Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of the Ring Finger E3 Ligase Siah2 by p38 MAPK*

The RING finger ubiquitin ligase Siah2 controls the stability of various substrates involved in stress and hypoxia responses, including the PHD3, which controls the stability of HIF-1α. In the present study we determined the role of Siah2 phosphorylation in the regulation of its activity toward PHD3. We show that Siah2 is subject to phosphorylation by p38 MAPK, which increases Siah2-mediated degradation of PHD3. Consistent with these findings, MKK3/MKK6 double-deficient cells, which cannot activate p38 kinases, exhibit impaired Siah2-dependent degradation of PHD3. Phosphopeptide mapping identified T24 and S29 as the primary phospho-acceptor sites. Phospho-mutant forms of Siah2 (S29A or T24A/S29A) exhibit impaired degradation of PHD3, particularly after hypoxia. Conversely, a phospho-mimic form of Siah2 (T24E/S29D) exhibits stronger degradation of PHD3, compared with wild type Siah2. Whereas phospho-mutant Siah2 exhibits weaker association with PHD3, phospho-mimic Siah2 associates as well as wild type and is localized within the perinuclear region, suggesting that phosphorylation of Siah2 affects its subcellular localization and, consequently, the degree of its association with PHD3. In all, our findings reveal the phosphorylation of Siah2 by p38 and the implications of such phosphorylation for Siah2 activity toward PHD3.
Conflict and changing patterns of migration from Africa: the impact on HIV services in London, UK.

Among those living with diagnosed HIV infection in the United Kingdom in 2003 36% were described as black African making them the second largest group. There have been substantial changes however in the epidemiology of this group over the past 15 years. Africans have been coming to the UK for many years. Traditionally emigration from these countries was largely motivated by education and employment opportunities; more recently increasing numbers have sought asylum from social and political upheaval. According to Foreign and Commonwealth Office figures there have been noticeable influxes of populations to the UK associated with conflicts in countries such as Eritrea and Somalia. This study sought to examine the impact of armed conflicts on the populations of Africans attending an HIV unit in London UK in an attempt to improve the response of services to this group. (excerpt)
Modèles asymptotiques et surfaces courbes : application au transport ferroviaire

De nombreux systemes de communication sans fil sont developpes pour les communications entre les trains et l'infrastructure et entre les trains dans les domaines metro et ferroviaire. Dans le but de developper ces systemes dans les environnements particuliers que sont les tunnels, qui peuvent etre rectilignes ou courbes, et de section rectangulaire ou voutee, des modeles de propagation specifiques doivent etre developpes. Dans ce papier, nous proposons de modeliser la propagation en tunnels rectilignes de section voutee a l'aide de differents modeles asymptotiques a base de trace et de lancer de rayons allies a une facettisation de la section voutee. Une methode d'interpolation des normales est implementee afin de minimiser l'erreur introduite par l'utilisation de la facettisation. Ces resultats sont confrontes a ceux de la litterature, afin de demontrer la validite de notre approche.
The Epstein-Barr Virus BZLF1 Protein Interacts Physically and Functionally with the Histone Acetylase CREB-Binding Protein

ABSTRACT The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) immediate-early protein BZLF1 (Z) is a key regulator of the EBV latent-to-lytic switch. Z is a transcriptional activator which induces EBV early gene expression. We demonstrate here that Z interacts with CREB-binding protein (CBP), a histone acetylase and transcriptional coactivator. This interaction requires the amino-terminal region of CBP as well as the transactivation and leucine zipper domains of Z. We show that CBP enhances Z-mediated transactivation of EBV early promoters, in reporter gene assays and in the context of the endogenous genome. We also demonstrate that Z decreases CREB transactivation function and that this inhibitory effect is reversed by overexpression of CBP. We show that Z also interacts directly with CREB. However, mutational analysis indicates that Z inhibition of CREB activity requires the direct interaction between Z and CBP but not the direct interaction between Z and CREB. We propose that Z interacts with CBP to enhance viral early gene transcription. In addition, the Z-CBP interaction may control host cellular transcription factor activity through competition for limiting amounts of cellular CBP.
D-Glucose: Preferential Binding to Brush Borders Disrupted with Tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane

The actively transported sugar D-glucose binds to brush borders disrupted with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane in preference to D-mannose and L-glucose, which are not actively transported. This preferential binding of D-glucose is not dependent on either added Na+ or adenosine triphosphatase activity stimulated by Na+ with K+ and Mg2+, but it is temperature-dependent and is completely inhibited by 0.1 millimolar phlorizin and 1 millimolar mercuric chloride.
Absence of adipose differentiation related protein upregulates hepatic VLDL secretion, relieves hepatosteatosis, and improves whole body insulin resistance in leptin-deficient mice[S]

We previously showed that adipose differentiation related protein (Adfp)-deficient mice display a 60% reduction in hepatic triglyceride (TG) content. In this study, we investigated the role of ADFP in lipid and glucose homeostasis in a genetic obesity model, Lepob/ob mice. We bred Adfp−/− mice with Lepob/ob mice to create Lepob/ob/Adfp−/− and Lepob/ob/Adfp+/+ mice and analyzed the hepatic lipids, lipid droplet (LD) morphology, LD protein composition and distribution, lipogenic gene expression, and VLDL secretion, as well as insulin sensitivity of the two groups of mice. Compared with Lepob/ob/Adfp+/+ mice, Lepob/ob/Adfp−/− mice displayed an increased VLDL secretion rate, a 25% reduction in hepatic TG associated with improvement in fatty liver grossly and microscopically with a change of the size of LDs in a proportion of the hepatocytes and a redistribution of major LD-associated proteins from the cytoplasmic compartment to the LD surface. There was no detectable change in lipogenic gene expression. Lepob/ob/Adfp−/− mice also had improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in both liver and muscle. The alteration of LD size in the liver of Lepob/ob/Adfp−/− mice despite the relocation of other LDPs to the LD indicates a nonredundant role for ADFP in determining the size and distribution of hepatic LDs.
Effect of INT1 gene on Candida albicans murine intestinal colonization.

BACKGROUND Increased intestinal colonization with Candida albicans is believed to be a major factor predisposing immunocompromised and postsurgical patients to systemic candidiasis, although the mechanisms facilitating C. albicans colonization remain unclear. Because previous studies have linked the C. albicans INT1 gene to filament formation, epithelial adherence, and mouse virulence, experiments were designed to evaluate the effect of INT1 on intestinal colonization. MATERIALS AND METHODS Mice were orally inoculated with either the parent strain (CAF2, INT/INT1), an int1 heterozygote (CAG1, INT1/int1), an int1 homozygote (CAG3, int1/int1), or a reintegrant (CAG5, int1/int1 + INT1), and sacrificed 3 and 7 days later for quantitative analysis of cecal C. albicans. RESULTS Following oral inoculation with 10(3) C. albicans, only small numbers of each strain were recovered from the cecal flora of normal mice. However, in mice pretreated with oral antibiotics, cecal colonization of each strain was increased (P < 0.01). In addition, cecal colonization was reduced for all int1 mutant strains compared with the parent strain (P < 0.05). By light microscopy, all four C. albicans strains were easily observed in the ileal lumen as both budding yeast and filamentous forms, although only occasional yeast forms appeared adherent to the intestinal epithelium. CONCLUSIONS C. albicans readily colonized and replicated in the ceca of antibiotic-treated mice. The presence of two functional copies of INT1 appeared to facilitate C. albicans cecal colonization, suggesting that intestinal colonization may be another virulence factor associated with INT1 and that the gene product may be an attractive target to control C. albicans intestinal colonization.
POLYMERIZED BOVINE HEMOGLOBIN CAN IMPROVE SMALL-VOLUME RESUSCITATION FROM HEMORRHAGIC SHOCK IN HAMSTERS

Systemic and microvascular hemodynamic responses to hemorrhagic shock volume resuscitation with hypertonic saline followed by infusion of polymerized bovine hemoglobin (PBH) at different concentrations were studied in the hamster window chamber model to determine the role of plasma oxygen-carrying capacity and vasoactivity during resuscitation. Moderate hemorrhagic shock was induced by arterial controlled bleeding of 50% of blood volume (BV), and a hypovolemic state was maintained for 1 h. Volume was restituted by infusion of hypertonic saline (7.5% NaCl), 3.5% of BV, followed by 10% of BV of PBH at 2 different concentrations. Resuscitation was followed for 90 min and was carried out using 13 gPBH/dL (PBH13), PBH diluted to 4 gPBH/dL in albumin solution at matching colloidal osmotic pressure (PBH4), and an albumin-only solution at matching colloidal osmotic pressure (PBH0). Systemic parameters, microvascular hemodynamics, and functional capillary density were determined during hemorrhage, hypovolemic shock, and resuscitation. The PBH13 caused higher arterial pressure without reverting vasoconstriction and hypoperfusion. The PBH4 and PBH0 had lower MAP and partially reverted vasoconstriction. Only treatment with PBH4 restored perfusion and functional capillary density when compared with PBH13 and PBH0. Blood gas parameters and acid-base balance recovered proportionally to microvascular perfusion. Tissue PO2 was significantly improved in the PBH4 group, showing that limited restoration of oxygen-carrying capacity is beneficial and compensates for the effects of vasoactivity, a characteristic of molecular hemoglobin solutions proposed as blood substitutes.
Auditing of Data Analyses

We describe concepts and software for the auditing of data analyses. Auditing begins with the record of a data analysis session. The record tells what statements were executed and what objects were accessed or changed, and can be processed to recreate chosen statements in the analysis for purposes of verification. It can also be the starting point for asking a variety of questions about the analysis, through an interactive, exploratory interface, as a data analyst's assistant.We have constructed such an auditing facility and examined some actual data analyses with it. The record of the data analysis is converted into a special data structure; the data structure in turn is used to examine and display the interconnections among statements in the record. Our facility demonstrates that the verification process is possible and computationally reasonable, even for quite large analyses. At the same time, interactive exploration of the audited analyses presents some interesting and extremely challenging problems.
Using existing written language analyzers in understanding natural spoken Finnish

In this paper we consider the possible use of existing linguistic (mainly morphological) analyzers for written Finnish in order to create a system that uses speech as its interface. We also present means to enhance the usability of these analyzers in this respect. 1 USIX Interact−project In the USIX Interact project ("http://www.mlab.uiah.fi/interact/", Tekes−project 40691/00), which is mainly funded by the National Technology Agency, we are designing a general platform for systems which use a natural language interface in communicating with their users. The Interact project is a joint effort between the University of Art and Design Helsinki, the University of Helsinki, the Helsinki University of Technology and the University of Tampere. As a demonstration we are constructing a system which should be able to answer inquiries about the timetables of public transportation. The problem that we at the University of Helsinki are solving at the moment is the mapping of the utterance of the speaker into relevant semantic units which are in turn processed by the dialogue manager. After dialogue manager has done it’s processing it produces new semantic units, out of which it is our problem to generate natural language. We are also responsible for creating a dictionary for the speech recognition system. 2 Written vs. spoken Finnish It is a widely known fact that Finnish is written so that one grapheme corresponds to one phoneme. "Spoken as it is written". Much less known is the fact that spoken Finnish differs greatly from its written form. The current written form of Finnish was established to serve a compromise between all the Finnish dialects and as such it has never really been a good transliteration of any form of spoken Finnish. Given the current state of user independent speech recognition, we are forced to use full word lists which include all the morphological forms that we are trying to understand from the user’s utterance. Because of the difference between written and spoken Finnish, existing tools cannot handle the word forms used in natural spoken Finnish. In order to deal with the variation between the several different ways to pronounce any written word, we have to generate a list of the most probable pronunciations for each one. Then we map each one of these pronunciations to standard forms that can be found from the written language. These standard forms are then passed forward to any linguistic analyzers that are being used by the system. To do this we need a tool which takes as its input the written forms we decide are necessary and as its output gives the forms that can actually be found from spoken language.
A unified theory of flow control and routing in data communication networks

Abstract : A joint flow control and routing (JFCR) strategy is proposed for store and forward communication networks. The strategy is based on a convex optimization problem in terms of the average input rates and multi-commodity flows and is shown to have the following properties: First the average load of each buffer stays below some arbitrarily chosen level for the input rate and routing assignments of the strategy. This level can be chosen so as to upper bound the probability of buffer overflow arbitrarily. Secondly, by proper selection of the cost function, it is possible to utilize the network fully and to achieve a variety of different types of priorities in the services offered to the users. Finally, the routing assignments of the strategy correspond to a routing strategy/which tends to minimize the total delay when the network is lightly loaded and tends to prevent congestion when it is heavily loaded. Furthermore, the proposed JFCR problem is shown to be equivalent to a minimum delay routing problem corresponding to a bigger network. Accordingly, any minimum delay routing algorithm can be converted into a JFCR algorithm. Using this approach, a class of JFCR algorithms with distributed computations at the nodes are developed. Under certain conditions, a one to one correspondence is shown to exist in a store and forward network between the set of average input rates and the set of average number of outstanding packets of commodities. This unique correspondence is used to show that in practice the average input rates can be adjusted as desired by restricting the number of outstanding packets on each commodity (window strategy).
Effect of noisy phase reference on coherent detection of band-limited offset-QPSK signals

The performance of bandlimited offset-quaternary-phase-shift-keying (OQPSK) systems in the presence of noisy phase reference and additive Gaussian noise is analyzed. Expressions for error probability calculation are obtained. A new search method for computing the detection loss and the required SNR of the phase reference is proposed. It is shown that when the rolloff factor for the Nyquist filtering is large, OQPSK surpasses QPSK, but when the rolloff factor is small, QPSK surpasses OQPSK. >
Pursuing Darwin’s curious parallel: Prospects for a science of cultural evolution

In the past few decades, scholars from several disciplines have pursued the curious parallel noted by Darwin between the genetic evolution of species and the cultural evolution of beliefs, skills, knowledge, languages, institutions, and other forms of socially transmitted information. Here, I review current progress in the pursuit of an evolutionary science of culture that is grounded in both biological and evolutionary theory, but also treats culture as more than a proximate mechanism that is directly controlled by genes. Both genetic and cultural evolution can be described as systems of inherited variation that change over time in response to processes such as selection, migration, and drift. Appropriate differences between genetic and cultural change are taken seriously, such as the possibility in the latter of nonrandomly guided variation or transformation, blending inheritance, and one-to-many transmission. The foundation of cultural evolution was laid in the late 20th century with population-genetic style models of cultural microevolution, and the use of phylogenetic methods to reconstruct cultural macroevolution. Since then, there have been major efforts to understand the sociocognitive mechanisms underlying cumulative cultural evolution, the consequences of demography on cultural evolution, the empirical validity of assumed social learning biases, the relative role of transformative and selective processes, and the use of quantitative phylogenetic and multilevel selection models to understand past and present dynamics of society-level change. I conclude by highlighting the interdisciplinary challenges of studying cultural evolution, including its relation to the traditional social sciences and humanities.
Impact of Process-Induced Strain on Coulomb Scattering Mobility in Short-Channel n-MOSFETs

This letter provides an experimental assessment of Coulomb scattering mobility for advanced short-channel strained devices. By accurate mobility extraction under various temperatures, we examine the impact of process-induced uniaxial strain on Coulomb mobility in short-channel nMOSFETs. This letter indicates that the Coulomb mobility has significant stress dependency. Moreover, the stress sensitivity of the Coulomb mobility shows strong temperature dependence. Because it is the interface scattering that counteracts the stress sensitivity of the bulk-impurity-limited mobility, further reducing the interface charges will be crucial to future mobility scaling.
IL-17A and the Promotion of Neutrophilia in Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

RATIONALE Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) causes acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). IL-17A is central for neutrophilic inflammation and has been linked to COPD pathogenesis. OBJECTIVES We investigated whether IL-17A is elevated in NTHi-associated AECOPD and required for NTHi-exacerbated pulmonary neutrophilia induced by cigarette smoke. METHODS Experimental studies with cigarette smoke and NTHi infection were pursued in gene-targeted mice and using antibody intervention. IL-17A was measured in sputum collected from patients with COPD at baseline, during, and after AECOPD. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Exacerbated airway neutrophilia in cigarette smoke-exposed mice infected with NTHi was associated with an induction of IL-17A. In agreement, elevated IL-17A was observed in sputum collected during NTHi-associated AECOPD, compared with samples collected before or after the event. NTHi-exacerbated neutrophilia and induction of neutrophil chemoattractants over the background of cigarette smoke, as observed in wild-type mice, was absent in Il17a(-/-) mice and in mice treated with a neutralizing anti-IL-17A antibody. Further studies revealed that IL-1 receptor (R)1 signaling was required for IL-17A-dependent neutrophilia. Moreover, deficiency or therapeutic neutralization of IL-17A did not increase bacterial burden or delay bacterial clearance. CONCLUSIONS IL-17A is induced during NTHi-associated AECOPD. Functionally, IL-1R1-dependent IL-17A is required for NTHi-exacerbated pulmonary neutrophilia induced by cigarette smoke. Targeting IL-17A in AECOPD may thus be beneficial to reduce neutrophil recruitment to the airways.
Status, Caste, and the Time Allocation of Women in Rural India

We argue that women may be disinclined to participate in market work in the rural areas of India because of family status concerns in a culture that stigmatizes market work by married women. We set out a theoretical framework that offers predictions regarding the effects of caste-based status concerns on the time allocation of women. We then use the all-India National Sample Survey data for the year 2004–5 and the Time Use Survey for six states of India for the year 1998–99 to empirically test these hypotheses. After controlling for a host of correlates, we find that the ratio of women’s market work to men’s declines as we move up the caste hierarchy. This ratio falls as family wealth rises, and the decline is steeper for the higher castes. Finally, the effect on women’s market work of higher education is weaker for the higher castes. These findings lend support to our theory and to the view that, through its emphasis on family status, caste plays a pivotal role in undermining the autonomy of women. Our article has implications for how culture impinges on the rate at which poverty in developing countries can be reduced.
Psychosocial work conditions as predictors of quality of life at the beginning of older age.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of psychosocial nature of previous work activity on different dimensions of subjective health and life satisfaction at the beginning of older age. MATERIALS AND METHODS The cross-sectional study was performed on a simple random sample of a 65-year-old cohort of community-dwelling citizens of Kraków. All of the 733 participants (412 women, 321 men) were interviewed face to face in their households. Two separate models have been developed to analyze indicators of health-related quality of life: the first model assessed the influence of divergences between psychological job demands and perceived job control and rewards (adjusted to job physical demands), the other explored the impact of divergences between job effort on job control and rewards (adjusted to psychological demands). RESULTS High physical job demands combined with low job control diminished job satisfaction in women. High physical job demands/efforts combined with low control/reward decreased self-rated health scores. Contrary to expectations high psychological job demands combined with low job control diminished the risk of chronic diseases in women. High physical job demands/efforts combined with low job control/rewards increased the functional independence in both genders. CONCLUSIONS Psychosocial conditions of work significantly influenced health-related quality of life at the beginning of older age and their patterns of influence differed between men and women.