Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A siderophore production mutant of Bordetella bronchiseptica cannot use lactoferrin as an iron source

Bordetella bronchiseptica secreted a hydroxamate siderophore when grown in Fe-depleted medium. A Tn5lac insertion mutant of B. bronchiseptica, DBB22, did not produce this hydroxamate siderophore and was incapable of using lactoferrin as an Fe source. Our data suggest that B. bronchiseptica uses a siderophore for removal of Fe from lactoferrin and transferrin rather than relying upon a receptor for these host Fe-binding proteins.
The Physical Activity and Disability Survey (PADS): reliability, validity and acceptability in people with multiple sclerosis

Objective: To explore the test—retest reliability and construct validity of the standardized Physical Activity and Disability Survey (PADS) and its acceptability to people with multiple sclerosis. Design: Participants completed the PADS twice with seven days between repeated measures, while also wearing an Actical accelerometer. Semi-structured interview questions were used to explore the acceptability of the PADS. Subjects: Thirty participants were recruited from the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Auckland, New Zealand. Mean age of participants was 54 years (range 27–76). Main Measuress: Physical Activity and Disability Survey (PADS) and Actical accelerometer. Results: A wide range of standardized PADS scores were recorded at each time-point (ranges 6.7-83.3 and 6.7-87.4). While standardized PADS scores between time-points had a high intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.92 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88, 0.98), Bland–Altman 95% limits of agreement (–17.4, 17.4) were modest. Accelerometer activity counts were not accurately predicted by standardized PADS scores (wide 95% prediction intervals). Participants reported the PADS was easy to understand and complete, enabling them to give an accurate picture of their physical activity. Conclusions: The PADS appears to be a potentially appropriate measure of activity for people with multiple sclerosis, particularly in terms of the wide range of activities it covers and its ability to detect varying levels of physical activity. We suggest the test–retest reliability and validity of the PADS could be improved with some minor revisions.
The role of platelet-rich plasma in tissue regeneration

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP), an autologous derivative of whole blood that contains a supraphysiological concentration of platelets, has gained increasing attention in both the scientific literature and the wider media for its potential application in the treatment of traumatic musculoskeletal injury. The theoretical benefit of PRP in providing a local environment for tissue regeneration which is rich in growth factors and other cytokines has been supported by in vitro and animal studies which suggest a positive influence on the migration and proliferation of a number of cell types. However, the reported clinical use of PRP is largely confined to the last two decades and initially centred around its application in dental and maxillofacial surgery. More recently, developments in research of the regenerative effects of PRP in a range of tissue types including bone, cartilage, tendon and muscle, particularly in the context of traumatic injury, have attracted interest in fields such as orthopaedic and plastic surgery where effective union of sometimes poorly vascularised and damaged tissue is a critical determinant of successful clinical outcome. Despite the lack of high-quality trial data, results from clinical studies have been encouraging, and PRP administration remains an attractive strategy given its cost-effective and minimally invasive nature. In this review, we summarise the current literature on the use of PRP and highlight areas of controversy and emerging clinical applications.
Conceptual Design of a 24 kV, 1 kA Resistive Superconducting Fault Current Limiter

In recent years many large scale demonstrators and prototypes of superconducting fault current limiters have been successfully developed and tested. Within the European Project ECCOFLOW (www.eccoflow.org), it is the first time that a resistive-type superconducting fault current limiter is developed for two different locations and that a permanent installation is foreseen. The limiter has a rating of 20 kV and 1 kA and will be tested in a busbar and transformer feeder application. The paper summarizes the conceptual design of this innovative limiter and reports in detail about the development of the super- conducting limiting elements, their integration into a cryostat and the design of the whole limiter including cooling and grid integration. As a main result it can be summarized that the ECCOFLOW limiter fulfills all requirements according to the two different specifications. Approximately 3 km of 12 mm wide YBCO tape will be used to realize a three phase system.
Increased TG2 Expression Can Result in Induction of Transforming Growth Factor β1, Causing Increased Synthesis and Deposition of Matrix Proteins, Which Can Be Regulated by Nitric Oxide*

In fibrotic conditions increases in TG2 activity has been linked to an increase in the deposition of extracellular matrix proteins. Using TG2 transfected Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts expressing TG2 under the control of the tetracycline-regulated inducible promoter, we demonstrate that induction of TG2 not only stimulates an increase in collagen and fibronectin deposition but also an increase in the expression of these proteins. Increased TG2 expression in these fibroblasts led to NF-κB activation, resulting in the increased expression of transforming growth factor (TGF) β1. In addition, cells overexpressing TG2 demonstrated an increase in biologically active TGFβ1 in the extracellular environment. A specific site-directed inhibitor of TG abolished the NF-κB and TGFβ1 activation and the subsequent elevation in the synthesis and deposition of extracellular matrix proteins, confirming that this process depends on the induction of transglutaminase activity. Treatment of TG2-induced fibroblasts with nontoxic doses of nitric oxide donor S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine resulted in decreased TG2 activity and apprehension of the inactive enzyme on the cell surface. This was paralleled by a reduction in activation of NF-κB and TGFβ1 production with a subsequent decrease in collagen expression and deposition. These findings support a role for NO in the regulation of TG2 function in the extracellular environment.
Worldwide Diffusion of Corporate Governance (CG) Regulations and Practices: A Literature Review

Research objectives: The main objective of this paper was to understand the diffusion of CG codes around the world. More specifically this paper examined what types of CG codes have emerged around the world? What causes the diffusion of shareholder centric model of CG around the world? What areas are still unexplained to better understand the diffusion of CG? Findings: This paper presented that pure economics and legitimacy reasons alone or together are not sufficient to explain the dynamics of how corporate governance reforms emerged and developed in different contexts. This study assumes that it is important to move the debate beyond the efficiency/legitimacy and convergence/divergence dichotomy and pay more attention to the process of emergence and development of corporate governance reforms.Implications: Prior institutional research ignores countriesâ€™ internal dynamics that can play an important role in shaping corporate governance reforms. The corporate governance model cannot exist in isolation; each country has its own unique institutional arrangements and can influence the process of diffusion. There is some consensus amidst corporate governance scholars that â€œthe-one-size-fits-allâ€ rule is flawed, and thus a wide diversity of approaches of corporate governance should be expected due to vast differences in national contexts where firms are embedded (Cuervo, 2002, Reaz and Hossain, 2007). Policy makers and researchers should consider broader institutional dynamics related to macro and micro institutional processes while developing and understanding CG diffusion around the world.
Evaluation of Simultaneous Permeation and Metabolism of Methyl Nicotinate in Human, Snake, and Shed Snake Skin

The transdermal permeation and metabolic characteristics of methyl nicotinate (MN) in stratum corneum and split-thickness human skin and three species of shed snake and snake skin (Elaphae obsoleta, Naja kaouthia, and Python molurus bivittatus) were evaluated. In vitro skin transport using excised skin and hydrolysis experiments using skin homogenate were carried out. The flux of MN, a metabolite, nicotinic acid (NA), and the total (MN+NA), as well as kinetic parameters (Vmax and Km) for hydrolysis of MN were determined and compared among various skin types. The total flux from MN-saturated solution through human skin was not significantly different from that through snake and shed snake skin of Elaphae obsoleta, Naja kaouthia but was significantly higher than that through snake and shed snake skin of Naja kaouthia (p < 0.05). A great difference in skin esterase activity was observed between human and snake in both snake skin and shed snake skin of all species. In all skins except the stratum corneum of human skin, NA flux increased with an increase in MN donor concentration and reached a plateau, suggesting that metabolic saturation was taking place in the skin. NA flux at the plateau and MN donor concentrations at which the NA flux reached a plateau also varied by species. These findings indicated that the discrepancy in transdermal profiles of MN among skins tested was predominantly due to the difference in the esterase activity in the skin.
Language And The Gentrifying City: An Ethnographic Study Of A Two- Way Immersion Program In An Urban Public School

Two-Way bilingual immersion programs, which bring together language majority and language minority children with the goals of bilingualism and biliteracy for all, are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. And while research shows high academic achievement for both language majority and language minority speakers, as measured by standardized testing (Thomas & Collier, 2002), several studies highlight the problematic tensions that arise around issues of equity, power, and the role and status of Spanish�(e.g. Cervantes-Soon, 2014; Fitts, 2006; Vald�s, 1997). I add to this literature by examining both the larger social processes that bring different groups of people together in the same urban space such as gentrification and immigration and how families and children differently experience the program. Through this ethnographic, discourse analytic study, I shed light on the social dynamics that influenced the creation of this program, including a funding crisis in the district along with a movement by middle class mostly white parents to "optin" to the public school system. I show how the efforts of one group to support and promote this program were driven by a desire for equity but also enmeshed in a system that reproduced class and race privilege. I demonstrate the stark differences in the realities of parents who composed the group of "English-speakers" and those who were the parents of the "Spanish-speakers. " Yet, in the classroom, I illustrate how children showed a wider range of proficiencies than their labels allowed. I argue that, through everyday interactions children socialized each other into both languages, and into a range of ways of communicating that went beyond linguistic codes. Finally, through the concept of raciolinguistic socialization, I show how race and class impacted children’s trajectories, which were consequential to not only their identities, but also decisions to stay or leave the program itself. Children and families from vastly different class, cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds are differently subject (or not) to processes of racialization and marginalization, which have consequences for their schooling experiences and eventual outcomes. As such, both these processes, and these programs, merit more scholarly attention. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Nelson Flores Second Advisor Betsy Rymes This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn. edu/edissertations/2213
Historical Institutionalism and Judicial Decision-Making: Ideas, Institutions, and Actors in French High Court Hate Speech Rulings

Abstract:This article integrates insights from different veins of historical institutionalism to offer an analytical framework that specifies how ideas, institutions, and actors account for key aspects of judicial decision-making, including change over time. To the extent that ideas are widely distributed, highly salient, and stable among actors in the judicial field, they can affect patterns of rulings in a particular issue area. The distribution, salience, and stability of norms, however, may change over time for reasons embedded in the institutional structures themselves. Existing policies, laws, or treaties create the potential for new actors to enter the judicial field through processes that theorists of institutional change have identified as intercurrence, displacement, conversion, layering, and drift. New actors can shift the relative salience of ideas already rooted in the judicial field. This ideational salience amplification can alter patterns of judicial decision-making without the fundamental and often costly battles involved in wholesale paradigm change. French high court hate speech decisions provide the context for the development of this framework and serve to illustrate the dynamic. The author uses evidence from an original data set of every ruling by the French Court of Cassation regarding racist hate speech from 1972 through 2012 to explain the varying propensity of the high court to restrict speech that targets majorities compared to minorities.
Nonenzymatic biotinylation of a biotin carboxyl carrier protein: Unusual reactivity of the physiological target lysine

Enzyme‐catalyzed addition of biotin to proteins is highly specific. In any single organism one or a small number of proteins are biotinylated and only a single lysine on each of these proteins is modified. A detailed understanding of the structural basis for the selective biotinylation process has not yet been elucidated. Recently certain mutants of the Escherichia coli biotin protein ligase have been shown to mediate “promiscuous” biotinylation of proteins. It was suggested that the reaction involved diffusion of a reactive activated biotin intermediate, biotinoyl‐5′‐AMP, with nonspecific proteins. In this work the reactivity of this chemically synthesized intermediate toward the natural target of enzymatic biotinylation, the biotin carboxyl carrier protein, was investigated. The results indicate that the intermediate does, indeed, react with target protein, albeit at a significantly slower rate than the enzyme‐catalyzed process. Surprisingly, analysis of the products of nonenzymatic biotinylation indicates that of five lysine residues in the protein only the physiological target side chain is modified. These results indicate that either the environment of this lysine residue or its intrinsic properties render it highly reactive to nonenzymatic biotinylation mediated by biotinoyl‐5′‐AMP. This reactivity may be important for its selective biotinylation in vivo.
The role of higher education in facilitating social mobility

This paper presents findings from an initial scoping study that set out to ask and invite discussion on ‘what more can be done in higher education to better facilitate social mobility for equity groups in Australia? ’ The research involved identifying studies which detailed information on the broad range of complex issues concerning social mobility both in Australia and internationally, in order to gain a fuller understanding of how important higher education participation has become in efforts to improve equity and social justice. Applying the findings about higher education’s role in driving social mobility to a number of identified barriers to equity group engagement, the paper concludes that although social mobility discourse is problematic, continued funding for successful enabling, outreach and scholarship programs remains an essential part of ensuring that the full diversity of the Australian population is included in higher education, so that opportunities for social mobility are available to all.
Fully relativistic pseudopotential formalism under an atomic orbital basis: spin–orbit splittings and magnetic anisotropies

We present an efficient implementation of the spin–orbit coupling within the density functional theory based SIESTA code (2002 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 14 2745) using the fully relativistic and totally separable pseudopotential formalism of Hemstreet et al (1993 Phys. Rev. B 47 4238). First, we obtain the spin–orbit splittings for several systems ranging from isolated atoms to bulk metals and semiconductors as well as the Au(111) surface state. Next, and after extensive tests on the accuracy of the formalism, we also demonstrate its capability to yield reliable values for the magnetic anisotropy energy in magnetic systems. In particular, we focus on the L10 binary alloys and on two large molecules: Mn6O2(H −sao)6(O2CH)2(CH3OH)4 and Co4(hmp)4(CH3OH)4Cl4. In all cases our calculated anisotropies are in good agreement with those obtained with full-potential methods, despite the latter being, in general, computationally more demanding.
Growth inhibition and antioxidative response of wood decay fungi exposed to plant extracts of Casearia species

Ligninolytic fungi take part in critical processes in ecosystems such as nutrient recycling; however, some fungal species can be pathogenic to forest and urban trees and deteriorate wood products. The tropical flora is an important source of antimicrobial compounds environmentally safer than traditional wood preservatives. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the inhibitory activity of ethanol plant extracts of Casearia sylvestris and Casearia decandra on the white‐rot wood decay basidiomycetes Trametes villosa and Pycnoporus sanguineus. In addition, the effect of the extracts on the fungal antioxidative metabolism was studied. Among the different substances present in the extracts, the phytochemical analyses identified a clerodane diterpenoid (C. sylvestris) and cinnamic acid, hydroquinone and β‐sitosterol (C. decandra). The extracts inhibited the fungi up to 70% and caused hyphal morphology changes. The extracts triggered oxidative stress process as indicated by the increased levels of the antioxidant enzymes catalase and glutathione reductase. Therefore, the Casearia extracts are a potential source of natural biocides to control wood decay fungi, and one of the mechanisms of action is the oxidative stress.
Association between outcome and organ system dysfunction in dogs with sepsis: 114 cases (2003-2007).

OBJECTIVE To determine whether multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) could be identified in dogs with sepsis secondary to gastrointestinal tract leakage, and whether the number of affected organ systems was significantly associated with mortality rate. DESIGN Multicenter retrospective case series. ANIMALS 114 dogs. PROCEDURES Medical records for dogs treated surgically because of sepsis secondary to gastrointestinal tract leakage between 2003 and 2007 were reviewed. Sepsis was diagnosed on the basis of results of bacterial culture of peritoneal fluid, gross evidence of gastrointestinal tract leakage at surgery, or both. Renal dysfunction was defined as a > or = 0.5 mg/dL increase in serum creatinine concentration after surgery. Cardiovascular dysfunction was defined as hypotension requiring vasopressor treatment. Respiratory dysfunction was defined as a need for supplemental oxygen administration or mechanical ventilation. Hepatic dysfunction was defined as a serum bilirubin concentration > 0.5 mg/dL. Dysfunction of coagulation was defined as prolonged prothrombin time, prolonged partial thromboplastin time, or platelet count < or = 100,000/microL. RESULTS 89 (78%) dogs had dysfunction of 1 or more organ systems, and 57 (50%) dogs had MODS. Mortality rate increased as the number of dysfunctional organ systems increased. Mortality rate was 70% (40/57) for dogs with MODS and 25% (14/57) for dogs without. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated that MODS, defined as dysfunction of at least 2 organ systems, can be identified in dogs with sepsis and that organ system dysfunction increased the odds of death.
[Characteristics of the intestinal dysbiosis and endotoxemia after hemicolectomy].

UNLABELLED The normal intestinal microflora important for maintaining the optimum level of metabolic processes in the human body, the immune system, as well as to create a high colonization resistance against the pathogenic microbes. With aging, changes microbiocaenosis intestine, resulting in an increase in the total number of microbes in the gut and profound changes in the functional properties of microorganisms. Under physiological conditions, the main reservoir of endotoxin in the human body is the intestine. Endotoxins, penetrating through the intestinal mucosa, arrive first at the local (intestinal), and then through the portal system in the liver, are able to initiate it various lesions, including fatty degeneration of the parenchyma. OBJECTIVE Based on clinical and laboratory studies to determine changes in gut microbiota and the level of endotoxemia in elderly patients in the remote period after undergoing surgery--hemicolectomy. RESULTS OF THE STUDY Metabolic activity of microflora in the colon according to the concentrations of short chain fatty acids in the feces of elderly patients in distant periods after hemicolectomy revealed in various degrees of violation of the microbiota of the colon. Violation of gut microbiota leads to endotoxaemia, which has a toxic effect on liver function, level of endotoxin and protein that binds to endotoxin was significantly higher in patients who underwent left-sided hemicolectomy.
Angiotensin II-induced hypertension increases heme oxygenase-1 expression in rat aorta.

BACKGROUND We investigated the in vivo effects of angiotensin (Ang) II-induced hypertension on heme oxygenase (HO) mRNA and protein expression, activity, and localization in rat aortas. METHODS AND RESULTS Infusion of Ang II (0.7 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)) increased HO-1 mRNA levels to 169+/-31%, 251+/-47%, 339+/-26%, and 370+/-74% of the control level at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after operation, respectively. The HO-1 protein level at 7 days was markedly upregulated, as was HO activity. Treatment with either losartan (25 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)) or hydralazine (15 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)), both of which prevented the Ang II-induced hypertension, blocked HO-1 mRNA upregulation. Norepinephrine infusion (2.8 mg x kg(-1) x d(-1)) produced a degree of hypertension and degree of HO-1 mRNA upregulation similar to those of Ang II infusion, which was again blocked by treatment with hydralazine (382+/-18% and 150+/-30% of the control level, respectively). Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated that HO-1 is expressed in medial smooth muscle and adventitial cells in normotensive rat aortas, and this is markedly increased in adventitial and endothelial cells in Ang II-induced hypertensive rat aortas. In contrast, HO-2 protein expression was not changed in hypertensive rat aortas. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that HO-1 is upregulated in hypertensive rat aortas, apparently by mechanisms unique to Ang II and by hemodynamic stress.