Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Catalytic antibody light chain capable of cleaving a chemokine receptor CCR‐5 peptide with a high reaction rate constant

A monoclonal antibody (MAb), ECL2B‐2, was obtained by immunizing a peptide possessing a part of a sequence of a chemokine receptor, CCR‐5, which is present as a membrane protein on the macrophage surface, and which plays an important role in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. From the DNA and the deduced amino acid sequences of the light and heavy chains of ECL2B‐2 MAb, molecular modeling was conducted to calculate the steric conformation of the antibody. Modeling suggested that the structure of ECL2B‐2 could possess one or two catalytic triad(s), composed of Asp1, Ser27a (or Ser27e), and His93 (or His27d), in the light chain of ECL2B‐2. The three amino acid residues, Asp1, Ser27a, and His93, are identical to those of catalytic antibody light chains such as VIPase and i41SL1‐2. The light chain of ECL2B‐2 MAb degraded the antigenic peptide CCR‐5 within about 100 h. Surprisingly, the light chain had a very high catalytic reaction rate constant (kcat) of 2.23 min−1, which is greater by factors of tens to hundreds than those of natural catalytic antibodies obtained previously. The heavy chain of ECL2B‐2 MAb, which has no catalytic triad because of a lack of His residue, did not degrade the CCR‐5 peptide. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Symmetry Breaking in Graphs

A labeling of the vertices of a graph G, ` : V (G) ! f1;:::;rg, is said to be r-distinguishing provided no automorphism of the graph preserves all of the vertex labels. The distinguishing number of a graph G, denoted by D(G), is the minimum r such that G has an r-distinguishing labeling. The distinguishing number of the complete graph on t vertices is t. In contrast, we prove (i) given any group i, there is a graph G such that Aut(G) » ia ndD(G )=2 ; (ii)D(G )= O(log(jAut(G)j)); (iii) if Aut(G) is abelian, then D(G) • 2; (iv) if Aut(G) is dihedral, then D(G) • 3; and (v) If Aut(G) » S4 ,t hen either D(G )= 2 orD(G) = 4. Mathematics Subject Classiflcation 05C,20B,20F,68R
Emotion regulation modulates anticipatory brain activity that predicts emotional memory encoding in women

It has been shown that the effectiveness with which unpleasant events are encoded into memory is related to brain activity set in train before the events. Here, we assessed whether encoding-related activity before an aversive event can be modulated by emotion regulation. Electrical brain activity was recorded from the scalps of healthy women while they performed an incidental encoding task on randomly intermixed unpleasant and neutral visual scenes. A cue presented 1.5 s before each picture indicated the upcoming valence. In half of the blocks of trials, the instructions emphasized to let emotions arise in a natural way. In the other half, participants were asked to decrease their emotional response by adopting the perspective of a detached observer. Memory for the scenes was probed 1 day later with a recognition memory test. Brain activity before unpleasant scenes predicted later memory of the scenes, but only when participants felt their emotions and did not detach from them. The findings indicate that emotion regulation can eliminate the influence of anticipatory brain activity on memory encoding. This may be relevant for the understanding and treatment of psychiatric diseases with a memory component.
Transiently Increasing cAMP Levels Selectively in Hippocampal Excitatory Neurons during Sleep Deprivation Prevents Memory Deficits Caused by Sleep Loss

The hippocampus is particularly sensitive to sleep loss. Although previous work has indicated that sleep deprivation impairs hippocampal cAMP signaling, it remains to be determined whether the cognitive deficits associated with sleep deprivation are caused by attenuated cAMP signaling in the hippocampus. Further, it is unclear which cell types are responsible for the memory impairments associated with sleep deprivation. Transgenic approaches lack the spatial resolution to manipulate specific signaling pathways selectively in the hippocampus, while pharmacological strategies are limited in terms of cell-type specificity. Therefore, we used a pharmacogenetic approach based on a virus-mediated expression of a Gαs-coupled Drosophila octopamine receptor selectively in mouse hippocampal excitatory neurons in vivo. With this approach, a systemic injection with the receptor ligand octopamine leads to increased cAMP levels in this specific set of hippocampal neurons. We assessed whether transiently increasing cAMP levels during sleep deprivation prevents memory consolidation deficits associated with sleep loss in an object–location task. Five hours of total sleep deprivation directly following training impaired the formation of object–location memories. Transiently increasing cAMP levels in hippocampal neurons during the course of sleep deprivation prevented these memory consolidation deficits. These findings demonstrate that attenuated cAMP signaling in hippocampal excitatory neurons is a critical component underlying the memory deficits in hippocampus-dependent learning tasks associated with sleep deprivation.
Protection from Type 1 Diabetes by Invariant NK T Cells Requires the Activity of CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells1

Invariant NK T (iNKT) cells regulate immune responses, express NK cell markers and an invariant TCR, and recognize lipid Ags in a CD1d-restricted manner. Previously, we reported that activation of iNKT cells by α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) protects against type 1 diabetes (T1D) in NOD mice via an IL-4-dependent mechanism. To further investigate how iNKT cells protect from T1D, we analyzed whether iNKT cells require the presence of another subset(s) of regulatory T cells (Treg), such as CD4+CD25+ Treg, for this protection. We found that CD4+CD25+ T cells from NOD.CD1d−/− mice deficient in iNKT cell function similarly in vitro to CD4+CD25+ T cells from wild-type NOD mice and suppress the proliferation of NOD T responder cells upon α-GalCer stimulation. Cotransfer of NOD diabetogenic T cells with CD4+CD25+ Tregs from NOD mice pretreated with α-GalCer demonstrated that activated iNKT cells do not influence the ability of Tregs to inhibit the transfer of T1D. In contrast, protection from T1D mediated by transfer of activated iNKT cells requires the activity of CD4+CD25+ T cells, because splenocytes pretreated with α-GalCer and then inactivated by anti-CD25 of CD25+ cells did not protect from T1D. Similarly, mice inactivated of CD4+CD25+ T cells before α-GalCer treatment were also not protected from T1D. Our data suggest that CD4+CD25+ T cells retain their function during iNKT cell activation, and that the activity of CD4+CD25+ Tregs is required for iNKT cells to transfer protection from T1D.
On the Linear Precoding of Non-Orthogonal STBC for Correlated MIMO Channel

In this paper, linear precoding for non-orthogonal space time block codes (STBC) is investigated. A theoretical model of spatial correlation with a Laplacian distribution of AOA is first derived. The design of the precoder is based on the choice of the codeword error matrix according to a criterion. We propose here a new criterion based on the system outage probability to select the suitable codeword error matrix allowing to move rapidly from one diversity order to the next. Codeword selection points out the importance of the determinant and the eigenvalues of the error matrices. The proposed method is applied to the non-orthogonal optimal STBC : 2 times 2 golden code and 4 times 4 perfect code.
Efficiency Factors (k-Values) for Supplementary Cementing Materials Regarding Carbonation and Chloride Penetration

For comparing the relative performance of supplementary cementing materials (SCM) with regard to concrete durability, the concept of efficiency factor may be used. The efficiency factor (k-value) is defined as the part of the SCM in an SCM-concrete which can be considered as equivalent to portland cement. In this work, three typical SCM were studied: a silica fume, a low-calcium fly ash and a high-calcium fly ash. Accelerated carbonation and chloride penetration tests were performed. With regard to 28 day compressive strengths, k-values of 3, 0.5 and 1 for silica fume, low-calcium fly ash, and high-calcium fly ash, respectively, were estimated. Mathematical models describing the carbonation propagation and chloride intrusion were applied to estimate the durability k-values. Higher k-values with respect to chloride penetration were found, indicating that SCM reduce the chloride permeability more effectively than they improve the compressive strength. On the contrary, with respect to carbonation depth, k-values of 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 for silica fume, low-calcium fly ash and high-calcium fly ash, respectively, were estimated. A theoretical explanation of these results is also given.
High Temperature Membrane Reactor System for Hydrogen Permeation Measurements and Validation with Pd Based Membranes

Abstract: Hydrogen separation membranes are under development for integration with a coal gasifier or natural gas reformer for pre-combustion separation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Because of the high operating temperatures and pressures, a robust reactor and associated control systems are required for fast screening of membrane materials with a strong emphasis on operator and plant safety. In this paper, the design, construction and commissioning of a reliable membrane reactor and a versatile test station for evaluation of hydrogen permeation membrane materials (metals, ceramics or cermets) at high temperatures and high differential pressures has been described. The membrane reactor system has been designed to operate at temperatures up to 800 o C and pressure differentials across the membrane to 1.0MPa. The system has multiple levels of safety redundancy built-in which include a range of controls and monitors for both operator and system safety. A number of Pd and Pd-Ag alloys of nominal thicknesses in the 20 and 140Âµm range were sourced and alumina based porous ceramic support structure were fabricated for evaluation of metal membranes. The test station has been validated with Pd and Pd-Ag alloys of different thicknesses. The data obtained from the reactor for various membrane types and thicknesses are in agreement with those reported in the literature.
Simple Effective Microblog Named Entity Recognition: Arabic as an Example

Despite many recent papers on Arabic Named Entity Recognition (NER) in the news domain, little work has been done on microblog NER. NER on microblogs presents many complications such as informality of language, shortened named entities, brevity of expressions, and inconsistent capitalization (for cased languages). We introduce simple effective language-independent approaches for improving NER on microblogs, based on using large gazetteers, domain adaptation, and a two-pass semi-supervised method. We use Arabic as an example language to compare the relative effectiveness of the approaches and when best to use them. We also present a new dataset for the task. Results of combining the proposed approaches show an improvement of 35.3 F-measure points over a baseline system trained on news data and an improvement of 19.9 F-measure points over the same system but trained on microblog data.
Cost-effectiveness of and satisfaction with a Helicobacter pylori “test and treat” strategy compared with prompt endoscopy in young Asians with dyspepsia

Objective: To compare a Helicobacter pylori “test and treat” strategy with prompt endoscopy in young Asians with dyspepsia. Methods: A randomised, prospective study was carried out on uninvestigated dyspeptics aged <45 years in a single (academic) primary care centre. Patients were randomised to either a [13C]urea breath test (UBT) or prompt endoscopy (oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD) and followed-up for 12 months. Results: 432 patients (mean (SD) age 30 (8) years, male 46%, ethnicity: Malays 33.3%, Chinese 30.6%, Indians 34.7%) were randomised to UBT (n = 222) or OGD (n = 210). 387 (89.6%) patients completed the study. At 12 months, there was no difference in symptom change (measured by the Leeds Dyspepsia Questionnaire) between the two groups, but more patients were very satisfied (40.0% vs 21.6%, p<0.0001) in the OGD group. More additional endoscopy was performed in the UBT group (25 vs 10, p = 0.03), but medication consumption was higher in the OGD group (proton pump inhibitor 3.6 (8.8) vs 2.0 (7.5) weeks, p<0.001; H2 receptor antagonist 5.3 (9.7) vs 3.9 (9.2) weeks, p = 0.017; prokinetics 1.4 (4.7) vs 0.4 (2.5) weeks, p<0.001) and no differences in medical consultation were noted. The median cost of the initial prompt endoscopy approach at 12 months was significantly higher than a “test and treat” strategy (US$179.05 vs US$87.10, p<0.0001). Conclusion: A H pylori “test and treat” strategy is more cost-effective but less satisfying than prompt endoscopy in the management of young Asian patients with uncomplicated dyspepsia.
Has welfare reform affected children ’ s living arrangements ?

In the research reported here, we examined the effects of the federal legislation and of state initiatives that preceded it on children’s living circumstances. In particular, we examined the effects of reforms on whether the child lives with a parent, and if so, whether the parent is married. We also asked whether children are now more likely to live in a three-generation household. To understand how the new structure of welfare may have affected trends in these living arrangements, we took into account a number of other potentially important factors, including state economic conditions and changes in other policies (like Medicaid).
Antibody Responses in the Lower Respiratory Tract and Male Urogenital Tract in Humans after Nasal and Oral Vaccination with Cholera Toxin B Subunit

ABSTRACT Nasal vaccine delivery is superior to oral delivery in inducing specific immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgG antibody responses in the upper respiratory tract. Although an antibody response in the nasal passages is important in protecting against primary colonization with lung pathogens, antibodies in the lungs are usually required as well. We immunized 15 male volunteers twice nasally or orally with cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) and determined the specific antibody levels in serum, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and urine before and 2 weeks after immunization. Nasal immunization induced fivefold increases in the levels of specific IgA antibodies in BAL fluid of most volunteers, whereas there were no significant specific IgA responses after oral immunization. The specific IgG antibody level increased eightfold in BAL fluid in the nasally vaccinated subjects, and the major part of IgG had most probably been transferred from serum. Since the specific IgG response in serum was lower in the individuals vaccinated orally, the IgG response in BAL fluid in this group was also lower and not significant. In conclusion, nasal immunization is also preferable to the oral route when vaccinating against lower respiratory tract infections, and a systemic immune response is considerably more important in the lower than in the upper respiratory tract. Moreover, both nasal and oral immunizations were able to stimulate 6- to 10-fold specific IgA and IgG responses in urine in about half of the individuals, which indicates that distant mucosal vaccination might be used to prevent adhesion of pathogens to the urogenital tract.
Diagnostic Value of Fetal Echocardiography for Congenital Heart Disease

Abstract Prenatal diagnosis of fetal congenital heart disease (CHD) has been shown to have a significant effect on prenatal and postnatal management and outcomes. However, the factors influencing the diagnostic accuracy and which pregnant trimester is the most adaptive for fetal heart disease remain uncertain despite of extensive researches. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of echocardiography for detecting CHD and potential influence factors. We searched Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge, the Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) to identify relevant studies from January 1, 1990 to August 13, 2015. Overall, the pooled sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio were 68.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 66.8%–70.2%), 99.8% (95% CI, 99.7%–99.8%), 3026.9 (95% CI, 1417.9–6461.8), 659.41 (95% CI, 346.38–1255.3), and 0.246 (95% CI, 0.187–0.324) respectively (AUC = 0.9924). The pooled sensitivity of basic cardiac echocardiographic examination (BCEE), extended cardiac echocardiographic examination (ECEE), BCEE plus outflow tract view (BCEE + OTV), BCEE + OTV + 3VTV (BCEE plus outflow tract view plus three vessel and trachea view) for the prenatal diagnosis of CHD were 49.0%, 75.5%, 66.1%, and 83.7% respectively. The pooled sensitivity of the prenatal echocardiographic diagnosis of CHD during the first trimester, second trimester, the second to third trimester were 60.3%, 60.9%, and 77.4%, respectively. The pooled sensitivity of BCEE and ECEE for the prenatal diagnosis of CHD during the second to third trimester was significantly higher than that during the second trimester. The pooled sensitivity of the prenatal echocardiographic diagnosis of CHD for pregnancies with low risk, high risk, low and high risk, and unselected risk were 45.4%, 85.1%, 89.1%, and 66.2%, respectively. The sensitivity analysis was robust and risk level was significant source of heterogeneity. Deek test indicated no potential significant publication bias. Prenatal ultrasound is a powerful tool for the diagnosis of CHD; however, echocardiography has individual sensitivity for different gestation period, different levels of risk, and different echo-views.
Identification of a Naturally Processed HLA-DR–Restricted T-Helper Epitope in Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen Type 1

Epstein-Barr virus nuclear antigen type 1 (EBNA1), the only viral protein that is unequivocally expressed in all Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)–associated malignant diseases, is essential for viral DNA replication and maintenance of the viral episome in infected cells. A glycine-alanine repeat domain inhibits antigen processing through the ubiquitin–proteasome pathway for presentation on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules. EBNA1 is not protected from the HLA class II processing pathway, and CD4+ HLA class II–restricted T cells recognize the antigen. CD4+ T-helper (Th) cells play critical roles in initiating, regulating, and maintaining immune responses against viral infections and tumors, so that inclusion of EBNA1 as a target antigen may improve immunotherapy for EBV-associated cancers. In this study, the authors used the TEPITOPE software program to predict promiscuous class II epitope candidates. After several HLA-DR–restricted peptides were identified by in vitro analysis of the T-cell response to synthetic peptides, a T-cell clone was established that was specific for one of the peptides. Functional studies were performed with this clone. The CD4+ T helper cells specific for the HLA-DR15–restricted peptide EBNA1482 (AEGLRALLARSHVER) recognized naturally processed EBNA1 protein. This epitope was presented by several HLA-DR alleles, including DR4, DR7, and DR11. The inclusion of the promiscuous, naturally processed EBNA1482 epitope in vaccine constructs could enhance immune responses against EBV-positive cancers.
Phosphorus and Nutrition in Chronic Kidney Disease

Patients with renal impairment progressively lose the ability to excrete phosphorus. Decreased glomerular filtration of phosphorus is initially compensated by decreased tubular reabsorption, regulated by PTH and FGF23, maintaining normal serum phosphorus concentrations. There is a close relationship between protein and phosphorus intake. In chronic renal disease, a low dietary protein content slows the progression of kidney disease, especially in patients with proteinuria and decreases the supply of phosphorus, which has been directly related with progression of kidney disease and with patient survival. However, not all animal proteins and vegetables have the same proportion of phosphorus in their composition. Adequate labeling of food requires showing the phosphorus-to-protein ratio. The diet in patients with advanced-stage CKD has been controversial, because a diet with too low protein content can favor malnutrition and increase morbidity and mortality. Phosphorus binders lower serum phosphorus and also FGF23 levels, without decreasing diet protein content. But the interaction between intestinal dysbacteriosis in dialysis patients, phosphate binder efficacy, and patient tolerance to the binder could reduce their efficiency.
The maximally attainable VO2 during exercise in humans: the peak vs. maximum issue.

The quantification of maximum oxygen uptake (V(O2 max)), a parameter characterizing the effective integration of the neural, cardiopulmonary, and metabolic systems, requires oxygen uptake (VO2) to attain a plateau. We were interested in whether a VO2 plateau was consistently manifest during maximal incremental ramp cycle ergometry and also in ascertaining the relationship between this peak VO2 (V(O2 peak)) and that determined from one, or several, maximal constant-load tests. Ventilatory and pulmonary gas-exchange variables were measured breath by breath with a turbine and mass spectrometer. On average, V(O2 peak) [3.51 +/- 0.8 (SD) l/min] for the ramp test did not differ from that extrapolated from the linear phase of the response in 71 subjects. In 12 of these subjects, the V(O2 peak) was less than the extrapolated value by 0.1-0.4 l/min (i.e., a "plateau"), and in 19 subjects, V(O2 peak) was higher by 0.05-0.4 l/min. In the remaining 40 subjects, we could not discriminate a difference. The V(O2 peak) from the incremental test also did not differ from that of a single maximum constant-load test in 38 subjects or from the V(O2 max) in 6 subjects who undertook a range of progressively greater discontinuous constant-load tests. A plateau in the actual VO2 response is therefore not an obligatory consequence of incremental exercise. Because the peak value attained was not different from the plateau in the plot of VO2 vs. work rate (for the constant-load tests), the V(O2 peak) attained on a maximum-effort incremental test is likely to be a valid index of V(O2 max), despite no evidence of a plateau in the data themselves. However, without additional tests, one cannot be certain.
A Corpus-Based Prosodic Modeling Method for Mandarin and MinNan Text-to-Speech Conversions

This talk gives an introduction to a recurrent neural network (RNN) based prosody synthesis method for both Mandarin and Min-Nan text-tospeech (TTS) conversions. The method uses a fourlayer RNN to model the dependency of output prosodic information and input linguistic information. Main advantages of the method are the capability of learning many human’s prosody pronunciation rules automatically and the relatively short time of system development. Two variations of the baseline RNN prosody synthesis method are also discussed. One uses an additional fuzzy-neural network to infer some fuzzy rules of affections from high-level linguistic features for assisting in the RNN prosody generation. The other uses additional statistical models of prosodic parameter to remove some affecting factors of linguistic features for reducing the load of the RNN.
Interactive comment on “ Introduction of prognostic rain in ECHAM 5 : design and Single Column Model simulations ” by R . Posselt and U . Lohmann

p. 14679, l. 21: The reviewer is right by stating that a diagnostic treatment of snow is especially worrisome because of lower fall speed of snow and of the larger distances from the cloud to the surface. We are aware of that and the extension of the prognostic treatment to snow is work in progress. But as the current study focuses on warm rain processes and the effect of Giant CCN (like sea salt, presented in another publication)