Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mutations in the Leucine Zipper-Like Heptad Repeat Sequence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 gp41 Dominantly Interfere with Wild-Type Virus Infectivity

ABSTRACT It has been previously shown that a proline substitution for any of the conserved leucine or isoleucine residues located in the leucine zipper-like heptad repeat sequence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp41 renders viruses noninfectious and envelope (Env) protein unable to mediate membrane fusion (S. S.-L. Chen, C.-N. Lee, W.-R. Lee, K. McIntosh, and T.-M. Lee, J. Virol. 67:3615–3619, 1993; S. S.-L. Chen, J. Virol. 68:2002–2010, 1994). To understand whether these variants could act as trans-dominant inhibitory mutants, the ability of these mutants to inhibit wild-type (wt) virus infectivity was examined. Comparable amounts of cell- and virion-associated gag gene products as well as virion-associated gp41 were found in transfection with wt or mutant HIV-1 provirus. Viruses obtained from coexpression of wt provirus with mutant 566 or 580 provirus inhibited more potently the production of infectious virus than did viruses generated from cotransfection of wt provirus with other mutant proviruses. Nevertheless, all viruses produced from mixed transfection showed decreased infectivity compared with that of the wt virus when a multinuclear-activation β-galactosidase induction assay was performed. The ability of wt Env to induce cytopathic effects was inhibited by coexpression with mutant Env. Coexpression of mutants inhibited the ability of the wt protein to mediate virus-to-cell transmission, as demonstrated by an env trans-complementation assay with a defective HIV-1 proviral vector. These observations indicated that mutant Env, per se, interferes with wt Env function. Moreover, cotransfection of wt and mutant proviruses produced amounts of cell- and virion-associatedgag gene products comparable to those produced by transfection of wt provirus. Similar amounts of gp41 were also found in virions generated from wt-mutant cotransfection as well as from wt transfection alone. These results indicated that the inhibitory effect conferred by mutants on the wt virus infectivity does not involve the late steps of Gag protein assembly and budding, but they suggest that the wt and mutant Env proteins form a dysfunctional hetero-oligomer which is impaired in an early step of the virus replication cycle. Our study demonstrates that mutations in the HIV-1 gp41 leucine zipper-like heptad repeat sequence dominantly inhibit infectious virus production.
Multilabel Neighborhood Propagation for Region-Based Image Retrieval

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) has been an active research topic in the last decade. As one of the promising approaches, graph-based semi-supervised learning has attracted many researchers. However, while the related work mainly focused on global visual features, little attention has been paid to region-based image retrieval (RBIR). In this paper, a framework based on multilabel neighborhood propagation is proposed for RBIR, which can be characterized by three key properties: (1) For graph construction, in order to determine the edge weights robustly and automatically, mixture distribution is introduced into the Earth mover's distance (EMD) and a linear programming framework is involved. (2) Multiple low-level labels for each image can be obtained based on a generative model, and the correlations among different labels are explored when the labels are propagated simultaneously on the weighted graph. (3) By introducing multilayer semantic representation (MSR) and support vector machine (SVM) into the long-term learning, more exact weighted graph for label propagation and more meaningful high-level labels to describe the images can be calculated. Experimental results, including comparisons with the state-of-the-art retrieval systems, demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal.
Bridging generic and professional care practices for Muslim patients through use of Leininger’s Culture Care Modes

The purpose of this article is to provide knowledge of traditional Muslim generic (folk) care beliefs, expressions and practices derived from research and descriptive sources, in order to assist nurses and other health care professionals to integrate generic (folk) into professional care practices. Muslim generic (folk) care beliefs and practices related to the caregiving process, health, illness, dietary needs, dress, privacy, modesty, touch, gender relations, eye contact, abortion, contraception, birth, death and bereavement were explored. A discussion involving the use of Leininger’s culture care preservation and/or maintenance, culture care accommodation and/or negotiation and culture care repatterning and/or restructuring action modes to bridge the gap between generic (folk) and professional (etic) care practices and to consequently promote culturally congruent care is presented.
Characteristics of optically stimulated luminescence dosimeters in the spread-out Bragg peak region of clinical proton beams.

PURPOSE Optically stimulated luminescent detectors (OSLDs) have a number of advantages in radiation dosimetry making them excellent dosimeters for quality assurance and patient dose verification. Although the dosimeters have been investigated in several modalities, relatively little work has been done in examining the dosimeters for use in clinical proton beams. This study examined a number of characteristics of the response of the dosimeters in the spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) region of clinical proton beams. METHODS Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimeters from Landauer, Inc., specifically the nanoDot dosimeter, were investigated. These dosimeters were placed in a special phantom with a recess to fit the dosimeters without an air gap. Beams with nominal energies of 160, 200, and 250 MeV were used in the passively-scattered proton beam at the MD Anderson Cancer Center Proton Therapy Center. Dosimetric properties including linearity, field size dependence, energy dependence, residual signal as a function of cumulative dose, and postirradiation fading were investigated by taking measurements at the center of SOBPs. RESULTS The dosimeters showed 1% supralinearity at 200 cGy and 5% supralinearity at 1000 cGy. No noticeable field size dependence of the detector was found for field sizes from 2 × 2 cm(2) to 18 × 18 cm(2). Residual signal as a function of cumulative dose showed a small increase for measurements up to 1000 cGy. Readout signal depletion of the dosimeters after consecutive readings showed a slightly larger depletion in protons for doses up to 500 cGy but not by a clinically significant amount. Within the center of various SOBP widths and proton energies the variation in response was less than 2%. An average beam quality factor of 1.089 with experimental standard deviation of 0.007 was determined and applied to the data such that the results were within 1.2% of ion chamber data. CONCLUSIONS The nanoDot OSL dosimeter characteristics were studied in the SOBP region of clinical proton beams. To achieve accurate dosimetric readings, corrections to the dosimeter response were applied. Corrections tended to be minimal or broadly consistent. The nanoDot OSLD was found to be an acceptable dosimeter for measurement in the SOBP region for a range of clinical proton beams.
Bacterial genetics by flow cytometry: rapid isolation of Salmonella typhimurium acid‐inducible promoters by differential fluorescence induction

The ability of Salmonella typhimurium to survive and replicate within murine macrophages is dependent on a low phagosomal pH. This requirement for an acidic vacuole suggests that low pH is an important environmental stimulus for the transcription of genes necessary for intracellular survival. To study the behaviour of acid‐inducible genes in response to the phagosomal environment, we have applied a novel enrichment strategy, termed differential fluorescence induction (DFI), to screen an S. typhimurium library for promoters that are upregulated at pH 4.5. DFI utilizes a fluorescence‐enhanced green fluorescent protein (GFP) and a fluorescence‐activated cell sorter (FACS) to perform genetic selection. In the presence of an inducing stimulus, such as low pH, a FACS is used to sort highly fluorescent bacterial clones bearing random promoters fused to the mutant GFP protein (GFPmut). This population is then amplified at neutral pH and the least fluorescent population is sorted. Sequential sorts for fluorescent and non‐fluorescent bacteria in the presence or absence of inducing conditions rapidly enriches for promoter fusions that are regulated by the inducing stimulus. We have identified eight acid‐inducible promoters and quantified their expression in response to pH 4.5 and to the phagosome milieu. These acid‐inducible promoters exhibited extensive homology to promoter regions of genes encoding for cell‐surface‐maintenance enzymes, stress proteins, and generalized efflux pumps. Only a subset of these promoters was induced in macrophages with kinetics and levels of expression that do not necessarily correlate with in vitro pH‐shock induction. This suggests that while low pH is a relevant inducer of intracellular gene expression, additional stimuli in the macrophage can modulate the expression of acid‐inducible genes.
Effect of aerobic exercises on primary dysmenorrhoea in college students

Background: Dysmenorrhea, a common problem in women of reproductive age, is a very serious problem that can often directly affect the quality of life and cause periodic college absenteeism. Exercise is commonly cited as a probable remedy for menstrual symptoms with limited research available.The purpose of this study was to observe the effect of aerobic exercises on Primary dysmenorrhoea.Methods: Study was a randomized clinical trial. Participants were 100 female college students who were divided in "exercise "and "control"groups. The "exercise group" was given Aerobic exercises and results of three cycles were registered. Outcome measures were VAS for Pain and SF36 for Quality of life. Data was analyzed using paired t test, chi square test and z test for statistical significance. Results: The results showed that pain (VAS scores) in the exercise group declined significantly. The VAS scores started to decrease just after the beginning of the exercise intervention and continued to decrease in the subsequent three visits and was statistically significant (p<0.05). The Physical Domain of Quality of life showed significant difference in the exercise group.Conclusion: Aerobic exercises can help to reduce pain and improve physical symptoms which has a positive impact on quality of life in primary dysmenorrheal girls.
Are the Formation and Abundances of Metal-poor Stars the Result of Dust Dynamics?

Large dust grains can fluctuate dramatically in their local density, relative to the gas, in neutral turbulent disks. Small, high-redshift galaxies (before reionization) represent ideal environments for this process. We show via simple arguments and simulations that order-of-magnitude fluctuations are expected in local abundances of large grains (>100 Å) under these conditions. This can have important consequences for star formation and stellar metal abundances in extremely metal-poor stars. Low-mass stars can form in dust-enhanced regions almost immediately after some dust forms even if the galaxy-average metallicity is too low for fragmentation to occur. We argue that the metal abundances of these “promoted” stars may contain interesting signatures as the CNO abundances (concentrated in large carbonaceous grains and ices) and Mg and Si (in large silicate grains) can be enhanced and/or fluctuate almost independently. Remarkably, the otherwise puzzling abundance patterns of some metal-poor stars can be well fit by standard IMF-averaged core-collapse SNe yields if we allow for fluctuating local dust-to-gas ratios. We also show that the observed log-normal distribution of enhancements in these species agrees with our simulations. Moreover, we confirm that Mg and Si are correlated in these stars; the abundance ratios are similar to those in local silicate grains. Meanwhile [Mg/Ca], predicted to be nearly invariant from pure SNe yields, shows very large enhancements and variations up to factors of ≳100 as expected in the dust-promoted model, preferentially in the [C/Fe]-enhanced metal-poor stars. Together, this suggests that (1) dust exists in second-generation star formation, (2) local dust-to-gas ratio fluctuations occur in protogalaxies and can be important for star formation, and (3) the light element abundances of these stars may be affected by the local chemistry of dust where they formed, rather than directly tracing nucleosynthesis from earlier populations.
HLA-DR Expression and Apoptosis: A Cross-Sectional Controlled Study in Hemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis Patients

Background: Altered HLA-DR expression and apoptosis have been described to reflect a state of immunological dysfunction in uremia. Here, we performed a cross-sectional, controlled study to evaluate monocyte HLA-DR expression and apoptosis in dialyzed chronic kidney disease patients. Methods: Monocyte HLA-DR expression was determined in 81 hemodialysis (HD) and 51 peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients and 40 healthy controls. By triple-color flow cytometry, we analyzed the percentage of monocytes in whole blood, the percentage of HLA-DR+ monocytes and the mean fluorescence intensity. Using U937 cell line incubated with the patients’ plasma, we analyzed the percentage of apoptosis induced after 96 h. Results: Both HD and PD patients had lower, but statistically not significant, monocyte HLA-DR expression compared to controls (96.47 ± 3.83% and 96.64 ± 3.29% respectively, versus 98.42 ± 1.05%). However, mean fluorescence intensity of HLA-DR was significantly higher in PD (149.35 ± 80.96) than in HD (99.20 ± 40.46), and controls (73.25 ± 27.78, p < 0.001). Apoptosis was higher in both HD and PD (35.14 ± 6.77 and 14.37 ± 5.03%) compared to controls (11.30 ± 2.03%, p < 0.001), and significantly higher in HD compared to PD. Conclusion: A reduced inflammatory state and the continuous solute removal in PD may attenuate immune dysfunction in uremia. In HD but not in PD patients, there was a significant correlation between the percentage of HLA-DR+ monocytes with apoptosis (R = 0.230, p = 0.04).
Chronic hepatitis B liver disease in patients living in the Amazon region: S gene mutations and genotypes characterization

The Amazon region is considered to be a high endemic area for Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infections, Rondonia state having the highest prevalence. The aim of this study was to identify molecular genotypes and mutations in the S gene region of HBV viral genomes from 20 patients using a DNA microarray. Results: Serological tests showed that 88% of patients were HBeAg negative, 82% had anti-HBe antibodies and 33% were co-infected with Hepatitis Delta Virus. Sixteen percent of the patients were considered cirrhotic, and 11% have been transfused. The microarray technique identified the genotypes A (4 patients), D (7 patients) and F (7 patients) in 18 samples. Mutations were detected in all 3 genotypes and, overall, A159G, which has been associated with a reduced antigenicity of the virus, was detected most frequently. In genotype A, G119E was the most frequently detected mutation followed by mutations A159G, F134Y, W172C, Y161F and T143S. A159G was detected in all genotype D and F samples followed by mutations T143S, Y161F, N131T, T114S and G119E in genotype D and mutations T143S, Y161F, N131T, T114S and G119E in genotype F. Conclusion: The analysis of mutations repartition among genotypes suggests that some of them are preferentially or exclusively associated with genotype A, D or F. This type of tool is adapted for clinical and therapy monitoring of patient as well as for molecular epidemiology research on HBV.
Performance comparison of two Anycast based reactive routing protocols for mobile Ad hoc networks

Ad hoc networks (MANET) frequently changing network topology using multi-hop wireless links without existing network infrastructure. Anycast routing is important for Ad hoc network in terms of resource, robustness and efficiency when mobility is high and links get disconnected frequently. Performance of two anycast based reactive routing protocols for mobile Ad hoc networks-Anycast Routing based Dynamic Source Routing (ARDSR) and Anycast routing protocol based on AODV (A-AODV) is evaluated. Performance is evaluated with respect to fraction of packets delivered, end-to-end delay, routing load and energy consumption for given traffic and mobility model. Relative strength, weakness and applicability of each anycast based reactive routing protocol to diverse situations are studied and evaluated.
Pentobarbitone pharmacology of mammalian central neurones grown in tissue culture.

1. The effects of the barbiturate anaesthetic pentobarbitone on the membrane properties and amino acid pharmacology of mammalian C.N. S. neurones grown in tissue culture were studied using intracellular recording coupled with bath application, extracellular ionophoresis, or focal diffusion. 2. The addition of an anaesthetic concentration of pentobarbitone to the bathing medium abolished all spontaneous synaptic activity, but did not render individual cells electrically inexcitable nor prevent evoked synaptic acitivity. 3. Focal ionophoresis of pentobarbitone or diffusion from blunt micropipettes reversibly increased membrane conductance, effectively dampening excitability without directly affecting individual action potential characteristics. 4. Pentobarbitone‐induced membrane conductance was reversibly blocked by picrotoxin. The inversion potential of the pentobarbitone voltage response depended on Cl‐ ion gradients and was similar to that of GABA. 5. Pentobarbitone reversibly enhanced the conductance increase produced by GABA with a variable slowing of response kinetics, shifting GABA dose‐response curves to the left. Responses to glycine and beta‐alanine were not affected. 6. Higher ionophoretic currents of pentobarbitone, which measurably increased membrane conductance, attenuated and markedly slowed GABA responses. Similar effects on GABA responses were observed by superimposing GABA pulses on low level GABA currents. 7. Pentobarbitone, in the absence of an increase in membrane conductance, reversibly depressed depolarizing responses to glutamate without changing response kinetics. Slower responses to acetylcholine which were associated with an apparent decrease in membrane conductance were not affected by the drug. 8. Analysis of double‐reciprocal plot data suggested a non‐competitive type of antagonism between pentobarbitone and glutamate. Pentobarbitone depression of glutamate was not affected by picrotoxin. 9. Both GABA and glutamate responses appeared to be equally sensitive to pentobarbitone. Specific interaction of the drug with amino acid receptor‐coupled events is indicated by the requirement for pentobarbitone pipette placement close to the amino acid response site. 10. The results suggest that pentobarbitone depresses neuronal excitability by (1) directly activating post‐synaptic GABA‐receptor coupled Cl‐ conductance, (2) potentiating post‐synaptic GABA‐induced conductance events, probably at the level of the GABA receptor, and (3) depressing post‐synaptic glutamate‐induced excitation, probably at the level of the conductance mechanism.
Organ donation by unrelated donors.

The transplantation of organs is a triumph of modern medicine. Life expectancy and the quality of life are greater with kidney transplantation than with maintenance dialysis. Successful liver and heart transplantations are lifesaving. However, the gap between the need for organs and their supply has widened progressively over the past decade. In 1999, 6448 people in the United States died while waiting for an organ transplant; 3088 of them were waiting for a kidney, and 1767 for a liver (United Network for Organ Sharing: unpublished data, May 6, 2000). These grim facts have led to growing pressure to increase the .
Glypican-3 Expression in Primary and Recurrent Ovarian Carcinomas

Summary: The identification of glypican-3 (GPC3) expression in malignant neoplasms is potentially of interest because GPC3 might represent a therapeutic target. Tissue microarrays containing tissue cylinders from 308 patients with ovarian carcinomas were used for an immunohistochemical study. There were 255 serous, 38 endometrioid, and 15 clear-cell carcinomas included. From 76 patients, paired tissue samples of primary serous ovarian carcinomas and their corresponding recurrences after platinum-based chemotherapy were available. Glypican-3 was expressed in a total of 17.9% of ovarian carcinomas and was strongly associated with the clear-cell histotype (P = 0.0001). Glypican-3 expression was not associated with tumor stage. Positive staining for GPC3 was also observed in a significant fraction of recurrent carcinomas but was not particularly associated with chemoresponse. In conclusion, our data show that GPC3 is observed in a significant fraction of primary and corresponding recurrent ovarian carcinomas. Glypican-3 may therefore represent a potential target for (second-line) therapy in ovarian cancer.
Water‐drinking as ictal behavior in complex partial seizures

The urge to demand, pour, and drink water at the time of an attack was encountered in 20 patients who had seizures with complex partial symptomatology. Two patients were studied with bitemporal stereotaxically implanted depth electrodes. Drinking was associated with electrographic and clinical seizures starting in the amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus. Sometimes, this was the only clinical manifestation of an attack, and its significance would not have been recognized without depth recording. Ictal drinking was never encountered in patients without electroencephalographic evidence of temporal epileptic abnormality, and therefore seems to have localizing significance.
Venous thromboembolism in pregnancy: prophylaxis and treatment with low molecular weight heparin

Objective. To evaluate the safety of individually dosed low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) for prophylaxis and treatment of thromboembolic complications in pregnancy. Design. Cohort study with a chronologic register‐based control group. Setting. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hillerød Hospital, Denmark. Population. All 166 women treated with LMWH in pregnancy between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2005. Methods. Women treated with LMWH in pregnancy were identified and individual case records reviewed retrospectively. General data on the LMWH‐treated women were compared to the 18,020 untreated pregnancies within the same period and with 306 matched controls as regards to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). Main outcome measures. Side effects of treatment, thromboembolic manifestations, postpartum bleeding and obstetric outcome. Results. There were no thromboembolic events during therapy, few side effects of treatment and no osteoporotic fractures or episodes of heparin‐induced thrombocytopenia. The 166 pregnancies resulted in 159 live infants. There was a significantly higher risk of preterm delivery (13% vs. 6%) and intrauterine growth restriction (4.4% vs. 3.5%). Delivery by cesarean section was more common in these high‐risk LMWH‐treated pregnancies (33.1%) than in untreated pregnancies (19.2%). In the LMWH‐group, the occurrence of PPH was 7.2% compared with 8.8% in the matched untreated control group (p = 0.675). None of the events in the LMWH group were serious and all 166 women were in good health at discharge. Conclusions. Individually dosed LMWH is well tolerated and safe for prophylaxis and treatment of thromboembolic complications during pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period.