Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differential Protein Expression during Growth of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans on Ferrous Iron, Sulfur Compounds, or Metal Sulfides

ABSTRACT A set of proteins that changed their levels of synthesis during growth of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans ATCC 19859 on metal sulfides, thiosulfate, elemental sulfur, and ferrous iron was characterized by using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. N-terminal amino acid sequencing and mass spectrometry analysis of these proteins allowed their identification and the localization of the corresponding genes in the available genomic sequence of A. ferrooxidans ATCC 23270. The genomic context around several of these genes suggests their involvement in the energetic metabolism of A. ferrooxidans. Two groups of proteins could be distinguished. The first consisted of proteins highly upregulated by growth on sulfur compounds (and downregulated by growth on ferrous iron): a 44-kDa outer membrane protein, an exported 21-kDa putative thiosulfate sulfur transferase protein, a 33-kDa putative thiosulfate/sulfate binding protein, a 45-kDa putative capsule polysaccharide export protein, and a putative 16-kDa protein of unknown function. The second group of proteins comprised those downregulated by growth on sulfur (and upregulated by growth on ferrous iron): rusticyanin, a cytochrome c552, a putative phosphate binding protein (PstS), the small and large subunits of ribulose biphosphate carboxylase, and a 30-kDa putative CbbQ protein, among others. The results suggest in general a separation of the iron and sulfur utilization pathways. Rusticyanin, in addition to being highly expressed on ferrous iron, was also newly synthesized, as determined by metabolic labeling, although at lower levels, during growth on sulfur compounds and iron-free metal sulfides. During growth on metal sulfides containing iron, such as pyrite and chalcopyrite, both proteins upregulated on ferrous iron and those upregulated on sulfur compounds were synthesized, indicating that the two energy-generating pathways are induced simultaneously depending on the kind and concentration of oxidizable substrates available.
Elongation of the Interpubic Ligament in the Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus)∗

Summary A significant elongation of the interpubic ligament occurs in the pregnant little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). Examined immediately after delivery, the mean ligament length measured 2.01 as compared with 0.52 mm in the non-pregnant bat. Treatment of non-pregnant female bats with es-tradiol induced a mean pubic separation of 0.78 mm, while treatment with ECP and relaxin induced a mean separation of 1.03 and 1.25 mm with 5 and 10 GPU of relaxin, respectively. It is concluded that separation of the pubic symphysis with the elongation of the interpubic ligament occurs during pregnancy in the little brown bat and after treatment with ECP and relaxin.
Cadmium induced oxidative stress influence on glutathione metabolic genes of Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze

Glutathione, a tripeptide with sulfhydryl (‐SH) group is a very crucial compound primarily involved in redox balance maintenance of the cellular environment. In this study, we monitored the influence of Cd exposure on the transcript levels of glutathione metabolic genes in bud tissues, the youngest leaf, of Camellia sinensis L. In addition, some physiochemical parameters were also studied. Cd exposure decreased chlorophyll and protein contents, while increase was observed in lipid peroxidation upon Cd treatments. These changes were found to be concentration and duration dependent, indicating the occurrence of oxidative stress upon Cd exposure. The transcript levels of glutathione biosynthetic genes viz. γ‐glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ‐ECS) and glutathione synthetase (GSHS) increased upon Cd exposure. Furthermore, transcript levels of glutathione reductase (GR), an enzyme involved in reduction of oxidized glutathione (GSSG) to reduced glutathione (GSH), also showed upregulation on Cd exposure. However, the transcript levels of glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST), an enzyme involved in forming metal–GSH complex and help in sequestration of high levels of metal ions to vacuole, did not show any change on Cd treatment. This study document that Cd exposure induces oxidative stress in Camellia sinensis and the upregulation in transcript levels of glutathione metabolic genes except GST have suggested the role of these enzymes in the protection of plants from high level Cd exposure. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 22: 368–374, 2007.
Evaluation of fetuin-A and carotid intima-media thickness in adolescent type 1 diabetic patients

Abstract Objective: To evaluate fetuin-A level and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in adolescent type 1 diabetics. Patients and methods: The study included 62 type 1 diabetic patients and 30 healthy volunteers of the same age and sex. Blood sample was taken for assessment of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1), lipid profile, and fetuin-A. Urine sample was also taken for assessment of albumin/creatinine ratio. Anthropometric measurements were taken, including weight, height, and waist and hip circumference. CIMT was assessed for all patients and controls. Results: Serum fetuin-A, Rt. , Lt. and both CIMT were significantly higher in diabetics. Fetuin-A had a significant positive correlation with duration of disease, waist and hip circumference, BMI, BMI SDS, waist/height ratio, Rt. , Lt. and both CIMT. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the duration of disease, waist/height ratio, and HDL-c were the factors related to fetuin-A. Conclusion: Adolescent type 1 diabetic patients have high fetuin-A levels and increased CIMT, with the latter representing the development of early atherosclerosis. In this light, adolescents with type 1 diabetes require frequent follow up for early detection of atherosclerosis.
Gait recognition based on the feature fusion

A gait recognition algorithm is proposed that fuses motion and static features of sequences of silhouette images--the wavelet moment and the widths capture the motion and static characteristic of gait. A subspace transformation, Principal Component Analysis(PCA), is applied to process the spatial templates. It aims essentially at reducing data dimensionalities. Finally, nearest neighbor classifier is adopted to recognize subjects. Experimental results show that the method is efficient for human identification, and has a recognition rate of around 88% on the CASIA data set, furthermore, the performance is compared with other algorithms.
Postnatal development of olfactory receptor cell axonal arbors

The mechanisms that subserve the distribution of the terminal arbors of olfactory receptor cell axons remain unknown. Elsewhere in the central nervous system, a common theme is early axonal exuberance followed by activity‐dependent pruning to achieve the mature distribution. This led to the hypothesis that the orderly morphology of afferent axons in the olfactory glomerulus may follow a similar developmental scheme of exuberance followed by pruning. To test this hypothesis, we studied morphological features of olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) axonal arbors on postnatal days 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 21. The olfactory bulbs from Sprague‐Dawley rats were processed using a Golgi technique that impregnated ORN axons. Axons from each age group were reconstructed by using camera lucida at ×100, oil immersion, and morphometrically characterized. In the adult, the percent glomerular area occupied by a single ORN axon was 14%, whereas the mean length of branches was 169.67 μm, the sum of branches and varicosities was 27, and the distance to first branch point in glomeruli was 21.98 μm. The values from the younger age groups were not statistically different from those in the adult. Because there was no evidence of early exuberance, our data suggest that ORN axons must innervate single glomeruli and arborize in a highly specific manner to achieve the adult pattern. Because our data suggest that ORN axons do not follow the hypothesized scheme, it is plausible to suggest that as ORN axons innervate a glomerulus during development they arborize to their adult levels but not beyond. This argues strongly that specific cell surface and trophic factors are used by the ORN axon to guide glomerular targeting and innervation. J. Comp. Neurol. 390:256–267, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Collagen Fibrillogenesis and mRNA Levels in the Maturing Rabbit Medial Collateral Ligament and Patellar Tendon

This study compared collagen fibril diameter and mRNA changes in a subset of molecules involved in collagen fibrillogenesis during postnatal development and at maturity of rabbit medial collateral ligament (MCL) and patellar tendon (PT). Tissue was analyzed by RT-PCR for mRNA levels and collagen fibril diameters were measured using transmission electron microscopy. Collagen fibril diameters increased from 3 to 14 weeks with mean fibril diameters of PT significantly greater than MCL at 9, 12, and 14 weeks and maturity. RT-PCR analysis showed decorin and lumican mRNA levels were significantly higher in PT than MCL at all ages. Type I collagen, MMP-11, and procollagen C proteinase enhancer mRNA levels also were higher in the PT than the MCL between 3 and 14 weeks but not at maturity. Further understanding of collagen fibrillogenesis by studying protein synthesis and matrix turnover during maturation may provide insight into the mechanism(s) by which fibrils accrete in maturing connective tissues and how they are altered during healing following injury.
Estudio experimental de metodos de calibracion y autocalibracion de camaras

Esta tesis presenta un analisis comparativo de diversos metodos de calibracion y autocalibracion de camaras, analizandose su coste computacional y su estabilidad y precision frente a ruidos, variaciones en las condiciones de formacion de la imagen y distribucion de los puntos usados como referentes. El estudio se ha realizado tanto sobre imagenes sinteticas, obtenidas mediante un simulador desarrollado para este fin, como sobre camaras reales, comparandose los resultados obtenidos en ambos entornos. Este trabajo incluye una revision bibliografica actualizada y presenta los metodos de calibracion incluidos en la comparativa en una notacion unificada. Los resultados experimentales demuestran que entre los metodos de calibracion y autocalibracion estudiados no se ha encontrado uno que se netamente superior a los demas en todas las circunstancias. En general, y salvo en ciertas condiciones que se identifican en el trabajo, los metodos estudiados proprocionan resultados aceptables tanto en terminos del error de reconstruccion 3D como de la dispersidad de imagen. Sin embargo, todos los metodos exhiben una gran dependencia o acoplamiento entre los parametros intrinsecos y extrinsecos, lo que condiciona en gran medida la utilidad posterior de los resultados de la calibracion. Los metodos de autocalibracion han demostrado ser mas robustos y precisos que los metodos de calibracion clasicos en condiciones proximas a las de una camara ideal. Lamentablemente, la capacidad de estos metodos, en su estado actual de desarrollo, es limitada debido a la simplicidad de los modelos de camara empleados y al elevado numero de puntos de calibracion necesarios para su convergencia.
Motion based image segmentation for video coding

A robust and stable scene segmentation is a prerequisite for the object based coding. Various approaches to this complex task have been proposed, including segmentation of optic flow, grey-level based segmentation or simple division of the scene into moving and stationary regions. In this paper, we propose an algorithm which combines all three approaches in order to get a more robust and accurate segmentation of the moving objects. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly reduce over-segmentation and maintain accurate motion boundaries. The use of the proposed approach in video coding can increase the PSNR and reduce the bit rate.
Sleep disorder among medical students: Relationship to their academic performance

Background: Medical students are exposed to a significant level of pressure due to academic demands. Their sleep pattern is characterized by insufficient sleep duration, delayed sleep onset, and occurrence of napping episodes during the day. Objective: To examine the prevalence of sleep disorder among medical students and investigate any relationship between sleep disorder and academic performance. Methods: This is a cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire-based study. The participants were medical students of the first, second, and third academic years. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was also included to identify sleep disorder and grade point average was recorded for academic performance. Results: There were 491 responses with a response rate of 55%. The ESS score demonstrated that 36.6% of participants were considered to have abnormal sleep habits, with a statistically significant increase in female students (p = 0.000). Sleeping between 6–10 h per day was associated with normal ESS scores (p = 0.019) as well as the academic grades ≥3.75. Abnormal ESS scores were associated with lower academic achievement (p = 0.002). Conclusion: A high prevalence of sleep disorder was found in this group of students, specifically female students. Analysis of the relationship between sleep disorder and academic performance indicates a significant relationship between abnormal ESS scores, total sleeping hours, and academic performance.
Creatinine metabolism in chronic renal failure.

1. Creatinine metabolism was studied in nine patients with severe chronic renal failure who were nevertheless in a nearly steady state with respect to their creatinine pool. Labelled creatinine was injected intravenously and the specific radioactivity of creatinine in urine was measured during the ensuing 5–7 days. 2. In each patient, the decline in specific radioactivity with time was a single exponential function after 12 h. The volume of distribution of creatinine averaged 49.1 ± 2.8% body weight. The average rate of creatinine production was 148 μmol day −1 kg −1 , which is similar to predicted values for normal subjects of the same age, weight and sex. Creatinine metabolism rate/kg body weight, estimated as the difference between production rate/kg body weight, determined radioisotopically, and creatinine appearance rate (excretion plus accumulation), averaged 42 μmol day −1 kg −1 . 3. Total creatinine metabolism rate/kg body weight was correlated with serum creatinine. Thus, as serum creatinine rises, an increasing fraction of the produced creatinine was metabolized rather than excreted. This relationship could account for the diminished creatinine excretion commonly seen in patients with chronic renal failure. 4. Extrarenal clearance (metabolism/serum creatinine) of this magnitude (approximately 31% of renal clearance in these patients) would be an undetectably small fraction of normal renal clearance. This could explain the absence of demonstrable creatinine metabolism in normal subjects. 5. Two pathways of metabolism were identified: a recycling of creatinine to creatine and an irreversible degradation of creatinine to products other than creatine.
Genetik in der Allergologie

Zusammenfassung In der Genetik komplexer Erkrankungen gab es in den letzten Jahren wichtige Fortschritte. Mithilfe von genomweiten Assoziationsstudien wurde neue Erkenntnisse über die Vererbung von häufigen Volkserkrankungen wie Diabetes, Rheuma und chronisch entzündli-chen Darmerkrankungen gewonnen. Auch bei Asthma und Allergien wurden diese Studien erfolgreich eingesetzt. Große Hoffungen werden an diese Studien geknüpft, auch und vor allem was die Translation der Ergebnisse in die Praxis und zum Wohl der Patienten betrifft. Wie realistisch diese Hoffnungen sind, was in den nächsten Jahren tatsächlich zu erwarten ist und was eventuell heute bereits die klinische Praxis der Allergologie und Pädiatrie betrifft, wird in dieser Übersichtsarbeit diskutiert.
Psychiatry and music

Vocal and/or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony and expression of emotion is music. Brain, mind and music are remarkably related to each other and music has got a strong impact on psychiatry. With the advent of music therapy, as an efficient form of alternative therapy in treating major psychiatric conditions, this impact has been further strengthened. In this review, we deliberate upon the historical aspects of the relationship between psychiatry and music, neural processing underlying music, music's relation to classical psychology and psychopathology and scientific evidence base for music therapy in major psychiatric disorders. We highlight the role of Indian forms of music and Indian contribution to music therapy.
Improved retention and bone-tolmplant contact with fluoride-modified titanium implants.

PURPOSE The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether a fluoride modification of the titanium surface would have an effect on bone response after implantation. MATERIALS AND METHODS Titanium-oxide-blasted titanium implants with and without fluoride modification were investigated in a rabbit tibia model. Quantitative analysis of surface roughness, biomechanical interlocking, and in vivo tissue reactions in rabbit bone at 1 and 3 months after placement were compared. RESULTS The fluoride-modified test implants had a slightly smoother surface (Sa: 0.91 +/- 0.14 microm) than the unmodified control implants (Sa: 1.12 +/- 0.24 microm). Significantly higher removal torque values (85 +/- 16 Ncm vs 54 +/- 12 Ncm) and shear strength between bone and implants (23 +/- 9 N/mm2 vs 15 +/- 5 N/mm2) were measured for the fluoride-modified implants after 3 months. The histomorphometric evaluations demonstrated higher bone-to-implant contact for test implants at 1 month (35% +/- 14% vs 26% +/- 8%) and 3 months (39% +/- 11% vs 31% +/- 6%) after placement. DISCUSSION Implant surface modification with fluoride may result in morphologic and physiochemical phenomena that are of significance for the bone response. Another possible explanation for the findings in the present study is that a surface modification changes the surface chemical structures to be more suitable for bone bonding. CONCLUSION Based on the biomechanical and histomorphometric data, the fluoride-modified titanium implants demonstrated a firmer bone anchorage than the unmodified titanium implants. These implants achieved greater bone integration than unmodified titanium implants after a shorter healing time.
Power mobility for a nursing home resident with dementia.

OBJECTIVE This case study describes an occupational therapy intervention to increase the self-mobility and social participation of a nursing home resident with dementia using a power wheelchair equipped with a collision-prevention system. METHOD We used an exploratory case study design. Data sources included the medical record, standardized assessments, interviews, observations of daily activities, and a driving log. RESULTS During driving sessions, changes in affect such as smiling and attempts to socialize were noted. The resident required ongoing prompting to operate the modified power wheelchair. CONCLUSION The resident was unable to achieve self-mobility with an intervention involving a modified power wheelchair. However, this study demonstrates that even supervised mobility can have a positive impact on affect and social participation. Observations from this study are being applied to the design and testing of the next generation of power wheelchairs intended for use by nursing home residents with dementia.
Access and Handover Management for Femtocell Systems

In this paper a simple and effective method has been proposed to perform access and handover management for femtocell systems. Firstly an analysis on interference impact on femtocells has been provided. Then we explore several techniques to address the interference problem between CSG (closed subscriber group) femtocell and macrocell. When a non-CSG MS comes close to the femtocell in question, the macrocell BS makes the decision (based on the CSG access list exchanged from the femtocell) that unnecessary handover will not be initiated, saving radio resource and signaling load on the network. At the same time various proactive interference mitigation mechanisms can be operated. A hybrid access mode and a femtocell-initiated handover procedure with adaptive threshold have also been discussed.
PROGRESS REPORT No . 6-January , 2000 Effects of Franklin Feed-Grade Limestone vs . Aerion Industries Nutrion Limestone on performance and carcass characteristics of finishing beef steers

Because grains comprise the major portion of diets for finishing beef cattle, and grains contain little calcium, limestone is typically added to finishing diets at levels of . 7 to more than 1% of the dry matter. Feedgrade limestone varies in quality and consistency, which could alter performance responses by finishing beef steers. Selection of superior sources of limestone and(or) treatment of selected limestones to increase their reactivity in the gastrointestinal tract, might alter the supply of available calcium. Our objective was to determine whether performance and carcass characteristics of finishing beef steers differed when a select source of treated limestone (Aerion Industries Nutrion limestone) was fed at two levels compared with a common feed-grade source of limestone.
Identification of Two Regulatory Elements within the High Mobility Group Box Transcription Factor XTCF-4*

Some members of the Wnt family of extracellular glycoproteins regulate target gene expression by inducing stabilization and nuclear accumulation of β-catenin, which functions as a transcriptional activator after binding to transcription factors of the T-cell factor/lymphoid enhancer factor (TCF/LEF) family. Three different members of this family have been identified in Xenopus laevis thus far that differ in their ability to influence mesodermal differentiation and to activate expression of the Wnt target gene fibronectin. Here we report on the isolation and characterization of additional variants of XTCF-4. We show that the differential ability of these proteins and other members of the TCF family to activate target genes is neither due to preferential interaction with transcriptional cofactors of the groucho family or SMAD4 nor to different DNA binding affinities. Expression of these proteins in an epithelial cell line reveals differences in their ability to form a ternary complex with DNA and β-catenin. Interestingly, formation of this ternary complex was not sufficient to activate target gene expression as previously thought. Our experiments identify two amino acid sequence motifs, LVPQ and SFLSS, in the central domain of XTCF-4 that regulate the formation of the DNA-TCF-β-catenin complex or activation of target genes, respectively. Biochemical studies reveal that the phosphorylation state of these XTCF-4 variants correlates with their ability to form a ternary complex with β-catenin and DNA but not to activate target gene expression. The described variants of XTFC-4 with their different properties in complex formation provide strong evidence that in addition to the regulation of β-catenin stability the isoforms of TCF/LEF transcription factors and their posttranslational modifications define the cellular response of a Wnt/wingless signal.