Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent Trends in the Serologic Diagnosis of Syphilis

ABSTRACT Complexities in the diagnosis of syphilis continue to challenge clinicians. While direct tests (e.g., microscopy or PCR) are helpful in early syphilis, the mainstay of diagnosis remains serologic tests. The traditional algorithm using a nontreponemal test (NTT) followed by a treponemal test (TT) remains the standard in many parts of the world. More recently, the ability to automate the TT has led to the increasingly widespread use of reverse algorithms using treponemal enzyme immunoassays (EIAs). Rapid, point-of-care TTs are in widespread use in developing countries because of low cost, ease of use, and reasonable performance. However, none of the current diagnostic algorithms are able to distinguish current from previously treated infections. In addition, the reversal of traditional syphilis algorithms has led to uncertainty in the clinical management of patients. The interpretation of syphilis tests is further complicated by the lack of a reliable gold standard for syphilis diagnostics, and the newer tests can result in false-positive reactions similar to those seen with older tests. Little progress has been made in the area of serologic diagnostics for congenital syphilis, which requires assessment of maternal treatment and serologic response as well as clinical and laboratory investigation of the neonate for appropriate management. The diagnosis of neurosyphilis continues to require the collection of cerebrospinal fluid for a combination of NTT and TT, and, while newer treponemal EIAs look promising, more studies are needed to confirm their utility. This article reviews current tests and discusses current controversies in syphilis diagnosis, with a focus on serologic tests.
Participation in Sports by Long-Term Survivors of Childhood Cancer

Abstract The authors surveyed 251 adolescents aged 12 to IS years who were long-term survivors of childhood cancer. The purpose of the study was twofold; to determine the proportion of survivors who participated in organized sports and to examine demographic, medical, and health-related variables that discriminated between participants and nonparticipants. A significantly greater percentage oi' the participants had access to a local health care provider and to health insurance than did nonparticipants. Participants also were more likely to engage in other forms of exercise. The findings arc discussed in light of interventions that promote health by targeting physical fitness and exercise for survivors of cancer and the resources necessary for them to engage in health-protective behaviors.
Clinical Significance of Interleukin-2/Gamma Interferon Ratios in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-Specific T-Cell Signatures

ABSTRACT The simultaneous determination of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and gamma interferon (IFN-γ) in QuantiFERON-TB test plasma supernatants permitted the detection of shifts in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific T-cell signatures. A subset of the 84 subjects tested revealed a significantly elevated IL-2/IFN-γ ratio, which may be a marker for the successful elimination of M. tuberculosis infection.
Vibrio cholerae O1 Infection Induces Proinflammatory CD4+ T-Cell Responses in Blood and Intestinal Mucosa of Infected Humans

ABSTRACT Vibrio cholerae O1 is a noninvasive enteric pathogen and serves as a model for studies of mucosal immunity. Although symptomatic V. cholerae infection induces durable protection against subsequent disease, vaccination with oral killed whole-cell V. cholerae stimulates less long-lasting protection against cholera. In this study, we demonstrated that cholera induces an early proinflammatory cellular immune response that results in priming of Th1- and Th17-type cytokine responses to ex vivo antigenic stimulation and an increase in the ratio of Th1 to Th2 CD4+ T-cell responses. Comparable priming of Th1 and Th17 responses, with an increased ratio of Th1 to Th2 CD4+ T-cell responses, was not observed in subjects who received two doses of the oral cholera vaccine Dukoral (a whole-cell cholera toxin B subunit containing [WC-CTB] vaccine). These findings suggest that natural V. cholerae infection induces an early, proinflammatory cellular immune response, despite the apparent lack of clinical signs of inflammation. The failure of the WC-CTB vaccine to activate equivalent, CD4+ T-cell responses is a potential explanation for the shorter duration of protection following immunization with this vaccine. Additional studies are needed to determine whether these early T-cell-mediated events predict the subsequent duration of immunologic memory.
Virus-Like Particle Vaccine Containing Hemagglutinin Confers Protection against 2009 H1N1 Pandemic Influenza

ABSTRACT Immunization of the world population before an influenza pandemic such as the 2009 H1N1 virus spreads globally is not possible with current vaccine production platforms. New influenza vaccine technologies, such as virus-like-particles (VLPs), offer a promising alternative. Here, we tested the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a VLP vaccine containing hemagglutinin (HA) and M1 from the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus (H1N1pdm) in ferrets and compared intramuscular (i.m.) and intranasal (i.n.) routes of immunization. Vaccination of ferrets with VLPs containing the M1 and HA proteins from A/California/04/2009 (H1N1pdm) induced high antibody titers and conferred significant protection against virus challenge. VLP-vaccinated animals lost less weight, shed less virus in nasal washes, and had markedly lower virus titers in all organs tested than naïve controls. A single dose of VLPs, either i.m. or i.n. , induced higher levels of antibody than did two doses of commercial split vaccine. Ferrets vaccinated with split vaccine were incompletely protected against challenge; these animals had lower virus titers in olfactory bulbs, tonsils, and intestines, but lost weight and shed virus in nasal washes to a similar extent as naïve controls. Challenge with heterologous A/Brisbane/59/07 (H1N1) virus revealed that the VLPs conferred minimal cross-protection to heterologous infection, as revealed by the lack of reduction in nasal wash and lung virus titers and slightly higher weight loss relative to controls. In summary, these experiments demonstrate the strong immunogenicity and protective efficacy of VLPs compared to the split vaccine and show that i.n. vaccination with VLPs has the potential for highly efficacious vaccination against influenza.
In-Memory Big Data Management and Processing: A Survey

Growing main memory capacity has fueled the development of in-memory big data management and processing. By eliminating disk I/O bottleneck, it is now possible to support interactive data analytics. However, in-memory systems are much more sensitive to other sources of overhead that do not matter in traditional I/O-bounded disk-based systems. Some issues such as fault-tolerance and consistency are also more challenging to handle in in-memory environment. We are witnessing a revolution in the design of database systems that exploits main memory as its data storage layer. Many of these researches have focused along several dimensions: modern CPU and memory hierarchy utilization, time/space efficiency, parallelism, and concurrency control. In this survey, we aim to provide a thorough review of a wide range of in-memory data management and processing proposals and systems, including both data storage systems and data processing frameworks. We also give a comprehensive presentation of important technology in memory management, and some key factors that need to be considered in order to achieve efficient in-memory data management and processing.
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Provincial Policies Impacting Shelter Service Delivery to Women Exposed to Violence

Shelters for abused women function within a broad context that includes intersecting social structures, policies, and resources, which may constrain and limit the options available to abused women and tacitly reinforce the cycle of abuse. This feminist, qualitative study combined in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with 37 staff and four executive directors from four shelters in Ontario, Canada, along with a critical discourse analysis of salient policy texts. Together, the interviews and critical discourse analysis formed an integrated analysis of the dialectic between policy as written and enacted. The study findings illuminate the complexity of the system and its impact on women, shelters, and the community and highlight how specific types of social policies and various social system subsystems and structures, and system configuration, shape the day to day reality of shelter service delivery and impact outcomes for abused women and their children. Collectively, these findings offer direction regarding where these policies could be improved and provide a basis for shelters, policy makers, advocates, and the community to strengthen current services and policies, potentially enhancing outcomes for women.
Connecting Social Media to E-Commerce: Cold-Start Product Recommendation Using Microblogging Information

In recent years, the boundaries between e-commerce and social networking have become increasingly blurred. Many e-commerce Web sites support the mechanism of social login where users can sign on the Web sites using their social network identities such as their Facebook or Twitter accounts. Users can also post their newly purchased products on microblogs with links to the e-commerce product Web pages. In this paper, we propose a novel solution for cross-site cold-start product recommendation, which aims to recommend products from e-commerce Web sites to users at social networking sites in “cold-start” situations, a problem which has rarely been explored before. A major challenge is how to leverage knowledge extracted from social networking sites for cross-site cold-start product recommendation. We propose to use the linked users across social networking sites and e-commerce Web sites (users who have social networking accounts and have made purchases on e-commerce Web sites) as a bridge to map users' social networking features to another feature representation for product recommendation. In specific, we propose learning both users' and products' feature representations (called user embeddings and product embeddings, respectively) from data collected from e-commerce Web sites using recurrent neural networks and then apply a modified gradient boosting trees method to transform users' social networking features into user embeddings. We then develop a feature-based matrix factorization approach which can leverage the learnt user embeddings for cold-start product recommendation. Experimental results on a large dataset constructed from the largest Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo and the largest Chinese B2C e-commerce website JingDong have shown the effectiveness of our proposed framework.
Paratesticular Pleomorphic Rhabdomyosarcoma in the Elderly

A case of paratesticular pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma, presenting as an ulcerated mass in the left hemiscrotum of an 83-year-old man, is reported. By light microscopy, this neoplasm could not be distinguished from other pleomorphic sarcomas, such as malignant fibrous histiocytoma, leiomyosarcoma, and liposarcoma. Immunohistochemistry showed that most tumor cells were strongly reactive with antibodies directed against myoglobin, desmin, a-sarcomeric actin, and myogenin, whereas x-smooth muscle actin expression was less extensive. Electron microscopic examination demonstrated thick and thin filaments with condensations of electron-dense material reminiscent of structures of Z-lines in the large pleomorphic cells. On the basis of these findings, the neoplasm was classified as a pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma. According to a review of the literature, this is the first well-documented example of paratesticular pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in an elderly person.
Influenza Virus H5 DNA Vaccination Is Immunogenic by Intramuscular and Intradermal Routes in Humans

ABSTRACT Avian influenza virus causes outbreaks in domestic and wild birds around the world, and sporadic human infections have been reported. A DNA vaccine encoding hemagglutinin (HA) protein from the A/Indonesia/5/05 (H5N1) strain was initially tested in two randomized phase I clinical studies. Vaccine Research Center study 304 (VRC 304) was a double-blinded study with 45 subjects randomized to placebo, 1 mg of vaccine, or 4 mg of vaccine treatment groups (n = 15/group) by intramuscular (i.m.) Biojector injection. VRC 305 was an open-label study to evaluate route, with 44 subjects randomized to intradermal (i.d.) injections of 0.5 mg by needle/syringe or by Biojector or 1 mg delivered as two 0.5-mg Biojector injections in the same deltoid or as 0.5 mg in each deltoid (n = 11/group). Injections were administered at weeks 0, 4, and 8 in both studies. Antibody responses to H5 were assessed by hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and neutralization assay, and the H5 T cell responses were assessed by enzyme-linked immunospot and intracellular cytokine staining assays. There were no vaccine-related serious adverse events, and the vaccine was well tolerated in all groups. At 1 mg, i.d. vaccination compared to i.m. vaccination induced a greater frequency and magnitude of response by ELISA, but there were no significant differences in the frequency or magnitude of response between the i.d. and i.m. routes in the HAI or neutralization assays. T cell responses were more common in subjects who received the 1- or 4-mg dose i.m. These studies demonstrated that the DNA vaccine encoding H5 is safe and immunogenic and served to define the proper dose and route for further studies. The i.d. injection route did not offer a significant advantage over the i.m. route, and no difference was detected by delivery to one site versus splitting the dose between two sites for i.d. vaccine administration. The 4-mg dose (i.m) was further investigated in prime-boost regimens.
Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus-Neutralizing Antibodies in Different Immunoglobulin Preparations

ABSTRACT Patients with primary immunodeficiency (PIDs) depend on the presence of a variety of antibody specificities in intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Using the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), geographic variability in IVIG antibody content was shown. Care should therefore be exercised when treating PIDs in a given geography, as only locally sourced plasma contains the antibody specificities against the circulating pathogens in the given locality.
Evaluation of Influenza Virus A/H3N2 and B Vaccines on the Basis of Cross-Reactivity of Postvaccination Human Serum Antibodies against Influenza Viruses A/H3N2 and B Isolated in MDCK Cells and Embryonated Hen Eggs

ABSTRACT The vaccine strains against influenza virus A/H3N2 for the 2010-2011 season and influenza virus B for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons in Japan are a high-growth reassortant A/Victoria/210/2009 (X-187) strain and an egg-adapted B/Brisbane/60/2008 (Victoria lineage) strain, respectively. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests with postinfection ferret antisera indicated that the antisera raised against the X-187 and egg-adapted B/Brisbane/60/2008 vaccine production strains poorly inhibited recent epidemic isolates of MDCK-grown A/H3N2 and B/Victoria lineage viruses, respectively. The low reactivity of the ferret antisera may be attributable to changes in the hemagglutinin (HA) protein of production strains during egg adaptation. To evaluate the efficacy of A/H3N2 and B vaccines, the cross-reactivities of postvaccination human serum antibodies against A/H3N2 and B/Victoria lineage epidemic isolates were assessed by a comparison of the geometric mean titers (GMTs) of HI and neutralization (NT) tests. Serum antibodies elicited by the X-187 vaccine had low cross-reactivity to both MDCK- and egg-grown A/H3N2 isolates by HI test and narrow cross-reactivity by NT test in all age groups. On the other hand, the GMTs to B viruses detected by HI test were below the marginal level, so the cross-reactivity was assessed by NT test. The serum neutralizing antibodies elicited by the B/Brisbane/60/2008 vaccine reacted well with egg-grown B viruses but exhibited remarkably low reactivity to MDCK-grown B viruses. The results of these human serological studies suggest that the influenza A/H3N2 vaccine for the 2010-2011 season and B vaccine for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons may possess insufficient efficacy and low efficacy, respectively.
Multilocus Sequence Type Analysis Reveals both Clonality and Recombination in Populations of Candida glabrata Bloodstream Isolates from U.S. Surveillance Studies

ABSTRACT The human commensal yeast Candida glabrata is becoming increasingly important as an agent of nosocomial bloodstream infection. However, relatively little is known concerning the genetics and population structure of this species. We have analyzed 230 incident bloodstream isolates from previous and current population-based surveillance studies by using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Our results show that in the U.S. cities of Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; and San Francisco, CA during three time periods spanning 1992 to 2009, five populations of C. glabrata bloodstream isolates are defined by a relatively small number of sequence types. There is little genetic differentiation in the different C. glabrata populations. We also show that there has been a significant temporal shift in the prevalence of one major subtype in Atlanta. Our results support the concept that both recombination and clonality play a role in the population structure of this species.
The Unfolded Protein Response in the Protozoan Parasite Toxoplasma gondii Features Translational and Transcriptional Control

ABSTRACT The unfolded protein response (UPR) is an important regulatory network that responds to perturbations in protein homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In mammalian cells, the UPR features translational and transcriptional mechanisms of gene expression aimed at restoring proteostatic control. A central feature of the UPR is phosphorylation of the α subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor-2 (eIF2) by PERK (EIF2AK3/PEK), which reduces the influx of nascent proteins into the ER by lowering global protein synthesis, coincident with preferential translation of key transcription activators of genes that function to expand the processing capacity of this secretory organelle. Upon ER stress, the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is known to induce phosphorylation of Toxoplasma eIF2α and lower translation initiation. To characterize the nature of the ensuing UPR in this parasite, we carried out microarray analyses to measure the changes in the transcriptome and in translational control during ER stress. We determined that a collection of transcripts linked with the secretory process are induced in response to ER stress, supporting the idea that a transcriptional induction phase of the UPR occurs in Toxoplasma. Furthermore, we determined that about 500 gene transcripts showed enhanced association with translating ribosomes during ER stress. Many of these target genes are suggested to be involved in gene expression, including JmjC5, which continues to be actively translated during ER stress. This study indicates that Toxoplasma triggers a UPR during ER stress that features both translational and transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, which is likely to be important for parasite invasion and development.
Morbidade por acidentes de transporte entre jovens de Goiânia, Goiás

Acidentes de transporte constituem problema mundial de saude publica, especialmente nos paises em desenvolvimento. O objetivo foi descrever o perfil das vitimas e circunstâncias dos acidentes de transportes com residentes de Goiânia (GO), na faixa etaria de 15 a 24 anos e atendidos no Hospital de Urgencias. Estudo transversal prospectivo, realizado de agosto de 2005 a agosto de 2006, por amostragem sistematica de 301 vitimas de acidentes de transporte. Os dados primarios foram tratados por meio de estatistica descritiva. A maioria era do sexo masculino, com idade media de 19,88 + 2,7 anos e condutor dos veiculos. O meio de transporte mais utilizado foi motocicleta (67,33%), seguido da bicicleta (16,67%). Os acidentes ocorreram predominantemente em torno das 18h, sextas-feiras e domingos. As vitimas estavam principalmente no trajeto para atividades fisicas, esportivas, escolares, lazer e entretenimento. A suspeita do uso de alcool foi relatada por 15,16% dos entrevistados. Comparados aos ciclistas, mais motociclistas julgaram que houve imprudencia/negligencia no acidente. Equipamentos de seguranca nao foram usados por 8,58% dos motociclistas e 95,45% dos ciclistas. Sao necessarias medidas de educacao dirigida aos motociclistas e fiscalizacao que priorizem o periodo noturno e os finais de semana.
Overexpression of a Mutant Form of EhRabA, a Unique Rab GTPase of Entamoeba histolytica, Alters Endoplasmic Reticulum Morphology and Localization of the Gal/GalNAc Adherence Lectin

ABSTRACT Entamoeba histolytica is a protozoan parasite that causes amoebic dysentery and liver abscess. Vesicle trafficking events, such as phagocytosis and delivery of plasma membrane proteins, have been implicated in pathogenicity. Rab GTPases are proteins whose primary function is to regulate vesicle trafficking; therefore, understanding the function of Rabs in this organism may provide insight into virulence. E. histolytica possesses a number of unique Rabs that exhibit limited homology to host Rabs. In this study we examined the function of one such Rab, EhRabA, by characterizing a mutant overexpressing a constitutively GTP-bound version of the protein. Overexpression of mutant EhRabA resulted in decreased adhesion to and phagocytosis of human red blood cells and in the appearance of large tubular organelles that could be stained with endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-specific but not Golgi complex-specific antibodies. Consistent with the adhesion defect, two subunits of a cell surface adhesin, the galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine lectin, were mislocalized to the novel organelle. A cysteine protease, EhCP2, was also localized to the ER-like compartment in the mutant; however, the localization of two additional cell surface proteins, Igl and SREHP, remained unchanged in the mutant. The phenotype of the mutant could be recapitulated by treatment with brefeldin A, a cellular toxin that disrupts ER-to-Golgi apparatus vesicle traffic. This suggests that EhRabA influences vesicle trafficking pathways that are also sensitive to brefeldin A. Together, the data indicate that EhRabA directly or indirectly influences the morphology of secretory organelles and regulates trafficking of a subset of secretory proteins in E. histolytica.
Nuclear Dynamics during Germination, Conidiation, and Hyphal Fusion of Fusarium oxysporum

ABSTRACT In many fungal pathogens, infection is initiated by conidial germination. Subsequent stages involve germ tube elongation, conidiation, and vegetative hyphal fusion (anastomosis). Here, we used live-cell fluorescence to study the dynamics of green fluorescent protein (GFP)- and cherry fluorescent protein (ChFP)-labeled nuclei in the plant pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. Hyphae of F. oxysporum have uninucleated cells and exhibit an acropetal nuclear pedigree, where only the nucleus in the apical compartment is mitotically active. In contrast, conidiation follows a basopetal pattern, whereby mononucleated microconidia are generated by repeated mitotic cycles of the subapical nucleus in the phialide, followed by septation and cell abscission. Vegetative hyphal fusion is preceded by directed growth of the fusion hypha toward the receptor hypha and followed by a series of postfusion nuclear events, including mitosis of the apical nucleus of the fusion hypha, migration of a daughter nucleus into the receptor hypha, and degradation of the resident nucleus. These previously unreported patterns of nuclear dynamics in F. oxysporum could be intimately related to its pathogenic lifestyle.