Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The toxicity of the Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans cytolethal distending toxin correlates with its phosphatidylinositol‐3,4,5‐triphosphate phosphatase activity

The Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans cytolethal distending toxin (Cdt) induces G2 arrest and apoptosis in lymphocytes and other cell types. We have shown that the active subunit, CdtB, exhibits phosphatidylinositol‐3,4,5‐triphosphate (PIP3) phosphatase activity, leading us to propose that Cdt toxicity is the result of PIP3 depletion and perturbation of phosphatidylinositol‐3‐kinase (PI‐3K)/PIP3/Akt signalling. To further explore this relationship, we have focused our analysis on identifying residues that comprise the catalytic pocket and are critical to substrate binding rather than catalysis. In this context, we have generated several CdtB mutants and demonstrate that, in each instance, the ability of the toxin to induce cell cycle arrest correlates with retention of phosphatase activity. We have also assessed the effect of Cdt on downstream components of the PI‐3K signalling pathway. In addition to depletion of intracellular concentrations of PIP3, toxin‐treated lymphocytes exhibit decreases in pAkt and pGSK3β. Further analysis indicates that toxin‐treated cells exhibit a concomitant loss in Akt activity and increase in GSK3β kinase activity consistent with observed changes in their phosphorylation status. We demonstrate that cell susceptibility to Cdt is dependent upon dephosphorylation and concomitant activation of GSK3β. Finally, we demonstrate that, in addition to lymphocytes, HeLa cells exposed to a CdtB mutant that retains phosphatase activity and not DNase activity undergo G2 arrest in the absence of H2AX phosphorylation. Our results provide further insight into the mode of action by which Cdt may function as an immunotoxin and induce cell cycle arrest in target cells such as lymphocytes.
Optimizing Quality of Service of DRM Single Frequency Network

Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) is a new digital radio broadcasting system for the frequency bands below 30 MHz. it adapts to be implemented in single frequency network (SFN) :a transmitter network in which all transmitters broadcast identical information simultaneously at the same frequency. SFN simulation result is presented in this article, and an implementing method of SFN based on DRM is proposed. A new network quality of service control method based on artificial neural network is also discussed in this article.
Urinary Catecholamine Excretion and Severity of PTSD Symptoms in Vietnam Combat Veterans

In the present study, we replicated and extended our previous findings of increased 24- hour urinary catecholamine excretion in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine concentrations were measured in 22 male patients with PTSD (14 inpatients and eight outpatients) and in 16 nonpsychiatric normal males. The PTSD inpatients showed significantly higher excretion of all three catecholamines compared with both outpatients with PTSD and normal controls. Dopamine and norepinephrine, but not epinephrine, levels were significantly correlated with severity of PTSD symptoms in the PTSD group as a whole. In particular, these catecholamines seemed related to intrusive symptoms. None of the catecholamines were correlated with severity of depression. The findings support the hypothesis of an enhanced sympathetic nervous system activation in PTSD, and suggest that increased sympathetic arousal may be closely linked to severity of certain PTSD symptom clusters.
Enzyme Replacement Therapy in Patients with Fabry's Disease

Fabry's disease, a disorder affecting the gene for the lysosomal enzyme α-galactosidase A (α-GAL A), can cause accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (GL-3) in the vascular endothelial cells. Symptoms include pain, angiokeratoma, corneal clouding, and damage to the heart and kidneys. Human recombinant α-GAL A for use as an enzyme replacement therapy was launched in Japan in April 2004. Eleven ambulatory patients with Fabry's disease were given replacement α-GAL A therapy. Three patients died due to factors associated with Fabry's disease. The enzyme replacement therapies in the remaining eight patients continued safely without any notable adverse events. The following were observed: a lowering of the plasma levels of GL-3 in seven cases, an improvement in the daily activities in six cases, and a reduction in corneal clouding in three cases. Although careful observation is necessary, these results suggest that replacement α-GAL A therapy may be a safe and effective treatment of Fabry's disease.
Television-computer scanning optical microscopy: foretime, nowadays and the near future

Usage of television and computer methods was powerful pulse for microscopy development. The possibilities of image reception facility, image quality enhancement, quantitative estimation micro object parameters etc were of the essence broaden. The paper is dedicated to review of scanning microscopy development based on the cathode ray tube as a source of radiation from the first samples of microscopes in the middle of last century to our days. Near prospects of scanning microscopy development are traced in contemporary micro displays and special type of cathode ray tubes usage.
A phase 1 trial of 2 dose schedules of ABT‐510, an antiangiogenic, thrombospondin‐1‐mimetic peptide, in patients with advanced cancer

ABT‐510 is a substituted nonapeptide that mimics the antiangiogenic activity of the endogenous protein thrombospondin‐1 (TSP‐1). The current study was designed to establish the safety of ABT‐510 in the treatment of patients with advanced malignancies on a once‐daily (QD) and twice‐daily dosing schedule.
Neurocognitive function and progression in patients with brain metastases treated with whole-brain radiation and motexafin gadolinium: results of a randomized phase III trial.

PURPOSE To report the neurocognitive findings in a phase III randomized trial evaluating survival and neurologic and neurocognitive function in patients with brain metastases from solid tumors receiving whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) with or without motexafin gadolinium (MGd). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients were randomly assigned to receive WBRT 30 Gy in 10 fractions with or without MGd 5 mg/kg/d. Monthly neurocognitive testing for memory, executive function, and fine motor skill was performed. RESULTS Four hundred one patients were enrolled (251 with non-small-cell lung cancer, 75 with breast cancer, and 75 with other cancers); 90.5% patients had impairment of one or more neurocognitive tests at baseline. Neurocognitive test scores of memory, fine motor speed, executive function, and global neurocognitive impairment at baseline were correlated with brain tumor volume and predictive of survival. There was no statistically significant difference between treatment arms in time to neurocognitive progression. Patients with lung cancer (but not other types of cancer) who were treated with MGd tended to have improved memory and executive function (P =.062) and improved neurologic function as assessed by a blinded events review committee (P =.048). CONCLUSION Neurocognitive tests are a relatively sensitive measure of brain functioning; a combination of tumor prognostic variables and brain function assessments seems to predict survival better than tumor variables alone. Although the addition of MGd to WBRT did not produce a significant overall improvement between treatment arms, MGd may improve memory and executive function and prolong time to neurocognitive and neurologic progression in patients with brain metastases from lung cancer.
Spine ergonomics.

Occupational low back pain (LBP) is an immense burden for both industry and medicine. Ergonomic and personal risk factors result in LBP, but psychosocial factors can influence LBP disability. Epidemiologic studies clearly indicate the role of mechanical loads on the etiology of occupational LBP. Occupational exposures such as lifting, particularly in awkward postures; heavy lifting; or repetitive lifting are related to LBP. Fixed postures and prolonged seating are also risk factors. LBP is found in both sedentary occupations and in drivers as well as those involved in manual materials handling. Any prolonged posture will lead to static loading of the soft tissues and cause discomfort. Standing and sitting have specific advantages and disadvantages for mobility, exertion of force, energy consumption, circulatory demands, coordination, and motion control. The seated posture leads to inactivity causing an accumulation of metabolites, accelerating disk degeneration and leading to disk herniation. Driver's postures can also lead to musculoskeletal problems. Workers in a driving environment are often subjected to postural stress leading to back, neck, and upper extremity pain. This exacerbates the problems due to the vibration. Prevention is by far the treatment of choice. Improved muscle function can be preventative. Poor coordination and motor control systems are as important as endurance and strength. Fixed postures should be avoided. Seats offering good lumbar support should be used in the office. A suspension seat should be used in vehicles whenever possible. Heavy and awkward lifting should be avoided and lifting aids should be made available. Workers should report LBP as early as possible and seek medical advice if they think occupational exposure is harming them. The combined effects of the medical community, labor, and management are required to cause some impact on this problem.
The Emergence of Service Quality and Brand Awareness Toward Strategic Competitiveness and Its Impact on Hotel Performance

Five-star hotels are known by their immense competitiveness, first-class portrayal and are superior in level of extravagance, eccentricity, representation, sophistication and amenities. Slow growth of five-star hotels aggravates strong competition, thus forcing hotel businesses to be competitive. This study attempts to analyze service quality and brand awareness toward strategic competitiveness and its impact on the performance of XYZ Hotel. The study applies both quantitative and qualitative research, which were obtained from questionnaire distribution to 100 respondents who have stayed at the hotel, in-depth interview with the PR and Front Office managers, and Focus Group Discussion with managers and hotel experts from Jakarta and Tangerang. The finding suggests that service quality has no correlation with strategic competitiveness and no significant impact on performance. Thus, brand awareness was found to be the most influential factor on strategic competitiveness. However, it is necessitated that five-star hotel continuously improve the quality of its service and the factors associated with service quality.
Motor and non-motor features of Parkinson's disease.

BACKGROUND Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative brain disease in developed countries where population of the elderly is high. PD is increasingly being documented in developing countries where there are rapid demographic changes. Motor features of PD have been documented in Africans in previous studies. However non-motor features such as depression and sleep disturbance have not been well documented. OBJECTIVE To study the motor and non-motor features of idiopathic Parkinson's disease in Tanzania. DESIGN A descriptive consecutive referral of patients to the national tertiary care hospital. SETTING Neurology clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital a major teaching and national referral hospital. RESULTS Forty two of 1,908 (2.2%) new referralpatients over four years of study satisfied the criteria for idiopathic PD. Of these 25 (59.5%) were males and 17 females. There was no significant difference between sex, in demographic and clinical features. Nevertheless females tended to be older; and the majority of whom were housewives. Three male patients were in advanced stage five and six or UPDRS above 61/108. Thirty nine (92.8%) patients completed BDI and none of these had a BDI score of more than ten. Insomnia was reported in 14(33%) of patients. There was no significant difference between age, sex, clinical stage or UPDRS score. However 12 (28.6%) of 42 patients had been noted to have at least one sleep behaviour disorder and all had mild to moderate disease at stages one to three or UPDRS score of 60/108 or less. CONCLUSION Idiopathic Parkinson's disease is increasingly being seen in Tanzania due to the ageing population. Majority of patients in this series were in early stage of disease. Depression was conspicuously absent. However sleep behaviour disorder, which is potentially harmful to the patient, bed partners and requires different management, was a common feature that was elicited by direct enquiry in patients with Parkinson's disease.
Transmission power allocation for broadcast/multicast services in multi-cell OFDM systems

In this paper, we investigate transmission power allocation for support of broadcast/multicast services (BMSs) in multi-cell OFDM systems. We consider a cooperative architecture for distribution of the BMS data where the copies of the same data are transmitted by multiple base stations (BSs) in a synchronized manner and then aggregated at the receiving users. Under this architecture, we develop a power allocation scheme that optimizes the transmission power of the multiple BSs on each sub-channel to maximize the total data rate. Simulation results reveal that the cooperative distribution system performs far better than the non-cooperative distribution system and the proposed power allocation schemes outperform the equal power allocation scheme significantly.
Foxg1 is required for morphogenesis and histogenesis of the mammalian inner ear

The forkhead genes are involved in patterning, morphogenesis, cell fate determination, and proliferation. Several Fox genes (Foxi1, Foxg1) are expressed in the developing otocyst of both zebrafish and mammals. We show that Foxg1 is expressed in most cell types of the inner ear of the adult mouse and that Foxg1 mutants have both morphological and histological defects in the inner ear. These mice have a shortened cochlea with multiple rows of hair cells and supporting cells. Additionally, they demonstrate striking abnormalities in cochlear and vestibular innervation, including loss of all crista neurons and numerous fibers that overshoot the organ of Corti. Closer examination shows that some anterior crista fibers exist in late embryos. Tracing these fibers shows that they do not project to the brain but, instead, to the cochlea. Finally, these mice completely lack a horizontal crista, although a horizontal canal forms but comes off the anterior ampulla. Anterior and posterior cristae, ampullae, and canals are reduced to varying degrees, particularly in combination with Fgf10 heterozygosity. Compounding Fgf10 heterozygotic effects suggest an additive effect of Fgf10 on Foxg1, possibly mediated through bone morphogenetic protein regulation. We show that sensory epithelia formation and canal development are linked in the anterior and posterior canal systems. Much of the Foxg1 phenotype can be explained by the participation of the protein binding domain in the delta/notch/hes signaling pathway. Additional Foxg1 effects may be mediated by the forkhead DNA binding domain. Developmental Dynamics 235:2470–2482, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Projecting Recorded Expert Hands at Real Size, at Real Speed, and onto Real Objects for Manual Work

Expert manual workers in factories assemble more efficiently than novices because their movements are optimized for the tasks. In this paper, we present an approach to projecting the hand movements of experts at real size, and real speed and onto real objects in order to match the manual work movements of novices to those of experts. We prototyped a projector-camera system, which projects the virtual hands of experts. We conducted a user study in which users worked after watching experts work under two conditions: using a display and using our prototype system. The results show our prototype users worked more precisely and felt the tasks were easier. User ratings also show our prototype users watched videos of experts more fixedly, memorized them more clearly and distinctly tried to work in the same way shown in the videos as compared with display users.
Robust adaptive beamforming using convex optimization

This paper compares the performance of various beamforming techniques using convex optimization. A new robust beamforming technique is formulated, and its performance is compared with the diagonal loading, robust SOCP techniques and the standard sample matrix inversion technique in different scenarios. The robustness of the proposed technique to errors in the array steering vector is demonstrated using simulations in MATLAB.
Gene Expression of Ampicillin Resistance Transposons, Tn2601 and Tn2602

To establish the mode of gene expression specified by transposon, we investigated the correlation among the homology of the DNA sequence, the extent of transposon‐specific transcription, the specific activity of penicillinase (PCase) per cell, and the transposition frequency by using two ampicillin resistance transposons (TnAs), Tn2601 and Tn2602. Although both the TnAs specify the so‐called type I PCase, Tn2602 always conferred 10–to 20‐fold higher PCase activity per cell than Tn2601 regardless of the kind of replicon carrying TnA. The transposition frequency of Tn2602 also was 8 to 50 times higher than that of Tn2601 in all combinations of donor and recipient plasmids examined. As a result, the transposability expressed by the TnA was thought to correlate with the productivity of PCase in the cell specified by the corresponding TnA. The level of TnA‐specific transcription of Tn2602 was noticeably higher than that of Tn2601, whereas the two TnAs shared a high degree (more than 90%) of DNA sequence homology. These results suggest that the difference in rates of transcription of the two transposons plays a key role in determining the difference in the productivity of PCase and the transposition‐protein(s) of Tn2601 and Tn2602.
Acute appendagitis: emergency presentation and computed tomographic appearances

Acute epiploic appendagitis is an uncommon cause of abdominal pain. It is caused by torsion of an epiploic appendage or spontaneous venous thrombosis of a draining appendageal vein.1 The diagnosis of this condition primarily relies on cross-sectional imaging and is made most often after computed tomography (CT). Clinically, it is most often mistaken for acute diverticulitis. Approximately 7.1% of patients investigated to exclude sigmoid diverticulitis have imaging findings of primary epiploic appendagitis.2 A 20-year-old man presented to the emergency department with constant sharp pain in the left iliac fossa. Vital signs and abdominal examination were unremarkable. He was discharged with simple analgesic medication because the pain appeared to improve. However, he re-presented to the emergency department within 24 h of discharge, with constant pain, tenderness …
RNA‐binding protein hnRNPLL as a critical regulator of lymphocyte homeostasis and differentiation

RNA‐binding proteins orchestrate posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression, such as messenger RNA (mRNA) splicing, RNA stability regulation, and translation regulation. Heterogeneous nuclear RNA‐binding proteins (hnRNPs) refer to a collection of unrelated RNA‐binding proteins predominantly located in the nucleus (Han et al. Biochem J 2010, 430:379–392). Although canonical functions of hnRNPs are to promote pre‐mRNA splicing, they are involved in all the processes of RNA metabolism through recognizing specific cis‐elements on RNA (Dreyfuss et al. Annu Rev Biochem 1993, 62:289–321; Huelga et al. Cell Rep 2012, 1:167–178; Krecic and Swanson. Curr Opin Cell Biol 1999, 11:363–371). Heterogeneous nuclear RNA‐binding protein L like (hnRNPLL) is a tissue‐specific hnRNP, which was identified as a regulator of CD45RA to CD45RO switching during memory T‐cell development (Oberdoerffer et al. Science 2008, 321:686–691; Topp et al. RNA 2008, 14:2038–2049; Wu et al. Immunity 2008, 29:863–875). Since then, hnRNPLL has emerged as a critical regulator of lymphocyte homeostasis and terminal differentiation, controlling alternative splicing or expression of critical genes for the lymphocytes development (Wu et al. Immunity 2008, 29:863–875; Chang et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2015, 112:E1888–E1897). This review will summarize recent advances in understanding the functions of hnRNPLL, focusing on its biochemical functions and physiological roles in lymphocyte differentiation and homeostasis. WIREs RNA 2016, 7:295–302. doi: 10.1002/wrna.1335
ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF CARIBBEAN SPONGE EXTRACTS

Marine sponges produce a diversity of unusual chemical compounds, but the ecological functions of these metabolites remain largely unknown. To determine if sponge secondary metabolites have ecologically significant antimicrobial effects, organic extracts from 33 species of Caribbean sponges were assayed for antibiotic activity against a test panel of marine bacteria. The test panel consisted of 8 strains representing 6 genera of marine bacteria and included an opportunistic pathogen ( Vibnoparahaemolyticus), a common fouling bacterium (Deleya marina), and strains isolated from seawater and healthy and necrotic Caribbean sponges. Extracts were tested for antibiotic activity at concentrations that were volumetrically equivalent to those found in sponge tissues (whole-tissue concentratlons). Bioassay results revealed that 16 species (48%) exhibited antibiotic activity against at least l bacterial isolate and that the 2 bacteria isolated from necrotic sponge tissues were the most sensitive test strains (inhibited by 40% of the extracts). Extracts from Amphimedon cornpressa, Amphimedon erina, Aplysina lacunosa, and Ptdocaulis spicuhfera inhibited the largest numbers of test stralns and exhibited the most potent antibiotic activities with values frequently exceeding those of a control antibiotic (gentarnicin). The pattern of antimicrobial activity was different for 15 of 16 active sponge specles, suggesting that diverse taxa do not produce similar antibacterial metabohtes. Overall, only 23 % of the extract/bacterial interactions exhibited antibactenal activity, indicating that, in general, conspicuous members of the Caribbean sponge community do not produce broad-spectrum anttbacterial metabolltes. All of the species yielding antibacterial extracts also deterred feeding by reef fishes in a previous study, suggesting that some secondary metabolites may have evolved multiple defensive functions Stevensine, a compound from Axnella corrugata (= Teichaxinella morchella) known to deter feed~ng by predatory reef fishes, exhibited weak antimicrobial activity, suggesting that this potent feedlng deterrent is not solely responsible for the antimicrobial activity detected in the crude sponge extract. KEY WORDSChemical defense . Antimicrobial . Sponges . Secondary metabolites