Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determination of the in vivo NAD:NADH ratio in Saccharomyces cerevisiae under anaerobic conditions, using alcohol dehydrogenase as sensor reaction

With the current quantitative metabolomics techniques, only whole‐cell concentrations of NAD and NADH can be quantified. These measurements cannot provide information on the in vivo redox state of the cells, which is determined by the ratio of the free forms only. In this work we quantified free NAD:NADH ratios in yeast under anaerobic conditions, using alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and the lumped reaction of glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase and 3‐phosphoglycerate kinase as sensor reactions. We showed that, with an alternative accurate acetaldehyde determination method, based on rapid sampling, instantaneous derivatization with 2,4 diaminophenol hydrazine (DNPH) and quantification with HPLC, the ADH‐catalysed oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde can be applied as a relatively fast and simple sensor reaction to quantify the free NAD:NADH ratio under anaerobic conditions. We evaluated the applicability of ADH as a sensor reaction in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, grown in anaerobic glucose‐limited chemostats under steady‐state and dynamic conditions. The results found in this study showed that the cytosolic redox status (NAD:NADH ratio) of yeast is at least one order of magnitude lower, and is thus much more reduced, under anaerobic conditions compared to aerobic glucose‐limited steady‐state conditions. The more reduced state of the cytosol under anaerobic conditions has major implications for (central) metabolism. Accurate determination of the free NAD:NADH ratio is therefore of importance for the unravelling of in vivo enzyme kinetics and to judge accurately the thermodynamic reversibility of each redox reaction. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Reasons for the caries decline: what do the experts believe?

The aim of this paper was to describe what experts of today believe are the main reasons explaining the caries decline seen in many westernized countries over the past 3 decades. We have collected the views of a number of international experts, trying to answer the specific question "What are the main reasons why 20-25-year-old persons have less caries nowadays, compared to 30 years ago? ". A questionnaire was mailed to 55 experts with a number of thinkable explanations to be scored according to a predetermined scale. The 25 items were divided into main groups under the heading of diet, fluorides, plaque, saliva, dentist/dental materials and other factors. The experts were asked to think of a specific country or area, and also to specify whether the chosen area had water fluoridation or not. The main finding of our study, based on a 95% response rate, was that there is a very large variation in how the experts graded the impact of various possible factors. For the use of fluoride toothpaste, there was a clear agreement of a definite positive effect.
GRP78, a Coreceptor for Coxsackievirus A9, Interacts with Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Molecules Which Mediate Virus Internalization

ABSTRACT It is becoming apparent that over the years cell infection by virus seems to have evolved into a multistep process in which many viruses employ distinct cell surface molecules for their attachment and cell entry. In this study the attachment and entry pathway of coxsackievirus A9 (CAV-9), a member of the Picornaviridae family, was investigated. It has been known that, although integrin αvβ3 is utilized as a receptor, its presence alone is insufficient for CAV-9 infection and that CAV-9 also requires a 70-kDa major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I)-associated protein (MAP-70) as a coreceptor molecule. We document by protein isolation and peptide sequencing that the 70-kDa protein is GRP78, a member of the heat shock protein 70 family of stress proteins. Furthermore we show by using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) that GRP78 is also expressed on the cell surface and associates with MHC-I molecules. In addition CAV-9 infection of permissive cells requires GRP78 and also MHC-I molecules, which are essential for virus internalization. The identification of GRP78 as a coreceptor for CAV-9 and the revelation of GRP78 and MHC-I associations have provided new insights into the life cycle of CAV-9, which utilizes integrin αvβ3 and GRP78 as receptor molecules whereas MHC-I molecules serve as the internalization pathway of this virus to mammalian cells.
Alteration of homocysteine catabolism in pre-eclampsia, HELLP syndrome and placental insufficiency

Abstract Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor in obstetrical complications such as pre-eclampsia, ‘hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet’ (HELLP)-syndrome and placental insufficiency. The aim of our study was to investigate the alterations of homocysteine catabolism in these patients in relation to serum B-vitamins and renal function. Maternal fasting serum from preeclampsia (n = 24), HELLP (n = 20) and placental insufficiency (n = 25) patients at the time of diagnosis and pregnant controls (n = 34) was analyzed for homocysteine and its metabolites cystathionine and methylmalonic acid, the vitamins B6, B12 and folate, renal and additional parameters. Cystathionine, a parameter of homocysteine catabolism, was significantly increased in pre-eclampsia and HELLP compared with controls and placental insufficiency patients (mean concentrations: 343, 324, 248, 227 nmol/l; p=0.001). Homocysteine, folic acid, vitamin B6 and methylmalonic acid, however, did not differ significantly between groups. The main determinants of cystathionine are cystatin C and vitamin B6, whereas the main determinants of homocysteine are folate and uric acid. The strongest dependency of cystathionine on vitamin B6 was observed in pre-eclampsia and HELLP patients. The results suggest that the vitamin B6-dependent trans-sulfuration pathway is activated in pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome, probably by oxidative stress. Therefore, the demand for vitamin B6 is increased in these patients. Furthermore, renal dysfunction and low vitamin B6 levels contribute to the increase of cystathionine in pre-eclampsia and HELLP patients.
Of Leaders and Followers - An Econometric Analysis of Equity Analysts and Stock Market Investors

We measure the information content of monthly analyst consensus forecasts for one-year-forward earnings per share (EPS) based on two well-established price discovery measures drawn from the area of market micro-structure research. Employing a 36-year sample of large US companies listed in the S&P 100 Index, we compute (i) Hasbrouck's information shares and (ii) Gonzalo and Granger's common factor component shares to measure the relative share that market participants and analysts have in the process of price discovery. We find that while analysts do not lead the capital market, they have a small but significant share in the process of price discovery, amounting to 4.6% (Hasbrouck) and 18.0% (Gonzalo and Granger) on average. This share varies significantly in the cross-section. We identify the level of analyst coverage as an explanatory factor: The greater a company's coverage, the smaller is the analysts' information share. This finding can be explained by analysts' herding behavior as well as by company incentives, which lower the information content of their estimates.
Stabilization of Quercetin Paradoxically Reduces Its Proapoptotic Effect on UVB-Irradiated Human Keratinocytes

UVB light promotes survival of initiated keratinocytes, in part, by the direct activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. Novel chemopreventative agents targeting UVB-induced signaling pathways are needed to reduce the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancer. Quercetin (Qu) is a dietary flavonoid and a known inhibitor of PI3K. We determined that Qu degrades rapidly when diluted in DMEM and incubated under normal cell culture conditions. Degradation was delayed by supplementing the medium with 1 mmol/L ascorbic acid (AA), and as expected, stabilization actually increased the effectiveness of Qu as a PI3K inhibitor because basal and UVB-induced Akt phosphorylation were reduced compared with Qu treatment in the absence of AA. Although AA stabilization increased Qu-induced apoptosis in mock-irradiated HaCaT cells, consistent with it acting as a PI3K inhibitor (13.4% Annexin V–positive cells for AA-stabilized Qu versus 6.3% for Qu), AA stabilization of Qu actually reduced the ability of the compound to induce apoptosis of UVB-irradiated HaCaTs (29.7% of Qu-treated cells versus 15.5% of AA + Qu–treated cells). Similar trends were seen in the analysis of caspase-3 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage. Qu is known to oxidize to form reactive products, and we found that dihydroethidium is oxidized by Qu regardless of whether or not it was stabilized. Although redox cycling occurs even in the presence of AA, stabilization reduces the accumulation of reactive Qu products that contribute to the proapoptotic effect of the compound, and thus reduces the ability of the compound to induce apoptosis of UVB-irradiated HaCaT cells.
Small UWB antenna using triangular elements on UWB unit

Recently wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB) system using Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technique is discussed. This time, we targeted to develop the antenna for UWB unit whose size is as same as the general USB stick memory size. This paper shows the small and wide band antenna made of the printed circuit board and its performance. The small UWB antenna which we proposed consists of four triangular elements on the front and the back sides of the printed circuit board. Its total size including the ground area is 10mm by 45mm. In this case, the ground area is used as a ground of antenna and the mounting area of LSI for UWB if LSI is realized in the size less than 10mm by 25mm. In terms of the antenna performance, VSWR has achieved less than 1.8 in the band from 3.1GHz to 4.8GHz which is the first applicable band for Wireless USB.
Stability of coagulation factors in plasma prepared after a 24‐hour room temperature hold

BACKGROUND: The manufacture of fresh‐frozen plasma (FFP) requires that plasma be frozen within 8 hours of collection and 24‐hour frozen plasma requires 1 to 6°C refrigeration before freezing. Manufacture of plasma after a room temperature hold for 24 hours, while convenient, could compromise clotting factor levels.
The emergence of cetaceans: phylogenetic analysis of male social behaviour supports the Cetartiodactyla clade

Abstract The phylogeny of cetaceans is still unresolved. Two hypotheses prevail for the position of cetaceans among ungulates. The first hypothesis shows that Artiodactyla is monophyletic and is sister taxon to a clade composed of cetaceans and mesonychians. The second one shows that Artiodactyla is paraphyletic and contains Cetacea that is sister taxon of Hippopotamida. These hypotheses are based on fossil records and molecular studies. The behaviour of extant species can provide as much phylogenetic information as other classical parameters. I considered the behaviour observed during male agonistic interactions in placental mammals in order to determine which of these hypotheses was supported by the behaviour of extant species. Headbutting was only observed in ruminants, hippopotamids and cetaceans, supporting the paraphyletic nature of Artiodactyla. Primitive ruminants (tragulids) and two genera of ruminants (Moschus and Oreamnos) were not observed headbutting. These secondary losses were only present in 6.25% of the 48 surveyed ruminant genera. Head‐to‐head attacks emerged in pigs, which have developed dermal protusions. Yet, these confrontations are not based on mutual blow delivery. The behavioural evidence supports the inclusion of cetaceans in Artiodactyla.
Strengthening political leadership and policy innovation through the expansion of collaborative forms of governance

ABSTRACT This article explores how political leadership and policy innovation can be enhanced through collaborative governance. The main findings are that while wicked and unruly problems create an urgent need for policy innovation, politicians are badly positioned to initiate, drive and lead this innovation. They are either locked into a dependency on policy advice from senior civil servants or locked out of more inclusive policy networks. In either case, they are insulated from fresh ideas and ultimately reduced to ‘policy-takers’ with limited engagement in policy innovation. Collaborative policy innovation offers a solution to these limitations.
Joint detection and decoding of polar-coded SCMA systems

Sparse-code multiple-access (SCMA) is a novel multiplexing method to increase the capacity of wireless communication systems. By giving users non-orthogonal codebook with few non-zero entries, the SCMA approach can highly improve the spectral efficiency, compared with traditional orthogonal ones such as CDMA, with tolerable detection complexity. Therefore, it has been considered as an option for 5G air-interface technique. Also essential in 5G, polar code has already been adopted by 5G eMBB control channel, for its capacity-achieving capability. In this work, a joint detection and decoding (JDD) method of polar-coded SCMA system is proposed for the first time, which can highly improve the performance of the polar-SCMA systems. By merging two factor graphs together, the intrinsic messages can be exchanged iteratively to help the likelihood messages converge. Numerical results have shown that, compared to separated detection and decoding (SDD), JDD can achieve remarkable performance gain little complexity overhead. Hardware architecture is also presented in this paper to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed JDD scheme.
Effects of laparoscopic models on anaerobic bacterial growth with bacteroides fragilis in experimentally induced peritonitis.

BACKGROUND Previous reports of recurrent intra-abdominal abcess formation after the laparoscopic treatment of perforated acute appendicitis led us to investigate the possible effects of gas insufflation on the spread of infection. We previously showed that Escherichia coli counts were significantly higher in a laparoscopy group that underwent carbon dioxide (CO2) insufflation than in control and laparotomy groups. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of intra-abdominal CO2 and nitrous oxide (N2O) insufflation on anaerobic bacterial growth in a rat model. METHODS A standard strain of Bacteroides fragilis (ATCC 25285) was injected intraperitoneally (1 x 10(6) cfu/mL per kilogram) in 40 Wistar rats under sterile conditions. Forty rats with induced peritonitis were randomly divided into five groups: control, laparotomy, CO2 insufflation, N2O insufflation, and one group without pneumoperitoneum. Eight hours after the intraperitoneal injection of B. fragilis, peritoneal aspirates were obtained and inoculated onto Brucella agar. At the sixteenth hour of induced peritoneal infection (corresponding to hour 8 in the laparoscopy groups) all animals underwent laparotomy; peritoneal aspirates were obtained and inoculated into Brucella agar for bacterial counts. The colonies of B. fragilis were counted manually, and the results were expressed as the mean number of colony-forming units per milliliter. RESULTS No significant differences in microorganism counts were noted between the study groups before the procedure (p>.05 for all comparisons). We observed a significant increase in the number of bacteria (mean +/- SD) in the CO2 insufflation group between hour 8 and hour 16 of peritoneal contamination. CONCLUSION The results suggest that CO2 insufflation may promote the growth of intra-abdominal anaerobic bacteria. Such bacterial growth may lead to intra-abdominal abcess formation or cause localized peritonitis to develop into generalized peritonitis. We suggest that laparoscopy without pneumoperitoneum may be preferred in patients with peritonitis.
Small commercial inverter laboratory evaluations of UL 1741 SA grid-support function response times

Photovoltaic (PV) distributed energy resources (DER) have reached approximately 27 GW in the U.S., and the solar penetration rate continues to increase. This growth is expected to continue, causing challenges for grid operators who must maintain grid stability, reliability, and resiliency. To minimize adverse effects on the performance of electrical power system (EPS) with increasing levels of variable renewable generation, photovoltaic inverters must implement grid-support capabilities, allowing the DER to actively participate in grid support operations and remain connected during short-term voltage and frequency anomalies. These functions include voltage and frequency regulation features that adjust DER active and reactive power at the point of common coupling. To evaluate the risk of these functions conflicting with traditional distribution system voltage regulation equipment, researchers used several methods to quantify EPS-support function response times for autonomous voltage regulation functions (volt-var function). Based on this study, no adverse interactions between PV inverters with volt-var functions and load tap changing transformers or capacitor banks were discovered.
Design and implementation of a closed‐loop control system for infusion of propofol guided by bispectral index (BIS)

This study describes the design of a hypnosis closed‐loop control system with propofol. The controller used a proportional‐integral (PI) algorithm with the bispectral index (BIS) as the feedback signal. Our hypothesis was that a PI closed‐loop control could be applied in clinical practice safely keeping the BIS within a pre‐determined target range.
Glucocorticoids drive human CD8+ T cell differentiation towards a phenotype with high IL‐10 and reduced IL‐4, IL‐5 and IL‐13 production

Glucocorticoids are highly effective in the treatment of allergy and asthma and inhibit the synthesis of IL‐4, IL‐5 and IL‐13 by disease‐promoting CD4+ Th2 cells. CD8+ T cells also synthesize these cytokines, and the aim of this study was to investigate how glucocorticoids effect cytokine production by these cells. When CD8+ T cells are stimulated with anti‐CD3 and IL‐2 plus IL‐4 or dexamethasone, production of the anti‐inflammatory cytokine IL‐10 is low in both primary and secondary cultures restimulated with anti‐CD3 and IL‐2 alone. However, when both are present, a synergistic effect on IL‐10 synthesis is observed. The additional presence of antigen‐presenting cells (APC) in the priming culture maintains IL‐10 levels, but inhibits IL‐4 and IL‐5 production. CD4+ T cells develop a similar glucocorticoid‐induced phenotype. These cells demonstrate regulatory activity and inhibit CD4+ T cell activation in an IL‐10‐dependent manner. Earlier reports show glucocorticoids promote a Th2 phenotype by effects on purified naive T cells or pretreatment of APC. This study demonstrates, more critically, that when APC are present, glucocorticoids induce CD4 and CD8 T cell populations synthesizing high levels of IL‐10, but greatly reduced amounts of disease‐promoting IL‐4 and IL‐5.
[IgE sensitization and sociodemographic conditions as determinant factors in asthma severity].

BACKGROUND In Latin America there are few data about the factors that influence the control and severity of asthma. OBJECTIVE To describe the association between IgE sensitization to intra-home allergens and housing conditions in the severity of asthma. METHODS Sensitization to aero-allergens was evaluated by skin prick test and socio-demographic data by a questionnaire in a population between 6 and 14 years of age with diagnosis of asthma. Asthma control was measured according to spirometric results and to the application of the ACT (Asthma Control Test); the severity and symptom control was evaluated according to the GINA guideline. RESULTS A total of 150 resident patients from the Aburra Valley (Colombia) were included. The median age of participants was 11 years, 95 (63.3 %) male. 92 % of the patients resided in the urban area. Mite sensitization was the most prevalent in controlled and uncontrolled patients. Sensitization to cockroach and some poverty conditions were risk factors for asthma severity. CONCLUSION Poverty conditions appear to favor the development of severe asthma and in turn IgE sensitization to cockroaches. This sensitization could serve as a biomarker of severity.
The Family Diet Study: a cross-sectional study into the associations between diet, food habits and body weight status in Malay families.

BACKGROUND Childhood obesity is becoming more common as Malaysia experiences rapid nutrition transition. Current evidence related to parental influences on child dietary intake and body weight status is limited. The present study aimed to report, among Malay families, the prevalence of energy mis-reporting and dietary relationships within family dyads. METHODS The cross-sectional Family Diet Study (n = 236) was conducted at five primary schools in central of Peninsular Malaysia. Each family consisted of a Malay child, aged 8-12 years, and their main caregiver(s). Information on socio-demographics, dietary intake and anthropometry were collected. Correlations and regression analyses were used to assess dietary relationships within family dyads. RESULTS Approximately 29.6% of the children and 75.0% parents were categorised as being overweight or obese. Intakes of nutrients and food groups were below the national recommended targets for majority of children and adults. A large proportion of energy intake mis-reporters were identified: mothers (55.5%), fathers (40.2%) and children (40.2%). Children's body mass index (BMI) was positively associated with parental BMI (fathers, r = 0.37; mothers, r = 0.34; P < 0.01). For dietary intakes, moderate-to-strong (0.35-0.72) and weak-to-moderate (0.16-0.35) correlations were found between mother-father and child-parent dyads, respectively. Multiple regression revealed that maternal percentage energy from fat (β = 0.09, P < 0.01) explained 81% of the variation in children's fat intake. CONCLUSIONS Clear parental dietary relationships, especially child-mother dyads, were found. Despite a significant proportion of families with members who were overweight or obese, the majority reported dietary intakes below recommended levels, distorted by energy mis-reporting. The findings of the present study can inform interventions targeting parent-child relationships to improve family dietary patterns in Malaysia.