Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of glutamate 144 and glutamate 164 in the catalytic mechanism of enoyl-CoA hydratase.

The role of two glutamate residues (E164 and E144) in the active site of enoyl-CoA hydratase has been probed by site-directed mutagenesis. The catalytic activity of the E164Q and E144Q mutants has been determined using 3'-dephosphocrotonyl-CoA. Removal of the 3'-phosphate group reduces the affinity of the substrate for the enzyme, thereby facilitating the determination of K(m) and simplifying the analysis of the enzymes' pH dependence. k(cat) for the hydration of 3'-dephosphocrotonyl-CoA is reduced 7700-fold for the E144Q mutant and 630000-fold for the E164Q mutant, while K(m) is unaffected. These results indicate that both glutamate residues play crucial roles in the hydration chemistry catalyzed by the enzyme. Previously, we reported that, in contrast to the wild-type enzyme, the E164Q mutant was unable to exchange the alpha-proton of butyryl-CoA with D(2)O [D'Ordine, R. L. , Bahnson, B. J., Tonge, P. J. , and Anderson, V. E. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 14733-14742]. Here we demonstrate that E144Q is also unable to catalyze alpha-proton exchange even though E164, the glutamate that is positioned to abstract the alpha-proton, is intact in the active site. The catalytic function of each residue has been further investigated by exploring the ability of the wild-type and mutant enzymes to eliminate 2-mercaptobenzothiazole from 4-(2-benzothiazole)-4-thiabutanoyl-CoA (BTTB-CoA). As expected, reactivity toward BTTB-CoA is substantially reduced (690-fold) for the E164Q enzyme compared to wild-type. However, E144Q is also less active than wild-type (180-fold) even though elimination of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (pK(a) 6.8) should require no assistance from an acid catalyst. Clearly, the ability of E164 to function as an acid-base in the active site is affected by mutation of E144 and it is concluded that the two glutamates act in concert to effect catalysis.
Monitoring Load, Recovery, and Performance in Young Elite Soccer Players

Brink, MS, Nederhof, E, Visscher, C, Schmikli, SL, and Lemmink, KAPM. Monitoring load, recovery, and performance in young elite soccer players. J Strength Cond Res 24(3): 597-603, 2010-The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between training load, recovery, and monthly field test performance in young elite soccer players to develop training guidelines to enhance performance. In a prospective, nonexperimental cohort design, 18 young elite soccer players registered training and match duration for a full competitive season by means of daily training logs. Furthermore, session rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and total quality of recovery (TQR) scores were recorded. Weekly duration (TLd), load (duration × session RPE = TLrpe), and TQR scores were calculated for 1 and 2 weeks before a monthly submaximal interval shuttle run tests to determine interval endurance capacity. Participants spent on average 394.4 ± 134.9 minutes per week on training and game play with an average session RPE of 14.4 ± 1.2 (somewhat hard) and TQR of 14.7 ± 1.3 (good recovery). Random intercept models showed that every extra hour training or game play resulted in enhanced field test performance (p < 0.05). Session RPE and TQR scores did not contribute to the prediction of performance. The duration of training and game play in the week before field test performance is most strongly related to interval endurance capacity. Therefore, coaches should focus on training duration to improve interval endurance capacity in elite soccer players. To evaluate the group and individual training response, field tests should be frequently executed and be incorporated in the training program.
Assessment of iothalamate plasma clearance: duration of study affects quality of GFR.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Measurement of GFR is important for the management of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Although bolus administration of radiocontrast agents is commonly used to measure GFR, the optimal duration of sampling to assess their plasma clearance is unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the duration of plasma sampling influences precision and estimation of GFR. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS GFR was measured by sampling plasma 12 times over 5 h in 56 patients with CKD (mean age 64 yr, 98% men, 79% Caucasian, 34% diabetics, estimated GFR 31.8 +/- 14.2 ml/min/1.73 m(2)). In a subset of 12 patients we measured GFR by sampling plasma 17 times over 10 h. RESULTS Short sampling intervals considerably overestimated GFR measured using total plasma iothalamate clearance, especially in larger patients. In the higher estimated GFR group (>30 ml/min/1.73 m(2)), the 5-h GFR was 17% higher and 2-h GFR 54% higher compared with the 10-h GFR, which averaged 40.3 ml/min/1.73 m(2). In the lower estimated GFR group (<30 ml/min/1.73 m(2)), the 5-h GFR was 36% higher and 2-h GFR 126% higher compared with the 10-h GFR, which averaged 22.2 ml/min/1.73 m(2). Short sampling duration also reduced the precision of the estimated GFR from 1.67% for 10-h GFR, to 3.48% for 5-h GFR, and to 7.07% for 2-h GFR. CONCLUSIONS GFR measured over a longer duration with multiple plasma samples spanning the distribution and elimination phases may improve precision and provide a better measure of renal function.
New Evidence of Sauropod Dinosaurs from the Early Jurassic Period of Thailand

The oldest dinosaur assemblages of Thailand deposit in continental sedimentary rocks of the Nam Phong Formation. Not only Isanosaurus attavipatchi was discovered but at least two more species of basal sauropods were found. A partial skeleton from Phu Hin Tan locality refers to sauropod taxon A. It is different from Isanosaurus and shares some characteristics with basal sauropods in the Early Jurassic. The sauropod taxon B was found in Non Sra Ard locality. Base on postcranial skeleton, sauropod taxon B shares some characteristics of the family Vulcanodontidae. Moreover, several fragments of the sauropods specimen are also found in Pha Khok Wang Yang and Phu Noi localities. All of the evidences above indicate that there are a highly diversity of sauropods in the Nam Phong Formation. At least three sauropod species (including Isanosaurus) were found in the Nam Phong formation. The issue about the age of the Nam Phong has been debated for a long time between the Triassic and Jurassic age. All of sauropodomorphs, in this study, are more likely the Early Jurassic period dinosaurs than the Triassic period dinosaurs. And they have deposited in the upper part of Nam Phong Formation.
Multifunctional Coatings with Carbon Nanotubes for Electrostatic Charge Mitigation

Electrostatic charge dissipation presents a major problem for applications ranging from electronics to space exploration. A novel method to control both the bulk and the surface electrical conductivity of polymeric films is presented. By dispersing small amounts of multiwall carbon nanotubes in the polymeric material, the electrical bulk resistivity decreases by seven orders of magnitude. Also, nanolayers of single and multiwall carbon nanotubes were electrosprayed on the surface of the polymeric films and the surface resistivity was monitored as a function of nanotubes loading. The films with carbon nanotube modified surfaces were found to have the highest charge dissipation rates with decay times of seconds.
Contribution of Impaired Myocardial Insulin Signaling to Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress in the Heart

Background— Diabetes-associated cardiac dysfunction is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress, which may contribute to left ventricular dysfunction. The contribution of altered myocardial insulin action, independent of associated changes in systemic metabolism, is incompletely understood. The present study tested the hypothesis that perinatal loss of insulin signaling in the heart impairs mitochondrial function. Methods and Results— In 8-week-old mice with cardiomyocyte deletion of insulin receptors (CIRKO), inotropic reserves were reduced, and mitochondria manifested respiratory defects for pyruvate that was associated with proportionate reductions in catalytic subunits of pyruvate dehydrogenase. Progressive age-dependent defects in oxygen consumption and ATP synthesis with the substrate glutamate and the fatty acid derivative palmitoyl-carnitine were observed. Mitochondria also were uncoupled when exposed to palmitoyl-carnitine, in part as a result of increased reactive oxygen species production and oxidative stress. Although proteomic and genomic approaches revealed a reduction in subsets of genes and proteins related to oxidative phosphorylation, no reductions in maximal activities of mitochondrial electron transport chain complexes were found. However, a disproportionate reduction in tricarboxylic acid cycle and fatty acid oxidation proteins in mitochondria suggests that defects in fatty acid and pyruvate metabolism and tricarboxylic acid flux may explain the mitochondrial dysfunction observed. Conclusions— Impaired myocardial insulin signaling promotes oxidative stress and mitochondrial uncoupling, which, together with reduced tricarboxylic acid and fatty acid oxidative capacity, impairs mitochondrial energetics. This study identifies specific contributions of impaired insulin action to mitochondrial dysfunction in the heart.
Temporal Considerations in Brain Metastases Radiation Therapy: The Intersection of Chronobiology and Patient Profiles

The circadian system, a vital temporal regulator influencing physiological processes, has implications for cancer development and treatment response. Our study assessed circadian timing’s impact on whole-brain radiotherapy outcomes in brain metastases for personalized cancer therapy insights. The aim of the study was to evaluate circadian influence on radiation treatment timing and its correlation with clinical outcomes and to identify patient populations benefiting from interventions synchronizing circadian rhythms, considering subgroup differences and potential disparities. An IRB-approved retrospective analysis of 237 patients undergoing whole-brain radiotherapy for brain metastases (2017–2021), receiving over 80% of treatments in the morning or afternoon, was performed. Survival analyses utilized Kaplan–Meier curves. This was a single-institution study involving patients receiving whole-brain radiotherapy. Demographic, disease, and socioeconomic parameters from electronic medical records were collected. Morning treatment (n = 158) showed a trend toward improved overall survival vs. afternoon (n = 79); the median survival was 158 vs. 79 days (p = 0.20, HR = 0.84, CI95% 0.84–0.91). Subgroup benefits for morning treatment in females (p = 0.04) and trends in controlled primary disease (p = 0.11) and breast cancer metastases (p = 0.08) were observed. Black patients exhibited diminished circadian influence. The present study emphasized chronobiological factors’ relevance in brain metastases radiation therapy. Morning treatment correlated with improved survival, particularly in specific subgroups. Potential circadian influence disparities were identified, laying a foundation for personalized cancer therapy and interventions synchronizing circadian rhythms for enhanced treatment efficacy.
Graph Effective Resistance and Distributed Control : Electrical Analogy and Scalability Technical Report

We introduce the concept of matrix-valued effective resistance for undirected matrix-weighted graphs. These effective resistances are defined to be the square blocks that appear in the diagonal of the inverse of the matrix-weighted Dirichlet graph Laplacian matrix. However, they can also be obtained from a “generalized” electrical network that is constructed from the graph, and for which currents, voltages and resistances take matrix values. In a recent paper [3], we showed that effective resistances have a direct physical interpretation in several distributed control problems and can be used to characterize their stability and speed of convergence. In this paper, we establish several properties of effective resistances. In particular, (i) we show that the effective resistances are monotone with respect to an appropriately defined graph embedding relation; (ii) we determine laws that characterize how effective resistances scale with the distance between nodes for regular-degree large scale graphs; and (iii) we extend these laws for irregular large scale graphs that exhibit appropriate denseness properties.
Analysis of Prion Strains by PrPSc Profiling in Sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease

Background Prion diseases are a group of invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans and a wide range of mammals. An essential part of the infectious agent, termed the prion, is composed of an abnormal isoform (PrPSc) of a host-encoded normal cellular protein (PrPC). The conversion of PrPC to PrPSc is thought to play a crucial role in the development of prion diseases and leads to PrPSc deposition, mainly in the central nervous system. Sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (sCJD), the most common form of human prion disease, presents with a marked clinical heterogeneity. This diversity is accompanied by a molecular signature which can be defined by histological, biochemical, and genetic means. The molecular classification of sCJD is an important tool to aid in the understanding of underlying disease mechanisms and the development of therapy protocols. Comparability of classifications is hampered by disparity of applied methods and inter-observer variability. Methods and Findings To overcome these difficulties, we developed a new quantification protocol for PrPSc by using internal standards on each Western blot, which allows for generation and direct comparison of individual PrPSc profiles. By studying PrPSc profiles and PrPSc type expression within nine defined central nervous system areas of 50 patients with sCJD, we were able to show distinct PrPSc distribution patterns in diverse subtypes of sCJD. Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate the co-existence of more than one PrPSc type in individuals with sCJD in about 20% of all patients and in more than 50% of patients heterozygous for a polymorphism on codon 129 of the gene encoding the prion protein (PRNP). Conclusion PrPSc profiling represents a valuable tool for the molecular classification of human prion diseases and has important implications for their diagnosis by brain biopsy. Our results show that the co-existence of more than one PrPSc type might be influenced by genetic and brain region–specific determinants. These findings provide valuable insights into the generation of distinct PrPSc types.
Common mental disorders and ethnicity in England: the EMPIRIC Study

Background. There is little population-based evidence on ethnic variation in the most common mental disorders (CMD), anxiety and depression. We compared the prevalence of CMD among representative samples of White, Irish, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani individuals living in England using a standardized clinical interview. Method. Cross-sectional survey of 4281 adults aged 16–74 years living in private households in England. CMD were assessed using the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R), a standardized clinical interview. Results. Ethnic differences in the prevalence of CMD were modest, and some variation with age and sex was noted. Compared to White counterparts, the prevalence of CMD was higher to a statistically significant degree among Irish [adjusted rate ratios (RR) 2·09, 95% CI 1·16–2·95, p=0·02] and Pakistani (adjusted RR 2·38, 95% CI 1·25–3·53, p=0·02) men aged 35–54 years, even after adjusting for differences in socio-economic status. Higher rates of CMD were also observed among Indian and Pakistani women aged 55–74 years, compared to White women of similar age. The prevalence of CMD among Bangladeshi women was lower than among White women, although this was restricted to those not interviewed in English. There were no differences in rates between Black Caribbean and White samples. Conclusions. Middle-aged Irish and Pakistani men, and older Indian and Pakistani women, had significantly higher rates of CMD than their White counterparts. The very low prevalence of CMD among Bangladeshi women contrasted with high levels of socio-economic deprivation among this group. Further study is needed to explore reasons for this variation.
Pulp and Paper Properties of Jenitri Wood (Elaeocarpus ganitrus)

Jenitri trees are widely distributed in community forests on Java Island and their wood is utilized for various products. The objective of the study was to assess the basic properties and quality of pulp and paper from jenitri wood. The tree was felled at the age of 5, and the base part was taken. Chips were processed using three different pulping methods in soda (17% NaOH), kraft (17% NaOH and 25% sulfidity), and neutral sulfite semi-chemical (NSSC) (12% Na2SO3 and 3% Na2CO3) processes. The fibers of jenitri had good derived values (slenderness, Runkel, and flexibility ratios) as well as chemical properties. The screened yields from the soda, kraft, and NSSC processes were 35.60 ± 4.75%, 35.05 ± 3.83%, and 46.29 ± 2.59%, respectively. The kappa numbers from the soda, kraft, and NSSC processes were 28.02 ± 7.35, 21.15 ± 1.61, and 71.28 ± 6.86, respectively. The handsheets had a burst index value of 0.65–2.94 kPa.m2/g, a tear index value of 5.23–5.47 mN.m2/g, a tensile index value of 15.13–30.49 Nm/g, a brightness value of 24.39–45.25%, and an opacity value of 98.83–99.68%. The soda pulp and the kraft pulp had slight differences in all parameters except for the Kappa number. The NSSC pulp showed slight differences in the selectivity of delignification ratio, tear index, and opacity, but produced a higher brightness level compared to chemical pulpings. The values of burst and tear indices for kraft pulp paper met the Indonesian National Standard for leaf bleached kraft pulp.
Generating Distinguishing Tests Using the Minion Constraint Solver

We discuss the generation of test cases for demonstrating the non-equivalence of two programs. This problem has applications in mutation testing and automated debugging. After transforming the programs into Static-Single-Assignment form, the MINION constraint solver is used to generate test vectors that demonstrate the observable difference. The experiments show the feasability of our constraint solving approach.
A New Home for Pancreatic Islet Transplants: The Bone Marrow

Transplantation of pancreatic islets represents a clinical therapeutic option to preserve and/or restore β-cell function in patients with diabetes (1,2). The source of the islets is the patient’s own pancreas (autologous, islet autotransplantation [IAT]) when the goal is preserving pancreatic endocrine function in pediatric and adult individuals undergoing total pancreatectomy due to pancreatitis (3,4) or trauma (5,6). Recently, IAT has been also proposed for enucleable benign (7) and malignant (8) pancreatic neoplasms. Transplantation of deceased-donor (allogeneic) islets is performed for patients with brittle type 1 diabetes and hypoglycemia unawareness as islet transplant alone (ITA) if nonuremic and as simultaneous islet–kidney (SIK) or sequential islet after kidney (IAK) transplantation procedures if uremic (end-stage renal disease) requiring kidney transplantation. Allogeneic islets can be part of cluster organ transplantation (Table 1). In recognition of the excellent metabolic control obtained after islet transplantation even when exogenous insulin treatment is required, reimbursement has been approved in several countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Switzerland, U.K., Sweden, and the Nordic Network). In the U.S., only IAT is currently reimbursed, while biological licensure by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should be imminent after recent completion of the Clinical Islet Transplant Consortium registration trials (www.citisletstudy.org). View this table: TABLE 1 Indications for islet cell transplantation Since the 1970s, islets have been embolized into the hepatic portal system by a minimally invasive technique consisting of transhepatic cannulation of the portal vein under ultrasound …
Hot packets:a systematic evaluation of the effect of temperature on low power wireless transceivers

Temperature is known to have a significant effect on the performance of radio transceivers: the higher the temper- ature, the lower the quality of links. Analysing this effect is particularly important in sensor networks because several applications are exposed to harsh environmental conditions. Daily or hourly changes in temperature can dramatically reduce the throughput, increase the delay, or even lead to network partitions. A few studies have quantified the impact of temperature on low-power wireless links, but only for a limited temperature range and on a single radio transceiver. Building on top of these preliminary observations, we de- sign a low-cost experimental infrastructure to vary the on- board temperature of sensor nodes in a repeatable fashion, and we study systematically the impact of temperature on various sensornet platforms. We show that temperature af- fects transmitting and receiving nodes differently, and that all platforms follow a similar trend that can be captured in a simple first-order model. This work represents an ini- tial stepping stone aimed at predicting the performance of a network considering the particular temperature profile of a given environment.
Internet Time-Delay prediction based on unbiased grey model

Internet Time-delay is one of the most important factors which decide the performance of the Internet-based control systems. In this paper, a testing software is developed by Visual C++ to measure the round trip time (RTT) of the data packet on Internet. After analyzing the characteristics of RTT, a prediction method was presented based on data waveform processing method and unbiased grey model (UGM) to forecast Internet time delay. An experimental example is given to show that the delay prediction results by the UGM model proposed in this paper are more accurate than the prediction results based on the auto regressive (AR) model.
Dependence of Waterline Mapping on Radar Frequency Used for SAR Images in Intertidal Areas

Waterline detection in the intertidal areas was investigated through synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images and field measurements. Two valuable facts were found in this letter: 1) A discrepancy of waterlines between L- and P-band airborne SAR images was discovered and investigated through precise global positioning system measurements and the theory of the SAR imaging mechanism. In the intertidal areas having low slopes, the Bragg waves resonant with the radar signal can reside in different depths depending on the radar frequency, with the result that the boundary between water and land can be mapped differently in the respective SAR images. 2) Intertidal areas covered with a water film present low radar backscatter in SAR images, which can cause mislocation of waterlines