Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of epitopes on respiratory syncytial virus proteins by competitive binding immunoassay

To characterize the interrelationship of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and their respective epitopes, we developed a competitive binding assay based on the biotin-avidin system and a tissue culture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The competitive binding assay clearly distinguished between competing and noncompeting MAbs. Eight MAbs against the fusion protein (F protein) demonstrated two blocking patterns consistent with two antigenic sites. MAbs reacting at one site neutralized the virus, while those reacting at the other site did not. Eight MAbs against the large glycoprotein (G protein) demonstrated five blocking patterns consistent with three antigenic sites, one with three epitopes and the other two with one each. None of the MAbs against G protein neutralized the virus. The reaction pattern of the MAbs against three strains of RSV identified three additional epitopes on the F protein and no additional epitopes on the G protein. The epitopes on G protein showed the greatest antigenic diversity among the three strains. These results help us better understand the functional and antigenic structure of the two surface glycoproteins of RSV.
Toll-like receptor mediated activation is possibly involved in immunoregulating properties of cow's milk hydrolysates

Immunomodulating proteins and peptides are formed during the hydrolysis of cow’s milk proteins. These proteins are potential ingredients in functional foods used for the management of a range of immune related problems, both in infants and adults. However, the mechanism behind these effects is unknown. We hypothesize that the interaction of peptides with Toll-like receptors (TLRs) can induce immune effects, since these receptors are known to sample many dietary molecules in the intestine in order to regulate immune effects. To investigate this, we compared the immune effects and TLR activation and inhibition by whey and casein hydrolysates with different hydrolysis levels. We first measured cytokine production in primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells stimulated with either whey, casein, or their hydrolysates. IL-10 and TNFα were induced by whey hydrolysates (decreasing with increasing hydrolysis level), but not by casein hydrolysates. Next, the activation of TLR 2, 3, 5 and 9 receptors were observed by intact and mildly hydrolysed whey proteins only and not by casein hydrolysates in TLR reporter cell lines. Many casein hydrolysates inhibited TLR signaling (mainly TLR 5 and 9). These results demonstrate that the effects of cow’s milk proteins on the immune system are protein type and hydrolysis dependent. TLR signaling is suggested as a possible mechanism for differences in effect. This knowledge contributes to a better understanding of the immune effects of hydrolysates and the design of infant formula, and nutrition in general, with specific immunoregulatory effects.
Enhancing security by combining biometrics and cryptography

The impressive amount of recent technological advancements in the area of information systems have brought along, besides the multitude of positive aspects, some negative aspects too. The most obvious one is represented by the fact that the technological innovations are prone to various categories of threats. Making sure that information stays safe, unaltered and secret is an integral part of providing technology that behaves in the manner it is supposed to. Along with researching techniques of effectively securing the communication, other aspects that also deserve to receive attention are authentication, authorization and accounting. One security aspect that has been the most intensely researched in the past from the three, is authentication. From the various methods used in verifying the identity of users, one more recent one is biometrics that can significantly heighten the safety and security of a system. However, authenticating the user into an information system may not be entirely safe all the time. The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the different plausible methods of combining cryptography related concepts and biometrics techniques. This additional attachment of cryptography has proven to make the process of gaining access to an information system much more secure. The problem tackled in this paper will be presented from a two way perspective: on one hand, it will be discussed how biometrics can make use of cryptography-specific solutions in order to enhance its powers and, on the other hand, it will be presented how cryptography aspects can use the specific biometric data of a user to generate encryption keys that are much harder to decipher or to obtain. After this methods are presented, the theoretical basis for measuring performance of a biometric system will be presented and a survey on current performance results on fuzzy vault techniques will be enumerated and described.
Terminal decline in cognitive function

Background: Impending death is thought to be associated with age-related cognitive decline, but this association has not been well studied. Methods: Participants were 763 older Roman Catholic nuns, priests, and brothers without dementia at baseline. They completed an average of 5.6 annual evaluations (range 2 to 9), with >95% follow-up participation in survivors. Each evaluation included administration of 19 cognitive function tests from which previously established measures of global cognition (mean = 0.108, SD = 0.502) and specific cognitive functions were derived. In a series of change point random effects models, the average point before death when rate of cognitive decline changed was identified, and rates of cognitive decline before and after the optimal change point were estimated, controlling for the effects of age, sex, and education. Results: There were 122 deaths during the observation period. Those who died had lower global cognitive function at baseline than survivors (by 0.103 unit; p = 0.03), and beginning about 43 months before death, their annual rate of global cognitive decline sharply accelerated from an annual loss of 0.026 to 0.173 unit, a more than sixfold increase. Results were comparable in analyses that controlled for baseline health and disability. Terminal cognitive decline was evident in nearly all of those who died, but at highly variable rates. Remarkably little cognitive decline was evident in survivors. Decline in episodic memory, semantic memory, working memory, perceptual speed, and visuospatial ability also greatly increased about 3 to 6 years prior to death. Conclusion: On average, cognitive decline sharply accelerates in the last years of life.
A Stratonovich–Skorohod integral formula for Gaussian rough paths

Given a Gaussian process $X$, its canonical geometric rough path lift $\mathbf{X}$, and a solution $Y$ to the rough differential equation (RDE) $\mathrm{d}Y_{t} = V\left (Y_{t}\right ) \circ \mathrm{d} \mathbf{X}_t$, we present a closed-form correction formula for $\int Y \circ \mathrm{d} \mathbf{X} - \int Y \, \mathrm{d} X$, i.e. the difference between the rough and Skorohod integrals of $Y$ with respect to $X$. When $X$ is standard Brownian motion, we recover the classical Stratonovich-to-It{o} conversion formula, which we generalize to Gaussian rough paths with finite $p$-variation, $p \frac{1}{3}$. To prove the formula, we first show that the Riemann-sum approximants of the Skorohod integral converge in $L^2(\Omega)$ by using a novel characterization of the Cameron-Martin norm in terms of higher-dimensional Young-Stieltjes integrals. Next, we append the approximants of the Skorohod integral with a suitable compensation term without altering the limit, and the formula is finally obtained after a re-balancing of terms.
When Point Process Meets RNNs: Predicting Fine-Grained User Interests with Mutual Behavioral Infectivity

Predicting fine-grained interests of users with temporal behavior is important to personalization and information filtering applications. However, existing interest prediction methods are incapable of capturing the subtle degreed user interests towards particular items, and the internal time-varying drifting attention of individuals is not studied yet. Moreover, the prediction process can also be affected by inter-personal influence, known as behavioral mutual infectivity. Inspired by point process in modeling temporal point process, in this paper we present a deep prediction method based on two recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to jointly model each user's continuous browsing history and asynchronous event sequences in the context of inter-user behavioral mutual infectivity. Our model is able to predict the fine-grained interest from a user regarding a particular item and corresponding timestamps when an occurrence of event takes place. The proposed approach is more flexible to capture the dynamic characteristic of event sequences by using the temporal point process to model event data and timely update its intensity function by RNNs. Furthermore, to improve the interpretability of the model, the attention mechanism is introduced to emphasize both intra-personal and inter-personal behavior influence over time. Experiments on real datasets demonstrate that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in fine-grained user interest prediction.
Modifying pulmonary ischemia-reperfusion injury by altering ventilatory strategies during ischemia.

We used an intact in vivo canine model of pulmonary ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury to evaluate the differential effects of alveolar hypoxia and ventilation during 2 h of unilateral warm lung ischemia. Serial measurements of regional pulmonary blood flow, extravascular density (EVD), and transcapillary protein flux were made after reperfusion with the quantitative imaging technique of positron emission tomography. Twenty-seven animals were divided into five experimental groups: VENT O2 (n = 5) in which the left lung was ventilated with 40% O2 during ischemia, STATIC O2 (n = 4) in which the left lung was statically inflated with 40% O2 during ischemia, VENT N2 (n = 5) in which the left lung was ventilated with 100% N2 during ischemia, VENT N2/CO2 (n = 5) in which the left lung was ventilated with 95% N2-5% CO2 during ischemia, and STATIC N2 (n = 8) in which the left lung was statically inflated with 100% N2 during ischemia. These groups were compared with a control group (CONT, = 3) that was studied previously. Protein flux was significantly increased in the previous ischemic lung only for the STATIC N2 group [median 175 x 10(-4) min-1 (range 53-1,217) for the STATIC N2 group vs. 50 x 10(-4) min-1 (range 40-56) for the CONT group] 0.25 h after reperfusion and did not change over 3 h. EVD also increased but not significantly. Protein flux and EVD in the other groups were not different from CONT. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Prevalence of Antinucleosome Antibodies by Enzyme‐Linked Immunosorbent Assays in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Other Autoimmune Systemic Diseases

Abstract: The objective was to report our experience with the detection of antinucleosome antibodies (anti‐Ncs Ab) in a series of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, and to compare these results with those of antihistone and anti‐double‐stranded (ds) DNA antibodies. For this we selected 128 patients (106 females, 22 males, mean age 40 years) including 52 patients with SLE without organ involvement, 14 with lupus nephritis, 8 with neuropsychiatric lupus (NPSLE), 39 with systemic sclerosis (SSc), 15 with Sjögren syndrome (SS), and 51 healthy controls (38 females, 13 males, mean age 42 years). The sera were assayed for the levels of anti‐ds DNA (ELISA), antihistone (INNO LIA ANA Update), anti‐Ncs Ab (ELISA) and antinuclear antibodies (ANA‐indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on Hep‐2 cells). The frequencies of positive anti‐Ncs Ab, anti‐ds DNA, and antihistone antibodies were in group of patients with SLE: 73%, 63%, and 54%, with SSc: 18%, 8%, 5%, and with SS: 3%, 3% and 0%, respectively. Patients with SLE have significantly increased levels of anti‐Ncs Ab in their sera compared to healthy controls, SSc patients, and patients with SS. The concentration of the anti‐Ncs Ab was 76 IU/mL in the SLE patients, 139 IU/mL in cases with lupus nephritis, 117 IU in NPSLE patients, 15 IU/mL in the SSc and 8 IU/mL in the healthy controls. All the three autoantibodies were present more frequently in cases with lupus and this correlation was significant in statistical means. Antinucleosome IgG antibodies seem to be a more sensitive marker of SLE than anti‐ds DNA.
The relation of gastroesophageal reflux disease and its treatment to adenocarcinomas of the esophagus and gastric cardia.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship of gastrointestinal disorders and their treatment to the risk of adenocarcinomas of the esophagus and gastric cardia (AEC). DESIGN A medical record-based case-control study, with data collected on a standardized form by a trained abstractor, blind to the case-control status. SETTING A large prepaid health plan. SUBJECTS Case patients were plan members newly diagnosed with histologically confirmed AEC from 1986 to 1992. For each of the 196 eligible case patients, one control was selected who matched for membership at time of diagnosis, sex, year of birth, and duration of membership. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Association between AEC and history of gastroesophageal conditions and their treatment. Conditional logistic regression procedures were used for calculation of odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (Cls), with adjustment for race, smoking status, and body mass index. Medications were grouped into H2 antagonists (cimetidine, ranitidine, famotidine, and nizatidine) and anticholinergics (propantheline bromide, dicyclomine hydrochloride, Donnatal [combination of atropine sulfate, hyoscyamine sulfate, phenobarbital, and scopolamine hydrobromide], and Librax [combination of chlordiazepoxide hydrochloride and clidinium bromide]). RESULTS Significant twofold or greater risks of AEC were associated with a history of esophageal reflux, hiatal hernia, esophagitis/esophageal ulcer, and difficulty swallowing. The ORs increased with increasing number of these conditions. Although a fourfold risk was linked to four or more prescriptions for H2 antagonists, the risk was reduced to 1.5 (95% Cl, 0.4 to 5.4) after adjusting for the predisposing conditions. Further analysis revealed that the excess risk was restricted to persons with a history of gastroesophageal reflux and related conditions. No association was observed for overall use of anticholinergics. However, after adjustment for predisposing conditions, ORs decreased with increasing number of prescriptions for anticholinergics (P for trend = .08) CONCLUSIONS This study provides reassuring findings that use of H2 antagonists and anticholinergics does not increase AEC risk. It also quantifies the elevated risk of AEC associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease. Further research into reflux disease and the production of premalignant epithelial changes may help elucidate carcinogenic mechanisms and measures aimed at early detection and prevention of AEC.
Evaluation of Serodiagnosis of Tuberculosis in Comparison with Traditional Methods

Tuberculosis is an enormous tool of morbidity and mortality. The vast majority of tuberculosis patients live in developing countries, where the diagnosis of tuberculosis relies on the identification of acid-fast bacilli on unprocessed sputum smears using conventional light microscopy. Microscopy has high specificity in tuberculosis-endemic countries, but modest sensitivity which varies among laboratories (range 20% to 80%). Thus, the development of rapid and accurate new diagnostic tools is imperative. Immune-based tests are potentially suitable for use in low-income countries as some test formats can be performed at the point of care . In the present study, the diagnostic value of 16-kDa and 38kDa mycobacterial antigens was investigated in patients who were diagnosed as open pulmonary tuberculosis. The humoral immune response was analysed in a group of 60 TB patients, and in control group consisting of 15 healthy volunteers and 15 subjects with pulmonary diseases other than TB. The sensitivity, specifity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the test were determined at 45%, 93.3%, 93.1% and 45.9%, respectively. In conclusion, the ELISA test has a very good specifity and an acceptable sensitivity and positive predictive value. It is thought that it could be used in combination with other methods to increase diagnostic accuracy, especially for culture-negative tuberculosis cases, which are difficult to diagnose.
Evidence for a Functional Interaction between Cingulin and ZO-1 in Cultured Cells*

Cingulin, a protein component of the submembrane plaque of tight junctions (TJ), contains globular and coiled-coil domains and interacts in vitro with several TJ and cytoskeletal proteins, including the PDZ protein ZO-1. Overexpression of Xenopus cingulin in transfected Xenopus A6 cells resulted in the disruption of endogenous ZO-1 localization, suggesting that cingulin functionally interacts with ZO-1. GlutathioneS-transferase pull-down experiments showed that a conserved ZO-1 interaction motif (ZIM) at the NH2 terminus of cingulin is required for cingulin-ZO-1 interaction in vitro. An NH2-terminal region of cingulin, containing the ZIM, was sufficient, when fused to coiled-coil sequences, to target transfected cingulin to junctions. However, deletion of the ZIM did not abolish junctional localization of transfected cingulin in A6 cells, suggesting that cingulin can be recruited to TJ through multiple protein interactions. Interestingly, the ZIM was required for cingulin recruitment into ZO-1-containing adherens junctions of Rat-1 fibroblasts, indicating that cingulin junctional recruitment does not require the molecular context of TJ. Cingulin coiled-coil sequences enhanced the junctional accumulation of expressed cingulin head region in A6 cells, but purified recombinant cingulin did not form filaments under physiological conditions in vitro, suggesting that the cingulin coiled-coil domain acts primarily by promoting dimerization.
Pulse-Coupled Oscillators Resilient to Stealthy Attacks

Synchronization of bio-inspired pulse-coupled oscillators is receiving increased attention due to its wide applications in sensor networks and wireless communications. However, most existing results are obtained in the absence of malicious attacks. Given the distributed and unattended nature of wireless sensor networks, it is imperative to enhance the resilience of pulse based synchronization against malicious attacks. To achieve this goal, we propose a new pulse based interaction mechanism to improve the resilience of pulse based synchronization. We rigorously characterize the condition for mounting stealthy attacks under the proposed pulse based interaction mechanism and prove analytically that synchronization of legitimate oscillators can be achieved in the presence of multiple stealthy attackers even when the initial phases are unrestricted, i.e., randomly distributed in the entire oscillation period. This is in distinct difference from most existing attack-resilient synchronization algorithms (including the seminal paper from L. Lamport and P. M. Melliar-Smith, “Synchronizing Clocks in the Presence of Faults,” J. ACM, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 52–78, 1985), which require a priori (almost) synchronization among legitimate nodes. Numerical simulations are given to confirm the theoretical results.
Conflict Aversion: Preference for Ambiguity vs Conflict in Sources and Evidence.

This research investigates preferences and judgments under ambiguous vs conflicting information. Three studies provided evidence for two major hypotheses: (1) Conflicting messages from two equally believable sources are dispreferred in general to two informatively equivalent, ambiguous, but agreeing messages from the same sources (i.e., conflict aversion); and (2) conflicting sources are perceived as less credible than ambiguous sources. Studies 2 and 3 yielded evidence for two framing effects. First, when the outcome was negative, subjects' preferences were nearly evenly split between conflict and ambiguity, whereas a positive outcome produced marked conflict aversion. Second, a high probability of a negative outcome or a low probability of a positive one induced conflict preference. However, no framing effects were found for source credibility judgments. Study 3 also investigated whether subject identification with a source might affect preferences or credibility judgments, but found no evi dence for such an effect. The findings suggest cognitive and moti vational explanations for conflict aversion as distinct from ambi guity aversion. The cognitive heuristic is that conflict raises suspicions about whether the sources are trustworthy or credi ble. The motivational explanation stems from that idea that if sources disagree, then the judge not only becomes uncertain but also must disagree with at least one of the sources, whereas if the sources agree then the judge may agree with them and only has to bear the uncertainty. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.
DEPRESSION, ADULT ATTACHMENT, AND RECOLLECTIONS OF PARENTAL CARING DURING CHILDHOOD

The onset and course of depressive symptoms are influenced by a variety of interpersonal factors. Attachment theory provides a developmental framework for understanding the relationship between depressive symptoms and insecure attachment to one’s parents and current romantic partner. The present study examined attachment theory for understanding depression and marital adjustment among 84 psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants completed a diagnostic interview and self-report measures of depressive symptoms, adult attachment, marital adjustment, and recollections of childhood relationships with parents. Avoidant (but not anxious) adult attachment mediated the link between current depressive symptoms and patients’ recollections of relationships with opposite-sex parents. Although nearly three fourths of the current sample of depressed psychiatric inpatients acknowledged the presence of marital problems, the negative correlation between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment did not reach statistical significance. Attachment theory may aid therapeutic approaches to depression within the context of marriage and other long-term romantic relationships.