Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histocompatible miniature boar model: Selection of transformed cell lines of b and t lineages producing retrovirus

A lymphoblastoid cell line (BI) was isolated in culture following a brief exposure to 5‐azacytidine from peripheralblood mononuclear cells of a boar previously injected with cells (Shimozuma) producing porcine retrovirus (Tsukuba‐I) and suffering a severe non‐neoplastic syndrome at autopsy. BI cell line and 5 of its sublines were propagated for more than 100 generations, retaining doubling times comprised between 16.8 and 27.5 hr and growing readily in agarose or agar (plating efficiency: 5 to 50%). Karyotype analyses showed that 4 sublines were nearly diploid, except for cells of L14, which displayed a monosomy affecting chromosome 18 pair. Two sublines (L35 and L45) were considered as being of T‐cell lineage, since MSA antigen was observed on the surface of approximately 30% of cells. Three sublines (L23, L14 and L52) were considered of B‐cell lineage, since membrane immunoglobulins were observed on the cell surface. In addition, sublines L23 and L52 were actively secreting immunoglobulin of μ isotype. Retrovirus particles were evidenced in gradient purified preparation of 200‐fold‐concentrated cell culture supernatants of the BI cell line, L14, L35 and L52 sublines, using both a reverse transcriptase activity assay and electron microscopic observation. These cell lines can be used to select for porcine retrovirus variants with transforming potential for lymphocytes of B and T lineages.
Use of Subtractive Hybridization To Identify a Diagnostic Probe for a Cystic Fibrosis Epidemic Strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

ABSTRACT A multiresistant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is widespread among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients attending clinics in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Suppression subtractive hybridization was used to identify sequences present in the Liverpool CF epidemic strain but absent from strain PAO1. Using dot blot and PCR amplification assays, the prevalence of such sequences among a panel of CF isolates was determined. Several sequences were found only in the Liverpool epidemic strain. Some sequences were present in the Liverpool epidemic strain and in a minority of other isolates, including sequences with homology to genes implicated in O6 serotype and siderophore production. The Liverpool epidemic strain and 81% of nonepidemic isolates contained a sequence identified as part of the PAGI-1 genomic island. Other strains implicated in epidemic spread, which were from Manchester, United Kingdom, and Melbourne, Australia, were also screened. None of the sequences identified was present in the Manchester strain. However, one of two Melbourne strains contained some of the sequences found in the Liverpool epidemic strain. All isolates implicated in epidemic spread and 76% of sporadic isolates contained the exoS gene. A sequence present in all isolates of the Liverpool epidemic strain was used to develop a diagnostic PCR test for identification of the strain from colonies or directly from sputum samples.
Optimal tracking performance: preview control and exponential signals

We study tracking performance limitation problems. Two issues are addressed, concerning how earlier results developed elsewhere may be extended to more general classes of reference signals, and how tracking performance may be further improved beyond that offered by feedback control. Toward these issues we consider exponentially increasing reference inputs and examine the use of preview control for tracking. We take an optimal interpolation approach, and our purpose is to develop analytical expressions and conceptual insight which will aid in the understanding of these issues. To this effect, we derive explicit expressions for the optimal tracking error, either as exact solutions or bounds. It is found that for the exponential signals the earlier results can be directly extended, and similar conclusive statements can be drawn. It is also shown that in general preview can be used to advantage for improving tracking performance, especially in countering the effect resulting from plant nonminimum phase zeros.
Reducing Fragmentation for In-line Deduplication Backup Storage via Exploiting Backup History and Cache Knowledge

In backup systems, the chunks of each backup are physically scattered after deduplication, which causes a challenging fragmentation problem. We observe that the fragmentation comes into sparse and out-of-order containers. The sparse container decreases restore performance and garbage collection efficiency, while the out-of-order container decreases restore performance if the restore cache is small. In order to reduce the fragmentation, we propose History-Aware Rewriting algorithm (HAR) and Cache-Aware Filter (CAF). HAR exploits historical information in backup systems to accurately identify and reduce sparse containers, and CAF exploits restore cache knowledge to identify the out-of-order containers that hurt restore performance. CAF efficiently complements HAR in datasets where out-of-order containers are dominant. To reduce the metadata overhead of the garbage collection, we further propose a Container-Marker Algorithm (CMA) to identify valid containers instead of valid chunks. Our extensive experimental results from real-world datasets show HAR significantly improves the restore performance by 2.84-175.36 × at a cost of only rewriting 0.5-2.03 percent data.
Evaluation and Recalibration of Empirical Constant for Estimation of Reference Crop Evapotranspiration against the Modified Penman Method

The major demand in our country is irrigation demand. Looking to the low irrigation potential and small water resources, it is felt necessary to see that water must be used economically and efficiently. This may be achieved by using latest methods of determination of water requirements for crops and applying the proper water management practices. Evapotranspiration (ET) is a basic for calculation of water requirement for crops. The various popular empirical equations for reference crop evapotranspiration (ETr) belong to three categories namely, Temperature, Radiation based methods and Combined methods. The above methods are site specific; hence it is necessary to recalibrate the coefficients for applying them in India. In the present paper, the standard combined method namely FAO modified Penman method was used to recalibrate the constants in temperature based (TB) methods and it can also be used to determine the ETr for the selected station. Four TB evapotranspiration models namely Blaney-Criddle, Romanenko, Kharrufa, and, Thronthwaite methods are recalibrated and the constant in each method are redefined for the data from Lekkur station, Cuddalore district in India. The result shows that, large error existed when ETr has been calculated with original constants. Hence regression equations were developed to minimise these variations in magnitude. It was found that out of four methods the Blaney-Criddle method suits better for the selected region.
Differential effects of excitatory and inhibitory heterogeneity on the gain and asynchronous state of sparse cortical networks

Recent experimental and theoretical studies have highlighted the importance of cell-to-cell differences in the dynamics and functions of neural networks, such as in different types of neural coding or synchronization. It is still not known, however, how neural heterogeneity can affect cortical computations, or impact the dynamics of typical cortical circuits constituted of sparse excitatory and inhibitory networks. In this work, we analytically and numerically study the dynamics of a typical cortical circuit with a certain level of neural heterogeneity. Our circuit includes realistic features found in real cortical populations, such as network sparseness, excitatory, and inhibitory subpopulations of neurons, and different cell-to-cell heterogeneities for each type of population in the system. We find highly differentiated roles for heterogeneity, depending on the subpopulation in which it is found. In particular, while heterogeneity among excitatory neurons non-linearly increases the mean firing rate and linearizes the f-I curves, heterogeneity among inhibitory neurons may decrease the network activity level and induces divisive gain effects in the f-I curves of the excitatory cells, providing an effective gain control mechanism to influence information flow. In addition, we compute the conditions for stability of the network activity, finding that the synchronization onset is robust to inhibitory heterogeneity, but it shifts to lower input levels for higher excitatory heterogeneity. Finally, we provide an extension of recently reported heterogeneity-induced mechanisms for signal detection under rate coding, and we explore the validity of our findings when multiple sources of heterogeneity are present. These results allow for a detailed characterization of the role of neural heterogeneity in asynchronous cortical networks.
Symbolic bisimulation for the applied pi calculus (extended abstract)

Recently, we have proposed in [10] a symbolic semantics together with a sound symbolic labelled bisimulation relation for the finite applied pi calculus. By treating inputs symbolically, our semantics avoids potentially infinite branching of execution trees due to inputs from the environment. This work is an important step towards automation of observational equivalence for the finite applied pi calculus, e.g. for verification of anonymity or strong secrecy properties. We present some of the difficulties we have encountered in the design of the symbolicsemantics.
Epithelial and fibroblast cell lines derived from a spontaneous mammary carcinoma in a MMTV/neu transgenic mouse

SummaryFemale murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV)/neu transgenic mice, expressing a wild-type rat neu oncogene driven by an MMTV promoter, develop focal mammary adenocarcinomas that are pathologically very similar to human breast tumors. Two new cell lines were established from a mammary tumor that arose in a female MMTV/neu transgenic mouse. One of these lines, mammary carcinoma from Neu transgenic mouse A (MCNeuA), has an epithelial morphology, is cytokeratin positive, and expresses high levels of the neu transgene. Karyotyping and comparative genomic hybridization analyses demonstrated genomic alterations in the MCNeuA cell line. The other line, N202Fb3, has a fibroblast morphology, is cytokeratin negative, and expresses the neu transgene at a very low level. This cell line also expresses smooth muscle α-actin, suggesting that it is a myofibroblast line. The MCNeuA cell line is tumorigenic when injected into syngeneic MMTV/neu transgenic mice, with an in vivo doubling time of about 14 d. The rationale for establishing this tumor cell line was to provide a tumor transplantation system for rapidly assessing immunotherapeutic interventions before testing in the more cumbersome model of spontaneous tumor development in the MMTV/neu transgenic mice. Mice immunized with a Neu extracellular domain protein vaccine were protected against a subsequent inoculation of MCNeuA cells, indicating that this cell line will be useful for evaluating cancer vaccine strategies. This tumor cell line may also prove useful in studying the biological properties of the neu oncogene and its role in the malignant process. In addition, the tumor-derived fibroblast line may be useful for studying tumor-stromal cell interactions.
Fungal recombination

INTRODUCTION Despite many years of intensive genetic analysis, the molecular mechanisms of the recombination events that have been studied in the fungi remain unknown. Numerous models have been proposed to explain the genetic data, and many of these models remain controversial. In this review, we emphasize recent molecular and genetic data that address possible recombination mechanisms. We review representative examples of experiments which provide necessary background information, but several reviews of fungal recombination which provide a thorough description of classical genetic results have recently been published (34, 130, 141). We begin with a detailed review of meiotic and mitotic recombination. We then discuss the roles of recombination
Small Ruminant Lentivirus–Induced Arthritis

We describe the clinicopathologic features of an arthritis outbreak in sheep induced by small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV), linked to the presence of a new SRLV isolate phylogenetically assigned to caprine arthritis encephalitis virus–like subgroup B2. Thirteen SRLV seropositive Rasa Aragonesa adult ewes were selected from 5 SRLV highly infected flocks (mean seroprevalence, 90.7%) for presenting uni- or bilateral chronic arthritis in the carpal joint. A complete study was performed, including symptomatology, histopathology, immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and microbiology. The carpus was the joint almost exclusively affected, with 10 sheep (76%) showing a moderate increase in carpal joint size (diameter range, 18–20 cm; normal range, 15–16 cm) without signs of locomotion problems and with 3 ewes (23%) showing severe inflammation with marked increase in diameter (21–24 cm), pain at palpation, and abnormal standing position. Grossly, chronic proliferative arthritis was observed in affected joints characterized by an increased thickness of the synovial capsule and synovial membrane proliferation. Microscopically, synovial membrane inflammation and proliferation and hyperplasia of synoviocytes were observed. More positive cases of SLRV infection were detected by immunocytochemistry of articular fluid than of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization also detected positive cells in the subsynovial connective tissue, lung, mediastinal lymph node, mammary gland, and mammary lymph node. All animals were negative for the presence of Mycoplasma or other bacteria in the articular space. The present outbreak likely represents an adaptation of a caprine virus to sheep. Our results underline the importance of the arthritis induced by SRLV in sheep, a clinical form that might be underestimated.
Online Top-k-Position Monitoring of Distributed Data Streams

Consider n nodes connected to a single coordinator. Each node receives an individual online data stream of numbers and, at any point in time, the coordinator has to know the k nodes currently observing the largest values, for a given k between 1 and n. We design and analyze an algorithm that solves this problem while bounding the amount of messages exchanged between the nodes and the coordinator. Our algorithm employs the idea of using filters which, intuitively speaking, leads to few messages to be sent, if the new input is “similar” to the previous ones. The algorithm uses a number of messages that is on expectation by a factor of O ((log Δ + k) · log n) larger than that of an offline algorithm that sets filters in an optimal way, where Δ is upper bounded by the largest value observed by any node.
Characterization of LMX‐1A as a metastasis suppressor in cervical cancer

DNA methylation is important in cancer development and is a promising biomarker for cancer detection. An epigenomic approach used in our previous work showed that LMX‐1A is methylation‐silenced in cervical cancer. LMX‐1A, a LIM‐homeobox gene, is known to participate in developmental events; however, there are at present no data on the role of LMX‐1A in cancers. In this study, we characterized the function of this transcription factor by examining cell lines, animal models and human cervical neoplastic tissues, and found that over‐expression of LMX‐1A does not affect cell proliferation or the cell cycle of cervical cancer cell lines but significantly inhibits colony formation and invasion in vitro. Analysis of changes in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers, such as CDH1, CDH2, VIMENTIN, SNAIL, SLUG and TWIST, revealed involvement of the EMT in LMX‐1A‐mediated cancer invasion; this result was validated in a stable transfectant over‐expressing LMX‐1A with RNA interference. Xenograft studies using immunocompromised mice confirmed the suppressor effects of LMX‐1A on tumour formation and distant metastasis in cervical cancer cell lines. LMX‐1A immunohistochemical staining of tissue arrays containing the full spectrum of cervical neoplasms, including normal cervix, low‐grade cervical intra‐epithelial neoplasia (CIN), high‐grade CIN, locally invasive and distant metastatic cancers, demonstrated the critical role of LMX‐1A in invasion and metastasis. Furthermore, we found by analysing TGFβ–BMP signalling that BMP4 and BMP6 are down‐regulated by LMX‐1A. The results of this study suggest that LMX‐1A suppresses cancer invasion and metastasis in cervical cancer through an incomplete EMT. Copyright © 2009 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Retroposon analysis of major cetacean lineages: The monophyly of toothed whales and the paraphyly of river dolphins

SINE (short interspersed element) insertion analysis elucidates contentious aspects in the phylogeny of toothed whales and dolphins (Odontoceti), especially river dolphins. Here, we characterize 25 informative SINEs inserted into unique genomic loci during evolution of odontocetes to construct a cladogram, and determine a total of 2.8 kb per taxon of the flanking sequences of these SINE loci to estimate divergence times among lineages. We demonstrate that: (i) Odontocetes are monophyletic; (ii) Ganges River dolphins, beaked whales, and ocean dolphins diverged (in this order) after sperm whales; (iii) three other river dolphin taxa, namely the Amazon, La Plata, and Yangtze river dolphins, form a monophyletic group with Yangtze River dolphins being the most basal; and (iv) the rapid radiation of extant cetacean lineages occurred some 28–33 million years B.P., in strong accord with the fossil record. The combination of SINE and flanking sequence analysis suggests a topology and set of divergence times for odontocete relationships, offering alternative explanations for several long-standing problems in cetacean evolution.
Pulmonary Edema following Phenylephrine Intranasal Spray Administration during the Induction of General Anesthesia in a Child

Topical phenylephrine, an agent used to facilitate nasotracheal intubation and prevent nasal mucosal bleeding, can cause severe hypertension in some patients, secondary to its stimulation of alpha-adrenergic receptors. Moreover, a high incidence of pulmonary edema is found in patients whose phenylephrine administration is followed by treatment with beta-blocking agents. We report a case of acute pulmonary edema in a pediatric patient who developed severe hypertension after the inadvertent administration of a large dose of topical nasal phenylephrine, followed by beta-adrenergic antagonists (esmolol).
Bifurcation of Limit Cycles from a Quasi-Homogeneous Degenerate Center

In this paper, we deal with the following differential system where p, q are positive integers, and P(x, y), Q(x, y) are real polynomials of degree n, we obtain an upper bound for the maximum number of limit cycles bifurcating from the period annulus of a quasi-homogeneous center, that is (n - 1)p1 + (t + 1)q - 1 + 2rp1q1(q + 3) + 2tqrp1q1, where t = [n/2q] + 2, (p, q) = r(p1, q1), p1 and q1 are coprime.
Benefits, status and effectiveness of Continuous Professional Development for teachers in England

Reported here is one part of the nationally representative, Schools and Continuing Professional Development in England – State of the Nation research study which was funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). This paper sets out to understand how teachers and school leaders in England perceive the benefits and effectiveness of CPD activity. The investigation of benefits and effectiveness of CPD presented in the paper focuses on the various impacts that could result from participation, the forms and features of activities, as well as the conditions that make effectiveness more or less likely to occur.
Effects of fondaparinux on mortality and reinfarction in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: the OASIS-6 randomized trial.

CONTEXT Despite many therapeutic advances, mortality in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains high. The role of additional antithrombotic agents is unclear, especially among patients not receiving reperfusion therapy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of fondaparinux, a factor Xa inhibitor, when initiated early and given for up to 8 days vs usual care (placebo in those in whom unfractionated heparin [UFH] is not indicated [stratum 1] or unfractionated heparin for up to 48 hours followed by placebo for up to 8 days [stratum 2]) in patients with STEMI. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Randomized double-blind comparison of fondaparinux 2.5 mg once daily or control for up to 8 days in 12,092 patients with STEMI from 447 hospitals in 41 countries (September 2003-January 2006). From day 3 through day 9, all patients received either fondaparinux or placebo according to the original randomized assignment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Composite of death or reinfarction at 30 days (primary) with secondary assessments at 9 days and at final follow-up (3 or 6 months). RESULTS Death or reinfarction at 30 days was significantly reduced from 677 (11.2%) of 6056 patients in the control group to 585 (9.7%) of 6036 patients in the fondaparinux group (hazard ratio [HR], 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77-0.96; P = .008); absolute risk reduction, 1.5%; 95% CI, 0.4%-2.6%). These benefits were observed at 9 days (537 [8.9%] placebo vs 444 [7.4%] fondaparinux; HR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73-0.94; P = .003, and at study end (857 [14.8%] placebo vs 756 [13.4%] fondaparinux; HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.79-0.97; P = .008). Mortality was significantly reduced throughout the study. There was no heterogeneity of the effects of fondaparinux in the 2 strata by planned heparin use. However, there was no benefit in those undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention. In other patients in stratum 2, fondaparinux was superior to unfractionated heparin in preventing death or reinfarction at 30 days (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.66-1.02; P = .08) and at study end (HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.64-0.93; P = .008). Significant benefits were observed in those receiving thrombolytic therapy (HR, 0.79; P = .003) and those not receiving any reperfusion therapy (HR, 0.80; P = .03). There was a tendency to fewer severe bleeds (79 for placebo vs 61 for fondaparinux; P = .13), with significantly fewer cardiac tamponade (48 vs 28; P = .02) with fondaparinux at 9 days. CONCLUSION In patients with STEMI, particularly those not undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention, fondaparinux significantly reduces mortality and reinfarction without increasing bleeding and strokes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00064428.