Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Infection with rat cytomegalovirus (CMV) in the immunocompromised host is associated with the appearance of a T cell population with reduced CD8 and T cell receptor (TCR) expression

Infection with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) mostly results in a chronic subclinical infection; the immune system is unable to eliminate the virus and is apparently in equilibrium with the persistent virus. In the immunosuppressed host this equilibrium is disturbed, resulting in clinical infection. Rat cytomegalovirus (RCMV) infection in its host can be used as a model for HCMV infection. Using flow cytometry we examined the effect of acute RCMV infection on the composition of leucocyte subsets in the peripheral blood of both immunocompetent and immunosuppressed (5 Gy total body irradiation) Lewis rats. Special attention was paid to the natural killer (NK) cells and the CD8+ T cells known to be involved in the control of viral infections. Furthermore, we determined the presence of leucocyte subsets in the internal organs by immunohistochemistry. In immunocompetent rats, infection caused a small increase in NK cells and a large increase in CD8+ T cells. In contrast, infection of immunosuppressed rats caused a marked increase in NK cells and a small increase in CD8+ T cells, consisting of T cells with reduced expression of both CD8 and TCR. This phenomenon is characteristic of anergic CD8+ T cells, possibly explaining the ability of the virus to escape elimination by the immune system. The increase of NK cells in the peripheral blood of immunosuppressed, RCMV‐infected rats could also be detected in kidney, liver, lung and pancreas, but not in salivary gland. This could explain the long persistence of infectious virus in the salivary gland.
Learning Ability and Longevity: A Symmetrical Evolutionary Trade-Off in Drosophila

Abstract Learning ability can be substantially improved by artificial selection in animals ranging from Drosophila to rats. Thus these species have not used their evolutionary potential with respect to learning ability, despite intuitively expected and experimentally demonstrated adaptive advantages of learning. This suggests that learning is costly, but this notion has rarely been tested. Here we report correlated responses of life-history traits to selection for improved learning in Drosophila melanogaster. Replicate populations selected for improved learning lived on average 15% shorter than the corresponding unselected control populations. They also showed a minor reduction in fecundity late in life and possibly a minor increase in dry adult mass. Selection for improved learning had no effect on egg-to-adult viability, development rate, or desiccation resistance. Because shortened longevity was the strongest correlated response to selection for improved learning, we also measured learning ability in another set of replicate populations that had been selected for extended longevity. In a classical olfactory conditioning assay, these long-lived flies showed an almost 40% reduction in learning ability early in life. This effect disappeared with age. Our results suggest a symmetrical evolutionary trade-off between learning ability and longevity in Drosophila.
Xenon in Anesthesia

Xenon is a colorless, odorless inert gas known to have anesthetic properties. It has a low blood-gas solubility of 0.11 and is a nonirritant. These properties result in smooth induction and recovery characteristics. Xenon is analgesic and is not harmful to the environment. Xenon may have a limited impact on the future practice of anesthesia because of the high costs involved and a possible association with postoperative nausea and vomiting. It may prove useful in identifying the mechanisms of general anesthesia.
Occurrence of the mucinous differentiation antigen CA125 in genital tract and conductive airway epithelia of diverse mammalian species (rabbit, dog, monkey).

CA125 is a human tumor-associated antigen of coelomic epithelial origin. In the present study, immunohistochemical analysis of normal rabbit, dog, and monkey tissues using monoclonal antibody OC125, revealed that in these animals positive staining for CA125 is found in all tissues that produce this mucin-like glycoprotein in man, i.e., the peritoneal and pleural mesothelium, the different Müllerian-duct-derived epithelia of the female genital tract, and the epithelium of trachea, bronchi, bronchioli, and mucoserous respiratory glands; CA125 was also detected in some ductal and acinar cells of the dog mammary gland. Without trypsin treatment of sections, staining was predominantly localized on the apical cell surface of all mentioned cell types. After treatment, mucin droplets inside respiratory mucous cells were also positively stained. In all cases, staining was associated with material positive for periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and Alcian blue. In rats, its presence could not be demonstrated. Our results show that the CA125 epitope is not restricted to man and that its expression throughout different animal species is associated with well-defined tissue compartments. The expression of the mucous differentiation antigen CA125 in several common laboratory animals provides new opportunities for the experimental study of its biological significance.
Personalized Medicine in Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST): Clinical Implications of the Somatic and Germline DNA Analysis

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. They are characterized by gain of function mutations in KIT or PDGFRA tyrosine kinase receptors, with their consequent constitutive activation. The gold standard therapy is imatinib that offers a good and stable response for approximately 18–36 months. However, resistance is very common and it is vital to identify new biomarkers. Up until now, there have been two main approaches with focus to characterize novel targets. On the one hand, the focus is on the tumor genome, as the final clinical outcome depends mainly from the cancer specific mutations/alterations patterns. However, the germline DNA is important as well, and it is inconceivable to think the patients response to the drug is not related to it. Therefore the aim of this review is to outline the state of the art of the personalized medicine in GIST taking into account both the tumor DNA (somatic) and the patient DNA (germline).
Impaired Inactivation of L-Type Ca2+ Current as a Potential Mechanism for Variable Arrhythmogenic Liability of HERG K+ Channel Blocking Drugs

The proarrhythmic effects of new drugs have been assessed by measuring rapidly activating delayed-rectifier K+ current (IKr) antagonist potency. However, recent data suggest that even drugs thought to be highly specific IKr blockers can be arrhythmogenic via a separate, time-dependent pathway such as late Na+ current augmentation. Here, we report a mechanism for a quinolone antibiotic, sparfloxacin-induced action potential duration (APD) prolongation that involves increase in late L-type Ca2+ current (ICaL) caused by a decrease in Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI). Acute exposure to sparfloxacin, an IKr blocker with prolongation of QT interval and torsades de pointes (TdP) produced a significant APD prolongation in rat ventricular myocytes, which lack IKr due to E4031 pretreatment. Sparfloxacin reduced peak ICaL but increased late ICaL by slowing its inactivation. In contrast, ketoconazole, an IKr blocker without prolongation of QT interval and TdP produced reduction of both peak and late ICaL, suggesting the role of increased late ICaL in arrhythmogenic effect. Further analysis showed that sparfloxacin reduced CDI. Consistently, replacement of extracellular Ca2+ with Ba2+ abolished the sparfloxacin effects on ICaL. In addition, sparfloxacin modulated ICaL in a use-dependent manner. Cardiomyocytes from adult mouse, which is lack of native IKr, demonstrated similar increase in late ICaL and afterdepolarizations. The present findings show that sparfloxacin can prolong APD by augmenting late ICaL. Thus, drugs that cause delayed ICaL inactivation and IKr blockage may have more adverse effects than those that selectively block IKr. This mechanism may explain the reason for discrepancies between clinically reported proarrhythmic effects and IKr antagonist potencies.
Vitamin A deficiency and xerophthalmia in western Yemen.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of xerophthalmia and the extent of vitamin A deficiency in western Yemen. DESIGN A stratified cluster sample of children aged 1-5 years with clinical examination for signs of xerophthalmia as well as blood serum survey. SETTING The 18 districts of western Yemen, of which 10 clusters were chosen at random. SUBJECTS All children aged 1-5 years resident in the cluster sites (n = 2438). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Clinical signs of xerophthalmia, a history of night blindness, serum retinol levels in a random sample of clinically normal children (n =338) in addition to all children with xerophthalmia. RESULTS Night blindness was found in 0.5% of the children, Bitot's spots in 1.7%, corneal ulceration in 0.04% and corneal scars in 0.04% Of the subsample, 7.2% (95% confidence interval [c.i.] 4.4-10.0%) had serum retinol values below 10 micrograms/dl; 63.0% (95% c.i. 57.6- 68.4%) had values below 20 micrograms/dl. CONCLUSIONS Xerophthalmia and vitamin A deficiency are public health problems in western Yemen.
Student Satisfaction: An alternative approach to assessing this important concept

A student's overall satisfaction with his/her educational experience has traditionally been measured by a simple 'yes or no' question, or with one question assessing the degree of overall satisfaction. Even though this type of question is simple to answer and analyze, students may not thoroughly reflect upon their previous responses within a questionnaire regarding satisfaction with individual educational attributes when asked to assess their overall satisfaction with a university on the basis of a single question. The purpose of this article is to present an alternative approach to measuring student overall satisfaction using a multiple-item weighted gap score analysis approach. The results suggest that this approach may have more diagnostic value to both academics and practitioners.
Polar spaces and embeddings of classical groups

Given polar spaces (V,fl) and (V,Q) where V is a vector space over a field K, fl a reflexive sesquilinear form and Q a quadratic form, we have associated classical isometry groups. Given a subfield F of K and an F-linear function L : K ! F we can define new spaces (V,Lfl) and (V,LQ) which are polar spaces over F. The construction so described gives an embedding of the isometry groups of (V,fl) and (V,Q) into the isometry groups of (V,Lfl) and (V,LQ). In the finite field case under certain added restrictions these subgroups are maximal and form the so called field extension subgroups of Aschbacher's class C3 (1). We give precise descriptions of the polar spaces so defined and their associated isometry group embeddings. In the finite field case our results give extra detail to the account of maximal field extension subgroups given by Kleidman and Liebeck (3, p112).
Direct and indirect treatment approaches for addressing short-term or working memory deficits in aphasia

Background: A growing literature has documented that aphasia is frequently accompanied by deficits of short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM), and that such memory impairments may negatively influence language abilities and aphasia treatment outcomes. Consequently, treating STM and WM impairments in individuals with aphasia should not only remediate these memory impairments but also positively affect their response to language therapy programmes. Aims: This paper critically reviews the aphasia literature pertaining to remediating, directly or indirectly, STM and WM deficits. Memory treatment protocols developed for other disordered as well as healthy populations are also discussed as possible therapy approaches to consider in future aphasia research. Main Contribution: Findings from a limited set of studies suggest that STM and WM impairments in individuals with aphasia do respond to treatment, and further that these treatments may also positively affect the language abilities of individuals with aphasia. Conclusions: Further research is warranted to establish the reliability and validity of these preliminary findings and to explore application of these treatments as well as those developed for nonaphasic populations to individuals representing a broader spectrum of aphasia types and severities.
Social and Spatial Disparities in Emotional Responses to Education: Feelings of "Guilt" among Student-Parents.

This article explores the emotional responses to higher education of students with dependent children, and draws on 68 in-depth interviews conducted with student-parents in universities in the UK and Denmark. By focussing on one specific emotion—guilt—it contends that emotions are important in helping to understand the way in which particular groups of students engage with education, and the barriers they often face. Moreover, by considering four different higher education contexts (across two European nations), it suggests that emotional responses are spatially differentiated, and mediated by national policies and norms as well as the social characteristics of students.
More Than a Game

Guided by media multiplexity theory, this manuscript reports an empirical investigation of relational maintenance and closeness between friends who communicate via Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE service. Attitudes toward self-disclosure and social connection across Xbox LIVE interacted to predict Xbox LIVE relational maintenance, with social connection attitude directly predicting offline communication frequency. Both Xbox LIVE relational maintenance and offline communication frequency interacted to predict relational closeness, with high closeness in the presence of either frequent Xbox LIVE maintenance or offline communication. These results suggest extending media multiplexity theory to account for individual attitudes toward new and existing media.
Neuroinvasion in sheep transmissible spongiform encephalopathies: the role of the haematogenous route

Background: It is generally believed that after oral exposure to transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) agents, neuroinvasion occurs via the enteric nervous system (ENS) and the autonomic nervous system. As a result, the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve is the initial point of disease‐associated prion protein (PrPd) accumulation in the brain. Hypothesis and aim: If direct ENS invasion following oral infection results in an early and specific brain targeting for PrPd accumulation, such topographical distribution could be different when other routes of infection were used, highlighting distinct routes for neuroinvasion. Methods: An immunohistochemical study has been conducted on the brain of 67 preclinically infected sheep exposed to natural scrapie or to experimental TSE infection by various routes. Results: Initial PrPd accumulation consistently occurred in the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve followed by the hypothalamus, regardless of the breed of sheep, PrP genotype, TSE source and, notably, route of infection; these factors did not appear to affect the topographical progression of PrPd deposition in the brain either. Moreover, the early and consistent appearance of PrPd aggregates in the circumventricular organs, where the blood–brain barrier is absent, suggests that these organs can provide a portal for entry of prions when infectivity is present in blood. Conclusions: The haematogenous route, therefore, can represent a parallel or alternative pathway of neuroinvasion to ascending infection via the ENS/autonomic nervous system.
A Toc159 Import Receptor Mutant, Defective in Hydrolysis of GTP, Supports Preprotein Import into Chloroplasts*

The heterotrimeric Toc core complex of the chloroplast protein import apparatus contains two GTPases, Toc159 and Toc34, together with the protein-conducting channel Toc75. Toc159 and Toc34 are exposed at the chloroplast surface and function in preprotein recognition. Together, they have been shown to facilitate the import of photosynthetic proteins into chloroplasts in Arabidopsis. Consequently, the ppi2 mutant lacking atToc159 has a non-photosynthetic albino phenotype. Previous mutations in the conserved G1 and G3 GTPase motifs abolished the function of Toc159 in vivo by disrupting targeting of the receptor to chloroplasts. Here, we demonstrate that a mutant in a conserved G1 lysine (atToc159 K868R) defective in GTP binding and hydrolysis can target and assemble into Toc complexes. We show that atToc159 K868R can support protein import into isolated chloroplasts, albeit at lower preprotein binding and import efficiencies compared with the wild-type receptor. Considering the absence of measurable GTPase activity in the K868R mutant, we conclude that GTP hydrolysis at atToc159 is not strictly required for preprotein translocation. The data also indicate that preprotein import requires at least one additional GTPase other than Toc159.
Autosomal dominant dementia with widespread neurofibrillary tangles

Several familial dementing conditions with atypical features have been characterized, but only rarely is the neuropathology dominated solely by neurofibrillary lesions. We present a Midwestern American pedigree spanning four generations in which 15 individuals were affected by early‐onset dementia with long disease duration, with an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern, and with α‐rich neurofibrillary pathology found in the brain post mortem. The average age at presentation was 55 years with gradual onset and progression of memory loss and personality change. After 30 years'l disease duration, the proband's neuropathologic examination demonstrated abudant intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) involving the hippocampus, pallidum, subthalamic nucleus, substantia nigra, pons, and medulla. Only sparse neocortical tangles were present and amyloid plaque were absent. The tangles were recognized by antibodies specific for phosphorylation‐independent (Tau−2, T46, 133, and Alz‐50) and phosphorylation‐dependent epitopes (AT8, T3P, PHF‐1, 12E8, AT6, AT18, AT30) in proteins. Electron microscopy of NFTs in the dentate gyrus and midbrain demonstrated paired helical filaments. Although the clinical phenotype resembles Alzheimer's disease, and the neuropathologic phenotype resembles progressive supranuclear palsy, an alternative consideration is that this familial disorder may be a new or distinct disease entity.
RNA‐processing proteins regulate Mec1/ATR activation by promoting generation of RPA‐coated ssDNA

Eukaryotic cells respond to DNA double‐strand breaks (DSBs) by activating a checkpoint that depends on the protein kinases Tel1/ATM and Mec1/ATR. Mec1/ATR is activated by RPA‐coated single‐stranded DNA (ssDNA), which arises upon nucleolytic degradation (resection) of the DSB. Emerging evidences indicate that RNA‐processing factors play critical, yet poorly understood, roles in genomic stability. Here, we provide evidence that the Saccharomyces cerevisiae RNA decay factors Xrn1, Rrp6 and Trf4 regulate Mec1/ATR activation by promoting generation of RPA‐coated ssDNA. The lack of Xrn1 inhibits ssDNA generation at the DSB by preventing the loading of the MRX complex. By contrast, DSB resection is not affected in the absence of Rrp6 or Trf4, but their lack impairs the recruitment of RPA, and therefore of Mec1, to the DSB. Rrp6 and Trf4 inactivation affects neither Rad51/Rad52 association nor DSB repair by homologous recombination (HR), suggesting that full Mec1 activation requires higher amount of RPA‐coated ssDNA than HR‐mediated repair. Noteworthy, deep transcriptome analyses do not identify common misregulated gene expression that could explain the observed phenotypes. Our results provide a novel link between RNA processing and genome stability.
Contesting a Hybrid Firm at a Traditional University

This paper presents a challenge to the idea of what some scholars have called the entrepreneurial university. By applying and elaborating on Thomas Gieryn’s concept of boundary work, it offers evidence to the effect that developing an entrepreneurial university is not as straightforward as it may seem from a more generalized perspective. Developing such an entity, at least in the confines of traditional, public-funded universities, is complicated by the emergence of a boundary between public and private activities. This study focuses on a potential hybrid research group: an academic group that sought to fuse its research with potential business activity within an ordinary university department. Controversies over four distinct issues arose: 1) the bureaucratic authority of a department chairman, 2) the allocation of teaching loads, 3) the ownership of research tools and materials and 4) the intellectual property rights of the researchers. Ultimately, the controversy was resolved through a formal written contract that established two boundaries: a border between the social roles of university researchers and those of private entrepreneurs, and a physical separation of the work done by academic projects from that of corporate development. As a result, the hybrid research group/firm was ‘purified’ into a private entity with no direct ties to the university.
Teaching Theory of Mind

Research Findings: An understanding of another's mental state, beliefs, or desires is often referred to as theory of mind (ToM). Pretence has been shown to be a precursor to ToM (Leslie, 1987; Lillard, 1999, 2001), and thus ToM could potentially be developed through training in complex pretence (Dockett, 1998). In the current study, we test the hypothesis that ToM development can be enhanced through teaching pretence in an educational setting and consider the implications for pupils in the foundation stage. In particular we look at how training in ToM accelerates learning and development of ToM concepts. A group of 38 children (average age = 46 months) received intense pretence training or engaged in non-pretence-related activities for 15 min, 3 times a week for 4 weeks. Practice or Policy: Analysis of the difference between pre- and posttraining performance on measures of false belief, appearance-reality, and emotion recognition showed partial evidence for enhanced ToM development in response to pretence-based play in the treatment group. These findings provide evidence that ToM is multidimensional, with contributing components developing at different rates. Moreover, the results indicate that emotive and conceptual aspects of ToM can be taught through training sessions in pretence, signifying continual development of ToM throughout childhood. The implications of utilizing pretence within education settings are discussed.