A survey on Ebola genome and current trends in computational research on the Ebola virus.

A detailed understanding of the Ebola virus (EBOV) pathogenesis has not been possible because of safety concerns, which arise while handling the live EBOV. Understanding the mechanisms involved in EBOV entry, replication and inhibition of the antiviral response in the host cell are crucial for the development of effective therapeutic measures. In this article, we provide a description of the EBOV genome and the role of each EBOV protein in spreading infection in the host cell.

Coccidioidomycosis in an Indoor-housed Rhesus Macaque ().

Coccidioides spp. are saprophytic, dimorphic fungi that are endemic to arid climates, are capable of infecting many species, and result in diverse clinical presentations. An indoor-housed laboratory rhesus macaque presented with weight loss and decreased activity and appetite.

The autophagy initiator ULK1 sensitizes AMPK to allosteric drugs.

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a metabolic stress-sensing enzyme responsible for maintaining cellular energy homeostasis. Activation of AMPK by salicylate and the thienopyridone A-769662 is critically dependent on phosphorylation of Ser108 in the β1 regulatory subunit. Here, we show a possible role for Ser108 phosphorylation in cell cycle regulation and promotion of pro-survival pathways in response to energy stress.

Ampk phosphorylation of Ulk1 is required for targeting of mitochondria to lysosomes in exercise-induced mitophagy.

Mitochondrial health is critical for skeletal muscle function and is improved by exercise training through both mitochondrial biogenesis and removal of damaged/dysfunctional mitochondria via mitophagy. The mechanisms underlying exercise-induced mitophagy have not been fully elucidated. Here, we show that acute treadmill running in mice causes mitochondrial oxidative stress at 3-12 h and mitophagy at 6 h post-exercise in skeletal muscle.

Phase I dose-escalation study of long-acting pasireotide in patients with neuroendocrine tumors.

This phase I study aimed at determining the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) and characterizing the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PKs), and efficacy of pasireotide in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Patients were enrolled in two phases: dose-escalation phase (to determine the MTD) at a starting dose of 80 mg pasireotide long-acting release (LAR) i.m.

Prevalence of Dental Anomalies in Odisha Population: A Panoramic Radiographic Study.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of dental anomalies (DAs) in Odisha population using panoramic radiographs.

Materials And Methods: In this study, 1,080 panoramic radiographs were evaluated for DAs. Dental records were reviewed for diagnostic confirmation.

MicroRNA 26a (miR-26a)/KLF4 and CREB-C/EBPβ regulate innate immune signaling, the polarization of macrophages and the trafficking of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to lysosomes during infection.

For efficient clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), macrophages tilt towards M1 polarization leading to the activation of transcription factors associated with the production of antibacterial effector molecules such as nitric oxide (NO) and proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α). At the same time, resolution of inflammation is associated with M2 polarization with increased production of arginase and cytokines such as IL-10. The transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms that govern the balance between M1 and M2 polarization, and bacteria-containing processes such as autophagy and trafficking of Mtb to lysosomes, are incompletely understood.

Subsistence of inclusion complex via assembly of a drug into cyclic oligosaccharide: Its formation, mechanism, behaviour and importance.

The aim of this present work is to make soluble DEPM in aqueous medium through the formation inclusion complex into the hydrophobic hollow space of β-cyclodextrin (β-Cyd) which will provide a novel approach for designing drug delivery system in aqueous medium. The study of supramolecular complexation of DEPM with β-Cyd has been designed in both solution and solid state. In solution phase the evidences of the presence of non-covalent interactions in inclusion complex with 1:1 stoichiometry behaviour are obtained by investigating the UV-spectroscopy.

Assessment of Semantic Similarity between Proteins Using Information Content and Topological Properties of the Gene Ontology Graph.

The semantic similarity between two interacting proteins can be estimated by combining the similarity scores of the GO terms associated with the proteins. Greater number of similar GO annotations between two proteins indicates greater interaction affinity. Existing semantic similarity measures make use of the GO graph structure, the information content of GO terms, or a combination of both.

Adaptive penalties for generalized Tikhonov regularization in statistical regression models with application to spectroscopy data.

Tikhonov regularization was proposed for multivariate calibration by Andries and Kalivas [1]. We use this framework for modeling the statistical association between spectroscopy data and a scalar outcome. In both the calibration and regression settings this regularization process has advantages over methods of spectral pre-processing and dimension-reduction approaches such as feature extraction or principal component regression.

Ulk1-mediated autophagy plays an essential role in mitochondrial remodeling and functional regeneration of skeletal muscle.

Autophagy is a conserved cellular process for degrading aggregate proteins and dysfunctional organelle. It is still debatable if autophagy and mitophagy (a specific process of autophagy of mitochondria) play important roles in myogenic differentiation and functional regeneration of skeletal muscle. We tested the hypothesis that autophagy is critical for functional regeneration of skeletal muscle.

Arsenic load in rice ecosystem and its mitigation through deficit irrigation.

Rice the staple food is a notable intake source of arsenic to the rural population of eastern India through food-chain. A field survey was carried out to study the variation of arsenic load in different parts of rice genotype Shatabdi (most popular genotype of the region) exposed to varying level of arsenic present in the irrigation water and soil. As irrigation is the primary source of arsenic contamination, a study was conducted to assess arsenic load in rice ecosystem under deficit irrigation practices like intermittent ponding (IP), saturation (SAT) and aerobic (AER) imposed during stress allowable stage (16-40 days after transplanting) of the crop (genotype Shatabdi).

Longitudinal Functional Models with Structured Penalties.

This article addresses estimation in regression models for longitudinally-collected functional covariates (time-varying predictor curves) with a longitudinal scaler outcome. The framework consists of estimating a time-varying coefficient function that is modeled as a linear combination of time-invariant functions with time-varying coefficients. The model uses extrinsic information to inform the structure of the penalty, while the estimation procedure exploits the equivalence between penalized least squares estimation and a linear mixed model representation.

Canonical and noncanonical functions of ULK/Atg1.

Mammalian Unc-51-like kinases 1 and 2 (ULK1 and ULK2) belong to the ULK/Atg1 family of serine/threonine kinases, which are conserved from yeast to mammals. Although ULK/Atg1 is best known for regulating flux through the autophagy pathway, it has evolutionarily conserved noncanonical functions in protein trafficking that are essential for maintaining cellular homeostasis. As a direct target of energy- and nutrient-sensing kinases, ULK/Atg1 is positioned to regulate the distribution and use of cellular resources in response to metabolic cues.

Assessment of chapatti quality of wheat varieties based on physicochemical, rheological and sensory traits.

Fifty wheat varieties were assessed for chapatti quality using grain characteristics, dough rheological properties and pasting characteristics. Results revealed that 88% of wheat varieties studied were medium-hard to hard based on kernel texture. Water absorption and damaged starch were found to be important parameters for chapatti quality as both parameters had significant positive effect on the pliability and puffing height of chapatti.

Interactive radiographic image retrieval system.

Background And Objective: Content based medical image retrieval (CBMIR) systems enable fast diagnosis through quantitative assessment of the visual information and is an active research topic over the past few decades. Most of the state-of-the-art CBMIR systems suffer from various problems: computationally expensive due to the usage of high dimensional feature vectors and complex classifier/clustering schemes. Inability to properly handle the "semantic gap" and the high intra-class versus inter-class variability problem of the medical image database (like radiographic image database).

Surrogacy of progression free survival for overall survival in metastatic breast cancer studies: Meta-analyses of published studies.

Purpose: PFS is often used as a surrogate endpoint for OS in metastatic breast cancer studies. We have evaluated the association of treatment effect on PFS with significant HR (and how this association is affected by other factors) in published prospective metastatic breast cancer studies.

Methods: A systematic literature search in PubMed identified prospective metastatic breast cancer studies.

Automated classification of Pap smear images to detect cervical dysplasia.

Background And Objectives: The present study proposes an intelligent system for automatic categorization of Pap smear images to detect cervical dysplasia, which has been an open problem ongoing for last five decades.

Methods: The classification technique is based on shape, texture and color features. It classifies the cervical dysplasia into two-level (normal and abnormal) and three-level (Negative for Intraepithelial Lesion or Malignancy, Low-grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion and High-grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion) classes reflecting the established Bethesda system of classification used for diagnosis of cancerous or precancerous lesion of cervix.

Identification and characterization of PPARα ligands in the hippocampus.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) regulates hepatic fatty acid catabolism and mediates the metabolic response to starvation. Recently we found that PPARα is constitutively activated in nuclei of hippocampal neurons and controls plasticity via direct transcriptional activation of CREB. Here we report the discovery of three endogenous PPARα ligands-3-hydroxy-(2,2)-dimethyl butyrate, hexadecanamide, and 9-octadecenamide-in mouse brain hippocampus.

Growth of One-Dimensional RuO Nanowires on g-Carbon Nitride: An Active and Stable Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen and Oxygen Evolution Reactions at All pH Values.

Development of highly efficient and durable bifunctional electrocatalyst for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) is essential for efficient solar fuel generation. The commercial RuO or RuO-based catalysts are highly active toward OER, but their poor stability under different operating conditions is the main obstacle for their commercialization. Herein, we report growth of one-dimensional highly crystalline RuO nanowires on carbon nitride (1D-RuO-CN) for their applications in HER and OER at all pH values.

Sodium Benzoate, a Food Additive and a Metabolite of Cinnamon, Enriches Regulatory T Cells via STAT6-Mediated Upregulation of TGF-β.

Upregulation and/or maintenance of regulatory T cells (Tregs) during autoimmune insults may have therapeutic efficacy in autoimmune diseases. Earlier we have reported that sodium benzoate (NaB), a metabolite of cinnamon and a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug against urea cycle disorders, upregulates Tregs and protects mice from experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, an animal model of multiple sclerosis. However, mechanisms by which NaB increases Tregs are poorly understood.

Dihydrochelerythrine and its derivatives: Synthesis and their application as potential G-quadruplex DNA stabilizing agents.

A convenient route was envisaged toward the synthesis of dihydrochelerythrine (DHCHL), 4 by intramolecular Suzuki coupling of 2-bromo-N-(2-bromobenzyl)-naphthalen-1-amine derivative 5 via in situ generated arylborane. This compound was converted to (±)-6-acetonyldihydrochelerythrine (ADC), 3 which was then resolved by chiral prep-HPLC. Efficiency of DHCHL for the stabilization of promoter quadruplex DNA structures and a comparison study with the parent natural alkaloid chelerythrine (CHL), 1 was performed.