Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Preliminary study of DNA polymerase beta gene silencing by small interfering RNA in human gastric cancer BGC-823 cells].

OBJECTIVE To study the influence of DNA polymerase beta (polbeta) gene silencing by small interfering RNA on biological behavior of human gastric cancer cell line BGC-823. METHODS The siRNA eukaryotic expression vectors targeting polbeta gene were constructed and transfected into BGC-823 cells by liposome. Stable cell lines were screened with G418. The expression levels of polbeta mRNA and protein were detected by real time PCR and Western blot in the cells of each group. The proliferation of each group was detected by flow cytometry and tumorigenicity was determined in nude mice. RESULTS The siRNA expression vector targeting polbeta gene was successfully constructed. The expression levels of polbeta mRNA and protein were significantly reduced in the experimental group transfected with siRNA expression vectors targeting polbeta, and the silencing effect of pRNAT-U6.1-sipolbeta2 (suppression degree was 83%) was stronger than that of pRNAT-U6.1-sipolbeta1 (depression degree is 56%). Compared with irrelevant siRNA control group, empty vector control group and untransfected group, the ratio of G0/G1 cells was increased, proportion of S phase cells and cell proliferation were decreased in the experimental group 1 cells transfected with pRNAT-U6.1-sipolbeta1 (P < 0.05). On the contrary, the ratio of G1/G0 was decreased, proportion of S phase cells and cell proliferation was increased in the experimental group 2 cells transfected with pRNAT-U6.1-sipolbeta2 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The siRNA expression vectors targeting DNA polymerase beta gene can significantly inhibit the expression of polbeta mRNA. Neither high nor extremely low expression of polbeta is beneficial to maintain the cellular physiological functions. The expression of polbeta silenced to a proper level by siRNA may play an important role in inhibiting tumorigenesis.
Performance analysis of dual-hop MIMO-MRC AF relaying in the presence of co-channel interference at the destination

In this paper, the performance of the dual-hop Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay systems with transmit beamforming and maximum ratio combining scheme (MIMO-MRC) is investigated over interference-limited Rayleigh fading channels. Exact closed-form expressions have been derived for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability distribution function (PDF) of the equivalent signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), the outage probability, and average symbol error rate (SER). Finally, numerical results and Monte Carlo simulations are carried out, by which we verify the validity of our analysis and study the effects of various parameters on the system performance.
The Myth of the Mother Tongue: Evidence from Maryvale College, Johannesburg

In this article questions regarding the usefulness of the concept mother tongue are raised. A small-scale research project conducted at Maryvale College reveals that the majority of students at the school grow up in multilingual homes without a language that could clearly be identified as mother tongue. The implications of this in terms of English Second Language, Limited English Proficiency and academic performance are discussed. It is argued that it may be necessary to think about the cognitive skills of students rather than their language proficiency in order to isolate and understand the factors which hinder their academic performance.
In Support of a Non-member State: The Organisation of Islamic Conference and the War in Bosnia, 1992–1995

Abstract The war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995 generated an intensive diplomatic effort on the part of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to protect the country and its population. The aim of this article is to analyze how the OIC sought to support a non-OIC member state, to study diplomatic initiatives undertaken and to assess their results. An analysis of war-time Bosnian media reports on OIC initiatives will provide an insight into how the OIC's activities were perceived and the expectations that they generated. Relying on OIC conference communiques, contemporary media reports and memoirs, the article will provide a narrative of the OIC's role during the three-and-a-half-year war in Bosnia.
The Urban-Rural Cleavage in Political Involvement: The Case of France

Rural France is often seen as culturally isolated and politically uninvolved. Using a combination of community studies and survey evidence, one can show that the lack of declared interest in politics of rural Frenchmen seems to mean an absence of involvement in the party system rather than a passivity toward public life. Nevertheless rural France produces higher voting turnouts in local and national elections than are found in other sections or population groups. The weakness of partisan involvement, as opposed to citizen involvement, seems to bespeak not merely apathy, but actual hostility, toward party politics. This political hostility is widespread among French workers but is politically more important among French peasants. Thus voting choices are less party-oriented precisely where urban-based campaign organizations are least effective. Local non-party notables therefore probably play a greater brokerage role in national election campaigns, and election results are less predictable than in the rural sectors of many other societies. The degree of antipartisanship in rural constituencies also seems to encourage candidates to avoid national party labels in election campaigns. Three kinds of factors are suggested to account for both the high citizen involvement and the low partisan involvement: First, historically, the extension of the suffrage to the rural periphery long before the French party system was capable of the same kind of penetration may have habituated rural Frenchmen to the exercise of the vote in a non-partisan context. Second, the achievement of stable landholding for most peasants removes visible class conflict as a legitimizing factor for party organization, while an extensive interest group structure increases the tendency to keep informed, to participate, and to run for local office. Third, the political ecology of the French village both encourages high citizen involvement and discourages partisan involvement. While many of these factors are universal among peasant societies, the particular historical, sociological, and ecological configuration of the French village seems to produce a rural resident who is more informed and active than our inherited wisdom would suggest, but less partisan than are urban citizens with similar levels of involvement.
Segment-Specific Effects of Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Carotid Artery Intima-Medial Thickness in Women at Midlife

Objective—We investigated associations between segment-specific carotid intima-medial thickness (IMT) and cardiovascular risk factors collected before menopause for insight into mechanisms of atherosclerosis development. Methods and Results—Participants were 453 healthy women (aged 46 to 58 years) enrolled in a dietary and physical activity randomized clinical trial. Ultrasound scan measures were taken ≈2.7 years after baseline in the common carotid artery (CCA), bifurcation (bulb), and internal carotid artery (ICA) segments. When scanned, 84% remained premenopausal. In linear regression models adjusted for age, menopausal status, and intervention group, measures independently (P<0.05) and positively associated were as follows: baseline weight (&bgr;=0.007 per 5 kg), systolic blood pressure (SBP; &bgr;=0.008 per 10 mm Hg), and age (&bgr;=0.02 per 5 years) with CCA IMT; smoking (&bgr;=0.08), weight (&bgr;=0.009), and SBP (&bgr;=0.02) with bulb IMT; and apoprotein B (&bgr;=0.01 per 0.1 g/L) with ICA IMT. Differential effects in a repeated measures model with all 3 IMT locations showed these risk factors to have segment-specific positive associations. The effect of weight was strongest in the CCA, smoking and SBP were specific to the bulb, and apoprotein B was strongest in the ICA segment. Conclusion—Analyses indicate that cardiovascular risk factors may differentially affect IMT in the CCA, bulb, and ICA segments of healthy middle-aged women.
Synergism between a Novel Chimeric Lysin and Oxacillin Protects against Infection by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus is the causative agent of several serious infectious diseases. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant S. aureus strains has resulted in significant treatment difficulties, intensifying the need for new antimicrobial agents. Toward this end, we have developed a novel chimeric bacteriophage (phage) lysin that is active against staphylococci, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). The chimeric lysin (called ClyS) was obtained by fusing the N-terminal catalytic domain of the S. aureus Twort phage lysin with the C-terminal cell wall-targeting domain from another S. aureus phage lysin (phiNM3), which displayed Staphylococcus-specific binding. ClyS was expressed in Escherichia coli, and the purified protein lysed MRSA, vancomycin-intermediate strains of S. aureus (VISA), and methicillin-sensitive (MSSA) strains of S. aureus in vitro. In a mouse nasal decolonization model, a 2-log reduction in the viability of MRSA cells was seen 1 h following a single treatment with ClyS. One intraperitoneal dose of ClyS also protected against death by MRSA in a mouse septicemia model. ClyS showed a typical pattern of synergistic interactions with both vancomycin and oxacillin in vitro. More importantly, ClyS and oxacillin at doses that were not protective individually protected synergistically against MRSA septic death in a mouse model. These results strongly support the development of ClyS as an attractive addition to the current treatment options of multidrug-resistant S. aureus infections and would allow for the reinstatement of antibiotics shelved because of mounting resistance.
The ROTSE‐III Robotic Telescope System

The observation of a prompt optical flash from GRB 990123 convincingly demonstrated the value of autonomous robotic telescope systems. Pursuing a program of rapid follow‐up observations of gamma‐ray bursts, the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) has developed a next‐generation instrument, ROTSE‐III, that will continue the search for fast optical transients. The entire system was designed as an economical robotic facility to be installed at remote sites throughout the world. There are seven major system components: optics, optical tube assembly, CCD camera, telescope mount, enclosure, environmental sensing and protection, and data acquisition. Each is described in turn in the hope that the techniques developed here will be useful in similar contexts elsewhere.
Validity of current electrodiagnostic techniques in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome

Background: Determining the validity of current median sensory nerve conduction techniques for diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Methods: Eighty five patients with clinical diagnosis of CTS were compared with the same number of healthy people. The validity of electrodiagnostic tests were compared in a case-control manner. These electrodiagnostic techniques included long-segment, short-segment, 2-segment and relative slowing studies; as well as distoproximal ratio. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve employed for comparison, determining the optimal cut-off points for each test. Validity was evaluated with likelihood ratio. Results: Likelihood ratio (LHR) for Radial-median sensory latency difference was ∞, while LHR for ulnarmedian sensory latency difference was 16.9. Sensitivity of Two-segment method was 98.8% and mixed palmwrist median Nerve Conduction Velocity (NCV) study showed a sensitivity and specificity of 97.6%, 83.5% respectively. Conclusions: Radial-median latency difference study (optimal cut-off point ≥0.5) and study of wrist-segment NCV (optimal cut-off point <50.45) were the most valuable techniques in diagnosis of CTS, respectively. Median-ulnar latency difference study and disto-proximal ratio study had more diagnostic implication than long and short (mixed) segment technique in this regard.
Semantic methods for functional hybrid modelling

Equation-based modelling languages have become a vital tool in many areas of science and engineering. Functional Hybrid Modelling (FHM) is an approach to equation-based modelling that allows the behaviour of a physical system to be expressed as a modular hierarchy of undirected equations. FHM supports a variety of advanced language features — such as higher-order models and variable system structure — that sets it apart from the majority of other modelling languages. However, the inception of these new features has not been accompanied by the semantic tools required to effectively use and understand them. Specifically, there is a lack of static safety assurances for dynamic models and the semantics of the aforementioned language features are poorly understood. Static safety guarantees are highly desirable as they allow problems that may cause an equation system to become unsolvable to be detected early, during compilation. As a result, the use of static analysis techniques to enforce structural invariants (e.g. that there are the same number of equations as unknowns) is now in use in main-stream equation-based languages like Modelica. Unfortunately, the techniques employed by these languages are somewhat limited, both in their capacity to deal with advanced language features and also by the spectrum of invariants they are able to enforce. Formalising the semantics of equation-based languages is also important. Semantics allow us to better understand what a program is doing during execution, and to prove that this behaviour meets with our expectation. They also allow different implementations of a language to agree with one another, and can be used to demonstrate the correctness of a compiler or interpreter. However, current attempts to formalise such semantics typically fall short of describing advanced features, are not compositional, and/or fail to show correctness. This thesis provides two major contributions to equation-based languages. Firstly, we develop a refined type system for FHM capable of capturing a larger number of structural anomalies than is currently possible with existing methods. Secondly, we construct a compositional semantics for the discrete aspects of FHM, and prove a number of key correctness properties.
What is beautiful is good.

A person's physical appearance, along with his sexual identity, is the personal characteristic that is most obvious and accessible to others in social interaction. The present experiment was designed to determine whether physically attractive stimulus persons, both male and female, are (a) assumed to possess more socially desirable personality traits than physically unattractive stimulus persons and (6) expected to lead better lives (e.g., be more competent husbands and wives, be more successful occupationally, etc.) than unattractive stimulus persons. Sex of Subject X Sex of Stimulus Person interactions along these dimensions also were investigated. The present results indicate a "what is beautiful is good" stereotype along the physical attractiveness dimension with no Sex of Judge X Sex of Stimulus interaction. The implications of such a stereotype on self-concept development and the course of social interaction are discussed.
Bacterial resistance to tetracycline: mechanisms, transfer, and clinical significance

Tetracycline has been a widely used antibiotic because of its low toxicity and broad spectrum of activity. However, its clinical usefulness has been declining because of the appearance of an increasing number of tetracycline-resistant isolates of clinically important bacteria. Two types of resistance mechanisms predominate: tetracycline efflux and ribosomal protection. A third mechanism of resistance, tetracycline modification, has been identified, but its clinical relevance is still unclear. For some tetracycline resistance genes, expression is regulated. In efflux genes found in gram-negative enteric bacteria, regulation is via a repressor that interacts with tetracycline. Gram-positive efflux genes appear to be regulated by an attenuation mechanism. Recently it was reported that at least one of the ribosome protection genes is regulated by attenuation. Tetracycline resistance genes are often found on transmissible elements. Efflux resistance genes are generally found on plasmids, whereas genes involved in ribosome protection have been found on both plasmids and self-transmissible chromosomal elements (conjugative transposons). One class of conjugative transposon, originally found in streptococci, can transfer itself from streptococci to a variety of recipients, including other gram-positive bacteria, gram-negative bacteria, and mycoplasmas. Another class of conjugative transposons has been found in the Bacteroides group. An unusual feature of the Bacteroides elements is that their transfer is enhanced by preexposure to tetracycline. Thus, tetracycline has the double effect of selecting for recipients that acquire a resistance gene and stimulating transfer of the gene.
Sex role stereotyping and requisites of successful top managers

The issue of management style and women’s progression has been highlighted in the past, but women’s perceptions of successful management styles are important too, especially where women’s own preferred management style differs from their view of the top team. Such differences can lead to women not putting themselves forward for promotion. Reports a study of male and female managers in one very large insurance company. Uses the personality attributes questionnaire (PAQ) to identify the managers’ own management style, and their perceptions of the style of “the successful manager” who had reached the top team in their organisation. The PAQ identifies two dimensions of management from which four categories can be found. The survey of 363 managers revealed significant gender differences. The study provides further evidence of a shift in perceptions of leadership styles towards androgynous management, high on both instrumental and expressive traits. However, women are still thinking in “think manager, think male” mode, which may limit their confidence to put themselves forward for promotion.
Transition state theory can be used in studies of enzyme catalysis: lessons from simulations of tunnelling and dynamical effects in lipoxygenase and other systems

The idea that enzyme catalysis involves special factors such as coherent fluctuations, quantum mechanical tunnelling and non-equilibrium solvation (NES) effects has gained popularity in recent years. It has also been suggested that transition state theory (TST) cannot be used in studies of enzyme catalysis. The present work uses reliable state of the art simulation approaches to examine the above ideas. We start by demonstrating that we are able to simulate any of the present catalytic proposals using the empirical valence bond (EVB) potential energy surfaces, the dispersed polaron model and the quantized classical path (QCP) approach, as well as the approximate vibronic method. These approaches do not treat the catalytic effects by phenomenological treatments and thus can be considered as first principles approaches (at least their ability to compare enzymatic reaction to the corresponding solution reactions). This work will consider the lipoxygenase reaction, and to lesser extent other enzymes, for specific demonstration. It will be pointed out that our study of the lipoxygenase reaction reproduces the very large observed isotope effect and the observed rate constant while obtaining no catalytic contribution from nuclear quantum mechanical (NQM) effects. Furthermore, it will be clarified that our studies established that the NQM effect decreases rather than increases when the donor–acceptor distance is compressed. The consequences of these findings in terms of the temperature dependence of the kinetic isotope effect and in terms of different catalytic proposals will be discussed. This paper will also consider briefly the dynamical effects and conclude that such effects do not contribute in a significant way to enzyme catalysis. Furthermore, it will be pointed out that, in contrast to recent suggestions, NES effects are not dynamical effects and should therefore be part of the activation free energy rather than the transmission factor. In view of findings of the present work and our earlier works, it seems that TST provides a quantitative tool for studies of enzyme catalysis and that the key open questions are related to the nature of the factors that lead to transition state stabilization.
A dialdehyde cyclization cascade: an approach to pleuromutilin.

subunit of bacteria thereby preventing bacterial protein synthesis. The poor pharmacokinetic properties of the pleuromutilin class are, however, a major problem. Only recently has a pleuromutilin derivative been approved for use in humans: retapamulin (an ester derivative at C14) is used as a topical agent for bacterial skin infections and other pleuromutilin analogues are currently being developed. Although analogues of pleuromutilin are available by minor modification of the natural product, a concise approach to the core of pleuromutilin would allow the preparation of analogues of the natural product displaying improved pharmacokinetic properties. The structure of pleuromutilin presents a significant synthetic challenge. Whereas Gibbons and Boeckman et al. have reported impressive syntheses of racemic pleuromutilin, neither route is well-suited for adaptation to provide analogues of 1. Elegant studies by Zard and co-workers subsequently showed the potential of a concise approach to the antibacterial, and provided inspiration for our cascade approach to pleuromutilin. Herein we report a synthesis of the pleuromutilin framework in which a dialdehyde cyclization cascade is used to construct the core of the target in a single step, using a single reagent, with complete diastereocontrol at the four, contiguous stereocenters generated during the cascade. We recently reported a new class of sequential cyclization of dialdehyde substrates, mediated by SmI2, [6] in which the aldehyde groups undergo cyclization in sequence. We proposed that dialdehyde substrates 2 would undergo a cyclization cascade upon treatment with SmI2 to give concise, stereocontrolled access to the pleuromutilin framework 3. Central to our approach was the belief that one aldehyde group in 2 would serve as a radical precursor while the other would wait in line to act as an electrophile later in the sequence. We envisaged that the first aldehyde group would be reduced by SmI2 to the ketyl radical anion thereby triggering a 5-exo-trig radical cyclization. After reduction of the radical formed upon cyclization to a samarium enolate, the second aldehyde group would react with the enolate to form tricyclic system 3 (Scheme 1). Dialdehyde cyclization substrate 2 was prepared according to the route outlined in Scheme 2. Addition of the organocopper reagent, derived from the Grignard reagent 5, to enone 4 proceeded with moderate diastereoselectivity to give vinyl triflate 6 in 85% yield after trapping of the intermediate enolate with Comins reagent. Palladiumcatalyzed methoxycarbonylation then gave a,b-unsaturated ester 7 in 88 % yield. Lewis acid mediated addition of aldehyde 8 to the allyl silane motif in 7 gave 9 as a 1:1 diastereoisomeric mixture at the new stereocenter. SubseScheme 1. A SmI2-mediated cascade approach to pleuromutilin (1).