Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a helper-independent human adenovirus vector and its use in the transfer of the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene

Approximately 2 kilobases (kb) of additional DNA can be packaged into wild-type virions of human adenovirus type 5 (Ad5). To extend this limit, a helper independent Ad5 cloning vector was constructed by deleting most of early region 3 (E3) from map coordinates 78.5 to 84.7 and essentially all of early region 1 (E1) from coordinates 1.0 to 10.6. E3 is nonessential for adenovirus replication in cultured cells, and E1 is nonessential when the virus is propagated in 293 cells which constitutively express the E1 gene products. The resulting new virus, dlE1,3 is about 5.5 kb shorter than wild-type Ad5 and therefore should be able to accept up to 7.5 kb in foreign DNA. To test the usefulness of this vector, the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) thymidine kinase gene (tk) along with its regulatory sequences was inserted into the unique XbaI site of dlE1,3 (at map position 78.5/84.7). The resulting recombinant virus, Adtk, expressed the HSV tk at a low level (as compared with HSV-1) in infected cells; however, tk expression was markedly enhanced when Adtk-infected cells were superinfected with a tk- mutant of HSV. Furthermore, the Adtk virus efficiently transformed tk- mouse cells (line LTA) to the tk+ phenotype. At a low efficiency, it was also possible to transform tk- human cells (line 143), and tk+ transformants of both mouse and human origin have been established as permanent lines.
The Optimal Width and Mechanism of Riparian Buffers for Storm Water Nutrient Removal in the Chinese Eutrophic Lake Chaohu Watershed

Riparian buffers play an important role in intercepting nutrients entering lakes from non-point runoffs. In spite of its ecological significance, little is known regarding the underlying mechanisms of riparian buffers or their optimal width. In this study, we examined nutrient removal efficiency, including the quantity of nutrients and water quality, in the littoral zone of different types of riparian buffers in the watershed around eutrophic Lake Chaohu (China), and estimated the optimal width for different types of riparian buffers for effective nutrient removal. In general, a weak phosphorus (P) adsorption ability and nitrification-denitrification potential in soil resulted in a far greater riparian buffer demand than before in Lake Chaohu, which may be attributed to the soil degradation and simplification of cover vegetation. In detail, the width was at least 23 m (grass/forest) and 130 m (grass) for total P (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) to reach 50% removal efficiency, respectively, indicating a significantly greater demand for TN removal than that for TP. Additionally, wetland and grass/forest riparian buffers were more effective for TP removal, which was attributed to a high P sorption maximum (Qmax) and a low equilibrium P concentration (EPC0), respectively. The high potential nitrification rate (PNR) and potential denitrification rate (PDR) were responsible for the more effective TN removal efficiencies in grass riparian buffers. The nutrient removal efficiency of different types of riparian buffers was closely related with nutrient level in adjacent littoral zones around Lake Chaohu.
Transcriptomic Analysis of Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) Leaves after Exposure to Ultraviolet C Irradiation

Background Only a small amount of solar ultraviolet C (UV-C) radiation reaches the Earth's surface. This is because of the filtering effects of the stratospheric ozone layer. Artificial UV-C irradiation is used on leaves and fruits to stimulate different biological processes in plants. Grapes are a major fruit crop and are grown in many parts of the world. Research has shown that UV-C irradiation induces the biosynthesis of phenols in grape leaves. However, few studies have analyzed the overall changes in gene expression in grape leaves exposed to UV-C. Methodology/Principal Findings In the present study, transcriptional responses were investigated in grape (Vitis vinifera L.) leaves before and after exposure to UV-C irradiation (6 W·m−2 for 10 min) using an Affymetrix Vitis vinifera (Grape) Genome Array (15,700 transcripts). A total of 5274 differentially expressed probe sets were defined, including 3564 (67.58%) probe sets that appeared at both 6 and 12 h after exposure to UV-C irradiation but not before exposure. A total of 468 (8.87%) probe sets and 1242 (23.55%) probe sets were specifically expressed at these times. The probe sets were associated with a large number of important traits and biological pathways, including cell rescue (i.e., antioxidant enzymes), protein fate (i.e., HSPs), primary and secondary metabolism, and transcription factors. Interestingly, some of the genes involved in secondary metabolism, such as stilbene synthase, responded intensely to irradiation. Some of the MYB and WRKY family transcription factors, such as VvMYBPA1, VvMYB14, VvMYB4, WRKY57-like, and WRKY 65, were also strongly up-regulated (about 100 to 200 fold). Conclusions UV-C irridiation has an important role in some biology processes, especially cell rescue, protein fate, secondary metabolism, and regulation of transcription.These results opened up ways of exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of UV-C irradiation on grape leaves and have great implications for further studies.
Galanin‐induced decreases in nucleus accumbens/striatum excitatory postsynaptic potentials and morphine conditioned place preference require both galanin receptor 1 and galanin receptor 2

The neuropeptide galanin has been shown to alter the rewarding properties of morphine. To identify potential cellular mechanisms that might be involved in the ability of galanin to modulate opiate reward, we measured excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), using both field and whole‐cell recordings from striatal brain slices extracted from wild‐type mice and mice lacking specific galanin receptor (GalR) subtypes. We found that galanin decreased the amplitude of EPSPs in both the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens. We then performed recordings in slices from knockout mice lacking either the GalR1 or GalR2 gene, and found that the ability of galanin to decrease EPSP amplitude was absent from both mouse lines, suggesting that both receptor subtypes are required for this effect. In order to determine whether behavioral responses to opiates were dependent on the same receptor subtypes, we tested GalR1 and GalR2 knockout mice for morphine conditioned place preference (CPP). Morphine CPP was significantly attenuated in both GalR1 and GalR2 knockout mice. These data suggest that mesolimbic excitatory signaling is significantly modulated by galanin in a GalR1‐dependent and GalR2‐dependent manner, and that morphine CPP is dependent on the same receptor subtypes.
Cross-script phonological priming for Japanese-English bilinguals: Evidence for integrated phonological representations

Previous masked phonological priming studies with bilinguals whose languages are written in the same script (e.g., Dutch-French bilinguals) strongly suggest that phonological representations for the two languages are integrated, based on the fact that phonological activation created by reading a word in one language facilitates word identification in the other language. The present research examined whether the same is true for different-script bilinguals (Japanese-English bilinguals). In this study, participants made lexical decisions to English targets (e.g., GUIDE) that were primed by three types of masked Japanese primes: cognate translation equivalents (e.g., , /gaido/, guide), phonologically similar but conceptually unrelated words (e.g., , /saido/, side), and phonologically and conceptually unrelated words (e.g., , /koRru/, call). There were significant priming effects for cognate translation primes (94 ms) and phonologically similar primes (30 ms). Whereas the cognate translation priming effect was modulated by target frequency and L2 proficiency, the phonological priming effect was not. Our results suggest that phonological representations for different languages are integrated even if the languages in question use different scripts. The role of phonological activation in bilingual word recognition is discussed.
Relation of weight gain and weight loss on subsequent diabetes risk in overweight adults

STUDY OBJECTIVE To determine whether long term weight gain and weight loss are associated with subsequent risk of type 2 diabetes in overweight, non-diabetic adults. DESIGN Prospective cohort. Baseline overweight was defined as BMI⩾27.3 for women and BMI⩾27.8 for men. Annual weight change (kg/year) over 10 years was calculated using measured weight at subjects' baseline and first follow up examinations. In the 10 years after measurement of weight change, incident cases of diabetes were ascertained by self report, hospital discharge records, and death certificates. SETTING Community. PARTICIPANTS 1929 overweight, non-diabetic adults. MAIN RESULTS Incident diabetes was ascertained in 251 subjects. Age adjusted cumulative incidence increased from 9.6% for BMI<29 to 26.2% for BMI⩾37. Annual weight change over 10 years was higher in subjects who become diabetic compared with those who did not for all BMI<35. Relative to overweight people with stable weight, each kg of weight gained annually over 10 years was associated with a 49% increase in risk of developing diabetes in the subsequent 10 years. Each kg of weight lost annually over 10 years was associated with a 33% lower risk of diabetes in the subsequent 10 years. CONCLUSIONS Weight gain was associated with substantially increased risk of diabetes among overweight adults, and even modest weight loss was associated with significantly reduced diabetes risk. Minor weight reductions may have major beneficial effects on subsequent diabetes risk in overweight adults at high risk of developing diabetes.
A human complement receptor 1 polymorphism that reduces Plasmodium falciparum rosetting confers protection against severe malaria

Parasitized red blood cells (RBCs) from children suffering from severe malaria often adhere to complement receptor 1 (CR1) on uninfected RBCs to form clumps of cells known as “rosettes. ” Despite a well documented association between rosetting and severe malaria, it is controversial whether rosetting is a cause or a correlate of parasite virulence. CR1-deficient RBC show greatly reduced rosetting; therefore, we hypothesized that, if rosetting is a direct cause of malaria pathology, CR1-deficient individuals should be protected against severe disease. In this study, we show that RBC CR1 deficiency occurs in up to 80% of healthy individuals from the malaria-endemic regions of Papua New Guinea. This RBC CR1 deficiency is associated with polymorphisms in the CR1 gene and, unexpectedly, with α-thalassemia, a common genetic disorder in Melanesian populations. Analysis of a case-control study demonstrated that the CR1 polymorphisms and α-thalassemia independently confer protection against severe malaria. We have therefore identified CR1 as a new malaria resistance gene and provided compelling evidence that rosetting is an important parasite virulence phenotype that should be a target for drug and vaccine development.
The Opdc missense mutation of Pax2 has a milder than loss-of-function phenotype

Renal-coloboma syndrome, also known as papillorenal syndrome, is an autosomal dominant human disorder in which optic disc coloboma is associated with kidney abnormalities. Mutations in the paired domain transcription factor PAX2 have been found to be the underlying cause of this disease. Disease severity varies between patients, and in some cases, renal hypoplasia has been found in the absence of any retinal defects. Here we report an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea-induced mouse mutation, Opdc, which is an isoleucinetothreonine missense mutation, I40T, in the first α-helix of the Pax2 paired domain. The mutant protein binds target DNA sequences less strongly than the wild-type protein and acts poorly to transactivate target promoters in culture. The phenotypic consequence of this mutation on the development of the eye and ear is similar to that reported for null alleles of Pax2. However, in homozygotes, cerebellar development is normal on a genetic background in which loss of Pax2 results in failure of cerebellar formation. Moreover, there is a genetic background effect on the heterozygous phenotype such that on some strain backgrounds, kidney development is unaffected. Opdc is the first hypomorphic mutation reported for Pax2 that differs in phenotype from loss-of-function mutations. These results suggest that PAX2 is a strong candidate gene for cases in which human patients have optic disc coloboma not associated with renal dysplasia.
Model-Based Multiple Pitch Tracking Using Factorial HMMs: Model Adaptation and Inference

Robustness against noise and interfering audio signals is one of the challenges in speech recognition and audio analysis technology. One avenue to approach this challenge is single-channel multiple-source modeling. Factorial hidden Markov models (FHMMs) are capable of modeling acoustic scenes with multiple sources interacting over time. While these models reach good performance on specific tasks, there are still serious limitations restricting the applicability in many domains. In this paper, we generalize these models and enhance their applicability. In particular, we develop an EM-like iterative adaptation framework which is capable to adapt the model parameters to the specific situation (e.g. actual speakers, gain, acoustic channel, etc.) using only speech mixture data. Currently, source-specific data is required to learn the model. Inference in FHMMs is an essential ingredient for adaptation. We develop efficient approaches based on observation likelihood pruning. Both adaptation and efficient inference are empirically evaluated for the task of multipitch tracking using the GRID corpus.
Regions of neural dysfunction associated with impaired naming of actions and objects in acute stroke

The proposal that there are distinct neural regions devoted to the representation or processing of names of objects versus actions has received support from a variety of sources. However, there have been conflicting results regarding the localisation of the postulated mechanisms that are more crucial for one category or the other. There is also controversy as to whether the separation of mechanisms devoted to object versus action naming arises at the level of lexical-semantics or at the level of accessing lexical representations for output. We addressed these issues by testing oral naming and word comprehension of object and action names in 33 right-handed patients with acute left-hemisphere stroke, and by obtaining magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion-weighted and diffusion-weighted imaging of each patient at the same time. We identified regions of abnormal blood flow or infarction associated with impaired naming (with and without impaired word comprehension) of objects, of actions, or of both, using Fisher Exact tests. We found both neural regions shared by networks underlying naming of actions and networks underlying naming of objects, and other neural regions that were crucial to only one network or the other. One of the shared components (in the left superior temporal gyrus) was also essential to comprehension of action and object names (as tested by word/picture verification). These results converge with evidence from chronic lesion studies and functional imaging studies, indicating that some components of the neural networks for accessing lexical representations for output are more important for object names (e.g., left temporal cortex) and others more important for action names (e.g., left posterior frontal cortex).
Beyond valence: Toward a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice

Most theories of affective influences on judgement and choice take a valence-based approach, contrasting the effects of positive versus negative feeling states. These approaches have not specified if and when distinct emotions of the same valence have different effects on judgement. In this article, we propose a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice. We posit that each emotion is defined by a tendency to perceive new events and objects in ways that are consistent with the original cognitive-appraisal dimensions of the emotion. To pit the valence and appraisal-tendency approaches against one another, we present a study that addresses whether two emotions of the same valence but differing appraisals—anger and fear—relate in different ways to risk perception. Consistent with the appraisal-tendency hypothesis, fearful people made pessimistic judgements of future events whereas angry people made optimistic judgements. In the Discussion we expand the proposed model and review evidence supporting two social moderators of appraisal-tendency processes.
The associations of socioeconomic status and social capital with gingival bleeding among schoolchildren

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the associations of gingival bleeding with individual and community social variables among schoolchildren. METHODS This cross-sectional study evaluated a representative, multistage, random sample of 1,134 12-year-old schoolchildren from Santa Maria, a city in southern Brazil. The participants were examined clinically, and full-mouth gingival bleeding was recorded according to the Community Periodontal Index criteria (scored as healthy or bleeding). The children's parents or guardians answered questions regarding their socioeconomic status and social capital, and an assessment of the associations was performed using multilevel Poisson regression models. RESULTS The prevalence of gingival bleeding was 96.21 percent. The multilevel adjusted assessment revealed that socioeconomic, clinical, and social capital variables at the individual level were associated with higher levels of gingival bleeding. Children whose fathers had a low educational level, children who had dental plaque and dental crowding, and children who never/almost never attended religious meetings exhibited significantly higher levels of gingival bleeding than their counterparts. This social gradient remained significant even after adjusting for contextual-level covariates. CONCLUSION The results indicate that the socioeconomic status and features of social capital are associated with the levels of gingival bleeding among schoolchildren.
Sandy shore benthic N2-fixation in Lake Malawi, Africa

Epipelic N2-fixation in Lake Malawi (9°30"S to l4°25"S) has been shown to be a very important local source of nitrogen (N) for epipelic algal growth, which supports highly diverse and populated endemic cichlid species (HIGGINS et al. 200 l). The rocky habitat, however, covers only about 30% of the lake's littoral area, while the remainder is almost entirely covered by sand (R.IBBINK et al. 1983). Despite sand covering a larger expanse of the littoral benthic zone with an almost entirely different biota from that of the rocky zone, N2-fixation in the lake's sand community has never been studied before. This is important particularly because algal growth in the lake has generally been perceived as N limited, which may become critical with the continued threat of eutrophication by increasing human populations and the associated land-use changes in the lake's catchment area (GUILDFORD et al. 2003). HECKY et al. (2003) showed that phosphorus (P) loading to the lake is increasing more rapidly than N loading, so that the epilimnion may become more N limited, thereby causing harmful N2-fixing cyanobacterial species to proliferate in the lake. We report results of a study conducted on 2 sandy beaches in the more productive southern part of Lake Malawi. Study objectives were to (l) estimate Nz-fixation rates on sandy sediments by using the acetylene reduction technique, and (2) evaluate the N input from epipsammic N2-fixation to the lake's epilimnion.
Undergraduate medical students’ empathy: current perspectives

Empathy is important to patient care. It enhances patients’ satisfaction, comfort, self-efficacy, and trust which in turn may facilitate better diagnosis, shared decision making, and therapy adherence. Empathetic doctors experience greater job satisfaction and psychological well-being. Understanding the development of empathy of tomorrow’s health care professionals is important. However, clinical empathy is poorly defined and difficult to measure, while ways to enhance it remain unclear. This review examines empathy among undergraduate medical students, focusing upon three main questions: How is empathy measured? This section discusses the problems of assessing empathy and outlines the utility of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Student Version and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Both have been used widely to assess medical students’ empathy. Does empathy change during undergraduate medical education? The trajectory of empathy during undergraduate medical education has been and continues to be debated. Potential reasons for contrasting results of studies are outlined. What factors may influence the development of empathy? Although the influence of sex is widely recognized, the impact of culture, psychological well-being, and aspects of undergraduate curricula are less well understood. This review identifies three interrelated issues for future research into undergraduate medical students’ empathy. First, the need for greater clarity of definition, recognizing that empathy is multidimensional. Second, the need to develop meaningful ways of measuring empathy which include its component dimensions and which are relevant to patients’ experiences. Medical education research has generally relied upon single, self-report instruments, which have utility across large populations but are limited. Finally, there is a need for greater methodological rigor in investigating the possible determinants of clinical empathy in medical education. Greater specificity of context and the incorporation of work from other disciplines may facilitate this.
Day of Admission and Clinical Outcomes for Patients Hospitalized for Heart Failure: Findings From the Organized Program to Initiate Lifesaving Treatment in Hospitalized Patients With Heart Failure (OPTIMIZE-HF)

Background—Differences in hospital staffing may influence outcomes for patients with acute conditions, including heart failure (HF), depending on which day of the week the patients are admitted. This study examined the relationship between the day of the week patients are hospitalized for HF and death rate, length of stay (LOS), and rehospitalization rate. Methods and Results—A total of 259 US hospitals participating in the Organized Program to Initiate Lifesaving Treatment in Hospitalized Patients With Heart Failure (OPTIMIZE-HF) submitted data on 48 612 patients with HF. Sixty- to 90-day postdischarge follow-up data were collected prospectively in a prespecified 10% sample. We analyzed day of admission and discharge, demographic, medical history, medication use, laboratory, and in-hospital procedure data for their association with hospital LOS and death rate. Patient characteristics were similar for weekday and weekend presentation. LOS was a median of 4.0 days and a mean of 5.7±5.7 days; in-hospital death rate was 3.8%. In-hospital and postdischarge risk of death were similar for each day of the week in the hospital and follow-up cohorts, respectively. LOS, however, was significantly influenced by day of admission, even after adjustment for other LOS risk factors. The shortest LOS by admission day of the week was Tuesday (5.39 days), and the longest was Friday (5.88 days; P<0.001). Conclusions—No differences in death rate by day of admission or discharge for HF hospitalizations were evident. Hospitalizations for HF on Thursday and Friday were associated with prolonged LOS. Understanding the factors responsible for the increased LOS and potential adjustments in staffing to facilitate weekend discharges may improve the efficiency of HF hospital care.