Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Embryonic attenuated Wnt/β-catenin signaling defines niche location and long-term stem cell fate in hair follicle

Long-term adult stem cells sustain tissue regeneration throughout the lifetime of an organism. They were hypothesized to originate from embryonic progenitor cells that acquire long-term self-renewal ability and multipotency at the end of organogenesis. The process through which this is achieved often remains unclear. Here, we discovered that long-term hair follicle stem cells arise from embryonic progenitor cells occupying a niche location that is defined by attenuated Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Hair follicle initiation is marked by placode formation, which depends on the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Soon afterwards, a region with attenuated Wnt/β-catenin signaling emerges in the upper follicle. Embryonic progenitor cells residing in this region gain expression of adult stem cell markers and become definitive long-term hair follicle stem cells at the end of organogenesis. Attenuation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling is a prerequisite for hair follicle stem cell specification because it suppresses Sox9, which is required for stem cell formation. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.10567. 001
Induction of CPP32-like Activity in PC12 Cells by Withdrawal of Trophic Support

Inhibitors of interleukin-1β converting enzyme (ICE) and a related group of cysteine aspartases of the ICE/ced-3 family inhibit cell death in a variety of settings, including in PC12 cells and sympathetic neurons following withdrawal of trophic support. To assess the particular member(s) of the ICE/ced-3 family that are relevant to cell death and to position their activation within the apoptotic pathway, we have used specific substrates to measure ICE-like and CPP32-like enzymatic activity in naive and neuronally differentiated PC12 cells that had been deprived of trophic support (nerve growth factor and/or serum). Rapid induction of CPP32-like, but not ICE-like, activity was observed. c-Jun kinase activation and the action of bcl-2 and other survival agents, such as cell cycle blockers, a NO generator, N-acetylcysteine, aurintricarboxylic acid, and actinomycin D occurred at a point further upstream in the apoptotic pathway compared with the aspartase activation. In living cells, zVAD-FMK, a pseudosubstrate aspartase inhibitor, blocked the activity/activation of the aspartase at concentrations about one order of magnitude lower than those required to promote survival, raising the possibility that the CPP32-like aspartase is not the main death effector in this model.
Identification of New World Quails Susceptible to Infection with Avian Leukosis Virus Subgroup J

ABSTRACT The J subgroup of avian leukosis virus (ALV-J) infects domestic chickens, jungle fowl, and turkeys. This virus enters the host cell through a receptor encoded by the tvj locus and identified as Na+/H+ exchanger 1. The resistance to avian leukosis virus subgroup J in a great majority of galliform species has been explained by deletions or substitutions of the critical tryptophan 38 in the first extracellular loop of Na+/H+ exchanger 1. Because there are concerns of transspecies virus transmission, we studied natural polymorphisms and susceptibility/resistance in wild galliforms and found the presence of tryptophan 38 in four species of New World quails. The embryo fibroblasts of New World quails are susceptible to infection with avian leukosis virus subgroup J, and the cloned Na+/H+ exchanger 1 confers susceptibility on the otherwise resistant host. New World quails are also susceptible to new avian leukosis virus subgroup J variants but resistant to subgroups A and B and weakly susceptible to subgroups C and D of avian sarcoma/leukosis virus due to obvious defects of the respective receptors. Our results suggest that the avian leukosis virus subgroup J could be transmitted to New World quails and establish a natural reservoir of circulating virus with a potential for further evolution. IMPORTANCE Since its spread in broiler chickens in China and Southeast Asia in 2000, ALV-J remains a major enzootic challenge for the poultry industry. Although the virus diversifies rapidly in the poultry, its spillover and circulation in wild bird species has been prevented by the resistance of most species to ALV-J. It is, nevertheless, important to understand the evolution of the virus and its potential host range in wild birds. Because resistance to avian retroviruses is due particularly to receptor incompatibility, we studied Na+/H+ exchanger 1, the receptor for ALV-J. In New World quails, we found a receptor compatible with virus entry, and we confirmed the susceptibilities of four New World quail species in vitro. We propose that a prospective molecular epidemiology study be conducted to identify species with the potential to become reservoirs for ALV-J.
Fault Analysis and Remedial Strategies on a Fault-Tolerant Motor Drive with Redundancy

Fault-tolerant motor drives are required in a range of safety-critical applications. Using a special motor design and an appropriate inverter topology, brushless permanent magnet AC motor drives can have an effective fault-tolerant capability. Although a single motor fault-tolerant drive system may be sufficient in many critical applications, a higher degree of fault tolerance requires redundancy in the motor system as considered in this paper. This is achieved by using a dual motor module on a common shaft. The simulation model of the entire drive system and the analysis of the various faults are presented in this paper. The effects of fault(s) on the phase current and output torque are provided. Three remedial operating modes are proposed and their features are compared. In addition, an experimental setup was introduced, which is based on dual electrically and magnetically isolated brushless AC motor modules, h-bridge inverters for individual phases and dsPICDEM MCU motor controller.
Effect of transport on feeder calves.

One hundred fifty feeder steers (mean body weight, 195 kg) were assigned to 1 of 3 transport groups and were deprived of feed and water (fasted) for 24 hours. Additionally, calves were transported on a commercial livestock trailer for 0 (control-fasted only), 12 (short haul), or 24 (long haul) hours. Blood samples were obtained from the jugular vein before calves were loaded on the transport vehicle and immediately after calves of the long-haul group returned to the research feedlot. Complete blood counts were performed and 32 mineral, enzyme, and biochemical constituents were measured. Calf morbidity, mortality, and average daily weight gain were evaluated during the next 56 days. Duration of transport did not affect average daily gain; however, calves of the short-haul group had significantly (P less than 0.05) higher morbidity and mortality than did those of the control and long-haul groups. In all groups, results of differential leukocyte counts were indicative of stress response. Significant (P less than 0.05) linear contrasts were observed between duration of transport and erythrocyte, leukocyte, segmented neutrophil, lymphocyte, and eosinophil counts and results of serum enzyme (alanine transaminase, hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase, total lactate dehydrogenase [LD], and LD-1, LD-3, and LD-4 isoenzymes), iron, urea nitrogen, beta-globulin, glucose, and urea nitrogen-to-creatinine ratio determinations. Significant (P less than 0.05) quadratic contrasts were observed between duration of transport and serum unsaturated iron binding capacity, total iron binding capacity, and LD-5 percentage. Calf source had a significant (P less than 0.05) effect on almost all variables tested. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Efficiency-enhanced Doherty amplifier with extended bandwidth based on asymmetrical drain voltage

This paper presents design and implementation about an asymmetrical-Doherty-power-amplifier (A-DPA). The back-off efficiency and operating bandwidth are improved through considering knee-voltage (Vknee) effect and impedance-transformation-ratio (ITR) of inverter. The A-DPA is fabricated with NXP's 7th Generation Si LDMOS device BLF7G27-75P accompanied by the proposed combining network. Within a bandwidth of 300MHz, measurements perform drain efficiency of η ≧ 41 % and Gain of 14.1±0.6 dB over 7dB output power back-off for continuous wave signal. With linearization, the ADPA shows ACLR ≦ −45.8 dBc with drain efficiency η ≧ 41.4% in 2.25∼2.55 GHz under WCDMA signal with 7.8 dB PAPR at average power of 43 dBm. This is the widest bandwidth of DPA with high drain efficiency at output power 7 dB back-off using Si LDMOS packaged devices to the best of the authors' knowledge.
In vitro antiviral activities of extracts derived from Daucus maritimus seeds

The antiviral activities of extracts from Daucus maritimus seeds were investigated against the reverse transcriptase of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 and a panel of RNA-dependent RNA polymerases of dengue virus, West Nile virus (WNV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). The extracts showed moderate to potent inhibition rates against the four viral polymerases. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited a potent inhibitory effect against WNV's RdRp, with an IC50 value of 8 µg mL−1. The F 2 fraction exhibited potent inhibitory activity against WNV and HCV's RdRps, with IC50 values 1 and 5 µg mL−1, respectively. The P 2 fraction also showed potent inhibitory effects on WNV and HCV's RdRps, with IC50 values 2.7 and 4 µg mL−1, respectively. The results suggest that these extracts are candidates for the development of new anti-WNV RpDp and anti-HCV RpDp agents.
A computerized test for the assessment of mild cognitive impairment subtypes in sentence processing

ABSTRACT This study examines thesentence processing ability of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) subtypes. In addition to standard MCI neuropsychological tests, an experimental approach was applied to assess language. 133 people (93 MCI/40 controls) participated in novel computerized sentence processing tasks. Results presented statistically significant differences between MCI/controls andMCI subtypes (ANOVA):(a) duration F(2,92) = 19.259,p < . 001) in sentence construction; (b) correct answers (F(2, 89) = 8.560,p < . 001) and duration (F2,89) = 15.525,p < . 001)in text comprehension; (c) correct answers (F(2, 92) = 8.975,p < . 001) andduration (F(2, 92) = 4.360,p = . 016) in metaphoric sentences comprehension; (d) correct answers (F(2, 92) = 12.836,p < . 001) andduration (F(2, 92) = 10.974,p < . 001) in verb form generation. Subtle changes in MCIsubtypes could affect sentence processing and provide useful information for cognitive decline risk estimation and screening purposes.
Resistance training prevents deterioration in quadriceps muscle function during acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

RATIONALE Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) acutely reduce skeletal muscle strength and result in long-term loss of functional capacity. OBJECTIVES To investigate whether resistance training is feasible and safe and can prevent deteriorating muscle function during exacerbations of COPD. METHODS Forty patients (FEV(1) 49 +/- 17% predicted) hospitalized with a severe COPD exacerbation were randomized to receive usual care or an additional resistance training program during the hospital admission. Patients were followed up for 1 month after discharge. Primary outcomes were quadriceps force and systemic inflammation. A muscle biopsy was taken in a subgroup of patients to assess anabolic and catabolic pathways. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Resistance training did not yield higher systemic inflammation as indicated by C-reactive protein levels and could be completed uneventfully. Enhanced quadriceps force was seen at discharge (+9.7 +/- 16% in the training group; -1 +/- 13% in control subjects; P = 0.05) and at 1 month follow-up in the patients who trained. The 6-minute walking distance improved after discharge only in the group who received resistance training (median 34; interquartile range, 14-61 m; P = 0.002). In a subgroup of patients a muscle biopsy showed a more anabolic status of skeletal muscle in patients who followed training. Myostatin was lower (P = 0.03) and the myogenin/MyoD ratio tended to be higher (P = 0.08) in the training group compared with control subjects. CONCLUSIONS Resistance training is safe, successfully counteracts skeletal muscle dysfunction during acute exacerbations of COPD, and may up-regulate the anabolic milieu in the skeletal muscle. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials. gov (NCT00877084).
Monitoring and controlling rice diseases using Image processing techniques

Development of an automated system for identifying and classifying different diseases of the contaminated plants is an emerging research area in precision agriculture. Identification of the diseases is the key to prevent qualitative and quantitative loss of agricultural yields. Rice (Oryza Sative) is one of the essential crops in India and losses due to the diseases badly impact the economy. Manual detection of the diseases is very difficult and not accurate. This creates a need for Image processing techniques which will help in accurate and timely detection of the diseases and overcome the limitations of the human vision. A new technique to diagnose and classify rice diseases has been proposed in this paper. Four diseases namely rice bacterial blight, rice blast, rice brown spot and rice sheath rot have been identified and classified. Different features like shape, the color of a diseased portion of the leaf have been extracted by developing an algorithm. All the extracted features have been combined as per the diseases and diseases have been classified using Minimum Distance Classifier (MDC) and k-Nearest Neighbor classifier (k-NN). The performance of the proposed technique has been evaluated with the help of 115 rice leaf images of four diseases and 70 percent image data has been used for training the classifier and 30 percent has been used for testing. Classification accuracy has been calculated for each disease using both classifiers. The overall accuracy achieved by using k-NN and MDC is 87.02 percent and 89.23 percent respectively.
Evaluation of Pneumonia Virus of Mice as a Possible Human Pathogen

ABSTRACT Pneumonia virus of mice (PVM), a relative of human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), causes respiratory disease in mice. There is serologic evidence suggesting widespread exposure of humans to PVM. To investigate replication in primates, African green monkeys (AGM) and rhesus macaques (n = 4) were inoculated with PVM by the respiratory route. Virus was shed intermittently at low levels by a subset of animals, suggesting poor permissiveness. PVM efficiently replicated in cultured human cells and inhibited the type I interferon (IFN) response in these cells. This suggests that poor replication in nonhuman primates was not due to a general nonpermissiveness of primate cells or poor control of the IFN response. Seroprevalence in humans was examined by screening sera from 30 adults and 17 young children for PVM-neutralizing activity. Sera from a single child (6%) and 40% of adults had low neutralizing activity against PVM, which could be consistent with increasing incidence of exposure following early childhood. There was no cross-reaction of human or AGM sera between RSV and PVM and no cross-protection in the mouse model. In native Western blots, human sera reacted with RSV but not PVM proteins under conditions in which AGM immune sera reacted strongly. Serum reactivity was further evaluated by flow cytometry using unfixed Vero cells infected with PVM or RSV expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a measure of viral gene expression. The reactivity of human sera against RSV-infected cells correlated with GFP expression, whereas reactivity against PVM-infected cells was low and uncorrelated with GFP expression. Thus, PVM specificity was not evident. Our results indicate that the PVM-neutralizing activity of human sera is not due to RSV- or PVM-specific antibodies but may be due to low-affinity, polyreactive natural antibodies of the IgG subclass. The absence of PVM-specific antibodies and restriction in nonhuman primates makes PVM unlikely to be a human pathogen.
Laing early onset distal myopathy: slow myosin defect with variable abnormalities on muscle biopsy

Background: Laing early onset distal myopathy (MPD1) is an autosomal dominant myopathy caused by mutations within the slow skeletal muscle fibre myosin heavy chain gene, MYH7. It is allelic with myosin storage myopathy, with the commonest form of familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and with one form of dilated cardiomyopathy. However, the clinical picture of MPD1 is distinct from these three conditions. Objective: To collate and discuss the histological features reported in the muscle biopsies of MPD1 patients and to outline the clinical features. Results: The phenotype of MPD1 was consistent, with initial weakness of great toe/ankle dorsiflexion, and later development of weakness of finger extension and neck flexion. Age of onset was the only variable, being from birth up to the 20s, but progression was always very slow. The pathological features were variable. In this retrospective series, there were no pathognomonic diagnostic features, although atrophic type I fibres were found in half the families. Rimmed vacuoles are consistently seen in all other distal myopathies with the exception of Myoshi distal myopathy. However, they were found in a minority of patients with MPD1, and were not prominent when present. Immunohistochemical staining for slow and fast myosin showed co-expression of slow and fast myosin in some type I fibres, possibly indicating a switch to type II status. This may be a useful aid to diagnosis. Conclusions: The pathological findings in MPD1 are variable and appear to be affected by factors such as the specific muscle biopsied, the age of the patient at biopsy, and the duration of disease manifestations.
Current controversies and challenges in allergic rhinitis management

There are many obstacles in the path of effective allergy management, in general, and allergic rhinitis (AR) control, in particular. Chief among them are: insufficient symptom relief in some patients provided by some currently considered first-line AR treatments in real life; an over-reliance on randomized controlled trials to direct AR guideline recommendations; the need for a broader interpretation of the AR evidence base (to include randomized controlled trials and real-life studies); poorly designed and interpreted studies; and lack of an AR control concept and common language of control. These controversies are fully reviewed here and challenging solutions have been presented.
Functional circuitry involved in the regulation of whisker movements

Neuroanatomical tract‐tracing methods were used to identify the oligosynaptic circuitry by which the whisker representation of the motor cortex (wMCx) influences the facial motoneurons that control whisking activity (wFMNs). Injections of the retrograde tracer cholera toxin subunit B into physiologically identified wFMNs in the lateral facial nucleus resulted in dense, bilateral labeling throughout the brainstem reticular formation and in the ambiguus nucleus as well as predominantly ipsilateral labeling in the paralemniscal, pedunculopontine tegmental, Kölliker‐Fuse, and parabrachial nuclei. In addition, neurons in the following midbrain regions projected to the wFMNs: superior colliculus, red nucleus, periaqueductal gray, mesencephalon, pons, and several nuclei involved in oculomotor behaviors. Injections of the anterograde tracer biotinylated dextran amine into the wMCx revealed direct projections to the brainstem reticular formation as well as multiple brainstem and midbrain structures shown to project to the wFMNs. Regions in which retrograde labeling and anterograde labeling overlap most extensively include the brainstem parvocellular, gigantocellular, intermediate, and medullary (dorsal and ventral) reticular formations; ambiguus nucleus; and midbrain superior colliculus and deep mesencephalic nucleus. Other regions that contain less dense regions of combined anterograde and retrograde labeling include the following nuclei: the interstitial nucleus of medial longitudinal fasciculus, the pontine reticular formation, and the lateral periaqueductal gray. Premotoneurons that receive dense inputs from the wMCx are likely to be important mediators of cortical regulation of whisker movements and may be a key component in a central pattern generator involved in the generation of rhythmic whisking activity. J. Comp. Neurol. 442:266–276, 2002. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Defining and Monitoring Power Measurement in Elite Swimmers

The measurement of power in swimming has previously been carried out using a number of different methods. Each method appears to produce differing wattages, the majority of which are far below those seen in athletes of a similar level in other sports. The aim of this paper was to define what is being measured, what it relates to, and to give appropriate titles to the “types of power” recorded.
Resource-driven terrestrial interaction webs

Terrestrial food webs based on living plants may well represent 75% of global terrestrial biodiversity. The majority of component species are specialists and a large proportion is parasitic as herbivores and carnivores, with consequences for high sensitivity to heterogeneity on a variety of scales. Relatively large primary producers support relatively small insect herbivores and carnivores, with plants providing both food and habitat, making resource-driven effects very strong. Complexity of resources provided by plants, with influences up the food web, is generated by at least seven major factors: (i) plants as food; (ii) plants as habitat; (iii) the physical traits of plants such as size, toughness and trichomes; (iv) traits of plants that require evolutionary responses by herbivores in terms of crypsis, phenological synchrony, life history and behavioral adaptations; (v) the constitutive chemicals in plants; (vi) the induced changes in plants caused by herbivory; and (vii) landscape and biogeographic variation in vegetation types and food web richness. No other trophic level has such a wide-ranging impact on other trophic levels. But such broad impact makes the term ‘food web’ overly narrow and inadequate. The term ‘interaction web’ is preferable, aiding recognition of the many kinds of interactions that pass up food webs from living plants. Any claim that top-down impact is stronger than bottom-up influences is necessarily couched in a narrow sense of biomass or numbers reduction.