Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liver Glycerol Permeability and Aquaporin-9 Are Dysregulated in a Murine Model of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

One form of liver steatosis, namely Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), is a worrisome health problem worldwide characterized by intrahepatic triacylglycerol (TG) overaccumulation. NAFLD is a common feature of metabolic syndrome being often associated with obesity, dyslipidemia and diabetes and mostly closely linked to insulin resistance. The mechanism of NAFLD pathogenesis is object of intense investigation especially regarding complex systems ultimately resulting in excessive TG deposition in hepatocytes. However, scarce is the attention about the relevance of hepatic import of glycerol, the other primary source (as glycerol-3-phosphate) of increased TG in hepatocytes. Obese leptin-deficient (ob/ob) mice, an animal model of NAFLD, were used to evaluate the functional involvement of Aquaporin-9 (AQP9), the major pathway of liver glycerol entry, in hepatosteatosis. By RT-PCR and qPCR, the level of Aqp9 mRNA in the liver of starved obese mice was comparable with the corresponding control lean littermates. By immunoblotting, the AQP9 protein at the hepatocyte sinusoidal plasma membrane of obese mice was markedly lower (33%) than lean mice, a finding fully confirmed by immunohistochemistry. By stopped-flow light scattering, the liver glycerol permeability of ob/ob mice was significantly lower (53%) than lean mice, a finding consistent with both the observed down-regulation of AQP9 protein and increased level of plasma glycerol characterizing obese mice. In summary, our results suggest implication of AQP9 in liver steatosis. The reduction of hepatocyte AQP9 and, consequently, glycerol permeability might be a defensive mechanism to counteract further fat infiltration in liver parenchyma.
Status and Prospects of Association Mapping in Plants

There is tremendous interest in using association mapping to identify genes responsible for quantitative variation of complex traits with agricultural and evolutionary importance. Recent advances in genomic technology, impetus to exploit natural diversity, and development of robust statistical analysis methods make association mapping appealing and affordable to plant research programs. Association mapping identifies quantitative trait loci (QTLs) by examining the marker‐trait associations that can be attributed to the strength of linkage disequilibrium between markers and functional polymorphisms across a set of diverse germplasm. General understanding of association mapping has increased significantly since its debut in plants. We have seen a more concerted effort in assembling various association‐mapping populations and initiating experiments through either candidate‐gene or genome‐wide approaches in different plant species. In this review, we describe the current status of association mapping in plants and outline opportunities and challenges in complex trait dissection and genomics‐assisted crop improvement.
Molecular Mechanism of Amino Acid Discrimination for the Editing Reaction of E.coli Leucyl-tRNA Synthetase

Certain tRNA synthetases have developed highly accurate molecular machinery to discriminate their cognate amino acids. Those aaRSs achieve their goal via editing reaction in the Connective Polypeptide 1 (CP1). Recently mutagenesis studies have revealed the critical importance of residues in the CP1 domain for editing activity and X-ray structures have shown binding mode of noncognate amino acids in the editing domain. To pursue molecular mechanism for amino acid discrimination, molecular modeling studies were performed. Our results suggest that aaRS bind the noncognate amino acid more tightly than the cognate one. Finally, by comparing binding conformations of the amino acids in three systems, the amino acid binding mode was elucidated and a discrimination mechanism proposed. The results strongly reveal that the conserved threonines are responsible for amino acid discrimination. This is achieved through side chain interactions between T252 and T247/T248 as well as between those threonines and the incoming amino acids. Keywords—Amino acid discrimination, Binding free energyLeucyl-tRNAsynthetase, Molecular dynamics.
Distributed Space-Time Block Coded OFDM for Relay-Assisted Transmission

In this paper, we investigate orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique for distributed space-time block coding (D-STBC) in a relay-assisted transmission scenario over frequency-selective fading channels. We consider the special case of a single-relay where the source-to-relay (S - R), relay-to-destination (R - D) and source-to-destination (S - D) links experience possibly different channel delay spreads. Our analysis demonstrates that uncoded distributed OFDM-STBC (D-OFDM-STBC) scheme achieves a maximum diversity order of two for the considered single-relay scenario since it is able to exploit only the spatial diversity, but not the available rich multipath diversity. We further consider a combination of D-OFDM-STBC and Trellis Coded Modulation (TCM) with frequency-interleaving. Under the assumption of perfect power control for the relay terminal and high signal-to-noise ratio for the underlying links, our performance analysis demonstrates that D-OFDM-STBC scheme with judiciously designed outer TCM codes, i.e. sufficiently large effective code length (ECL), is able to achieve a maximum diversity order of min(L1, L3) + L2 + 2 where L1, L2, and L3 are the channel memory lengths for S - R, S - D and R - D links, respectively. This illustrates that the smaller of the multipath diversity orders experienced in S - R and R - D links becomes the performance bottleneck for the relaying path. An extensive Monte Carlo simulation study is presented to corroborate the analytical results and to provide further insights into the performance.
A Novel Sorting Motif in the Glutamate Transporter Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 3 Directs Its Targeting in Madin–Darby Canine Kidney Cells and Hippocampal Neurons

The glutamate transporter excitatory amino acid transporter 3 (EAAT3) is polarized to the apical surface in epithelial cells and localized to the dendritic compartment in hippocampal neurons, where it is clustered adjacent to postsynaptic sites. In this study, we analyzed the sequences in EAAT3 that are responsible for its polarized localization in Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells and neurons. Confocal microscopy and cell surface biotinylation assays demonstrated that deletion of the EAAT3 C terminus or replacement of the C terminus of EAAT3 with the analogous region in EAAT1 eliminated apical localization in MDCK cells. The C terminus of EAAT3 was sufficient to redirect the basolateral-preferring EAAT1 and the nonpolarized EAAT2 to the apical surface. Using alanine substitution mutants, we identified a short peptide motif in the cytoplasmic C-terminal region of EAAT3 that directs its apical localization in MDCK cells. Mutation of this sequence also impairs dendritic targeting of EAAT3 in hippocampal neurons but does not interfere with the clustering of EAAT3 on dendritic spines and filopodia. These data provide the first evidence that an identical cytoplasmic motif can direct apical targeting in epithelia and somatodendritic targeting in neurons. Moreover, our results demonstrate that the two fundamental features of the localization of EAAT3 in neurons, its restriction to the somatodendritic domain and its clustering near postsynaptic sites, are mediated by distinct molecular mechanisms.
Trade Union Education and Training in Britain:: A Critique of Public Policy

The Labour Movement in Britain has long had a commitment to the education of its membership. It is, however, relatively recently that education and training, specifically in areas of industrial relations, has become generally available to the lay officials of unions. The considerable growth in educational provision for workplace representatives has undoubtedly been one of the most significant developments to emerge in British industrial relations during the last ten years. But such a growth has not developed purely out of the interests of trade unions, nor has it just been a response to a need for educational provision and resources to meet the rapid increases in numbers of shop stewards, which began to occur from the middle of the 1960's.
A non-supervised method for shoreline extraction using high resolution SAR image

This paper presents a non-supervised method for shoreline extraction from high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image. The proposed technique is based on level set with all the parameters optimized in order to be used with different kinds of SAR data and to find the desired boundary with a minimize number of iterations so as to be fast enough. The preprocessing including Roberts Operator and Histogram adjusting is used to enhance the contrast of the boundary. Then we initial the curve to cover the whole image, and an improved level set method is used to do the segmentation. After that, several post-processing steps are utilized to remove any remaining spurious segments. It's completely non-supervised and can be applied to different kinds of SAR data. The results confirm that the proposed method can provide a stable and fast solution to the shoreline extraction using SAR data.
Complications of 2735 retrograde semirigid ureteroscopy procedures: a single-center experience.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Ureteroscopy is nowadays one of the techniques most widely used for upper urinary- tract pathology. Our goal is to describe its complications in a large series of patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between June 1994 and February 2005, 2436 patients aged 5 to 87 years underwent retrograde ureteroscopy (2735 procedures) under video and fluoroscopic assistance. We used semirigid ureteroscopes (8/9.8F Wolf, 6.5F Olympus, 8F and 10F Storz) for 384 diagnostic and 2351 therapeutic procedures. Upper urinary-tract lithiasis (2041 cases), ureteropelvic junction stenosis (95 cases), benign ureteral stenosis (29 cases), tumoral extrinsic ureteral stenosis (84 cases), iatrogenic trauma (35 cases), superficial ureteral tumors (16 cases), superficial pelvic tumors (7 cases), and ascending displaced stents (44 cases) were the indications. The mean follow-up period was 56 months (range 4-112 months). RESULTS The rate of intraoperative incidents was 5.9% (162 cases). Intraoperative incidents consisted of the impossibility of accessing calculi (3.7%), trapped stone extractors (0.7%), equipment damage (0.7%), and double- J stent malpositioning (0.76%). In addition, migration of calculi or stone fragments during lithotripsy was apparent in 116 cases (4.24%). The general rate of intraoperative complications was 3.6% (98 cases). We also saw mucosal injury (abrasion [1.5%] or false passage [1%]), ureteral perforation (0.65%), extraureteral stone migration (0.18%), bleeding (0.1%), and ureteral avulsions (0.11%). Early complications were described in 10.64%: fever or sepsis (1.13%), persistent hematuria (2.04%), renal colic (2.23%), migrated double-J stent (0.66%), and transitory vesicoureteral reflux (4.58%, especially in cases with indwelling double-J stents). We also found late complications such as ureteral stenosis (3 cases) and persistent vesicoureteral reflux (2 cases). Most (87%) of the complications followed ureteroscopic therapy for stones. Three fourths (76%) of the complications occurred in the first 5 years of the series. CONCLUSIONS According to our experience, mastery of ureteroscopic technique allows the urologist to proceed endourologically with minimum morbidity. Despite the new smaller semirigid instruments, this minimally invasive maneuver may sometimes be aggressive, and adequate training is imperative.
Appraising the relation between corporate responsibility research and practice

The paper identifies epistemological, theoretical and methodological problems in a potentially influential subset of the interdisciplinary corporate responsibility literature, being that which appears in the management literature. The received conceptualisation of stakeholder analysis is criticised by identifying six sets of factors conventionally considered as promoting social responsibilities in the firm: inter-organizational factors, economic competitors, institutional investors, end-consumers, government regulators and nongovernmental organizations. Each is addressed on conceptual grounds, its empirical salience in terms of the latest relevant research and prospects to be a significant factor in promoting outcomes consistent with social welfare. Despite obvious antagonistic relations between organization-centred economic objectives and extra-organizational-directed social considerations, the huge body of research we address drifts in a disengaged Sargasso Sea. Addressing the impasse between research and practice, the paper considers directions for business ethics/responsibility/corporate citizenship research in such as the work of Foucault on moral leadership, of Freire on moral courage, and of Bourdieu on academic leadership. Ashridge Business School UK http://www.ashridge. org.uk
The Fecal Microbiome in Cats with Diarrhea

Recent studies have revealed that microbes play an important role in the pathogenesis of gastrointestinal (GI) diseases in various animal species, but only limited data is available about the microbiome in cats with GI disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the fecal microbiome in cats with diarrhea. Fecal samples were obtained from healthy cats (n = 21) and cats with acute (n = 19) or chronic diarrhea (n = 29) and analyzed by sequencing of 16S rRNA genes, and PICRUSt was used to predict the functional gene content of the microbiome. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) revealed significant differences in bacterial groups between healthy cats and cats with diarrhea. The order Burkholderiales, the families Enterobacteriaceae, and the genera Streptococcus and Collinsella were significantly increased in diarrheic cats. In contrast the order Campylobacterales, the family Bacteroidaceae, and the genera Megamonas, Helicobacter, and Roseburia were significantly increased in healthy cats. Phylum Bacteroidetes was significantly decreased in cats with chronic diarrhea (>21 days duration), while the class Erysipelotrichi and the genus Lactobacillus were significantly decreased in cats with acute diarrhea. The observed changes in bacterial groups were accompanied by significant differences in functional gene contents: metabolism of fatty acids, biosynthesis of glycosphingolipids, metabolism of biotin, metabolism of tryptophan, and ascorbate and aldarate metabolism, were all significantly (p<0.001) altered in cats with diarrhea. In conclusion, significant differences in the fecal microbiomes between healthy cats and cats with diarrhea were identified. This dysbiosis was accompanied by changes in bacterial functional gene categories. Future studies are warranted to evaluate if these microbial changes correlate with changes in fecal concentrations of microbial metabolites in cats with diarrhea for the identification of potential diagnostic or therapeutic targets.
Description and interaction of RESTful services for automatic discovery and execution

Many have left their footprints on the field of semantic RESTful Web service description. Albeit some of the propositions are even W3C Recommendations, none of the proposed standards could gain significant adoption with Web service providers. Some approaches were supposedly too complex and verbose, others were considered not RESTful, and some failed to reach a significant majority of API providers for a combination of the reasons above. While we neither have the silver bullet for universal Web service description, with this paper, we want to suggest a lightweight approach called RESTdesc. It expresses the semantics of Web services by preand postconditions in simple N3 rules, and integrates existing standards and conventions such as Link headers, HTTP OPTIONS, and URI templates for discovery and interaction. This approach keeps the complexity to a minimum, yet still enables service descriptions with full semantic expressiveness. A sample implementation on the topic of multimedia Web services verifies the effectiveness of our approach.
Instantaneous formation of SiOx nanocomposite for high capacity lithium ion batteries by enhanced disproportionation reaction during plasma spray physical vapor deposition

Abstract Nanocomposite SiOx particles have been produced by a single step plasma spray physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) through rapid condensation of SiO vapors and the subsequent disproportionation reaction. Core-shell nanoparticles, in which 15 nm crystalline Si is embedded within the amorphous SiOx matrix, form under typical PS-PVD conditions, while 10 nm amorphous particles are formed when processed with an increased degree of non-equilibrium effect. Addition of CH4 promotes reduction in the oxygen content x of SiO x , and thereby increases the Si volume in a nanocomposite particle. As a result, core-shell nanoparticles with x = 0.46 as anode exhibit increased initial efficiency and the capacity of lithium ion batteries while maintaining cyclability. Furthermore, it is revealed that the disproportionation reaction of SiO is promoted in nanosized particles attaining increased Si diffusivity by two orders of magnitude compared to that in bulk, which facilitates instantaneous composite nanoparticle formation during PS-PVD.
Research Statement Amy Ashurst Gooch

Over the past 7 years as a researcher, I examined non-photorealistic rendering [4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 15], as well as human perception in immersive environments [1, 2, 5, 12, 16, 17] and computer-generated and modified imagery [3, 6, 8, 14]. My research involves the interdisciplinary synthesis of computer graphics, perceptual psychology, art theory, and computational vision. My primary research goal endeavors to better understand spatial information available in computer generated imagery, determine what cues are actually used, and then create improved rendering algorithms.
Decreased and aberrant nuclear lamin expression in gastrointestinal tract neoplasms

BACKGROUND Altered expression of lamins A/C and B1, constituent proteins of the nuclear lamina, may occur during differentiation and has also been reported in primary lung cancer. AIMS To examine the expression of these proteins in gastrointestinal neoplasms. PATIENTS Archival human paraffin wax blocks and frozen tissue from patients undergoing surgical resection or endoscopic biopsy. METHODS Immunohistochemistry and western blotting using polyclonal antisera against A type lamins and lamin B1. RESULTS The expression of lamin A/C was reduced and was frequently undetectable by immunohistochemistry in all primary colon carcinomas and adenomas, and in 7/8 primary gastric cancers. Lamin B1 expression was reduced in all colon cancers, 16/18 colonic adenomas, and 6/8 gastric cancers. Aberrant, cytoplasmic labelling with both antibodies occurred in some colonic cancers and around one third of colonic adenomas. Cytoplasmic lamin A/C expression was detected in 3/8 gastric cancers. Lamin expression was reduced in gastric dysplasia, but not intestinal metaplasia, atrophy, or chronic gastritis. Lamin expression was low in carcinomas of oesophagus, prostate, breast, and uterus, but not pancreas. CONCLUSIONS Reduced expression of nuclear lamins, sometimes together with aberrant, cytoplasmic immunoreactivity is common in gastrointestinal neoplasms. Altered lamin expression may be a biomarker of malignancy in the gastrointestinal tract.
microRNA for determining the age-related myogenic capabilities of skeletal muscle

Skeletal muscle exhibits a loss of muscle mass and function with age. Decreased regenerative potential of muscle stem/progenitor cells is a major underlying cause of sarcopenia. We analyzed microRNAs (miRNA) that are differentially expressed in young and old myoblasts, to identify novel intrinsic factors that play a degenerative role in aged skeletal muscle. miR-431, one of decreasing miRNAs in old myoblasts, improved the myogenic differentiation when overexpressed in old myoblast, but suppressed their myogenic capability in knockdowned young myoblasts. We found that miR-431 directly binds to 3` untranslated regions (UTR) of Smad4 mRNA, and decreases its expression. Given that SMAD4 is one of the downstream effectors of TGF-β, a well-known degenerative signaling pathway in myogenesis, the decreased miR-431 in old myoblast causes SMAD4 elevation, thus resulting in defective myogenesis. Exogenous expression of miR-431 greatly improved the muscle regeneration in the cardiotoxin-injured hindlimb muscle of old mice by reducing SMAD4 levels. Since the miR-431 seed sequence is conserved in human SMAD4 3’UTR, miR-431 regulates the myogenic capacity of human skeletal myoblasts in the same manner. Our results suggest that age-associated miR-431 is required for the maintenance of the myogenic capability in myoblasts, thus underscoring its potential as a therapeutic target to slow down muscle aging. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(11): 595-596]
Transcriptional and functional characterization of genetic elements involved in galacto-oligosaccharide utilization by Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003

Several prebiotics, such as inulin, fructo‐oligosaccharides and galacto‐oligosaccharides, are widely used commercially in foods and there is convincing evidence, in particular for galacto‐oligosaccharides, that prebiotics can modulate the microbiota and promote bifidobacterial growth in the intestinal tract of infants and adults. In this study we describe the identification and functional characterization of the genetic loci responsible for the transport and metabolism of purified galacto‐oligosaccharides (PGOS) by Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003. We further demonstrate that an extracellular endogalactanase specified by several B. breve strains, including B. breve UCC2003, is essential for partial degradation of PGOS components with a high degree of polymerization. These partially hydrolysed PGOS components are presumed to be transported into the bifidobacterial cell via various ABC transport systems and sugar permeases where they are further degraded to galactose and glucose monomers that feed into the bifid shunt. This work significantly advances our molecular understanding of bifidobacterial PGOS metabolism and its associated genetic machinery to utilize this prebiotic.
New interactions between LV customers and the network: further possibilities for home automation functions

In recent years Italian power sector has been undergoing considerable changes: EU Directive on electricity (96/92/EC) established common rules for the creation of internal markets and required privatization of Italy's dominant energy monopolies, but also extended to all domestic customers the possibility to choose their own energy retailers starting from July 2007. This will involve a new role for the final user who will change from passive consumer to active participant. To get the most advantage from this opportunity it is necessary to provide a platform which will be interoperable with home and building automation systems and that will supply several functionalities as communicate with distributor/retailer, interact with consumer, manage loads, energy storages and domestic micro-generation. In this way households will become active "nodes" of the electric network that could also provide services for the network (power modulation) and the market (reduce energy price volatility).