Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of proteasome-mediated protein degradation during oxidative stress and aging

Abstract Protein degradation is a physiological process required to maintain cellular functions. There are distinct proteolytic systems for different physiological tasks under changing environmental and pathophysiological conditions. The proteasome is responsible for the removal of oxidatively damaged proteins in the cytosol and nucleus. It has been demonstrated that proteasomal degradation increases due to mild oxidation, whereas at higher oxidant levels proteasomal degradation decreases. Moreover, the proteasome itself is affected by oxidative stress to varying degrees. The ATP-stimulated 26S proteasome is sensitive to oxidative stress, whereas the 20S form seems to be resistant. Non-degradable protein aggregates and cross-linked proteins are able to bind to the proteasome, which makes the degradation of other misfolded and damaged proteins less efficient. Consequently, inhibition of the proteasome has dramatic effects on cellular aging processes and cell viability. It seems likely that during oxidative stress cells are able to keep the nuclear protein pool free of damage, while cytosolic proteins may accumulate. This is because of the high proteasome content in the nucleus, which protects the nucleus from the formation and accumulation of non-degradable proteins. In this review we highlight the regulation of the proteasome during oxidative stress and aging.
Pathomechanism of Pain‐Related Behavior Produced by Allografts of Intervertebral Disc in the Rat

Study Design This study was designed to evaluate whether allografts of intervertebral disc materials produce hyperalgesia in the rat and whether an immune response, pH, or chemicals correlate with the induced hyperalgesia. Objective To elucidate the pathomechanisms of radicular pain secondary to lumbar disc herniation. Summary of Background Data It has been reported that a low pH, an autoimmune reaction, or chemical radiculitis is likely responsible for radicular pain associated with lumbar disc herniation. In animal studies, it has been shown that hyperalgesia (an increased sensitivity to painful stimuli) involves activation of phospholipase A2 and nitric oxide synthase. Methods Fat, nucleus pulposus, and anulus fibrosus were allografted into the epidural space at L6 in the rat. Withdrawal response thresholds to mechanical stimuli and withdrawal response latencies to thermal stimuli on the tail and pH in the applied tissues were measured after surgery. Interleukin‐1, phospholipase A2, and nitric oxide synthase were examined in the applied tissues using immunohistochemistry, nicotineamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate‐diaphorase histochemistry, and in situ hybridization. Results Allografted fat did not produce hyperalgesia. Allografts of nucleus pulposus and nucleus pulposus plus anulus fibrosis showed evidence of mechanical and thermal hyperalgesia, respectively. There were no observed changes in pH over time. Although interleukin‐1 was demonstrated in all applied tissues, phospholipase A2 was only observed around the applied nucleus pulposus and nucleus pulposus plus anulus fibrosus. Nitric oxide synthase was only markedly increased around the applied tissues. Conclusion The nucleus pulposus and anulus fibrosus produce different forms of hyperalgesia (mechanical vs. thermal) associated with different and distinct immunohistochemical changes. It is possible that radicular pain of a lumbar disc herniation results from chemicals, such as phospholiapse A2 and nitric oxide.
Social media use in the research workflow

The paper reports on a major international survey, covering 2,000 researchers, which investigated the use of social media in the research workflow. The topic is the second to emerge from the Charleston Observatory, the research adjunct of the popular annual Charleston Conference (http://www.katina.info/conference/). The study shows that social media have found serious application at all points of the research lifecycle, from identifying research opportunities to disseminating findings at the end. The three most popular social media tools in a research setting were those for collaborative authoring, conferencing, and scheduling meetings. The most popular brands used tend to be mainstream anchor technologies or ‘household brands‘, such as Twitter. Age is a poor predictor of social media use in a research context, and humanities and social science scholars avail themselves most of social media. Journals, conference proceedings, and edited books remain the core traditional means of disseminating research, with institutional repositories highly valued as well, but social media have become important complementary channels for disseminating and discovering research.
Formalizing agility: an agile organization's journey toward CMMI accreditation

Agile methods are compatible with formal process improvement frameworks. Rather than casting discipline and documentation to the wind, agile methods, when seriously applied, are actually very focused and comprehensive. Likewise, a framework such as the SEI capability maturity model integration (CMMI) need not be an overwhelming excess of paperwork and bureaucracy; when appropriately implemented, the CMMI encourages and enables significant and sustainable improvements. This paper describes the ongoing journey of DTE energy's large IT organization in realizing agility and process improvement in a Fortune 300 corporation. From following waterfall-based approaches to embracing agile methods, and from early attempts with the CMM to a renewed commitment to continuous improvement by adopting the CMMI, it explores cultural and organizational changes that enable real-world process improvements.
The role of a stress‐response protein in Salmonella typhimurium virulence

We recently described the use of selective transposon mutagenesis to generate a series of a virulent mutants of a pathogenic strain of Salmonella typhimurium. Cloning and sequencing of the insertion sites from two of these mutants reveals that both have identical locations within an open reading frame that is highly homologous to a gene, htrA, encoding a heat‐shock protein in Escherichia coli. DNA sequence analysis of S. typhimurium htrA reveals the presence of a gene capable of encoding a protein with a calculated Mr of 49316 that has 88.7% protein:protein homology with its E. coli counterpart. In E. coli, lesions in this gene, also known as degP, reduce proteolytic degradation of aberrant periplasmic proteins. Characteristics of the S. typhimurium htrA mutants, 046 and 014, in vivo and in vitro suggested that they are avirulent because of impaired ability to survive and/or replicate in host tissues. In vitro, the S. typhimurium htrA mutants 046 and 014 are not temperature‐sensitive but were found to be more susceptible to oxidative stress than the parent, suggesting that they may be less able to withstand oxidative killing within macrophages.
DNA Array Studies Demonstrate Convergent Regulation of Virulence Factors by Cph1, Cph2, and Efg1 in Candida albicans *

Candida albicans, normally a human commensal, can cause fatal systemic infections under certain circumstances. Its unique ability to switch from yeast to hyphal growth in response to various environmental signals is inherent to its pathogenicity. Filamentation is regulated by multiple pathways including a Cph1-mediated mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, an Efg1-mediated cAMP/PKA pathway, and a Cph2 pathway. To gain a general picture of how these various signaling pathways regulate differential gene expression during filamentation, we have constructed a partial C. albicans DNA array of 7,000 genes and used it to study the gene expression profiles using various mutants and growth conditions. By combining this novel technology with a new liquid medium in which cph1/cph1 is defective in filamentation, previously identified differentially expressed genes (ECE1, HWP1, HYR1,RBT1, SAPs5–6, and RBT4) are found to be regulated by all three pathways. In addition, two novel genes,DDR48 and YPL184, have been found to be differentially regulated during hyphal development and by all three pathways. This suggests that distinct filamentation signaling pathways converge to regulate a common set of differentially expressed genes. As one of the mechanisms for the observed convergence, we find that the transcription of a key regulator, TEC1, is regulated by Efg1 and Cph2. Importantly, most of the genes regulated by multiple filamentation pathways encode known virulence factors. Perhaps,C. albicans utilizes converging pathways to regulate its vital virulence factors to ensure its survival and pathogenicity in various host environments.
Four distinct pathways of hemoglobin uptake in the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum

During the bloodstage of malaria infection, the parasite internalizes and degrades massive amounts of hemoglobin from the host red blood cell. Using serial thin-section electron microscopy and three-dimensional reconstruction, we demonstrate four independent, but partially overlapping, hemoglobin-uptake processes distinguishable temporally, morphologically, and pharmacologically. Early ring-stage parasites undergo a profound morphological transformation in which they fold, like a cup, onto themselves and in so doing take a large first gulp of host cell cytoplasm. This event, which we term the “Big Gulp,” appears to be independent of actin polymerization and marks the first step in biogenesis of the parasite's lysosomal compartment—the food vacuole. A second, previously identified uptake process, uses the cytostome, a well characterized and morphologically distinct structure at the surface of the parasite. This process is more akin to classical endocytosis, giving rise to small (<0.004 fl) vesicles that are marked by the early endosomal regulatory protein Rab5a. A third process, also arising from cytostomes, creates long thin tubes previously termed cytostomal tubes in an actin-dependent manner. The fourth pathway, which we term phagotrophy, is similar to the Big Gulp in that it more closely resembles phagocytosis, except that phagotrophy does not require actin polymerization. Each of these four processes has aspects that are unique to Plasmodium, thus opening avenues to antimalarial therapy.
The Place of Chronological Ordering in Archaeological Analysis

The article which precedes this one describes a statistical technique for the chronological placement of archaeological artifact collections. The purposes of this paper are first to describe the rationale of archaeological analysis under which the data and problem as presented to Robinson were formulated, and upon which the validity of his solution therefore depends, and second to describe analytic and interpretive work which I have based upon his results.
Optimization of Vacuum Pyrolysis Process Using Generalized Regression Neural Network

A new empirical technique to construct predictive models of vacuum pyrolysis process is presented in this study. Pyrolysis of biomass for preparing bio-oil was studied on a vacuum pyrolysis system, where rape straw was chosen as the raw material. The experiments ran based on orthogonal experimental design method. The operation factors of the system including pyrolysis temperature, system pressure, heating rate and holding time were chosen as input variables, while bio-oil yield and energy transformation ratio were selected as output to establish the prediction models based on Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN). The operation factors of the system were optimized for maximizing bio-oil yield and energy transformation ratio, and the optimization result was confirmed by experiments. The results of research showed that the predicted values are fit well with the experimental values, which verifies the effectiveness of the prediction models. Optimal conditions are obtained at pyrolysis temperature of 486.8℃, heating rate of 18.1℃/min, reactor pressure of 5.0kPa and holding time of 55.0min. Confirmation runs give 41.9%, 42.5% and 42.1% of bio-oil yield and 34.3%, 34.0% and 34.9% of energy transformation ratio compared to 43.6% and 35.5% of predicted value. Therefore, the forecasting model based on the GRNN is able to result in good prediction and has research value to the reality. DOI : http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/telkomnika.v12i3. 4496 Full Text: PDF
[Gender and regional differences in going-out, social, and leisure activities among older adults. Findings from the JAGES Project].

OBJECTIVES Promoting social and leisure activity participation in older adults could be effective in preventing their health decline. However, gender or regional differences in those activities remain unclear despite the necessity of gender- or region-specific approaches to their promotion. This study examined gender and urban-rural differences in going-out, social, and leisure activities among community-dwelling older adults. METHODS Data were obtained from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES). Those analyzed were 103,621 people aged 65 or older who were functionally independent and lived in one of 31 municipalities. A total of seven activity variables were assessed with weekly going out, engagement in paid work, monthly and any frequency of engagement in group activities, monthly and any frequency of contact with friends, and having hobbies. We additionally assessed the contents of the group activities and hobbies. Gender, age groups (young-old: 65-74; old-old: 75 and over), and region groups, which were categorized as rural, urban, or metropolitan, were assessed along with education, depression, and other covariates. A chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression analysis were conducted to examine the age group-stratified differences in the going-out, social, and leisure activities among gender and region groups (P<.01). RESULTS Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that men were more likely to engage in weekly going out, paid work, and hobbies but less likely to engage in group activities and contact with friends, either monthly or at any frequency. Most activities were also found to differ significantly among the region groups. For instance, people in metropolitan areas were 2.3 times more likely to engage in weekly going out but were 0.4 (old-old group) or 0.5 times (young-old group) less likely to engage in contact with friends. Percentages of engagement in hobby- or sport-groups were over 20% in all gender and region groups; on the other hand, about 30% differences were found in the percentages of engagement in senior clubs or neighborhood associations between metropolitan and rural men. As for having hobbies, walking/jogging and gardening were popular across all gender and region groups, while the percentages of engagement in a variety of hobbies differed among gender and region groups. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest 1) differences in the levels of social and leisure activities among gender and region groups and 2) both similarities and differences in the popular group activities or hobbies among gender and region groups. Activity promotion for older adults should be targeted considering these gender and region group characteristics.
Performance analysis of multiuser diversity in cooperative multi-relay networks under rayleigh-fading channels

In multiuser cooperative relay networks, cooperative diversity can be obtained with the help of relays, while multiuser diversity is an inherent diversity in multiuser systems. In this letter, the performance analysis of multiuser diversity in cooperative multirelay networks is presented. Both the case of all relay participating and the case of relay selection are considered. We first derive asymptotic expressions of outage probability and symbol error probability for amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) protocols with joint multiuser and cooperative diversity. Then, the theoretical analysis are validated by Monte Carlo simulations. Both the theoretical analysis and simulations show that a multiuser diversity order of K and a cooperative diversity order of M+ 1 can be achieved simultaneously for both AF and DF protocols (where K is the number of accessing users and M is the number of available relays). These demonstrate that the multiuser diversity can be readily combined with the cooperative diversity in multiuser cooperative relay networks.
PROTECTION OF NITROGENASE FROM OXYGEN IN NONHETEROCYSTOUS CYANOBACTERIA

INTRODUCTION . 340 THE CYANOBACTERIA . 341 NITROGEN FIXATION. 342 EFFECT OF OXYGEN ON NITROGEN FIXATION . 343 PROTECTION OF NITROGENASE FROM OXYGEN . 344 Controlled Oxygen Diffusion. 344 Respiratory Protection . 344 Conformational Protection . 344 Hydrogenase Activity . 345 Enzymes Protecting against Reactive Forms of Oxygen . 345 APPARENT INCOMPATIBILITY OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND NITROGEN FIXATION IN CYANOBACTERIA . 345 Particular Problem of Nitrogen Fixation in Cyanobacteria . 345 Stages in Detection of N2-Fixing Potential in Cyanobacteria . 345 Facultative Anoxygenic Photosynthesis and N2 Fixation . 346 PROTECTION OF NITROGENASE FROM OXYGEN IN NONHETEROCYSTOUS CYANOBACTERIA . 346 Gloeothece . 346 Synechococcus . 347 Plectonema. 348 Microcoleus . 349 Oscilltoria. 349 Trichodesmium. 350 General Comments . 351 PROTECTION OF NITROGENASE FROM OXYGEN IN HETEROCYSTOUS CYANOBACTERIA . 352 Effect of 02 on N2 Fixation in Heterocystous Cyanobacteria . 352 Structural Adaptations for Protection of Nitrogenase . 354 Heterocyst envelope . 354 Pore channel and septum . 355 Cell membrane and intracytoplasmic membrane system . 355 Biochemical Changes Promoting Protection and Activity of Nitrogenase.355 Transformation of photochemical apparatus . 356 Synthesis of nitrogenase and appearance of nitrogenase activity . 356 Respiratory metabolism . 358 Oxyhydrogen reaction . 359 Antioxidant enzymes and compounds . 359 De novo enzyme synthesis and conformational protection.360 Oxygen stress and protection of nitrogenase in nature.361 OXYGEN TENSION AND EXPRESSION OF nif GENES IN CYANOBACTERIA.362 EVOLUTIONARY CONSIDERATIONS . 363 CONCLUDING REMARKS . 364 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 364 REFERENCES . 365
Entwicklung und Validierung eines Gesamtsystems zur Verkehrserfassung basierend auf Luftbildsequenzen

This dissertation should make a contribution to the further development of airborne traffic detection. The used hardware is an airborne camera system combined with an inertial measurement unit for orientation determination. Mainly computer vision algorithms are presented, which are applied afterwards the image acquisition up to the determination of the most important traffic data. After a short presentation of the used hardware the calibration of the camera’s alignment angles during test flights is explained and its accuracy is analyzed. It is shown that the orientation data doesn’t reach the specified accuracy, which is fortunately less important for traffic detection. After the image preparation, which contains the ortho image generation as well as the clipping of traffic areas, a two-stage vehicle detection algorithm is implemented, which at first rapidly creates hypotheses based on edge filters. In the second stage those hypotheses are verified by a Support Vector Machine which rejects most of the False Posititves. At good conditions the detection reaches completeness rates of up to 90 percent with a low contingent of FP detections. Subsequently a tracking algorithm based on singular value decomposition is applied to associate vehicle hypotheses in adjacent images and determine the average speed. The achieved velocities differ less than ten kph from the manually obtained data. Concluding an alternative orientation method is presented, that automatically determines the airplane’s attitude based on GPS and image information. This is realized by extraction and matching of street segments and additional tracking of ground control points. The results have accuracies of around 0.1 to 0.2 degrees. The innovation of this thesis refers to the combination of rapid pre-selection and more reliable verification of object hypotheses. additionally the automatic extraction of streets as landmarks for orientation determination and its fusion with relative orientation parameters as stabilization are novel.
On the geometric analysis of optimum trajectories for cooperating robots using dual quaternion coordinates

A geometric method for the dynamic analysis of trajectories for cooperating robot systems is presented. The technique uses the algebraic manifolds that arise from the image space of spatial displacements to do trajectory analysis. The geometric structure of these manifolds offers a convenient framework to study robot motion. In this technique, the dynamics of the robots and the workpiece are formulated in the operational space of the robot. The position of the robot is written in the image space of dual quaternion coordinates. Thus, the analysis is performed in the operational image space that provides an algebraically defined geometric structure upon which to examine the trajectories that the robot system follows. This analysis offers a tool for determining optimal trajectories for the robot system. The technique is demonstrated through the analysis of two planar three-revolute-joint (3R) robots manipulating a common object. A planar example was chosen because the results can be demonstrated graphically. The algebraic properties of the constraint manifolds can be used to extend the work to more general, multidimensional spatial robot problems. <<ETX>>
Different dietary omega-3 sources during pregnancy and DHA in the developing rat brain

The essential n-3 fatty acid α-linolenic acid (ALA) can be converted into eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) under the action of desaturase and elongase enzymes. Human studies have demonstrated that females convert a higher proportion of ALA into EPA and DHA than males. We have demonstrated that when fed upon an ALA rich diet, female rats have a significantly higher EPA content of plasma and liver lipids than males. When fetal tissues were collected, it was observed that pups from dams fed the ALA rich diet had a comparable brain DHA status to those from dams fed on a salmon-oil based diet, indicating that conversion of ALA to DHA during pregnancy was efficient, and that DHA accumulated in a tissue-specific manner. Similar efficacy of dietary ALA in women during pregnancy would mean that plant n-3 fatty acids would be useful alternatives to preformed EPA and DHA.
Network of heterogeneous autonomous vehicles for marine research and management

In April 2016, NTNU, FFI, Kongsberg Seatex, LSTS and Maritime Robotics set up an experiment to explore their capability to combine the research vessel Gunnerus, the AUV Hugin, the UAV X8 and the USV Mariner in a network of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles. Communication, manoeuvring, onboard processing and operational complexity are essential components in such networks. To provide communication the MBR broadband radio system was implemented. To show the capabilities of the system proposed, a scenario with seabed mapping and target recognition was defined. The experiment made it apparent that these networks has the potential of significantly saving cost for data collection in marine research and management by reducing ship time. To fully unlock the potential of networks of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles, the missions of each vehicle need to be more integrated.
SRR loaded dipole RFID tag for UHF band

An RFID tag based on a dipole antenna whose arms are loaded with a split ring resonator (SRR) along with a T-match network to operate in the European UHF RFID band of 865-867 MHz is reported. A chip of impedance 27-j 212Ω is connected at the terminals of the antenna and the read range measurements of the RFID tag are performed in the UHF RFID band. The proposed UHF tag exhibits appreciably good read range over the entire azimuth and elevation angular ranges.