Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Internal Mg2+ block of recombinant NMDA channels mutated within the selectivity filter and expressed in Xenopus oocytes

1 The NMDA receptor channel is blocked by both external and internal Mg2+ ions, which are assumed to bind inside the channel on each side of a central barrier. We have analysed the internal Mg2+ block in recombinant NR1‐NR2A NMDA receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes. We have determined the effects of mutations of two asparagines that line the selectivity filter of the channel, one located within the NR1 subunit (N598) and the other within the NR2A subunit (N596). 2 The whole‐cell current‐voltage relation of wild‐type NMDA channels shows inward rectification that reflects the voltage‐dependent block produced by the internal Mg2+ of the oocyte. This inward rectification is slightly reduced in the NR2 mutant (N596S) but is abolished in the NR1 mutants (N598Q and N598S). This suggests that the NR1 asparagine plays a larger role than the NR2 asparagine in controlling the internal Mg2+ block. 3 Single‐channel current‐voltage relations confirm that the internal Mg2+ block is reduced in both the NR1 and NR2 mutants. However, the reduction is small and is similar for the two families of mutants. 4 The discrepancy between whole‐cell and single‐channel data is partly due to differential effects of internal Mg2+ on the open probabilities of the two conductance states present in NR1 mutant channels. 5 The results suggest that mutations of NR1 and NR2 asparagines lower the central barrier to Mg2+. An additional contribution of the NR2 asparagine to the external Mg2+ binding site (and possibly to the external barrier that controls access to this site) may account for the marked relief of external Mg2+ block produced by the NR2 mutation.
Audit Partner Busyness and Cost of Equity Capital

This paper examines the effects of audit partner busyness on the cost of equity capital. We argue that audit partner busyness affects auditors' work processing accuracy negatively and reduces professional skepticism, thus resulting in higher information risk and, hence, an increased cost of equity capital. Using data from Australian listed companies, we find that the cost of equity capital is indeed higher for firms audited by busy audit partners. However, an additional test documents that this effect is primarily driven by non&#8208;Big&#160;4 observations. Our mediation test results indicate that this positive association is mediated through poor quality financial reporting but is driven by non&#8208;Big&#160;4 observations. Our results are robust to endogeneity concerns emanating from firms' deliberate decisions to choose audit partners. Our study contributes to both the auditing and to the cost of capital literature.
The use of atomic force microscopy for the observation of corneal epithelium surface.

PURPOSE To evaluate the feasibility of imaging normal corneal epithelium by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM). METHODS Twelve normal corneas from six albino rabbits were examined using a commercial atomic force microscope. Six corneas were examined in balanced salt solution after fixation in glutaraldehyde 2.5% and six without any fixation. Rectangular silicon nitride cantilevers with a spring constant of 10 to 20 mN/m were used. The measured forces after imaging were less than 100 pN. All reported images were made with 512x512-pixel definition with typical scan rates ranging from 1 to 5 Hz. RESULTS High-quality images of corneal epithelium surface were obtained from fixed and unfixed specimens in magnifications ranging from x2000 to x2,000,000. Imaging of fixed specimens was always easier. In unfixed specimens fuzzy images were very common, probably because of the presence of the cell glycocalyx. AFM revealed the typical polygonal corneal epithelial cells. The cell surface was covered by microprojections; at cell borders the microprojections were arranged in two characteristic parallel rows. Craterlike formations were revealed in several specimens. The microprojections' morphology and their surface details were revealed using magnifications up to x2,000,000. Three-dimensional representation of the images facilitated better understanding of the surface topography. Measurements in horizontal and vertical plane were made using the section analysis tool. CONCLUSIONS In this work the AFM parameters appropriate for corneal epithelium imaging in physiological medium were defined. AFM represents a new powerful tool for corneal epithelium imaging, and its application in this field warrants further investigation.
Evidence that a Single Monomer of Spx Can Productively Interact with RNA Polymerase in Bacillus subtilis

ABSTRACT Spx activates transcription initiation in Bacillus subtilis by directly interacting with the C-terminal domain of the RNA polymerase (RNAP) holoenzyme α subunit, which generates a complex that recognizes the promoter regions of genes within the Spx regulon. Many Gram-positive species possess multiple paralogs of Spx, suggesting that two paralogous forms of Spx could simultaneously contact RNAP. The composition of Spx/RNAP was examined in vitro using an Spx variant (SpxΔCHA) bearing a 12-amino-acid deletion of the C terminus (SpxΔC) and a hemagglutinin (HA) epitope tag and Spxc-Myc, a full-length Spx with a C-terminal myelocytomatosis oncoprotein (c-Myc) epitope tag. All Spx/RNAP complexes bearing deletion or C-terminal-tagged variants were transcriptionally active in vivo and in vitro. Reaction mixtures containing SpxΔCHA and Spxc-Myc combined with RNAP were applied to either anti-HA or anti-c-Myc affinity columns. Eluted fractions contained RNAP with only one of the epitope-tagged Spx derivatives. The resin-bound RNAP complex bearing a single epitope-tagged Spx derivative was transcriptionally active. In vivo production of SpxΔC and SpxΔCHA followed by anti-HA affinity column chromatography of a cleared lysate resulted in retrieval of Spx/RNAP with only the SpxΔCHA derivative. Binding reactions that combined active Spxc-Myc, inactive Spx(R60E)ΔCHA, and RNAP, when applied to the anti-HA affinity column, yielded only inactive Spx(R60E)ΔCHA/RNAP complexes. The results strongly argue for a model in which a single Spx monomer engages RNAP to generate an active transcriptional complex.
The prognostic importance of a small acute decrement in kidney function in hospitalized patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Recently, acute kidney injury defined by small changes in serum creatinine levels was associated with worse short-term outcomes; however, the precision and variability of this association was not fully explored. STUDY DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS Hospitalized patients. SELECTION CRITERIA FOR STUDIES MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched for observational cohort studies and randomized controlled trials published from 1990 through February 2007 that provided information for small changes in serum creatinine levels. PREDICTOR Small acute changes in serum creatinine levels by absolute and percentage of changes in serum creatinine levels (lower threshold for increase in serum creatinine <0.5 mg/dL or <25%). OUTCOME Short-term mortality (<or=30 days). RESULTS Compared with controls, patients with a 10% to 24% increase in creatinine levels had a relative risk (RR) of death of 1.8 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 2.5). By comparison, subjects with a 25% to 49% acute change in creatinine levels had an RR of death of 3.0 (95% CI, 1.6 to 5.8), and those with the largest change (>or=50%) had the greatest RR of death (RR, 6.9; 95% CI, 2.0 to 24.5). Results were similar when absolute changes in creatinine levels were considered and when pooled estimates of adjusted RR were used. LIMITATIONS Individual patient data were unavailable; thus, only group-level data were pooled for meta-analysis. Results showed a significant degree of statistical heterogeneity that was only partially ameliorated by separating studies into subsets based on clinical setting. CONCLUSIONS Short-term mortality and acute decreases in renal function are associated through a graded relationship such that even mild changes in serum creatinine levels portend worse outcome in a variety of clinical settings and patient-types.
Illusions of Brightness, Length, and Now Size: Comparable Effects Derived from the Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet Distributions

Analogous illusions of brightness, line length, and object size occur when stimulus distributions follow the Mach function. Similarly, analogous illusions of brightness and length are produced by stimulus distributions that follow the Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet function. In Exp. 1, object size is studied using Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet stimuli composed of 12 clip-art representations of candles, swords, forks, screwdrivers, or pens. Despite their equal dimensions, the three objects next to the taller gradient were judged larger than the three adjacent to the shorter gradient. In Exp. 2, variations of the sword and screwdriver figures having three separations of their constituent objects were used. The illusion produced in Exp. 1 was replicated and, for the figures composed of screwdrivers, increasing separation reduced the hypothesized mis-estimations. The relationship of these Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet size illusions to their brightness and length counterparts mirrors the relationships previously reported for Mach stimuli; moreover, these findings converge to suggest that the visual system registers size of objects with a frequency code and that illusions of size appear when interactions among neurons disrupt this code.
Studies on Growth of Eaton's Agent in Tissue Culture.∗

Summary A method for performing quantitative studies of Eaton's agent using a tissue culture system is described. The agent grew slowly in monkey kidney cell cultures, unlike many PPLO, but resembled other members of the genus Mycoplasma in being resistant to penicillin and sensitive to the tetracyclines. Demonstration of growth-inhibitory effects of both rabbit antiserum and sera of patients convalescent from atypical pneumonia, in confirmation of the work of Eaton, provides another parameter for studying immune response and relating Eaton's agent to human disease.
Designing for Consent

(U.S.). This summarizes the difficulties businesses face in gaining high-quality consent and sets out the different consent standards in U.S. statutory law. In an exploratory effort, it then shows how companies have designed consent experiences for particularly priv-acy-invasive devices – home voice assistants and “smart” televisions – through testing and documentation of their function. The then explains the quality of consent that U.S. law demands in different contexts, and eluci-dates the limits of as a privacy tool in light of the kinds of information-intensive devices that consumers are adopting. This research project looking into the privacy and security aspects of voice assistants.
Blind Decoding of Control Channel for Other Users in 3GPP Standards

This paper explores the blind decoding of control channels for obtaining other user identities in 3GPP specification, such as high-speed packet access and long-term evolution. The reliable decoding of control channels with user identities is crucial to mitigate inter-cell interference as well as multi-user interference. This paper exploits a method of user identity filtering followed by a method of user identity detection based on the traffic persistency, which is common to all standards. Hence, the proposed methods are applicable to all the standards regulated by 3GPP specification. In particular, this paper analyzes the proposed other user identity detection algorithm under the random coding. Simulation results show that the proposed method is reliable even at low SNRs and is also aligned with the analysis.
SRC: A service registry on cloud providing behavior-aware and QoS-aware service discovery

Aiming to discover the most suitable service cater to the discovery request of service consumer which includes functional requirements and nonfunctional requirements, this paper proposes a service registry model named as SRC (Service Registry on Cloud) which is an extension of the keywords based service registry model and deployed as a cloud application to provide behavior-aware and QoS-aware service discovery services. SRC stores the semantic descriptors of Web Services and the feedbacks of dynamic status of QoS of Web Services as GFS files in a cloud, and uses MapReduce mechanism to process these files. The running results of an instance of SRC deployed in an experimental environment have shown that SRC is effective and feasible.
Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumors. A polymorphous group causing osteomalacia or rickets

Reported are the pathologic features of 17 mesenchymal tumors documented as causing osteomalacia or rickets. Although these tumors were histologically polymorphous, they were classifiable into four morphological groups. In the first group there were ten unique tumors showing mixed connective tissue features and containing variably prominent vascular and/or osteoclast‐like giant‐cell components. Tumors of this group also displayed focal microcystic changes, osseous metaplasia, and/or poorly developed cartilaginous areas. The cartilaginous areas sometimes showed considerable dystrophic calcification. With one exception, all tumors of this group occurred in soft tissue and demonstrated benign clinical behavior. The single malignant tumor originated in bone, recurred locally, and metastasized to lung. The tumors comprising the remaining three groups (six tumors) occurred in bone, demonstrated benign clinical behavior, and were grouped according to their close resemblance to tumors known to occur in bone, that is osteoblastoma‐like (four tumors), nonossifying fibroma‐like (two tumors), and ossifying fibroma‐like (one tumor).
Dual-Recycling Channel Decision in a Closed-Loop Supply Chain with Cost Disruptions

This paper investigates cost disruptions of new and remanufactured products in a closed-loop supply chain where a manufacturer and a third-party collector recycle used products through online-recycling and offline-recycling channels, respectively. We use a Stackelberg game to acquire the equilibrium decisions of dual-recycling and single-recycling channels and analyze how cost disruptions affect the manufacturer’ production and collection strategies. We show that, cost disruption of new products produces a positive impact whilst the remanufacturing cost disruption has a negative impact on collection quantity of used products and negative cost disruptions of both new and remanufactured products could be profitable to the manufacturer. As for the manufacturer’s channel choice, the dual-recycling channel dominates single-recycling channels when new product cost faces positive disruption, because the manufacturer acts as both a buyer and a competitor to the collector and can determine an appropriate acquisition price and transfer price to coordinate the online-offline recycling channel. While if cost disruption of new products is negative, the manufacturer prefers the dual-recycling channel instead of single-recycling channels only if the remanufacturing cost faces large size of negative disruption.
A model for variations in single and repeated egg counts in schistosoma mansoni infections

Faecal egg counts are often used to measure Schistosoma mansoni infection, but the considerable variation between successive counts complicates their interpretation. The stochastic model described in this paper gives a description of observed egg counts in a population and can be used as a tool to gain an insight into the underlying worm load distribution. The model distinguishes between two sources of variation in egg counts: (1) variation caused by the difference in worm load between individuals, and (2) the variability of egg counts for an individual with a given worm load. Empirical data, single and repeated measurements, from surveys in five villages in Burundi and Zaire have been used to fit and validate the model. We have discussed possible mechanisms that explain the differences in estimated values between the villages. The model indicates that the expected number of eggs in a stool sample per S. mansoni worm pair is lower than suggested by autopsy data and that, possibly as a consequence of immunity, the inter-individual variation in worm loads decreases with age.
A CMOS LNA equipped with concurrent dual-band matching networks

This paper presents a concurrent dual-band CMOS LNA equipped with input and output matching networks and one cascode transconductor. Both matching networks consist of mutually connected LC tank circuits to obtain two frequency band impedance matching. The measured S11, S21, S22, and NF values were approximately −7 dB, 20 dB, −11 dB, and 6.6 dB at 2.4 GHz and −12 dB, 8 dB, −5 dB, and 6.6 dB at 5.25 GHz, respectively. Input P1dB (IP1dB) exhibits −20 dBm at 2.4 GHz and −6 dBm at 5.25 GHz. The power consumption is 15 mW from a 1.8-V supply voltage, and a chip occupies 430 μm × 915 μm. The proposed low-noise amplifier is designed by using the TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS process.
Human leukocytes kill varicella-zoster virus-infected fibroblasts in the presence of murine monoclonal antibodies to virus-specific glycoproteins

Seven murine monoclonal antibodies reacting with major glycoproteins of varicella-zoster virus were tested for functional activity in assays for antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antibody-plus-complement-mediated lysis. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells killed varicella-zoster virus-infected fibroblasts in the presence of three of four monoclonal antibodies directed against gp98/62 and a single monoclonal antibody directed against gp118. Neither of two monoclonal antibodies directed against gp66 was able to mediate ADCC. In 18-h assays, adherent effector cells were more active than nonadherent effector cells in mediating ADCC. Adherent cells treated with anti-Leu-11b and complement retained their cytotoxic activity, suggesting that monocytes are responsible for most of the adherent-cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Both immunoglobulin G1 and G2a murine monoclonal antibodies were able to participate in ADCC. Of the two immunoglobulin G2a monoclonal antibodies tested, both of which reacted with gp98/62, only one mediated lysis in the presence of complement. These results indicate that some murine monoclonal antibodies against major glycoproteins of varicella-zoster virus have functional activity in cytotoxicity assays.
Variability of Shigella flexneri serotypes in Israel during a period of two years: 2000 and 2001

During a period of 2 years (2000 and 2001) 996 Shigella flexneri strains from sporadic cases in Israel were sent to the National Shigella Reference Centre (NSRC) by hospital and outpatient clinics. The most common serotypes were 2a, 6 and 1b, accounting for 88·4% of all isolates. They were investigated according to the monthly distribution of the strains, and the age and sex of the patients. The severity of the disease was assessed by a hospital/outpatient distribution (H/Od) of the isolates, based on the location of the sending laboratory. The most affected age groups were 0–11 months and 1–4 years, and the prevalent serotype was 2a, while serotype 6 was dominant in the 5–14 years age group. More cases were registered during the hot season, and there were some serotype-related variations. Overall, 62·1% of the samples were from male patients. Serotype 1b was dominant in the male/female ratio, although it was third in general prevalence. According to the H/Od serotype 2a was more common in hospitalized males and serotype 6 in outpatients, both male and female. These variations, as well as changes in serotype prevalence in the past, underscore the importance of serotype monitoring as part of the public health strategies for reducing the burden of Shigella flexneri infections.
Recognizing and assessing pain, suffering and distress in laboratory animals: a survey of current practice in the UK with recommendations

A survey was undertaken to evaluate how animal pain, suffering and distress are recognized and assessed in UK scientific procedure establishments designated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. A total of 28 institutions were visited between June 1999 and April 2001, within which 137 people were interviewed including scientists, veterinarians and animal technicians. All 28 establishments use clinical observation sheets to assist the recognition of adverse effects, nine use score sheets and seven use computerized data management systems. Clinical signs used as indicators of potential pain, suffering or distress are largely subjective. The survey also addressed protocols and methods for avoiding and alleviating adverse effects, record keeping, review of policies and protocols and issues relating to team work and training. Respondents use a range of techniques for reducing suffering including analgesia, humane endpoints, ensuring competence and refining husbandry. All establishments review projects regularly but few have the time or resources formally to review adverse effects noted in practice and to compare observations with predictions made in licence applications. Training is very consistent between different establishments and most aim to achieve a 'team approach' for monitoring and assessing animals. Results are summarized in the present, abridged paper and set out in full in a report that can be downloaded at http://www.lal. org.uk/pain/(Hawkins 2002). The present paper and the full report, including its recommendations, are intended to provide a source of information, discussion topics and ideas for all establishments that need to monitor animal well-being.
Head injury and alexithymia: implications for family practice care.

BACKGROUND Alexithymia, a deficit in emotional information processing, and a history of head injury have both been found to be related to high rates of psychosomatic illness, substance abuse, depression, and utilization of primary care services. To date, no study has examined the potential comorbidity of alexithymia and head injury in a family practice setting, a necessary step in evaluating the aetiologic role of head injury in the development of alexithymia. The goals of this study are to establish prevalence of head injury and alexithymia in a family practice setting and to evaluate the relation, if present, between the two. METHODS Patients (n =135) of a family practice residency facility were screened using the Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. RESULTS Forty-nine per cent of the participants reported a history of head injury and 18% were alexithymic. Those with a history of head injury had significantly higher scores of alexithymia. Chi-square analysis indicated a relation between head injury and alexithymia. CONCLUSIONS The high rates of self-reported history of head injury in family practice settings, particularly in the context of alexithymia, may adversely affect a physician's ability to care for these patients. Increasing physicians' awareness of head injury and the potential mediating role of alexithymia in medical and psychological illness may facilitate effective diagnosis and patient-physician communication.