderm (the pharyngeal pouches). Pharyngeal arch mesenchyme is derived from neural crest cells and paraxial mesoderm. Neural crestderived mesenchyme gives rise to the skeletal structures and to pericytes and smooth muscle cells of the arch arteries (Birgbauer et al., 1995; Etchevers et al., 1999). Some neural crest mesenchyme populates the arches only transiently, en route to final destinations in the outflow tract and heart (Epstein et al., 2000; Jiang et al., 2000). The mesoderm-derived mesenchyme contributes muscular and endothelial precursors to each arch. A vessel forms within each arch and circulates blood from the heart to the bilateral dorsal aortae. This pharyngeal arch arterial system is a transient, initially symmetrical array of vessels; the most rostral vessels in the first and second arches largely regress while the caudal pharyngeal arch arteries (PAAs) are extensively remodeled into dult vascular structures, including the subclavian arteries and 4591 Development 129, 4591-4603 (2002) Printed in Great Britain © The Company of Biologists Limited 2002 DEV14547
The strong dimerization of the transmembrane domain of the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) is modulated by C‐terminal juxtamembrane residues

The fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) is a member of the FGFR subfamily of the receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) involved in signaling across the plasma membrane. Generally, ligand binding leads to receptor dimerization and activation. Dimerization involves the transmembrane (TM) domain, where mutations can lead to constitutive activation in certain cancer types and also in skeletal malformations. Thus, it has been postulated that FGFR homodimerization must be inherently weak to allow regulation, a feature reminiscent of α and β integrin TM interactions. However, we show herein that in FGFR3‐TM, four C‐terminal residues, CRLR, have a profound destabilizing effect in an otherwise strongly dimerizing TM peptide. In the absence of these four residues, the dimerizing propensity of FGFR3‐TM is comparable to glycophorin, as shown using various detergents. In addition, the expected enhanced dimerization induced by the mutation associated to the Crouzon syndrome A391E, was observed only when these four C‐terminal residues were present. In the absence of these four residues, A391E was dimer‐destabilizing. Finally, using site specific infrared dichroism and convergence with evolutionary conservation data, we have determined the backbone model of the FGFR3‐TM homodimer in model lipid bilayers. This model is consistent with, and correlates with the effects of, most known pathological mutations found in FGFR‐TM.
Review : Consistency in Distributed Systems

In distributed systems, there exists a fundamental trade-off between data consistency, availability, and the ability to tolerate failures. This trade-off has significant implications on the design of the entire distributed computing infrastructure such as storage systems, compilers and runtimes, application development frameworks and programming languages. Unfortunately, it also has significant, and poorly understood, implications for the designers and developers of end applications. As distributed computing become mainstream, we need to enable programmers who are not experts to build and understand distributed applications. A seminar on “Consistency in Distributed Systems” was held from 18th to 22nd, February, 2013 at Dagstuhl (number 13081). This seminar brought together researchers and practitioners in the
Current Opinion on Chitosan and its Derivatives: Biological Impact in Antimicrobial Applications From Nature to Chitosan and It Derivatives: How it is Working?

Currently, lots of medical applications are investigated by using natural biopolymers such as polysaccharides. In this field chitosan is probably one of the most employed polysaccharides possessing very high pharmaceutical potential due to its chemo-physical and biological properties. The recent progresses in chemistry and biotechnologies apply to chitosan such as chemical and enzymatic modification allowed us to synthesize lot of biodegradable and biocompatible chitosan derivatives with huge impact in antimicrobial area. This present opinion describes the most widely described strategies for generate antimicrobial chitosan and derivatives by chemical/enzymatic structural macromolecular modification.
Prognostic value of vascular endothelial growth factor expression in gastric carcinoma

BACKGROUND. Many studies have shown that angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth, progression, and metastasis of solid tumors. Recently, several angiogenic factors have been identified. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is thought to be one such angiogenic factor and is also thought to be a selective mitogen for endothelial cells. We investigated the correlation between the expression of VEGF and the progression of gastric carcinoma. METHODS. One hundred twenty‐nine specimens resected from patients with gastric carcinoma were investigated by staining with a polyclonal antibody against VEGF. Correlations between the expression of VEGF, microvessel density, and various clinicopathologic factors were studied. RESULTS. Microvessel density, determined by immunostaining for Factor VIII related antigen, was significantly higher in VEGF‐positive tumors than in VEGF‐negative tumors. VEGF positivity was correlated with vessel involvement, lymph node metastasis, and liver metastasis. Moreover, patients with VEGF‐positive tumors had a significantly poorer prognosis than those with VEGF‐negative tumors. Multivariate analysis indicated that the expression of VEGF is an independent prognostic factor in patients with gastric cancer. According to the mode of recurrence, the frequency of hepatic metastases was significantly increased among patients with VEGF‐positive tumors. CONCLUSIONS. The expression of VEGF may be a good prognostic indicator for patients with gastric carcinoma and may also be useful as a predictor of the mode of recurrence in patients with gastric carcinoma. Cancer 1996;77:858‐63.
Novel adaptive estimation and control of continuous-time systems based on parameter estimation error

This paper studies an alternative adaptive estimation and control approach for continuous-time systems that can be presented in a parameterized form. A novel leakage term containing the parameter estimation error is proposed by introducing filter operations on the system dynamics, and then superimposed in the gradient based adaptive laws to estimate the unknown parameters. Consequently, exponential error convergence can be achieved for both the tracking control and parameter estimations. The proposed control and adaptive law are further modified via the sliding mode approach to achieve finite-time (FT) error convergence. Moreover, appropriate comparisons to gradient method and σ-modification are provided concerning the robustness and estimation performance. Comparative simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the methods.
La mesure de la performance sociale de l'entreprise : une analyse critique et empirique des données ARESE

The purpose of this paper is to study the concept of Corporate Social Performance (CSP) through a critical perspective and building on a statistical analysis of ARESE data for the years 2000. The theoritical models of Corporated Social Performance are reviewed and the problems due to the misalignment between models and measures of CSP are detailed. Next, the validity and reliability of ARESE data are analysed. Finally the relevance of this CSP measurement system is evalueted through a comparison of this measure with both theoretical models and alternative measure
Heritage interpretation and foreign language provision at Irish visitor attractions

This paper presents an analysis of foreign language provision in Irish cultural heritage sites. The prime objective of the paper is to illustrate the providers' approach to language provision and thereby to establish if the product offering is suitably matched to the expectations of linguistically and culturally diverse audiences. The research was undertaken as a qualitative and evaluative investigation of top visitor attractions in Dublin, Ireland, and was carried out by an experienced tour guide, who is proficient in a range of international languages. The research suggests that foreign language provision is weak at Irish cultural heritage sites, reflecting a poor understanding of diverse audiences and how to cater for them. Where multiple language provision is in place, the material is often quite basic, usually being a literal translation of the native language text/script. Furthermore, there is usually little sensitivity to the cultural understanding of non-locals and a lack of awareness regarding the overall principles of heritage interpretation. Various inhibitors were identified regarding the provision of suitable multi-lingual interpretation, a critical factor being a lack of awareness and thus, poor action by the various tourism industry stakeholders. The paper concludes with practical recommendations and suggestions for the improvement of foreign language interpretation at Irish cultural heritage sites.
Efficient HRTF synthesis using an interaural transfer function model

We propose an alternative method for binaural synthesis using the ratio of the HRTFs at the two ears, the interaural transfer function (ITF), for deriving the response at the contralateral ear from the ipsilateral one. This technique allows an optimal binaural synthesis if an accurate ITF model is used but a computationally more efficient binaural synthesis can also be obtained by simplifying the ITF filter used for the contralateral channel processing, which is perceptually less critical than the ipsilateral response. Different filter designs and filter orders are investigated for both speech and wide-band signals. Subjective tests are carried out to investigate the perceptual differences introduced by this ITF model. The results indicate that an ITF filter can be of considerably lower complexity when compared to the ipsilateral filter, thus allowing for computational savings without significant perceptual degradation.
From gan-zi-gun-nu to anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol: the ongoing story of cannabis.

1 Introduction 2 Biogenesis of plant cannabinoids 3 Metabolism 4 Synthesis 5 Molecular basis of cannabinoid action 6 Anandamide 7 2-Arachidonoylglycerol (2-Ara-Gl) 8 Structure–activity relationships of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) derivatives and of endocannabinoids 9 Biosynthesis and inactivation of the endocannabinoids 10 Pharmacology of THC and of the endocannabinoids 11 Cannabinoids as therapeutic agents 12 Conclusions 13 References
Lowering power consumption in clock by using globally asynchronous locally synchronous design style

Power consumption in clock of large high performance VLSIs can be reduced by adopting globally asynchronous, locally synchronous design style (GALS). GALS has small overheads for the global asynchronous communication and local clock generation. We propose methods to (a) evaluate the benefits of GALS and account for its overheads, which can be used as the basis for partitioning the system into optimal number/size of synchronous blocks, and (b) automate the synthesis of the global asynchronous communication. Three realistic ASICs, ranging in complexity from 1 to 3 million gates, were used to evaluate GALS benefits and overheads. The results show an average power saving of about 70% in clock with negligible overheads.
Dispersing Hotspot Traffic in Backup Topology for IP Fast Reroute

A backup topology design algorithm for avoiding congestion in IP fast reroute is presented. In IP fast reroute techniques, detour routes are computed by using backup topologies. Reducing the number of backup topologies is the main problem, but some links will become overloaded if the number of backup topologies is reduced. The proposed backup topology design algorithm splits the traffic on high load links to other links by considering network conditions, such as the traffic matrix or topology. The key idea of the algorithm is a new concept called the special node, which has a higher node degree in a backup topology, to handle the backup topology design problem. The effectiveness of the algorithm in terms of maximum link load reduction is quantitatively shown.
p14 Arf Promotes Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier Conjugation of Werners Helicase*

Here we demonstrate a novel p53-independent interaction between the nucleolar tumor suppressors, p14 Arf and Werners helicase (WRN). Binding of p14 Arf to WRN is multivalent and resembles the binding of p14 Arf to Mdm2. Residues 2–14 and 82–101 of p14 Arf and residues in the central region and C terminus of WRN have particular importance for binding. p14 Arf promotes small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) modification of WRN in a synergistic manner with the SUMO-conjugating enzyme, UBCH9. p14 Arf causes redistribution of WRN within the nucleus, and this effect is reversed by expression of a SUMO-specific protease, thus implicating the SUMO conjugation pathway in WRN re-localization. We establish that the ability to promote SUMO conjugation is a general property of the p14 Arf tumor suppressor.
Development of A Meal Assistive Exoskeleton made of Soft Materials for polymyositis patients

Main goal of this research is to design and fabricate an exoskeleton type assistive device for polymyositis patients, which is extremely compact, lightweight and also comfortable. In order to achieve this goal, the target motion of the device is focused on eating motion which is one of the most important task of daily life. Also, the exoskeleton is designed with soft materials such as fabric, rubber, wire and other compliant materials. The most rigid component used in the exoskeleton is a supporting part made of flexible board. By adopting these materials and concentrating on specific target motion, the number and size of the actuators can be reduced so that total complexity, weight and size of the device decrease. Also, the characteristics of soft material allows comfortable wearing sensation, low cost and good appearance. Therefore, the device becomes affordable and convenient. Polymyositis patients are chosen as the target user since the characteristics of their symptom can reduce complexity of the exoskeleton. Also a special controller is designed to utilize the available motion of the polymyositis patients. Some experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the exoskeleton.
Factors which are associated with dental decay in the older individual.

OBJECTIVES To improve reliability of salivary bacterial cultures as a surrogate for plaque levels of cariogenic bacterial species by reporting the salivary CFUs of these organisms as a function of the number of teeth. DESIGN Cross-sectional collection of data in a convenience sample of adults over 60 years of age. SETTING Hospital Dental clinic, University bacteriology laboratory. SUBJECTS 523 older dentate subjects, average age 70, including 412 subjects who were in an independent living status and 111 in a dependent-living situation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Subjects were examined for decay and the presence of salivary factors including the levels of S. mutans, lactobacilli, yeast and other bacteria. The salivary levels of the bacteria were adjusted for the number of teeth in the mouth, and the resultant values were entered into multivariable logistic regression models along with clinical and other salivary parameters. RESULTS Mutans streptococci levels reported as CFUs/ml saliva per tooth were significantly associated with coronal surface decay, and lactobacilli, reported in a similar way, were significantly associated with root surface decay. Salivary levels of yeasts, which had previously been associated with decay in this population, were no longer significant using this construct. CONCLUSIONS This construct of reporting salivary bacteriological data as a function of tooth number and per ml saliva could improve the reliability of bacteriological data obtained in epidemiological studies investigating the role of bacteria in dental decay in the elderly.