Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biotechnological approaches to the production of shikonins: a critical review with recent updates

Abstract Shikonins are commercially important secondary compounds, known for array of biological activities such as antimicrobial, insecticidal, antitumor, antioxidants, etc. These compounds are usually colored and therefore have application in food, textiles and cosmetics. Shikonin and its derivatives, which are commercially most important of the naphthoquinone pigments, are distributed among members of the family Boraginaceae. These include different species of Lithospermum, Arnebia, Alkanna, Anchusa, Echium and Onosma. The growing demand for plant-based natural products has made this group of compounds one of the enthralling targets for their in vitro production. The aim of this review is to highlight the recent progress in production of shikonins by various biotechnological means. Different methods of increasing the levels of shikonins in plant cells such as selection of cell lines, optimization of culture conditions, elicitation, in situ product removal, genetic transformation and metabolic engineering are discussed. The experience of different researchers working worldwide on this aspect is also considered. Further, to meet market demand, the needs for continuous and reliable production systems, as well as future prospects, are included.
Microwave combline-type dual-passband filter

A dual-passband microwave filter topology based on a combline-type arrangement is presented in this paper. The described structure is made up of dual-band resonators formed by the parallel connection of two line segments grounded at one extreme and ended in a lumped capacitor at the opposite edge. The theoretical analysis of the proposed dual-band combline resonator is detailed. Moreover, guidelines for the suitable feeding and coupling of this type of resonator in dual-passband filtering applications are discussed. To validate the concept, simulation and measurement results of a manufactured filter prototype in microstrip technology are also given.
Clinical Reasoning: A 43-year-old woman with right limb weakness

A 43-year-old woman presented with a 4-day history of right limb weakness. While biking 4 days earlier, she felt a weakness in her right hand and leg. She had a history of hypertension for more than 2 years, and was taking extended-release nifedipine tablets (40 mg) and perindopril (4 mg) daily, but her blood pressure was difficult to control (fluctuations of 150–180/90–115 mm Hg). The patient did not smoke or drink alcohol, and had no family history of similar diseases.
Theoretical analysis of the effect of imperfect slice profiles on tagging schemes for pulsed arterial spin labeling MRI

Pulsed arterial spin labeling (ASL) techniques provide a noninvasive method of obtaining qualitative and quantitative perfusion images with MRI. ASL techniques employ inversion recovery and/or saturation recovery to induce perfusion weighting, and thus the performance of these techniques is dependent on the slice profiles of the inversion or saturation pulses. This article systematically examines through simulations the effects of slice profile imperfections on the perfusion signal for nine labeling schemes, including FAIR, FAIRER, and EST (UNFAIR). Each sequence is evaluated for quantitative accuracy, suppression of stationary signal, and magnitude of perfusion signal. Perfusion effects are modeled from a modified Bloch equation and experimentally determined slice profiles. The results show that FAIR, FAIRER, and EST have excellent tissue suppression. The magnitude of the perfusion signal is comparable for FAIR and FAIRER, with EST providing a slightly weaker signal. For quantitative measurements, all three methods underestimate the perfusion signal by more than 20%. Of the additional six ASL techniques examined, only one performed well in this model. This method, which combines inversion and saturation recovery, yields improved signal accuracy (<15% difference from the theoretical value) and tissue suppression similar to that of FAIR and its variants, but has only half the signal. Magn Reson Med 46:141–148, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Deubiquitinase That Regulates Type I Interferon Production

Production of type I interferon (IFN-I) is a critical host defense triggered by pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) of the innate immune system. Deubiquitinating enzyme A (DUBA), an ovarian tumor domain-containing deubiquitinating enzyme, was discovered in a small interfering RNA–based screen as a regulator of IFN-I production. Reduction of DUBA augmented the PRR-induced IFN-I response, whereas ectopic expression of DUBA had the converse effect. DUBA bound tumor necrosis factor receptor–associated factor 3 (TRAF3), an adaptor protein essential for the IFN-I response. TRAF3 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that preferentially assembled lysine-63–linked polyubiquitin chains. DUBA selectively cleaved the lysine-63–linked polyubiquitin chains on TRAF3, resulting in its dissociation from the downstream signaling complex containing TANK-binding kinase 1. A discrete ubiquitin interaction motif within DUBA was required for efficient deubiquitination of TRAF3 and optimal suppression of IFN-I. Our data identify DUBA as a negative regulator of innate immune responses.
A multi-stage uncertain-volatility model

We consider a simple uncertain-volatility model for the asset price underlying a given option market. The asset price volatility is assumed to follow a discrete (actually finite) Markov chain σ, which changes value on some fixed future times. The volatility chain is independent of the Brownian motion governing the future evolution of the asset. Modeling the volatility evolution in this way is equivalent to assuming different possible scenarios for the asset forward volatility.
Gender Differences in Perception of Self-Orientation: Software or Hardware?

We evaluated the contribution of attentional strategy to the perception of self-orientation with and without a body tilt in the median plane. Reinking et al (1974 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 30 807–811) found that the frame dependence of females on the rod-and-frame test could be mediated by instructions prompting them to focus on internal cues (ie arising from inside of the body). Here, we measured the influence of attentional instructions on the perception of the morphological horizon. Eleven females and thirteen males estimated their morphological horizon in an upright and a 45° body tilt in the median plane under three instruction conditions. All participants first performed without attentional instructions. Then, participants performed under both internal and external attentional instructions. For females, but not for males, perception of morphological horizon was more footward in the supine than in the upright orientation. Although instructions did not eliminate gender differences, internal instructions allowed females to reduce their perceptual bias in the supine orientation.
Studies on the mechanism of acetamide hepatocarcinogenicity.

The hepatocarcinogen acetamide, in single doses of 100 and 400 mg/kg b.wt. , was shown to act as an initiator in a dose-dependent fashion in rat liver using the Solt-Farber method. Acetamide and its putative metabolite N-hydroxy-acetamide did not cause liver necrosis in single dose experiments. Acetamide showed no evidence for genotoxicity in tests for mutations in Salmonella typhimurium, for DNA damage in rat hepatoma cells or for DNA repair in isolated rat hepatocytes. In contrast, N-hydroxy-acetamide displayed genotoxic activity in all 3 test systems. Neither acetamide nor N-hydroxy-acetamide induced transformation of primary Syrian hamster embryo cells or gave evidence of inhibition of metabolic cooperation in V79 cells. Radiolabelled acetamide and N-hydroxy-acetamide were not bound covalently to proteins in the presence of various metabolic activation systems (microsomes plus NADPH or xanthine/xanthine oxidase, cytosol or cytosol plus acetyl CoA or proline plus ATP). N-Hydroxy-acetamide was cytotoxic to monolayers of isolated hepatocytes at concentrations above 2.5 mM. This cytotoxicity was increased after diethyl maleate treatment, but N-hydroxy-acetamide did not deplete cellular glutathione. A HPLC system was developed for the separation and quantification of acetamide, N-hydroxy-acetamide and acetic acid. No significant excretion of N-hydroxy-acetamide or acetic acid in the urine could be demonstrated after treatment of rats with 100 or 1,000 mg/kg b.wt. of acetamide. The underlying mechanism for the observed initiating effect of acetamide is obscure.
Shared Sensory Estimates for Human Motion Perception and Pursuit Eye Movements

Are sensory estimates formed centrally in the brain and then shared between perceptual and motor pathways or is centrally represented sensory activity decoded independently to drive awareness and action? Questions about the brain's information flow pose a challenge because systems-level estimates of environmental signals are only accessible indirectly as behavior. Assessing whether sensory estimates are shared between perceptual and motor circuits requires comparing perceptual reports with motor behavior arising from the same sensory activity. Extrastriate visual cortex both mediates the perception of visual motion and provides the visual inputs for behaviors such as smooth pursuit eye movements. Pursuit has been a valuable testing ground for theories of sensory information processing because the neural circuits and physiological response properties of motion-responsive cortical areas are well studied, sensory estimates of visual motion signals are formed quickly, and the initiation of pursuit is closely coupled to sensory estimates of target motion. Here, we analyzed variability in visually driven smooth pursuit and perceptual reports of target direction and speed in human subjects while we manipulated the signal-to-noise level of motion estimates. Comparable levels of variability throughout viewing time and across conditions provide evidence for shared noise sources in the perception and action pathways arising from a common sensory estimate. We found that conditions that create poor, low-gain pursuit create a discrepancy between the precision of perception and that of pursuit. Differences in pursuit gain arising from differences in optic flow strength in the stimulus reconcile much of the controversy on this topic.
Bright light treatment as add-on therapy for depression in 28 adolescents: a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND In the last decade, a significant incidence of depression in the younger population has been observed. Bright light therapy, an effective therapeutic option for depressed adults, could also provide safe, economical, and effective rapid recovery in adolescents. METHOD The randomized trial included 28 inpatients (18 females and 10 males) between 14 and 17 years old with depressive complaints. The study was conducted between February and December of 2010 in Rodewisch, Germany. Half of the patients (n = 14) first received placebo (50 lux) 1 hour a day in the morning from 9:00 am to 10:00 am for 1 week and then received bright light therapy (2,500 lux) for 1 week in the morning from 9:00 am to 10:00 am. The other half (n = 14) first received bright light therapy and then received placebo. Patients were encouraged to continue ongoing treatment (fluoxetine 20 mg/day and 2 sessions of psychotherapy/week) because there were no changes in medication/dosage and psychotherapy since 1 month before the 4-week study period. For assessment of depressive symptoms, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered 1 week before and 1 day before placebo treatment, on the day between placebo and bright light treatment, and on the day after and 1 week after bright light treatment. Saliva samples of melatonin and cortisol were collected at 8:00 am and 8:00 pm 1 week before and 1 day before placebo treatment, on the day between placebo and bright light treatment, on the day after bright light treatment, and 1 week after bright light treatment and were assayed for melatonin and cortisol to observe any change in circadian timing. RESULTS The BDI scores improved significantly (P = .015). The assays of saliva showed significant differences between treatment and placebo for evening melatonin (P = .040). No significant adverse reactions were observed. CONCLUSIONS Antidepressant response to bright light treatment in this age group was statistically superior to placebo. TRIAL REGISTRATION World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform identifier: DRKS00003309.
Classification of multivariate time series using supervised neighborhood preserving embedding

Multivariate time series (MTS) are used in very broad areas such as finance, medicine, multimedia and speech recognition. Most of existing approaches for MTS classification are not designed for preserving the within-class local structure of the MTS dataset. The within-class local structure is important when a classifier is used for classification. In this paper, a new feature extraction method for MTS classification based on supervised Neighborhood Preserving Embedding (NPE) is proposed. MTS samples are projected into the PCA (principal component analysis) subspace by throwing away the smallest principal components, and then, the MTS samples in the PCA subspace are projected into a lower-dimensional space by using supervised NPE. Four different classifiers are used in our experiment. Experimental results performed on six real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach for MTS classification.
Proteomics and genomics of urinary bladder cancer

Urinary bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the United States. The National Cancer Institute estimates that the incidence rates will be 68 810 and the mortality rate will be 14 100 in the year 2008. Although the gold standards cytology and cystoscopy are specific for diagnosing bladder cancer, the former lacks the sensitivity to detect low‐grade tumors and the latter is very invasive and expensive. Therefore, scientists are interested in identifying reliable non‐invasive biomarkers that could be utilized in screening, leading to early detection and/or in predicting the progression of superficial tumors to invasive higher‐stage lesions with high specificity and sensitivity. Several biomarkers that indicate changes in the expression of proteins associated with increased risk have been identified. The purpose of this analysis is to provide an overview of the studies that have been conducted during the last decade that identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers via proteomic and genomic advancements.
Effects of Running Water on Lateral Line Responses to Moving Objects

We investigated in goldfish, Carassius auratus, and trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, how running water affects the responses of afferent fibers in the posterior lateral line nerve and of lateral line units in the brainstem medial octavolateralis nucleus to an object that is moved from anterior to posterior or opposite along the side of the fish. In still water, nerve fibers in both species responded to the moving object with alternating periods of increased and decreased firing rate. Most fibers in goldfish but none in trout discharged bursts of spikes in response to the object’s wake. Responses of brainstem units were more variable and less distinct than nerve fiber responses. Bursting activity in response to the object’s wake was found in only one brainstem unit. In running water, responses of goldfish nerve fibers were weaker than in still water. This effect was independent of object motion direction. Responses of trout fibers were weaker when the object was moved with the flow but were slightly stronger when the object was moved against the flow. In general, running water affected the responses of goldfish nerve fibers more strongly than the responses of trout fibers. Compared to still water, brainstem units in both species responded more weakly when the object was moved with the flow. When the object was moved against the flow, brainstem responses were on average comparable to those in still water. Measurements of changes in pressure and water velocity caused by the moving object indicate that the observed effects can largely be explained by peripheral hydrodynamic effects. However, physiological differences between goldfish and trout units indicate that the lateral line systems in these two species are adapted to different hydrodynamic conditions.
Comparison of N and P Type Ribbon Grown Multi-Crystalline Silicon Wafers using Photoluminescence Imaging

Photoluminescence imaging is used to compare similarly grown n-type and p-type string ribbon mc-Si wafers at two stages of solar cell processing. Key advantages of the PL imaging technique are that it is fast, contact-less, requires no sample preparation and is negligibly influenced by trapping artifacts, which can dominate lifetime measurements made by other methods on multicrystalline materials at low and moderate injection levels. We observe that after the light phosphorous diffusion step, the average minority carrier lifetime in the p-type samples is significantly lower than in the n-type samples, with considerable continuity of good and bad grains along the growth direction in both n-type and p-type samples. Striking differences are also found in the effect of SiN passivation on n-type and p-type wafers
Effects of Dietary Pyrazinamide, an Antituberculosis Agent, on the Metabolism of Tryptophan to Niacin and of Tryptophan to Serotonin in Rats

The effects of pyrazinamide on the metabolism of tryptophan to niacin and of tryptophan to serotonin were investigated to elucidate the mechanism for pyrazinamide action against tuberculosis. Weanling rats were fed with a diet with or without 0.25% pyrazinamide for 61 days. Urine samples were periodically collected for measuring the tryptophan metabolites. The administration of pyrazinamide significantly increased the metabolites, 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid and beyond, especially quinolinic acid, nicotinamide, N1-methylnicotinamide, and N1-methyl-4-pyridone-3-carboxamide, and therefore significantly increased the conversion ratio of tryptophan to niacin and the blood NAD level. However, no difference in the upper metabolites of the tryptophan to niacin pathway such as anthranilic acid, kynurenic acid and xanthurenic acid was apparent between the two groups. No difference in the concentrations of trytptophan and serotonin in the blood were apparent either. It is suggested from these results that the action of pyrazinamide against tuberculosis is linked to the increase in turnover of NAD and to the increased content of NAD in the host cells.
Diet-tissue discrimination factors (Δ(13) C and Δ(15) N) and turnover rate in somatic tissues of a neotropical detritivorous fish on C3 and C4 diets.

In this study, diet-tissue discrimination factors and turnover rates were determined from the somatic tissues of a detritivorous fish Prochilodus lineatus. The carbon (Δ(13) C) and nitrogen (Δ(15) N) diet-tissue discrimination factors varied for all feed rations with a range of Δ(13) C values between -1·9 and 3·6‰ and Δ(15) N between 3·3 and 5·7‰. Carbon turnover rate in the blood was 23·1 days for the C3 ration and 34·7 days for the C4 ration, in the liver was 9·9 days under the C3 ration and nitrogen turnover rate was the same (23·1 days) in the liver for both C4 and C3 -C4 rations, and 13·9 days in the muscle for C3 -C4 ration.
Validation, Clinical Trial, and Evaluation of a Radiology Expert System

Abstract: The PHOENIX Radiology Consultant is a rule-based expert system which assists physicians in planning radiological work-up strategies. This article describes the methods used to create and validate the system’s knowledge base. The feasibility and acceptability of PHOENIX were tested for two years in a clinical trial. During this period, the system was used 1,421 times, an average of 13.7 times per week, primarily by medical students and nonradiologist physicians. Much of the system’s use occurred at night and on weekends, when the radiology department was not fully staffed. Several physicians were enlisted to further evaluate the utility of the system. The results of their evaluation indicate that an expert system that helps physicians select diagnostic-imaging studies can serve as a useful and informative component of a radiology information system, and is particularly useful for medical students and physicians in training.
Análise da Contribuição para Código entre Repositórios do GitHub

Considerando uma rede social de desenvolvedores de código e um indicador de contribuição, os objetivos desse artigo são: analisar a contribuição entre repositórios de diferentes linguagens de programação, analisar a correlação entre elas e traçar perfis a partir desse repositório de dados.
Melanin coloration has temperature‐dependent effects on breeding performance that may maintain phenotypic variation in a passerine bird

Fluctuating selection pressure may maintain phenotypic variation because of different types of individuals being adapted to different environmental conditions. We show that the extensive variation in the coloration of male pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) can be maintained through differences in the reproductive success of male phenotypes under different conditions. The effects of weather conditions on the relative success of different male phenotypes varied between different phases of breeding. The reproductive output of black males was the highest when it was cold during egg‐laying but warm during the nestling period, whereas the fledgling production of brown males was highest when it was continuously warm. In addition, male forehead and wing patch sizes had context‐dependent effects on timing of breeding and nestling mortality, respectively. These results indicate that environmental heterogeneity plays a role in maintaining phenotypic variation. As melanin‐based coloration is heritable, climate change may alter phenotype frequencies depending on the patterns of warming.