Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
99mTc-(tricine)-HYNIC-Lys-FROP Peptide for Breast Tumor Targeting.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is a malignant disease with high mortality rate among women in the world. It is necessary to diagnose breast cancer at the early stage before it metastasizes in patients. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is the evaluation of 99mTc-(tricine)-HYNIC-Lys-FROP for breast tumor imaging. METHOD Lys-FROP peptide was labeled with 99mTc using HYNIC as chelator and tricine as co-ligand. Specific binding of this radiolabeled peptide on breast cancerous cell was assessed in different cell lines as well as in tumor-bearing mice. RESULTS HYNIC-Lys-FROP peptide was labeled with 99mTc at radiochemical purity more than 99%. It was observed high stability in normal saline and serum about 95%. The highest cellular uptake was observed in MCF-7 breast tumor cells treated with 99mTc-(tricine)-HYNIC-Lys-FROP as compared to other cell lines (lung, ovarian, T47D breast cancer cell lines). Biodistribution results in female MCF-7 tumor-bearing mice showed the relatively high tumor uptake and tumor-muscle ratio as 3.82 ± 0.66 after 15 min post-injection of 99mTc-(tricine)- HYNIC-Lys-FROP. Tumor uptake was reduced in mice that were co-injected with excess of unlabeled peptide to be 0.91 ± 0.08. CONCLUSION Findings showed this radiolabeled peptide is a promising candidate for tumor targeting and molecular imaging of breast cancer.
Dominant Currency Paradigm

We propose a “dominant currency paradigm” with three key features: dominant currency pricing, pricing complementarities, and imported inputs in production. We test this paradigm using a new dataset of bilateral price and volume indices for more than 2,500 country pairs that covers 91 percent of world trade, as well as detailed firm-product-country data for Colombian exports and imports. In strong support of the paradigm we find that (i) noncommodities terms-of-trade are uncorrelated with exchange rates; (ii) the dollar exchange rate quantitatively dominates the bilateral exchange rate in price pass-through and trade elasticity regressions, and this effect is increasing in the share of imports invoiced in dollars; (iii) US import volumes are significantly less sensitive to bilateral exchange rates, compared to other countries’ imports; (iv) a 1 percent US dollar appreciation against all other currencies predicts a 0.6 percent decline within a year in the volume of total trade between countries in the rest of the world, controlling for the global business cycle. We characterize the transmission of, and spillovers from, monetary policy shocks in this environment. (JEL E52, F14, F31, F44)
Prevention of TB using rifampicin plus isoniazid reduces nevirapine concentrations in HIV-exposed infants

Background Newborns of HIV-infected mothers are given daily doses of nevirapine to prevent HIV-1 acquisition. Infants born to mothers with TB should also receive TB preventive therapy. TB preventive regimens include isoniazid for 6 months or rifampicin plus isoniazid for 3 months (RH preventive therapy). The effect of concomitant RH preventive therapy on nevirapine concentrations in infants is unknown. Patients and methods Tshepiso was a prospective case-control cohort study of pregnant HIV-infected women with and without TB whose newborn infants received standard doses of nevirapine for HIV prophylaxis. Infants born to mothers with TB also received RH preventive therapy. Infant plasma nevirapine concentrations were measured at 1 and 6 weeks. The effects of RH preventive therapy on nevirapine disposition were investigated in a population pharmacokinetic model. Results Of 164 infants undergoing pharmacokinetic sampling, 46 received RH preventive therapy. After adjusting for weight using allometric scaling, the model estimated a 33% reduction in nevirapine trough concentrations with RH preventive therapy compared with TB-unexposed infants not receiving concomitant rifampicin and a 30% decline in trough concentrations in a typical infant between day 7 and 35 post-partum. Conclusions Rifampicin-based TB preventative treatment reduces nevirapine concentrations significantly in HIV-exposed infants. Although the nevirapine exposures required to prevent HIV acquisition in breastfeeding infants are undefined, given the potential risks associated with underdosing nevirapine in this setting, it is prudent to avoid rifampicin-based preventive therapy in HIV-exposed children receiving prophylactic nevirapine.
Noise reduction for compressive digital one-shot in-line holographic tomography

Digital holography can reconstruct 3-D data cube from a 2-D hologram for the tomographic imaging. Digital one-shot inline holography (DOIH) maintains the maximal space-bandwidth product compared with off-axis holography and keeps both amplitude and phase in the interference pattern. DOIH often suffers from intrinsic defects such as twin-image interruption and squared noise. In this work, compressive sensing is applied in the tomographic reconstruction to overcome the defects. The designed algorithm based on compressive DOIH demonstrates the feasibility in removing the squared noise from a single 2-D in-line hologram.
Defect structure in homoepitaxial non-stoichiometric strontium titanate thin films

Abstract The defect structure of non-stoichiometric strontium titanate thin films epitaxially grown on SrTiO3(100) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition was studied using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The A-site-excess SrTiO3 thin film adopted a completely unrelaxed pseudomorphic perovskite structure with an enlarged lattice parameter normal to the surface. Excess SrO was accommodated as Ruddlesden-Popper planar faults showing a peculiar three-dimensional mosaic structure, without forming secondary phases or dislocations due to non-stoichiometry. Biaxial compressive stress induced by lattice mismatch between the film and substrate was estimated at 9,7 GPa. Such a highly strained film is attributable to planar fault formation, which increases the cell volume and suppresses misfit dislocations. The B-site-excess SrTiO3 thin-film microstructure consisted of crystalline SrTiO3 and amorphous TiO2-rich phases. The slight increase in the lattice parameter normal to the surface and crystallographic shear structure with a TiO2 double layer suggest the low solubility of excess TiO2.
Thermodynamics of CuInO2Preparation by Cation Exchange Reaction

Abstract To investigate the optimum conditions of the CuInO2 (CIO) preparation by cation exchange reaction method, the standard entropy, thermal capacity at constant pressure, standard enthalpy and standard Gibbs free energy of formation were estimated. The relations of temperature (T) and thermodynamic equilibrium constants (K), the conditions for three independent reactions were analyzed in CuInO2 preparation. The curves of Gibbs free energy-T, K − T and PCuCl − T for those reactions have been plotted. The results showed that the CIO powder could be synthesized by cation exchange reaction. There were two main reactions through the way of NaInO2 reacting with CuCl. One was NaInO2(s) reacting with CuCl(s) at T ≥ 1698 K. The cost was higher in the way. The other was NaInO2(s) reacting with CuCl(g) at T < 1698 K. However, the yield of CIO would be decreased because CuInO2 powder decomposed into Cu2O(s) and In2O3(s) with the temperature reduced, especially when T ≤ 573 K. And the higher vapor pressure of CuCl(g) was necessary for the process, which needs the higher temperature since the vapor pressure of CuCl(g) increases with increasing temperature, especially when T > 973 K. It was recommended that NaInO2(s) react with CuCl(g) for preparing CIO under conditions of 973 < T ≤ 1698 K and the vacuum in the reactor.
Online Failure Prevention from Connected Heating Systems

Many water boiler manufacturers are not able to detect the occurrence of failures in the machines they produce before they can pose inconvenience and sometimes danger for costumers and workers. Moreover, the number of boilers that have to be monitored, are many times in the range of the thousands or even millions, proportionaly to the number of costumers a company possesses. The detection of these failures in real time, would provide a significant improvement to the perception that consumers have of a certain company, since, if these failures occur, maintenance services can be deployed almost as soon as a failure happens. In this paper, an application prototype capable of monitoring and preventing failures in domestic water boilers, on the fly, is presented. This application evaluates measurements which are performed by sensors within the boilers, and identifies the ones that greatly differ from those received previously, as new data arrives, detecting tendencies which might illustrate the occurrence of a failure. The incremental local outlier factor is used with an approach based on the interquatile range measure to detect the outlier factors that should be analysed.
Semantic convergence in Spanish-English bilingual children with primary language impairment.

PURPOSE To examine the degree of convergence in word association responses produced by bilingual children with primary language impairment (PLI) in relation to bilingual age peers. METHOD Thirty-seven Spanish-English bilingual children with PLI, 37 typically developing (TD) controls, and a normative sample of 112 children produced associations to 24 English and Spanish words. The 5 most frequent responses for each stimulus were identified for the normative sample; then the frequency of occurrence of these frequent normative responses was tabulated and compared between the PLI and TD groups. RESULTS Children with PLI generated fewer frequent normative responses than their TD peers. Spearman rank correlations revealed that the rank frequency of responses in the normative group was significantly correlated with that of the TD and PLI groups; however, in English, the correlation was stronger for the TD cohort. Cross-language associations were also revealed in the generation of frequent norming responses. CONCLUSIONS Semantic convergence is determined by multiple factors. Reduced production of frequent normative responses and weakened correlation with group association behavior in English suggest that children with PLI were delayed in converging on a central core of semantic knowledge that is characteristic of bilingual children with typical language skills.
Fungal Cytochrome P450s and the P450 Complement (CYPome) of Fusarium graminearum

Cytochrome P450s (CYPs), heme-containing monooxygenases, play important roles in a wide variety of metabolic processes important for development as well as biotic/trophic interactions in most living organisms. Functions of some CYP enzymes are similar across organisms, but some are organism-specific; they are involved in the biosynthesis of structural components, signaling networks, secondary metabolisms, and xenobiotic/drug detoxification. Fungi possess more diverse CYP families than plants, animals, or bacteria. Various fungal CYPs are involved in not only ergosterol synthesis and virulence but also in the production of a wide array of secondary metabolites, which exert toxic effects on humans and other animals. Although few studies have investigated the functions of fungal CYPs, a recent systematic functional analysis of CYP genes in the plant pathogen Fusarium graminearum identified several novel CYPs specifically involved in virulence, asexual and sexual development, and degradation of xenobiotics. This review provides fundamental information on fungal CYPs and a new platform for further metabolomic and biochemical studies of CYPs in toxigenic fungi.
Updating and identifying a novel mutation in the PMVK gene in classic porokeratosis of Mibelli

Porokeratosis (OMIM 175800) is a heterogeneous group of keratinization disorders that exhibit an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance. Currently, there are around 20 clinical variants of PK in the English literature, which are classified by their clinical manifestations, including lesion number, size, morphology and distribution. In our previous study, only six different pathogenic mutations of the gene for phosphomevalonate kinase (PMVK) gene (MIM 607622) were found in patients with classic porokeratosis of Mibelli. In the current study, we identified a novel missense variation c.314T>C (p. Leu105Pro) in the PMVK gene in one Chinese family with porokeratosis of Mibelli (PM) who were from Hunan province. A 50-year-old man presented with a 35-year history of annular keratotic papules or plaques on his face, trunk, buttock (Fig. 1a) and extremities. His penis and scrotum were also involved. Similar lesions were found in the proband’s father and daughter. Histological examination of a biopsy specimen obtained from the right leg revealed an invagination of the epidermis, containing a column of porakeratotic cells overlying the absence of a granular layer (Fig. 1b). Genetic studies were carried out after approval by the ethics committee of Fudan University and provision of informed consent from the participants. Peripheral blood samples were taken from the proband and from his wife and daughter. All exons and flanking intronic sequences of PMVK (NM_006556.3) were amplified by PCR, and the PCR products were purified and sequenced on an automated sequencer (ABI 3730xl; Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). Sequence analysis showed a heterozygous T>C transition at nucleotide 314 in exon 4 of PMVK in the proband (Fig. 2a), which was also detected in his daughter but not in his wife or in 96 unrelated healthy controls. We were pleased to read the recent publications by Wang et al. and Li et al., whose findings support and supplement our previous findings. Using whole-exome sequencing, the nonsense variation c.412C>T (p.Arg138*) in PMVK was also identified in two Chinese families with porokeratosis. In that study, both Figure 1b and supplementary Figure 1b3 showed the clinical phenotypes of classic PM, not disseminated superficial porokeratosis. Moreover, one novel mutation of PMVK (c.143G>A) was identified in one patient with genital porokeratosis without family history; however, the description of this mutation appears to have been a clerical error and should have been stated as c.143A>G (p.Lys48Arg). (a)
Long-term efficacy of dolutegravir in treatment-experienced subjects failing therapy with HIV-1 integrase strand inhibitor-resistant virus

Objectives This study evaluated the virological efficacy of dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily in 190 HIV-1 failing antiretroviral-experienced patients with previous exposure to first-generation integrase strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) over a 5 year follow-up using data from clinical practice. Patients and methods This analysis included HIV-1-infected patients who were ≥18 years of age, treatment experienced, had HIV-1 RNA >50 copies/mL, with INSTI-resistant virus, who started dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily plus optimized background therapy (OBT), recorded in the national prospective database PRESTIGIO (www.progettoprestigio.it). Follow-up accrued from the start of dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily + OBT until virological failure (VF) or dolutegravir discontinuation for any reason or the last treatment visit on dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily treatment. VF was defined by the lack of achievement of HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/mL by 6 months and thereafter, or the occurrence of two consecutive HIV-1 RNA ≥50 copies/mL after achievement of undetectable viral load. Results The estimated VF probabilities were 17% (95% CI = 12%-24%), 28% (95% CI = 21%-37%), 33% (95% CI = 25%-43%), 39% (95% CI = 29%-51%) and 52% (95% CI = 39%-67%) at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 months since baseline, respectively. A higher risk of VF was independently associated with baseline viral load >100000 copies/mL (adjusted HR = 4.73, 95% CI = 1.33-16.78, P = 0.016) and with ≥1 INSTI mutations plus Q148H/K/R/N and the G140S/A/C as compared with other subjects (adjusted HR = 4.18, 95% CI = 1.32-13.23, P = 0.015). Conclusions Our data showed a favourable long-term efficacy of dolutegravir 50 mg twice daily in association with OBT in treatment-experienced failing subjects, with INSTI-resistant virus, in the real world. A close monitoring of adherence is crucial for maintenance of virological response in this fragile subgroup of subjects.
Patients’ Reported Reasons for Non-Use of an Internet-Based Patient-Provider Communication Service: Qualitative Interview Study

Background The adoption of Internet-based patient–provider communication services (IPPC) in health care has been slow. Patients want electronic communication, and the quality of health care can be improved by offering such IPPCs. However, the rate of enrollment in such services remains low, and the reasons for this are unclear. Knowledge about the barriers to use is valuable during implementation of IPPCs in the health care services, and it can help timing, targeting, and tailoring IPPCs to different groups of patients. Objective The goal of our study was to investigate patients’ views of an IPPC that they could use from home to pose questions to nurses and physicians at their treatment facility, and their reported reasons for non-use of the service. Methods This qualitative study was based on individual interviews with 22 patients who signed up for, but did not use, the IPPC. Results Patients appreciated the availability and the possibility of using the IPPC as needed, even if they did not use it. Their reported reasons for not using the IPPC fell into three main categories: (1) they felt that they did not need the IPPC and had sufficient access to information elsewhere, (2) they preferred other types of communication such as telephone or face-to-face contact, or (3) they were hindered by IPPC attributes such as login problems. Conclusions Patients were satisfied with having the opportunity to send messages to health care providers through an IPPC, even if they did not use the service. IPPCs should be offered to the patients at an appropriate time in the illness trajectory, both when they need the service and when they are receptive to information about the service. A live demonstration of the IPPC at the point of enrollment might have increased its use. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00971139; http://clinicaltrial.gov/ct2/show/NCT00971139 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6KlOiYJrW).
Lineage‐specific genomics: Frequent birth and death in the human genome

Frequent evolutionary birth and death events have created a large quantity of biologically important, lineage‐specific DNA within mammalian genomes. The birth and death of DNA sequences is so frequent that the total number of these insertions and deletions in the human population remains unknown, although there are differences between these groups, e.g. transposable elements contribute predominantly to sequence insertion. Functional turnover – where the activity of a locus is specific to one lineage, but the underlying DNA remains conserved – can also drive birth and death. However, this does not appear to be a major driver of divergent transcriptional regulation. Both sequence and functional turnover have contributed to the birth and death of thousands of functional promoters in the human and mouse genomes. These findings reveal the pervasive nature of evolutionary birth and death and suggest that lineage‐specific regions may play an important but previously underappreciated role in human biology and disease.
CREB/CRTC2 controls GLP‐1‐dependent regulation of glucose homeostasis

Glucagon‐like peptide 1 (GLP‐1) is a major incretin that controls glucose homeostasis. The secretion of mature GLP‐1 is regulated via GPCRs, including bile acid receptor G protein‐coupled bile acid receptor 1, which uses cAMP signaling to enhance the exocytosis of GLP‐1‐containing vesicles. However, the role of cAMP‐mediated transcription has not been clearly demonstrated to date. In this study, we explored the role of cAMP response element‐binding protein/CREB‐regulated transcription coactivator 2 (CREB/CRTC2)‐dependent transcription on GLP‐1 secretion in the L cells. We found that the reduced CREB/CRTC2 activity impaired the cAMP‐dependent increase in GLP‐1 secretion, whereas expression of constitutively active CRTC2 increased GLP‐1 exocytosis from the L cells. Close investigation revealed that expression of not only proglucagon but also PC1/3, an endopeptidase for GLP‐1 maturation, is transcriptionally regulated by CREB/CRTC2. Furthermore, expression of peroxisome proliferator‐activating receptor coactivator 1 α is also reduced upon depletion of CRTC2, leading to the decreased expression of oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) genes, reduced ATP levels, and calcium concentrations in the L cells. Finally, we observed that intestine‐specific CRTC2 knockout mice displayed reduced GLP‐1 expression, leading to the lower plasma GLP‐1 levels, impaired glucose tolerance, and decreased insulin‐containing β cells in pancreatic islets. Our data show that the CREB/CRTC2‐dependent transcriptional pathway is critical for regulating glucose homeostasis by controlling production of GLP‐1 from the L cells at the level of transcription, maturation, and exocytosis. —Lee, J.‐H. , Wen, X. , Cho, H. , Koo, S. ‐H. CREB/CRTC2 controls GLP‐1‐dependent regulation of glucose homeostasis. FASEB J. 32,1566‐1578 (2018). www.fasebj. org
Diverse Responses of Vegetation Phenology to Climate Change in Different Grasslands in Inner Mongolia during 2000-2016

Vegetation phenology in temperate grasslands is highly sensitive to climate change. However, it is still unclear how the timing of vegetation phenology events (especially for autumn phenology) is altered in response to climate change across different grassland types. In this study, we investigated variations of the growing season start (SOS) and end (EOS), derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data (2000–2016), for meadow steppe, typical steppe, and desert steppe in the Inner Mongolian grassland of Northern China. Using gridded climate data (2000–2015), we further analyzed correlations between SOS/EOS and pre-season average air temperature and total precipitation (defined as 90-day period prior to SOS/EOS, i.e., pre-SOS/EOS) in each grid. The results showed that both SOS and EOS occurred later in desert steppe (day of year (doy) 114 and 312) than in meadow steppe (doy 109 and 305) and typical steppe (doy 111 and 307); namely, desert steppe has a relatively late growing season than meadow steppe and typical steppe. For all three grasslands, SOS was mainly controlled by pre-SOS precipitation with the sensitivity being largest in desert steppe. EOS was closely connected with pre-EOS air temperature in meadow steppe and typical steppe, but more closely related to pre-EOS precipitation in desert steppe. During 2000–2015, SOS in typical steppe and desert steppe has significantly advanced by 2.2 days and 10.6 days due to a significant increase of pre-SOS precipitation. In addition, EOS of desert steppe has also significantly advanced by 6.8 days, likely as a result from the combined effects of elevated preseason temperature and precipitation. Our study highlights the diverse responses in the timing of spring and autumn phenology to preceding temperature and precipitation in different grassland types. Results from this study can help to guide grazing systems and to develop policy frameworks for grasslands protection.