Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hybrid strategy: a new strategy for competitive advantage

Both strategic management researchers and practitioners have realized the importance of cost and differentiation strategies for effective organizational performance and excellence. Recently many large enterprises/corporations have been applying both strategies simultaneously, rather than applying a single strategy at one period of time. The implementations of the three strategies are commonly used by the big corporations involved in domestic, regional, international and global business. This article has three bases of data analyses; the first is a review of related literature, the second is case analysis and the third is the result of field interviews with a giant home appliance manufacturer in Malaysia. Thus, the principal aim of this article is to provide evidence that the hybrid strategy (both cost leadership and differentiation strategy) has been implemented by companies throughout the world.
Psychomotricité et Trouble Déficit de l'Attention/Hyperactivité : Nouvelles perspectives dans l'approche de l'enfant agité et distrait

Le Trouble Deficit de l’Attention/Hyperactivite (TDA/H) constitue l’un des troubles psychomoteurs les plus repandus chez l’enfant, mais aussi le plus etudie. Sa triade symptomatique, agitation motrice, impulsivite et trouble de l’attention, est source de perturbations pour le sujet et les milieux dans lesquels il evolue. L’evaluation prealable a la mise en place d’un traitement multimodal ne peut se satisfaire d’une liste de criteres diagnostiques et doit preciser les fonctions et processus defaillants ainsi que les possibilites de l’enfant. Le test Laby 5-12 permet de distinguer deux indices calcules a partir des erreurs commises au cours de la resolution de labyrinthes qui renvoient aux deux aspects du modele a deux voies de Sonuga-Barke (2003). Les resultats de trois etudes recentes illustrent ensuite l’interet d’une evaluation des pratiques therapeutiques non medicamenteuses dans le TDA/H.
Data Preprocessing and Filtering in Mass Spectrometry Based Proteomics

Mass spectrometry based proteomics analysis can produce many thousands of spectra in a single experiment, and much of this data, frequently greater than 50%, cannot be properly evaluated computationally. Therefore a number of strategies have been developed to aid the processing of mass spectra and typically focus on the identification and elimination of noise, which can provide an immediate improvement in the analysis of large data streams. This is mostly carried out with proprietary software. Here we review the current main principles underlying the preprocessing of mass spectrometry data give an overview of the publicly available tools.
Scaling and self-organized criticality in proteins II

The complexity of proteins is substantially simplified by regarding them as archetypical examples of self-organized criticality (SOC). To test this idea and to elaborate it, this article applies the Moret–Zebende (MZ) SOC hydrophobicity scale to transport repeat proteins of the HEAT superfamily, importin β, and transportin, as well as the export protein Cse1p, and their ubiquitous cargo manager Ran. The difference between the MZ scale and conventional hydrophobicity scales reflects long-range conformational forces that are central to protein functionality. These compete with long-range Coulomb forces associated with cationic and anionic side chains in a revealing way.
Spatial properties of nonlinear ac transport in a Luttinger liquid with an impurity.

The nonlinear transport in a Luttinger liquid with finite-range interaction is considered for a general time-dependent driving electric field, in the presence of an impurity. In the static limit, the nonlinear current-voltage characteristic depends only on the integral of the driving field. For a time-dependent field, a relation between the currents at different sites is derived which depends only on the nonlocal ac conductivity of the Luttinger system without impurity, but is independent of the strength and the shape of the electric field. Experimental consequences are discussed.
Soft lithography processing of fresnel lens for on-chip applications

Soft lithography and UV-NIL are important technologies for micro- and nano- structures replication [1]. It is possible to adapt surface structures preparation for many applications regarding e.g. opto-fluidic on-chip microscopy, wetting or reflection properties [2]. Light microscopy has been one of the most common tools in biological research, because of its high resolution and non-invasive nature of the light. Fresnel lens can be used in passive and active high quality polymer-based on-chip components for integrated photonics circuits [3]. In presented soft lithography technique the various materials were used for Fresnel lens replication: PDMS, h-PDMS and thiol-ene-epoxy resin. Mentioned polymers are characterized by high flexibility and transparency with minimal color. The silicon matrices replication process involves two main steps: anti-adhesive layer preparation and polymer deposition. The influence of structures geometry on the optical properties Fresnel lens has been investigated. The topography of obtained replicas was characterized using the atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The efficiency of light focus of the selected wavelength has been checked by intensity measurement using a standard optical microscope. As a result of replication 10□m diameter Fresnel lenses have been prepared.
Développement du cartilage articulaire équin du fœtus à l’adulte : imagerie par résonance magnétique et microscopie en lumière polarisée

La structure du cartilage articulaire adulte est caracterisee par la presence de couches creees par l’orientation des fibres de collagene (Benninghoff, 1925). Avant de presenter la structure adulte classique en arcades “de Benninghoff”, le cartilage subit une serie de changements au cours de sa maturation (Julkunen et al., 2010; Lecocq et al., 2008). Toutefois, un faible nombre d’etudes s’est interesse a la structure du collagene du cartilage articulaire in utero. Notre objectif etait d’etudier la maturation de la surface articulaire de l’epiphyse femorale distale chez le cheval, en employant a la fois l’imagerie par resonance magnetique (IRM) et la microscopie en lumiere polarisee apres coloration au rouge picrosirius, au niveau de sites utilises dans les etudes de reparation tissulaire et de sites predisposes a l’osteochondrose (OC). Le but etait de decrire le developpement normal du reseau de collagene et la relation entre les images IRM et la structure histologique. Des sections provenant de cinq sites de l’epiphyse femorale distale de 14 fœtus et 10 poulains et adultes ont ete colorees au rouge picrosirius, apres que le grasset ait ete image par IRM, dans l’optique de visualiser l’agencement des fibres de collagene de type II. Les deux modalites utilisees, IRM et microscopie en lumiere polarisee, ont demontre la mise en place progressive d’une structure en couches du reseau de collagene, avant la naissance et la mise en charge de l’articulation.
Rapid Redistribution of CD20 to a Low Density Detergent-insoluble Membrane Compartment*

CD20 is a B cell integral membrane protein capable of initiating growth-modulating signals in human B lymphocytes upon its engagement with monoclonal anti-CD20 antibodies. In this report, we demonstrate that treatment of B cells with CD20 antibodies induces rapid redistribution of CD20 into a detergent-insoluble membrane compartment. Redistribution is detected as early as 15 s, following antibody addition, and involves up to 95% of CD20 molecules, depending on the antibody used. All of the detergent-insoluble CD20 was found in the low density fractions of sucrose density gradients, indicating that CD20 redistributes to glycolipid-rich membrane domains, analogous to caveolae in some cell types. As CD20 has previously been shown to associate with Src family tyrosine kinases, their co-existence in these compartments suggests a link to the role of CD20 in signal transduction. This study provides insight into the mechanism by which CD20 commmunicates signals to the cell interior and indicates that the search for membrane-proximal intracellular signaling partners should be directed to the Triton-insoluble fraction.
LasI/R and RhlI/R Quorum Sensing in a Strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Beneficial to Plants

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas aeruginosa possesses three quorum-sensing (QS) systems which are key in the expression of a large number of genes, including many virulence factors. Most studies of QS in P. aeruginosa have been performed in clinical isolates and have therefore focused on its role in pathogenicity. P. aeruginosa, however, is regarded as a ubiquitous organism capable of colonizing many different environments and also of establishing beneficial associations with plants. In this study we examined the role of the two N-acyl homoserine lactone systems known as RhlI/R and LasI/R in the environmental rice rhizosphere isolate P. aeruginosa PUPa3. Both the Rhl and Las systems are involved in the regulation of plant growth-promoting traits. The environmental P. aeruginosa PUPa3 is pathogenic in two nonmammalian infection models, and only the double las rhl mutants are attenuated for virulence. In fact it was established that the two QS systems are not hierarchically organized and that they are both important for the colonization of the rice rhizosphere. This is an in-depth genetic and molecular study of QS in an environmental P. aeruginosa strain and highlights several differences with QS regulation in the clinical isolate PAO1.
New clustering schemes for energy conservation in two-tiered mobile ad-hoc networks

Two distributed heuristic clustering schemes are proposed which will minimize the required transmission power in two-tiered mobile ad-hoc networks. Both schemes can be implemented and executed in real-time and can be adopted for periodic or event-driven cluster reconfiguration. Scheme performance is simulated and compared with optimum configurations based on the mean transmission power and the call drop rate as performance measures. Numerical results show that the proposed schemes deliver performance similar to optimum results.
The GlyR Extracellular β8–β9 Loop – A Functional Determinant of Agonist Potency

Ligand-binding of Cys-loop receptors results in rearrangements of extracellular loop structures which are further translated into the tilting of membrane spanning helices, and finally opening of the ion channels. The cryo-EM structure of the homopentameric α1 glycine receptor (GlyR) demonstrated an involvement of the extracellular β8–β9 loop in the transition from ligand-bound receptors to the open channel state. Recently, we identified a functional role of the β8–β9 loop in a novel startle disease mouse model shaky. The mutation of residue GlyRα1Q177 to lysine present in shaky mice resulted in reduced glycine potency, reduced synaptic expression, and a disrupted hydrogen network at the structural level around position GlyRα1Q177. Here, we investigated the role of amino acid volume, side chain length, and charge at position Q177 to get deeper insights into the functional role of the β8–β9 loop. We used a combined approach of in vitro expression analysis, functional electrophysiological recordings, and GlyR modeling to describe the role of Q177 for GlyR ion channel function. GlyRα1Q177 variants do not disturb ion channel transport to the cellular surface of transfected cells, neither in homomeric nor in heteromeric GlyR configurations. The EC50 values were increased for all GlyRα1Q177 variants in comparison to the wild type. The largest decrease in glycine potency was observed for the variant GlyRα1Q177R. Potencies of the partial agonists β-alanine and taurine were also reduced. Our data are further supported by homology modeling. The GlyRα1Q177R variant does not form hydrogen bonds with the surrounding network of residue Q177 similar to the substitution with a basic lysine present in the mouse mutant shaky. Among all investigated Q177 mutants, the neutral exchange of glutamine to asparagine as well as the introduction of the closely related amino acid glutamic acid preserve the hydrogen bond network. Introduction of amino acids with small side chains or larger volume resulted in a loss of their hydrogen bonds to neighboring residues. The β8–β9 loop is thus an important structural and functional determinant of the inhibitory GlyR.
The serine protease inhibitor canonical loop conformation: examples found in extracellular hydrolases, toxins, cytokines and viral proteins.

Methods for the prediction of protein function from structure are of growing importance in the age of structural genomics. Here, we focus on the problem of identifying sites of potential serine protease inhibitor interactions on the surface of proteins of known structure. Given that there is no sequence conservation within canonical loops from different inhibitor families, we first compare representative loops to all fragments of equal length among proteins of known structure by calculating main-chain RMS deviation. Fragments with RMS deviation below a certain threshold (hits) are removed if residues have solvent accessibilities appreciably lower than those observed in the search structure. These remaining hits are further filtered to remove those occurring largely within secondary structure elements. Likely functional significance is restricted further by considering only extracellular protein domains. By comparing different canonical loop structures to the protein structure database, we show that the method is able to detect previously known inhibitors. In addition, we discuss potentially new canonical loop structures found in secreted hydrolases, toxins, viral proteins, cytokines and other proteins. We discuss the possible functional significance of several of the examples found, and comment on implications for the prediction of function from protein 3D structure.
Free fatty acids – do they play a central role in type 2 diabetes?

Free fatty acids (FFA) are a major source of fuel for liver, kidney, skeletal muscle and myocardium and a key substrate for triglyceride production by the liver. In periods of prolonged fasting, FFA provide an alternative energy source to glucose, preserving glucose for cerebral requirements and also preserving body proteins, which can serve as substrates for gluconeogenesis. FFA are stored in the body in the form of triglycerides, the vast majority of which are located in white adipose tissue, and are released from triglycerides by the process of lipolysis. After transportation into tissue, FFA are mainly oxidized in muscle to release energy, or converted into lipoproteins by the liver. The enzyme that controls the rate-limiting step for mobilization of triglycerides in adipose tissue is hormonally regulated; insulin is one of the main hormones involved in this regulatory process [1], and the most potent antilipolytic hormone [2]. However, in insulin resistance, as de®ned by an impaired response to insulin in target tissues, the insensitivity of adipocytes to the antilipolytic activity of insulin, results in elevations in levels of FFA [3,4]. Elevated circulating FFA levels are a characteristic feature of type 2 diabetes [5,6] and are strongly implicated in the development of insulin resistance and b-cell dysfunction. Thus, in the overall view of this complex disease process, it is becoming increasingly apparent that reducing FFA levels is an important goal in the management of patients with type 2 diabetes. The effect of free fatty acids on skeletal muscle, the liver and the pancreas
Análisis de los estudios clínicos sobre la eficacia de las técnicas alternativas al formocresol en las pulpotomías de dientes temporales

Despues de analizar los estudios clinicos de las tecnicas de pulpotomia en dientes temporales alternativas al formocresol: hidroxido de calcio, electrocoagulacion, glutaraldehido, sulfato ferrico y Mineral Trioxido Agregado (MTA), hemos llegado a la conclusion de que las tres ultimas son las mejores alternativas por presentar los mejores resultados y tener menor numero de fracasos a lo largo del tiempo. En general todas tienden a empeorar sus resultados a medida que pasa el tiempo, desde un exito clinico del 95-100% a los seis meses hasta un 80-90% a los tres anos, excepto con MTA que en los pocos estudios clinicos existentes continua manteniendo un resultado excelente (100% a los dos anos).
Abatacept in B7-1-positive proteinuric kidney disease.

n engl j med 370;13 nejm.org march 27, 2014 1261 practicing orthopedic surgeons, in which mechanical symptoms were not even included owing to the presumption that they would be unanimously considered a definite surgical indication. As noted by Jevsevar et al., the AAOS shares this stance.1 However, compelling evidence is lacking to support the assumption that mechanical symptoms are caused by degenerative meniscal tears or that they can be alleviated by arthroscopic partial meniscectomy in these patients. Krych et al. state that subchondral edema and chondromalacia could affect the outcome of arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. Although this is possible, to our knowledge, no conclusive evidence exists to support such assumptions in this particular patient population. Reliable testing of hypotheses like these would require that criteria for these potential prognostic factors first be accepted and validated. In response to Lattermann et al.: we emphasize that FIDELITY was designed as an efficacy (proof-of-concept) trial with the intention of recruiting not typical patients undergoing arthroscopic partial meniscectomy but rather patients most likely to have a good response (those with a medial meniscal tear but no osteoarthritis). This also explains the lengthy recruitment period despite the participation of five high-volume centers. Although the study design has been elaborated in detail previously,2 we briefly note that an efficacy trial assesses whether an intervention — here, arthroscopic partial meniscectomy — can theoretically work under the best circumstances. If the results are negative, this suggests that it is not necessary to assess effectiveness in less optimal, routine settings.3 With respect to the concern that lavage was not an appropriate control, the existing high-quality evidence is unambiguous: tidal irrigation4 and arthroscopic lavage5 have failed to provide a benefit over sham procedures (sham irrigation and skin incisions, respectively) in randomized trials involving patients with osteoarthritis. The AAOS seems to endorse this view.1
Combination of Ultrasound-Guided Percutaneous Microwave Ablation and Radioiodine Therapy in Benign Thyroid Disease: A 3-Month Follow-Up Study

Abstract Purpose: Pilot studies of combined therapies treating benign nodular goiters reported promising results. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of combined microwave ablation (MWA) and radioiodine therapy (RIT) with a special focus on thyroid function at the 3-month follow-up. Materials and Methods: 15 patients (median age: 55 years) with a large goiter and benign thyroid nodules or Graves’ disease were treated with the combined therapy. Serum levels of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), thyrotropin (TSH), thyroglobuline (Tg) and, additionally, antibody levels against thyroglobulin (TgAb), thyrotropin receptors (TRAb) and thyroid peroxidase (TPOAb) were measured at enrollment, post MWA and at the 3-month follow-up (3MFU). Furthermore, the goiter volume, I-131 dose and hospitalization time were analyzed to evaluate effectiveness. MWA was operated under local anesthesia with a system working in a wavelength field of 902 to 928 MHz. Results: TSH, T4, T3 and Tg did not change at 3MFU, except for in two patients in whom the initial TSH levels improved to normal thyroid functioning levels at follow-up. One of the patients developed a high TRAb-level that receded back into the normal range. At 3MFU, the combined therapy showed a mean thyroid volume reduction of 26.4 ml ± 7.9 ml (30.5 % ± 4.6 % (p < 0.05)). By utilizing the combined therapy, administered activity could be reduced by 26.6 % ± 4.8 % (p < 0.05) and hospitalization time by 30.9 % ± 19.9 % (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The data confirmed the effectiveness of the combination of MWA with RIT. The combined therapy is an innovative and conservative approach and could become a safe alternative to surgery for the treatment of very large benign nodular goiters. Due to the short follow-up and the limited number of patients, further studies will be necessary. Key Points: • The combined therapy shows a significant volume reduction in benign nodular goiters • Initial MWA improves the RIT results by reducing the required therapy activity • Thyroid function is preserved after combined therapy Citation Format: • Korkusuz H, Happel C, Koch DA. et al. Combination of Ultrasound-Guided Percutaneous Microwave Ablation and Radioiodine Therapy in Benign Thyroid Disease: A 3-Month Follow-Up Study. Fortschr Röntgenstr 2016; 188: 60 – 68
Flexible negotiation agent with relaxed decision rules

The distinguishing feature of negotiation agents in this paper is that they are designed with the flexibility to make adjustable amounts of concession by reacting to changing market conditions, taking into account factors such as competition, deadlines, and trading options, and relaxing trading aspirations in face of (intense) negotiation pressure (e.g., stiff competition) using a set of fuzzy rules. Extensive amounts of stochastic simulations were conducted on a wide variety of test environments including dense, moderate, sparse, balanced, favorable, and unfavorable markets on stringent, as well as, relaxed constraints. Empirical results suggest that on average, when compared to Sim's market-driven agents, agents in this research achieved higher success rates in reaching a deal, and higher expected utilities.
Two CACGTG Motifs with Proper Spacing Dictate the Carbohydrate Regulation of Hepatic Gene Transcription (*)

Regulatory sequences involved in the transcriptional induction of the rat S gene in response to increased glucose metabolism in the hepatocyte were investigated and compared with those of the liver-type pyruvate kinase (L-PK) gene. The carbohydrate response element (ChoRE) of the S gene was found to consist of two motifs related to the consensus binding site for the c-myc family of transcription factors, CACGTG. These two motifs are separated by five base pairs, a similar arrangement to that found in the L-PK ChoRE. In its natural context, the S ChoRE requires a novel accessory factor to support the full response to glucose. This factor, as well as the factor hepatic nuclear factor-4, are both capable of binding to the L-PK gene to enhance its carbohydrate regulation. The need for an accessory factor for supporting the glucose response can be overcome in two ways. First, multimers of the ChoREs of either the L-PK or S genes can function independently to support the glucose response. Second, mutations in the S ChoRE that create a perfect match to the consensus CACGTG motif at each locus no longer require an accessory factor site. The spacing of the two CACGTG motifs, but not the nature of the bases within the spacer, are critical for control. These observations suggest that a carbohydrate responsive factor binds to both motifs in a highly specific spatial orientation to confer the response to increased carbohydrate metabolism.