Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postinoculation PMPA Treatment, but Not Preinoculation Immunomodulatory Therapy, Protects against Development of Acute Disease Induced by the Unique Simian Immunodeficiency Virus SIVsmmPBj

ABSTRACT The fatal disease induced by SIVsmmPBj4 clinically resembles endotoxic shock, with the development of severe gastrointestinal disease. While the exact mechanism of disease induction has not been fully elucidated, aspects of virus biology suggest that immune activation contributes to pathogenesis. These biological characteristics include induction of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation, upregulation of activation markers and Fas ligand expression, and increased levels of apoptosis. To investigate the role of immune activation and viral replication on disease induction, animals infected with SIVsmmPBj14 were treated with one of two drugs: FK-506, a potent immunosuppressive agent, or PMPA, a potent antiretroviral agent. While PBMC proliferation was blocked in vitro with FK-506, pig-tailed macaques treated preinoculation with FK-506 were not protected from acutely lethal disease. However, these animals did show some evidence of modulation of immune activation, including reduced levels of CD25 antigen and FasL expression, as well as lower tissue viral loads. In contrast, macaques treated postinoculation with PMPA were completely protected from the development of acutely lethal disease. Treatment with PMPA beginning as late as 5 days postinfection was able to prevent the PBj syndrome. Plasma and cellular viral loads in PMPA-treated animals were significantly lower than those in untreated controls. Although PMPA-treated animals showed acute lymphopenia due to SIVsmmPBj14 infection, cell subset levels subsequently recovered and returned to normal. Based upon subsequent CD4+ cell counts, the results suggest that very early treatment following retroviral infection can have a significant effect on modifying the subsequent course of disease. These results also suggest that viral replication is an important factor involved in PBJ-induced disease. These studies reinforce the idea that the SIVsmmPBj model system is useful for therapy and vaccine testing.
The effect of electronic medical record system sophistication on preventive healthcare for women

OBJECTIVE To observe the effect of electronic medical record (EMR) system sophistication on preventive women's healthcare. MATERIALS AND METHODS Providers in the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), 2007-8, were included if they had at least one visit by a woman at least 21 years old. Based on 16 questions from NAMCS, the level of a provider's EMR system sophistication was classified as non-existent, minimal, basic, or fully functional. A two-stage residual-inclusion method was used with ordered probit regression to model the level of EMR system sophistication, and outcome-specific Poisson regressions to predict the number of examinations or tests ordered or performed. RESULTS Across the providers, 29.23%, 49.34%, 15.97%, and 5.46% had no, minimal, basic, and fully functional EMR systems, respectively. The breast examination rate was 20.27%, 34.96%, 37.21%, and 44.98% for providers without or with minimal, basic, and fully functional EMR systems, respectively. For breast examinations, pelvic examinations, Pap tests, chlamydia tests, cholesterol tests, mammograms, and bone mineral density (BMD) tests, an EMR system increased the number of these tests and examinations. Furthermore, the level of sophistication increased the number of breast examinations and Pap, chlamydia, cholesterol, and BMD tests. DISCUSSION The use of advanced EMR systems in obstetrics and gynecology was limited. Given the positive results of this study, specialists in women's health should consider investing in more sophisticated systems. CONCLUSIONS The presence of an EMR system has a positive impact on preventive women's healthcare; the more functions that the system has, the greater the number of examinations and tests given or prescribed.
Cost-effectiveness of a long-term Internet-delivered worksite health promotion programme on physical activity and nutrition: a cluster randomized controlled trial

This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a long-term workplace health promotion programme on physical activity (PA) and nutrition. In total, 924 participants enrolled in a 2-year cluster randomized controlled trial, with departments (n = 74) within companies (n = 6) as the unit of randomization. The intervention was compared with a standard programme consisting of a physical health check with face-to-face advice and personal feedback on a website. The intervention consisted of several additional website functionalities: action-oriented feedback, self-monitoring, possibility to ask questions and monthly e-mail messages. Primary outcomes were meeting the guidelines for PA and fruit and vegetable intake. Secondary outcomes were self-perceived health, obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol level and maximum oxygen uptake. Direct and indirect costs were calculated from a societal perspective, and a process evaluation was performed. Of the 924 participants, 72% participated in the first and 60% in the second follow-up. No statistically significant differences were found on primary and secondary outcomes, nor on costs. Average direct costs per participant over the 2-year period were €376, and average indirect costs were €9476. In conclusion, no additional benefits were found in effects or cost savings. Therefore, the programme in its current form cannot be recommended for implementation.
Csm4-Dependent Telomere Movement on Nuclear Envelope Promotes Meiotic Recombination

During meiotic prophase, chromosomes display rapid movement, and their telomeres attach to the nuclear envelope and cluster to form a “chromosomal bouquet. ” Little is known about the roles of the chromosome movement and telomere clustering in this phase. In budding yeast, telomere clustering is promoted by a meiosis-specific, telomere-binding protein, Ndj1. Here, we show that a meiosis-specific protein, Csm4, which forms a complex with Ndj1, facilitates bouquet formation. In the absence of Csm4, Ndj1-bound telomeres tether to nuclear envelopes but do not cluster, suggesting that telomere clustering in the meiotic prophase consists of at least two distinct steps: Ndj1-dependent tethering to the nuclear envelope and Csm4-dependent clustering/movement. Similar to Ndj1, Csm4 is required for several distinct steps during meiotic recombination. Our results suggest that Csm4 promotes efficient second-end capture of a double-strand break following a homology search, as well as resolution of the double-Holliday junction during crossover formation. We propose that chromosome movement and associated telomere dynamics at the nuclear envelope promotes the completion of key biochemical steps during meiotic recombination.
Study of association and molecular analysis of human papillomavirus in breast cancer of Indian patients: Clinical and prognostic implication

Objectives Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes tumors primarily Cervical cancer. Recently, inconsistent reports came up in Breast cancer (BC) too. In India, despite treatment 70,218 BC patients die each year. So, we explored the association of HPV, if any, with BC prognosis in Indian pre-therapeutic (PT) and Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) patients with subsequent analysis of HPV profile. Methods HPV prevalence was checked and analysis of physical status, copy number, genome variation, promoter methylation and expression (mRNA and protein) of the prevalent subtype was done. Results High prevalence of HPV was observed in both PT (64.0%) and NACT (71.0%) cases with significant association with younger (20–45 yrs) PT patients. Interestingly, HPV infection was significantly increased from adjacent normal breast (9.5%, 2/21), fibro adenomas (30%, 3/10) to tumors (64.8%, 203/313) samples. In both PT and NACT cases, HPV16 was the most prevalent subtype (69.0%) followed by HPV18 and HPV33. Survival analysis illustrated hrHPV infected PT patients had worst prognosis. So, detailed analysis of HPV16 profile was done which showed Europian-G350 as the most frequent HPV16 variant along with high rate of integration. Moreover, low copy number and hyper-methylation of P97 early promoter were concordant with low HPV16 E6 and E7 mRNA and protein expression. Notably, four novel variations (KT020838, KT020840, KT020841 and KT020839) in the LCR region and two (KT020836 and KT020837) in the E6 region were identified for the first time along with two novel E6^E7*I (KU199314) and E6^E7*II (KU199315) fusion transcript variants. Conclusion Thus, significant association of hrHPV with prognosis of Indian BC patients led to additional investigation of HPV16 profile. Outcomes indicated a plausible role of HPV in Indian BC patients.
Household Survey of Pesticide Practice, Deliberate Self-Harm, and Suicide in the Sundarban Region of West Bengal, India

The toxicological impact and intentional ingestion of pesticides are major public health concerns globally. This study aimed to estimate the extent of deliberate self-harm (DSH) and suicides (suicidal behaviour) and document pesticide practices in Namkhana block of the Sundarban region, India. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 1680 households (21 villages) following a mixed random and cluster design sampling. The survey questionnaire (Household Information on Pesticide Use and DSH) was developed by the research team to elicit qualitative and quantitative information. The Kappa statistic and McNemar's test were used to assess the level of agreement and association between respondents' and investigators' opinions about safe storage of pesticides. Over five years, 1680 households reported 181 incidents of suicidal behaviour. Conflict with family members was the most frequently reported reason for suicidal behaviour (53.6%). The Kappa statistic indicated poor agreement between respondents and investigators about safe storage of pesticides. The pesticide-related annual DSH rate was 158.1 (95% CI 126.2–195.5), and for suicide it was 73.4 (95% CI 52.2–100.3) per 100,000. Unsafe pesticide practice and psychosocial stressors are related to the high rates of suicidal behaviour. An intersectoral approach involving the local governments, agricultural department and the health sector would help to reduce the magnitude of this public health problem.
Identifying Novel Resistance Genes in Newly Introduced Blast Resistant Rice Germplasm

Blast, Magnaporthe oryzae B. Couch, and sheath blight, Rhizoc- tonia solani Kuhn, are major fungal diseases of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.) intheUSA. ResistancetoU.S. M. oryzaeraceswasobserved in 91 newly introduced rice accessions, suggesting these accessions are possiblesourcesofnovelblastresistancegenes(Pi-genes)thatcouldbe incorporated into U.S. rice cultivars. The genes Pi-ta and Pi-b have been introduced into U.S. cultivars and characterized molecularly. The objective of this research was to identify new Pi-genes in the afore- mentioned accessions by differentiating known Pi-genes, determining relatedness of the accessions with SSR markers, and identifying as- sociations of SSR markers with blast resistance and sheath blight resistance. Twenty-seven accessions were identified with resistance to U.S.blastracesandashavingneither thePi-tanorPi-bgene.Basedon 125 SSR markers distributed over the rice genome, 11 of the 27 accessions were closely related to each other, but the remaining 16 accessions had varying levels of genotypic diversity, including two accessions selected from crosses of the Asian cultivated species, O. sativa, with the African cultivated species, O. glaberrima. Blast resis- tance traits were associated with 32 of the 125 SSR markers and sheath blight resistance traits with 19 markers. Of the 32 blast-associated markers, 20 were located in chromosomal regions previously identified as containing Pi-genes. The remaining 12 markers will provide the basis for discovering additional Pi-genes.
Scene Reconstruction and Visualization From Community Photo Collections

There are billions of photographs on the Internet, representing an extremely large, rich, and nearly comprehensive visual record of virtually every famous place on Earth. Unfortunately, these massive community photo collections are almost completely unstructured, making it very difficult to use them for applications such as the virtual exploration of our world. Over the past several years, advances in computer vision have made it possible to automatically reconstruct 3-D geometry - including camera positions and scene models - from these large, diverse photo collections. Once the geometry is known, we can recover higher level information from the spatial distribution of photos, such as the most common viewpoints and paths through the scene. This paper reviews recent progress on these challenging computer vision problems, and describes how we can use the recovered structure to turn community photo collections into immersive, interactive 3-D experiences.
Interaction between Red Meat Intake and NAT2 Genotype in Increasing the Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Japanese and African Americans

Heterocyclic aromatic amines formed in cooked meat may be an underlying mechanism for the red meat-colorectal cancer (CRC) association. These compounds require bioactivaction by N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2). An interaction effect between red meat consumption and NAT2 in increasing CRC risk has been inconsistently reported in whites. We investigated this interaction in two populations in which the high-activity rapid NAT2 phenotype is 10- and 2-fold more common than in whites. We meta-analyzed four studies of Japanese (2,217 cases, 3,788 controls) and three studies of African Americans (527 cases, 4,527 controls). NAT2 phenotype was inferred from an optimized seven-SNP genotyping panel. Processed and total red meat intakes were associated with an increased CRC risk in Japanese and in both ethnic groups combined (P’s ≤ 0.002). We observed an interaction between processed meat intake and NAT2 in Japanese (P = 0.04), African Americans (P = 0.02), and in both groups combined (P = 0.006). The association of processed meat with CRC was strongest among individuals with the rapid NAT2 phenotype (combined analysis, OR for highest vs. lowest quartile: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.28–2.05; Ptrend = 8.0×10−5), intermediate among those with the intermediate NAT2 phenotype (1.29, 95% CI: 1.05–1.59; Ptrend = 0.05) and null among those with the slow phenotype (Ptrend = 0.45). A similar interaction was found for NAT2 and total red meat (Pinteraction = 0.03). Our findings support a role for NAT2 in modifying the association between red meat consumption and CRC in Japanese and African Americans.
Jewish Occupational Selection: Education, Restrictions, or Minorities?

Before the eighth–ninth centuries CE, most Jews, like the rest of the population, were farmers. With the establishment of the Muslim Empire, almost all Jews entered urban occupations despite no restrictions prohibiting them from remaining in agriculture. This occupational selection remained their distinctive mark thereafter. Our thesis is that this transition away from agriculture into crafts and trade was the outcome of their widespread literacy prompted by a religious and educational reform in Judaism in the first and second centuries CE, which gave them a comparative advantage in urban, skilled occupations. We present evidence that supports our argument.
Wavelets and image fusion

This paper describes an approach to image fusion using the wavelet transform. When images are merged in wavelet space, we can process different frequency ranges differently. For example, high frequency information from one image can be combined with lower frequency information from another, for performing edge enhancement. We have built a prototype system that allows experimentation with various wavelet array combination and manipulation methods for image fusion, using a set of basic operations on wavelet frequency blocks. Problems caused by image misregistration and processing artifacts are described. Examples of wavelet fusion results are shown which merge a pair of images from different sensors.
Minor physical anomalies in familial and sporadic schizophrenia: the Maudsley family study

OBJECTIVES (1) To test the hypothesis that minor physical anomalies are increased in patients with schizophrenia and (2) to investigate differences in the prevalence of minor physical anomalies in patients with familial and sporadic schizophrenia and their first degree relatives. METHODS A weighted Waldrop assessment was carried out on 214 subjects in five groups: schizophrenic patients from multiply affected families; first degree relatives of these familial schizophrenic patients; sporadic schizophrenic patients; first degree relatives of these sporadic schizophrenic patients, and normal controls. Broad and narrow criteria for abnormality were defined based on the distribution of minor physical anomalies in the control group. RESULTS (1) The total schizophrenic group did not have a significant increase in minor physical anomalies using a narrow criterion of abnormality, but did when a broader criterion was used. (2) A significant increase in the proportion of subjects with an abnormally high number of minor physical abnormalities was shown in the group of sporadic schizophrenic patients (uncorrected p<0.01). Separate analyses for males and females showed a significant increase in the male sporadic group (uncorrected p<0.05), and a smaller non-significant increase in the female sporadic group. Neither the familial schizophrenic group nor either group of first degree relatives showed any significant increases in the proportion of patients with high abnormality scores. CONCLUSION This work supports prenatal developmental abnormality as a mechanism for sporadic, but not familial, schizophrenia.
On the Degrees of Freedom of MISO Broadcast Channels with Delayed Feedback

In information theoretic analysis of communication over MIMO broadcast channels, two extreme assumptions about availability of the channel state information (CSI) at the base station are usually made; either perfect CSI is available at the transmitter, or no CSI is available at all. However, in practical systems, there is usually CSI feedback but the feedback is subject to delays. Conventionally, this issue is alleviated through prediction of the current CSI using the available outdated one. However, as the delay becomes larger or the coherent time becomes smaller, the prediction-based schemes fail and offer no gain beyond no CSI case. This observation supports the popular belief that in such cases, delayed feedback is not useful at all. In this paper, we disprove this conjecture and show that even when the delay is arbitrary large or the coherent time is arbitrary small, channel feedback can still unboundedly improve the throughput. Indeed, the delayed feedback can increase the degree of freedom (DoF) of the channel. In particular, we focus on a time-varying Gaussian broadcast channels with k transmit antennas and k single-antenna users and assume that users causally have the perfect CSI, but transmitter receives CSI with some delays. We show that even if the channel state varies independently over time, the degrees of freedom of k 1+ 1 2 +. + 1 k is achievable. Moreover, we establish that if all users experience CSI, with identical distribution, varying independently over time, then this is the optimal DoF.
Insulin Through the Ages : Phylogeny of a Growth Promoting and Metabolic Regulatory Hormone

SYNOPSIS. Insulin was discovered in 1922 as the causative factor for a human metabolic disorder (diabetes mellitus), but it was recognized early that the hormone had a broad phylogenetic distribution. By the mid 1970s, insulin had been isolated and sequenced from all classes of vertebrates, including Agnatha. Also it was discovered that the insulin gene family in vertebrates included two closely related hormones named insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and -II. More recently, the application of recombinant DNA techniques have identified insulin-like peptide genes in invertebrates, including insects, molluscs and nematode and these findings clearly establish that insulin is an evolutionarily ancient hormone which is present in all metazoa. Here we briefly review the structure and function of the insulin/ IGF gene family in vertebrates and invertebrates. Although these studies are ongoing, it appears that in invertebrates the insulin-like peptides function predominately as mitogenic growth factors that act to promote tissue growth and development. However, in vertebrates the mitogenic growth function has been subsumed by IGF-I and -II while insulin has acquired the function of being primarily a metabolic regulatory hormone. The gene duplication and divergence events necessary for this development probably occurred early during vertebrate evolution in the transition from protochordates, represented by extant amphioxus, to primitive jawless vertebrates, represented by extant lamprey and hagfish.
Circulating MicroRNAs in Serum from Cattle Challenged with Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus‡

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is an RNA virus that is often associated with respiratory disease in cattle. MicroRNAs have been proposed as indicators of exposure to respiratory pathogens. The objective of this study was to identify microRNAs in cattle that had been challenged with a non-cytopathic field strain of BVDV. Five colostrum deprived neonate Holstein calves were inoculated with BVDV (challenged) and 4 were mock challenged (control). Serum from all calves was collected at four different times: prior to challenge (day 0) and at 4, 9, and 16 days post-challenge. RNA was extracted from sera, and expression, via read counts, of small non-coding RNAs were obtained using next-generation sequencing. A total of 905,861 sequences identified 427 microRNAs. Sixty-two microRNAs had >1,000 total reads across all samples. Bta-miR-339a, bta-miR-185, bta-miR-486, Bta-miR-92a, bta-miR-30e-5p, bta-let-7c, and bta-miR-2284x were significantly different (P < 0.05) across time regardless of challenge status. Bta-miR-423-5p (P = 0.008) and bta-miR-151-3p (P = 0.005) were significantly different between challenged and control animals across time. In challenged animals, bta-miR-423-5p peaked in number of reads by day 4 and steadily declined from day 4 to day 16. In control animals, bta-miR-423-5p declined from day 0 to day 9 and increased in number by day 16. By day 16, both challenged and control animals had similar levels of bta-miR-423-5p, and these levels were similar to day 0 levels. Bta-miR-151-3p peaked at day 9 in challenged animals, while control animals decreased across time. By day 16, the number of reads of bta-miR-151-3p were similar between challenged and control animals. The level in challenged animals had returned to day 0 levels by day 16, whereas the levels for control animals was significantly lower (P = 0.006) than day 0. Further studies are needed to establish if bta-miR-423-5p or bta-miR-151-3p could be used as a biomarker for exposure to BVDV.