Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conserved Regions from Neisseria gonorrhoeae Pilin Are Immunosilent and Not Immunosuppressive

ABSTRACT PilE is the primary subunit of type IV pili from Neisseria gonorrhoeae and contains a surface-exposed hypervariable region thought to be one feature of pili that has prevented development of a pilin-based vaccine. We have created a three-dimensional structure-based antigen by replacing the hypervariable region of PilE with an aspartate-glutamine linker chosen from the sequence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PilA. We then characterized murine immune responses to this novel protein to determine if conserved PilE regions could serve as a vaccine candidate. The control PilE protein elicited strong T-cell-dependent B-cell responses that are specific to epitopes in both the hypervariable deletion and control proteins. In contrast, the hypervariable deletion protein was unable to elicit an immune response in mice, suggesting that in the absence of the hypervariable region, the conserved regions of PilE alone are not sufficient for antibody production. Further analysis of these PilE proteins with suppressor cell assays showed that neither suppresses T- or B-cell responses, and flow cytometry experiments suggested that they do not exert suppressor effects by activating T regulatory cells. Our results show that in the murine model, the hypervariable region of PilE is required to activate immune responses to pilin, whereas the conserved regions are unusually nonimmunogenic. In addition, we show that both hypervariable and conserved regions of pilin are not suppressive, suggesting that PilE does not cause the decrease in T-cell populations observed during gonococcal cervicitis.
Switched-Coupled-Inductor Quasi-Z-Source Inverter

Z-source inverters have become a research hotspot because of their single-stage buck-boost inversion ability, and better immunity to EMI noises. However, their boost gains are limited, because of higher component-voltage stresses and poor output power quality, which results from the tradeoff between the shoot-through interval and the modulation index. To overcome these drawbacks, a new high-voltage boost impedance-source inverter called a switched-coupled-inductor quasi-Z-source inverter (SCL-qZSI) is proposed, which integrates a switched-capacitor and a three-winding switched-coupled inductor (SCL) into a conventional qZSI. The proposed SCL-qZSI adds only one capacitor and two diodes to a classical qZSI, and even with a turns ratio of 1, it has a stronger voltage boost-inversion ability than existing high-voltage boost (q)ZSI topologies. Therefore, compared with other (q)ZSIs for the same input and output voltages, the proposed SCL-qZSI utilizes higher modulation index with lower component-voltage stresses, has better spectral performance, and has a lower input inductor current ripple and flux density swing or, alternately, it can reduce the number of turns or size of the input inductor. The size of the coupled inductor and the total number of turns required for three windings are comparable to those of a single inductor in (q)ZSIs. To validate its advantages, analytical, simulation, and experimental results are also presented.
Endothelin-1 and Endothelin A Receptor Immunoreactivity Is Increased in Patients with Diabetic Nephropathy

Background: Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is associated with progression of renal disease, acting as a vasoconstrictor and growth factor for mesangial cells. ET-1 and endothelin A receptor (ET-RA) might have a role in the development of diabetic nephropathy (DN). The aims of this study were to determine ET-1 and ET-RA expressions in patients with DN and to correlate these expressions with renal function and proteinuria. Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study comprising 13 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and DN, 10 patients with proteinuric IgA nephropathy, and 13 samples of normal kidney from tumor nephrectomies. Demographic and selected data were collected from medical charts. The distribution and intensity of ET-1 and ET-RA immunostaining in renal biopsies were determined by immunohistochemistry and these correlated with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and proteinuria. Results: Patients with DN and IgA nephropathy on biopsy had markedly increased staining for ET-1 in endothelial cells of glomerular and peritubular capillaries when compared with controls (p < 0.001). ET-RA staining was also more intense and more diffuse in DN and IgA nephropathy than in controls (p = 0.019) and was restricted to tubular epithelial cells. A positive correlation was observed between ET-1 expression and proteinuria (r = 0.634, p = 0.027), but both ET-1 and ET-RA expressions did not correlate with eGFR. Conclusion: In this preliminary report, the higher expressions of ET-1 and ET-RA found in both DN and IgA nephropathy suggest a potential role for the endothelin system in DN as well as in other nondiabetic glomerular diseases.
Reduced NAA levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of young bipolar patients.

OBJECTIVE Converging evidence implicates prefrontal circuits in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. Proton spectroscopy studies performed in adult bipolar patients assessing prefrontal regions have suggested decreased levels of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), a putative marker of neuronal integrity. In order to examine whether such abnormalities would also be found in younger patients, a 1H spectroscopy study was conducted that focused on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of children and adolescents with bipolar disorder. METHOD The authors examined the levels of NAA, creatine plus phosphocreatine, and choline-containing molecules in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of 14 bipolar disorder patients (mean age=15.5 years, SD=3, eight female) and 18 healthy comparison subjects (mean age=17.3, SD=3.7, seven female) using short echo time, single-voxel in vivo 1H spectroscopy. Absolute metabolite levels were determined using the water signal as an internal reference. RESULTS Bipolar patients presented significantly lower NAA levels and a significant inverse correlation between choline-containing molecules and number of previous affective episodes. No differences were found for other metabolites. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that young bipolar patients have decreased NAA levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, similar to what was previously reported in adult patients. Such changes may reflect an underdevelopment of dendritic arborizations and synaptic connections. These neuronal abnormalities in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of bipolar disorder youth are unlikely to represent long-term degenerative processes, at least in the subgroup of patients where the illness had relatively early onset.
Interleukin-8 Signaling Promotes Translational Regulation of Cyclin D in Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer Cells

We have shown previously that interleukin-8 (IL-8) and IL-8 receptor expression is elevated in tumor cells of human prostate biopsy tissue and correlates with increased cyclin D1 expression. Using PC3 and DU145 cell lines, we sought to determine whether IL-8 signaling regulated cyclin D1 expression in androgen-independent prostate cancer (AIPC) cells and to characterize the signaling pathways underpinning this response and that of IL-8–promoted proliferation. Administration of recombinant human IL-8 induced a rapid, time-dependent increase in cyclin D1 expression in AIPC cells, a response attenuated by the translation inhibitor cycloheximide but not by the RNA synthesis inhibitor, actinomycin D. Suppression of endogenous IL-8 signaling using neutralizing antibodies to IL-8 or its receptors also attenuated basal cyclin D1 expression in AIPC cells. Immunoblotting using phospho-specific antibodies confirmed that recombinant human IL-8 induced rapid time-dependent phosphorylation of Akt and the mammalian target of rapamycin substrate proteins, 4E-BP1 and ribosomal S6 kinase, resulting in a downstream phosphorylation of the ribosomal S6 protein (rS6). LY294002 and rapamycin each abrogated the IL-8–promoted phosphorylation of rS6 and attenuated the rate of AIPC cell proliferation. Our results indicate that IL-8 signaling (a) regulates cyclin D1 expression at the level of translation, (b) regulates the activation of proteins associated with the translation of capped and 5′-oligopyrimidine tract transcripts, and (c) activates signal transduction pathways underpinning AIPC cell proliferation. This study provides a molecular basis to support the correlation of IL-8 expression with that of cyclin D1 in human prostate cancer and suggests a mechanism by which this chemokine promotes cell proliferation. (Mol Cancer Res 2007;5(7):737–48)
Nephrotic Syndrome, Paraneoplastic Syndrome Associated to Hodgkin Lymphoma.

BACKGROUND There is enough literature data - case reports and case series - regarding the association between nephrotic syndrome (NS) and different neoplasia, but only a few of these data address the specific link between NS and Hodgkin lymphoma. It has been demonstrated that intrinsic renal lesions - glomerular injury - can be found as a complication in these malignancies. MATERIAL AND METHODS This report presents the case of a 9 year-old child in whom the diagnosis of NS was established two months before the diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma. Once chemotherapy was initiated, proteinuria and the clinical manifestations of NS, mainly oedema, disappeared. CONCLUSION Considering that the NS can be a paraneoplastic manifestation of Hodgkin lymphoma, the careful clinical evaluation becomes mandatory in any child with NS and persistent proteinuria despite appropriate treatment protocol. The prognosis of these patients is good, the treatment of Hodgkin disease causing the disappearance of proteinuria.
Specification and analysis of component-based software in a concurrent setting

Current advances in software engineering practice involve the adoption of a component- based approach in developing large-scale, complex systems. The component-based paradigm provides better structuring of systems and facilitates systematic software reuse. However, complex interactions between components, especially in concurrent and distributed applications, pose greater challenges. This thesis provides a formal framework for managing the dependencies between components, in terms of their interactions in a concurrent setting. In our approach, composites and single components are represented by a component signature, which identifies a component, and a vector language, also called component language, which describes the behaviour of a component. This language-based representation of component behaviour makes it possible to capture concurrency at both the individual component level and the composition level. The interpretation of concurrency is that of a non-interleaving model, with the notion of causal independence lifted to vectors. We describe how component languages are obtained from scenario-based specifications, typically used in an industrial context. Based on the order structure of a component language, we identify implicit or missing interactions which represent potentially faulty or simply unthought scenarios. This excludes pathological behaviour, the source of which can be traced back to inconsistencies in the sequence diagrams of the scenario specification such as race conditions, and this gives a characterisation of well-behaved components. Components are put together in our approach by matching required and provided interfaces in terms of the respective sequences of events. This builds on the concept of parallel composition in process algebras. We show that the properties that define well-behaved components are preserved under composition in the resulting composite. Well-behaved components give rise to discrete behavioural presentations which can capture concurrency and simultaneity between event occurrences on component interfaces. Well-behaved components are also associated with automata whose transition structure reflects the concurrency in the corresponding component language. This state-based description of component behaviour is graphically represented using state diagrams. This formal framework for components has been related to more conventional approaches to software design, as exemplified by strong connections to UML. It can aid designers in determining the complete set of intended behaviours before generating state models of the scenario-based specifications.
Evaluación de la atención a la salud infantil del Programa Saúde da Família en la región sur de Porto Alegre, Brasil

La atencion primaria de salud (APS) busca optimizar la salud y promover la equidad. Es definida, a traves de sus atributos, como el primer nivel de asistencia, caracterizandose por la continuidad e integralidad de la atencion, la coordinacion de la asistencia, la atencion centrada en la familia, la orientacion comunitaria y la aptitud cultural. En la literatura, se evidencia una creciente asociacion entre sus atributos y una mayor efectividad y equidad de la atencion sanitaria. Asi, investigaciones que respondan preguntas complementarias sobre el binomio proceso/efectividad de la APS presentan relevancia internacional. En Brasil, desde 1994, el Ministerio de la Salud inicio una estrategia de multiplicacion de los servicios de atencion basica llamada Programa Saude da Familia (PSF). Esta estrategia, basada en los atributos de la APS, pretende complementar la red de servicios publicos ya existente, las Unidades Sanitarias (USs), aumentando el acceso al Sistema Unico de Saude para la poblacion mas vulnerable. En 2002, el PSF ya atendia cerca de 30% de la poblacion, mas de 50 millones de personas. Resulta importante, asi, evaluar la extension de los atributos de APS en los servicios de atencion basica brasilenos y su relacion con la efectividad de la atencion.Para ello fue necesario validar una herramienta de medida de la extension de los atributos de la APS, el Primary Care Assesment Tool (PCATool), para su uso en los servicios de atencion a la salud infantil en Brasil. Ademas, se ha comparado la extension de estos atributos entre el PSF y las USs de Porto Alegre, municipio del sur de Brasil, y la relacion entre estos atributos y la satisfaccion de los cuidadores de los ninos que consultaban en estos servicios, la salud percibida por los cuidadores y la cobertura de actividades preventivas realizadas.Se ha realizado estudio transversal, a traves de encuestas estructuradas incluyendo el PCATool, a 468 cui
EFFECTS OF ELECTRICAL STIMULATION OF THE NIGROSTRIATAL PATHWAY OF THE RAT ON DOPAMINE METABOLISM

Abstract— Electrical stimulation of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway in rat brain elicited a frequency and current intensity‐dependent increased in the formation of homovanillic acid in the basal ganglia. The accumulation of the acid in probenecid‐treated animals was constant over 1 h, when maximally stimulated at 25 Hz and 300 μA. Dopamine levels remained unchanged during stimulation. When prior to stimulation the inhibitor of catecholamine synthesis α‐methyl‐p‐tyrosine methyl ester was administered, dopamine levels declined biphasically. Tyrosine and nomifensine, a dopamine uptake inhibitor, and apomorphine had no major effect on the formation of homovanillic acid, whilst α‐methyl‐p‐tyrosine prevented its formation. Our data suggest that dopamine in the striatum is compartmentalized and that the newly‐synthesized amine is released and converted to homovanillic acid. Apomorphine decreases dopamine flux only when dopaminergic neurons are at rest. When depolarized neither access of the precursor nor reuptake seem to influence the conversion of dopamine to homovanillic acid.
Retinogeniculate projections in the rabbits of the albino allelomorphic series

Retinogeniculate pathways have been studied by fiber degeneration and autoradiographic methods in rabbits that are homozygous for alleles of the albino series of genes. It has been found that albino and Himalayan rabbits, which both lack all melanin pigment in the eye, have a similar abnormality of the retinogeniculate pathway. The number of ipsilateral optic fibers going to the lateral geniculate nucleus is reduced in these rabbits, the ipsilateral projection forms a discontinuous terminal zone instead of the normal continuous zone, and some of the ipsilateral axons terminate in an inappropriate part of the nucleus, so that regions receiving a crossed input in normal rabbits receive an uncrossed input in the abnormal rabbits. Chinchilla rabbits show a slightly reduced fur pigmentation but have a normal distribution of pigment in the retinal pigment epithelium and these rabbits have normal retinogeniculate pathways.
Does Individualized Health Information regarding Alcohol Consumption Affect Consumption among Risky Drinkers?

Purpose. Studies testing the effect of physician advice on alcohol consumption in a noncontrolled environment have not specifically focused on risky drinkers. Therefore, it is possible that the estimated effect of professional health advice primarily reflected moderate drinkers' responses. We assessed whether professional health advice reduced alcohol consumption among risky and binge drinkers in a real-world setting. Design. Retrospective cohort analysis. Setting. We used 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Annual Survey Data. Subjects. Five thousand seven hundred thirty-five adult male and nonpregnant female risky drinkers, with hypertension or borderline hypertension, who reported on whether they were advised to reduce alcohol consumption. Measures. Dependent variable: respondent was currently reducing alcohol use to control hypertension (1 = yes; 0 = no). Primary regressor: respondent claimed to have received advice from a health professional on reducing alcohol consumption to control hypertension (1 = yes; 0 = no). Analysis. The model was estimated using generalized maximum entropy. Results. Professional health advice increased the probability that both risky (marginal effect [ME] = .09), and binge drinkers (ME = .07) reduced their alcohol consumption. Conclusion. Our findings indicate that risky drinkers can effectively be targeted with consumption advice. This has important policy implications given that society bears the largest cost for this group, whereas moderate drinkers have been found to be relatively productive and healthy.
Bayesian super-resolution with application to radar target recognition

This thesis is concerned with methods to facilitate automatic target recognition using images generated from a group of associated radar systems. Target recognition algorithms require access to a database of previously recorded or synthesized radar images for the targets of interest, or a database of features based on those images. However, the resolution of a new image acquired under non-ideal conditions may not be as good as that of the images used to generate the database. Therefore it is proposed to use super-resolution techniques to match the resolution of new images with the resolution of database images. A comprehensive review of the literature is given for super-resolution when used either on its own, or in conjunction with target recognition. A new superresolution algorithm is developed that is based on numerical Markov chain Monte Carlo Bayesian statistics. This algorithm allows uncertainty in the superresolved image to be taken into account in the target recognition process. It is shown that the Bayesian approach improves the probability of correct target classification over standard super-resolution techniques. The new super-resolution algorithm is demonstrated using a simple synthetically generated data set and is compared to other similar algorithms. A variety of effects that degrade super-resolution performance, such as defocus, are analyzed and techniques to compensate for these are presented. Performance of the super-resolution algorithm is then tested as part of a Bayesian target recognition framework using measured radar data.
Interleukin-6 and cAMP Induce Stromal Cell-derived Factor-1 Chemotaxis in Astroglia by Up-regulating CXCR4 Cell Surface Expression

The chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and its receptor CXCR4 control the migration of neurons and microglial cells in the central nervous system. Although functional CXCR4 is also expressed by astroglia, recent studies have failed to observe a chemotactic response of these cells to SDF-1. Here, we demonstrate that SDF-1-dependent chemotaxis can be induced by treating cultured cortical astroglia with either dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP; 10−4 m) or interleukin-6 (IL-6; 10 ng/ml). Flow cytometric analysis revealed that both the dbcAMP- and IL-6-induced onset of SDF-1-dependent chemotaxis of astroglia are due to the increased cell surface expression of CXCR4. In addition, dbcAMP and IL-6 also increased CXCR4 transcript levels, further suggesting that both treatments primarily affect CXCR4 surface expression in astroglia by stimulation of gene expression. Moreover, unlike the case with IL-6 and dbcAMP, which allowed for an optimal chemotactic response to SDF-1 only after 48 h, a similar chemotactic response, associated with an increase in CXCR4 cell surface expression, already occurred after 24 h when astroglial cultures were maintained with medium conditioned by IL-6- or dbcAMP-pretreated astrocytes, indicating that the stimulatory effects of IL-6 and cAMP on CXCR4 cell surface expression involve a secondary mechanism. The findings that elevated extracellular levels of IL-6 or factors positively coupled to cAMP result in increased CXCR4 cell surface expression levels and subsequent SDF-1-dependent chemotaxis in central nervous system astrocytes point to a crucial role of this chemokine during reactive gliosis and human immunodeficiency virus-mediated dementia.
An Eight-Segment Swine Influenza Virus Harboring H1 and H3 Hemagglutinins Is Attenuated and Protective against H1N1 and H3N2 Subtypes in Pigs

ABSTRACT Swine influenza virus (SIV) infections continue to cause production losses in the agricultural industry in addition to being a human public health concern. The primary method of controlling SIV is through vaccination. The killed SIV vaccines currently in use must be closely matched to the challenge virus, and their protective efficacy is limited. Live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV) provide strong, long-lived cell-mediated and humoral immunity against different influenza virus subtypes with no need for antigen matching. Here we report the generation of a new potential LAIV, an eight-segment SIV harboring two different SIV hemagglutinins (HAs), H1 and H3, in the genetic background of H1N1 SIV. This mutant SIV was generated by fusing the H3 HA ectodomain from A/Swine/Texas/4199-2/98 (H3N2) to the cytoplasmic tail, transmembrane domain, and stalk region of neuraminidase (NA) from A/Swine/Saskatchewan/18789/02 (H1N1) SIV. While this H1-H3 chimeric SIV, when propagated in vitro in the presence of exogenous neuraminidase, showed kinetics and growth properties similar to those of the parental wild-type virus, in vivo it was highly attenuated in pigs, demonstrating a great potential for serving as a dual LAIV. Furthermore, vaccination with the H1-H3 virus elicited robust immune responses, which conferred complete protection against infections with both H1 and H3 SIV subtypes in pigs.