Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oligomerization and DNA-Binding Capacity of Pmr, a Histone-Like Protein H1 (H-NS) Family Protein Encoded on IncP-7 Carbazole-Degradative Plasmid pCAR1

Pmr, a histone-like protein H1 (H-NS) family protein encoded on plasmid pCAR1, is a key factor in optimizing gene transcription on both pCAR1 and the host chromosome. To clarify the mode of function of Pmr, we performed gel filtration chromatography analysis and protein-protein cross-linking, and found that Pmr forms homo-oligomers, consisting of its homodimers. We also found, by atomic force microscopy, that Pmr has DNA-bridging capacity. From these results, Pmr was deduced to have features common to H-NS family proteins. Additionally, evaluating protein-DNA affinity is important to clarify the mode of function of Pmr, and hence we performed an electrophoretic mobility shift assay. Though Pmr formed high-order protein-DNA complexes and did not show preference for nucleic acid sequences, the C-terminal region of Pmr did, suggesting that the DNA-binding affinity of Pmr can be evaluated by using its C-terminal region.
Coordinated and conserved expression of alphoid repeat and alphoid repeat‐tagged coding sequences

We have found an alpha‐like simple‐sequence DNA repeat that is differentially expressed during early embryogenesis in both chick and zebrafish. Before and during the primitive streak stage, transcripts of the alphoid repeat sequence were ubiquitously expressed throughout zebrafish and chick embryos. After headfold formation, expression was limited to the cardiac neural crest, the head, and the heart. Two types of alphoid repeat sequence transcripts were identified: alphoid repeat RNA and alphoid repeat‐tagged mRNA (ESαT). Several of the ESαTs were identified by (1) searching expressed sequence tag databases, (2) arbitrary rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE), and (3) screening embryonic cDNA libraries. The alphoid element was located in the 3′ untranslated region of one ESαT that was obtained by RACE. The ESαT sequences encoded a variety of different types of proteins, but all were expressed within tissues that were positive for the alphoid repeat RNA. The presence of two types of coordinately expressed alphoid‐like repeat transcripts in maternal RNA with subsequent restriction to the head and heart, and the conservation of these features in disparate vertebrate embryos, suggest that the alphoid repeat sequence may serve as a control element in the gene regulation network. Developmental Dynamics 228:72–81, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
[Distal reconstruction of the Achilles tendon with a bone-tendon graft from extensor system of the knee].

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The authors describe a new surgical technique of tendo achilles reconstruction using bone tendon plasty from the patellar tendon, for rare chronic ruptures of the Achilles tendon flush within its calcaneal insertion, with distal loss of substance, requiring bone fixation. METHODS The two step operation was carried out either in lateral or ventral decubitus (the latter two involving repositioning the patient): 1) Plasty harvesting. By a short anterior approach, we harvested either a strip of patellar tendon (10 mm wide) with a piece of tibia tuberosity or a strip of rectus femoris tendon (10 mm wide, up to 10-15 cm long) with a piece of patellar bone, in cases with a greater loss of substance. Tendo achilles reconstruction: following resection of fibrous tissue, and drilling of a blind calcaneous tunnel, the bone plasty is fitted into the calcaneous with interference screw for safety, the two tendon ends are superposed and sutured. The patient is placed in a cast for two months. RESULTS Two patients (1 thirty-eight year old sportsman, 1 thirty-seven year old woman) were treated with a good morphological and functional outcome at two years. DISCUSSION This new technique is compared with other available solutions: triceps plasty, other local tendon plasties, artificial plasties, It met the two criteria for these unusual ruptures: solid calcaneous fixation, no skin damage.
A blind symbol timing estimation algorithm for OFDM systems with noncircular transmissions in multipath channels

The paper deals with the problem of blind symbol timing estimation for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing systems with noncircular transmissions in multipath channels. Specifically, the estimation of the arrival time of the first multipath component is considered. By modifying an algorithm recently proposed for additive noise channels, a blind estimator that assures relevant performance in multipath fading channels is obtained.
Effects of Evodiamine on the Pharmacokinetics of Dapoxetine and Its Metabolite Desmethyl Dapoxetine in Rats

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of orally administered evodiamine on the pharmacokinetics of dapoxetine and its active metabolite desmethyl dapoxetine in rats. Twelve healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 2 groups: the control group (received oral 10 mg/kg dapoxetine alone) and the combination group (10 mg/kg dapoxetine orally co-administered with 100 mg/kg evodiamine). The plasma concentration of dapoxetine and desmethyl dapoxetine were estimated by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), and different pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using the Drug and Statistics 2.0 software. Compared to the control group, the pharmacokinetic parameter of t1/2, AUC(0-∞) and Tmax of dapoxetine in combination group was significantly increased by 63.3% (p < 0.01), 44.8% (p < 0.01) and 50.4% (p < 0.01), respectively. Moreover, evodiamine had significantly decreased the pharmacokinetic parameter of t1/2 and AUC(0-∞) of desmethyl dapoxetine. This study demonstrated that evodiamine inhibits the metabolism of dapoxetine. Henceforth, the pharmacodynamic influence of this interaction should be taken into consideration while prescribing dapoxetine to the patients already taking evodiamine.
The structural basis of DNA flexibility

Although the average physico–chemical properties of a long DNA molecule may approximate to those of a thin isotropic homogeneous rod, DNA behaves more locally as an anisotropic heterogeneous rod. This bending anisotropy is sequence dependent and to a first approximation reflects both the geometry and stability of individual base steps. The biological manipulation and packaging of the molecule often depend crucially on local variations in both bending and torsional flexibility. However, whereas the probability of DNA untwisting can be strongly correlated with a high bending flexibility, DNA bending, especially when the molecule is tightly wrapped on a protein surface, may be energetically favoured by a less flexible sequence whose preferred configuration conforms more closely to that of the complementary protein surface. In the latter situation the lower bending flexibility may be more than compensated for on binding by a reduced required deformation energy relative to a fully isotropic DNA molecule.
Genetic regulation of the qa gene cluster of Neurospora crassa: induction of qa messenger ribonucleic acid and dependency on qa-1 function

An in vitro protein-synthesizing system (rabbit reticulocyte) was programmed with total polyadenylated messenger ribonucleic acid from wild type and various mutants in the qa gene cluster of Neurospora crassa. The products of two of the qa genes, quinate dehydrogenase (qa-3+) and dehydroshikimate dehydratase (qa-4+), were identified by specific immunoprecipitation and sodium dodecyl sulfate-slab gel electrophoresis. The results indicated that for both genes induction of a specific enzyme activity by quinic acid depends on the de novo synthesis of a specific polypeptide and on the de novo appearance of specific messenger ribonucleic acid detectable by the in vitro translation assay. Furthermore, the results indicated that the appearance of this messenger ribonucleic acid is under the control of the qa-1 gene. The simplest interpretation of these results appears to be that induction of enzyme activity in the qa system is mediated by events at the transcriptional level.
[Urinary NMP22 as a new marker in patients with transitional cell carcinoma].

To evaluate urinary NMP22 dosage as a marker of urothelial tumours, we have selected a group of 90 patients (85 males and 5 females, mean age 66 years) with clinical suspicion of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC), with microscopic or macroscopic hematuria, flank pain, urographic abnormalities and dysuria. All the patients have been evaluated by urinary cytology, renal and bladder ultrasound, cystoscopy. When a bladder tumour has been detected, bladder biopsies and, when required, I.V. P., CT or retrograde pyelography have been performed. A urine sample has been collected between midnight and noon; all samples from patients who were undergoing invasive procedures such as cystoscopy, were collected before or at least 5 days after the procedure. The test has been performed according to ELISA NMP22 (Matritech) technique; the test is specific for the nuclear matrix protein/nuclear mitotic apparatus protein expressed by cancer cells. When performing the test, 30 patients presented macroscopic hematuria. 22 patients resulted to have benign urinary tract conditions, 65 patients had TCC and 3 patients had a final evaluation suspicious for TCC. The NMP22 values were respectively 7.1 +/- 4.7 U/ml, 21.9 +/- 21.0 U/ml and 16 +/- 8.0 U/ml. From our study the sensitivity of the test is 67% (with a threshold value of 10 U/ml) and 55% (with a threshold value of 20 U/ml), while the urinary cytology resulted to have a sensitivity of 26% (p < 0.05). The sensitivity of the test in relation to staging was as follow: Tis 66% with a mean NMP22 value of 23.3 U/ml, Ta 26% with a mean NMP22 value of 13.2 U/ml, T1 100% with a mean NMP22 value of 40 U/ml, T2 73% with a mean NMP22 value of 36.4 U/ml. The specificity of the test was 100% with a threshold value of 20 U/ml. When considering a threshold value of 10 U/ml, the NMP22 test has a sensitivity higher than cytology, especially in low stage TCC. Macroscopic hematuria does not affect its sensitivity; the diagnostic efficacy of the test is not increased by the association of urinary cytology. It has an important role in the diagnosis of residual disease after TURB and in the follow-up evaluation of bladder cancer patients, since its dosage is not influenced by inflammatory conditions of the mucosa. We believe therefore that NMP22 is useful in clinical practice.
Reflex activity and muscle tone during elbow movements in patients with spastic paresis

Reflex behavior and tension development in upper limb muscles were analyzed and comparisons made between the unaffected and spastic sides of patients with spastic hemiparesis. During sinusoidal (0.3‐Hz) isometric or isotonic elbow tracking, with a control either of joint position or of torque, randomly timed displacements were induced (at one of three velocities) stretching either the activated flexor or the extensor muscles. On the spastic side, exaggerated short‐latency reflexes were apparent, but in contrast, the amplitude of long‐latency electromyography (EMG) responses was reduced. The latter responses were differentially modulated on the unaffected side, predominantly by the acceleration signal during control of position and more by the velocity signal during control of torque, while the mode of muscle contraction (isometric or isotonic) had little influence on this behavior. This difference in reflex modulation was lost on the spastic side. The functional consequence of this reduced EMG modulation could be difficulty in performing finely controlled arm movements. The ratio of torque to EMG activity during displacements was higher for both background and reflex‐induced EMG on the spastic limb than on the unaffected side. This effect was more pronounced for the flexor than for the extensor muscles. Consequently, the development of spastic muscle hypertonia cannot be attributed to an increase in EMG activity. It is suggested that secondary to a supraspinal lesion, mechanical muscle properties change in such a way that the activated spastic muscle develops more tension when it is stretched.
Navigating tuberculosis drug discovery with target-based screening

Introduction: Mycobacterium tuberculosis kills more people than any other bacterial pathogen. New drugs are required to shorten the treatment time and provide a viable therapy for drug-resistant and latent forms of tuberculosis. The tuberculosis field has advanced considerably since the publication of the M. tuberculosis genome sequence. Today, researchers can build a high definition map of the pathogen's traits and behavior and select individual targets for chemical disruption. Areas covered: This review examines the discovery of current clinical and candidate tuberculosis drugs. It outlines recent developments in the selection of molecular targets for the discovery of new anti-mycobacterial agents. It appraises techniques that incorporate target knowledge into the screening protocol. These techniques include in silico, in vitro enzyme-based, differential antisense sensitivity and gene expression screening systems. The review also looks ahead to further techniques that may be applied in tuberculosis drug discovery. Expert opinion: The adoption of an ‘either/or’ approach to targeted or random tuberculosis drug screening is not expected. The historical success of random screening in providing the tuberculosis drugs currently in clinical use is likely to ensure that non-targeted protocols retain an important role in drug screening. However, a number of M. tuberculosis inhibitors in lead optimization and preclinical development have been discovered using targeted methods. Realization of the first clinically-approved tuberculosis drugs derived from targeted screening and continued refinements in targeted screening technologies are likely to increase the adoption of targeted approaches in the future.
SCHIZOPHRENIA, SENSORY DEPRIVATION, AND SENSORY OVERLOAD

In comparison to general psychiatric patients and normal controls, chronic schizophrenics displayed greater reactivity to conditions of sensory deprivation and sensory overload. Overall, their performance conformed to an inverted-U-shaped function of arousal whereby deviations in sensory input, above or below a rather narrow range, produced increased regulatory behavior designed to restore sensory homeostasis.
Novel Methods for Resolving False Positives during the Detection of Fraudulent Activities on Stock Market Financial Discussion Boards

Financial discussion boards (FDBs) have been widely used for a variety of financial knowledge exchange activities through the posting of comments. Popular public FDBs are prone to being used as a medium to spread false financial information due to larger audience groups. Although online forums are usually integrated with anti-spam tools, such as Akismet, moderation of posted content heavily relies on manual tasks. Unfortunately, the daily comments volume received on popular FDBs realistically prevents human moderators to watch closely and moderate possibly fraudulent content, not to mention moderators are not usually assigned with such task. Due to the absence of useful tools, it is extremely time consuming and expensive to manually read and determine whether each comment is potentially fraudulent. This paper presents novel forward and backward analysis methodologies implemented in an Information Extraction (IE) prototype system named FDBs Miner (FDBM). The methodologies aim to detect potentially illegal Pump and Dump comments on FDBs with the integration of per-minute share prices in the detection process. This can possibly reduce false positives during the detection as it categorises the potentially illegal comments into different risk levels for investigation purposes. The proposed system extracts company’s ticker symbols (i.e. unique symbol that represents and identifies each listed company on stock market), comments and share prices from FDBs based in the UK. The forward analysis methodology flags the potentially Pump and Dump comments using a predefined keywords template and labels the flagged comments with price hike thresholds. Subsequently, the backward analysis methodology employs a moving average technique to determine price abnormalities and backward analyse the flagged comments. The first detection stage in forward analysis found 9.82% of potentially illegal comments. It is unrealistic and unaffordable for human moderators or financial surveillance authorities to read these comments on a daily basis. Hence, by integrating share prices to perform backward analysis can categorise the flagged comments into different risk levels. It helps relevant authorities to prioritise and investigate into the higher risk flagged comments, which could potentially indicate a real Pump and Dump crime happening on FDBs when the system is being used in real time.
Notice of RetractionProblem-Based Learning of Cardiovascular Physiology in Basic Medical Curriculums

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered and self-directed teaching approach. Compared with the traditional teaching approaches, PBL breaks the traditional discipline-based boundaries of basic medical sciences, inspires the stedents' activity, creativity and trains their comprehensive abilities. Furthermore, PBL helps to improve tutors' professional competence, too. In this case, the PBL approach is adopted in the basic medical lecture of cardiovascular physiology. The PBL lecture integrated multiple basic medical curriculums, including physiology, pathology, pathophysiology, pharmacology and immunology. All the students were activated by the case of PBL and discussed each questions they found using their given knowledge. The teacher led and regulated the progress of constructive inquiry about the cardiovascular physiology. Students succeeded to sort out physiological, pathophysiological and pharmacological principles from the overload of information, to integrate them into the clinically relevant situations, and to ultimately apply them to the management of patients' illness. PBL is most effectively achieved in a student-centered environment conducive to life-long learning.
Salvage of Pseudoarthrosis After Tibiotalar Arthrodesis

We retrospectively reviewed the treatment of a selected group of 23 patients with pseudoarthrosis after ankle arthrodesis who underwent revision arthrodesis at an average of 1.7 years (range, 0.3–17.0 years) after the initial, unsuccessful procedure. Fourteen patients underwent isolated revision tibiotalar arthrodesis, and 9 had an additional hindfoot arthrodesis (7 tibiotalocalcaneal, 2 pantalar) performed at the time of the procedure. Rigid internal fixation with screws was performed when possible, and, in patients with poor bone quality, an external fixator was used. Autogenous bone grafting was used in 14 patients where bone loss was present. Twenty-one of 23 patients had successful union (average, 14 weeks; range, 6–48 weeks). Two patients had persistent ankle nonunions; one was asymptomatic, and one had symptomatic subtalar arthritis. Two patients underwent successful arthrodesis but had persistent pain from reflex sympathetic dystrophy. Overall, 19 of 23 patients were satisfied with the surgery. We conclude that revision arthrodesis for tibiotalar pseudoarthrosis is a worthwhile procedure.
Predictive risk factors for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) colonisation among adults in acute care settings: A systematic review.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a gram-positive bacterium commonly carried by approximately three in 10 of the healthy population. If S. aureus enters the body it can cause a range of illnesses, ranging from minor localised skin and wound infections to systemic life-threatening infections such as endocarditis, pneumonia and bacteraemia. The introduction of penicillin in the 1940s to treat S. aureus infection was rapidly followed by the development of resistance to this antibiotic. The introduction of methicillin in 1959 which was stable to the enzyme penicillinase, the cause of earlier resistance, initially appeared to have solved the problem caused by penicillin resistance. However, in 1961 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) was identified and subsequently epidemic strains have developed. MRSA strains have led to caused major infection outbreaks in several countries during the 1980s and were considered endemic in healthcare facilities from the 1990s.
Delayed Diagnosis of Glycogen Storage Disease Type III

S olitary juvenile hamartomatous polyps in the colorectum are common in young children and typically present with rectal bleeding. Juvenile polyposis syndrome (JPS) is an autosomal dominant condition characterized by multiple juvenile polyps most commonly found in the colorectum, but can occur throughout the gastrointestinal tract (1). In contrast to patients with solitary polyps, patients with JPS have a markedly increased risk of developing early-onset gastrointestinal cancer. The relative risk for colorectal cancer is 34%, with a lifetime cancer risk of 39% reported as early as 15 years (2). Extracolonic gastrointestinal cancers have been reported in JPS, including stomach and small bowel with a lower frequency than colorectal cancer. Approximately 30% to 40% of
Real-time monocular human height estimation using bimodal background subtraction

A human height is one property used in conjunction with others for person identification. The method of human height estimation, using only one camera and some simple settings on the floor, is proposed to automatically determine the vertical distance of human head from the ground in real-time. Bimodal background subtraction technique helps locate the position of head top and lower foot bottom in each image frame, and the upright distance from the lower foot to the position closest to the head top is defined as the candidate of human height in the corresponding frame. A distribution of all heights estimated so far is finally used to determine the height of human in that frame. The proposed method establishes the range of possible heights from all frames in real-time—this information potentially helps increase the performance of automatic person identification in surveillance system.