Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
xerB, an Escherichia coli gene required for plasmid ColE1 site‐specific recombination, is identical to pepA, encoding aminopeptidase A, a protein with substantial similarity to bovine lens leucine aminopeptidase.

The heritable stability of ColE1 is dependent on a site‐specific recombination system which acts to resolve plasmid multimers into monomers. This plasmid stabilizing recombination system requires the presence in cis of the ColE1 cer region, plus at least two trans‐acting factors encoded by the xerA and xerB genes of Escherichia coli. The xerB gene has been cloned and sequenced and found to encode a polypeptide with a calculated mol. wt of 55.3 kd. The predicted amino acid sequence of this protein exhibits striking similarity to that of bovine lens leucine aminopeptidase (53 kd). The biological significance of this similarity is corroborated by genetic and biochemical evidence which suggests that xerB is identical to the E.coli and S.typhimurium pepA genes that encode aminopeptidase A.
A Time-Bound Cryptographic Key Assignment Scheme for Access Control in a Hierarchy

The cryptographic key assignment problem is to assign cryptographic keys to a set of partially ordered classes so that the cryptographic key of a higher class can be used to derive the cryptographic key of a lower class. In this paper, we propose a time-bound cryptographic key assignment scheme in which the cryptographic keys of a class are different for each time period, that is, the cryptographic key of class C/sub i/ at time t is K/sub i, t. / Key derivation is constrained not only by the class relation, but also the time period. In our scheme, each user holds some secret parameters whose number is independent of the number of the classes in the hierarchy and the total time periods. We present two novel applications of our scheme. One is to broadcast data to authorized users in a multilevel-security way and the other is to construct a flexible cryptographic key backup system.
Construction of the Gravity Model of Tourism Demand on the Basis of the System Theory

This paper, based on the gravity model of tourism demand, studies the factors to the travel to the neighbor areas with the example of Hong Kong tourists to Macau, analyzing the drawing forces such as promotion activities of Macau’s Special Administrative Region government and the tourism industry, consumptions in Macau, especial events, and Macau’s tourism destination attractiveness, and the push powers such as Hong Kong’s GDP and the changes in Macau tourist market. On this basis, this paper revises the gravity model of tourism demand by re-considering the important factors affecting the tourist flow. The introduction of the explanatory variables of market structure makes the model closer to the reality. Moreover, by adding the space scale to the time sequence forecasting, this model analyzes the tourist flow from the whole perspective of time and space.
La compra de petróleo: gestión y aspectos técnicos de su comercialización

La comercializacion de hidrocarburos por via maritima comprende casi un tercio del total mundial de mercancias transportadas por este medio y es un reflejo de la importancia que tiene el transporte maritimo para la globalizacion. En el presente articulo se realiza una descripcion del negocio de comercializacion de petroleo (trading), y los aspectos tecnicos y de gestion a los cuales esta sometida esta actividad. Este articulo engloba una revision de los factores clave de la compra de crudo, los agentes involucrados, las dinamicas de los mercados, la operativa del transporte de hidrocarburos y de los riesgos asociados a este negocio.
Insomnia improvement during antidepressant treatment and CLOCK gene polymorphism

Sleep disturbances are commonly observed in mood disorders, and sleep manipulations can influence the clinical status. In the present study, we investigated the possible effect of the 3111 T/C circadian locomotor output cycles kaput (CLOCK) gene polymorphism on insomnia symptomatology during antidepressant treatment. One hundred seventy‐eight inpatients were treated with fluvoxamine 300 mg/day (n = 147) or paroxetine 20–40 mg/day (n = 31), and either placebo or pindolol in a double blind design for 6 weeks. The severity of depressive symptoms was weekly assessed with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM‐D). We observed a significantly higher presence of insomnia throughout the trial in homozygotes for the C variant (P = 0.026). Other demographic and clinical features were found not to be related with CLOCK polymorphisms. Overall, our findings may suggest that CLOCK genotype influences the time course of insomnia during antidepressant treatment. This, together with previous findings on this polymorphism could lead to a further dissection of the complexity of mood disorders. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Administrative demands of care programme approach

EDITOR,—Max Marshall makes the point that the care programme approach has never been fully evaluated, and that its American counterpart, case management, has not proved to be a particularly successful approach.1 In Britain, some studies have claimed that the approach is successful—for example, in tailoring care to individual needs—whereas others have shown that care programme approach fails to improve outcome and has no effect on rates of suicide or reoffending.2 3 We investigated the …
Genetic mapping of Bacillus subtilis biofilm formation genes

Biofilms are defined as bacterial cells that form populations by adherence to each other, and/or to surfaces or interfaces that are enclosed by a matrix consisting of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). The composition and syntheses of biofilms are controlled by various environmental factors (e.g. growth phase and growth media) and vary between different bacterial subspecies. With scanning confocal laser microscopy it was showed that a biofilm consists of micro-colonies separated by water channels that can deliver nutrients to the inner cell population. Biofilm formation includes various intertwined genetic regulation systems (e.g. quorum sensing and sporulation) for forming a biofilm. In this thesis the genetic regulation of biofilm formation has been reviewed from the past decade. A genetic map has been evolved from this literature study, shown in figure 1. The first major regulators were found in 2001, spo0A(Spo0A) and spo0H(σH) that positively regulates the antirepressor of sinR, SinI and negatively regulates abrB(AbrB). SinR acts as a molecular switch between biofilm formation and swarming motility. SinR is also involved in a negative feedback loop with slrR and slrA that can activate TasA formation, a major protein in B. subtilis its EPS-matrix. A galactose pathway was also described to be involved in biofilm formation. Many differences between strains in B. subtilis were described in various papers when creating this genetic map, for example most laboratory strains do not have the ability to form biofilms. Indeed, this is likely to happen, however wild type B. subtilis biofilm forming strains should be used more often when we want to reveal the functions and regulations of the large quantity of genes simply because of its intertwined genetic systems that already are involved in biofilm formation.
Reliability Evaluation for Single Event Transients on Digital Circuits

The effect of single event transient (SET) on reliability has become a significant concern for digital circuits. This paper proposed an algorithm for evaluating the reliability for SET on digital circuits, based on signal probability, universal generating function technique, and generalized reliability block diagrams. The algorithm provides an expression for the reliability of SET under consideration for the effects of logic masking, error attenuation of gates, and crosstalk effects among interconnect wires. We perform simulations of ISCAS85 circuits. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm can effectively evaluate the reliability for SET on circuits. The error attenuation of gates can increase the reliability by more than 41.6%, and the masking and crosstalk effects will improve the reliability by more than 43%.
Fluoropyrimidine-HAI (hepatic arterial infusion) versus systemic chemotherapy (SCT) for unresectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Although locoregional treatments such as hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) claim the advantage of delivering higher doses of anticancer agents directly into the metastatic organ as compared to systemic chemotherapy (SCT), the benefit in terms of overall survival (OS) is unclear. We quantitatively summarized the results of randomised controlled trials (RCT) comparing HAI to SCT for the treatment of unresectable liver metastatic disease from colorectal cancer (CRC). OBJECTIVES The aim of this work is to quantitatively summarize the results of RCT comparing HAI to SCT for the treatment of unresectable hepatic metastases from CRC. SEARCH STRATEGY A systematic review of reports published until September 2008 on the findings of RCT that compared HAI to SCT for the treatment of unresectable CRC liver metastases was performed by searching the MEDLINE, Embase, Cancerlit, Cochrane and GoogleScholar electronic databases as well as other databanks collecting information on clinical trials. SELECTION CRITERIA Inclusion criteria were patients with unresectable CRC liver metastases enrolled in RCT comparing HAI to SCT. The outcome measures were tumor response rate and overall survival. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two authors independently carried out study selection and assessment of methodological quality. A third author performed a concordance analysis in order to unravel potential systematic biases. MAIN RESULTS Ten RCT were identified that met the eligibility criteria. HAI regimens were based on floxuridine (FUDR), 5-fluorouracil or either one of these two fluoropyrimidines in eight and one RCT, respectively. SCT consisted of FUDR or 5-fluorouracil in three and seven RCT, respectively. By pooling the summary data, tumor response rate resulted 42.9% and 18.4% for HAI and SCT, respectively (RR = 2.26; 95% CI, 1.80 to 2.84; P < 0.0001). Mean weighted median OS times were 15.9 and 12.4 months for HAI and SCT, respectively: the meta-risk of death was not statistically different between the two treatment groups (HR = 0.90; 95% CI, 0.76 to 1.07; P = 0.24). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Currently available evidence does not support the clinical or investigational use of fluoropyrimidine-based HAI alone for the treatment of patients with unresectable CRC liver metastases: in fact, the greater tumor response rate obtained with this HAI regimen does not translate into a survival advantage over fluoropyrimidine alone SCT.
Decreased expression of EZH2 reactivates RASSF2A by reversal of promoter methylation in breast cancer cells

EZH2, the catalytic subunit of polycomb repressor complex 2, has oncogenic properties, whereas RASSF2A, a Ras association domain family protein, has a tumor suppressor role in many types of human cancer. However, the interrelationship between these two genes remains unclear. Here, we showed that the downregulation of EZH2 reduces CpG island methylation of the RASSF2A promoter, thereby leading to increased RASSF2A expression. Our findings also showed that knockdown of EZH2 increased RASSF2A expression in the human breast cancer cell line MCF‐7 in cooperation with DNMT1. This was similar to the effect of 5‐Aza‐CdR, a DNA methylation inhibitor that reactivates tumor suppressor genes and activated RASSF2A expression in our study. The EZH2 inhibitor DZNep markedly suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of MCF‐7 cells treated with ADR and TAM. EZH2 inhibits the expression of tumor suppressor gene RASSF2A via promoter hypermethylation. Thus, it plays an important role in tumorigenesis and is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of breast cancer.
Protrusion of the tongue in bodies burned after death: Two cases of arson to cover homicide

In the forensic assessment of burned bodies, the question of whether the victim was exposed to fire before or after death is of crucial importance. Many authors consider tongue protrusion in cases of burned bodies to be a post-mortem phenomenon. Deep-heating effects of fire are sufficient to cook muscle. The muscle becomes shortened by dehydration and protein denaturation. Exposure to heat causes flexion of the extremities on the contraction of muscles and tendons – heat rigour. The flexors, being bulkier than the extensors, contract more and force the limbs into the position of general flexion. The genioglossus is the major muscle of the tongue and is responsible for protruding or sticking out the tongue: by means of its inferior fibres, it draws the root of the tongue forward and protrudes the apex from the mouth. Similar to the action of limb flexors exposed to heat and the appearance of post-mortem general flexion of a burned body due to heat rigour, perhaps the geniglossus could be shortened by heat, causing post-mortem tongue protrusion to appear as heat rigour of the tongue. In this paper, we present two such cases of protrusion of the tongue in bodies burned after death – cases of arson to cover homicide.
Development and validation of an UHPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of mycotoxins in grass silages

An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) multi-mycotoxin analytical method was developed to simultaneously identify and quantify 20 mycotoxins in grass silages, inclusive of mycotoxins that are currently regulated in European Union feeds. Extraction of mycotoxins from dried grass silages was performed using of a modified QuEChERS extraction employing an acidified aqueous extraction (0.1 N HCl) with no further clean-up. Following chromatographic separation, analytes were detected using a fast polarity-switching MS/MS method that allowed both positive and negative ions to be analysed from a single injection, thus the reducing time and cost of analysis. The limits of detection and quantification ranged between 3 µg kg–1 DM (aflatoxin B1, beauvericin and enniatin A and A1) and 200 µg kg–1 DM (deoxynivalenol), and between 10 µg kg–1 DM (aflatoxin B1, beauvericin and enniatin A1) and 500 µg kg–1 DM (deoxynivalenol), respectively. Inter-assay accuracy and precision ranged between 90% and 107% and between 3.9% and 15.0% CV, respectively. The accuracy of the method was assessed through the application to a range of incurred samples in an inter-laboratory study. Graphical Abstract
Identification of three novel peptides that inhibit CD40–CD154 interaction

The CD40–CD154 interaction is an attractive target for therapeutic intervention in various autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), multiple sclerosis, and myasthenia gravis. In this study, to develop a new disruption strategy of the CD40–CD154 interaction, we screened for peptides with inhibitory effects on such ligation. 2 × 1011 phage display libraries displaying liner peptides of 12-mer amino acids were screened by CD40-Ig binding assay and eight phages which expressed a different respective peptide (40BP-1 to -8) were able to specifically bind to CD40. Competitive inhibition analyses showed that 3 of the 8 peptides (40BP-N1-1 – APELPNMTPSWT; 40BP-N1-2 – APRPHTSYSPLP; and 40BP-N1-3 – GMTAPPPPRLTQ) blocked CD40–CD154 interaction when used at high concentrations. A consensus sequence (APxPPxxT) was conserved in these three peptides. These peptides may constitute a useful and novel strategy for the inhibition of the interaction between CD40 and CD154 molecules.
The Status of Health Technology Assessment Worldwide: Results of an International Survey

Abstract Health technology assessment (HTA) has increasingly become a valuable tool to examine effectiveness, quality of care, patient outcomes, and cost-effectiveness of health care technologies. In 1994 and 1995, a survey was conducted to document the scope of worldwide HTA activities; 103 organizations from 24 countries responded. This paper summarizes the results of this international survey, including a description of each country's program, types of technologies assessed, methodologies used, and dissemination approaches. Results for Canada, the United States, and European and other countries are presented separately.
Enhancement of Dual-Band Reflection-Mode Circular Polarizers Using Dual-Layer Rectangular Frequency Selective Surfaces

A new kind of dual-band reflection-mode circular polarizers (RMCPs) is introduced with wide bandwidth and wide-view at the operating frequencies. The proposed RMCPs are based on dual-layer rectangular patches on both sides of a substrate, separated by a foam or air layer from the ground plane. Required TE susceptance of the first layer patches to produce circular polarization is calculated using the equivalent transmission line model. Dimensions of the RMCP are obtained using parametrical study for the two frequency bands, 1.9-2.3 GHz and 7.9-8.3 GHz. In addition, it is indicated that the accepted view angle and bandwidth of the proposed dual-layer RMCP are improved compared with the single layer RMCP, significantly. Moreover, a tradeoff is observed for the dual-layer RMCP on the bandwidths of X-band and S-band that can be controlled by propagation angle of the incident wave. The proposed RMCP has 30.5% and 33.7% bandwidths for less than 3 dB axial ratio with incident angles θmax = 50° and θmin = 35°. Finally, simulation results are met by the measurement for three angles of the incident wave.
Time-base nonlinearity determination using iterated sine-fit analysis

A new method is presented to determine the time-base errors of sampling instruments. The method does not require a time-base error model and thus provides accurate estimates where model-based methods fail. Measurements of sinewaves at multiple phases and frequencies are used as test signals. A harmonic distortion model is used to account for amplitude nonlinearity of the sampling channel. Use of an independent method for estimating the channel noise and jitter allows an accurate estimate of the harmonic order. Methods are presented for separating the harmonics generated by the sampling channel from those generated by the time-base distortion. The use of an iterative sine-fit procedure gives accurate results in a short time. A new weighting procedure is described, which minimizes the error in the estimates. Guidelines are given for selecting good sets of test frequencies. Results are shown for both simulated and real data.
INQUIRY-BOUNDED MINING OF IMPRECISE DATA FOR ADAPTIVE INFORMATION MONITORING

Information monitoring (IM) is an essential activity for management and control. Generally speaking, an IM system aims to continuously check for information updates. Once an update is detected, it triggers suitable actions such as exception validation, exception handling, and user notification. Since information sources (e.g., individual persons and servers) often cannot notify the IM system of updates, the IM system needs to actively inquire about the current status of the items being monitored. However, data inquiry may be costly, and uncontrolled inquiry may even exhaust the information sources. IM should thus be conducted under an inquiry-bounded constraint (i.e., limiting the number of inquiries). Under such a constraint, an IM system should inquire the right targets at the right time by adapting to the update behavior (i.e., rough update frequency at each time period) of each information item. This requirement brings a significant challenge to the design of the IM system: mining the imprecise data that is sampled in an inquiry-bounded manner. The data is imprecise in the sense that information sources often cannot indicate when, how many, and how frequently updates really happened. We tackle the challenge by developing a scalable multiagent model in which each agent performs autonomous mining and cooperative monitoring. It significantly outperforms state-of-the-art IM techniques in capturing a higher percentage of updates in a timelier manner by conducting fewer inquiries.
ATP splitting by half the cross‐bridges can explain the twitch energetics of mouse papillary muscle

The aim of this study was to quantify the fraction of cross‐bridges that cycle during a cardiac twitch. Measurements of the energetics of contracting left ventricular mouse papillary muscle were made in vitro (27°C) using the myothermic technique. Enthalpy output was partitioned into force‐dependent and force‐independent components using 2,3‐butanedione monoxime (BDM) to selectively inhibit cross‐bridge cycling. For isometric contractions and a contraction frequency of 2 Hz the net enthalpy output was 5.7 ± 0.8 mJ g−1 twitch−1 and initial enthalpy output was 2.3 ± 0.3 mJ g−1 twitch−1 (n= 11). Assuming that low concentrations of BDM did not affect Ca2+ cycling, force‐independent enthalpy output was 18.6 ± 1.9% (n= 7) of the initial enthalpy output. Enthalpy output decreased with increased contraction frequency but was independent of shortening velocity. On the basis of these values, it was calculated that the twitch energetics were consistent with ATP splitting by half the cross‐bridges and the pumping of one Ca2+ into the sarcoplasmic reticulum for every three cross‐bridge cycles. The simplest interpretation is that half the cross‐bridges completed one ATP‐splitting cycle in each twitch. The lack of influence of shortening velocity on energy cost supports the idea that the amount of energy to be used is determined early in a twitch and is not greatly influenced by events that occur during the contraction.
Systems pharmacology meets predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory medicine.

computational biology; drug–drug networks; systems biologyThe vision of predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory (P4) [1] medicine isexpected to transform healthcare in the near future, but how exactly is this going to happen? Transformative changes that are relevant to P4 medicine are beginning to bud in theemerging sphere of a new discipline called systems pharmacology. Systems pharmacologycombines high-throughput genome-wide experiments with advanced computation andmodeling to understand drug action in cells and drug-induced events that perturb the humanphenotype. Systems pharmacology combines systems biology with pharmacology but alsoinvolves genetics, genomics and computer science. It attempts to link drug perturbations ofthe molecular networks of cells to the human phenotype. Here we will discuss how thetransformative potential of systems pharmacology touches different aspects of P4 medicine.We focus on two aspects of systems pharmacology: generating and analyzing drug-inducedgene-expression signatures and mining drug/adverse event connections, as well as thepotential synergy of these two activities.Our ability to sequence DNA and RNA fast and inexpensively is opening doors to manyapplications that could transform medicine. For instance, whole-genome sequencing ofmillions of individuals could be used to detect mutations that can further characterizegenetic disorders and identify novel drug targets [2]. In addition, gene expression,metabolomics or proteomics of cells from the blood [3], or sequencing of the microbiomefrom our stool, mouth or skin [4], can be used to monitor the health status of an individualover time with great accuracy [3]. Such data can be correlated with drugs taken byindividuals and the adverse events they may experience. A related transformative approachinvolves the screening of drugs by applying them to stimulate human cells and then