Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved diagnosis of reactivated toxoplasmosis.

AIMS: To identify antigens detected by western blotting in primary Toxoplasma gondii infection and determine their role in diagnosis of reactivated toxoplasmosis. METHODS: Twenty three immunocompromised patients were tested by IgG western blotting. Patients were grouped retrospectively. Group 1 comprised 15 human immunodeficiency (HIV)/AIDS patients and included: group 1A (six patients with clinical and/or serological evidence of reactivation), group 1B (five patients with clinical evidence only), and group 1C (four asymptomatic patients). Group 2 comprised eight non-HIV/AIDS immunocompromised patients with clinical and/or serological evidence of reactivation. Immunocompetent patients (n = 23) with primary toxoplasmosis were a control group used to determine the progression of the antigens detected. RESULTS: In primary toxoplasmosis, antibodies against 6, 20, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, and 36 kDa antigens predominated. Detection of four or more of the 6, 20, 22, 23, 25, and 36 kDa antigens was considered to be western blot positive. In two group 1A patients, western blotting indicated past infection. During reactivation, this reverted to being western blot positive. Three other group 1A patients were western blot positive. In three of five group 1B patients, western blot positive results improved serological diagnosis of reactivated toxoplasmosis (p < 0.05). In two of five group 1B patients and all four group 1C patients, western blot indicated past infection. In group 2, two of eight patients reverted from a pattern of past infection to western blot positive. Five other patients from group 2 were western blot positive. CONCLUSIONS: Detection of some low molecular weight antigens is diagnostic of reactivated toxoplasmosis. These antigens can be detected even with normal dye test titres and their detection improves the diagnosis of reactivated toxoplasmosis. They might be the result of the release of bradyzoites from ruptured tissue cysts.
The Development of Therapeutic Antibodies That Neutralize Homologous and Heterologous Genotypes of Dengue Virus Type 1

Antibody protection against flaviviruses is associated with the development of neutralizing antibodies against the viral envelope (E) protein. Prior studies with West Nile virus (WNV) identified therapeutic mouse and human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that recognized epitopes on domain III (DIII) of the E protein. To identify an analogous panel of neutralizing antibodies against DENV type-1 (DENV-1), we immunized mice with a genotype 2 strain of DENV-1 virus and generated 79 new MAbs, 16 of which strongly inhibited infection by the homologous virus and localized to DIII. Surprisingly, only two MAbs, DENV1-E105 and DENV1-E106, retained strong binding and neutralizing activity against all five DENV-1 genotypes. In an immunocompromised mouse model of infection, DENV1-E105 and DENV1-E106 exhibited therapeutic activity even when administered as a single dose four days after inoculation with a heterologous genotype 4 strain of DENV-1. Using epitope mapping and X-ray crystallographic analyses, we localized the neutralizing determinants for the strongly inhibitory MAbs to distinct regions on DIII. Interestingly, sequence variation in DIII alone failed to explain disparities in neutralizing potential of MAbs among different genotypes. Overall, our experiments define a complex structural epitope on DIII of DENV-1 that can be recognized by protective antibodies with therapeutic potential.
Community Factors Shaping Early Age at First Sex among Adolescents in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda

ABSTRACT Using data from the National Survey of Adolescents (2004), we examine the community-level factors associated with early age at first sex among adolescents 14-19 years old in four African countries. Regression models are fitted separately by sex for each country for an outcome measuring early age at first sex, with a focus on community-level factors as potential influences of age on sexual debut. The community-level factors associated with adolescents’ sexual debut vary widely by both country and gender. Community influences that emerge as risk or protective factors of early sexual debut include community levels of adolescent marriage, wealth, religious group affiliation, sex education, parental monitoring, reproductive health knowledge, media exposure, membership in adolescent social group, and use of alcohol. Results indicate the importance of context-specific understanding of adolescents’ sexual behaviour and suggest how elements of place should be harnessed in the development of effective HIV and sexual health interventions.
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis reduces memory interference in humans: opposing effects of aerobic exercise and depression

Since the remarkable discovery of adult neurogenesis in the mammalian hippocampus, considerable effort has been devoted to unraveling the functional significance of these new neurons. Our group has proposed that a continual turnover of neurons in the DG could contribute to the development of event-unique memory traces that act to reduce interference between highly similar inputs. To test this theory, we implemented a recognition task containing some objects that were repeated across trials as well as some objects that were highly similar, but not identical, to ones previously observed. The similar objects, termed lures, overlap substantially with previously viewed stimuli, and thus, may require hippocampal neurogenesis in order to avoid catastrophic interference. Lifestyle factors such as aerobic exercise and stress have been shown to impact the local neurogenic microenvironment, leading to enhanced and reduced levels of DG neurogenesis, respectively. Accordingly, we hypothesized that healthy young adults who take part in a long-term aerobic exercise regime would demonstrate enhanced performance on the visual pattern separation task, specifically at correctly categorizing lures as “similar. ” Indeed, those who experienced a proportionally large change in fitness demonstrated a significantly greater improvement in their ability to correctly identify lure stimuli as “similar. ” Conversely, we expected that those who score high on depression scales, an indicator of chronic stress, would exhibit selective deficits at appropriately categorizing lures. As expected, those who scored high on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were significantly worse than those with relatively lower BDI scores at correctly identifying lures as “similar,” while performance on novel and repeated stimuli was identical. Taken together, our results support the hypothesis that adult-born neurons in the DG contribute to the orthogonalization of incoming information.
Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptors LPA1 and LPA3 Promote CXCL12-Mediated Smooth Muscle Progenitor Cell Recruitment in Neointima Formation

Rationale: The chemokine CXCL12 (CXC motif ligand 12) and its receptor CXCR 4 (CXC motif receptor 4) direct the recruitment of smooth muscle progenitor cells (SPCs) in neointima formation after vascular injury. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) induces CXCL12 and neointimal accumulation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in uninjured arteries. Thus, we hypothesize that LPA may regulate CXCL12-mediated vascular remodelling. Objectives: We evaluated the role of LPA receptors in initiating CXCL12-dependent vascular repair by SPCs. Methods and Results: Wire-induced carotid injury was performed in apolipoprotein E−/− mice on western-type diet. LPA receptor expression was studied by immunostaining and quantitative RT-PCR. LPA receptors LPA1 and LPA3 were detected in the media of uninjured arteries and in the injury-induced neointima. LPA3 mRNA was upregulated and LPA1 mRNA downregulated at one week after injury. The LPA1/3 antagonist Ki16425 inhibited neointima formation by 71% and reduced both relative neointimal SMCs and the macrophage content. Additionally, neointimal hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; and CXCL12 expression, the injury-induced peripheral stem cell antigen-1 (Sca-1)+/Lin− SPC mobilization, and the neointimal recruitment of Sca-1+SMCs were inhibited by Ki16425. In wild type mice, LPA20:4 increased CXCL12 and hypoxia-inducible factor-1&agr; expression in carotid arteries as early as 1 day following short-term endoluminal incubation. LPA20:4-induced SPC mobilization and neointima formation were blocked by Ki16425, LPA1- and LPA3-specific small interfering (si)RNA, and the CXCR4 antagonist POL5551. Ki16425 reduced LPA20:4-mediated neointimal recruitment of SPC as demonstrated by 2-photon microscopy in bone marrow chimeric mice after repopulation with SM22-LacZ transgenic, hematopoietic cells. Moreover, POL5551 decreased the neointimal accumulation of CXCR4+ SMCs. Conclusions: LPA1 and LPA3 promote neointima formation through activation of CXCL12-mediated mobilization and recruitment of SPCs.
Headache in patients with pituitary adenoma: Clinical and paraclinical findings

Aim: The aim of this article is to generate hypotheses for the mechanism of pituitary adenoma headache. Patients and methods: Fifty-eight patients with pituitary adenoma were prospectively analysed for prevalence and manifestation of tumour headache. Intrapersonal and neoplasm-associated risk factors were assessed. Results: Twenty-four patients (41%) had tumour-attributed headache, seven had migraine-like, 11 tension-type headache-like headache, and three both. Cluster headache-like headache was found once, and two headaches remained unclassified. Tumour-attributed headache was associated with a positive history of headache (p = 0.03; OR 3.4), nicotine abuse (p < 0.01; OR 4.7), intake of acute headache medication (p = 0.04; OR 3.3), and a higher tumour proliferation indicated by a Ki67-labelling index (LI) >3% (p = 0.02; OR 11.0). For patients with migraine-like tumour-attributed headache, risk factors were younger age (p = 0.02), nicotine abuse (p < 0.01; OR 10.9), acute headache treatment (p < 0.01; OR 9.0), and Ki67-LI >3% (p = 0.03; OR 14.1). For tension-type headache-like headache, the main risk factor was a positive history of tension-type headache (p = 0.045; OR 5.6). Conclusion: Headache predisposition and local tumour effects might be important for the pathophysiology of pituitary adenoma headache and tumour headache in general.
Risk Factors Predictive of the Problem Behavior of Children at Risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Logistic regression analyses were used to establish the most robust set of risk factors that would best predict borderline/clinical levels of problem behavior (i.e., a t score at or above 60 on the Child Behavior Checklist Total Problem scale) of kindergarten and first-grade children at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. Results showed that among the 11 risk factor domains considered, 5 were most predictive of borderline/clinical levels of problem behavior: externalizing behavior pattern, internalizing behavior pattern, early childhood child maladjustment, family functioning, and maternal depression. Within these 5 domains, the most robust set of individual risk factors were difficult child (i.e., temperament, parent management skills, interaction between temperament and parent management skills), destroys own toys, and maternal depression. Results, limitations, future research, and implications are discussed.
Savings decisions under life-time and earnings uncertainty

We analyze a model of life-cycle savings decisions which allows for both life-time and income uncertainty. We then simulate life-cycle saving rates based on empirical income processes estimated from West German household data. Our main findings are, first, that allowing for mortality risk improves the life-cycle model's predictions slightly, and second, that simulated saving rates still fail to match their empirical counterparts. While our model correctly predicts differential peak saving rates during working life for three household types that face different income processes, it cannot explain an important salient feature of saving in Germany: Empirically, there is almost no post-retirement dissaving, while our life-cycle model predicts substantial dissaving even though we control for the generous German pension system which results in relatively high post-retirement income.
Lower Bounds for h-Vectors ofk-CM, Independence, and Broken Circuit Complexes

We present a number of lower bounds for the h-vectors of k-Cohen--Macaulay (k-CM), broken circuit, and independence complexes. These lead to bounds on the coefficients of the characteristic and reliability polynomials of matroids. The main techniques are the use of series and parallel constructions on matroids and the short simplicial h-vector for pure complexes.
Bet-Hedging Germination of Desert Annuals: Variation Among Populations and Maternal Effects in Lepidium lasiocarpum

Prolonged seed dormancy in desert annuals has been modeled as a bet-hedging adaptation to environmental uncertainty. Several aspects of that theory were tested in the preceding article; further results using Lepidium lasiocarpum are reported here. Seeds from different populations of Lepidium differed in their germination behavior. These differences were weakly correlated with differences in the mean winter rainfall among the collection sites: as predicted, sites with greater mean precipitation had less dormancy. Precipitation in the year of seed production was a strong predictor of germination behavior: sites with greater precipitation produced seeds with more dormancy. In a second set of experiments, maternal plant size had a strong effect on germination: plants that produced many seeds had a smaller proportion germinate in the first year. While these results support the general theories of bet-hedging germination in desert annuals, they indicate that selection due to year-to-year variation in population size and sibling competition may be more important in the evolution of seed dormancy than previously thought.
Role for Nonstructural Protein 1 of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Chemokine Dysregulation

ABSTRACT Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is an emerging infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus. Since its associated morbidity and mortality have been postulated to be due to immune dysregulation, we investigated which of the viral proteins is responsible for chemokine overexpression. To delineate the viral and cellular factor interactions, the role of four SARS coronavirus proteins, including nonstructural protein 1 (nsp-1), nsp-5, envelope, and membrane, were examined in terms of cytokine induction. Our results showed that the SARS coronavirus nsp-1 plays an important role in CCL5, CXCL10, and CCL3 expression in human lung epithelial cells via the activation of NF-κB.
Curriculum construction in bilingual education for future practitioners of tourism industry: From the perspective of subject matter

The objective of this study was to explore the subject matter in curriculum construction of bilingual education (BE) for majors of tourism management (MTM) in Chinese tertiary education (CTE). Data (n=157) were collected from school administrators, BE teachers, MTM, and insiders of tourism industry via self-administered questionnaire. The subject matter of BE was elaborated based on Joseph Schwab's notion of four commonplaces—the subject matter, the learner, the teacher, and the milieu in curriculum construction. The results of this study showed the criteria in selecting BE courses, their linkage and continuity with other relevant units, terms and time allocation for BE courses, teaching pedagogies and classroom teaching-learning process design. Moreover, a unique process evaluating effectiveness of the subject matter for MTM was posited in line with Ralph Tyler's concept of curriculum continuum. The implication of this research is also discussed at the end of this paper.
Driver behaviour during haptic and visual secondary tasks

There has been an increasing interest for in-vehicle interfaces that make use of haptic information. A simulator study was conducted to investigate whether haptic information can facilitate the interaction with an interface while driving. The conceptual in-car interface consisted of a visual menu of four textures displayed on a screen and corresponding haptic information displayed through the interaction device -- a rotary device. The experimental conditions included either visual or haptic or both visual and haptic information. One advantage of the condition including only haptic information was that the participants' eyes remained on the road during the interaction. However, since the haptic interaction necessitated serial processing, the experimental task took longer when using only haptic information. Therefore the participants seem to have relied more on the visual information when it was available. The degradation in driving performance and mental workload assessment did not differ between the conditions.
Self-Punishment Promotes Forgiveness in the Direct and Indirect Reciprocity Contexts

Most previous studies regarding self-punishment have focused on the correlation between moral emotion and self-punishment. Only a few studies have attempted to understand self-punishment from the perspective of seeking forgiveness, and no study has yet directly tested whether wrongdoers’ self-punishment promotes others to forgive the wrongdoers. In three studies, the participants judged the wrongdoers’ self-punishment behaviors following an unfair allocation and reported the extent to which they forgave the wrongdoers. The results demonstrated that self-punishment did promote forgiveness in both the direct (Studies 1 and 2) and indirect reciprocity (Study 3) contexts. Consistent with costly signaling theory, the costlier the self-punishment was, the stronger the effect it had on forgiveness. Moreover, communicative self-punishment had a better effect than silent self-punishment when the cost was relatively high in the direct-reciprocity studies. These findings can guide us regarding how to address a damaged relationship via self-punishment when compensation is not feasible or acceptable.
Ecological survey of endolithic blennies spawning in a sandstone habitat in the Gulf of Trieste

The present research aimed at evaluating the importance of endolithic holes for the spawning of blennies and at studying the selection and utilization of holes by blennies in the Gulf of Trieste. The study was conducted using the all-occurrence sampling method, a non-destructive visual census method, aided by SCUBA. Resident, egg-guarding males of Lipophrys dalmatinus, Lipophrys canevae, Aidablennius sphynx, Parablennius incognitus, Parablennius zvonimiri and Parablennius rouxi were caught. Species-specific differences in the utilization of holes were found for species that nest in endolithic holes. Smaller species (e.g. Lipophrys dalmatinus and Lipophrys canevae) choose holes that are little larger than their heads and approximately as long as their body, which prevent small males from being dislodged by bigger ones. Bigger species that are probably less exposed to interspecific competition for holes, choose mostly holes with an entrance diameter twice as big as their head diameter and much longer than their body. Species living in shallow waters (e.g. Aidablennius sphynx) prefer hole positions exposed to daylight, while species living in deeper waters were mostly found in the shade of boulders and rocks.
Transcriptional Control of Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy by Early Growth Response Gene-1 (Egr-1)

Expression of the zinc finger transcription factor early growth response gene-1 (Egr-1) is triggered rapidly after mechanical vascular injury or after a precipitous drop in ambient oxygen, whereupon it induces the expression of diverse gene families to elicit a pathological response. Initially characterized as an early response transcriptional activator, the role of Egr-1 in more chronic forms of vascular injury remains to be defined. Studies were designed to examine whether Egr-1 induction may serve as a causal link between early preservation injury and delayed vascular consequences, such as coronary allograft vasculopathy (CAV). The preservation and transplantation of heterotopic murine cardiac allografts strongly induce Egr-1 expression, leading to increased expression of its downstream target genes, such as intercellular adhesion molecule-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and platelet-derived growth factor A chain. Expression of these Egr-1–inducible gene targets is virtually obliterated in homozygous Egr-1–null donor allografts, which also exhibit attenuated parenchymal rejection and reduced CAV as long as 60 days. Congruous data are observed by treating donor hearts with a phosphorothioate antisense oligodeoxyribonucleotide directed against Egr-1 before organ harvest, which blocks subsequent expression of Egr-1 mRNA and protein and suppresses the late development of CAV. These data indicate that Egr-1 induction represents a central effector mechanism in the development of chronic rejection characterized by CAV. Blocking the expression of this proximal transcription factor solely at the time of organ harvest elicits beneficial delayed consequences for the cardiac allograft.
EEG, HRV and Psychological Correlates while Playing Bejeweled II: A Randomized Controlled Study

Stress related medical disorders such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and anxiety are serious medical issues that can cause disability and death. Interventions to prevent their development and exacerbation are needed. Casual video games (CVGs) are fun, easy to play, spontaneous and tremendously popular. People report that they play these games because they decrease their stress and improve their mood. This study tested this theory by comparing people playing Bejeweled II a popular CVG with control subjects measured under similar conditions. Electroencephalographic (EEG) changes after playing Bejeweled II were consistent with increased mood and corroborated with similar findings on psychological reports. Moreover, heart rate variability (HRV) changes consistent with autonomic nervous system relaxation or decreased physical stress were also recorded. It is concluded, therefore, that playing a CVG like Bejeweled II can increase mood and decrease stress. These finding have broad implications and include the potential development of prescriptive interventions using Bejeweled II to prevent and treat stress related medical disorders. Finally, these findings demonstrate a method using EEG, HRV and psychological correlates to understand the psychophysiological or cybernetic interconnection between participant and video game.
A general approach to dynamic packet routing with bounded buffers

We prove a sufficient condition for the stability of dynamic packet routing algorithms. Our approach reduces the problem of steady state analysis to the easier and better understood question of static routing. We show that certain high probability and worst case bounds on the quasistatic (finite past) performance of a routing algorithm imply bounds on the performance of the dynamic version of that algorithm. Our technique is particularly useful in analyzing routing on networks with bounded buffers where complicated dependencies make standard queuing techniques inapplicable. We present several applications of our approach. In all cases we start from a known static algorithm, and modify it to fit our framework. In particular we give the first dynamic algorithm for routing on a butterfly with bounded buffers. Both the injection rate for which the algorithm is stable, and the expected time a packet spends in the system are optimal up to constant factors. Our approach is also applicable to the recently introduced adversarial input model.