Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Properdin Pattern Recognition on Proximal Tubular Cells Is Heparan Sulfate/Syndecan-1 but Not C3b Dependent and Can Be Blocked by Tick Protein Salp20

Introduction: Proteinuria contributes to progression of renal damage, partly by complement activation on proximal tubular epithelial cells. By pattern recognition, properdin has shown to bind to heparan sulfate proteoglycans on tubular epithelium and can initiate the alternative complement pathway (AP). Properdin however, also binds to C3b(Bb) and properdin binding to tubular cells might be influenced by the presence of C3b(Bb) on tubular cells and/or by variability in properdin proteins in vitro. In this study we carefully evaluated the specificity of the properdin – heparan sulfate interaction and whether this interaction could be exploited in order to block alternative complement activation. Methods: Binding of various properdin preparations to proximal tubular epithelial cells (PTEC) and subsequent AP activation was determined in the presence or absence of C3 inhibitor Compstatin and properdin inhibitor Salp20. Heparan sulfate proteoglycan dependency of the pattern recognition of properdin was evaluated on PTEC knocked down for syndecan-1 by shRNA technology. Solid phase binding assays were used to evaluate the effectivity of heparin(oids) and recombinant Salp20 to block the pattern recognition of properdin. Results: Binding of serum-derived and recombinant properdin preparations to PTECs could be dose-dependently inhibited (P < 0.01) and competed off (P < 0.01) by recombinant Salp20 (IC50: ~125 ng/ml) but not by Compstatin. Subsequent properdin-mediated AP activation on PTECs could be inhibited by Compstatin (P < 0.01) and blocked by recombinant Salp20 (P < 0.05). Syndecan-1 deficiency in PTECs resulted in a ~75% reduction of properdin binding (P = 0.057). In solid-phase binding assays, properdin binding to C3b could be dose-dependently inhibited by recombinant Salp20> heparin(oid) > C3b. Discussion: In this study we showed that all properdin preparations recognize heparan sulfate/syndecan-1 on PTECs with and without Compstatin C3 blocking conditions. In contrast to Compstatin, recombinant Salp20 prevents heparan sulfate pattern recognition by properdin on PTECs. Both complement inhibitors prevented properdin-mediated C3 activation. Binding of properdin to C3b could also be blocked by heparin(oids) and recombinant Salp20. This work indicates that properdin serves as a docking station for AP activation on PTECs and a Salp20 analog or heparinoids may be viable inhibitors in properdin mediated AP activation.
Revision of Leucothoe (Amphipoda, Crustacea) from the Southern Ocean: a cosmopolitanism concept is vanishing

Among the 125 currently recognized species of the panoceanic genus Leucothoe, L. antarctica was described in 1888 from the Antarctic seas, but was soon synonymized with the so-called cosmopolitan Leucothoe spinicarpa Abildgaard, which was cited from the Southern Ocean about 70 times since this first record. After erecting a new Antarctic species again only in 1983, “morphological variants” were observed and discussed. In this paper, we revalidate the first defined Antarctic species ( Leucothoe antarctica ), redescribe the second one ( L. orkneyi ), describe 5 new Southern Ocean species ( L. campbelli sp. nov., L. longimembris sp. nov., L. macquariae sp. nov., L. merletta sp. nov. and L. weddellensis sp. nov.) and provide a key to all Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species.
Groupchain: A Blockchain Model with Privacy-preservation and Supervision

Blockchain technology is a type of decentralized technology that enables secure and trusted operations to be performed in untrusted environments. Privacy preservation and supervision are contradictions in decentralized environments. First, to reach a consensus in a decentralized environment, each node of the blockchain holds all of the ledger data, but this brings a huge risk of privacy leakage; alternately, the ledger data is encrypted with a hash to ensure security, making it difficult for regulatory authorities to regulate the blockchain through legal methods. This paper proposes a blockchain model based on a Group signature idea with the permission blockchain as the underlying architecture, aiming to neutralize the contradiction between privacy preservation and supervision in the blockchain technology. This paper designs three schemes entitled GroupSig, GroupCT, and Semi-Stealthaddress to achieve the goals we set. Finally, we analyze the security of Groupchain and evaluate the efficiency of the corresponding scheme.
The development of an enzyme-immunoassay for urinary pregnanediol-3-glucuronide and its application to reproductive assessment in exotic mammals

Measurement of urinary pregnanediol-3-glucuronide (PdG) provides a practical, non-invasive method for monitoring ovarian function and pregnancy in diverse mammalian species. To date, however, methods of laboratory analysis have relied on radio-immunoassay procedures which, because of their cost and the problems associated with the use and disposal of radioactive substances, have limited potential for routine application in zoos and other animal collections with limited laboratory facilities. The present paper reports the development of a non-isotopic enzyme-immunoassay for the measurement of urinary PdG in a wide range of exotic mammals and describes its application to reproductive assessment in the gorilla and rhinoceros. The assay is based on an homologous competitive binding system and utilizes antiserum raised against PdG-bovine serum albumen and alkaline phosphatase-PdG, prepared by the active ester technique, as conjugate. Sensitivity of the assay is between 12.5 and 25 pg/well and precision, expressed as the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation, is between 5.3 and 7.8% and 9.2 and 16.1%, respectively. Serial dilutions of human, gorilla, orang-utan, mangabey, blackbuck, okapi, gaur, giant panda and Indian, black and white rhinoceros urine gave displacement curves parallel to that of the PdG standard, indicating the potential of the assay for multi-species application. The pattern of excretion of immunoreactive PdG during successive menstrual cycles and two complete pregnancies in a gorilla is described. Follicular phase levels of PdG were low (0.07–0.13 μg/mg creatinine (Cr)), in contrast to the high levels of excretion during the luteal phase (maximum values 1.5–2.1 μg/mg Cr). Mean cycle length was 29.6±1.5 days with a range of 26–34 (n = 5). The pattern of PdG excretion during pregnancy showed a slow increase during the first 60 days and a more rapid rise to values of 8–12 μg/mg Cr after 120 days, with no further consistent increase during the remaining period of pregnancy. Estimated gestation lengths were 280 and 256 days. The levels of immunoreactive PdG excreted during mid-to-late pregnancy varied considerably between the three species of rhinoceros, maximum values ranging from up to 10 μg/mg Cr in the Indian to 0.08 μg/mg Cr in the white rhinoceros. Despite this variation pregnancy was associated with elevated PdG excretion in all three species and each profile showed a marked fall in levels at the end of the gestation period. The results suggest potential for urinary PdG determination as a practical method of pregnancy detection in both Indian and African rhinoceros, although species differences in the relative importance of PdG as a progesterone metabolite probably exist.
GPU Acceleration of a High-Order CFD Program

HNSC (High order Navier-Stokes simulator for Compressible flow) is an aerodynamics numerical simulation application that involves high computational cost. This paper presents our efforts porting and optimizing HNSC on the heterogeneous architecture consists of multi-core CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs. The basic GPU parallelization is done with the CUDA Fortran based on the characteristics of structured mesh and fourth-order Runge-Kutta time marching scheme. A data packing method is proposed to optimize the CPU-GPU data transfer and to improve the MPI communication efficiency. Performance evaluation is done on a server with two 12-core Intel Xeon Skylake Gold 5118 CPUs and one NVIDIA Tesla V100 GPU. The results show that the application can be significantly benefited from the GPU acceleration. The GPU version, using the V100 GPU, achieves a maximum performance speedup of 9.3 over the MPI implementation on the two Skylake CPUs.
Fish assemblage and habitat factors associated with the distribution of Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka) in Kansas streams

Topeka shiners (Notropis topeka) were historically abundant throughout many Great Plains streams but their abundance and distribution declined and the species was listed as federally endangered in 1999. However, few studies have examined how Topeka shiner populations are linked to biotic and abiotic factors. Thus, the objectives of this study were to identify trends in Topeka shiner distribution from 1995 to 2008 and determine which fish assemblage and habitat factors were most associated with Topeka shiner distribution in Kansas streams. Fish and in-stream habitat metrics were collected from 34 sites in northeast Kansas in 1995, 2003, and 2008. Stepwise discriminant function analyses (DFA) were used to determine if fish assemblage percent composition and in-stream and landscape habitat factors could be used to differentiate among years and between sites with and without Topeka shiners. Higher percent composition of rosyface shiner (Notropis rubellus) was generally indicative of sites with Topeka shiners whereas higher relative abundance of central stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum) and largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) were associated with sites without Topeka shiners. Sites with Topeka shiners also tended to have more gravel substrate and greater mean stream length, whereas sites without Topeka shiners generally had higher proportional impoundment area and proportional urban land area. These findings suggest that anthropogenic alteration of habitat in and around streams with Topeka shiners may facilitate their declines and establishment of non-native or generalist fishes. Our results may help managers identify habitats with the greatest need for protection or restoration and may help protect Topeka shiner populations from further population declines.
Changes in Human Milk Immunoglobulin Profile During Prolonged Lactation

Mother's milk immunoglobulins (Igs) delivered to infants during breastfeeding are crucial in shaping and modulating immature infants' immune system and provide efficient protection against pathogens. The aim of the study was to evaluate the immunoglobulin concentrations in milk of 116 lactating mothers over prolonged lactation from the 1st to the 48th month using the ELISA method. The concentration of proteins, SIgA and IgG, but not IgM, showed a positive correlation (r = 0.69, p < 0.005; r = 0.54, p < 0.05; and r = 0.27, p < 0.05, respectively) with lactation from the 1st to the 48th month. The lowest concentrations of SIgA and IgG were observed for the first year (2.12 ± 0.62 g/L and 14.71 ± 6.18 mg/L, respectively) and the highest after the 2nd year of lactation (7.55 ± 7.16 g/L and 18.95 ± 6.76 mg/L, respectively). The IgM concentration remained stable during 2 years (2.81 ± 2.74 mg/L), but after 24 months it was higher (3.82 ± 3.05 mg/L), although not significantly. Moreover, negative correlations of protein (r = −0.24, p < 0.05) and SIgA (r = −0.47, p < 0.05) concentrations with the number of feedings were found. Human milk after the 2nd year of lactation contains significantly higher concentrations of protein, SIgA, and IgG. High concentration of immunoglobulins and protein during prolonged lactation is an additional argument to support breastfeeding even after introducing solid foods and should be one of the overarching goals in the protection of children's health.
Distinguishing affective states in weblogs

This short paper reports on initial experiments on the use of binary classifiers to distinguish affective states in weblog posts. Using a corpus of English weblog posts, annotated for mood by their authors, we trained support vector machine binary classifiers, and show that a typology of affective states proposed by Scherer’s et al is a good starting point for more refined analysis.
Robust Estimation of Li-ion Battery SOC Based on Adaptive Mixed KF/HIFF Filter

The estimation of battery state of charge is the key technology and difficulty in the battery management system. model-based extended Kalman filtering (EKF) and H filtering (HIFF) have received attention for better estimation performance in recent years. In this paper, Panasonic NCR 18650GA battery was selected as the research object. first of all, the Thevenin model was established in the MATLAB / Simulink. After that, the bias compensated recursive least squares method was proposed by performing the deviation compensation on the basis of the recursive least squares method, which works well for parameter identification of data with colored noise. Then, an adaptive mixed EKF/HIFF algorithm was designed to estimate the SOC, combining the accuracy of EKF with the robustness of HIFF. And then the joint estimation of model parameters and battery status was realized. Finally, the robustness and accuracy of the proposed joint estimator has been verified by adding different colored noise to the experimental data. The result indicates that the estimation errors of voltage and SOC are less than 0.5% even if add a large colored noise to the experimental data, which makes the SOC estimation more accurate and reliable for the electric vehicles application.
Overexpression of SIZ1 enhances tolerance to cold and salt stresses and attenuates response to abscisic acid in Arabidopsis thaliana

Sumoylation is a post-translational modification to control several cellular functions, including responses to environmental stresses and hormones in plants, and SIZ1 is a SUMO (small ubiquitin-related modifier) E3 ligase that plays an important role in sumoylation. In this study, we produced transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants with a moderately higher expression of SIZ1 . Compared to wild type, the transgenic plants, with or without cold acclimation, were tolerant to freezing stress when subjected to freezing temperatures. The transgenic plants exhibited enhanced performance associated with robust shoot and root growth under salinity stress, whereas the wild type exhibited necrosis in the leaves with salt treatment. Furthermore, SIZ1 overexpression attenuated the root growth inhibition caused by abscisic acid. These results suggest that SIZ1 has the potential to genetically improve plant responses to abiotic stresses.
Role of Melanin Chemiexcitation in Melanoma Progression and Drug Resistance

Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer. Human melanomas often show hyperactivity of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and NADPH oxidase (NOX), which, respectively, generate nitric oxide (NO·) and superoxide (O2·−). The NO· and O2 − react instantly with each other to generate peroxynitrite (ONOO−) which is the driver of melanin chemiexcitation. Melanoma precursors, the melanocytes, are specialized skin cells that synthesize melanin, a potent shield against sunlight's ultraviolet (UV) radiation. However, melanin chemiexcitation paradoxically demonstrates the melanomagenic properties of melanin. In a loop, the NOS activity regulates melanin synthesis, and melanin is utilized by the chemiexcitation pathway to generate carcinogenic melanin-carbonyls in an excited triplet state. These carbonyl compounds induce UV-specific DNA damage without UV. Additionally, the carbonyl compounds are highly reactive and can make melanomagenic adducts with proteins, DNA and other biomolecules. Here we review the role of the melanin chemiexcitation pathway in melanoma initiation, progression, and drug resistance. We conclude by hypothesizing a non-classical, positive loop in melanoma where melanin chemiexcitation generates carcinogenic reactive carbonyl species (RCS) and DNA damage in normal melanocytes. In parallel, NOS and NOX regulate melanin synthesis generating raw material for chemiexcitation, and the resulting RCS and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) regulate cellular proteome and transcriptome in favor of melanoma progression, metastasis, and resistance against targeted therapies.
Field evidence for the carbon cost of citrus mycorrhizas

summary Mycorrhizas can produce negative crop responses when phosphorus availability is sucient in agricultural soils because the fungi are of no benefit in nutrient acquisition yet continue to colonize roots and invoke parasitic costs. Benomyl fungicide was used to test this prediction in the field by limiting mycorrhizal colonization of 2-yr-old Valencia orange trees (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) on four rootstocks of varying mycorrhizal dependency in Pdeficient soil fertilized with and without phosphate. No known fungal pathogens of citrus roots controlled by benomyl were present on the trees or in the field soil. Young trees with or without P fertilization and benomyl treatment remained sucient in P (& 0‐10% leaf P) throughout the 27-month study. Root zone drenches of benomyl reduced mycorrhizal colonization and leaf P status of Valencia orange trees on the three slower-growing rootstocks, trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata (L. ) Raf. ), Swingle citrumelo (Citrus paradisi Macf.‹P. trifoliata) and sour orange (Citrus aurantium L.), for the duration of three growing seasons. Benomyl aected root colonization and P status of trees on the faster-growing rootstock, Volkamer lemon (Citrus volkameriana Tan. and Pasq.), less than for trees on the slower-growing rootstocks and the eects were sustained for only two seasons. The shorter duration of benomyl eect for trees on Volkamer lemon rootstock compared with the slower-growing rootstocks was explained by the loss of inhibition of mycorrhizal activity when roots grew out of the drench zone and mycorrhizas were no longer in direct contact with the fungicide. Benomyl treatment increased growth rate of Valencia orange on the slow-growing rootstocks from 5 to 17% after three seasons, and from 2 to 9% on Volkamer lemon rootstock after two seasons compared with the non-benomyl treated trees. The benomyl eect was attributed to reduction of costs of root colonization over time, and consequently, a greater availability of carbon assimilate for shoot growth of trees. Since mycorrhizal fungi are ubiquitous in fertilized agricultural soils and obligate biotrophs on the roots of most crop species, these results indicate a need to further investigate whether negative growth responses of P-sucient plants in the field occur because mycorrhizal fungi are no longer behaving as mutualists.
FLOWERING OF XANTHORRHOEA FULVA : THE EFFECT OF FIRE AND CLIPPING

Xanthorrhoea fulva (A.Lee) Bedford is a dominant plant of wet heath at Myall Lakes National Park, New South Wales, Australia. As for many other members of the genus, fire is the main stimulus for flowering of X. fulva. The stimulus to flowering provided by fire and by crown removal (clipping) of X. fulva was compared in two different seasons and for two different between-fire intervals. The percentage of X. fulva crowns flowering was greater following: (i) summer disturbance when compared with winter disturbance; (ii) short between-fire intervals (3.75 or 5.25 years) when compared with long between-fire intervals (9.3 or 16.9 years); and (iii) burning when compared with clipping. This demonstrates that the stimulus to floral induction in X. fulva is a combination of a seasonal component and crown removal, a component related to the interval since the last fire, and perhaps some other factor(s) not tested for in this study. This variation in flowering response of X. fulva shows the importance of considering immediate and historic characteristics of fire and other disturbances when management decisions are being made.
Set colouring games

The game of Hex has been of particular interest to mathematicians, computer scientists, and game players alike ever since its discovery in the 1940s. The game is provably difficult in the sense of algorithmic complexity, yet its rich mathematical structure allows for many properties to be provable even when exact solutions to the game are unknown. Such properties can then be used to boost computational approaches to solving Hex on small boards, and playing well on larger boards. This thesis presents a general class of mathematical games that contains Hex and many of its relatives. The thesis generalizes all previously known Hex theory to this class, and identifies conditions that give rise to these properties. This enables rigorous proofs of game properties previously known only colloquially, as well as introduction of new properties. Algorithmic optimizations that follow from this theory have enabled advances in Hex solving and playing, and can be applied to related games as well.
Effects of elevated carbon dioxide on three montane grass species I. Growth and dry matter partitioning

Upland grasslands are a major component of natural vegetation within the UK. Such grasslands support slow growing relatively stable plant communities. The response of native montane grass species to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations has received little attention to date. Of such studies, most have only focused on short-term (days to weeks) responses, often under favourable controlled environment conditions. In this study Agrostis capillaris L. 5 , Festuca vivipara L. and Poa alpina L. were grown under semi-natural conditions in outdoor open-top chambers at either ambient (340 μmol mol -1 ) or elevated (680 μmol mol -1 ) concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) for periods from 79 to 189 d, with a nutrient availability similar to that of montane Agrostis-Fescue grassland in Snowdonia, N. Wales
Examination of FGF2‐dependent proliferation in muscle precursor cells isolated from 3‐mo‐old and 32‐mo‐old rats: Implication for regrowth, repair, and regeneration of skeletal muscle

Muscle precursor cells (MPCs) are located between the basal lamina and sarcolemma. MPCs are activated by stimuli such as exercise or muscle injury, and MPC proliferation is required for regrowth, repair, and regeneration of skeletal muscle. Fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) is known to play a role in skeletal muscle repair and stimulates the proliferation of MPCs through the activation of the MAPK (MEK/ERK 1/2) pathway. Since aged skeletal muscle is characterized by impairments in regrowth, repair, and regeneration, it was hypothesized that MPCs isolated from 32‐mo‐old animals would have a blunted FGF2‐dependent proliferation compared to 3‐mo‐old animals. In response to multiple doses of FGF2 stimulation, MPCs from aged animals have lower cell number (0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.5, 5 ng/ml) and attenuated BrdU incorporation (1, 2.5, 5, 10, 100 ng/ml) compared to MPCs from young animals (p < .05). FGF receptor 1–4 mRNAs were not different in MPCs between 3‐mo‐old and 32‐mo‐old animals. Western blot data indicated no differences in phosphorylated and total MEK and phosphorylated and total ERK1/2 of MPCs between 3‐mo‐old and 32‐mo‐old animals. It is possible that there are age‐associated differences in downstream targets of ERK 1/2 or alternate FGF2‐dependent pathways which diminish proliferation of MPCs from old rats.