Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CTLA4 ligation attenuates AP‐1, NFAT and NF‐κB activity in activated T cells

CTLA4 is currently viewed as a late‐appearing T cell surface receptor which is able to inhibit the proliferation of activated T cells. We sought to identify how CTLA4 ligation exerts these anti‐proliferative effects by studying its influence on the activities of the relevant nuclear transcription factors AP‐1, NFAT and NF‐κB. We found that cross‐linking CTLA4 on activated T cells completely blocks AP‐1 and NFAT transcription factor activity before any effects on T cell proliferation can be observed, with NF‐κB activity affected to a lesser degree. The suppression of AP‐1 and NFAT transcriptional activity correlates with reduced levels of AP‐1 and NFAT DNA binding as early as 10 h after T cell activation, prior to detectable up‐regulation of CTLA4 on the T cell surface. Additionally, inhibitory effects on T cell proliferation only occurred when CTLA4 molecules were ligated in proximity to signaling TCR complexes, and inhibition of transcription factor DNA binding and activity was observed in the absence of CD28 stimulation. CTLA4 can thus act early during T cell activation to reduce the activity of several key nuclear transcription factors important for continued T cell proliferation and differentiation.
SAPAPs

PSD-95/SAP90 is a member of membrane-associated guanylate kinases localized at postsynaptic density (PSD) in neuronal cells. Membrane-associated guanylate kinases are a family of signaling molecules expressed at various submembrane domains which have the PDZ (DHR) domains, the SH3 domain, and the guanylate kinase domain. PSD-95/SAP90 interacts withN-methyl-d-aspartate receptors 2A/B, Shaker-type potassium channels, and brain nitric oxide synthase through the PDZ (DHR) domains and clusters these molecules at synaptic junctions. However, neither the function of the SH3 domain or the guanylate kinase domain of PSD-95/SAP90, nor the protein interacting with these domains has been identified. We have isolated here a novel protein family consisting of at least four members which specifically interact with PSD-95/SAP90 and its related proteins through the guanylate kinase domain, and named these proteins SAPAPs (SAP90/PSD-95-AssociatedProteins). SAPAPs are specifically expressed in neuronal cells and enriched in the PSD fraction. SAPAPs induce the enrichment of PSD-95/SAP90 to the plasma membrane in transfected cells. Thus, SAPAPs may have a potential activity to maintain the structure of PSD by concentrating its components to the membrane area.
Parent-Specific Gene Expression and the Triploid Endosperm

The endosperm of flowering plants is a tissue that acquires resources from the maternal sporophyte and is in turn digested by the developing embryo in its own seed. In this respect, the endosperm takes the role filled by the female gametophyte in gymnosperms. Endosperm is a tissue unique to angiosperms. At fertilization, a male gametophyte (pollen tube) releases two sperm into the female gametophyte. One sperm fuses with the egg to form a diploid zygote, and the other sperm fuses with two female-gametophyte nuclei (known as polar nuclei) to form the triploid primary-endosperm nucleus. Therefore, the endosperm, which develops from this triploid nucleus, has an unusual genetic composition. Each nucleus contains one copy of the paternal contribution to the associated embryo and two copies of the maternal contribution. A minority of flowering plant species have endosperms of different genetic composition, but almost all share the characteristic that more of the endosperm genome is derived from the mother than from the father. Double fertilization and the formation of endosperm are often considered the major features that distinguish flowering plants from other seed plants. Because of this importance, many authors have suggested adaptive explanations for the unusual genetic constitution of endosperm. Heterozygote vigor (Brink and Cooper 1940) can explain the presence of a paternal contribution but not why the maternal contribution should be doubled. Polyploid vigor (Stebbins 1974) can explain the advantage of triploid over diploid endosperm but not the weighting toward the maternal contribution. In other words, the polyploid-vigor explanation does not explain why genome doubling should occur in the female gametophyte before fertilization, particularly given that endosperm cells often increase their ploidy by other means after fertilization (D'Amato 1984). More-recent hypotheses have treated the endosperm as a participant in conflicts of interest among mother, father, and offspring. Conflict arises because sibling offspring of one mother tend to compete with each other. Each offspring's prospects of survival and eventual reproduction are sensitive to the quantity of resources it obtains from the mother, and when some offspring obtain more resources, others tend to obtain less. Because the mother is equally related to (has an equal genetic investment in) each of her offspring, her inclusive fitness is greatest when all nonabortive offspring are provisioned equally (Smith and Fretwell 1974; Trivers 1974). However, each offspring is more closely related to itself than to its siblings. For this reason, individual offspring would benefit from some redistribution of the mother's resources toward themselves and away from their
Initial findings from agricultural water quality monitoring at the edge-of-field in Arkansas

With farm-scale knowledge of how production practices affect water quality, land managers and agricultural producers can make more informed decisions on implementing soil and water conservation practices that sustain productivity and protect water resources. The Lower Mississippi River Basin is a major agricultural production region for rice (Oryza sativa L.), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), and soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.); however, there is limited knowledge on how agronomic practices in those southern cropping systems affect water quality. Results from environmental models indicate commercial fertilizer from agricultural fields contributes substantially to the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico. To expand understanding of runoff water quality at the field scale, edge-of-field water quality monitoring studies were carried out in nine commercial rice, cotton, and soybean fields in northeastern Arkansas over multiple seasons. These year-round monitoring activities generated 23 site-years of data on sediment and nutrient concentrations and loads with various soils and crop rotation regimes. Discharge from runoff, nitrite-nitrogen (NO2-N), nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N), total N, soluble phosphorus (P), total phosphorus (TP), and suspended sediment concentration on a per-event basis were measured. The results indicate that the nongrowing season loads and concentrations of several measured components were statistically higher than those measured during the growing season, lending support to the need for off-season practices such as winter cover crops and winter shallow water storage. Lower concentrations and loads of nutrients and sediment were observed in rice fields compared to cotton and soybean systems. These differences are likely due to soil type but are also related to the water management system of flooded rice fields compared to furrow irrigated row crops. These findings provide baseline runoff water quality data and will help inform regional budgets of nutrients and sediment loss. Such information can assist land managers and conservationists in directing resources more effectively. These data also will support modelers in their efforts to calibrate, verify, validate, and estimate uncertainty for simulations of nutrients and sediment loss.
Red kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) lectin stimulation increases the number of enterochromaffin cells in the small intestine of suckling piglets

Abstract The quantities and distribution patterns of serotonin-immunoreactive (serotonin-IR) enterochromaffin cells (EC) were studied immunohistochemically in the small intestine of suckling piglets stimulated with red kidney bean lectin, and in nonstimulated, control animals. The co-expression patterns of serotonin with somatostatin (SOM) or corticotropin releasing-factor (CRF) were also studied. After the lectin treatment, the increased numbers of EC were noted in the duodenum of experimental animals. Lectin stimulation did not change the proportions of EC in the jejunum and ileum. In the duodenal epithelium of the lectin-stimulated piglets, the vast majority of serotonin-IR EC were distributed at the basis of crypts. After the lectin administration, the proportions of serotonin-IR/SOM-IR EC were statistically similar in all sections of the small intestine. No upregulation of CRF was found in duodenal, jejunal, and ileal EC of lectin-treated animals. The findings demonstrated that red kidney bean lectin increased the serotonin reservoir in the duodenum, and thus may be an effective stimulant of the gut maturation in suckling mammals.
Position of the Stigma in Relation to Fruit Setting of the Tomato

The relationship between fruit setting and depression of the stigma within the anther tube of the tomato flower was investigated by comparing these two variables in field plantings consisting of two pure-breeding lines-VF36 with a low stigma level and VF6 with a high stigma-and their F~1 and F2 hybrid progenies. The inheritance patterns of stigma position in these progenies as well as in F3 families argue for quantitative determination by relatively few genes with high heritability. The F2 proved to be ideal material for intended tests by providing a complete spectrum of stigma levels from one parental extreme to the other, assorted randomly throughout the field planting. Observed values from test plots grown in two years were pooled into five intrahomogeneous periods. In each period, stigma position was correlated with fruit set-the lower the stigma level, the higher the set-this relationship bordering on statistical significance in four periods, and being highly significant in the fifth. Since the period of highest correlation was also the one of lowest fruit set, stigma position tends to have more impact on fruitfulness during periods of unfavorable environmental conditions. According to all correlated observations, the lower stigma positions afford better self-pollination, hence improved fruit setting. The low fruit set of numerous F2 segregants that had stigmas at levels as low as those of VF36 indicates that stigma level does not completely account for the high fruitfulness of the latter. Developmental studies indicated that the lower stigma positions result from differential growth of stamens versus style in late stages of ontogeny of the flower buds.
Interferon γ Receptor Extracellular Domain Expressed as IgG Fusion Protein in Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells

Agents that antagonize the functions of interferon γ (IFNγ) are potential pharmaceuticals against several immunological and inflammatory disorders. IFNγ receptor-immunoglobulin G fusion proteins (IFNγR-IgG) function as antagonists of endogenous IFNγ and have longer half-lives in vivo in comparison with soluble IFNγ receptors (sIFNγR), consisting of the extracellular region of the native sequence. A fusion protein comprising the extracellular domain of the human IFNγ receptor and the hinge, CH2 and CH3 domains of the human IgG3 constant region, was expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. The IFNγR-IgG3 fusion protein was secreted into the culture medium as a 175-kDa glycoprotein and was purified over Protein G-Sepharose, DEAE-Sepharose, and size exclusion chromatography. IFNγR-IgG3 bound IFNγ in solid phase assays and ligand blots, competed for the binding of radiolabeled IFNγ to the cell surface receptor of Raji cells, and inhibited the IFNγ-mediated antiviral activity with an efficiency at least one order of magnitude higher than that of the soluble receptor produced in the same expression system. Two IFNγR-IgG3 fusion proteins bound two IFNγ dimers forming a complex of approximately 380 kDa. In immunodiffusion assays, the IFNγR-IgG3 fusion protein did not precipitate IFNγ. Dissociation of bound IFNγ from IFNγR-IgG3 was 2-fold slower than from the sIFNγR produced in insect cells.
Dimorphisms and fluctuating asymmetry in the forceps of male earwigs

Male dimorphisms are particularly conspicuous examples of the alternative reproductive strategies employed within some species. Such dimorphisms are thought to exist as genetic polymorphisms under ESS conditions, or to be conditional strategies where exogenous conditions determine the adult body plan. Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) is currently considered to be a fitness correlate of significant use in interpreting the functional significance of secondary sexual characteristics. In particular, negative slopes of FA on trait size are thought to arise in traits whose expression is dependent on condition. We measured forceps lengths and asymmetries in 2 island populations of the European earwig Forficula auricularia and Museum specimens of 5 other earwig (Dermaptera, Forficulidae) species from different genera, that appeared to be dimorphic. In a detailed study of Forficula auricularia we found a significant fit to a statistical model for the identification of dimorphisms and, for all species examined, morphs differed in the slope and/or elevation of the allometric relationship between body size and forcep length. Possible determinates of male dimorphisms are suggested from the data. Contrary to expectation, FA was not found to be greater in the minor morphs. Negative relationships between FA and forceps length were absent in both morphs of species examined from museum collections. Of the two island populations of Forficula auricularia, the smaller and more isolated population had higher FA and a negative relationship between FA and forceps length in the major morph. We discuss these patterns in the light of recent theories of FA and honest signalling.
What Holds Back the Second Generation?

In 2000 Census microdata, various outcomes of second-generation immigrants are related to their parents’ age at arrival in the United States, and in particular whether that age fell within the “critical period” of language acquisition. We interpret this as an effect of the parents’ English-language skills and construct an instrumental variable for parental English proficiency. Estimates of the effect of parents’ English-speaking proficiency using two-stage least squares yield significant, positive results for children’s English-speaking proficiency and preschool attendance, and significant, negative results for dropping out of high school and being below age-appropriate grade.
Body mass and survival of bighorn sheep

In ungulates, body mass is often positively correlated with juvenile survival, but little is known of whether body mass affects survival of other age-classes. We studied two marked populations of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in Alberta, Canada, to determine if body mass affected the survival of different sex –age classes. Chest girth at weaning was correlated (P < 0.0001) with survival of bighorn lambs in the Sheep River population. In the Ram Mountain population, body mass in mid-September had a stronger effect upon survival than mass in early June, mass gain in summer, or mass loss in winter. Body mass at weaning was correlated with lamb survival (P = 0.004). In both study areas, relationships between size and survival of lambs were similar for the two sexes. At Ram Mountain, survival of yearling and adult males seemed to be independent of body mass. Light yearling females were less likely to survive than heavy yearling females. Among females aged 3 – 6 years, body mass had no effect on survival. Amo.
Exploring Chenopodium album adaptive traits in response to light and temperature stresses

Summary Weeds within canopies are depleted in photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) and red to far-red light ratio (R ⁄ FR) throughout their lifespan. Growth cabinet studies isolated PPFD and R ⁄ FR effects and explored the adaptive traits of a model invasive weed, Chenopodium album, to light and temperature. Reproductive development progressed rapidly at high temperature, yet the rate of leaf appearance was insensitive to temperatures of 25:15 and 10:5� C (day:night). Low R ⁄ FR effects were detected early in the life cycle, but by seed set, growth was influenced by low PPFD. C. album adapted to the simulated canopy environments by delaying seed set, growing taller and producing more leaf area per mol of accumulated incident PPFD. Low PPFD reduced seed number per plant and the carbon ⁄ nitrogen ratio of those seeds, but not seed weight. PPFD was a primary cue for many shade avoidance traits and only under low PPFD did R ⁄ FR modify the expression of these traits. This study elucidates the adaptive strategies that make C. album a persistent weed.
Correction

EARTH, ATMOSPHERIC, AND PLANETARY SCIENCES Correction for “Airborne measurements of organic bromine compounds in the Pacific tropical tropopause layer,” byMaria A. Navarro, Elliot L. Atlas, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Xavier Rodriguez-Lloveras, Douglas E. Kinnison, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Simone Tilmes, Michal Filus, Neil R. P. Harris, Elena Meneguz, Matthew J. Ashfold, Alistair J. Manning, Carlos A. Cuevas, Sue M. Schauffler, and Valeria Donets, which appeared in issue 45, November 10, 2015, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (112:13789–13793; first published October 26, 2015; 10.1073/pnas.1511463112). The authors note that, due to a printer’s error, in the Abstract, lines 12–13, and on page 13789, right column, second full paragraph, line 12, “parts per thousand” should instead appear as “parts per trillion. ”
Classical conditioning mediated by the red nucleus in the cat

We have attempted to develop a behavioral and neuronal model for classical conditioning in the corticorubrospinal system. A conditioned stimulus (CS) was applied to the cerebral peduncle (CP) in cats which had lesions that interrupted the corticofugal fibers caudal to the red nucleus. The unconditioned stimulus (US) was an electric shock to the skin of the forelimb that produced flexion of the limb. After pairing of the CS and US in close temporal association, an initially ineffective stimulus to the cerebral peduncle was found to give rise to the flexion of the elbow. Extinction of the conditioned response was achieved by applying the CS alone or by reversing the sequence of the stimuli (US-CS: backward pairing). Furthermore, the US alone did not produce an increase in the effectiveness of the CS stimulus. Finally, pairing the fixed CS stimuli with the US at random intervals did not produce any increase in performance in response to the CS. In these respects, the observed behavioral modification has the features of associative conditioning. Because the thresholds for and the strength of elbow flexion induced by stimulation of the nucleus interpositus of the cerebellum were identical in the experimental and control animals, the interpositorubrospinal system cannot be the site of the plastic change. Since the conditioned response is most probably mediated by the corticorubrospinal system, it is likely that a modification of the corticorubral synapses underlies this behavioral change.
LEAF AND APICAL GROWTH CHARACTERISTICS IN TRITICUM

A B S T R A C T Leaf initiation rate, leaf primordium growth rates, and apical volume growth rates were determined for seedlings of Triticum aestivum cv. Ramona 50 under controlled environmental conditions. Three leaf primordia are present in the caryopsis, and three more leaves are initiated within the first two weeks after germination with a mean plastochron length of 95.5 hr. Volume growth rates of the apical region were determined on six apices which had six primordia each. The mean radial expansion rate was 0.467/plastochron, and the vertical expansion rate was 0.457/plastochron. The volume expansion rate was 1.393/plastochron. The mean volume doubling time was 0.498 plastochrons or 47.1 hr. PLANT MORPHOGENESIS is concerned with the growth and form of the organism. Growth analysis studies are undertaken to obtain mathematical parameters of development. Growth can be measured as an increase in length or area, or in number or volume of cells. The form of growth, or manner in which the cells are arranged is equally important. For example, growth of the shoot apex can be described in terms of the rate of increase in volume or in number of cells, but is also the site of organogenesis of leaves and axillary buds. The objective of the study reported here was to outline the developmental events in the apex of Triticum aestivum with respect to the rate of leaf initiation and rate of growth processes, using ontogeny of the seedling. A plastochron index2 was developed for the seedling to provide a numerical developmental scale for further studies. Measurements of apical volume growth were taken to compare the growth of the grass meristem with dicotyledonous meristems (Berg and Cutter, 1969; Evington, 1954). The grass apex is a convenient subject for such studies because the distichous phyllotaxy presents all the leaves in one plane.
Correction

proctocolitis, primarily through unprotected receptive or insertive anal intercourse, a substantial proportion of patients even being asymptomatic. Diagnosis is essential as prolonged treatment (3 weeks) with doxycycline or macrolides is required in LGV (C trachomatis serovar L1–3) proctitis, in contrast to infection with other serovars for which short-term treatment is possible. Given the recent outbreak, C trachomatis L2b proctitisassociated SARA appears to be rare, and is less frequent than SARA related to other C trachomatis serovars (incidence estimated at approximately 1–3% in C trachomatis serovars D–K). A strong local immune response in proctitis could prevent the dissemination of infection and subsequent reactive arthritis. In conclusion, SARA may be triggered by the epidemic LGV L2b isolate responsible for proctitis in HIV-infected MSM. Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank Maithe Clerc for the genotyping analysis and Nicolas Dupin for his careful review of the manuscript.
Elk population dynamics in areas with and without predation by recolonizing wolves in Banff National Park, Alberta

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) recolonized the Bow Valley of Banff National Park in the mid-1980s after a 30-year absence. Wolves recolonized one zone of the Bow Valley in 1985 and another in 1991, but human activity excluded wolves from a third zone throughout the study. Elk (Cervus elaphus) are the primary prey of wolves in Banff National Park. We studied the effects of wolf predation, snow depth, elk density, and human-caused mortality on the elk population growth rate in the three different wolf recolonization treatments from 1985 to 2000. We constructed a set of generalized linear models of factors affecting population growth, and used Akaike Information Criteria to guide model selection and inference. In the low wolf predation zone, elk population growth was density-dependent and limited by human-caused mortality. In the zone that wolves recolonized in 1991, elk population growth was limited by the combined effects of snow depth and wolf predation after wolf recolonization, in addition to preexisting mor.