Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proteomic Analysis of Dendritic Cell-Derived Exosomes: A Secreted Subcellular Compartment Distinct from Apoptotic Vesicles1

Dendritic cells constitutively secrete a population of small (50–90 nm diameter) Ag-presenting vesicles called exosomes. When sensitized with tumor antigenic peptides, dendritic cells produce exosomes, which stimulate anti-tumor immune responses and the rejection of established tumors in mice. Using a systematic proteomic approach, we establish the first extensive protein map of a particular exosome population; 21 new exosomal proteins were thus identified. Most proteins present in exosomes are related to endocytic compartments. New exosomal residents include cytosolic proteins most likely involved in exosome biogenesis and function, mainly cytoskeleton-related (cofilin, profilin I, and elongation factor 1α) and intracellular membrane transport and signaling factors (such as several annexins, rab 7 and 11, rap1B, and syntenin). Importantly, we also identified a novel category of exosomal proteins related to apoptosis: thioredoxin peroxidase II, Alix, 14-3-3, and galectin-3. These findings led us to analyze possible structural relationships between exosomes and microvesicles released by apoptotic cells. We show that although they both represent secreted populations of membrane vesicles relevant to immune responses, exosomes and apoptotic vesicles are biochemically and morphologically distinct. Therefore, in addition to cytokines, dendritic cells produce a specific population of membrane vesicles, exosomes, with unique molecular composition and strong immunostimulating properties.
A survey of value prediction techniques for leveraging value locality

Value locality (VL) refers to recurrence of values in a memory structure, and value prediction (VP) refers to predicting VL and leveraging it for diverse optimizations. VP holds the promise of exceeding true‐data dependencies and provide performance and bandwidth advantages in both single‐ and multi‐threaded applications. Fully exploiting the potential of VL, however, requires addressing several challenges, such as achieving high accuracy and coverage, reducing hardware and latency overheads, etc. In this paper, we present a survey of techniques for leveraging value locality. We categorize the research works based on key parameters to provide insights and highlight similarities and differences. This paper is expected to be useful for researchers, processor architects, and chip‐designers.
Transcription of glycolytic genes and operons in Bacillus subtilis: evidence for the presence of multiple levels of control of the gapA operon

Glycolysis is one of the main pathways of carbon catabolism in Bacillus subtilis. Although the biochemical activity of glycolytic enzymes has been studied in detail, no information about the expression of glycolytic genes has so far been available in this organism. Therefore, transcriptional analysis of all glycolytic genes was performed. The genes cggR, gapA, pgk, tpi, pgm and eno, encoding the enzymes required for the interconversion of triose phosphates, are transcribed as a hexacistronic operon as demonstrated by Northern analysis. This gapA operon is repressed by the regulator CggR. The presence of sugars and amino acids synergistically results in the induction of the gapA operon. The transcriptional start site upstream of cggR was mapped by primer extension. Transcripts originating upstream of cggR are processed near the 3′ end of cggR. This endonucleolytic cleavage leads to differential stability of the resulting processing products: the monocistronic cggR message is very rapidly degraded, whereas the mRNA species encoding glycolytic enzymes exhibit much higher stability. An additional internal constitutive promoter was identified upstream of pgk. Thus, gapA is the most strongly regulated gene of this operon. The pfk pyk operon encoding phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase is weakly induced by glucose. In contrast, the genes pgi and fbaA, coding for phosphoglucoisomerase and fructose‐1,6‐bisphosphate aldolase, are constitutively expressed.
Endotoxin-Induced Inhibition of Growth Hormone Receptor Signaling in Rat Liver in Vivo1.

The bacterial lipopolysaccharide endotoxin induces a catabolic response characterized by resistance to multiple anabolic hormones. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of endotoxin on the GH signaling pathway in rat liver in vivo. After the iv injection of Escherichia coli endotoxin (1 mg/kg), there was a progressive decrease in liver STAT5 (signal transducer and activator of transcription-5) tyrosine phosphorylation in response to GH (40% decrease 6 h after endotoxin), which occurred in the absence of a change in abundance of the STAT5 protein. Endotoxin resulted in a rapid 40-fold increase in liver Janus family kinase-2 (JAK2) messenger RNA, followed by a 2-fold increase in JAK2 protein abundance. This was associated with a 50% decrease in phosphorylated/total JAK2 after GH stimulation. GH receptor abundance was unchanged, suggesting a postreceptor site of endotoxin-induced GH resistance. Rat complementary DNAs for three members of the suppressor of cytokine signaling gene family were cloned [cytokine-inducible sequence (CIS), suppressor of cytokine signaling-2 (SOCS-2), and SOCS-3] and, using these probes, messenger RNAs for SOCS-3 and CIS were shown to be increased 10- and 4-fold above control values, respectively, 2 h after endotoxin infusion. The finding of endotoxin inhibition of in vivo STAT5 tyrosine phosphorylation in response to a supramaximal dose of GH in the absence of a change in GH receptor abundance or total GH-stimulated JAK2 tyrosine phosphorylation provides the first demonstration of acquired postreceptor GH resistance. We hypothesize that this may occur through a specificity-spillover mechanism involving the induction of SOCS genes by cytokines released in response to endotoxin and subsequent SOCS inhibition of GH signaling.
The Primary Structure of Salmonella typhimurium HPr , a Phosphocarrier Protein of the Phosphoeno 1 pyruvate : Glycose Phosphotransferase System

The protein HPr is a low-molecular-weight phosphocarrier protein of the bacterial phosphoenolpyruvate:glycose phosphotransferase system. We have recently reported the complete primary amino acid sequence of HPr isolated from Salmonella typhimurium (Weigel, N., Powers, D. A., and Roseman, S. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 14499-14509). This sequence is incorrect at certain residues; the correct primary structure of the protein is presented in this report. The corrected structure generally agrees with the primary sequence predicted for HPr from Escherichia coli (based on the nucleotide sequence of the corresponding ptsH gene). The one apparent ambiguity is at the carboxyl terminus.
Organizational learning model for adaptive collective behaviors in multiple robots

This paper proposes a novel organizational learning model in which multiple robots acquire their own functions for adaptive collective behaviors through local interactions among their neighbors and form an organizational structure to complete given tasks without global explicit control mechanisms or communication methods. In this paper, we focus on emergent processes in which robots dynamically form an organizational structure by acquiring their own appropriate functions to complete given tasks effectively and also focus on how organizational knowledge supports robots to reform their organizational structure. Through intensive simulations of truss construction by multiple robots, the following experimental results have suggested: (1) robots in our model acquire their own appropriate functions without global explicit control mechanisms or communication methods and form an organizational structure which completes given tasks in less steps than those with a centralized control system, and (2) organizational .
Successive deterministic distributed beamforming

This paper presents a new phase-alignment algorithm for distributed beamforming [1]. 1 This scheme is more energy-efficient than existing solutions, since it requires each node to transmit only once, but it converges at least as fast as all other previously proposed algorithms. In contrast with all other studies of distributed beamforming, where noise had been neglected, here it is explicitly included in the signal model and shown to have a considerable impact on synchronization that cannot be ignored. With and without noise, analytical expressions that characterize the performance of the new algorithm are provided, with emphasis on various limiting regimes of interest.
Integrated software platform to teach different electricity spot market architectures

Electricity spot market architectures have rapidly evolved; their understanding, behavior, and redesign can be guided with the help of integrated simulation platforms. This paper presents a software platform for the integrated short-term simulation of different energy spot market architectures. The simulator considers three different architectures: i) decentralized spot markets (the separated market and system operator approach), ii) centralized spot markets (whose basis is a unit commitment model for competition in the generation side), and iii) hybrid spot market architectures (that operate under a single operator and avoid unit-commitment complexities including demand response and bilateral contracts). The software platform integrates tools for data management and display as well as available solvers for mathematical programming problems. The platform is intended and has successfully been used to teach electricity market courses at undergraduate and graduate levels at Morelia Institute of Technology in Mexico, and also in several special diploma programs on electricity markets to more than a hundred engineers from the national energy control center and the energy regulatory commission in Mexico as well as five different system/market operators of the central American countries.
Volume inequalities and additive maps of convex bodies

Analogues of the classical inequalities from the Brunn-Minkowski theory for rotation intertwining additive maps of convex bodies are developed. Analogues are also proved of inequalities from the dual Brunn-Minkowski theory for intertwining additive maps of star bodies. These inequalities provide generalizations of results for projection and intersection bodies. As a corollary, a new Brunn-Minkowski inequality is obtained for the volume of polar projection bodies.
Micromagnetic studies of three-dimensional pyramidal shell structures

We present a systematic numerical analysis of the magnetic properties of pyramidal-shaped core-shell structures in a size range below 400 nm. These are three-dimensional structures consisting of a ferromagnetic shell which is grown on top of a non-magnetic core. The standard micromagnetic model without the magnetocrystalline anisotropy term is used to describe the properties of the shell. We vary the thickness of the shell between the limiting cases of an ultra-thin shell and a conventional pyramid and delineate different stable magnetic configurations. We find different kinds of single-domain states, which predominantly occur at smaller system sizes. In analogy to equivalent states in thin square films we term these onion, flower, C and S states. At larger system sizes, we also observe two types of vortex states, which we refer to as symmetric and asymmetric vortex states. For a classification of the observed states, we derive a phase diagram that specifies the magnetic ground state as a function of structure size and shell thickness. The transitions between different ground states can be understood qualitatively. We address the issue of metastability by investigating the stability of all occurring configurations for different shell thicknesses. For selected geometries and directions hysteresis measurements are analysed and discussed. We observe that the magnetic behaviour changes distinctively in the limit of ultra-thin shells. The study has been motivated by the recent progress made in the growth of faceted core-shell structures.
Prematurity and Low Birth Weight did not Correlate with Anti-Toxoplasma gondii Maternal Serum Profiles – a Brazilian Report

Gestational Toxoplasma gondii infection is considered a major risk factor for miscarriage, prematurity and low birth weight in animals. However, studies focusing on this topic in humans are scarce. The objective of this study is to determine whether anti-Toxoplasma gondii maternal serum profiles correlate prematurity and low birth weight in humans. The study examined 213 pregnant women seen at the High-Risk Pregnancy Hospital de Base, São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. All serological profiles (IgM-/IgG+; IgM-/IgG-; IgM+/IgG+) were determined by ELISA commercial kits. Maternal age, gestational age and weight of the newborn at birth were collected and recorded in the Statement of Live Birth. Prematurity was defined as gestational age <37 weeks and low birth weight ≤ 2499 grams. The t-test was used to compare values (p < 0.05). The mean maternal age was 27.6±6.6 years. Overall, 56.3% (120/213) of the women studied were IgM-/IgG+, 36.2% (77/213) were IgM-/IgG- and 7.5% (16/213) were IgM+/IgG+. The average age of the women with serological profile IgM+/IgG+ (22.3±3.9 years) was different from women with the profile IgM-/IgG+ (27.9±6.7 years, p = 0.0011) and IgM-/IgG- (27.9±6.4 years, p = 0.0012). There was no statistically significant difference between the different serological profiles in relation to prematurity (p = 0.6742) and low birth weight (p = 0.7186). The results showed that prematurity and low birth weight did not correlate with anti-Toxoplasma gondii maternal serum profiles.
High-value renewable energy from prairie grasses.

Projected economic benefits of renewable energy derived from a native prairie grass, switchgrass, include nonmarket values that can reduce net fuel costs to near zero. At a farm gate price of $44.00/dry Mg, an agricultural sector model predicts higher profits for switchgrass than conventional crops on 16.9 million hectares (ha). Benefits would include an annual increase of $6 billion in net farm returns, a $1.86 billion reduction in government subsidies, and displacement of 44-159 Tg/year (1 Tg = 1012 g) of greenhouse gas emissions. Incorporating these values into the pricing structure for switchgrass bioenergy could accelerate commercialization and provide net benefits to the U.S. economy.
End‐Capping Effect of a Narrow Bandgap Conjugated Polymer on Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells

Device performances of BHJ solar cells based on poly[(4,4-didodecyldithieno[3,2-b:2’,3’-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(2,1,3-benzoxadiazole)-4,7-diyl]and PC₇₁BM improve by capping the chain ends with thiophene fragments. This structural modification yields materials that are more thermally robust and that can be used in devices with thicker films – important considerations for enabling the mass production of plastic solar cells.
Die Inhalts-Struktur-Trennung als konstantes Dialog-Konsens-Prinzip?!

Im dargestellten Dialog-Konsens-Verfahren realisieren praktisch durchwegs zwei Teilschritte der Inhaltserhebung und Strukturrekonstruktion, wie sie von der historisch ersten Struktur-Lege-Methode(der Heidelberger SLT) eingefuhrt worden sind. Der methodologische Sinn dieser Teilschritte und die Moglichkeiten sowie Grenzen ihrer Modifikation sind das Thema dieses Kapitels.
Recognition of Positive and Negative Bandpass-Filtered Images

A study is reported in which the significance for vision of low- and high-spatial-frequency components of photographic positive and negative images was investigated by measuring recognition of bandpass-filtered photographs of faces. The results show that a 1.5 octave bandpass-filtered image contains sufficient visual information for good recognition performance, provided the filter is centred close to 20 cycles facewidth−1. At low spatial frequencies negatives are more difficult to recognize than positives, but at high spatial frequencies there is no difference in recognition, implying that it is the low-frequency components of negatives which present difficulties for the visual system.
Modulation of neutrophil function by novel colonic factors: possible role in the pathophysiology of ulcerative colitis.

Tissue damage in acute ulcerative colitis (UC) may be triggered by neutrophils (PMNs) and their inflammatory mediators such as reactive oxygen species (ROS). Because circulating PMNs appeared normal in subjects with UC, we hypothesized that the critical abnormality that attracts and activates PMNs in UC is a local colonic factor. Accordingly, the colonic milieu was sampled by using in vivo rectal dialysis (mol wt < or = 12 kd). Normal PMNs were exposed in vitro to rectal dialysates (RD) from control subjects (cRD) or subjects with active UC (aRD) or inactive UC (IRD). PMN-derived ROS were measured by chemiluminescence. cRD did not increase ROS production by unstimulated PMNs; aRD significantly and concentration-dependently increased ROS; IRD gave intermediate results. cRD inhibited the PMN-stimulating effects of both the bacterial peptide formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). aRD and IRD blunted the effect of fMLP and PMA significantly less than did cRD. Rectal dialysates from 44% of subjects with active UC exaggerated the fMLP effect, whereas potentiation occurred for only 13% of cRDs and 18% of iRDs. cRD preconditioned with either activated or nonactivated PMNs was not significantly different than unconditioned cRD. We thus infer the existence of colonic factors in UC that (1) can trigger PMNs to produce ROS and (2) have a proinflammatory modulatory effect on bacterial peptide-induced, PMN-mediated ROS production, thereby initiating or perpetuating inflammation and eventually causing tissue damage. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Can fortified foods and snacks increase the energy and protein intake of hospitalised older patients? A systematic review

BACKGROUND Undernutrition affects over 44% of hospitalised older people, who often dislike oral nutritional supplements (ONS). This review summarises the evidence for an alternative strategy, using energy and protein dense meals (via fortification) or snacks (supplementation) to increase the dietary energy and protein intake of older inpatients. METHODS A search was conducted through PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Cochrane database of systematic reviews (May 1996 to May 2016) that used fortification or supplementation to increase the energy or protein intake of patients (mean age ≥60 years) in hospitals or rehabilitation centres. RESULTS Ten articles (546 patients, mean age 60-83 years) were identified. Compared with usual nutritional care, six studies using either energy or protein based fortification and supplementation significantly increased intake of energy (250-450 kcal day-1 ) or protein (12-16 g day-1 ). Two studies enriched menus with both energy and protein, and significantly increased both energy (698 kcal day-1 and 21 kJ kg-1 ) and protein (16 g and 0.2 g kg-1 ) intake compared to usual care. ONS was similar to supplementation in one study but superior to fortification in another. Four studies reported good acceptability of enriched products and two studies that found they were cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS Compared with usual nutritional care, energy- and protein-based fortification and supplementation could be employed as an effective, well-tolerated and cost-effective intervention to improve dietary intake amongst older inpatients. This strategy may be particularly useful for patients with cognitive impairment who struggle with ONS, and clinical trials are required to compare these approaches and establish their impact on functional outcomes.
Elevated synchrony in Parkinson disease detected with electroencephalography

Parkinson disease (PD) can be difficult to diagnose and treat. Development of a biomarker for PD would reduce these challenges by providing an objective measure of disease. Emerging theories suggest PD is characterized by excessive synchronization in the beta frequency band (∼20Hz) throughout basal ganglia–thalamocortical loops. Recently we showed with invasive electrocorticography that one robust measure of this synchronization is the coupling of beta phase to broadband gamma amplitude (ie, phase–amplitude coupling [PAC]). Other recent work suggests that high‐frequency activity is detectable at the scalp using electroencephalography (EEG). Motivated by these findings, we tested whether beta‐gamma PAC over sensorimotor cortex, recorded noninvasively with EEG, differs between PD patients off and on medications, and healthy control subjects.
Murine dihydrofolate reductase transcripts through the cell cycle

The murine dihydrofolate reductase gene codes for mRNAs that differ in the length of their 3' untranslated region as well as in the length of their 5' leader sequence. In addition, the dihydrofolate reductase promoter functions bidirectionally, producing a series of RNAs from the opposite strand than the dihydrofolate reductase mRNAs. We have examined the production of these RNAs and their heterogeneous 5' and 3' termini as mouse 3T6 cells progress through a physiologically continuous cell cycle. We found that all of the transcripts traverse the cell cycle in a similar manner, increasing at the G1/S boundary without significantly changing their ratios relative to one another. We conclude that cell-cycle regulation of dihydrofolate reductase is achieved without recruiting new transcription initiation sites and without a change in polyadenylation sites. It appears that the mechanism responsible for the transcriptional cell-cycle regulation of the dihydrofolate reductase gene is manifested only by transiently increasing the efficiency of transcription at the dihydrofolate reductase promoter.
Oligomérisation des récepteurs couplés aux protéines G : deux ou plus ? Application des technologies de FRET en temps résolu au cas du récepteur GABAB

Les recepteurs couples aux proteines G (RCPG) sont les cibles de 50% des medicaments actuellement sur le marche pharmaceutique. La comprehension de leur mode de fonctionnement est donc essentielle au developpement de nouvelles molecules capables de cibler specifiquement ces recepteurs. Ces dix dernieres annees, les technologies de transfert d'energie ont permis de reveler la capacite des RCPG, longtemps consideres comme monomeriques, a s'organiser en dimeres voire en structures oligomeriques plus grandes. Toutefois, la caracterisation precise de cette stœchiometrie d'assemblage implique la mise au point de methodes adaptees. Au cours de ce travail de these nous avons developpe une approche de FRET en temps resolu permettant de mettre en evidence, a l'aide d'anticorps marques, des interactions de sous-unites de RCPG a la surface de cellules vivantes. En choisissant le recepteur GABAB comme modele d'etude, cette approche a permis de reveler l'homo- et l'heterodimerisation de ce recepteur a la surface cellulaire. De plus, en condition de permeabilisation des cellules, l'oligomerisation de la sous-unite GABAB1 retenue dans les compartiments intracellulaires a pu etre caracterisee par cette meme approche. Afin d'analyser plus precisement l'organisation du recepteur GABAB, nous avons mis au point une deuxieme methode permettant de marquer irreversiblement a l'aide de fluorophores les sous-unites GABAB1 et GABAB2 presentes a la surface cellulaire. La combinaison de cette methode de marquage (SNAP-tag) avec une analyse de FRET en temps resolu a permis de caracteriser l'organisation oligomerique de ce recepteur. Ainsi, le recepteur GABAB, connu pour etre un heterodimere obligatoire, semble capable de former des oligomeres via la sous-unite GABAB1 qui represente un point de contact entre deux heterodimeres. Le role d'une telle organisation sur la fonction de ce recepteur reste toutefois indetermine.