Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical Organization of DNA by Multiple Non-Specific DNA-Binding Modes of Integration Host Factor (IHF)

The integration host factor (IHF) is an abundant nucleoid-associated protein and an essential co-factor for phage λ site-specific recombination and gene regulation in E. coli. Introduction of a sharp DNA kink at specific cognate sites is critical for these functions. Interestingly, the intracellular concentration of IHF is much higher than the concentration needed for site-specific interactions, suggesting that non-specific binding of IHF to DNA plays a role in the physical organization of bacterial chromatin. However, it is unclear how non-specific DNA association contributes to DNA organization. By using a combination of single DNA manipulation and atomic force microscopy imaging methods, we show here that distinct modes of non-specific DNA binding of IHF result in complex global DNA conformations. Changes in KCl and IHF concentrations, as well as tension applied to DNA, dramatically influence the degree of DNA-bending. In addition, IHF can crosslink DNA into a highly compact DNA meshwork that is observed in the presence of magnesium at low concentration of monovalent ions and high IHF-DNA stoichiometries. Our findings provide important insights into how IHF contributes to bacterial chromatin organization, gene regulation, and biofilm formation.
Corporate Governance Culture Transmission in Mutual Funds: Directors as Vector of Transmission

The purpose of study is to investigate the unique dimension of corporate governance of mutual fund that how culture of good and bad governance transmits from corporate industry of Pakistan to Mutual funds? Independent directors who are working in other industries and same time are independent directors of mutual fund are transmitting good or bad corporate governance culture of other industries into the mutual fund industry as well. Furthermore, it is investigated that how females and foreign director on board of mutual fund effect the culture of corporate governance in the mutual funds. We have applied fixed effect panel regression and results revealed that independent directors transmit shareholder friendly culture into mutual fund industry in Pakistan that called expertise effect, whereas if dependent directors of fund are connected with outside industry it is not good for governance of mutual fund due to cronyism effect. Moreover, foreign and female directors on board are not helping in promoting a good culture of corporate governance in the Mutual fund industry.
Reduced cerebral blood flow in white matter in ischaemic leukoaraiosis demonstrated using quantitative exogenous contrast based perfusion MRI

OBJECTIVE White matter hypoperfusion may play a part in the pathogenesis of ischaemic leukoaraiosis, but demonstration of this requires a high resolution quantitative method of cerebral blood flow (CBF) measurement. Initial exogenous contrast based MRI methods only allowed measurement of relative cerebral blood volume (CBV) values, but more recently a mathematical approach has been developed which enables absolute regional CBF and CBV to be determined. This technique was applied to patients with ischaemic leukoaraiosis to determine whether reduced white matter CBF in this patient group could be demonstrated. METHODS Eight patients with ischaemic leukoaraiosis (radiological leukoaraiosis and clinical lacunar stroke), and nine age matched controls were studied. A spin echo echoplanar image sequence was used on a 1.5 Tesla MR system. An arterial input function was obtained from voxels placed over the middle cerebral arteries. Cerebral blood flow, CBV, and mean transit (MTT) maps were derived. Regions of interest were placed at standard positions in the white and grey matter and mean values of CBF, CBV, and MTT were compared between the two groups. RESULTS Mean (SD) white matter CBF was significantly reduced in patients by 38% (13.40 (4.87) v 21.74 (3.53) ml/min/ 100 g, p=0.002). Significant reductions in CBF were seen in all white matter regions. By contrast there was no reduction in CBF in any grey matter region. There was no significant difference in white matter CBV between cases and controls; mean values were lower in all white matter regions for patients but this did not reach significance for any region. By contrast mean grey matter CBV was significantly higher in patients than in controls. Mean MTT values were higher in all regions of grey and white matter in the patient group, but this only achieved significance for the superior white matter. CONCLUSION A quantitative MR perfusion method showed reduced white matter CBF in patients with ischaemic leukoaraiosis, but normal grey matter CBF. This is consistent with hypoperfusion playing a part in the pathogenesis of ischaemic leukoaraiosis. The absolute values of white matter and grey matter CBF obtained in the patient groups were very similar to those in previous PET studies, providing further evidence for the validity of the regional CBF measurements obtained using this quantitative MR perfusion technique. The high spatial resolution and lack of radioactive administration makes such techniques ideal for longitudinal studies in this condition.
Momentary Recovery Algorithm: A New Look at the Traditional Problem of TCP

Traditional TCP has a good congestion control strategy that adapts its sending rate in accordance with network congestion. In addition, a fast recovery algorithm can help TCP achieve better throughput by responding to temporary network congestion well. However, if multiple packet losses occur, the time to enter congestion avoidance phase would be delayed due to the long recovery time. Moreover, during the recovery phase, TCP freezes congestion window size until all lost packets are recovered, and this can make recovery time much longer resulting in performance degradation. To mitigate such recovery overhead, we propose Momentary recovery algorithm that recovers packet loss without an extra recovery phase. As other TCP and variants, our algorithm also halves the congestion window size when packet drop is detected, but it performs congestion avoidance phase immediately as if loss recovery is completed. For lost packets, TCP sender transmits them along with normal packets as long as congestion window permits rather than performs fast retransmission. In this manner, we can eliminate recovery overhead efficiently and reach steady state momentarily after network congestion. Finally, we provide a simulation based study on TCP recovery behaviors and confirm that our Momentary recovery algorithm always shows better performance compared with NewReno, SACK, and FACK.
Delphinidin, an anthocyanidin in pigmented fruits and vegetables, induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in human colon cancer HCT116 cells

Because of unsatisfactory treatment options for colon cancer, there is a need to develop novel preventive approaches for this malignancy. One such strategy is through chemoprevention by the use of non‐toxic dietary substances and botanical products. Delphinidin, an anthocyanidin in pigmented fruits and vegetables, possesses strong anti‐oxidant and anti‐inflammatory properties. In the present study, we investigated the antiproliferative and proapoptotic properties of delphinidin in human colon cancer HCT116 cells. We found that treatment of cells with delphinidin (30–240 µM; 48 h) resulted in (i) decrease in cell viability (ii) induction of apoptosis, (iii) cleavage of PARP, (iv) activation of caspases‐3, ‐8, and ‐9, (v) increase in Bax with a concomitant decrease in Bcl‐2 protein, and (vi) G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. NF‐κB provides a mechanistic link between inflammation and cancer, and is a major factor controlling the ability of both pre‐neoplastic and malignant cells to resist apoptosis‐based tumor surveillance mechanisms. We therefore, determined the effect of delphinidin on NF‐κB signaling pathway. The immunoblot, ELISA and EMSA analysis demonstrated that the treatment of HCT116 cells with delphinidin resulted in the inhibition of (i) IKKα, (ii) phosphorylation and degradation of IκBα, (iii) phosphorylation of NF‐κB/p65 at Ser536, (iv) nuclear translocation of NF‐κB/p65, (v) NF‐κB/p65 DNA binding activity, and (vi) transcriptional activation of NF‐κB. Our results suggest that delphinidin treatment of HCT116 cells suppressed NF‐κB pathway, resulting in G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis. We suggest that delphinidin could have potential in inhibiting colon cancer growth. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Profiling molecular factors associated with pyknosis and developmental arrest induced by an opioid receptor antagonist and dihydroartemisinin in Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria continues to be a devastating disease, largely caused by Plasmodium falciparum infection. We investigated the effects of opioid and cannabinoid receptor antagonists on the growth of intraerythrocytic P. falciparum. The delta opioid receptor antagonist 7-benzylidenenaltrexone (BNTX) and the cannabinoid receptor antagonists rimonaband and SR144528 caused growth arrest of the parasite. Notably BNTX and the established antimalarial drug dihydroartemisinin induced prominent pyknosis in parasite cells after a short period of incubation. We compared genome-wide transcriptome profiles in P. falciparum with different degrees of pyknosis in response to drug treatment, and identified 11 transcripts potentially associated with the evoking of pyknosis, of which three, including glutathione reductase (PfGR), triose phosphate transporter (PfoTPT), and a conserved Plasmodium membrane protein, showed markedly different gene expression levels in accordance with the degree of pyknosis. Furthermore, the use of specific inhibitors confirmed PfGR but not PfoTPT as a possible factor contributing to the development of pyknosis. A reduction in total glutathione levels was also detected in association with increased pyknosis. These results further our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for P. falciparum development and the antimalarial activity of dihydroartemisinin, and provide useful information for the development of novel antimalarial agents.
Move Prediction in Go with the Maximum Entropy Method

We address the problem of predicting moves in the board game of Go. We use the relative frequencies of local board patterns observed in game records to generate a ranked list of moves, and then apply the maximum entropy method (MEM) to the list to re-rank the moves. Move prediction is the task of selecting a small number of promising moves from all legal moves, and move prediction output can be used to improve the efficiency of the game tree search. The MEM enables us to make use of multiple overlapping features, while avoiding problems with data sparseness. Our system was trained on 20000 expert games and had 33.9% prediction accuracy in 500 expert games
Enhanced Power Saving in Next Generation Wireless LANs

Battery powered handheld devices need to operate for extended periods of time, and thus require to be energy conserving. This paper evaluates the performance of a new power saving scheme, called PSMP (power save multiple poll), developed for the upcoming IEEE 802.11n WLANs. Using both analysis and simulations, we investigate the benefits of using PSMP in a wireless LAN having multiple voice-over-IP (VoIP) clients. To boost the reliability of a PSMP sequence, we propose a new recovery scheme, which we call PSMP recovery. Our results show that the PSMP recovery scheme significantly improves the efficiency of the original PSMP sequence.
Falls prevention--a way forward.

Falls prevention by risk factor reduction and the encouragement of activity has been a central tenet of geriatric medicine from Joseph Sheldon’s day [1] until the dawn of evidence-based medicine. Support for the veracity of this cultural belief emerged when the Yale Frailty and Injuries: Cooperative Studies of Intervention Techniques (FICSIT) study [2] showed how specialized care could prevent 40% of falls in older people. Although sceptics could claim that the subjects were an unrepresentative group (recruited from a health maintenance organization) who received a rather expensive intervention ($970 per patient), publications showing similar results from different types of intervention have accumulated since then. Using a risk-factor-based approach to assess and treat frail older people who fall and present to the accident and emergency department can prevent over 50% of falls [3]. Exercise also has a protective effect. Meta-analysis of the interventions in the FICSIT programme have shown a 25% reduction in falls [4]. Tai Chi Quan may also be useful. This outperformed conventional balance training to produce a 47% reduction in falls incidence in a trial comparing the two techniques [5]. Community studies have also shown that falls may be prevented whether the intervention was effected by a trained volunteer administering a questionnaire or by a team attempting hazard reduction [6–8]. This suggests that sensible interventions—particularly those involving exercise and risk factor reduction—have a class effect and seem to bring about improvements. Although these studies validate long-cherished beliefs, some clinical departments have not lived up to their ideals and fail to practise comprehensive risk factor intervention on inpatients [9, 10]. So the question for clinicians is how to integrate these research findings into practice, bearing in mind the implications of clinical governance and restricted resources. The work of the Dunedin group published in this issue of Age and Ageing [11] serves as a beacon. A randomized controlled trial of a simple physiotherapistled exercise programme performed on older women living at home and selected from a defined geographical base produced a 50% reduction in falls. Analysed on an intention-to-treat basis, the effect was maintained at least for 2 years. The rewards for falls intervention are very promising. Professor Campbell’s team have performed an invaluable service by demonstrating an effective and efficient falls prevention scheme that can be directly translated into practice. JED ROWE Moseley Hall Hospital, Alcester Road, Birmingham B13 8JL, UK. Fax: (+44) 121 442 3556
High Fat Diet Accelerates Pathogenesis of Murine Crohn’s Disease-Like Ileitis Independently of Obesity

Background Obesity has been associated with a more severe disease course in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and epidemiological data identified dietary fats but not obesity as risk factors for the development of IBD. Crohn’s disease is one of the two major IBD phenotypes and mostly affects the terminal ileum. Despite recent observations that high fat diets (HFD) impair intestinal barrier functions and drive pathobiont selection relevant for chronic inflammation in the colon, mechanisms of high fat diets in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease are not known. The aim of this study was to characterize the effect of HFD on the development of chronic ileal inflammation in a murine model of Crohn’s disease-like ileitis. Methods TNFΔARE/WT mice and wildtype C57BL/6 littermates were fed a HFD compared to control diet for different durations. Intestinal pathology and metabolic parameters (glucose tolerance, mesenteric tissue characteristics) were assessed. Intestinal barrier integrity was characterized at different levels including polyethylene glycol (PEG) translocation, endotoxin in portal vein plasma and cellular markers of barrier function. Inflammatory activation of epithelial cells as well as immune cell infiltration into ileal tissue were determined and related to luminal factors. Results HFD aggravated ileal inflammation but did not induce significant overweight or typical metabolic disorders in TNFΔARE/WT. Expression of the tight junction protein Occludin was markedly reduced in the ileal epithelium of HFD mice independently of inflammation, and translocation of endotoxin was increased. Epithelial cells showed enhanced expression of inflammation-related activation markers, along with enhanced luminal factors-driven recruitment of dendritic cells and Th17-biased lymphocyte infiltration into the lamina propria. Conclusions HFD feeding, independently of obesity, accelerated disease onset of small intestinal inflammation in Crohn’s disease-relevant mouse model through mechanisms that involve increased intestinal permeability and altered luminal factors, leading to enhanced dendritic cell recruitment and promoted Th17 immune responses.
An empirical investigation of the nonuniqueness in the acoustic-to-articulatory mapping

Articulatory inversion is the problem of recovering the sequence of vocal tract shapes that produce a given acoustic speech signal. Traditionally, its difﬁculty has been attributed to nonuniqueness of the inverse mapping, where different vocal tract shapes can produce the same acoustics. However, evidence for the nonuniqueness has been restricted to theoretical studies, or to data from atypical speech or very speciﬁc sounds. We present a systematic large-scale study using articulatory data for normal speech from the Wisconsin XRDB. We ﬁnd that nonuniqueness does exist for some sounds, but that the majority of normal speech is produced with a unique vocal tract shape.
Effects of exercise and glucose administration on content of insulin-sensitive glucose transporter in equine skeletal muscle.

OBJECTIVES To characterize insulin-sensitive glucose-transporter (GLUT-4) protein in equine tissues and determine effects of exercise and glucose administration on content of GLUT-4 protein in equine skeletal muscle. SAMPLE POPULATION Tissue samples from 9 horses. PROCEDURES Western blot analyses were performed on crude membrane preparations of equine tissues to characterize GLUT-4. In a crossover, randomized study, horses were strenuously exercised for 3 consecutive days and then administered 13.5% glucose or isotonic saline (0.9% NaCl; control) solution, i.v. , at similar infusion rates for 12.1 hours. Samples were collected from the middle gluteal muscle before and after exercise and 10.1 hours after completion of an infusion and used for measurements of glycogen concentration and total content of GLUT-4 protein. RESULTS Immunoblot analyses detected specifically immunoreactive bands for GLUT-4 in insulin-sensitive tissues. Content of GLUT-4 protein in skeletal muscle increased significantly by 27.3 and 12.3% 22.2 hours after exercise for control and glucose groups, respectively. Intravenous infusion of glucose resulted in a significantly higher rate of glycogenesis, compared with results for the control group (mean +/- SD, 3.98 +/- 0.61 and 1.47 +/- 0.20 mmol/kg/h, respectively). Despite enhanced glycogenesis, we did not detect an increase in content of GLUT-4 protein after glucose infusion, compared with values after exercise. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE GLUT-4 protein was expressed in equine skeletal and cardiac muscles. Exercise increased total content of GLUT-4 protein in skeletal muscle, and replenishment of muscle glycogen stores after glucose infusion attenuated the exercise-induced increase in the content of GLUT-4 protein in equine skeletal muscle.
Person name disambiguation by bootstrapping

In this paper, we report our system that disambiguates person names in Web search results. The system uses named entities, compound key words, and URLs as features for document similarity calculation, which typically show high precision but low recall clustering results. We propose to use a two-stage clustering algorithm by bootstrapping to improve the low recall values, in which clustering results of the first stage are used to extract features used in the second stage clustering. Experimental results revealed that our algorithm yields better score than the best systems at the latest WePS workshop.
Dissection of Cauliflower Mosaic Virus Transactivator/Viroplasmin Reveals Distinct Essential Functions in Basic Virus Replication

ABSTRACT Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) transactivator/viroplasmin (Tav) is an essential multifunctional viral protein. Dissection of Tav by deletion mutagenesis revealed that the central region is essential for CaMV replication in single cells but that the N- and C-terminal parts are not. Strains with mutations in the central region were defective in the translational transactivator function and could be complemented by coexpressing Gag (capsid protein precursor) and Pol (polyprotein with protease, reverse transcriptase, and RNase H activity) from separate monocistronic plasmids. In contrast, total omission of Tav was only partially complemented by Gag and Pol overexpression from separate plasmids. These results indicate that CaMV basic replication requires both Tav-activated polycistronic translation and some posttranslational function(s) of Tav that is not affected by the deletions in the central region of Tav.
Advances and Continuing Challenges in Objective Personality Testing

The use of objective behavioral indicators instead of selfreported behaviors and self-ratings has a long history in personality assessment. The basic idea of objective personality tests (OPTs) can be traced back to James McKeen Cattell’s proposal of mental tests in 1890. A few decades later, OPT procedures were employed by the German and US militaries during World War II (see Fitts, 1946). Until today, most tests designed for the objective assessment of personality have been based on Raymond Bernard Cattell’s comprehensive theoretical and empirical work and his well-known postulate that a complete investigation of personality requires heterogeneous data sources including self-report data (Q-data), life indicators of personality often obtained from observer reports (L-data), and objective performance
Ovarian metastasis and other ovarian neoplasms in women with cervical cancer stage IA-IIA.

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence and predicting factors of ovarian metastasis, and evaluate the histology of other ovarian neoplasms in women with early-stage cervical cancer. METHODS The medical records of women with cervical cancer stage IA-IIA who underwent primary surgical treatment at Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University from January 2007 to December 2011 were used for the study. Demographic, clinical and histopathologic data of the women who underwent salpingo-oophorectomy were reviewed. RESULTS Of 264 women, the mean age was 52.3 years. The types of hysterectomy procedures were composed of 210 radical hysterectomy, 9 modified radical hysterectomy, 40 simple hysterectomy, and 5 abandoned hysterectomy. The prevalence of ovarian metastasis was 0.76% (2/264). All of ovarian metastatic patients were older than 60 years old, postmenopause, and had macroscopical stage IB1 cervical cancer. Others ovarian tumors were found in 7 patients including 1 synchronous ovarian carcinoma, 1 serous cystadenoma, 1 fibroma, and 4 teratoma. CONCLUSIONS In cases of early-stage cervical carcinoma of the population studied, ovarian preservation could be another option in <60-year-old patients, with non-neuroendocrine cell type, stage IA, and no extracervical or ovarian lesions.
Lifelong Earning: working-class women and lifelong learning

This article argues that despite the rhetoric that surrounds lifelong learning, barriers to participation for working-class women are too often ignored or made invisible. Starting from a critique of current policies and practices of lifelong learning that are based in instrumentalism and individualism, the article addresses the diversities of working-class women's multiple identities and considers some of the (apparent) wider benefits of learning for working-class women. The article concludes that many working-class women are trapped in a cycle of lifelong earning that centres on low-paid, low-status jobs. What they learn is that, in a learning society that remains driven by market forces based in inequalities of gender, race and class, there is no political escape.