Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of the domains required for direct interaction of the helicase-like and polymerase-like RNA replication proteins of brome mosaic virus

Brome mosaic virus is a positive-strand RNA virus whose RNA replication requires viral protein 1a, which has putative helicase and capping functions, and 2a, which has putative polymerase function. Since domains of related sequence are conserved in a wide range of plus-strand RNA viruses, analysis of 1a and 2a function should have applicability to many other viruses. We have recently demonstrated that 1a and 2a form a complex in vivo and in vitro. Using immune coprecipitation and mutant polypeptides made in reticulocyte lysates, we have now mapped both the 1a and 2a domains necessary for complex formation. The sequences needed to bind 2a map to the carboxy-terminal helicase-like domain of 1a. Truncated polypeptides containing this domain were able to bind to 2a, while several small insertions in the helicase-like domain disrupted binding. The sequence required for binding 1a lies within a 115-residue subset of the 2a N-terminal segment preceding the polymerase-like domain. Truncations or fusion polypeptides containing this segment can bind 1a. We also determined that highly purified 2a protein made in insect cells can form a complex with highly purified 1a helicase-like domain made in Escherichia coli, suggesting that no other factor is required to mediate 1a-2a interaction. Previous genetic analyses of 1a and 2a are consistent with this mapping and show that the newly defined 1a and 2a binding regions are required for RNA synthesis. The locations of these interacting regions are discussed with regard to models of viral replication and the evolution of positive-strand RNA virus genomes.
No Trade-Offs between Lipid Stores and Structural Growth in Juvenile Zebra Finches Undergoing Nutritional Stress during Development

Nutritional conditions during development can affect both structural growth and body fat deposition. Body size and body fat each have significant consequences for fitness, yet few studies have investigated how young birds balance resource allocation between structural growth and fat reserves. We raised zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) in consistently high- or low-food conditions until posthatch day 35 (PHD 35). From this age until PHD 62, half of the birds in each condition were switched to the other treatment, while the rest were maintained on the same conditions. Body mass, lean mass, body fat, and tarsus length were measured before (PHD 25) and after (PHD 55) nutritional independence. Precise measures of body composition were obtained noninvasively at both ages using quantitative magnetic resonance analysis. At PHD 25, birds in the high treatment had more body mass and lean mass than birds in the low treatment, but nutritional treatments did not affect body fat at this age. Unexpectedly, the strategic response of birds that experienced deteriorating food availability was to maintain body mass by increasing body fat and decreasing lean mass. Birds that experienced an improvement in food availability significantly increased body mass by increasing lean mass and not body fat. Birds maintained on a low diet throughout did not significantly increase body mass, lean mass, or body fat. Tarsus length was not affected by nutritional manipulations. These findings indicate that nutritional stress did not affect the relationship between skeletal growth and body fat deposition because lean mass, body fat, and tarsus length can be independently regulated at different developmental periods depending on nutritional conditions.
Acute Effects of Stretching Are Not Evident in the Kinematics of the Vertical Jump

The acute effect of stretching on the kinematics of the vertical jump was investigated in a sample of 20 young adults. Sagittal plane videography (60 Hz) was used to measure the kinematics of vertical jumps after 2 warm-up routines, control and stretching. Subjects were tested on 2 occasions with warm-up routine randomized. There were no significant changes in vertical velocity knee angle, or the durations of the eccentric and concentric phases as a result of stretching despite good statistical power for the tests. Fifty-five percent of the subjects had lower vertical velocities (-7.5%) after stretching, while 45 percent of the subjects had no change (10%) or higher vertical (35%) velocities (2.4%) after stretching. Stretching prior to stretch-shortening cycle activities like the vertical jump results in small decreases in performance in some subjects, but the nonsignificant biomechanical changes suggest that neuromuscular inhibition may be the mechanism rather than changes in muscle stiffness.
Spontaneous 24-hour growth hormone profiles in prepubertal small for gestational age children.

To evaluate spontaneous GH secretion in terms of both secretory rate and pulsatile pattern in prepubertal children born small for gestational age (SGA) and still short (below -2 SD scores) at or after 2 yr of age, 24-h GH profiles were investigated in 106 such patients (75 boys and 31 girls; mean age, 7.3 +/- 0.3 yr), 14 of whom (10 boys and 4 girls) had Silver-Russell syndrome. The 24-h secretion of GH was compared with that in 2 reference populations of prepubertal children born at an appropriate size for gestational age (AGA): 179 short healthy children (143 boys and 36 girls; mean age, 10.2 +/- 0.2 yr) and 73 children of normal stature (54 boys and 19 girls; mean age, 10.4 +/- 0.3 yr). Plasma GH concentrations from the 24-h profiles were transformed to GH secretion rates by means of a deconvolution technique. For the SGA children, the mean GH secretion rate was 0.3 U/24 h, with a positive correlation with age, whereas for the reference groups it was higher, 0.5 U/24 h for the short children (P < 0.05) and 0.7 U/24 h for the children of normal stature (P < 0.001). Interestingly, the GH secretion rate correlated positively with weight for height, expressed as the SD score, in girls born SGA (r = 0.40; P < 0.05), whereas an inverse correlation was found for the short AGA girls (r = -0.44; P < 0.05). The mean baseline GH level in the SGA children correlated negatively with age (r = -0.53; P < 0.01), with the highest values found for children younger than 6 yr of age. On the average, 8 GH peaks/24-h period were found in all groups of children, and using Fourier time-series analyses, a similar rhythmicity was found in all groups. In the SGA group, the children younger than 6 yr of age had more GH peaks with lower amplitudes than the older children. It is concluded that children born SGA and still short at or after 2 yr of age spontaneously secrete less GH than healthy children of short stature born AGA. Both of these subgroups of prepubertal short children, however, secrete less GH than children of normal height. This finding might in part explain the growth failure in SGA children. Moreover, in the youngest SGA children (2-6 yr of age) there was another pattern of GH secretion, with a high basal GH level, a low peak amplitude, and a high peak frequency. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Image processing algorithm for automated monitoring of metal transfer in double-electrode GMAW

Controlled metal transfer in gas metal arc welding (GMAW) implies controllable weld quality. To understand, analyse and control the metal transfer process, the droplet should be monitored and tracked. To process the metal transfer images in double-electrode GMAW (DE-GMAW), a novel modification of GMAW, a brightness-based algorithm is proposed to locate the droplet and compute the droplet size automatically. Although this algorithm can locate the droplet with adequate accuracy, its accuracy in droplet size computation needs improvements. To this end, the correlation among adjacent images due to the droplet development is taken advantage of to improve the algorithm. Experimental results verified that the improved algorithm can automatically locate the droplets and compute the droplet size with an adequate accuracy.
Interindividual and interspecies variations of the extrastriate visual cortex

Functional homology between human and macaque visual cortices has provided an important cue to functional subdivisions of the human visual cortex, but it is unclear beyond V1. We estimated the sizes and the visual field eccentricity functions of the extrastriate visual areas of human brains using MRI and fMRI measurements to analyze the interindividual and interspecies variations. We found distinctive features of the area fraction values relative to V1 and the visual field eccentricity functions beyond V2 between the human and the macaque visual cortices. This suggests that selection on color-form and stereoscopic vision, associated with processing and manipulating socio-visual stimuli, may generate variations of the architecture of the extrastriate visual cortex beyond V2.
A Novel Post-translational Modification of Yeast Elongation Factor 1A

Protein methylation reactions can play important roles in cell physiology. After labeling intact Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells withS-adenosyl-l-[methyl-3H]methionine, we identified a major methylated 49-kDa polypeptide containing [3H]methyl groups in two distinct types of linkages. Peptide sequence analysis of the purified methylated protein revealed that it is eukaryotic elongation factor 1A (eEF1A, formerly EF-1α), the protein that forms a complex with GTP and aminoacyl-tRNAs for binding to the ribosomal A site during protein translation. Previous studies have shown that eEF1A is methylated on several internal lysine residues to give mono-, di-, and tri-N-ε-methyl-lysine derivatives. We confirm this finding but also detect methylation that is released as volatile methyl groups after base hydrolysis, characteristic of ester linkages. In cycloheximide-treated cells, methyl esterified eEF1A was detected largely in the ribosome and polysome fractions; little or no methylated protein was found in the soluble fraction. Because the base-labile, volatile [methyl-3H]radioactivity of eEF1A could be released by trypsin treatment but not by carboxypeptidase Y or chymotrypsin treatment, we suggest that the methyl ester is present on the α-carboxyl group of its C-terminal lysine residue. From the results of pulse-chase experiments using radiolabeled intact yeast cells, we find that the N-methylated lysine residues of eEF1A are stable over 4 h, whereas the eEF1A carboxyl methyl ester has a half-life of less than 10 min. The rapid turnover of the methyl ester suggests that the methylation/demethylation of eEF1A at the C-terminal carboxyl group may represent a novel mode of regulation of the activity of this protein in yeast.
Evidence in Clinical Toxicology: The Role of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring

Ideally, all decisions in medicine should be based on the best possible evidence. The type of evidence required, how it is collected, and how it is used depends on the nature of the clinical practice and the individual clinical problem. This paper explores some of these issues in relation to evidence in clinical toxicology and raises the possibilities for closer collaboration with the role of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). In clinical toxicology practice, TDM may provide diagnostic or prognostic information that may assist in guiding treatment (1). However, in the current clinical setting, TDM has a relatively small role to play. On the other hand, from a research perspective, measuring toxin concentration has the potential to provide information that can assist in better understanding of individual toxins. This understanding may ultimately translate into better clinical care. The burden of illness associated with clinical toxicologic problems is high both within hospitals and within the community. In Australia, self-poisoning with therapeutic drugs is responsible for 50% of deaths in suicides (2). There are, however, considerable cultural differences—for example, in many countries agricultural chemicals are the major issue (3). Surveys of Australian hospitals show that 1% to 5% of admissions result from self-poisoning (4); of these, more than 60% of patients have ingested more than one substance (2). The inhospital death rate is less than 0.5%, largely a reflection of the effectiveness of supportive care rather than the administration of any “magic bullet. ” Paradoxically, the majority of this care is delivered in general emergency departments, not in the specialist toxicology units that produce a disproportionate amount of opinion. The challenge is to establish an effective link between the two poles of clinical practice to generate and subsequently implement clinically useful evidence.
Ascertaining Subjective Cognitive Decline: A Comparison of Approaches and Evidence for Using an Age-Anchored Reference Group.

BACKGROUND Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is increasingly considered promising to detect preclinical Alzheimer's disease. How SCD is ascertained is critical for determining its potential utility in identifying at-risk individuals, yet SCD measures differ along several dimensions. OBJECTIVE We aimed to examine the extent to which reports of SCD in healthy elderly may be influenced by the characteristics of the SCD measures. We investigated variations in rates of SCD endorsement across different measures, including an open-ended question. We also examined the association of responses across measures, and the degree to which specific SCD items were associated with objective memory performance. METHODS 99 healthy elderly completed a series of questionnaires from which 10 items examining SCD for memory and other aspects of cognition were drawn. We applied Cochran's Q tests to assess differences in rates of SCD, correlation analyses to examine association of SCD responses, and regression models to determine the association between SCD items and delayed verbal memory. RESULTS Rates of SCD varied as a function of the assessment format, ranging from 1 to 7% for memory and 5 to 20% for concentration. SCD was lower for memory versus non-memory domains. SCD items were associated both within and across domains. The most accurate predictor of memory was memory-related SCD in comparison to others the same age. CONCLUSION Characteristics of SCD items influence rates of endorsement. Querying SCD using an "age-anchored" question may provide the most accurate reflection of actual cognitive performance.
A new model for surface soil moisture retrieval from CBERS-02B satellite imagery in karst area

Most of the surface soil moisture (SSM) models developed in recent decades are not for karst area where the surface soil is thin. Consequently, this paper presents a novel algorithm for retrieval of the SSM on the basis of “Optical Vegetation Coverage” for CBERS-02B imagery. Jili village in a typical karst area is chosen as the study area, and the retrieved SSM by Landsat TM satellite imagery is chosen for evaluating the accuracy of the proposed model. It shows that the relative accuracy of the mean SSM overall reachs up to 91.26%, and the correlation coefficient R is up to 0.8. Moreover, the R of the rocky desertification land and the dry land even reaches more than 0.9. With these experimental results, it can be demonstrated that the proposed model based on CBERS-02B satellite imagery has a high precision in the retrieval of SSM in karst area.
Comparison of Polarimetric Radar Drop Size Distribution Retrieval Algorithms

Abstract Recently, two physically based algorithms, the “beta” (β) method and the “constrained-gamma” method, have been proposed for retrieving the governing parameters of the gamma drop size distribution (DSD) from polarimetric radar measurements. The β method treats the drop axis ratio as a variable and computes drop shape and DSD parameters from radar reflectivity (Z), differential reflectivity (ZDR), and specific differential phase (KDP). The constrained-gamma method assumes that the axis ratio relation is fixed and computes DSD parameters from reflectivity, differential reflectivity, and an empirical relation between the DSD slope and shape parameters. In this paper, the two approaches are evaluated by comparing retrieved rain DSD parameters with disdrometer observations and examining derived fields for consistency. Error effects on the β method retrievals are analyzed. The β approach is found to be sensitive to errors in KDP and to be inconsistent with observations. Large retrieved β values are foun.
Nonlinear optimization tools for the design of microwave high-conversion gain harmonic self-oscillating mixers

A new optimization method is presented for the design of microwave high-conversion gain harmonic self-oscillating mixers (SOMs). It is based on the control of the harmonic content of the transistor input-voltage waveform of the self-oscillation, through the use of a nonperturbing auxiliary generator and a substitution generator. The combination of the two generators allows obtaining the optimum harmonic content of the transistor-gate voltage waveform for a maximum conversion gain. Two different downconverter circuits have been designed using this method, a second harmonic SOM and a third harmonic SOM, obtaining a high conversion gain. A good agreement between the simulated and experimental results has been found
A Sub-Harris Operator Coupled with SIFT for Fast Images Matching in Low-altitude Photogrammetry

Fast and robust images matching are of vital importance in low-altitude photogrammetric process. Among the most popular features of images matching are currently SIFT and Harris etc. For time-critical applications such as disaster monitoring, the SIFT features extraction are too slow, and the location accuracy of SIFT and Harris is insufficient in photogrammetric process. In this paper, we present a sub-Harris operator coupled with SIFT for fast images matching in low-altitude photogrammetry. Firstly, the original stereopair is down-sampled to small scaling images, in which rough relative orientation is computed by the corresponding points obtained from SIFT matching. Then sub-pixel level precise Harris corners are extracted within original scale images. Finally, the corresponding points are found in the sets of sub-Harris corners consistent with epipolar geometry obtained from rough images matching. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve more excellent performances in accuracy than SIFT and Harris operator based method in the relative orientation, and significantly improve the computational efficiency compared with SIFT.
Mycotic infections of the penis

Summary. Balanitis/balanoposthitis caused by Candida albicans is the most frequent mycotic infection of the penis. Its incidence is increasing and it seems to be primarily transmitted by sexual intercourse. Although the groin is a common site for tinea, dermatophytic infections of the penis are rare. Penile involvement in systemic mycosis is usually a sign of severe disease. In immunocompromised individuals, nearly every fungal agent may cause the disease. It normally presents as ulceration, and biopsy and culture can help to confirm the diagnosis. In most cases, superficial infections of the penis respond satisfactorily to local antifungal treatment, especially if provovatice factors and the possibility of sexual transmission are considered. Systemic treatment is recommended in cases of widespread dermatophytic infection, candidosis or systemic mycosis.
The meaning and the measure of health literacy

ConclusionsHealth literacy is a complicated construct that depends on individual capacity to communicate and the demands posed by society and the health care system. More comprehensive tests are needed to understand the gap between capacities and current demands to help guide efforts to educate children and adults about health issues and to develop health-related information that more of the general public can understand. For research, new instruments are needed that will measure individuals reading fluency more precisely without posing an undue response burden. Computer-assisted testing, which selects items from a bank of possible items according to a baseline-predicted reading ability and responses to previous questions, should allow more accurate measurement of indiidual capacity without increasing the time required to complete testing. It remains unclear whether it is possible to develop an accurate, practical “screening” test to identify individuals with limited health literacy. Even if this goal is achieved, it remains unclear whether it is better to screen patients or to adopt “universal precautions” to avoid miscommunication by using plain language in all oral and written communication and confirming understanding with all patients by having them repeat back their understanding of their diagnosis and treatment plan. George Bernard Shaw said, “The main problem with communication is the assumption that it has occurred. ” This is a universal truth that transcends reading ability.
Tumor necrosis factor‐α regulates in vivo nitric oxide synthesis and induces liver injury during endotoxemia

Tumor necrosis factor‐alpha is a principal mediator of the pathophysiological effects of endotoxemia and endotoxin shock. Tumor necrosis factor‐α also contributes to the stimulation of nitric oxide synthesis by the induction of the enzyme nitric oxide synthase in a variety of tissues. Although the importance of tumor necrosis factor‐α in the induction of nitric oxide synthase activity in vitro is well known, its role in in vivo nitric oxide synthesis has not been convincingly established. We were interested in determining whether tumor necrosis factor‐α plays a significant role in the in vivo induction of nitric oxide synthesis. In Corynebacterium parvum—primed mice, lipopolysaccharide injection resulted in elevated serum tumor necrosis factor‐α levels early and increased hepatic enzyme release (641 ± 80 IU AST/L 22.7 ± 1.9 IU ornithine carbamoyltransferase per liter) and plasma nitrite and nitrate (804 ± 84 μmol/L) 5 hr after lipopolysaccharide injection. Polyclonal rabbit anti‐mouse anti—tumor necrosis factor‐α reduced in vivo tumor necrosis factor‐α levels (1 hr, 7,332 ± 1,492 U tumor necrosis factor‐α per milliliter) and reduced nitric oxide synthesis as measured by plasma nitrite and nitrate (352 ± 69 μmol/L). Polyclonal rabbit anti‐mouse anti—tumor necrosis factor‐α also reduced lipo‐polysaccharide‐induced hepatic enzyme release (428 ± 33 IU AST/L 16.0 ± 2.5 IU ornithine carbamoyltransferase per liter). NG‐monomethyl‐L‐arginine, a competitive inhibitor of nitric oxide synthesis, also decreased plasma nitrite and nitrate (104 ± 9 μmol/L) but increased the lipopolysaccharide‐induced hepatic injury (797 ± 66 IU AST/L 33.1 ± 2.1 IU ornithine carbamoyltransferase per liter). These results show that tumor necrosis factor‐α not only acts as an in vivo signal for the induction of nitric oxide synthesis but also acts as a mediator of the lipopolysaccharide‐induced hepatic injury. The mechanism by which tumor necrosis factor‐α exerts its damaging effect on hepatic cells has not been determined but appears to be independent of its induction of nitric oxide synthesis. (Hepatology 1994;20:1055–1060).