Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immuno-Related Gene Polymorphisms associated with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Though the pathogenesis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is still unknown, accumulating evidence has revealed that immune response plays a vital part in the pathogenesis. Here, we investigated the involvement of 21 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of immuno-related genes, including cytokines (IL2, IL4, IL9, IL12A, IL22, IFNG, and TGFB1), transcriptional regulatory genes (TBX21, STAT1, STAT3, STAT5B, STAT6, GATA3, FOXP3, and IRF4), and others (IL2RA IL6R NFKBIA), in 269 AML inpatients and 200 healthy controls. Furthermore, we analyzed the relationship between the SNPs and clinical characteristics. Immuno-related SNP genotyping was performed on the Sequenom MassARRAY iPLEX platform. All the SNPs in healthy controls were consistent with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. All final p values were adjusted by Bonferroni multiple testing. Our results showed that IL22 (rs2227491) was significantly associated with the white blood cell (WBC) counts. STAT5B (rs6503691) showed a close relationship with the recurrent genetic abnormalities in patients with AML. We verified the negatively independent effect of age and risk of cytogenetics on overall survival (OS). More importantly, the GG genotype of IL12A (rs6887695) showed a negative impact on AML prognosis independently. Furthermore, the relative expression of IL12 was decreased in GG genotype, no matter under codominant or recessive model. However, no correlation was observed between the SNPs mentioned above and disease susceptibility, risk stratification, and survival. Our findings suggest that immuno-related gene polymorphisms are associated with prognosis in AML, which may perform as novel inspection targets for AML patients.
Large-Scale Hybridisation as an Extinction Threat to the Suweon Treefrog (Hylidae: Dryophytes suweonensis)

Simple Summary A large number of amphibian species are now endangered, mostly because of human activities. An example is land modification, which may bring species that were previously isolated in contact, and allows them to hybridise. Here, we assessed the presence of hybrid individuals between the endangered Suweon treefrog (Dryophytes suweonensis) and the widespread Japanese treefrog (Dryophytes japonicus). We found hybrids to be relatively widespread and present at all populations where the Suweon treefrog occurred. This is important, as it results in an additional threat to the Suweon treefrog. Abstract Amphibians are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction, and human activities play a major role in pushing species towards extinction. Landscape anthropisation has impacts that indirectly threaten species, in addition to the obvious destruction of natural habitats. For instance, land modification may bring human-commensal species in contact with sister-clades from which they were previously isolated. The species in these new contact zones are then able to hybridise to the point of reaching lineage fusion, through which the gene pool of the two species merges and one of the parental lineages becomes extirpated. Here, we documented the patterns of hybridisation between the spatially restricted D. suweonensis and the widespread D. japonicus. On the basis of the analysis of Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I mitochondrial DNA sequences (404 individuals from 35 sites) and six polymorphic microsatellites (381 individuals from 34 sites), we revealed a generalised, bi-directional, and geographically widespread hybridisation between the two species. Evidence of fertile back-crosses is provided by relatively high numbers of individuals in cyto-nuclear disequilibrium, as well as the presence of hybrid individuals further south than the species distribution limit, determined on the basis of call properties. Hybridisation is an additional threat to the endangered D. suweonensis.
Isolation and Characterization of the nsdC Gene in Sexual Development of Aspergillus nidulans

A lot of mutants which cannot initiate sexual development were screened and several loci including nsdA, nsdB, nsdC, and nsdD were identified in homothallic ascomycetes Aspergillus nidulans. The NSD206, which has nsdC6 allele, showed typical phenotype of NSD (Never in sexual development) mutants. The nsdC gene was cloned by transforming NSDP697 (, ) with AMA1-NotI genomic library. The transforming library DNA recovered from several transformants showing wild phenotype carried about 10 kb genomic DNA insert. The DNA sequence of nsdC was analysed using GPS (Genome priming system). The nsdC gene has an open reading frame (ORF) of 1,929 bp encoding a putative polypeptide of 643 amino acids. The NsdC carries type zinc finger DNA binding domains in the middle of the polypeptide. A coiled-coil domain at its C terminus were also found. In nsdC6 allele, a single T insertion was occurred between 407-408 bp leading to the frameshift mutation and early termination of translation producing the truncated protein which has only 139 amino acids.
Effect of Leucine Supplementation on Indices of Muscle Damage and Recovery Following Eccentric-Based Resistance Exercise

In vitro, the amino acid leucine has been able to reduce proteolysis and be a potent stimulus for protein synthesis. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of leucine supplementation on indices of muscle damage and muscular function following eccentric-based resistance exercise. METHODS: Twenty-seven untrained individuals were randomly divided into 3 groups; leucine (L), placebo (P) and control (C). The L and P groups performed 100 depth jumps from 60 cm and 6 sets of 10 repetitions of eccentric-only leg presses. Either leucine (250 mg/kg bm) or placebo was ingested at 3 time points during exercise and each recovery day following exercise. Serum muscle damage markers and muscle function assessment were used to monitor recovery. RESULTS: No significant differences existed between experimental groups for the serum markers of damage. The L group was able to maintain peak force outputs during the muscle function tests CONCLUSIONS: Leucine supplementation may facilitate the recovery process. Leucine may need further examination, as it was unable to shown a between group difference compared to P but did minimize the change in muscle damage markers compared to PRE. Leucine supplementation minimized the decrement in muscle function and maintained force output when compared to a placebo.
A Surprising Thing: The Application of Machine Learning Ensembles and Signal Theory to Predict Earnings Surprises

Nonlinear classification models can predict future earnings surprises with a high accuracy by using pricing and earnings input data. Surprises of 15% or more can be predicted with 71% accuracy. These predictions can be used to form profitable trading strategies. Additional variables have been created using signal-processing and handcrafted feature-engineering methods. Some of these variables have in the past been known to be related to analyst bias. The machine learning model in effect corrects for analyst mistakes and biases by incorporating these variables into a nonlinear prediction model to predict future earnings surprises.
Requirement of nickel as an essential micronutrient for the utilization of urea in the marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002

Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 cells appeared to be nitrogen limited when grown on urea without nickel in the growth medium; the amounts of chlorophyll a and phycobiliproteins decreased and glycogen accumulated to high levels. When nickel was added to the urea medium, the diagnostics of nitrogen limitation was not observed. The activity of urease was dependent on the presence of nickel no matter what nitrogen source was used for cell growth. The ureC gene encoding the α-subunit of urease was constitutively transcribed in cells grown on all nitrogen sources tested. The addition of nickel to the growth medium rapidly led to a 15-fold increase in urease activity in 2 hours. These results indicate that cells of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 require a nickel supplement (5 μM NiSO4 in the growth medium) to utilize urea efficiently, and that Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 cells are nickel-starved under the laboratory conditions regularly used for this strain. In two fresh water strains of cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, high levels of urease activity were detected without addition of nickel to the growth medium, suggesting that these fresh water strains have a high-affinity uptake system for nickel or that their nickel requirements are lower than Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002.
Enabling Secure and Fast Indexing for Privacy-Assured Healthcare Monitoring via Compressive Sensing

As e-health technology continues to advance, health related multimedia data is being exponentially generated from healthcare monitoring devices and sensors. Coming with it are the challenges on how to efficiently acquire, index, and process such a huge amount of data for effective healthcare and related decision making, while respecting user's data privacy. In this paper, we propose a secure cloud-based framework for privacy-aware healthcare monitoring systems, which allows fast data acquisition and indexing with strong privacy assurance. For efficient data acquisition, we adopt compressive sensing for easy data sampling, compression, and recovery. We then focus on how to secure and fast index the resulting large amount of continuously generated compressed samples, with the goal to achieve secure selected retrieval over compressed storage. Among others, one particular challenge is the practical demand to cope with the incoming data samples in high acquisition rates. For that problem, we carefully exploit recent efforts on encrypted search, efficient content-based indexing techniques, and fine-grained locking algorithms, to design a novel encrypted index with high-performance customization. It achieves memory efficiency, provable security, as well as greatly improved building speed with nontrivial multithread support. Comprehensive evaluations on Amazon Cloud show that our encrypted design can securely index 1 billion compressed data samples within only 12 min, achieving a throughput of indexing almost 1.4 million encrypted samples per second. Accuracy and visual evaluation on a real healthcare dataset shows good quality of high-value retrieval and recovery over encrypted data samples.
Rheological properties of the developing blood clot

Blood clots form to prevent blood loss after a vascular injury but their undesired formation can have dramatic consequences such as thrombosis and stroke. For a proper functioning of the blood clot its mechanical properties are of major importance. However, due to the many contributing components and the complex dynamic environment in which the clot forms, its mechanical properties remain not fully understood nor predictable. To further unravel the mechanical properties of blood clots, this thesis describes the development of a constitutive model for the developing blood clot, including the required experimental methods to verify the model and its application in numerical simulations. This chapter provides an introduction to the physiology of blood clot formation, related diseases, and models for blood clot formation that have been described in literature. Finally, the main goal and the outline of this thesis are given.
Distribution of satellite markers in water buffalo genome

Genomic markers have wide range of applications and are of several types depending upon the size and the utility. These markers are preferred over several other markers like protein or blood groups. The genomic markers are highly polymorphic, ubiquitously distributed and easier to automate. Microsatellites are short, tandem-repeated DNA sequences which are widely distributed among genomes. Advances in sequence technologies and bioinformatics have completely changed the way the markers are identified. The buffalo whole genome sequence assembly was utilised using bioinformatics tools for extraction of genomic markers, viz. microsatellites, minisatellites and big tandem repeats. Large numbers of microsatellites (3.84 lakh) were identified on all the autosomes and sex chromosme. More than 85% of the microsatellites were dinucleotides while 14% were trinucleotides. The total number of minisatellites and big tandem repeats were 4655 and 752 respectively. The number of minisatellites and big tandem repeats are very small compared to the number of microsatellites.
Oxidative stress during cystic ovarian disease in water buffalo

Follicular fluid and serum concentrations of antioxidants such as catalase, ascorbic acid (AA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) along with reactive oxygen species (ROS) and degree of oxidative damage to follicular cells, using protein carbonyl (PC) as marker of oxidative stress, were investigated during cystic ovarian disease in buffalo. Follicular fluid was aspirated from cystic follicles (>20 mm) and also from large size (10-17 mm) of cycling buffaloes. Estradiol and progesterone were estimated to determine functional status (E: P ratio) of the follicles. Cystic follicles had greater concentrations of ROS and PC and lesser concentrations of catalase, ascorbic acid and TAC than normal follicles. An interesting finding was a simultaneous decrease of TAC and increase of ROS in serum of cystic buffaloes. Results indicated a pronounced follicular fluid oxidant-antioxidant imbalance and oxidative damage to follicular proteins during cystogenesis. In conclusion, this study provided evidence about role of oxidative stress in pathogenesis of cystic ovarian disease.
A personal history of the Experimental Lakes ProjectThis paper is part of the series “Forty Years of Aquatic Research at the Experimental Lakes Area”.

I briefly trace the evolution of the Experimental Lakes Area project from its beginning as a temporary site sponsored by the now-defunct Fisheries Research Board of Canada, with the sole mandate to investigate the effects of nutrients on lake eutrophication, to its current status: a permanent field station cosponsored by the Canadian Departments of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans, with a mandate to investigate the aquatic effects of a wide variety of stresses on lakes and their catchments. Throughout, experiments have been designed to address important aquatic management issues, but this mandate has not hindered the production of pure research on a broad variety of issues.
STUDY OF REPLACEMENT OF SAND BY EXPANDED POLYSTYRENE IN STRUCTURAL LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE

The search for more efficient concrete structures requires use of new materials in the developed of new concretes. With this objective, it was proposed in this study the substitution of Part of the medium sand of the lightweight structural concrete for expanded polystyrene (PS). It was replaced 5%, 10% and 20% of the sand to observe the changes in compressive strength, flowability, absorption, density and modulus of elasticity of these concretes. The results of the study show that there was an increase in the absorption and loss in the compressive strength and modulus of elasticity. Also, there was a significant increase in the flowability and reduction in the density of these concretes. Even with the replacement of part of the medium sand by expanded polystyrene, the concretes developed were classified as lightweight structural concretes, showing the applicability of this substitution in concrete designs.
The effects of drift-reducing nozzles on herbicide efficacy and maize (Zea mays L.) yield

Field trials were carried out in 2009–2011 to compare the performance of herbicides for weed control in maize (Zea mays L.). Herbicides were applied by standard (API, “Albuz”) and by drift-reducing (AVI, “Albuz”) nozzles. Mixtures of herbicides based on 2,4-D, bentazon and foramsulfuron were applied post-emergence with a tractor mounted field boom sprayer at a spray volume of 150 or 300 l ha -1 in the form of droplets of different size classes (volume median diameter (VMD) from 100 to 800 µm). The main weed species in the field trials were: Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Amaranthus retroflexus, Chenopodium album, Convolvulus arvensis, Elytrigia repens, Echinochloa crus-galii, Polygonum lapathifolium and Fallopia convolvulus. The efficacy (%) of herbicides and maize yield were assessed. The impact of the studied factors on herbicide efficacy against broad-leaved weed species differed from that against narrow-leaved species. In comparison to the standard API nozzles, the overall efficacy of driftreducing AVI nozzles was lower in 8 of 12 herbicide applications. The efficacy reduction ranged from 2% to 7%. The type of nozzle had a significant influence on the yield of maize cobs in 5 of 12 herbicide applications, and spray volume significantly affected maize cob yield in 7 of 12 herbicide applications. In all statistically significant cases, maize yield was higher when herbicides had been applied by standard nozzles (API, VMD 100–300 µm) at 300 l ha -1 spray volume. The highest yield reductions due to the use of AVI nozzles (7–11%) were determined in the case of low volume sprays (150 l ha -1 ) consisting of big droplets (VMD more than 400 µm). Results suggest that AVI nozzles can cause poor weed control only if used for applications of small spray volumes (less than 200 l ha -1 ) with droplet VMD values larger than 400 µm, otherwise weed control results comparable to standard API nozzles are achieved and the use of drift-reduction AVI nozzles does not result in maize yield reduction.
Osteoclast Genetic Diseases

Bone is a specialized connective tissue that performs many important functions: (i) mechanical, supporting the whole body and allowing the movements; (ii) protective, shielding many vital organs, such as brain, lung, heart and bone marrow; (iii) metabolic, regulating the homeostasis of calcium and phosphate (Baron, 1999); (iv) endocrine, regulating kidney function (Fukumoto & Martin, 2009; Mazzaferro et al., 2010) and contributing to global energy balance (Ducy et al., 1996; Ferron et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2007) and male fertility (Oury et al., 2011). Bone is a dynamic tissue, subjected to a continuous process of renewal and remodelling in which bone resorption by osteoclasts and bone formation by osteoblasts occur at the same site along the bone surface (Pogoda et al., 2005). About 10% of bone is replaced each year, with complete skeletal renewal every 10 years. An imbalance between osteoblast and osteoclast activities can cause serious consequences: if bone formation is enhanced or bone resorption is impaired, bone mass is increased, and vice versa (Parfitt, 1982; Pogoda et al., 2005). Often osteoclast diseases are monogenic, and in many of them the responsible gene and the respective function have been identified, while for other osteoclast diseases the causative gene has not been isolated or the exact function of the matching protein still remains unknown. In this review, a brief description of osteoclast biology will be provided and examples of genetic osteoclast diseases, including osteopetrosis, pycnodysostosis and Paget’s disease of bone, will be discussed.
New Insights into the Roles of Human DNA Damage Checkpoint Protein ATR in the Regulation of Nucleotide Excision Repair and DNA Damage-Induced Cell Death

In response to DNA damage, eukaryotic cells activate a series of DNA damagedependent pathways that serve to arrest cell cycle progression and remove DNA damage. Coordination of cell cycle arrest and damage repair is critical for maintenance of genomic stability. However, this process is still poorly understood. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) and the ATR-dependent cell cycle checkpoint are the major pathways responsible for repair of UVinduced DNA damage. Here we show that ATR physically interacts with the NER factor xeroderma pigmentosum group A (XPA). Using a mass spectrometry-based protein footprinting method, we found that ATR interacts with a helix turn-helix motif in the minimal DNA-binding domain of XPA where an ATR phosphorylation site (serine 196) is located. XPA-deficient cells complemented with XPA containing a point mutation of S196A displayed a reduced repair efficiency of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers as compared with cells complemented with wildtype XPA, although no effect was observed for repair of (6-4) photoproducts. This suggests that the ATR-dependent phosphorylation of XPA may promote NER repair of persistent DNA
Nautilus : the biology and paleobiology of a living fossil

Nautilus Studies—The First Twenty-Two Centuries -- Nautilus Studies—The First Twenty-Two Centuries -- The Ancestry of the Genus Nautilus -- The Ancestry of the Genus Nautilus -- Nautilus and Its Distribution -- The Species of Nautilus -- Geographic Distribution of Nautilus Shells -- Genetic Variation and Phylogeny in Nautilus -- Morphological Variation in Nautilus from Papua New Guinea -- Biometrie Analysis of Nautilus pompilius from the Philippines and the Fiji Islands -- Biomineralization and Systematic Implications -- Ecology -- Ecology, Distribution, and Population Characteristics of Nautilus -- Incidence and Kinds of Epizoans on the Shells of Live Nautilus -- On the Habitat of Nautilus pompilius in Tanon Strait (Philippines) and the Fiji Islands -- Predation on Nautilus -- Physiology -- The Central Nervous System -- The Sense Organs of Nautilus -- Visual Behavior and Visual Sensitivity of Nautilus pompilius -- A Possible Function of the Iris Groove of Nautilus -- Histology of the Long Digital Tentacles -- The Functional Morphology of the Tentacle Musculature of Nautilus pompilius -- The Circulatory System -- The Excretory System of Nautilus -- Respiratory Physiology -- Mouth Part Histology and Morphology -- Metabolism -- Energy Metabolism of Nautilus Swimming Muscles -- Oxygen Conformity and Metabolic Arrest in Nautilus -- Ventilation and Oxygen Extraction by Nautilus -- Reproduction and Growth -- Reproduction and Embryology of Nautilus -- Development of the Embryonic Shell of Nautilus -- Growth and Longevity of Nautilus -- Adolescent Growth and Maturity in Nautilus -- The Shell and Its Architecture -- Nautilus Shell Architecture -- Ultrastructure of the Nautilus Shell -- Swimming and Buoyancy -- Locomotion of Nautilus -- Nautilus Shell Hydrostatics -- Buoyancy in Nautilus -- Aquarium Maintenance -- Collection and Aquarium Maintenance of Nautilus -- Experience with Aquarium Rearing of Nautilus in Japan -- A Small, Closed Aquarium System for Nautilus.
Continued Classification of 3D Lattice Models in the Positive Octant

International audience We continue the investigations of lattice walks in the three-dimensional lattice restricted to the positive octant. We separate models which clearly have a D-finite generating function from models for which there is no reason to expect that their generating function is D-finite, and we isolate a small set of models whose nature remains unclear and requires further investigation. For these, we give some experimental results about their asymptotic behaviour, based on the inspection of a large number of initial terms. At least for some of them, the guessed asymptotic form seems to tip the balance towards non-D-finiteness.
Implementación de un Sistema Web de Evaluación Formativa en clase para estudiantes de ESPOL

La presente tesis describe la implementacion un sistema que permita a un profesor realizar evaluaciones formativas en clases. El profesor podra crear evaluaciones cortas que podran ser tomadas por sus estudiantes durante las clases. El estudiante recibira de manera inmediata retroalimentacion del sistema, asi como el profesor podra recibir en tiempo real los resultados generales y parciales de la clase. Esto permitira que los alumnos puedan evaluar sus conocimientos de lo aprendido en clase y tomar correctivos si es necesario, asi como tambien al profesor le permitira poder tener una idea global y particular (por estudiante) de los conocimientos adquiridos en clase pos sus alumnos, que le permita por ejemplo, reforzar aquellos temas que fueron poco entendidos o cambiar su estilo de ensenanza que le permita mejorar el nivel de compresion de sus estudiantes.