Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell Cycle Regulation of Membrane Phospholipid Metabolism*

This review focuses on the phospholipid metabolism regulated by the cell cycle. Phospholipids are the major cellular constituents required for the assembly of biological membranes, and cells must double their phospholipid mass to form daughter cells. It seems reasonable that this event should coincide with the synthesis of other cellular components such as DNA, stable RNA, etc.; however, the biochemical mechanisms that coordinate macromolecular and bulk membrane phospholipid production are largely unknown. The importance of these regulatory processes to cell physiology is obvious. Discordant regulation of phospholipid accumulation by only a few percent per cell cycle would rapidly result in cells with either a large excess or deficit of membrane surface leading to abnormalities in cell size and/or intracellular lipid accumulation. Thus, stringent control mechanisms must be in place to keep the phospholipid content in tune with the cell cycle. This discussion will explore the state of our knowledge in cultured mammalian cell systems, although cell cycle-regulated phospholipid accumulation occurs in lower eukaryotes such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae (1) and Caulobacter crescentus (2). This review is limited to a discussion of events that are directly tied to the cell cycle. Phospholipid metabolism in response to mitogenic stimulation will not be addressed as these biochemical events are generally associated with the G0 to G1 transition and are ligand-regulated rather than being orchestrated by the cell cycle.
KURUMSAL SOSYAL SORUMLULUK PROJELERİ İÇİN TASARLANAN VİDEOLARIN GÖSTERGEBİLİMSEL ÇÖZÜMLEMESİ: HAYTAP ve BGD’NİN EMPATİ VİDEOSUNUN ÇÖZÜMLEMESİ

Sivil toplum kuruluslarinin, yerel yonetimler ve markalarla isbirligi kurarak tasarladigi projelerle toplumda giderilmesi istenen sorunlarin cozumunde, bireylerde istenilen yonde davranis degisikligi yaratmak hedeflenmektedir. Bu cercevede proje icin tasarlanan iletilerin aktarilmak istenen bilgi, duygu ya da dusunceyle butunluk gostermesi onemlidir. HAYTAPHayvan Haklari Federasyonu ve BGD-Barinak Gonulluleri ve Hayvanlara Yasam Hakki Dernegi bu cercevede toplumu, hayvanlara karsi duyarli olmaya cagiran “empati” temali bir kampanya duzenlemistir. Kampanyanin, hedef kitle uzerinde davranis degisikligi yaratmasini destekleyen gorsel-isitseldilsel ogelerle iletiler tasarlanmistir. Kamu spotu mantigiyla hazirlanan gorsel ileti ile olusturulan kampanyada anlatilmak istenen mesajla, mesaji aktaran goruntulerin butunluk sagladigini ortaya koymak adina gostergebilimsel cercevede inceleme gerceklestirilmistir. Bu cercevede, gorselin teknik, dilsel, gosteren -gosterilen iliskisi, metafor-metonimi kullanimi uzerinde durulmustur. Calismada, gorselin incelemesine gecmeden once; kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk ve sivil toplum kuruluslarinin iliskilerinden soz edilmektedir. Bu baglamda, sosyal sorumluluk, kurumsal sosyal sorumluluk, sivil toplum kuruluslari ve kampanyalari kavramlari uzerinde durulmus olup, sokak hayvanlari ile ilgili projeler hayata geciren Hayvan Haklari Federasyonu ve Barinak Gonulluleri Hayvanlara Yasam Hakki Dernegi’nin yaptigi calismalar orneklendirilerek acimlamaya calisilmistir
Deletion of Nf1 in Neurons Induces Increased Axon Collateral Branching after Dorsal Root Injury

Ras-mediated signaling pathways participate in multiple aspects of neural development and function. For example, Ras signaling lies downstream of neurotrophic factors and Trk family receptor tyrosine kinases to regulate neuronal survival and morphological differentiation, including axon extension and target innervation. Neurofibromin, the protein encoded by the tumor suppressor gene Nf1, is a negative regulator of Ras [Ras-GAP (GTPase-activating protein)], and we previously demonstrated that Nf1 null embryonic sensory and sympathetic neurons can survive and differentiate independent of neurotrophin support. In this report, we demonstrate that Nf1 loss in adult sensory neurons enhances their intrinsic capacity for neurite outgrowth and collateral branching in vitro and in vivo after dorsal root injury. In contrast to the permanent sensory deficits observed in control mice after dorsal rhizotomy, neuron-specific Nf1 mutant mice spontaneously recover proprioceptive function. This phenomenon appears to be mediated both by a cell-autonomous capacity of spared Nf1−/− DRG neurons for increased axonal sprouting, and by non-cell-autonomous contribution from Nf1−/− neurons in the denervated spinal cord.
A 10-Gbit/s CMOS-burst-mode clock and data recovery IC for a WDM/TDM-PON access network

We have developed a 10-Gbit/s burst-mode clock and data recovery IC for future WBM/TDM-PON access networks. A fabricated IC (CMOS) is operated at 10 Gbit/s with preamble bits of 0-16, a duty-cycle variation tolerance of over 15% and a power consumption of 1.2 W.
How Common Is Low Back Pain in the Nordic Population?: Data From a Recent Study on a Middle‐Aged General Danish Population and Four Surveys Previously Conducted in the Nordic Countries

Study Design Data were obtained in a Danish cross‐sectional postal survey and compared with information from four methodologically similar studies conducted in some of the Nordic countries between 1977‐1985. Objectives The objectives were to estimate the life‐time cumulative incidence and the 1‐year period prevalence of low back pain in the general population, to study whether there are any differences in the occurrence of low back pain according to age and sex, and to investigate whether low back pain is on the increase. Summary of Background Data The prevalence of low back pain commonly is thought to be high, but estimates differ considerably between studies. It is also not known whether low back pain is more common in men or women or in certain age groups, and it is unclear whether the prevalence of low back pain has increased in the past years. Methods Prevalence estimates were established in a current study, and results then were adjusted to suit the age and sex criteria of four previous studies. Results Between 60‐65% of 30‐ to 50‐year‐old men and women living in the Nordic countries reported at least one incident of low back pain during their lifetime, based on the information from four studies with a total sample size of 3513. The most likely 1‐year period prevalence estimate is between 44‐54%, based on two studies and a total sample of 2035 individuals. There was no consistent evidence favoring higher figures with increasing age or relating to any of the genders. No clearly observed time‐related trend was noted. Conclusions When data were examined from five methodologically similar studies on the 30‐ to 50‐year‐old Nordic population, there was reasonable consistency of prevalence figures. Thus, approximately 66% report having had low back pain at least sometime during their lifetime and approximately 50% sometime during the preceding year, with no significant differences relating to age or sex. The best method to investigate whether low back pain is on the increase might be through replicate studies.
Application of subsecond spiral chemical shift imaging to real‐time multislice metabolic imaging of the rat in vivo after injection of hyperpolarized 13C1‐pyruvate

Dynamic nuclear polarization can create hyperpolarized compounds with MR signal‐to‐noise ratio enhancements on the order of 10,000‐fold. Both exogenous and normally occurring endogenous compounds can be polarized, and their initial concentration and downstream metabolic products can be assessed using MR spectroscopy. Given the transient nature of the hyperpolarized signal enhancement, fast imaging techniques are a critical requirement for real‐time metabolic imaging. We report on the development of an ultrafast, multislice, spiral chemical shift imaging sequence, with subsecond acquisition time, achieved on a clinical MR scanner. The technique was used for dynamic metabolic imaging in rats, with measurement of time‐resolved spatial distributions of hyperpolarized 13C1‐pyruvate and metabolic products 13C1‐lactate and 13C1‐alanine, with a temporal resolution of as fast as 1 s. Metabolic imaging revealed different signal time courses in liver from kidney. These results demonstrate the feasibility of real‐time, hyperpolarized metabolic imaging and highlight its potential in assessing organ‐specific kinetic parameters. Magn Reson Med, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A hybrid ZVS resonant converter with reduced circulating current and improved voltage regulation performance

In this paper, a novel hybrid ZVS resonant topology is proposed for PEV battery charging applications. The proposed charger architecture combines the advantages of SRC and LLC topologies while avoids their drawbacks in battery charging application. The circulating current in the magnetizing inductor is reduced, which helps to reduce the circulating losses. The peak current of primary MOSFETs are also reduced in comparison to the conventional LLC topology; this reduces the conduction losses from the MOSFETs and improves the circuit reliability. Moreover, turning off current of power MOSFETs are reduced, which reduces the switching losses associated with the turning off of MOSFETs. Simulation results based on designed 1 kW prototype shows 96.8% peak conversion efficiency.
Contour integration in the primary visual cortex of the opossum

To investigate whether contour integration is a generalized mammalian feature we studied single cells in V1 on the South-America opossum (Didelphis aurita), a plesiomorphic animal believed to retain basic characteristics of early mammals. We observed that when a cell's receptive field (RF) was masked (i.e. an artificial scotoma was produced), sweeping a long bar (several times the length of the RF) at the cell's preferred orientation elicited robust responses in many cells (28/103, or 27%). Therefore, some cells in the primary visual cortex of the opossum interpolate under conditions consistent with physical occlusion. The present results indicate that the property of contour integration appears to be a basic property of the mammalian visual system.
Colorectal and extracolonic cancers detected at screening CT colonography in 10,286 asymptomatic adults.

PURPOSE To retrospectively determine the detection rates, clinical stages, and short-term patient survival for all unsuspected cancers identified at screening computed tomographic (CT) colonography, including both colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and extracolonic malignancies. MATERIALS AND METHODS From April 2004 through March 2008, prospective colorectal and extracolonic interpretation was performed in 10,286 outpatient adults (5388 men, 4898 women; mean age, 59.8 years) undergoing screening CT colonography at two centers in this institutional review board-approved, HIPAA-compliant study. For all histologically proved, clinically unsuspected cancers detected at CT colonography that were identified at retrospective review of the medical records, the stage of disease, treatment, and clinical outcome were analyzed. Benign neoplasms (including advanced colorectal adenomas), symptomatic lesions, and tumors without pathologic proof were excluded. Statistical analysis was performed with Fisher exact test and two-sample z test. RESULTS Unsuspected cancer was confirmed in 58 (0.56%) patients (33 women, 25 men; mean age, 60.8 years), which included invasive CRC in 22 patients (0.21%) and extracolonic cancer in 36 patients (0.35%). Extracolonic malignancies included renal cell carcinoma (n = 11), lung cancer (n = 8), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 6), and a variety of other tumors (n = 11). Cancers in 31 patients (53.4%) were stage I or localized. At the most recent clinical follow-up (mean, 30.0 months +/- 11.8 [standard deviation]; range, 12-56 months), three patients (5.2%) had died of their cancer. CONCLUSION The overall detection rate of unsuspected cancer is approximately one per 200 asymptomatic adults undergoing routine screening CT colonography, including about one invasive CRC per 500 cases and one extracolonic cancer per 300 cases. Detection and treatment at an early presymptomatic stage may have contributed to the favorable outcome.
Cycloplegia in African-American children.

PURPOSE The selection of a cycloplegic agent depends on the desired outcome, the characteristics of the patient receiving the drug, and the associated risks. The Orinda Longitudinal Study of Myopia (OLSM) has used 1% tropicamide to assess the ocular components and cycloplegic refractions in a large cohort of predominantly Caucasian children. Although tropicamide has provided adequate cycloplegia and mydriasis for the OLSM cohort, conventional clinical wisdom and scientific investigations have suggested that tropicamide might not produce adequate cycloplegia and mydriasis for subjects with darker iris pigmentation. In this study one drop of 1% tropicamide followed by one drop of 1% cyclopentolate was used to determine their effectiveness in producing adequate cycloplegia and mydriasis for cycloplegic refraction and ocular component measurements in a group of African-American children. METHODS Nineteen children [age range 5.5 to 15.6 years, mean 8.4 years +/- (SD) 2.5 years] were tested at Family HealthCare of Alabama, Eutaw, AL. Their accommodative responses were measured using a Canon R-1 autorefractor prior to and at 30, 45, and 60 min after instillation of one drop of 0.5% proparacaine, 1% tropicamide (Mydriacyl), and 1% cyclopentolate (Cyclogyl) in both eyes. A target of 20/155 letters in a 4x4 grid positioned behind a +6.50 diopter (D) Badal lens provided accommodative stimuli of 1.00 D, 2.00 D, and 4.00 D. RESULTS All results are presented as mean +/-1 SD. Pupils, measured from video frames, dilated rapidly and maximally at 30 min after instillation of eye drops (7.3+/-0.5 mm) Predilation, the mean accommodative responses were 0.17+/-0.29 D for the 1.00 D stimulus, 1.01+/-0.40 D for the 2.00 D stimulus, and 2.77+/-0.74 for the 4.00 D stimulus. At 30 min after drop instillation, the responses were 0.07+/-0.14 D for the 1.00 D stimulus, 0.36+/-0.35 D for the 2.00 D stimulus, and 0.77+/-0.61 for the 4.00 D stimulus. Results were very similar at 45 and 60 min after drop instillation. CONCLUSIONS Combining 1% tropicamide and 1% cyclopentolate was very effective in providing both cycloplegia and mydriasis adequate for ocular biometry and cycloplegic refractions 30 min after drop instillation in African-American children.
Modeling Diffusion of Competing Products and Conventions in Social Media

The emergence and wide-spread use of social networks and microblogging sites has led to a dramatic increase on the availability of users' activity data. Importantly, this data can be exploited to solve some of the problems that have captured the attention of economists and marketers for decades as, e.g., product adoption, product competition and product life cycle. In this paper, we leverage on users' activity data from a popular microblogging site to model and predict the competing dynamics of products and social conventions adoptions. To this aim, we propose a data-driven model, based on continuous-time Hawkes processes, for the adoption and frequency of use of competing products and conventions. We then develop an inference method to efficiently fit the model parameters by solving a convex program. The problem decouples into a collection of smaller subproblems, thus scaling easily to networks with hundred of thousands of nodes. We validate our method over synthetic and real diffusion data gathered from Twitter, and show that the proposed model does not only present a good predictive power but also provides interpretable model parameters, which allow us to gain insights into the fundamental principles that drive product and convention adoptions.
Finger Vein Recognition based on Personalized Discriminative Bit Map

Finger vein recognition is a promising biometric recognition due to its some advantages. For a finger vein recognition system, feature extraction is a critical step for the final recognition. In ou r previous work, we proposed Personalized Best Bit Map(PBBM) which selected the stable bits from LBP. Although PBBM achieve a better performance, it still contains some useless bits for recognition. In this paper, we propose Personalized Discriminati ve Bit Map(PDBM) which select much more discriminative bits from PBBM. The bits of PDMB are more discriminative and more effective for the final recognition. In addition, compared with PBBM, the number of bits for matching is reduced, so PDBM can also reduce the computation complexity. Experimental results show that PDBM achieves not only better performance, but also consumes less time for matching.
Establishment of Hybrid Cell Lines Producing Monoclonal Antibodies to a Synthetic Peptide from the E1 Region of the Hepatitis C Virus

Abstract We aimed at establishing hybridoma cells secreting monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against E1 synthetic peptide of HCV. BALB/c mice were immunized with HCV E1‐synthetic peptide (GHRMAWDMM) and its spleenocytes were fused with the P3NS1 myeloma cell line. Two highly reactive and specific mAbs (10C7 IgG2b mAb, and 10B2 IgG1 mAb) were generated. The target HCV E1 antigen was identified at ∼38 kDa in serum of infected individuals. A newly developed ELISA detected the target antigen in 90% of sera from HCV RNA infected individuals with a specificity of 84%. So, the generated mAbs may provide promising probes for serodiagnosis of HCV infection.
The Basics of Learning Readiness

raditionally, academic success depends upon a child’s basic ability to read, write, spell, and do math equations—abilities commonly known as the three R’s. The goal of traditional education is to teach and strengthen these basic abilities so students may apply them to complete given tasks. The No Child Left Behind Act (PL 107-110), passed by Congress in 2001, was intended to increase the academic achievement levels in these areas for students considered to be disadvantaged (based upon low family income level, residence in a non-English speaking household, or enrollment in a low-performing public school) and to better prepare teachers for the task of teaching. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) puts forth four key principles:
Table 1 Commonly reported SNPs in DNA repair genes implicated in head and neck cancer

Although tobacco and alcohol consumption are two common risk factors of head and neck cancer (HNC), other specific etiologic causes, such as viral infection and genetic susceptibility factors, remain to be understood. Human DNA is often damaged by numerous endogenous and exogenous mutagens or carcinogens, and genetic variants in interaction with environmental exposure to these agents may explain interindividual differences in HNC risk. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in the DNA damage-repair response are reported to be risk factors for various cancer types, including HNC. Here, we reviewed epidemiological studies that have assessed the associations between HNC risk and SNPs in DNA repair genes involved in base-excision repair, nucleotide-excision repair, mismatch repair, double-strand break repair and direct reversion repair pathways. We found, however, that only a few SNPs in DNA repair genes were found to be associated with significantly increased or decreased risk of HNC, and, in most cases, the effects were moderate, depending upon locus-locus interactions among the risk SNPs in the pathways. We believe that, in the presence of exposure, additional pathwaybased analyses of DNA repair genes derived from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in HNC are needed.
Deep characterization of a fast monitoring system for radiotherapeutic proton beams based on scintillating screens and a CCD camera

On August 2004, in the issue of IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science Vol. 51, n. 4 was published a manuscript describing extensively a fast and accurate quality control system for radiotherapeutic proton beams. The system was developed for a facility, active since March 2002 at Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (Catania, Italy), in which 62 MeV proton beams are employed for treatment of ocular diseases. It consists of a scintillating screen mounted perpendicularly to the beam axis at a fixed distance and observed by a highly sensitive CCD (charge-coupled device) camera. In the manuscript were reported preliminary experimental results and the comparison of the system performances with respect to other conventional systems. In this work is presented a deeper physics characterization of the system in terms of system yield versus proton beam dose rate and its linearity, contrast and background correction, signal to noise ratio and spatial resolution measured as MTF values. The latter was measured using both a sinusoidal pattern method and an edge pattern method. The equivalence between these two methods of MTF evaluation is demonstrated for proton beams. Finally, MTF values calculated for the presented system by means of the edge pattern method is compared with routine dosimetric system values together with associated spatial resolutions.
Effect of Constant Light, Pinealectomy and Guanosine Triphosphate Gamma‐S on the Density of Melatonin Receptors in the Rat Suprachiasmatic Nucleus: A Possible Implication of Melatonin Action

We report here the effects of pinealectomy and exposition to constant light on the density of melatonin receptors in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the rat using quantitative autoradiography. The Bmaxvalues were significantly increased when the animals were maintained in constant light for 3 days (8.22 ± 0.95 fmol/mg protein versus 4.55±0.14 fmol/mg protein in control group, 12 h light/12 h dark cycle (12L/12D), n = 6). A similar increase was also observed in rats pinealectomized 3 days before sacrifice and then maintained either under 12L/12D (Bmax7.56±0.80 fmol/mg protein) or in constant light (Bmax7.85±1.02 fmol/mg protein), while Kdvalues failed to show any variations after constant light and/or pinealectomy.
Alcohol consumption, variability in alcohol dehydrogenase genes and risk of renal cell carcinoma

Alcohol consumption has been associated inversely with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) risk; however, no study has examined effect modification by germline variation in alcohol‐metabolizing genes. We investigated whether the association between alcohol intake and RCC risk is modulated by germline variants in alcohol dehydrogenase genes in a large case–control study. Data from 652 RCC cases and 1,366 non‐cancer controls were analyzed. Alcohol intake was assessed using a standardized risk factor questionnaire. Three previously genotyped polymorphisms in ADH6 and ADH7 with the TaqMan assay were examined. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using logistic regression, adjusting for covariates. Compared to non‐drinkers, ever consumption of alcohol was associated with lower RCC risk (OR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.42–0.65). Analysis with cubic spline regression curve showed a “J‐shaped” relationship between alcohol drinks/day and RCC risk, such that there was no added benefit against RCC for consumption of more than two drinks/day. We observed effect modification by variation in rs1154454 (ADH7) (pinteraction = 0.007); a per unit increase in alcohol drink/day was associated with 35% lower RCC risk among non‐minor allele carriers, a 27% lower risk among those who carry one copy of the minor allele, but no association was observed among those with two copies of the minor allele. These findings indicate that alcohol consumption is associated with lower RCC risk. Consuming more than two drinks a day does not confer additional protection against RCC. The association between alcohol intake and RCC risk appears to be modulated by inter‐individual germline variation in alcohol‐metabolizing genes.