Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The defense-responsive genes showing enhanced and repressed expression after pathogen infection in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Despite large numbers of studies about defense response, processes involved in the resistance of plants to incompatible pathogens are still largely uncharacterized. The objective of this study was to identify genes involved in defense response by cDNA array analysis and to gain knowledge about the functions of the genes involved in defense response. Approximately 20000 rice cDNA clones were arrayed on nylon filters. RNA samples isolated from different rice lines after infection with incompatible strains or isolates of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae or Pyricularia grisea, respectively, were used to synthesize cDNA as probes for screening the cDNA arrays. A total of 100 differentially expressed unique sequences were identified from 5 pathogen-host combinations. Fifty-three sequences were detected as showing enhanced expression and 47 sequences were detected as showing repressed expression after pathogen infection. Sequence analysis revealed that most of the 100 sequences had various degrees of homology with genes in databases which encode or putatively encode transcription regulating proteins, translation regulating proteins, transport proteins, kinases, metabolic enzymes, and proteins involved in other functions. Most of the genes have not been previously reported as being involved in the disease resistance response in rice. The results from cDNA arrays, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and RNA gel blot analysis suggest that activation or repression of most of these genes might occur commonly in the defense response.
POST-HOC SEGMENTATION USING MARKETING RESEARCH

This paper is about an instrumental research conducted in order to compare the information given by two multivariate data analysis used fordividing a population in clusters. These methods are K-means cluster and TwoStep cluster, which are available in SPSS system. Such methods could be used in post-hoc market segmentations, which allow companies to find segments with specific behaviours or attitudes. The research scope is to find which of the two methods is better for market segmentation practice. The outcomes reveal that every method has strong points and weaknesses. These ones are related to the relevance of segments description and the statistic significance of the difference between segments. In this respect, the researchers should compare the results of the named analyses and choose the method which better discriminate between the market segments.
Subaltern Banking Markets: Explaining the Lags in the Diffusion of Innovation

We report evidence of subaltern markets, centred on size, within the all-India banking industry. Specifically, banks in the same size bracket behave in a similar fashion, and different from banks of bigger or smaller size. This suggests the interesting concept of a time-varying optimal bank size, contingent on the policy environment, the size of the banking industry and the nature of competition. Using a non-parametric frontier approach to efficiency (Data Envelopment Analysis) to Indian banks, in the post-liberalisation period (1993-2001), this study reports a strong persistence in the directional movements of the Malmquist Index in each of the years, even though the three sub-indices show a lack of persistence. The duality suggests that banks were able to obtain sustained benefits in overall efficiency by successfully tuning the sub-components from year to year. Sorted and grouped in quartiles by size, different groups are shown to respond differently to shocks.
Sensitivity enhancement in evanescent optical waveguide sensors

It is shown, that the sensitivity of the effective refractive index on the cladding index in evanescent optical waveguide sensors, can be larger than unity. This implies that the attenuation of a guided wave propagating in a waveguide immersed in an absorptive medium can be made larger than that of a free-space wave propagating through the same medium. The conditions and physical explanation for this puzzling behavior are identified and as a practical application, an absorption sensor, based on a suspended silicon slab waveguide, is proposed where the sensitivity is enhanced by a factor of 1.35.
ATP-induced Tetramerization and Cooperativity in Hemoglobin of Lower Vertebrates*

The importance of intraerythrocytic organic phosphates in the allosteric control of oxygen binding to vertebrate hemoglobin (Hb) is well recognized and is correlated with conformational changes of the tetramer. ATP is a major allosteric effector of snake Hb, since the absence of this nucleotide abolishes the Hb cooperativity. This effect may be related to the molecular weight of about 32,000 for this Hb, which is compatible with the dimeric form. ATP induces a pH-dependent tetramerization of deoxyHb that leads to the recovery of cooperativity. This phenomenon may be partially explained by two amino acid replacements in the β chains (CD2 Glu-43 → Thr and G3 Glu-101 → Val), which result in the loss of two negative charges at the α1β2 interface and favors the dissociation into dimers. The ATP-dependent dimer ↔ tetramer may be physiologically important among ancient animal groups that have similar mutations and display variations in blood pH that are governed by these animals′ metabolic state. The enormous loss of free energy of association that accompanies Hb oxygenation, and which is also observed at a much lower intensity in higher vertebrate Hbs, must be taken into consideration in allosteric models. We propose that the transition from a myoglobin-like protein to an allosteric one may be of evolutionary significance.
Porphyromonas gingivalis Strain Variability and Periodontitis

ABSTRACT To determine if there is variability in virulence among strains ofPorphyromonas gingivalis in human periodontitis, their distribution in a group of subjects with clear indicators of periodontitis and in a healthy, age-matched control group was examined. The presence of heteroduplex types of P. gingivalis in the two groups was determined with a PCR-based assay. This assay relied on detection of polymorphisms in the ribosomal internal spacer region (ISR). ISR fragments generated by PCR with P. gingivalis-specific primers were hybridized to fragments from reference strains, and the formation of heteroduplexes from the hybridization of nonidentical sequences was observed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Characteristic fingerprints from comparison with a panel of reference strains allowed the identification of heteroduplex types in clinical samples. One hundred thirty adults with periodontitis and 181 controls were sampled. With this approach, 11 heteroduplex types of P. gingivalis were detected in the population. Sufficient numbers were available for statistical analysis of six of these types. Heteroduplex type hW83 was found to be very strongly associated with periodontitis (P = 0.0000), and two additional types, h49417 and hHG1691, were also significantly associated with disease. The remaining types, h23A4, h381, and hA7A1, were detected more frequently in subjects with periodontitis than in healthy subjects, but the difference was not significant. These data indicate that virulence in human periodontitis varies among strains ofP. gingivalis, and they identify an apparently highly virulent subgroup.
Oxytocin receptor-deficient mice developed late-onset obesity

The oxytocin receptor has been suggested to be involved in energy metabolism, such as food intake and energy consumption. Here, we demonstrate that oxytocin receptor-deficient (Oxtr−/−) male mice exhibited late-onset obesity with increases in abdominal fat pads and fasting plasma triglycerides. Daily food intake and spontaneous motor activity of Oxtr−/− mice were not significantly different as compared with wild-type mice. In contrast, brown adipose tissue in Oxtr−/− mice contained large lipid droplets and cold-induced thermogenesis was impaired. This study demonstrates that oxytocin receptor plays essential roles in the regulation of energy homeostasis.
Acute hyperinsulinemia and its reversal by vagotomy after lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus in anesthetized rats.

The acute effect of bilateral electrolytic ventromedial hypothalamic lesions (20-25-m Coulomb stainless steel electrodes) on plasma levels of insulin and glucose was studied in anesthetized rats to determine early effects that would occur before hyperphagia and obesity. In rats fed ad libitum, lesions in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) but not in the cortex produced a marked increase in circulating insulin levels (starting at 20 min postlesion) and a small increase in glycemia which, however, was not significant and could therefore not be the cause of increased insulin secretion. Hyperinsulinemia after VMH lesions was more pronounced when glucose was infused iv at a rate of 7-8 mg/kg . min. Bilateral subdiaphragmatic vagotomy, performed 50 min after VMH lesions, immediately and completely reversed the observed hyperinsulinemia. With the exception of a tendency of lesions producing the highest degree of hyperinsulinemia to be slightly larger than the lesions not producing any hyperinsulinemia, no statement about the critical involvement of a specific hypothalamic locus can be made. It is concluded that electrolytic VMH destruction causes immediate hypersecretion of the pancreatic B cell, an effect that requires the integrity of the vagus nerves. Further localization of the central circuitry responsible for this mechanism, however, will require more specific methods than electrolytic lesions.
Isolation and characterization of Dcp1p, the yeast mRNA decapping enzyme

A major mechanism of mRNA decay occurs by the process of deadenylation, decapping and 5′ → 3′ exonucleolytic degradation. Recently, the product of the DCP1 gene has been shown to be required for decapping mRNAs in vivo and co‐purifies with decapping activity in vitro. We have purified Dcp1p to homogeneity and shown that it is sufficient for decapping, thereby indicating that Dcp1p is the decapping enzyme. Characterization of Dcp1p activity in vitro indicated that the 7‐methyl group of the cap structure contributes to the enzyme's substrate specificity. In addition, Dcp1p was effectively inhibited by uncapped mRNAs, and the enzyme efficiently cleaved substrates that were ≥25 nucleotides in length, with a preference for longer mRNA substrates. These properties suggest that Dcp1p recognizes the mRNA substrate by interactions with both the cap and the RNA moiety. The Dcp1p is also a phosphoprotein, suggesting its activity may be regulated by post‐transcriptional modification.
A Study on Prediction of User Behavior Based on Web Server Log Files in Web Usage Mining

: Nowadays, the growth of World Wide Web has exceeded a lot with more expectations. The internet is growing day by day, so online users are also rising. The interesting information for knowledge of extracting from such huge data demands for new logic and the new method. Every user spends their most of the time on the internet and their behavior is different from one and another. Web usage mining is the category of web mining that helps in automatically discovering user access pattern. Web usage mining is leading research area in Web Mining concerned about the web user’s behavior. In this paper emphasizes is given on the user Behaviors using web server log file prediction using web server log record, click streams record and user information. Users using web pages, frequently visited hyperlinks, frequently accessed web pages, links are stored in web server log files. A Web log along with the individuality of the user captures their browsing behavior on a website and discussing regarding the behavior from analysis of different algorithms and different methods
A Gate Leakage Feedback Element in an Adaptive Amplifier Application

This brief presents a method to exploit gate leakage (GL) to create a feedback element for an input offset insensitive and output offset programmable inverting amplifier. Measurements are shown from a test circuit produced in a 90-nm multithreshold CMOS process where a GL element uses thin oxide and a amplifier input stage uses thick oxide. The feedback element has very high nonlinear impedance from about 100 M to several gigaohms depending on the applied voltage, and is suitable for adaptive applications where long time constants (1 ms to 1s) are required and small, slowly wandering offsets can be tolerated.
Citrullination of central nervous system proteins during the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Immunization of mammals with central nervous system (CNS)‐derived proteins or peptides induces experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a disease resembling the human autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Both diseases are accompanied by destruction of a part of the of the myelin sheaths, which surround neurites in the CNS. Previous studies in MS have described alterations in the citrullination of myelin basic protein, one of the main protein constituents of the myelin sheath. Here, we show that, also during the development of EAE in mice, hypercitrullination occurs in the areas of the spinal cord that show the highest degree of inflammation and that myelin basic protein and glial fibrillary acidic protein are among the hypercitrullinated proteins. We conclude that hypercitrullination of myelin proteins in the CNS is a common phenomenon in demyelinating disease. Hypercitrullination may cause conformational changes in proteins, so the affected proteins may be involved in the pathogenesis of CNS autoimmune disease by acting as autoreactive T‐cell epitopes. This is the first report in which hypercitrullination of CNS proteins in EAE is described and in which proteins other than myelin basic protein are reported to be citrullinated during autoimmune‐mediated CNS inflammation. J. Comp. Neurol. 486:243–253, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Norwegian social epidemiology during 200 years

Social epidemiology has been defined as The branch of epidemiology that studies the social distribution and social determinants of states of health (1). Whereas traditional epidemiology is primarily concerned with health related factors at the individual level, social epidemiology is more concerned with the health conditions between social groups in the population or between populations. Thus, social epidemiology is highly relevant for public health and health policy (S. Westin, this issue), while epidemiology, concerned more with individual risk or resilience is most relevant for treatment of specific diseases within the health services. The epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose (1926-1993) was instrumental in emphasizing the difference between the determinants of individual cases and the determinants of incidence rates, thereby shifting the focus from individuals to populations (2). George Davey Smith recently highlighted main challenges with the individual focus, personalized medicine, and the desire to predict individual destinies – randomness and individual life's coincidences (3). However, when comparing groups of populations or entire populations in social epidemiology, average health can be predicted in a more expected manner based on information on the socioeconomic conditions people are living under; the social determinants of health. Social epidemiology attained its name in English in 1950 and is by its definition truly cross-disciplinary, encompassing both the medical, behavioural as well as the social sciences. In recent years, social epidemiologists have been much occupied with the socioeconomic gradient in health, extending from top to bottom of the social hierarchy, and showed that it is not a poverty threshold that separates those with poor versus good health (4). In addition, research has shown that poor people living in poor neighborhoods are likely to have poorer health than equally poor people living in more affluent neighborhoods (5,6). But are these observations in fact new? Or is it that researchers once again have been willing to engage with questions initially raised during the formative days of epidemiology as a discipline, in the early 19th century (7)?
Fear Conditioning Downregulates Rac1 Activity in the Basolateral Amygdala Astrocytes to Facilitate the Formation of Fear Memory

Astrocytes are well known to scale synaptic structural and functional plasticity, while the role in learning and memory, such as conditioned fear memory, is poorly elucidated. Here, using pharmacological approach, we find that fluorocitrate (FC) significantly inhibits the acquisition of fear memory, suggesting that astrocyte activity is required for fear memory formation. We further demonstrate that fear conditioning downregulates astrocytic Rac1 activity in basolateral amygdala (BLA) in mice and promotes astrocyte structural plasticity. Ablation of astrocytic Rac1 in BLA promotes fear memory acquisition, while overexpression or constitutive activation of astrocytic Rac1 attenuates fear memory acquisition. Furthermore, temporal activation of Rac1 by photoactivatable Rac1 (Rac1-PA) induces structural alterations in astrocytes and in vivo activation of Rac1 in BLA astrocytes during fear conditioning attenuates the formation of fear memory. Taken together, our study demonstrates that fear conditioning-induced suppression of BLA astrocytic Rac1 activity, associated with astrocyte structural plasticity, is required for the formation of conditioned fear memory.
Analysis of flow-based market coupling in oligopolistic power markets

The liberalisation of the power supply sector has led to a higher interdependency of the European electricity markets as cross-border trades increased significantly. Different levels of electricity prices arise due to frequently congested transmission capacity between the price areas. This limited transmission capacity is allocated to the users by the application of various congestion management methods whereby the explicit auction of the Net Transfer Capacity (NTC) is most widely spread. A more sophisticated congestion management approach, term flow-based allocation, has been proposed which overcomes the drawbacks of bilateral NTC allocation by introducing a mechanism for efficiently allocating transmission capacity involving multiple borders. However, the power supply sector is predominantly oligopolistic, thus, it is often exposed to the power producers’ exercise of their market power as electricity and transmission prices frequently do not reflect the true cost levels. In this thesis, a case study focuses on the comparison of the NTC-based with the flow-based congestion management method based on imperfectly competitive electricity markets in the central European region. Another topic studied is the modelling of strategic behaviour by generating companies by assuming the companies to affect electricity and transmission prices by conjectured response parameters. Those parameters allow a flexible modelling of electricity and transmission market competition, ranging from perfectly competitive to Cournot competitive price levels. Furthermore, a closed-form formulation of the conjectured response parameters for electricity and transmission markets based on multiple price areas is derived. An estimation procedure is presented based on an implicit parameter fitting by using historical market data. This leads to a more accurate price generation process, i.e. it allows the modelling of power markets in the vicinity of historical electricity prices. Based on that approach, the comparison between the NTC-based and flow-based congestion management method is performed.
Two-Tone Distortion Modeling for SiGe HBTs Using the High-Current Model

This paper examines certain aspects of the base resistance model of Hicum-2.1 (High Current Model) to address convergence problems seen during two-tone distortion simulations of SiGe HBTs. We propose some changes to the Rbi model implementation so as to limit the conductivity modulation factor from assuming unphysical values and implement them into the ADS simulator. This eliminated the convergence problems and resulted in an improvement in the simulation time. Simulations are performed through the RF Design Environment (RFDE) and excellent agreement between the inter-modulation distortion measurements and the model is observed. Model extraction methodology and correlation with measurement results for DC, f T and distortion for a 200 GHz SiGe HBT process are discussed.
Reduction of Deepwater Formation in the Greenland Sea During the 1980s: Evidence from Tracer Data

Hydrographic observations and measurements of the concentrations of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have suggested that the formation of Greenland Sea Deep Water (GSDW) slowed down considerably during the 1980s. Such a decrease is related to weakened convection in the Greenland Sea and thus could have significant impact on the properties of the waters flowing over the Scotland-Iceland-Greenland ridge system into the deep Atlantic. Study of the variability of GSDW formation is relevant for understanding the impact of the circulation in the European Polar seas on regional and global deep water characteristics. New long-term multitracer observations from the Greenland Sea show that GSDW formation indeed was greatly reduced during the 1980s. A box model of deepwater formation and exchange in the European Polar seas tuned by the tracer data indicates that the reduction rate of GSDW formation was about 80 percent and that the start date of the reduction was between 1978 and 1982.
A survey of indications, results and complications of surgery for tophaceous gout.

AIMS To document the indications, results and complications associated with surgery for tophaceous gout in Middlemore Hospital. METHODS A retrospective study of the notes of all patients who underwent surgery for tophaceous gout at Middlemore Hospital from July 1995 to July 2001 was performed. Serum creatinine and uric acid results were obtained and the use of allopurinol assessed. RESULTS 45 patients underwent surgery for gouty tophi. 89% were males and 11% females. 16% were Maori, 38% Pacific people, 42% Europeans and 4% were from other ethnic backgrounds. Renal impairment (serum creatinine. >0.11 mmol/L) was the most common associated medical problem (38%), followed by hypertension (27%), ischaemic heart disease and/or congestive heart disease (20%) and diabetes mellitus (18%). 68% of patients had elevated serum urate levels (>0.42 mmol/L) and only 31% had previously been taking allopurinol. Sepsis control in infected or ulcerated tophi was the main indication for surgery (51%), followed by mechanical problems caused by foot, elbow and hand tophi (27%). The diagnosis of soft tissue masses was unclear in 18% of the patients prior to surgery. 4% of patients underwent tophus surgery mainly for pain control. 53% of patients experienced delayed wound healing as a result of complications of surgery with the majority of these patients (16/24, 67%) having infected or ulcerated tophi prior to surgery. Three patients (7%) required digital amputations for ongoing sepsis. 47% of patients did not have any complication of surgery and had complete wound healing within one week. CONCLUSIONS Surgery for tophaceous gout is associated with a relatively high rate of complication when sepsis is the main indication. Patients with gout in this study population had several associated medical co-morbidities, which contributed to the high complication rate. Gout control was poor as evidenced by a high rate of hyperuricaemia, and less than one third of the study population were on allopurinol. Better control of gout would reduce the risk of tophi formation and the need for surgery.