Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quality of life in adults with cystic fibrosis.

BACKGROUND: Cystic fibrosis is an inherited condition with a high mortality and morbidity. The aims of this study were to assess quality of life in a population of adults with cystic fibrosis, to compare quality of life with published scores from a healthy population and other patient groups, and to examine the relation between quality of life and other measured clinical variables. METHODS: Patients over 16 years of age attending an adult cystic fibrosis outpatient clinic were surveyed at a time when they were clinically stable. A self-complete questionnaire was administered which comprised the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) together with six additional questions related to cystic fibrosis. RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were obtained from 240 subjects (100 women) of median age 26 years (range 16-56). Mean (SD) forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was 49 (26)% predicted, forced vital capacity (FVC) was 68 (26)% predicted, and the FEV1:FVC ratio was 59 (16)%. In this cross sectional study different patterns of perceived quality of life were seen in men and women. In part 1 of the NHP there was an age related trend compared with norms in men, with more distress/disability in the dimensions of emotion, sleep, and social isolation in the older age groups. In women there was no age related trend in the degree of distress/disability compared with norms. The mean score was different from norms in the dimensions of pain, emotion and sleep. For the patients with cystic fibrosis as a whole the scores in part 1 were comparable with published scores of patients with minor non-acute conditions. Scores in part 2 of the NHP for men were different from norms in six of the seven areas of daily living (all except home life). For women the scores were different from norms in the areas of looking after the home, social life, hobbies, and holidays. There were correlations between several of the quality of life dimensions and other measured variables such as FEV1, breathlessness score, and the time spent on home treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Men and women with cystic fibrosis have different patterns of perceived quality of life, and there is an age related trend of perceived quality of life in men in some dimensions. Quality of life scores in this group, as assessed by the NHP, are similar to those reported in subjects with minor non-acute conditions.
Diagnosis and evaluation of intracranial arteriovenous malformations

Background: Ideal management of intracranial arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) remains poorly defined. Decisions regarding management of AVMs are based on the expected natural history of the lesion and risk prediction for peritreatment morbidity. Microsurgical resection, stereotactic radiosurgery, and endovascular embolization alone or in combination are all viable treatment options, each with different risks. The authors attempt to clarify the existing literature's understanding of the natural history of intracranial AVMs, and risk-assessment grading scales for each of the three treatment modalities. Methods: The authors conducted a literature review of the existing AVM natural history studies and studies that clarify the utility of existing grading scales available for the assessment of peritreatment risk for all three treatment modalities. Results: The authors systematically outline the diagnosis and evaluation of patients with intracranial AVMs and clarify estimation of the expected natural history and predicted risk of treatment for intracranial AVMs. Conclusion: AVMs are a heterogenous pathology with three different options for treatment. Accurate assessment of risk of observation and risk of treatment is essential for achieving the best outcome for each patient.
HER2/neu DNA vaccination by intradermal gene delivery in a mouse tumor model

DNA vaccines are potential tools for the induction of immune responses against both infectious disease and cancer. The dermal application of DNA vaccines is of particular interest since the epidermal and dermal layers of the skin are characterized by an abundance of antigen-presenting cells (APCs). The aim of our study was to compare tumor protection as obtained by two different methods of intradermal DNA delivery (gene gun and jet injector) in a well-established HER2/neu mouse tumor model. BALB/c mice were immunized twice with a HER2/neu-coding plasmid by gene gun or jet injector. Mice were then subcutaneously challenged with HER2/neu+ syngeneic D2F2/E2 tumor cells. Protection against subsequent challenges with tumor cells as well as humoral and T-cell immune responses induced by the vaccine were monitored. Gene gun immunization was far superior to jet injector both in terms of tumor protection and induction of HER2/neu-specific immune responses. After gene gun immunization, 60% of the mice remained tumor-free until day 140 as compared with 25% after jet injector immunization. Furthermore, gene gun vaccination was able to induce both a strong TH1-polarized T-cell response with detectable cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activity and a humoral immune response against HER2/neu, whereas the jet injector was not. Although the disadvantages that were associated with the use of the jet injector in our model may be overcome with methodological modifications and/or in larger animals, which exhibit a thicker skin and/or subcutaneous muscle tissue, we conclude that gene gun delivery constitutes the method of choice for intradermal DNA delivery in preclinical mouse models and possibly also for the clinical development of DNA-based vaccines.
Evolutionarily Conserved Herpesviral Protein Interaction Networks

Herpesviruses constitute a family of large DNA viruses widely spread in vertebrates and causing a variety of different diseases. They possess dsDNA genomes ranging from 120 to 240 kbp encoding between 70 to 170 open reading frames. We previously reported the protein interaction networks of two herpesviruses, varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). In this study, we systematically tested three additional herpesvirus species, herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), murine cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus, for protein interactions in order to be able to perform a comparative analysis of all three herpesvirus subfamilies. We identified 735 interactions by genome-wide yeast-two-hybrid screens (Y2H), and, together with the interactomes of VZV and KSHV, included a total of 1,007 intraviral protein interactions in the analysis. Whereas a large number of interactions have not been reported previously, we were able to identify a core set of highly conserved protein interactions, like the interaction between HSV-1 UL33 with the nuclear egress proteins UL31/UL34. Interactions were conserved between orthologous proteins despite generally low sequence similarity, suggesting that function may be more conserved than sequence. By combining interactomes of different species we were able to systematically address the low coverage of the Y2H system and to extract biologically relevant interactions which were not evident from single species.
Evaluating the modeling and use of emotion in virtual humans

Spurred by a range of potential applications, there has been a growing body of research in computational models of human emotion. To advance the development of these models, it is critical that we begin to evaluate them against the phenomena they purport to model. In this paper, we present one methodology to evaluate an emotion model. The methodology is based on comparing the behavior of the computational model against human behavior, using a standard clinical instrument for assessing human emotion and coping. We use this methodology to evaluate the EMA model of emotion [1, 2]. The model did quite well. And, as expected, the comparison helped identify where the model needs further development.
CBM: Online Strategies on Cost-Aware Buffer Management for Mobile Video Streaming

Mobile video traffic, owing to the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, has been growing exponentially in recent years and started to dominate the mobile Internet. In reality, mobile video applications commonly adopt buffering techniques to handle bandwidth fluctuation and minimize the impact of stochastic wireless channels on user experiences. However, recent measurement work reveals that mobile users tend to abort more frequently than PC users during viewing videos. Such a high abortion rate results in a significant wastage of buffered video data, which is directly translated into monetary and energy cost for mobile users. In this paper, we propose an intelligent buffer management strategy called CBM (Cost-aware Buffer Management), for mobile video streaming applications. Our purpose is to minimize cost induced by un-consumed video data while respecting certain user experience requirements. To this objective, we formulate the problem into a constrained stochastic optimization problem, and apply the Lyapunov optimization theory to derive the corresponding online strategy for cost minimization. Different from conventional heuristic-based strategies, our proposed CBM strategy can provide provably performance guarantee with explicit bounds. We also conduct extensive simulations to validate the effectiveness of our proposed strategy and our experimental results show that CBM achieves significant gains over existing schemes.
Social Engagement among Migrant Youth: Attitudes and Meanings

This article explores migrant young people’s engagement, participation and involvement in socially meaningful activities, events and experiences. This type of social participation is approached in the social inclusion literature using the notions of social capital and active citizenship (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 1993; Putnam, 2000). A key objective, therefore, is to explore the attitudes, values and perceptions associated with social participation for young people. They include the meanings that social engagement has for migrant young people, along with drivers and inhibitions to active participation. The article focuses on both the motives for being actively engaged as well as perceived barriers to social engagement. It is based on a large study conducted among migrant young people of African, Arabic-speaking and Pacific Islander backgrounds in Melbourne and Brisbane, and presents both quantitative and qualitative (discursive) snapshots from the overall findings, based on interviews and focus groups. While many studies have centred on the management of migration and migrants, this article draws attention to the individuals’ active position in negotiating, interpreting and appropriating the conditions of social inclusion. Accounting for the multidimensional and multilayered nature of social inclusion, the paper highlights the heuristic role of social engagement in fostering the feelings of belonging and personal growth for migrant youth.
Network adiabatic theorem: an efficient randomized protocol for contention resolution

The popularity of Aloha-like algorithms for resolution of contention between multiple entities accessing common resources is due to their extreme simplicity and distributed nature. Example applications of such algorithms include Ethernet and recently emerging wireless multi-access networks. Despite a long and exciting history of more than four decades, the question of designing an algorithm that is essentially as simple and distributed as Aloha while being efficient has remained unresolved. In this paper, we resolve this question successfully for a network of queues where contention is modeled through independent-set constraints over the network graph. The work by Tassiulas and Ephremides (1992) suggests that an algorithm that schedules queues so that the summation of `weight' of scheduled queues is maximized, subject to constraints, is efficient. However, implementing such an algorithm using Aloha-like mechanism has remained a mystery. We design such an algorithm building upon a Metropolis-Hastings sampling mechanism along with selection of `weight' as an appropriate function of the queue-size. The key ingredient in establishing the efficiency of the algorithm is a novel adiabatic-like theorem for the underlying queueing network, which may be of general interest in the context of dynamical systems.
Comparison of the Ultrastructure of Several Rickettsiae, Ornithosis Virus, and Mycoplasma in Tissue Culture

Anderson, Douglas R. (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md.), Hope E. Hopps, Michael F. Barile, and Barbara C. Bernheim. Comparison of the ultrastructure of several rickettsiae, ornithosis virus, and Mycoplasma in tissue culture. J. Bacteriol. 90:1387–1404. 1965. —In an effort to make a valid comparison of the ultrastructure of several intracellular parasites, selected agents were propagated under identical conditions in a single type of tissue culture cell; such infected preparations were processed for examination by electron microscopy by use of a standardized procedure for fixation and embedding. The organisms studied were: the Breinl and E strains of epidemic typhus, Rickettsia prowazeki; the Bitterroot strain of R. rickettsii; the Karp strain of R. tsutsugamushi (R. orientalis); R. sennetsu; the P-4 strain of ornithosis virus; and the HEp-2 strain of Mycoplasma hominis type I. Each of the rickettsial species examined had a cell wall and a plasma membrane, and contained ribosomes and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in a ground substance. However, certain differences were noted. Both strains of R. prowazeki contained numerous intracytoplasmic electron-lucent spherical structures (4 to 10 mμ), not previously described. R. sennetsu, unlike the other rickettsiae, was not free in the host cytoplasm but was always enclosed in a vacuole. R. rickettsii was observed intranuclearly and in digestive organelles of the host cell as well as in the cytoplasm. Cells infected with ornithosis virus contained several forms representing the stages in its life cycle. The “initial bodies,” made up of ribosomes and DNA strands, were morphologically similar to the rickettsiae. In cultures infected with M. hominis, most of the cells became large and multinucleate. Although the Mycoplasma organisms were readily cultivated from these cultures, only a few could be found in the electron microscope preparations. These organisms were extracellular and lacked a cell wall, being bound only by a unit membrane. Again, the internal components were ribosomes and DNA strands. Under the uniform preparative conditions employed here, the three groups of organisms were morphologically distinguishable from one another.
Measuring taxonomic relationships in ontologies using lexical semantic relatedness

In this paper, we propose a new measure framework for evaluating taxonomy relationships in ontologies using lexical semantic relatedness. First, we suggest a new quantitative measure model for WordNet, the model can be used to compute the semantic relatedness of concepts in ontologies. Next, According to the relativities of concepts, we describe the way to estimate the classification consistency of all concepts in ontologies, moreover we use taxonomy scores to evaluate taxonomy relationships in ontologies. As a part of this research, we have applied our approach in evaluating the taxonomy relationships in SWE domain ontology, and the research shows our approach is effective. Other experiments show that our measure framework gets better performance than exiting approaches in identifying consistency of taxonomic relationship in ontologies.
Fish and chips: functional genomics of social plasticity in an African cichlid fish

SUMMARY Behavior and physiology are regulated by both environment and social context. A central goal in the study of the social control of behavior is to determine the underlying physiological, cellular and molecular mechanisms in the brain. The African cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni has long been used as a model system to study how social interactions regulate neural and behavioral plasticity. In this species, males are either socially dominant and reproductively active or subordinate and reproductively suppressed. This phenotypic difference is reversible. Using an integrative approach that combines quantitative behavioral measurements, functional genomics and bioinformatic analyses, we examine neural gene expression in dominant and subordinate males as well as in brooding females. We confirm the role of numerous candidate genes that are part of neuroendocrine pathways and show that specific co-regulated gene sets (modules), as well as specific functional gene ontology categories, are significantly associated with either dominance or reproductive state. Finally, even though the dominant and subordinate phenotypes are robustly defined, we find a surprisingly high degree of individual variation in the transcript levels of the very genes that are differentially regulated between these phenotypes. The results of the present study demonstrate the molecular complexity in the brain underlying social behavior, identify novel targets for future studies, validate many candidate genes and exploit individual variation in order to gain biological insights.
Donor‐variation effect on red blood cell storage lesion: A close relationship emerges

Although the molecular pathways leading to the progressive deterioration of stored red blood cells (RBC storage lesion) and the clinical relevance of storage‐induced changes remain uncertain, substantial donor‐specific variability in RBC performance during storage, and posttransfusion has been established (“donor‐variation effect”). In‐bag hemolysis and numerous properties of the RBC units that may affect transfusion efficacy have proved to be strongly donor‐specific. Donor‐variation effect may lead to the production of highly unequal blood labile products even when similar storage strategy and duration are applied. Genetic, undiagnosed/subclinical medical conditions and lifestyle factors that affect RBC characteristics at baseline, including RBC lifespan, energy metabolism, and sensitivity to oxidative stress, are all likely to influence the storage capacity of individual donors’ cells, although not evident by the donor's health or hematological status at blood donation. Consequently, baseline characteristics of the donors, such as membrane peroxiredoxin‐2 and serum uric acid concentration, have been proposed as candidate biomarkers of storage quality. This review article focuses on specific factors that might contribute to the donor‐variation effect and emphasizes the emerging need for using omics‐based technologies in association with in vitro and in vivo transfusion models and clinical trials to discover biomarkers of storage quality and posttransfusion recovery in donor blood.
Maturation of EPSCs and Intrinsic Membrane Properties Enhances Precision at a Cerebellar Synapse

The timing of action potentials is an important determinant of information coding in the brain. The shape of the EPSP has a key influence on the temporal precision of spike generation. Here we use dynamic clamp recording and passive neuronal models to study how developmental changes in synaptic conductance waveform and intrinsic membrane properties combine to affect the EPSP and action potential generation in cerebellar granule cells. We recorded EPSCs at newly formed and mature mossy fiber–granule cell synapses. Both quantal and evoked currents showed a marked speeding of the AMPA receptor-mediated component. We also found evidence for age- and activity-dependent changes in the involvement of NMDA receptors. Although AMPA and NMDA receptors contributed to quantal EPSCs at immature synapses, multiquantal release was required to activate NMDA receptors at mature synapses, suggesting a developmental redistribution of NMDA receptors. These changes in the synaptic conductance waveform result in a faster rising EPSP and reduced spike latency in mature granule cells. Mature granule cells also have a significantly decreased input resistance, contributing to a faster decaying EPSP and a reduced spike jitter. We suggest that these concurrent developmental changes, which increase the temporal precision of EPSP-spike coupling, will increase the fidelity with which sensory information is processed within the input layer of the cerebellar cortex.
Arginine Vasopressin Antagonists for the Treatment of Heart Failure and Hyponatremia

Arginine vasopressin has attracted attention as a potentially important neurohormonal mediator of the heart failure (HF) syndrome and hyponatremic states in humans1 because vasopressin influences renal handling of free water, vasoconstriction, and myocyte biology.2,3 Several vasopressin antagonists are under development,4 and one of these agents, conivaptan, recently received US Food and Drug Administration approval for short-term intravenous treatment in patients with euvolemic or hypervolemic hyponatremia. A neurohypophysial hormone, vasopressin (also called antidiuretic hormone [ADH]), affects free water reabsorption by the kidney, body fluid osmolality, blood volume, vasoconstriction, and myocardial contractile function.2,3 Vasopressin is synthesized by neurosecretory cells located predominantly in the supraoptic and paraventricular hypothalamic nuclei. These neurons have axons terminating in the neural lobe of the posterior pituitary (neurohypophysis) that release vasopressin and oxytocin.5 ### Physiology of Regulation of Vasopressin Release Normally, the dominant stimulant for vasopressin release is a change in plasma tonicity, plasma volume depletion, or blood pressure, the last 2 mediated by arterial baroreceptors. Osmoreceptors in the anterior hypothalamus sense the increase in serum osmolality and stimulate secretion of vasopressin from the posterior pituitary. In an attempt to normalize plasma osmolality, vasopressin acts on the V2 renal receptors, increasing free water reabsorption by insertion of protein water channels, aquaporins, in the luminal membranes of the principal cells of the renal collecting ducts.6 ### Receptor/Effector Mechanisms The 3 vasopressin receptor subtypes belong to a family of rhodopsin-like G-protein–coupled receptors.7 V1a (vascular) receptors are located on several cell types, including vascular smooth muscle cells and cardiomyocytes (Table 1), with effects on the maintenance and regulation of vascular tone and possibly myocardial function.3 View this table: Table 1. Vasopressin Receptors: Location and Function 5,8 V1b (pituitary) receptors are expressed on the surfaces of corticotrophic cells in the anterior pituitary and the pancreas and adrenal medulla (Table 1). 5,8 V1a and V1b receptors are …