Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Sulfurtransferase Is Essential for Activity of Formate Dehydrogenases in Escherichia coli*

Background: The l-cysteine desulfurase IscS interacts with FdhD, a protein essential for the activity of formate dehydrogenases. Results: IscS transfers sulfur to FdhD, and this is required to yield an active enzyme. Conclusion: FdhD is a sulfurtransferase between IscS and formate dehydrogenases. Significance: This helps us to understand how sulfur transfer occurs in living cells. l-Cysteine desulfurases provide sulfur to several metabolic pathways in the form of persulfides on specific cysteine residues of an acceptor protein for the eventual incorporation of sulfur into an end product. IscS is one of the three Escherichia coli l-cysteine desulfurases. It interacts with FdhD, a protein essential for the activity of formate dehydrogenases (FDHs), which are iron/molybdenum/selenium-containing enzymes. Here, we address the role played by this interaction in the activity of FDH-H (FdhF) in E. coli. The interaction of IscS with FdhD results in a sulfur transfer between IscS and FdhD in the form of persulfides. Substitution of the strictly conserved residue Cys-121 of FdhD impairs both sulfur transfer from IscS to FdhD and FdhF activity. Furthermore, inactive FdhF produced in the absence of FdhD contains both metal centers, albeit the molybdenum cofactor is at a reduced level. Finally, FdhF activity is sulfur-dependent, as it shows reversible sensitivity to cyanide treatment. Conclusively, FdhD is a sulfurtransferase between IscS and FdhF and is thereby essential to yield FDH activity.
unctional interrelations between nucleus raphé dorsalis nd nucleus raphé medianus : A dual probe microdialysis tudy of glutamate-stimulated serotonin release avid

Dual-probe in vivo microdialysis was used to explore the relationships between the two midbrain raphé nuclei, raphé dorsalis (DRN) and raphé medianus (MRN). Infusion of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate (10 mM) into the dorsal raphé nucleus produced a large increase in the extracellular 5-HT (5-HText) in the dorsal raphé (1400% of control values) that was limited to the time of infusion. This was followed by a significant decrease in extracellular 5-HT below baseline levels that continued for the duration of the experiment (3 h). Extracellular 5-HT (5-HText) was also increased to 500% of control values in the median raphé nucleus following infusion of 10 mM glutamate (GLU) into the dorsal raphé nucleus. Infusion of the competitive NMDA receptor antagonist AP5 prior to and during infusion of GLU into the DRN resulted in a decrease in the response to GLU in the DRN and an antagonism of the increase of 5-HText in the MRN. Infusion of 10 mM GLU into the lateral midbrain tegmentum, an area of the brain just lateral P-5 n vivo microdialysis -HT -Hydroxytryptamine aphe nuclei to the DRN, also increased 5-HText in the probe in the lateral midbrain tegmentum (900% of control) but did not alter 5-HText in the MRN. When glutamate was infused into the MRN, 5-HText was also increased to 1400% of control in a time course similar to that seen with infusion of GLU into the DRN. Infusion of glutamate into the MRN, however, did not alter the 5-HText in the DRN. These data suggest a serotonergic innervation of the median raphé nucleus by the dorsal raphé nucleus. A reciprocal innervation from the l rap lular t p t t s t h a t t t c median raphé to the dorsa does not regulate extracel
Estrogen receptor β promoter methylation: a potential indicator of malignant changes in breast cancer

Introduction Estrogen receptor β (ERβ) always lacks expression in estrogen-dependent tumors, which may result from gene inactivation by methylation. In this study, we aimed to determine whether aberrant methylation of the ERβ promoter is associated with decreased ERβ gene expression in breast cancer. Material and methods ERβ methylation status was determined for 132 pairs of breast cancer and adjacent normal tissues via the MethyLight method. Additionally, mRNA relative expression was quantified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to determine whether aberrant methylation had a negative correlation with expression. The correlation of ERβ promoter methylation and clinical parameters is also discussed. Results Methylation was observed in 96 (72.7%) breast cancer samples, and the median percentage of fully methylated reference (PMR) among methylated tissues was 0.83. Meanwhile, 94 (71.2%) adjacent normal tissues were methylated and the median PMR was 0.48. Compared to adjacent normal tissues, the methylation level of breast cancer was significantly higher (p < 0.001) and mRNA expression was much lower (p < 0.001). There was a significant correlation between ERβ methylation and mRNA expression in adjacent normal breast tissues (p = 0.004). In addition, the methylation rate of cancer tissues whose maximum diameter < 3 cm was significantly higher than those > 3 cm (p = 0.025). Conclusions ERβ promoter methylation level varies between cancerous and adjacent normal breast tissues. There was significant downregulation of ERβ methylation expression in pre-cancerous stages of breast cancer. Therefore, demethylation drugs may offer a potential strategy for preventing the development of pre-cancerous cells.
The realization of atomic resolution with the electron microscope

The high-resolution electron microscope has evolved into a sophisticated instrument that is capable of routinely providing quantitative structural information on the atomic scale. Applications of atomic-resolution imaging can now be found in many scientific fields, and its impact on the knowledge and understanding of atomistic processes has been profound. Better control over instrumental parameters, enhanced reliability of signal recording, and novel methods for imaging and data processing are areas of highly active, ongoing research. Agreement over reliability factors, serious discrepancies in absolute contrast levels, and inversion of crystal scattering are identified as unresolved issues requiring further attention.
Complexity Issues within Eigenvalue-Based Multi-Antenna Spectrum Sensing

This chapter provides a deep insight into multiple antenna eigenvalue-based spectrum sensing algorithms from a complexity perspective. A review of eigenvalue-based spectrum-sensing algorithms is provided. The chapter presents a finite computational complexity analysis in terms of Floating Point Operations (flop) and a comparison of the Maximum-to-Minimum Eigenvalue (MME) detector and a simplified variant of the Multiple Beam forming detector as well as the Approximated MME method. Constant False Alarm Performances (CFAR) are presented to emphasize the complexity-reliability tradeoff within the spectrumsensing problem, given the strong requirements on the sensing duration and the detection performance.
DIAGNOSING DEMENTIA DUE TO ALZEMIER'S DISEASE : CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE

The diagnosis of dementia in Alzheimer's disease on clinical grounds is made by exclusion of other etiologies. The differential diagnoses of other subtypes considered along with dementia of Alzheimer's disease and the clinical process involved were studied in a tertiary level health care set up. Out of 39 patients with dementia admitted over 12 years it was found that a differential diagnoses of other subtype were considered along with dementia of Alzheimer's disease in 13 cases, while 15 cases had no such association. Most frequently associated category was vascular dementia in 30.8%. The clinical difficulties in differentiating dementia in Alzheimer's disease are discussed.
The youngest split in sympatric schizothoracine fish (Cyprinidae) is shaped by ecological adaptations in a Tibetan Plateau glacier lake

Although new empirical evidence shows that sympatric speciation has occurred in some species, there are few indisputable model organisms for this process of speciation. The two subspecies (Gymnocypris eckloni eckloni and G. e. scoliostomus) of the schizothoracine Gymnocypris fish species complex from a small glacier lake in the Tibetan Plateau, Lake Sunmcuo, fit several of the key characteristics of the sympatric speciation model. We used combined mitochondrial control region sequences and the cytochrome b gene (1894 bp) to address the phylogenetics and population genetics of 232 specimens of G. e. eckloni and G. e. scoliostomus, as well as all of its closely related sister species. We found that: (i) a total of four old lineages were uncovered in the widespread G. e. eckloni, of which only one was shown to be shared with all G. e. scoliostomus individuals and (ii) the new subspecies (G. e. scoliostomus) evolved in Lake Sunmcuo from the ancestral G. e. eckloni population within approximately 0.057 Ma. These two taxa of the species complex are morphologically distinct, and reproductive isolation is further suggested. Ecological disruptive selection based on morphological traits (e.g. mouth cleft characters) and food utilization may be a mechanism of incipient speciation of two sympatric populations within Lake Sunmcuo. This study provides the first genetic evidence for sympatric speciation in the schizothoracine fish.
Paid Volunteerism: The Effects of Monetary Rewards on University Students' Intrinsic Motivation to Participate in a Volunteerism Activity

PAID VOLUNTEERISM: THE EFFECTS OF MONETARY REWARDS ON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ INTRINSIC MOTIVATION TO PARTICIPATE IN A VOLUNTEERISM ACTIVITY Derence Walk Department of Recreation Management Youth Leadership Master of Science Volunteerism is positively associated with various benefits to university students. Perhaps for this reason, some educational institutions are paying students to participate in volunteerism. Conversely, the cognitive evaluation theory suggests that monetary rewards may undermine intrinsic motivation and decrease the likelihood of future participation in volunteerism. However, there has been little empirical research done regarding this issue. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of monetary rewards on university students’ intrinsic motivation to participate in a volunteerism activity. While the findings indicated a subtle trend supporting the cognitive evaluation theory, an analysis of the data demonstrated no statistical significance, thus suggesting that further research is needed in order to understand the application of the cognitive evaluation theory to volunteerism.
Illumination-Invariant Face Recognition with a Contrast Sensitive Silicon Retina

Changes in lighting conditions strongly effect the performance and reliability of computer vision systems. We report face recognition results under drastically changing lighting conditions for a computer vision system which concurrently uses a contrast sensitive silicon retina and a conventional, gain controlled CCO camera. For both input devices the face recognition system employs an elastic matching algorithm with wavelet based features to classify unknown faces. To assess the effect of analog on-chip preprocessing by the silicon retina the CCO images have been "digitally preprocessed" with a bandpass filter to adjust the power spectrum. The silicon retina with its ability to adjust sensitivity increases the recognition rate up to 50 percent. These comparative experiments demonstrate that preprocessing with an analog VLSI silicon retina generates image data enriched with object-constant features.
Hemodynamic effects of sleep restriction and laboratory stress

The reactivity hypothesis of hypertension states that persistent and exaggerated blood pressure (BP) responses to common stressful events may lead to the development of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. This experiment aimed to examine hemodynamic profile induced by behavioural challenges in the form of sleep restriction and psychosocial stress induced by time-pressured cognitive performance. Participants were 96 healthy male and female adults who received 40% of their usual overnight sleep on 2 of 4 nights preceding 4 morning visits to the research laboratory. Consistent with previous studies, sleep restriction had no appreciable effect on BP level. However, Finapres measurements of CO and TPR showed that the null effect of sleep restriction on BP concealed a pronounced vascular response in the form of marked increases in TPR, suggesting that a lifestyle characterised by persistent sleep loss could contribute significantly to the development of cardiovascular disease.
Statistical and deterministic approaches for multimedia forensics

The increasing availability and pervasiveness of multimedia data in our society is before our very eyes. As a result of globalization and worldwide connectivity, people from all over the planet are exchanging constantly increasing amounts of images, videos, audio recordings on a daily basis. Coupled with the easy access to user-friendly editing software, this poses a number of problems related to the reliability and trustworthiness of such content, as well as its potential malevolent use. For this reason, the research field of multimedia forensics focuses on the development of forensic tools for verifying the authenticity of multimedia data. The hypothesis of pristine status of images, videos or audio tracks is called into question and can be rejected if traces of manipulation are detected with a certain degree of confidence. In this framework, studying traces left by any operation that could have been employed to process the data, either for malicious purposes or simply to improve their content or presentation, turns out to be of interest for a comprehensive forensic analysis. The goal of this doctoral study is to contribute to the field of multimedia forensics by exploiting intrinsic statistical and deterministic properties of multimedia data. With this respect, much work has been devoted to the study of JPEG compression traces in digital images, resulting in the development of several innovative approaches. Indeed, some of the main related research problems have been addressed and solution based on statistical properties of digital images have been proposed. In particular, the problem of identifying traces of JPEG compressions in images that have been decompressed and saved in uncompressed formats has been extensively studied, resulting in the design of novel statistical detectors. Given the enormous practical relevance, digital images in JPEG formats have also been considered. A novel method aimed at discriminating images compressed only once and more than once has been developed, and tested on a variety of images and forensic scenarios. Being the potential presence of intelligent counterfeiters ever increasingly studied, innovative counterforensic techniques to JPEG compression based on smart reconstruction strategies are proposed. Finally, we explore the possibility of defining and exploiting deterministic properties related to a certain processing operation in the forensic analysis. With this respect, we present a first approach targeted to the detection in one-dimensional data of a common data smoothing operation, the median filter. A peculiarity of this method is the ability of providing a deterministic response on the presence of median filtering traces in the data under investigation.
Other People's Kids: Social Expectations and American Adults' Involvement with Children and Adolescents

Other People's Kids: Social Expectations and American Adults' Involvement With Children and Adolescents. Peter Scales. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. 2003. 274 pp. Cloth ISBN: 0-306-47734-3, $59.95. Recently, while standing at the grocery check-out and listening to the adult cashier gossiping comfortably with the teenage boy bagging groceries, I was reminded that this social scene is fairly unusual, because few opportunities exist in contemporary societies for adults and children to interact outside family and school settings. Peter Scales's most recent book, Other People's Kids: Social Expectations and American Adults' Involvement With Children and Adolescents, confirms that this observation is accurate. Outside the context of formal volunteering, only a small proportion of Americans spend significant time with children to whom they are not related, and the view that the socialization of children is primarily the responsibility of parents is a majority one. In short, although many would probably agree that "It takes a village to raise a child," as far as other people's kids go, most Americans have moved to the city. Scales identifies two barriers to adult engagement with children: (1) the existence of cultural norms that limit the permission that adults perceive for involvement, and (2) an absence of norms and values that provide guidelines for adults wanting greater involvement with children. The first five chapters introduce the study goals and expand our understanding of the nature of these prohibitive norms and of the cultural context that accounts for contemporary norms around adult involvement with children. Scales concludes that there are low costs for avoiding social contact with children, and a virtual armature of norms that either inhibit involvement or explicitly raise the social costs of contact with children. Through their research, Scales and his colleagues seek to identify the current national consensus regarding social norms about responsibility for children in order to develop a framework for designing social programming that will encourage a sea change in the relationship between children and adults. To achieve this goal, Scales conducted a nationally representative telephone survey of 1,425 adults, the results of which are reported in Chapters 6 through 8. Results show that a majority of Americans surveyed (over 70%) support 9 "core" values out of a total of 20 items. The nine core values include "encouraging success in school," "guiding decision making," and "expecting respect for adults. " Scales regards these results as evidence of the existence of normative support for adult involvement with nonrelative children, but the core values are so broad that it is hardly surprising that few respondents disagreed with them (e. …
Schizophrenia Revealed : From Neurons to Social Interactions

In the past ten years, major developments in scientific research have drastically changed the way schizophrenia is viewed. Neuroscience, in particular, has enabled researchers to frame different questions when investigating this illness and we are now coming to a deeper understanding of it. In this much-needed book, Michael Green, an expert in the neurocognition of schizophrenia, presents an integrated overview of schizophrenia covering a wide range of topics in lively, understandable prose. He outlines a neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia, discusses neurocognitive indicators of genetic vulnerability, the introduction of a new generation of medications, recent findings from brain imaging, cognitive remediation, and the determinants of functional outcome. He presents a modern view of schizophrenia based on neuroscience that goes far beyond the symptoms of the illness. Schizophrenia Revealed gives the reader an important overview of the most recent developments in our understanding of schizophrenia. It will be of interest to clinicians who are trying to understand the neurocognitive constraints acting on their patients, practitioners in psychology, psychiatry, social work, and nursing, as well as family members and students who want to know how our view of this disease has changed in recent years.
Relationship between Insulin Resistance and the Renin-Angiotensin System: Analysis for Patients with Essential and Renovascular Hypertension

Insulin resistance is frequently observed in patients with essential hypertension (EHT), and the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been demonstrated to modulate the status of insulin resistance. The aims of present study are to investigate the relationship between systemic RAS and insulin resistance in 82 patients with EHT and compare the impact of RAS to insulin resistance with 10 renovascular hypertension (RVHT) patients who have a highly activated systemic RAS. From patients who were admitted to our hospital, patients with overt diabetes and hypertensives who had secondary HT except RVHT or chronic renal failure were excluded. Plasma renin activity (PRA) was used as an indicator of systemic RAS activity. HOMA-R as an index of insulin resistance and sum of immunoreactive insulin (IRI) during glucose tolerance test (∑IRI) and IRI at 120 minutes (IRI120) were used as indices of hyperinsulinemia. In the EHT patients, circulating PRA showed an independent relationship with IRI120 and ∑IRI after adjusting confounding factors (IRI120: t = 2.70, p = 0.01, ∑IRI: t = 3.05, p < 0.001). Excluding patients who were taking angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin II type 1 receptor blocker (ARBs), the relationship remained in univariate linear regression; after adjustment for confounding factors, PRA showed a tendency to be correlated with ∑IRI. However, there was no significant relationship between PRA and indices of insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia in patients with RVHT. In conclusion, the systemic RAS may modulate insulin sensitivity in EHT patients.
Recovery of Upper Limb Function After Cerebellar Stroke: Lesion Symptom Mapping and Arm Kinematics

Background and Purpose— Loss of movement coordination is the main postacute symptom after cerebellar infarction. Although the course of motor recovery has been described previously, detailed kinematic descriptions of acute stage ataxia are rare and no attempt has been made to link improvements in motor function to measures of neural recovery and lesion location. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of how lesion site and arm dysfunction are associated in the acute stage and outlines the course of upper limb motor recovery for the first 4 months after the infarction. Methods— Sixteen adult patients with cerebellar stroke and 11 age-matched healthy controls participated. Kinematics of goal-directed and unconstrained finger-pointing movements were measured at the acute stage and in 2-week and 3-month follow-ups. MRI data were obtained for the acute and 3-month follow-up sessions. A voxel-based lesion map subtraction analysis was performed to examine the effect of ischemic lesion sites on kinematic performance. Results— In the acute stage, nearly 70% of patients exhibited motor slowing with hand velocity and acceleration maxima below the range of the control group. MRI analysis revealed that in patients with impaired motor performance, lesions were more common in paravermal lobules IV/V and affected the deep cerebellar nuclei. Stroke affecting the superior cerebellar artery led to lower motor performance than infractions of the posterior cerebellar artery. By the 2-week-follow-up, hand kinematics had improved dramatically (gains in acceleration up to 86%). Improvements between the 2-week and the 3-month-follow-ups were less pronounced. Conclusion— In the acute stage, arm movements were mainly characterized by abnormal slowness (bradykinesia) and not dyscoordination (ataxia). The motor signs were associated with lesions in paravermal regions of lobules IV/V and the deep cerebellar nuclei. Motor recovery was fast, with the majority of gains in upper limb function occurring in the first 2 weeks after the acute phase.
A handy system for natural composition of CG and real scene with real-time reflection of lighting changes

A handy system is presented for creating in real time a natural television image composed of a real scene and a computer graphics object. The light positions and colors (RGB values) in the real scene are estimated and then applied to the object by using simple equipment. Objective and subjective experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of this system. An enhanced algorithm is also presented that improves the accuracy of light estimation.