Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of structural sequences in the chicken osteocalcin gene: Expression of osteocalcin by maturing osteoblasts and by hypertrophic chondrocytes in vitro

Osteocalcin is one of the major noncollagenous proteins specific to mineralized connective tissues of vertebrates. A cDNA clone encoding the chicken osteocalcin gene was isolated, and the complete coding sequence for the 97‐amino‐acid pre‐pro‐osteocalcin was deduced. The 48‐amino‐acid pre‐pro‐peptide contains the expected hydrophobic leader sequence and the dibasic Lys‐Arg sequence preceding the NH2‐terminal His of the mature 49‐amino‐acid chicken osteocalcin, which is believed to be necessary for pro‐peptide cleavage. The pro‐peptide sequence also contains the expected motif of polar and hydrophobic residues, including Phe at −16, which targets vitamin K‐dependent γ‐carboxylation of the three specific Glu residues at positions 17, 21, and 24 in the mature protein. Northern blots of total RNA were prepared from embryonic and adult chicken tissues (bone, brain, heart, intestine, kidney, muscle) and probed with chicken osteocalcin cDNA. The appearance of a single 0.5 kb mRNA species confirms that bone is the major site of osteocalcin expression in vivo. In primary osteoblasts isolated from 17‐day embryonic chicken calvaria, an osteocalcin mRNA of similar size is expressed concurrently with culture mineralization in vitro. Hypertrophic chondrocytes from 12‐day ventral vertebrae and from the cephalic half of 17‐day caudal sternae also express osteocalcin mRNA, but nonhypertrophic chondrocytes from the caudal half of 17‐day sternae do not express osteocalcin mRNA.
Celebrating Now in Teaching-Learning

Nursing education often focuses attention on the interminable amount of information required of students to learn. This learning must be accomplished in a short time frame and at a rapid pace. With attention focused here, students and faculty may not recognize the importance of taking time to celebrate the now. In this column, the author recognizes Rosemarie Rizzo Parse as a prominent nurse theorist and offers a variety of ways to celebrate now moments through re-visiting Parse’s teaching-learning model. The activities suggested require minimal time while encouraging reflection on self and respect for all.
Influence de la politique monétaire sur le taux long Quelques évidences empiriques, cas du Maroc [The impact of monetary on long rates : Some empirical evidence from Morocco]

In an uncertain economic environment, long-term interest rates appear to be highly volatile and their sensitivity towards short-term interest rates appears to be still ambiguous. The aim of this work is to analyze this relationship, and to evaluate the impact of short-term interest rate on long-term interest rate in Morocco. We used a New Keynesian Model augmented with the term structure of interest rates, estimated with Bayesian methods on quarterly data for the period 2004-2015. The result shows that long-term interest rate increases in response to an increase in short term interest rate, which signifies that monetary policy in Morocco has the ability to influence long-term interest rates.
Review: How do spontaneous and sensory-evoked activities interact?

Abstract. Twenty years ago, the seminal work of Grinvald et al. revolutionized the view cast on spontaneous cortical activity by showing how, instead of being a mere measure of noise, it profoundly impacts cortical responses to a sensory input and therefore could play a role in sensory processing. This paved the way for a number of studies on the interactions between spontaneous and sensory-evoked activities. Spontaneous activity has subsequently been found to be highly structured and to participate in high cognitive functions, such as influencing conscious perception in humans. However, its functional role remains poorly understood, and only a few speculations exist, from the maintenance of the cortical network to the internal representation of an a priori knowledge of the environment. Furthermore, elucidation of this functional role could stem from studying the opposite relationship between spontaneous and sensory-evoked activities, namely, how a sensory input influences subsequent internal activities. Indeed, this question has remained largely unexplored, but a recent study by the Grinvald laboratory shows that a brief sensory input largely dampens spontaneous rhythms, suggesting a more sophisticated view where some spontaneous rhythms might relate to sensory processing and some others not.
Age-related changes of pain experience in cerebral palsy and healthy individuals.

OBJECTIVE Pain is a serious problem for many individuals with cerebral palsy (CP). Pain and injury in early life may cause long-term changes in somatosensory and pain processing. Nevertheless, no information exists regarding the influence of age on pain reports and touch sensitivity among persons with CP or the influence of age on the quality of life in individuals with CP. DESIGN The present cross-sectional study investigated pain characteristics, touch sensitivity, and quality of life in 86 individuals with CP and 115 healthy volunteers. Participants were grouped by age in children (6-10 years), adolescents (11-17 years), and young adults (18-30 years). Touch sensitivity at different body locations were tested by using von Frey monofilaments. Data about pain and quality of life were obtained from a semi-structured interview and questionnaires. RESULTS Participants with CP reported more pain as well as more reduced touch sensitivity and quality of life than healthy controls. Neither pain reports nor touch sensitivity or quality of life were influenced by age in CP, whereas significant age-related changes were observed in healthy participants. Multiple regression analyses also showed that age was the best predictor of current pain intensity in healthy controls but not in individuals with CP. CONCLUSION These findings emphasize the importance of considering the presence of pain at very early ages in CP. Furthermore, these results provide clinicians and researchers with a new age-related psychosocial and psychophysiological perspective to investigate the mechanisms that could be involved in the presence and maintenance of pain in this population.
Blacklist-based malicious IP traffic detection

At present malicious software or malware has increased considerably to form a serious threat to Internet infrastructure. It becomes the major source of most malicious activities on the Internet such as direct attacks, (distributed) denial-of-service (DOS) activities and scanning. Infected machines may join a botnet and can be used as remote attack tools to perform malicious activities controlled by the botmaster. In this paper we present our methodology for detecting any connection to or from malicious IP address which is expected to be command and control (C&C) server. Our detection method is based on a blacklist of malicious IPs. This blacklist is formed based on different intelligence feeds at once. We process the network traffic and match the source and destination IP addresses of each connection with IP blacklist. The intelligence feeds are automatically updated each day and the detection is in the real time.
The Effects of Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation on Client Importance and Audit Industry Concentration

ABSTRACT Recently, a system of audit firm rotation has been implemented for the audits of listed companies conducted in the European Union (EU). In the U.S., in contrast, the regulator decided against such rotation. Whereas proponents argue that rotation would strengthen independence and decrease audit market concentration, opponents stress the importance of auditors' learning effects, which would be eliminated by a change in auditors. In extending the market matching model of Salop (1979), we provide an analysis that integrates these contradictory views. We assume that both auditors' industry expertise and their experience in auditing a client decrease audit costs. We investigate the bidding strategies applied to re-acquire clients that were lost due to rotation, auditors' profit contributions, the equilibrium number of auditors (i.e., audit market concentration), and the economic importance of specific clients. Our findings indicate that the regulators' goals of simultaneously decreasing client importan.
Changes in methane emission, rumen fermentation, and methanogenic community in response to silage and dry cornstalk diets

This study aimed to investigate the effect of silage or dry cornstalk diets on methane emission, rumen fermentation, and methanogenic community, and reveal whether the change of methanogenic compositions was related to the methane production. A total of 39 sheep were divided into four groups, fed diets of different concentrate level based on silage or dry cornstalk roughage for 40 days. It was found that, at 20% concentrate level, the sheep fed silage could suppress methanogenesis significantly in contrast with the silage diet (p < 0.05). The ruminal acetate:propionate ratio was 3.17 in the silage‐fed sheep significantly lower than 3.78 in the dry cornstalk‐fed sheep (p < 0.05), reflecting the effect of fermentation on methane output was related to roughage types. Furthermore, the methanogens was found to be significantly lower abundance (p < 0.05), and showed a different pattern using multivariate statistical analysis in silage‐fed sheep. Compared with dry cornstalk diet, silage diet of 20% concentrate reduced methane production, decreased methanogenic abundance, and induced change of Methanobrevibacter composition at strain levels. This study showed variation of methanogenic compositions at strain level and its probable relationship with methane production, and provided microbial information to explain the low methane output when the animals were fed silage.
Processing of polycistronic guide RNAs is associated with RNA editing complexes in Trypanosoma brucei

In kinetoplastid mitochondrial mRNA editing, post‐transcriptional insertion or deletion of uridines is templated by guide RNAs (gRNAs). Pre‐mRNAs are encoded by maxicircles, while gRNAs are encoded by both maxicircles and minicircles. We have investigated minicircle transcription and the processing of gRNAs in Trypanosoma brucei. We find that minicircles are transcribed polycistronically and that transcripts are accurately processed by an ∼19S complex. This gRNA processing activity co‐purifies with RNA editing complexes, and both remain associated in 19S complexes. Furthermore, we show that RNA editing complexes associate preferentially with a polycistronic gRNA over non‐processed RNAs. We propose that the ∼19S complexes initially described as RNA editing complex I are gRNA processing complexes that cleave polycistronic gRNA transcripts into monocistrons.
Structure and strength of the distal radius in female patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A case‐control study

The purpose of this work was to investigate the volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), bone microstructure, and mechanical indices of the distal radius in female patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We report a cross‐sectional study of 66 middle‐aged female RA patients and 66 age‐matched healthy females. Areal BMD (aBMD) of the hip, lumbar spine, and distal radius was measured by dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA). High‐resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR‐pQCT) was performed at the distal radius, yielding vBMD, bone microstructure, and mechanical indices. Cortical and trabecular vBMD were 3.5% and 10.7% lower, respectively, in RA patients than controls, despite comparable aBMD. Trabecular microstructural indices were –5.7% to –23.1% inferior, respectively, in RA patients compared to controls, with significant differences in trabecular bone volume fraction, separation, inhomogeneity, and structural model index. Cortical porosity volume and percentage were 128% and 93% higher, respectively, in RA patients, with stress being distributed more unevenly. Fourteen RA patients had exaggerated periosteal bone apposition primarily affecting the ulnovolar aspect of the distal radius. These particular patients were more likely to have chronic and severe disease and coexisting wrist deformity. The majority of the differences in density and microstructure between RA patients and controls did not depend on menstrual status. Recent exposure to glucocorticoids did not significantly affect bone density and microstructure. HR‐pQCT provides new insight into inflammation‐associated bone fragility in RA. It detects differences in vBMD, bone microstructure, and mechanical indices that are not captured by DXA. At the distal radius, deterioration in density and microstructure in RA patients involved both cortical and trabecular compartments. Excessive bone resorption appears to affect cortical more than trabecular bone at distal radius, particularly manifested as increased cortical porosity. Ulnovolar periosteal apposition of the distal radius is a feature of chronic, severe RA with wrist deformity. © 2013 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Temporal response of murine pluripotent stem cells and myeloid and erythroid progenitor cells to low-dose glucan treatment.

B6D2F1 female mice were intravenously administered 0.4 mg of glucan. 1, 5, 11, and 17 days later, the total nucleated cellularity (TNC) and the numbers of pluripotent hemopoietic stem cells (CFU-s), granulocyte-macrophage progenitor cells (GM-CFC), and erythroid colony-forming (CFU-e) and burst-forming (BFU-e) cells were assayed in the bone marrow and spleen. Bone marrow TNC was not altered, but splenic TNC increased approximately twofold on day 5 and remained increased on days 11 and 17 after glucan treatment. The concentrations of bone marrow and splenic CFU-s and GM-CFC both significantly increased (p less than 0.01) by 5 days after glucan administration; however, they returned to control levels by day 17. Splenic CFU-e concentration increased on days 5, 11, and 17, whereas splenic BFU-e concentration increased only on day 11 after treatment. By contrast, bone marrow CFU-e and BFU-e concentrations were either unaffected or slightly decreased by glucan treatment. When peripheral blood was assayed for CFU-s and GM-CFC, no detectable increase in the concentrations of these progenitors was noted at any time after glucan treatment. The relevance of these effects of low-dose (0.4 mg) glucan treatment is discussed with respect to previously reported effects of higher-dose (e.g., 4.0 mg) glucan treatment.
Distributed Active-Vision Network-Space Approach for Trajectory Tracking and Obstacle Avoidance of a Car-Like Mobile Robot

In this paper, the trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance for a car-like mobile robot (CLMR) within distributed active-vision network-space system (DAVNSS) via three fuzzy variable structure decentralized controls (FVSDCs) is developed. To implement trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance, two distributed wireless CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras individually driven by two stepping motors, i.e., active CCD1 and active CCD2 (or ACCD1 and ACCD2), are constructed to capture the dynamic pose of the CLMR or obstacle. The proposed control system includes quad-processors with multiple sampling rates. One personal computer is first employed to receive the image of the CLMR or obstacle from ACCD1 or ACCD2 by wireless transmitter, and then to plan three reference commands for the CLMR, ACCD1, and ACCD2, which are individually received by three digital signal processors (DSPs). The six-step image processing and the calibration between the world coordinate and the image plane coordinate using multilayer perceptrons (MLP) are established. Finally, a sequence of experiments is carried out to confirm the performance of the proposed control system.
A Research on Topic Discussion and Key User Identification in Microblog

With the rapid development of microblog, it has changed the way that people communicate and share information with their friends. This paper focuses on the discussion of user interaction and key user identification in two given topics over a period of time. By using the API of Sina weibo, the data crawling of two topics information have been done, as well as the social relationship of the topic participants. Based on the dataset obtained, data simulation and analysis have been performed, to explore the key users that discuss the most and in which situation the uses are more involved in the topic discussion. A lot of information can be analyzed and obtained from the data, for instance, to predict a box office, identify key users, and detect unexpected accidents and etc.
Acute Effects of Riociguat in Borderline or Manifest Pulmonary Hypertension Associated with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Riociguat is the first oral soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator shown to improve pulmonary hemodynamics in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (PH). This pilot study assessed the impact of a single dose of riociguat on hemodynamics, gas exchange, and lung function in patients with PH associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Adults with COPD-associated borderline or manifest PH (pulmonary vascular resistance > 270 dyn·s·cm−5, mean pulmonary artery pressure ≥ 23 mmHg, ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1] to forced vital capacity < 70%, and partial pressure of oxygen and carbon dioxide in arterial blood > 50 and ≤ 55 mmHg, respectively) received riociguat 1 or 2.5 mg during right heart catheterization. Twenty-two patients completed the study (11 men, 11 women, aged 56–82 years; 1-mg group: n = 10 [mean FEV1: 43.1%]; 2.5-mg group: n = 12 [mean FEV1: 41.2%]). Riociguat caused significant improvements (P < 0.01) from baseline in mean pulmonary artery pressure (1 mg: −3.60 mmHg [–11.44%]; 2.5 mg: −4.83 mmHg [–14.76%]) and pulmonary vascular resistance (1 mg: −58.32 dyn·s·cm−5 [–15.35%]; 2.5 mg: −123.8 dyn·s·cm−5 [–32.96%]). No relevant changes in lung function or gas exchange were observed. Single doses of riociguat were well tolerated and showed promising hemodynamic effects without untoward effects on gas exchange or lung function in patients with COPD-associated PH. Placebo-controlled studies of chronic treatment with riociguat are warranted.
Administration of IL-4 prevents autoimmune diabetes but enhances pancreatic insulitis in NOD mice.

The present study demonstrated that the administration of recombinant interleukin-4 (rIL-4) prevented overt diabetes in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice whose T cells produced relatively low amounts of IL-4. However, massive insulitis was observed in rIL-4-treated NOD mice. The flow cytometric analysis of islet-infiltrating T cells revealed that the number of CD45RBlowCD4+ T cells was significantly increased by in vivo administration of rIL-4. By measuring the cytokine production of splenic T cells after stimulation, it was shown that CD45RBlowCD4+ T cells predominantly produced IL-4 and IL-10 but produced less IL-2 and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma). A semiquantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay revealed a higher expression of IL-4 and IL-10 mRNA and an apparent decrease in IFN-gamma mRNA in the islets of NOD mice which were administered rIL-4. These results suggested that autoreactive CD45RBlowCD4+ T helper 2 (Th2)-like cells which developed following rIL-4 administration were predominant in the infiltrate of the islets, and overt diabetes was prevented. On the other hand, when splenocytes from rIL-4-treated NOD mice were transferred to irradiated NOD recipients, along with splenocytes from diabetic NOD mice, all of the recipient mice became diabetic within 8 weeks after transfer. Considered together, a supplement of rIL-4 administered to NOD mice may protect against autoimmune diabetes by facilitating the development of Th2-like autoreactive T cells in the islets.
Sex Differences in the Effects of Marijuana on Simulated Driving Performance

Abstract In the United States, one in six teenagers has driven under the influence of marijuana. Driving under the influence of marijuana and alcohol is equally prevalent, despite the fact that marijuana use is less common than alcohol use. Much of the research examining the effects of marijuana on driving performance was conducted in the 1970s and led to equivocal findings. During that time, few studies included women and driving simulators were rudimentary. Further, the potency of marijuana commonly used recreationally has increased. This study examined sex differences in the acute effects of marijuana on driving performance using a realistic, validated driving simulator. Eighty-five subjects (n = 50 males, 35 females) participated in this between-subjects, double-blind, placebo controlled study. In addition to an uneventful, baseline segment of driving, participants were challenged with collision avoidance and distracted driving scenarios. Under the influence of marijuana, participants decreased their speed and failed to show expected practice effects during a distracted drive. No differences were found during the baseline driving segment or collision avoidance scenarios. No differences attributable to sex were observed. This study enhances the current literature by identifying distracted driving and the integration of prior experience as particularly problematic under the influence of marijuana.
HIV Risk Among Bisexually and Homosexually Active Racially Diverse Young Men

Objectives: We addressed gaps in current HIV prevention research by examining the differences between 2 groups of young men: men who have sex with men only (MSM/O) and men who have sex with men and women (MSM/W). We examined patterns and correlates of sexual risk, and considered how race/ethnicity may affect these relationships. Methods: Cross-sectional self-report data were collected from a racially diverse sample of 10,295 young MSM from 1999 to 2002. The sample comprised data from 13 urban locations across the US. Results: MSM/W reported less unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) than MSM/O, despite reporting less exposure to HIV prevention interventions, lower social support, and less awareness of antiretroviral therapies. African American men were more likely to be MSM/W and less likely to report UAI. Ever getting an HIV test was associated with less UAI only among African American participants (MSM/W or MSM/O) in racial/ethnic group-specific analyses. Conclusions: HIV prevention interventions for MSM should address differences between MSM/W and MSM/O. An important component of HIV prevention efforts designed for African American MSM/W and MSM/O should be HIV testing.