Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the role of amino acid residues in the transmembrane domains of the α- and γ-chains of the high-affinity receptor complex for immunoglobulin E in signal transduction

The dramatic rise in the incidence of allergic/asthmatic disorders in the past three decades has placed a major socio-economic burden on global health care. Exocytosis of mediators causing allergic responses follows the binding, and subsequent receptor cross-linking by cognate allergen of immunoglobulin (lg) E antibodies to Fe-receptors (FcERI), expressed predominantly on mast cells and basophils. Fe-receptors have an invariant predominantly hydrophobic ammo acid motif (LFAVDTGL) in their transmembrane (TM) domain but contain a hydrophilic aspartic acid residue (D194). The function of this potentially energetically unstable residue in the TM of the human (hu) Fci,Rla subunit was targeted by transfecting the Rat Basophilic Cell line (RBL-2H3.1) with cDNA constructs encoding the gene for native and mutant huFcERia subunits and assessing receptor expression and signalling events. RBL-2H3 transfected with cDNA constructs encoding a medium-sized polar residue hufci,Rla (D194T) demonstrated the formation of a functional rat/human chimeric receptor complex which, when activated via hulgE and antigen, supports mediator release, intracellular calcium mobilisation and tyrosine phosphorylation of ychain and Syk kinase. Transfection with mutant huFci,Rla subunit cDNA constructs encoding non-polar Ile (D1941) and V (D194V), larger sized polar Arg (D194R), smaller sized polar Ser (D194S) and non-polar Ala (D194A) abrogated surface expression of huFcERia and degranulation. An established RBL y-chain deficient cell line served as a model for assessing a- and y-chains interactions through the effect of mutations introduced into the y-chain. Compared to parental RBL-2H3 cells, the RBL y-chain deficient cells supported reduced levels of FcERI expression and mediator release. Transfection of RBL y-chain deficient cells with wild-type and mutant (T22A and T22S) y-chain cDNA constructs restored FctRI expression to levels observed in the parental cell line, but only partially restored mediator release, indicating a defective secretory response. Collectively this study identifies D194 in FctRia as a potential target for developing future anti-allergic drugs that act by inhibiting the FctRI signalling cascade.
A Brief Review of Known Effects of Noise on Marine Mammals

Marine mammals, especially cetaceans, are highly vocal and dependent on sound for almost all aspects of their lives, e.g. food-finding, reproduction, communication, detection of predators/hazards, and navigation. They are thus likely sensitive to anthropogenic noise. Sound has a large potential area of impact, sometimes covering millions of square kilometers of ocean with levels high enough to cause possible disturbance in marine mammals. There can be great variation in the reaction of marine mammals to noise, depending on such factors as species, individual, age, sex, prior experience with noise, and behavioral state. Species with similar hearing capabilities can respond differently to the same noise. Observed effects of noise on marine mammals include: changes in vocalizations, respiration, swim speed, diving, and foraging behavior; displacement, avoidance, shifts in migration path, stress, hearing damage, and strandings. Responses of marine mammals to noise can often be subtle and barely detectable, and there are many documented cases of apparent tolerance of noise. However, marine mammals showing no obvious avoidance or changes in activities may still suffer important, even lethal, consequences. Acoustically-induced strandings may displace a local beaked whale ( Ziphiidae ) population (for an extended period if not permanently) or even possibly eliminate most of its members. As beaked whales seem to be found in small, possibly genetically isolated, resident populations, even a transient and localized acoustic impact could have prolonged population consequences. Observed reactions to noise in marine mammals could theoretically result in impacts such as decreased foraging efficiency, higher energetic demands, less group cohesion, higher predation, decreased reproduction, and thus seriously impact the population. Alternatively, they may be harmless. However, noise is thought to contribute to at least some species’ declines or lack of recovery (Southern resident killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) , western gray whales ( Eschrichtius robustus ) off Sakhalin).
The Prophylactic Effect of Vitamin C on Oxidative Stress Indexes Following Exposure to Radio Frequency Wave Generated by a BTS Antenna Model in Rat Liver and Kidney

Article history: Received: 11 Mar 2013 Accepted: 24 Apr 2013 Available online: 9 June 2013 ZJRMS 2014; 16(2): 19-23 Background: Radio frequency wave (RFW) generated by base transceiver station (BTS) has been reported to make deleterious effects on liver and kidney, possibly through oxidative stress. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of radiofrequency wave (RFW)-induced oxidative stress in the liver and kidney and the prophylactic effect of vitamin C on this organs by measuring the antioxidant enzymes activity including: glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), and malondialdehyde (MDA). Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, thirty-two adult male SpragueDawley rats were randomly divided into four experimental groups and treated daily for 45 days as follows: control, vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid 200 mg/kg of body weight/day by gavage), test (exposed to 900MHz RFW) and the treated group (received vitamin C in addition to exposure to RFW). At the end of the experiment all animals were sacrificed and their liver and kidney were removed and were used for measurement of antioxidant enzymes and MDA activity. Results: The results indicate that exposure to RFW in the test group decreased antioxidant enzymes activity and increased MDA compared with the control groups (p<0.05). In the treated group vitamin C improved antioxidant enzymes activity and reduced MDA compared to the test group (p<0.05). Conclusion: It can be concluded that RFW causes oxidative stress in liver and kidney, and vitamin C improves the antioxidant enzymes activity and decreases MDA. Copyright © 2014 Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.
Psychological Science (2010) Sweet Future: Fluctuating Blood Glucose Levels Affect Future Discounting

This study explored metabolic mechanisms of future (delay) discounting, a choice phenomenon where people value present goods over future goods. Using fluctuating blood glucose as an index of body-energy budget, optimal discounting should regulate choice among rewards as a function of temporal caloric requirement. We identified this novel link between blood glucose levels measured in the lab and future-discounting rates of participants, who made choices between a “smaller and sooner” reward and a “larger but later” option, with possible actual monetary rewards. A group of participants who drank a soft drink that contained sugar showed a reduced rate of future discounting afterward, when we controlled for sex, age, body mass index, and the taste of the drink. In contrast, a group of participants who drank a soft drink that contained artificial sweetener showed an increased rate of future discounting. Blood glucose levels not only varied as a result of caloric intake but also regulated the rate of future discounting, according to participants’ dynamic body-energy budget.
Datenbankgestützte Methoden zur Analyse von Funktions-, Expressions- und Aufreinigungseigenschaften von Proteinen

Die Anzahl an Sequenz- und Strukturinformationen zu Proteinen und Genomen ist gegenwartig bereits immens umfangreich und wachst stetig an. Die Vielzahl an Sequenz- und Strukturinformationen birgt ein enormes Potenzial, um mittels systematischer Analysen Modelle und Vorhersagen fur das Verhalten von Proteinen und gegebenenfalls ganzer Proteinfamilien zu erstellen. Das Ziel der in dieser Arbeit durchgefuhrten systematischen Analysen war die Erstellung von familienspezifischen und allgemeinen Regeln fur die Vorhersage von Expressions- und Aufreinigungsparametern von Proteinen. Hierfur wurde zum einen der Einfluss von seltenen Codons auf die Expression von Proteinen untersucht. Zum anderen wurden Modelle erstellt um die Vorhersage des Aufreinigungsverhaltens von Proteinen mittels Ionenaustausch-chromatographie zu beschreiben. Die Proteinfamiliendatenbank der Familie der a/b Hydrolasen war Teil dieser Analysen und wurde daruber hinaus umfangreich erweitert. Die Klassifizierung und Integration einer neuen Proteinfamilie in diese Datenbank wurde durch systematische Struktur- und Sequenzvergleiche ermoglicht. Zudem wurde fur die Familie der Thiamindiphosphat (ThDP)-abhangigen Enzyme eine umfassende Proteinfamiliendatenbank etabliert mit dem Ziel, systematische Analysen dieser diversen Proteinfamilie zu ermoglichen. The amount of information on protein sequences and structures is considerable and is steadily increasing. The multitude of available protein sequences and structures holds an enormous potential for systematic analyses in order to model or predict the behaviour of single proteins and protein families. The aim of the systematic analyses performed in this work was the development of family specific and general rules for the prediction of parameters for protein expression and purification. One topic was the influence of synonymous codons on the expression of proteins. Furthermore, a model for the prediction and identification of parameters for protein purification via ion exchange chromatography was devised. The protein family database of a/b hydrolases, which was part of these analyses, was also updated and its content considerably increased. The integration and classification of a new protein family to this database was realized by systematic sequence and structure comparisons. A new protein family database was established for the family of Thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)-dependent enzymes, making a systematic analysis and evaluation of this diverse protein family possible.
Determining Student Activities via Compromised-Analytic Hierarchy Process and 0-1 Integer Programming to Maximize SETARA Points and Satisfy Chickering Theory

Prioritizing and making decisions on what student activities to be selected and conducted to fulfill the aspiration of a university requires some understanding on the mission of the university as translated in its strategic plan and the basic theory on student development. For government funded universities in Malaysia, the recent budget cut imposed by the Malaysian government has made the task more difficult. In this paper, we illustrated how 0-1 integer programming (0-1 IP) model was implemented to select which activities among the forty activities proposed by the student body of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) to be implemented for the 2017/2018 academic year. Two different models were constructed. The 0-1 IP model was developed to determine which activities to be selected based on RM50,000 total budget allocated by the UUM management towards fulfilling the SETARA-rating requirements as well as the Chickering’s student development theory. The selection of activities was also based on maximizing the preference of the members of the student body whereby the preference value for each activity was determined using Compromised-Analytic Hierarchy Process. The optimal result obtained using LINGO version 11 revealed that the budget allocated was more than enough to fulfill all the needed requirements. The technique used in this study will be useful and suitable to be implemented by organizations with key performance indicator-oriented programs and having limited budget allocation issues.
Effects of environmental factors on breast blister incidence, growth performance, and some biochemical indexes in broilers

SUMMARY Breast blisters (BB) are an important factor affecting the carcass grade of broilers. To investigate the effects of floor type, stocking density, and sex management on the incidence of BB, an orthogonal design with 3 factors and levels [L9(3 4 )] was used in this study. A total of 324 Arbor Acre broilers, 21 d of age, were randomly allocated into 9 groups with 2 replicates each, and were raised in cages with different floor types (wire netting, plastic slats, and bamboo slats), at different densities (17, 14, and 11 broilers/m 2 ), and with different sex management (males, females, and mixed sexes). Effects of these factors on the incidence of BB, growth performance, and some biochemical indexes were studied for birds from d 21 to 42. The results showed that floor type had the greatest effect on the incidence of BB compared with stocking density and sex management. The incidence of broiler BB was significantly higher in cages with wire netting than in those with plastic or bamboo slats (P 0.05). Birds on plastic slats had higher total antioxidant capability values than those on wire netting or bamboo slats (P < 0.05). Malondialdehyde content of birds in the wire netting group was higher than those of birds on plastic and bamboo slats (P < 0.05). In this study, floor type was the main environmental factor affecting the incidence of BB in broilers, compared with density and sex management. Results suggest that the increased serum levels of lactic acid and malondialdehyde are involved in the development of BB.
Estimation of rock properties from seismic, EM and gravity well-log measurements

Geophysical methods are used to obtain physical properties of the subsurface, by inverting the constitutive equations. If there exists a common set of rock properties (cross-properties) that influence different measurements, their joint utilization can reduce the ambiguities of the interpretation. We select a real test case in a reservoir scenario, and we explore how to determine rock porosity and fluids saturation from P-velocity, conductivity and density of the equivalent compound medium.
A comprehensive survey of error measures for evaluating binary decision making in data science

Binary decision making is a topic of great interest for many fields, including biomedical science, economics, management, politics, medicine, natural science and social science, and much effort has been spent for developing novel computational methods to address problems arising in the aforementioned fields. However, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of any prediction method for binary decision making, the choice of the most appropriate error measures is of paramount importance. Due to the variety of error measures available, the evaluation process of binary decision making can be a complex task. The main objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive survey of error measures for evaluating the outcome of binary decision making applicable to many data‐driven fields.
Adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with brain stem and spinal cord involvement and normal lactate: Case report

Adult-Onset Leukoencephalopathy with Brain Stem and Spinal Cord Involvement and Normal Lactate: Case Report Özdem Ertürk1, Cengiz Yalç›nkaya1, Aksel Siva1, Marjo S van der Knaap2 1Department of Neurology, Faculty of Cerrahpasa Medicine, University of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey 2Department of Child Neurology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Özdem Ertürk1, Cengiz Yalç›nkaya1, Aksel Siva1, Marjo S van der Knaap2 1İstanbul Üniversitesi Cerrahpaşa Tıp Fakültesi, Nöroloji Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Türkiye 2VU Üniversitesi Tıp Merkezi, Çocuk Nörolojisi Bölümü, Amsterdam, Hollanda Turk Norol Derg 2010;16:106-109
Significance of communication in emergency management

Operational success in responding to an emergency might easily be measured in terms the number of lives and properties saved. Media images of fire fighters or State Emergency Services rescue boats in action during flood are evidence to the community, emergency managers and politicians that emergency agency resources are hard at work. Unfortunately, the effect of communication around the same emergency is hard to measure and such measurement not resourced. This may result in communication teams being starved of resources that can not easily be justified by emergency managers in terms of outcomes. Despite this, debriefing sessions often seem to be dominated by issues surrounding communication with the media and community. This study was commissioned by the Emergency Media and Public Affairs Research and Development committee and investigates suspicions of practitioners that, while communication teams are small, communication is a large component of emergency management that can easily turn into an issue (Rekers, Delaney & Wilson 2008). It attempts to quantify the significance of communication to emergency management. It will undertake a content analysis of a sample of documents that have been produced in Australia as a result of emergency incident and emergency exercise debriefing sessions and reviews from 2003 to 2008 and will measure the number of recommendations specific to or relating to communications against the total number of recommendations. The term ‘communications’ in this paper includes agency-community communication, community-agency communication, intra- and inter-agency communication and deals with messaging, channels and technology.
How do fathers influence children's development? Let me count the ways.

Edited by Dr. Michael Lamb—the recognized authority on the role of fathers in child development, The Role of the Father in Child Development, Fifth Edition brings together contributions from international experts on each subject to provide a thorough and current summary of the state of fatherhood across cultures, classes, economic systems, and family formations. This classic guide offers a single-source reference for the most recent fi ndings and beliefs related to fathers and fatherhood.
The Mineral Nutrition of Wild Plants

Our understanding of plant mineral nutrition comes largely from studies of herbaceous crops that evolved from ruderal species characteristic of nutri­ ent-rich disturbed sites (52). With the development of agriculture, these ancestral species were bred for greater productivity and reproductive output at high nutrient levels where there was little selective advantage in efficient nutrient use. This paper briefly reviews the nature of crop responses to nutrient stress and compares these responses to those of species that have evolved under more natural conditions, particularly in low-nutrient envi­ ronments. I draw primarily upon nutritional studies of nitrogen and phos­ phorus because these elements most commonly limit plant growth and because their role in controlling plant growth and metabolism is most clearly understood (51). Other more specific aspects of nutritional plant ecology not discussed here include ammonium/nitrate nutrition (79), cal­ cicole/calcifuge nutrition (51,88), heavy metal tolerance (4), and serpentine ecology (133).
Age‐dependent clutch size in a koinobiont parasitoid

Abstract. 1. The Lack clutch size theory predicts how many eggs a female should lay to maximise her fitness gain per clutch. However, for parasitoids that lay multiple clutches it can overestimate optimal clutch size because it does not take into account the future reproductive success of the parasitoid.
Micro-Inertial-Aided High-Precision Positioning Method for Small-Diameter PIG Navigation

Additional of the chapter Abstract Pipeline leakage or explosion has caused huge economic losses, polluted the environ- ments and threatened the safety of civilian ’ s lives and assets, which even caused negative influences to the society greatly. Fortunately, pipeline inspection gauge (PIG) could accomplish the pipeline defect (corrosions, cracks, grooves, etc.) inspection effectively and meanwhile to localize these defects precisely by navigation sensors. The results are utilized for pipeline integrity management (PIM) and pipeline geographic information system construction. Generally, the urban underground pipeline presents with small- diameter and complicated-distribution properties, which are of great challenges for the pipeline defects positioning by PIG. This chapter focuses on in-depth research of the high- precision positioning method for small-diameter PIG navigation. In the beginning, the problems and system errors statement of MEMS SINS-based PIG are analyzed step by step. Then, the pipeline junction (PJ) identification method based on fast orthogonal search (FOS) is studied. After that, a PIG positioning system that comprises of micro- inertial/AGM/odometer/PJ is proposed, and also the application mechanism of extended Kalman filter and its smoothing technology on PIG navigation system is researched to improve the overall positioning precision for the small-diameter PIG. Finally, the proposed methods and research conclusions are verified by the indoor wheel robot simula- tion platform. performance of the PJ detection result on PIG navigation system, and the mean error of PIG navigation system improved 54.42% after adding azimuth and pitch errors correction by EKF/ RTSS estimation technique.
Symposium-in-Print UVB/UVA Radiation Activates a 48 kDa Myelin Basic Protein Kinase and Potentiates Wound Signaling in Tomato Leaves

Abstract We investigated the effect of UV radiation on early signaling events in the response of young tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum) to wounding. Ultraviolet-C (<280 nm) and UVB/UVA (280–390 nm) radiation both induced 48 kDa myelin basic protein kinase activity in leaves. The activation was associated with phosphorylation of tyrosine residues on the kinase, which is indicative of protein kinases of the mitogen-activated protein kinase family. Ultraviolet-C irradiation resulted in a strong proteinase inhibitor synthesis, as reported previously (Conconi et al., Nature 383, 826–829, 1996). Under the conditions used, UVB/UVA radiation did not induce proteinase inhibitor synthesis but resulted in a strong potentiation of systemic proteinase inhibitor synthesis in response to wounding. The UVB/UVA-irradiated plants that were subsequently wounded accumulated 2.5–4-fold higher levels of proteinase inhibitor I when compared to wounded non-irradiated plants. The potentiating effect was most prominent in the systemic unwounded leaf of a wounded plant. Levels of 12-oxo-phytodienoic acid and jasmonic acid that have been well documented to increase in response to wounding were not detected in response to UVB/UVA irradiation alone. The effect of UVB/UVA radiation in potentiating plant defense signaling should be further considered as a factor that may influence the ecological balance between plants and their predators.