Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antibody Binding and Neutralization of Primary and T-Cell Line-Adapted Isolates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

ABSTRACT The relative resistance of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) primary isolates (PIs) to neutralization by a wide range of antibodies remains a theoretical and practical barrier to the development of an effective HIV vaccine. One model to account for the differential neutralization sensitivity between Pls and laboratory (or T-cell line-adapted [TCLA]) strains of HIV suggests that the envelope protein (Env) complex is made more accessible to antibody binding as a consequence of adaptation to growth in established cell lines. Here, we revisit this question using genetically related PI and TCLA viruses and molecularly cloned env genes. By using complementary techniques of flow cytometry and virion binding assays, we show that monoclonal antibodies targeting the V3 loop, CD4-binding site, CD4-induced determinant of gp120, or the ectodomain of gp41 bind equally well to PI and TCLA Env complexes, despite large differences in neutralization outcome. The data suggest that the differential neutralization sensitivity of PI and TCLA viruses may derive not from differences in the initial antibody binding event but rather from differences in the subsequent functioning of the PI and TCLA Envs during virus entry. An understanding of these as yet undefined differences may enhance our ability to generate broadly neutralizing HIV vaccine immunogens.
Mycological and mycotoxicological evaluation of grain.

Grain storage conditions affect its quality. In Lithuania, different types of farms have various harvesting, processing and storing conditions. Grain samples were tested from agricultural granaries of 3 different types with different grain storage conditions in Lithuania. During March-April in 2001 the investigation on mycological and mycotoxicological state of stored grain from different types of agricultural granaries were performed. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) samples (n = 33) were tested from small, medium and large granaries. Barley (Hordeum distichon L.) (n = 22) was tested from small and medium granaries. Considering this issue, 31 species of micromycetes ascribed to 8 genera were isolated and identified. The results obtained indicate that highest levels of micromycetes contamination are found in small granaries with good storing and drying equipment. Micromycetes of some species belonging to the Penicillium Link, Aspergillus Mich. Ex Fr. , Fusarium Link, and other genera, are able to produce secondary metabolites - mycotoxins of various compositions that are toxic to plants, animals, and humans. The levels of mycotoxins zearalenone and ochratoxin A were established. The highest concentration of zearalenone and ochratoxin A were found in grains from small farm granaries.
EBNA3C Can Modulate the Activities of the Transcription Factor Necdin in Association with Metastasis Suppressor Protein Nm23-H1

ABSTRACT Previous studies have demonstrated the interaction between the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 3C (EBNA3C) and the metastatic suppressor Nm23-H1 both in vitro and in vivo (C. Subramanian, M. A. Cotter II, and E. S. Robertson, Nat. Med. 7:350-355, 2001). Importantly EBNA3C can reverse the ability of Nm23-H1 to suppress migration of human cells in vitro. EBNA3C contributes to EBV-associated human cancers by regulating transcription of a number of cellular and viral promoters as well as targeting and altering the transcription activities of the metastasis suppressor Nm23-H1. Furthermore, Necdin is a cellular protein which is highly induced in terminally differentiated cells; it contributes to the regulation of cell growth and is also known to interact with viral oncoproteins. In this report, we show that Nm23-H1 and EBNA3C can modulate the biological functions of Necdin in the context of EBV infection and transformation. The levels of Necdin were consistently lower in EBV-positive cells, and EBNA3C could change the subcellular localization of Necdin as well as rescue cells from the antiangiogenic and antiproliferative effects mediated by Necdin. We also show that Necdin directly interacts with Nm23-H1, resulting in modulation of the biochemical function of Nm23-H1 as well as the biological function of Necdin. Both EBNA3C and Nm23-H1 were able to rescue not only Necdin-mediated transcriptional repression of the downstream vascular endothelial growth factor promoter but also Necdin-mediated growth suppression and antiangiogenic effects on cancer cells. The majority of this response was mediated through amino acid residues 191 to 222 of Necdin, which are also known to be important for nuclear matrix targeting. These studies suggest a role for Necdin in the regulation of downstream cellular targets in a hypoxic environment in virus-associated human cancers.
Molecular characterization of the human macrophage mannose receptor: demonstration of multiple carbohydrate recognition-like domains and phagocytosis of yeasts in Cos-1 cells

The macrophage mannose receptor is an integral membrane protein expressed on the surface of tissue macrophages. After ligation of mannose-rich glycoconjugates or pathogens, the receptor mediates endocytosis and phagocytosis of the bound ligands by macrophages. The cDNA-derived primary structure of the mannose receptor predicts a cysteine-rich NH2-terminal domain, followed by a fibronectin type II region. The remainder of the ectodomain is comprised of eight carbohydrate recognition-like domains, followed by a transmembrane region, and a cytoplasmic tail. Transfection of the mannose receptor cDNA into Cos-I cells is necessary for receptor-mediated endocytosis of mannose-rich glycoconjugate as well as phagocytosis of yeasts. Deletion of the cytoplasmic tail results in a mutant receptor that is able to bind but not ingest the ligated pathogens, suggesting that the signal for phagocytosis is contained in the cytoplasmic tail.
Altered spontaneous brain activity pattern in patients with late monocular blindness in middle-age using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation: a resting-state functional MRI study

Objective Previous reports have demonstrated significant brain activity changes in bilateral blindness, whereas brain activity changes in late monocular blindness (MB) at rest are not well studied. Our study aimed to investigate spontaneous brain activity in patients with late middle-aged MB using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method and their relationship with clinical features. Methods A total of 32 patients with MB (25 males and 7 females) and 32 healthy control (HC) subjects (25 males and 7 females), similar in age, sex, and education, were recruited for the study. All subjects were performed with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. The ALFF method was applied to evaluate spontaneous brain activity. The relationships between the ALFF signal values in different brain regions and clinical features in MB patients were investigated using correlation analysis. Results Compared with HCs, the MB patients had marked lower ALFF values in the left cerebellum anterior lobe, right parahippocampal gyrus, right cuneus, left precentral gyrus, and left paracentral lobule, but higher ALFF values in the right middle frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left supramarginal gyrus. However, there was no linear correlation between the mean ALFF signal values in brain regions and clinical manifestations in MB patients. Conclusion There were abnormal spontaneous activities in many brain regions including vision and vision-related regions, which might indicate the neuropathologic mechanisms of vision loss in the MB patients. Meanwhile, these brain activity changes might be used as a useful clinical indicator for MB.
Novel Soft Error Robust Flip-Flops in 65nm CMOS

Cosmic neutron-induced single event upsets have become a dominant failure mechanism in sub-100 nm CMOS memory and logic circuits. In this paper two SEU-robust flip-flops are described which are based on a hardened storage cell, known as the Quatro cell. One flip-flop utilizes C2MOS gates while the other utilizes a pulsed-latch architecture. The proposed flip-flops exhibit as much as a 50% improvement in power-delay product when compared with recently reported hardened flip-flops. A test chip containing the proposed flip-flops arranged in a shift register configuration was fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS process. Accelerated neutron radiation testing results show that the proposed flip-flops have excellent soft-error robustness.
Dermal irritation of petrolatum in rabbits but not in mice, rats or minipigs

Petrolatum is widely used in cosmetics, topical pharmaceuticals and also as a vehicle in dermal toxicity studies. New Zealand white rabbits treated with white petrolatum (vehicle control) in a 2‐week dermal irritation study exhibited moderate to severe erythema starting on Day 7 that subsided towards the end of the study. Histological examination of abraded and non‐abraded petrolatum‐treated skin obtained at termination (Day 15) revealed mild acanthosis, hyperkeratosis, dermal edema with mixed inflammatory cells in the dermis. Macroscopic and microscopic features noted in rabbits were consistent with dermal irritation to petrolatum. Wistar‐Han rats, CD1 mice, C57/Bl/6J mice and Göttingen minipigs treated topically with white petrolatum did not exhibit clinical or histologic evidence of dermal irritation. Therapeutic agents developed for topical application are generally tested in rabbits during some point in development. Interpretation of skin irritation data from a single species can impact risk assessment for humans and on product labeling. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Experiencing your brain: neurofeedback as a new bridge between neuroscience and phenomenology

Neurophenomenology is a scientific research program aimed to combine neuroscience with phenomenology in order to study human experience. Nevertheless, despite several explicit implementations, the integration of first-person data into the experimental protocols of cognitive neuroscience still faces a number of epistemological and methodological challenges. Notably, the difficulties to simultaneously acquire phenomenological and neuroscientific data have limited its implementation into research projects. In our paper, we propose that neurofeedback paradigms, in which subjects learn to self-regulate their own neural activity, may offer a pragmatic way to integrate first-person and third-person descriptions. Here, information from first- and third-person perspectives is braided together in the iterative causal closed loop, creating experimental situations in which they reciprocally constrain each other. In real-time, the subject is not only actively involved in the process of data acquisition, but also assisted to directly influence the neural data through conscious experience. Thus, neurofeedback may help to gain a deeper phenomenological-physiological understanding of downward causations whereby conscious activities have direct causal effects on neuronal patterns. We discuss possible mechanisms that could mediate such effects and indicate a number of directions for future research.
A narrowing range of bone scan in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients: A retrospective comparative study

Objectives: The objective of the following study is to clarify a suitable group whereby a bone scan could be spared at the initial staging of prostate cancer, we wished to identify the possible relationship between bone metastasis and clinical and pathological parameters including serum total prostate specific antigen (PSA) concentration, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), biopsy Gleason Score (GS), and percentage of pathological cores. Materials and Methods: We reviewed the results of 220 bone scintigraphies, which were done between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2013 in patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. These parameters were evaluated together with standard clinicopathological data to determine the prediction ability of the bone scan by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Bone metastases were seen in 44 patients of all 220 patients (20%, 95% confidence interval, 17-24%). In univariate analysis, PSA and biopsy GS were useful in predicting the bone scan result, but ALP and percentage of pathological cores was not. In multivariate analysis, the single most useful parameter in predicting the bone scan result was PSA (P < 0.001). Conclusions: A bone scan seems to be impractical in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients with serum PSA level <20 ng/ml and GS up to seven and pre-treatment PSA is the best predictor of the need for the bone scan according to results of this study.
Turbo-slice-and-patch: an algorithm for metropolitan scale VBR video streaming

In recent years, a number of sophisticated architectures have been proposed to provide video-on-demand (VoD) service using multicast transmissions. Compared to their unicast counterparts, these multicast VoD systems are highly scalable and can potentially serve millions of concurrent users. Nevertheless, these systems are designed for streaming constant-bit rate (CBR) encoded videos and thus cannot benefit from the improved visual quality obtainable from variable-bit rate (VBR) encoding techniques. To tackle this challenge, this paper presents a turbo-slice-and-patch (TSP) algorithm to support VBR video streaming in a multicast VoD system. Results obtained from trace-driven simulation of 300 VBR videos show that serving VBR videos with the TSP algorithm increases the average latency by only 9% compared to the CBR case with the same average video bit rate. Moreover, in 165 out of the 300 video titles, the TSP algorithm actually outperforms the CBR equivalent by shortening the latency by 0.04%-99%. Given that we can achieve similar visual quality by encoding VBR video at half the average rate of CBR video, this TSP algorithm can potentially serve VBR videos with more consistent visual quality and with less resource compare to CBR-based video streaming systems.
Julien Cote adjustment and dispersal Maternal exposure to predator scents : offspring phenotypic

Supplementary data tml http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing. org/content/suppl/2014/08/12/rspb.2014. 0701.DC1. h "Data Supplement" References http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing. org/content/281/1792/20140701.full. html#ref-list-1 This article cites 63 articles, 8 of which can be accessed free Subject collections (1738 articles) ecology  Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections Email alerting service here right-hand corner of the article or click Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article sign up in the box at the top
Interference-Assisted Wireless Energy Harvesting in Cognitive Relay Network with Multiple Primary Transceivers

We consider a spectrum sharing scenario, where a secondary network coexists with a primary network of multiple transceivers. The secondary network consists of an energy-constrained decode-and- forward secondary relay which assists the communication between a secondary transmitter and a destination in the presence of the interference from multiple primary transmitters. The secondary relay harvests energy from the received radio- frequency signals, which include the information signal from the secondary transmitter and the primary interference. The harvested energy is then used to decode the secondary information and forward it to the secondary destination. At the relay, we adopt a time switching policy due to its simplicity that switches between the energy harvesting and information decoding over time. Specifically, we derive a closed-form expression for the secondary outage probability under the primary outage constraint and the peak power constraint at both secondary transmitter and relay. In addition, we investigate the effect of the number of primary transceivers on the optimal energy harvesting duration that minimizes the secondary outage probability. By utilizing the primary interference as a useful energy source in the energy harvesting phase, the secondary network achieves a better outage performance.
Kinetics of pronuclear development and the effects of vector type and timing of injection on the efficiency of gene transfer into rhesus macaque embryos

A series of experiments was performed to determine the dynamics of pronuclear development as well as the efficiency of either adenovirus‐associated (AAV) or lentivirus‐derived vectors to introduce a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene into rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) embryos. Assessment of pronuclear development at various times after fertilization revealed that the appearance of pronuclei was determined by the presence of the first and the timing of the second polar body. The dynamics of pronuclear formation was a significant determinant of whether an oocyte reached the blastocyst stage, however, when the percentage of blastocysts were based on the number of zygotes, the timing of the appearance of polar bodies did not appear to have any effect on subsequent development. Injection of different AAV‐derived vectors showed that the serotype of the vector did not affect development or the proportion of transgenic embryos. Moreover, all putative transgenic embryos proved to be expression mosaics. Injection of embryos with lentiviral vectors showed that timing of injection (before or after fertilization) had no effect on subsequent transgene expression, but that the type of reporter gene determined post‐injection development and rate of transgenesis. The transfer of embryos following injection of a lentiviral vector into three recipients resulted in one pregnancy which was lost during the second trimester. Analysis of fetal tissues showed ubiquitous presence of the transgene and GFP expression in all tissues examined. These results show that lentivirus‐derived vectors can efficiently transform rhesus embryos and are suitable for the generation of transgenic rhesus monkeys. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 75: 1505–1514 © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The effect of UVA light on the anaerobic oxidation of ascorbic acid and the glycation of lens proteins.

PURPOSE To determine whether UVA-excited human lens chromophores can cause the oxidation of ascorbic acid in the absence of oxygen, and whether these oxidation products are capable of glycating lens proteins. METHODS The oxidation of ascorbic acid, mediated by UVA irradiation in the presence of aged human lens proteins, was measured in the absence of oxygen by the decrease in absorbance at 265 nm in vitro. An action spectrum from 320 to 400 nm was determined for both ascorbate oxidation and the photobleaching of the lens yellow pigments at lambda = 350 nm. The UVA-mediated oxidation products of [U-(14)C]ascorbate were quantified by HPLC. Glycation was assayed by the UVA-dependent incorporation of [U-(14)C]ascorbate into lens proteins with a water-insoluble (WI) fraction in vitro, with incubated whole human lenses, and with a WI fraction after a 5- to 7-day exposure to ambient sunlight. An enzymatic digest of [U-(14)C]ascorbate-labeled proteins was fractionated over HPLC columns and compared with the 330-nm absorbance profile of a proteolytic digest of aged human lens proteins. RESULTS Aged human lens WI proteins absorbed UVA light (86 J/h per square centimeter) and oxidized 33 to 45 nanomoles of ascorbate over 1 hour in the absence of oxygen. No ascorbate oxidation was detected, however, in the dark control. An action spectrum showed that ascorbate oxidation occurred throughout the UVA region, with lambda(max) at 350 nm, which was similar to the action spectrum obtained for the photobleaching of the lens chromophores. Anaerobic UVA irradiation of aged human lens proteins for 2 hours with [U-(14)C]ascorbate resulted in a 40% loss of ascorbate with the accumulation of dehydroascorbic acid, diketogulonic acid, and oxalate. After subsequent incubation for 24 hours, the ascorbate oxidation products disappeared, with a corresponding incorporation of radioactivity into lens proteins. Chromatography of enzymatic digests of the labeled proteins produced peaks that coeluted with several of the 330-nm absorbing peaks in an aged human lens protein digest. Irradiation of whole human lenses for 2 hours caused a 33% loss of total lens ascorbate. UVA irradiation of aged human lenses for 2 hours resulted in the incorporation of ascorbate into lens proteins during the ensuing 24 hours in the dark. Exposure of aged human lens WI proteins to reflected ambient sunlight (1.1 J/h per square centimeter) for 5 to 7 days in the absence of oxygen also produced an increased incorporation of [(14)C]ascorbate into protein when compared with dark control samples. CONCLUSIONS These data argue that UVA light can cause an oxidation of ascorbic acid in the absence of oxygen, due to the activation of the sensitizers present in aged human lens WI proteins. The oxidation products formed were the same as those seen in the presence of oxygen, and were rapidly incorporated into protein, apparently by Maillard-type chemistry. These data argue that ascorbate glycation can occur under the low oxygen levels thought to exist in the human lens nucleus in vivo.
Cardiovascular disease, vascular risk factors and the incidence of cataract and cataract surgery: The Blue Mountains Eye Study

PURPOSE To assess whether an association exists between cardiovascular disease, vascular risk factors and incident cataract and cataract surgery. METHODS The Blue Mountains Eye Study examined 3654 participants =49 years of age during 1992–4, then 2335 survivors (75.1%) after five years. Trained interviewers administered a vascular history questionnaire; height, weight and blood pressure were measured. Lens photographs from both examinations were graded for presence of cortical, nuclear or posterior subcapsular cataract. RESULTS Obesity (body mass index =30kg/m 2 ) was significantly associated with increased incidence of both cortical [odds ratio (OR) 1.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2–2.2] and posterior subcapsular cataract (OR 2.1, CI 1.2–3.7). Hypertensive participants using medication and aged less than 65 years at baseline had a higher incidence of posterior subcapsular cataract (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.3–8.4) than normotensive subjects. A history of angina was associated with higher cataract surgery incidence (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.3–3.5). CONCLUSIONS These longitudinal data provide some evidence supporting a relationship between cardiovascular disease, vascular risk factors and incident cataract and cataract surgery. The findings confirm a number of associations previously documented in cross-sectional data.