Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phosphoinositide 3-Kinases p110α and p110β Regulate Cell Cycle Entry, Exhibiting Distinct Activation Kinetics in G1 Phase

ABSTRACT Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) is an early signaling molecule that regulates cell growth and cell cycle entry. PI3K is activated immediately after growth factor receptor stimulation (at the G0/G1 transition) and again in late G1. The two ubiquitous PI3K isoforms (p110α and p110β) are essential during embryonic development and are thought to control cell division. Nonetheless, it is presently unknown at which point each is activated during the cell cycle and whether or not they both control S-phase entry. We found that p110α was activated first in G0/G1, followed by a minor p110β activity peak. In late G1, p110α activation preceded that of p110β, which showed the maximum activity at this time. p110β activation required Ras activity, whereas p110α was first activated by tyrosine kinases and then further induced by active Ras. Interference with p110α and -β activity diminished the activation of downstream effectors with different kinetics, with a selective action of p110α in blocking early G1 events. We show that inhibition of either p110α or p110β reduced cell cycle entry. These results reveal that PI3Kα and -β present distinct activation requirements and kinetics in G1 phase, with a selective action of PI3Kα at the G0/G1 phase transition. Nevertheless, PI3Kα and -β both regulate S-phase entry.
Dynamic Behavior of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Their Derivatives after Oils Spill in Water

Within the framework of Migr’Hycar research project, the fate of oil spill was studied with the aim to characterize their physical-chemical behaviour. For this purpose, seven petroleum oils commercially available were tested and the distributions of the water soluble components were determined according to two experimental devices; laboratory conditions and pilot conditions in Polludrome. In the dissolved fraction, 41 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivates were quantified, among them are 16 EPA priority pollutants. A coupling of the stir bar sorptive extraction method and high performance gas chromatography mass spectrometry were used. Analyses showed that naphthalenes series constitute the major part of the water soluble fraction from fresh oils. In fact, light and heavy molecules have different contributions to solubilization kinetics. From the results, a linear correlation was established between the density of oils and the times of maximum solubilization. Moreover, the effect of 10% ethanol in gasoline was observed on the profile of solubilized PAHs in water. Kinetic patterns obtained with Polludrome showed the influence of surface water/oil ratio (WOR) on the volatilization process. Compared to laboratory conditions, the dynamic conditions of Polludrome led to an enhanced evaporation process, thus shifting the solubility peak.
Organic leachables from resin- based dental restorative materials Characterization by use of combined gas chromatography - mass spectrometry

During the last decade resin-based dental restorative materials have replaced amalgam as the first choice dental filling material. Resin-based dental restorative materials are complex polymers containing a variety of monomers and filler particles, as well as initiators, activators, stabilizers, plasticizers and other additives. Several studies have shown that many of the ingredients are leaching from the materials, even after adequate polymerization. It is known from in vitro studies that some of the compounds in the resin-based materials have cytotoxic, genotoxic or estrogenic potential. Allergenic effects in patients and dental personnel have also been reported. The aim of this study was to identify and quantify substances released from various types of resin-based dental restorative materials. Specimens were polymerized according to protocols from the producers and submerged in different solvents. To characterize a maximum elution potential, ethanol was used as an immersion media. Furthermore, immersion in Ringer’s solution and saliva was used to mimic clinical elution conditions. A combined Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) technique was used for the identification and quantification of eluates. The majority of eluting substances from the polymeric matrix are organic substances with low molecular weight, which are well suited for analysis by GC-MS. Tailor-made internal standards for HEMA and TEGDMA were synthesized for the quantification procedure. We have identified and quantified a number of compounds from several materials. Significant differences regarding type and amount of leachables between the materials are observed.
Prevalence of Temporomandibular Disorders in an Adult Brazilian Community Population Using the Research Diagnostic Criteria (Axes I and II) for Temporomandibular Disorders (The Maringá Study).

PURPOSE The primary objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) and comorbid factors (sleep bruxism and headaches). This study was a cross-sectional population survey in the city of Maringá, state of Paraná, Brazil. MATERIALS AND METHODS Axes I and II of the Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD (RDC/TMD) were used for assessment of TMD signs and symptoms. The population was users of the Brazilian public health system (SUS), of both sexes, between the ages of 20 and 65 years, and not seeking treatment for TMD. RESULTS The selected population (N = 1,643) was composed mostly of (a) women (65.9%), (b) married or single individuals (90.6%), (c) Caucasians (70.1%), (d) individuals aged 32.7 ± 10.3 years, (e) individuals earning a medium income (75.1%), and (f) those who had completed a high school education or higher (79.9%). According to the chronic pain grade classification (CPG) in the RDC/TMD Axis II, 36.2% of the population had some degree of TMD pain (CPG I to IV); however, only 5.1% had severe limitation due to pain (CPG III or IV). In the RDC/TMD Axis I diagnoses, 29.5% presented with muscle disorders (group I), 7.9% with disk displacements (group II), and 39.1% with other joint disorders (group III). Headaches were present in 67.9% and awake and sleep bruxism in 30% and 33.4% of the population, respectively. CONCLUSION The prevalence of signs and symptoms of TMD was high in this population, but with low disability; however, the proportion of patients in need of treatment was much lower.
Precisely controlled plasmonic nanostructures and its application to nanolithography

Nanoparticles of noble metals show localized surface plasmon resonance. Plasmon resonances which are collective oscillations of conduction electrons give rise to the enhancement of electromagnetic field to the local surface of metallic nanoparticles. Therefore, various plasmonic near-field lithography systems were proposed so far. Here, we report on a plasmon-assisted nanolithography used for the fabrication of nano-patterns with nanometric accuracy. The lithography system can form deep nano-patterns on positive photoresist film using scattering component of multipole plasmon resonances as an exposure light. Two-photon-induced reaction of a photoresist enabled the formation of fine patterns even using plasmonic scattering light.
Turbulent Marginal Separation and the Turbulent Goldstein Problem

A new rational theory of incompressible turbulent boundary-layer flows having a large velocity defect is presented on basis of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations in the limit of infinite Reynolds number. This wake-type formulation allows for, among others, the prediction of singular solutions of the boundary-layer equations under the action of a suitably controlled adverse pressure gradient, which are associated with the onset of marginally separated flows. Increasing the pressure gradient locally then transforms the marginal-separation singularity into a weak Goldstein-type singularity occurring in the slip velocity at the base of the outer wake layer. Interestingly, this behavior is seen to be closely related to (but differing in detail from) the counterpart of laminar marginal separation, in which the skin friction replaces the surface slip velocity. Most important, adopting the concept of locally interacting boundary layers results in a closure-free and uniformly valid asymptotic description of boundary layers that exhibit small, closed reverse-flow regimes. Numerical solutions of the underlying triple-deck problem are discussed.
Gas phase and particle diagnostic of HMDSO plasmas by infrared absorption spectroscopy

Note: Proc. 41st Society of Vacuum Coaters Annual Technical Conference, Boston, USA, 18-23 April 1998, 327 - 332 (1998) Reference CRPP-CONF-1998-011 Record created on 2008-05-13, modified on 2017-05-12
Electrical and mechanical properties of PZT thin films prepared by hybrid process of sol-gel technique and laser ablation

To prepare lead zirconate titanate (Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3): PZT) thin films at a higher deposition rate and a lower substrate temperature, the PZT films were fabricated by a hybrid process of sol-gel technique and pulsed laser ablation deposition. First, one layer of PZT (about 0.12-0.14 μm) was coated on Si/SiO2/Ti/Pt substrate by sol-gel process. Then PZT film was deposited at a rate of 0.7 μm/hr by pulsed excimer laser-ablation on the substrate with one sol-gel derived PZT seed layer. A target of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 with 20 wt% excess PbO was used. The substrate temperature was about 500 °C. The film fabricated by the hybrid process showed the perovskite PZT phase without pyrochlore phase. The dielectric constant measured at 1 kHz was approximately 1580. The saturation polarization, remnant polarization and coercive field of 0.8 μm thick film were about 46.6 μC/cm2, 24.5 μC/cm2 and 36.4 kV/cm, respectively. The residual stresses in the thin film stacks were measured by the changes in the radius of curvature of the wafer. A relatively lower tensile stress (approximately 33 MPa) was obtained compared to the sol-gel derived PZT film. Therefore, the PZT films with good electrical and mechanical properties can be fabricated by using the hybrid process of the sol-gel technique and laser ablation.
Effect of 4-Horizontal Rectus Muscle Tenotomy on Visual Function and Eye Movement Records in Patients with Infantile Nystagmus Syndrome without Abnormal Head Posture and Strabismus: A Prospective Study

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of tenotomy on visual function and eye movement records in patients with infantile nystagmus syndrome (INS) without abnormal head posture (AHP) and strabismus Methods: A prospective interventional case-series of patients with INS with no AHP or strabismus. Patients underwent 4-horizontal muscle tenotomy. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and eye movement recordings were compared pre and postoperatively. Results: Eight patients were recruited in this study with 3 to 15.5 months of follow-up. Patients showed significant improvement in their visual function. Overall nystagmus amplitude and velocity was decreased 30.7% and 19.8%, respectively. Improvements were more marked at right and left gazes. Conclusion: Tenotomy improves both visual function and eye movement records in INS with no strabismus and eccentric null point. The procedure has more effect on lateral gazes with worse waveforms, thus can broaden area with better visual function. We recommend this surgery in patients with INS but no associated AHP or strabismus.
Deciphering the Rhizosphere Microbiome for Disease-Suppressive Bacteria

A common plant pathogen induces the growth of disease-suppressive microbes in local soil communities. Disease-suppressive soils are exceptional ecosystems in which crop plants suffer less from specific soil-borne pathogens than expected owing to the activities of other soil microorganisms. For most disease-suppressive soils, the microbes and mechanisms involved in pathogen control are unknown. By coupling PhyloChip-based metagenomics of the rhizosphere microbiome with culture-dependent functional analyses, we identified key bacterial taxa and genes involved in suppression of a fungal root pathogen. More than 33,000 bacterial and archaeal species were detected, with Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria consistently associated with disease suppression. Members of the γ-Proteobacteria were shown to have disease-suppressive activity governed by nonribosomal peptide synthetases. Our data indicate that upon attack by a fungal root pathogen, plants can exploit microbial consortia from soil for protection against infections.
Inhibition of Recombinant N-Type CaV Channels by the γ2 Subunit Involves Unfolded Protein Response (UPR)-Dependent and UPR-Independent Mechanisms

Auxiliary γ subunits are an important component of high-voltage-activated calcium (CaV) channels, but their precise regulatory role remains to be determined. In the current report, we have used complementary approaches including molecular biology and electrophysiology to investigate the influence of the γ subunits on neuronal CaV channel activity and expression. We found that coexpression of γ2 or γ3 subunits drastically inhibited macroscopic currents through recombinant N-type channels (CaV2.2/β3/α2δ) in HEK-293 cells. Using inhibitors of internalization, we found that removal of functional channels from the plasma membrane is an improbable mechanism of current regulation by γ. Instead, changes in current amplitude could be attributed to two distinct mechanisms. First, γ subunit expression altered the voltage dependence of channel activity. Second, γ subunit expression reduced N-type channel synthesis via activation of the endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response. Together, our findings (1) corroborate that neuronal γ subunits significantly downregulate CaV2.2 channel activity, (2) uncover a role for the γ2 subunit in CaV2.2 channel expression through early components of the biosynthetic pathway, and (3) suggest that, under certain conditions, channel protein misfolding could be induced by interactions with the γ subunits, supporting the notion that CaV channels constitute a class of difficult-to-fold proteins.
Toward a General Solution Verification Method for Complex PDE problem with Hands off Coding

The goal of this paper is to present a versatile framework for the solution verification of complex partial differential equation problems. Our goal is to produce an a posteriori error estimate with no internal knowledge of the simulation code that computes the solution. Our method decomposes into an optimization procedure that reconstruct the best consistent solution from two or three coarse grid solutions and a perturbation technique that estimates the conditioning number of the problem. Because this procedure is cumbersome and may involve hundred of uncoupled small computations, we use distributed computing to compute the a posteriori error bound.
Investor Preferences for Oil Spot and Futures Based on Mean-Variance and Stochastic Dominance

This paper examines investor preferences for oil spot and futures based on mean-variance (MV) and stochastic dominance (SD). The mean-variance criterion cannot distinct the preferences of spot and market whereas SD tests leads to the conclusion that spot dominates futures in the downside risk while futures dominate spot in the upside profit. It is also found that risk-averse investors prefer investing in the spot index, whereas risk seekers are attracted to the futures index to maximize their expected utilities. In addition, the SD results suggest that there is no arbitrage opportunity between these two markets. Market efficiency and market rationality are likely to hold in the oil spot and futures markets.
Automatic identification of individual killer whales.

Following the successful use of HMM and GMM models for classification of a set of 75 calls of northern resident killer whales into call types [Brown, J. C. , and Smaragdis, P., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 125, 221-224 (2009)], the use of these same methods has been explored for the identification of vocalizations from the same call type N2 of four individual killer whales. With an average of 20 vocalizations from each of the individuals the pairwise comparisons have an extremely high success rate of 80 to 100% and the identifications within the entire group yield around 78%.
Effect of perfluoroacrylate ratio on the generation of stable superhydrophobic surfaces displaying low contact angle hysteresis

Introduction Superhydrophobic surfaces posses a broad spectrum of potential uses especially as self-cleaning materials. The foundations of roughness-inducedhydrophobicity were developed by Wenzel and Cassie-Baxter. Wenzel regime enhances water contact angle (WCA) by pinning of the liquid to the surface, whereas Cassie-Baxter regime enhances WCA by minimum contact with solid surface. As a summary of their work, there exists a metastable Cassie-Baxter state in which air trapped between the water droplet and the cavities of the rough surface cannot exit and remains trapped beneath the droplet. Nonetheless, a small force application to the droplet causes the displacement of air by water and a higher contact of water with the surface results. In a hydrophobically stable state, the pressure application should not change the post-pressing WCA. If the regime evolved from a metastable to a high watersurface contact regime, the contact angle hysteresis and tilt angle of water droplet dramatically increases, because the surface is pinned by the water entering into the cavities. By this mechanism, the self-cleaning property becomes deteriorated. Thus, if the surface is not in a metastable state, it resists to higher pressures without loosing its high WCA and maintains a stable hydrophobicity. Previously, we had shown that electrospinning, a novel method for polymer nanofiber production, can be utilized in order to generate superhydrophobic surfaces in an inexpensive and easy way. In this study, copolymers of styrene and acrylonitrile, which contain various ratios of perfluoroalkylethylacrylate, were synthesized and electrospun. We fixed the surface topography, but varied the fluoroacrylate ratio, in order to quantify the effect of monomer composition on the stability of the superhydrophobic surfaces. Drop pressing tests were applied in order to measure the WCA hysteresis, which is the main indicator of the superhdrophobical stability.
Enabling routes as context in mobile services

With the continuing advances in wireless communications, geo-positioning, and portable electronics, an infrastructure is emerging that enables the delivery of on-line, location-enabled services to very large numbers of mobile users. A typical usage situation for mobile services is one characterized by a small screen and no keyboard, and by the service being only a secondary focus of the user. It is therefore particularly important to deliver the "right" information and service at the right time, with as little user interaction as possible. This may be achieved by making services context aware. Mobile users frequently follow the same route to a destination as they did during previous trips to the destination, and the route and destination are important aspects of the context for a range of services. This paper presents key concepts underlying a software component that discovers the routes of a user along with their usage patterns and that makes the accumulated routes available to services. Experiences from using the component with real GPS logs are reported.
Role of Transcytolemmal Water-Exchange in Magnetic Resonance Measurements of Diffuse Myocardial Fibrosis in Hypertensive Heart Disease

Background—The myocardial extracellular volume fraction (MECVF) has been used to detect diffuse fibrosis. Estimation of MECVF relies on quantification of the T1 relaxation time after contrast enhancement, which can be sensitive to equilibrium transcytolemmal water-exchange. We hypothesized that MECVF, quantified with a parsimonious 2-space water-exchange model, correlates positively with the connective tissue volume fraction in a rodent model of hypertensive heart disease, whereas the widely used analysis based on assuming fast transcytolemmal water-exchange could result in a significant underestimate of MECVF. Methods and Results—N&ohgr;–nitro-L-arginine-methyl-ester (L-NAME) or placebo was administered to 22 and 15 wild-type mice, respectively. MECVF was measured at baseline and 7-week follow-up by pre- and postcontrast T1 cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at 4.7 T, using a 2-space water-exchange model. Connective tissue volume fraction was quantified, using Masson trichrome stain. L-NAME induced hypertrophy (weight-indexed left-ventricular mass 2.2±0.3 versus 4.1±0.4 &mgr;g/g, P<0.001), and increased connective tissue volume fraction (8.6%±1.5 versus 2.58%±0.6, P<0.001), were compared with controls. MECVF was higher in L-NAME-treated animals (0.43±0.09 versus 0.26±0.03, P<0.001), and correlated with connective tissue volume fraction and weight-indexed left-ventricular mass (r=0.842 and r=0.737, respectively, both P<0.0001). Neglecting transcytolemmal water-exchange caused a significant underestimate of MECVF changes. Ten patients with history of hypertension had significantly higher MECVF (0.446±0.063) compared with healthy controls (0.307±0.030, P<0.001). Conclusions—Cardiac magnetic resonance allowed detection of myocardial extracellular matrix expansion in a mouse model and in patients with a history of hypertension. Accounting for the effects of transcytolemmal water-exchange can result in a substantial difference of MECVF, compared with assuming fast transcytolemmal water-exchange.
High modulus polypropylene fibers. II. Influence of fiber preparation upon structure and morphology

The influence of drawing on the limiting draw ratio upon formation of the morphological structure of fibers spun from binary polypropylene (PP) blends was studied. Fibers were spun from a fiber-grade CR-polymer and from the blends of a fiber-grade CR-polymer with a molding-grade polymer in the composition range of 10–50 wt % added. As-spun fibers were immediately moderately and additionally highly drawn at the temperature of 145°C. The structure and morphology of these fibers were investigated by small-angle X-ray scattering, wide-angle X-ray scattering, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, density, birefringence, and sound velocity measurements. It was shown that continuously moderately drawn fibers are suitable precursors for the production of high tenacity PP fibers of very high modulus, because of so called oriented “smectic” structure present in these fibers. With drawing at elevated temperature, the initial metastable structure of low crystallinity was disrupted and a c-axis orientation of monoclinic crystalline modification was developed. Hot drawing increased the size of crystallites and crystallinity degree, the orientation of crystalline domains, and average orientation of the macromolecular chains and resulted in extensive fibrillation and void formation. It was found that the blend composition has some influence on the structure of discontinuously highly drawn fibers. With increasing the content of the molding-grade polymer in the blend, the size of crystalline and amorphous domains, density and crystallinity, as well as amorphous orientation decreased. Relationship has been established between the mechanical properties, crystallinity, and orientation of PP fibers. It was confirmed that by blending the fiber-grade CR-polymer by a small percentage of the molding-grade polymer, maximization of elastic modulus is achieved, mainly because of higher orientation of amorphous domains. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 1067–1082, 2006