Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Protective T Cell Responses Featured by Concordant Recognition of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus–Derived CD8+ T Cell Epitopes and Host MHC

The coordinated recognition of virus-derived T cell epitopes and MHC molecules by T cells plays a pivotal role in cellular immunity–mediated virus clearance. It has been demonstrated that the conformation of MHC class I (MHC I) molecules can be adjusted by the presented peptide, which impacts T cell activation. However, it is still largely unknown whether the conformational shift of MHC I influences the protective effect of virus-specific T cells. In this study, utilizing the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus–infected mouse model, we observed that through the unusual secondary anchor Ile5, a CD8+ T cell epitope drove the conformational fit of Trp73 on the α1 helix of murine MHC I H-2Kd. In vitro renaturation and circular dichroism assays indicated that this shift of the structure did not influence the peptide/MHC I binding affinity. Nevertheless, the T cell recognition and the protective effect of the peptide diminished when we made an Ile to Ala mutation at position 5 of the original peptide. The molecular bases of the concordant recognition of T cell epitopes and host MHC-dependent protection were demonstrated through both crystal structure determination and tetramer staining using the peptide–MHC complex. Our results indicate a coordinated MHC I/peptide interaction mechanism and provide a beneficial reference for T cell–oriented vaccine development against emerging viruses such as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus.
Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Girls and Boys With CKD.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Prior studies suggested that women with CKD have higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality than men, although putative mechanisms for this higher risk have not been identified. We assessed sex differences in (1) CVD risk factors and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and (2) the relationship of left ventricular mass (LVM) with different measures of body size in children with CKD. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND MEASUREMENTS The study population comprised 681 children with CKD from the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children cohort, contributing 1330 visits. CVD risk factors were compared cross-sectionally by sex. LVH was defined as LVM/height2.7 >95th percentile and LVM relative to estimated lean body mass (eLBM) >95th percentile for age and sex. Differences in LVM by sex were assessed by adjusting for age, weight, height, and eLBM using bivariate and multivariate regression models. RESULTS Girls were less likely to have uncontrolled hypertension (26% versus 38%, P=0.001), had lower diastolic BP z-scores (+0.3 versus +0.6, P=0.001), and had lower prevalence of high triglycerides (38% versus 47%, P=0.03) compared with boys. When LVH was defined by LVM indexed to height, girls had higher prevalence of LVH (16% versus 9%, P=0.01); when LVH was defined by LVM relative to eLBM, prevalence of LVH was similar between girls and boys (18% versus 17%, P=0.92). In regression models adjusting for eLBM, no sex differences in LVM were observed. CONCLUSIONS Despite lack of increased prevalence of CVD risk factors, indexing LVM to height showed a higher proportion of LVH among girls, while estimates of LVH based on eLBM showed no sex differences. Indexing LVM to eLBM may be an alternative to height indexing in children with CKD.
LEPTOSPIROSE E SEU ASPECTO OCUPACIONAL - REVISÃO DE LITERATURA

A leptospirose e uma das zoonoses mais difundidas do mundo, no Brasil a doenca e endemica em todas as unidades da federacao e epidemica, principalmente, em periodos chuvosos. Sua ocorrencia esta relacionada as precarias condicoes de infraestrutura sanitaria e alta infestacao de roedores infectados. As inundacoes propiciam a disseminacao do agente causal no ambiente, facilitando a eclosao de surtos. Nesta revisao de literatura objetivou-se mostrar o âmbito profissional/ocupacional que e de grande relevância para a saude publica, atingindo diferentes categorias profissionais como agricultores, pecuaristas, biologos, trabalhadores de arrozais, trabalhadores de saneamento ambiental, medicos veterinarios, tecnicos de laboratorio, manipuladores de produtos de origem animal entre outras. Neste contexto, a leptospirose firma-se como uma doenca de grande importância social e economica, por apresentar elevada ocorrencia, em determinadas areas, alto custo hospitalar para o tratamento e ausencia ao trabalho, como tambem por sua mortalidade Desta forma, faz necessaria a intervencao dos gestores de saude para reducao dos indices desta enfermidade.
Influence of paraoxon (POX) and parathion (PAT) on apoptosis: a possible mechanism for toxicity in low‐dose exposure

The acute effects of poisoning with organophosphorus compounds (OPCs) are well known and have been described extensively. Most of the clinical symptoms are due to inhibition of acetylcholinesterase. Although acute OPC poisoning is a well‐established clinical entity, the existence of chronic poisoning due to exposure to low levels of OPC (below the threshold required for cholinergic clinical symptoms) is a hotly debated issue. Recent studies have suggested the involvement of OPCs in apoptotic processes. However, the mechanisms by which they modulate this process are poorly investigated. In the present study we evaluated the toxic effect of different concentrations of paraoxon (POX) and parathion (PAT) in murine EL4 T lymphocytes. We examined cellular responses, including induction of apoptosis, involvement of a caspase cascade, the activity of effector caspase (caspase‐3) and the biochemical and morphological changes that are the hallmarks of classical apoptosis. The results of our study indicate that at doses below IC50 POX is a potent inducer of apoptosis, as opposed to PAT that shows little apoptotic effect. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Harnessing rhetorical figures for argument mining

The generalised, automated reconstruction of the reasoning structures underlying persuasive communication is an enormously challenging task. While this work in argument mining is increasingly informed by the rich tradition of argumentation studies outside the computational ﬁeld, the rhetorical perspective on argumentation is thus far largely ignored. To explore the application of rhetorical insights in argument mining, we conduct a pilot study on the connection between rhetorical ﬁgures and argumentation structure. Rhetorical ﬁgures are linguistic devices that perform a variety of functions in argumentative discourse. The textual form of some of these ﬁgures is easy to identify automatically, such that an established connection between the ﬁgure and a preponderance of argumentative content would improve the performance of argument mining techniques. Furthermore, the automated mining of rhetorical ﬁgures could be used as an empirical, corpus-based testing ground for the claims made about these ﬁgures in the rhetorical literature. In the pilot study, we explore the connection between eight rhetorical ﬁg-ures the forms of which we expect to be relatively easy to identify computationally, and argumentation structure (concretely, we consider the six schemes ‘anadiplosis’, ‘epanaphora’, ‘epistrophe’, ‘epizeuxis’, ‘eutrepismus’, and ‘polyptoton’, and the two tropes ‘antithesis’ and ‘dirimens copulatio’, and relate their occurrences to relations of inference and conﬂict). The data of the study is collected in the MM2012c corpus of 39,694 words of argumentatively annotated transcripts from the BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze discussion program. We show that some of the ﬁgures indeed correspond to passages of high argumentative density, relative to the text as a whole.
Cell Cycle Progression in G1 and S Phases Is CCR4 Dependent following Ionizing Radiation or Replication Stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT To identify new nonessential genes that affect genome integrity, we completed a screening for diploid mutant Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains that are sensitive to ionizing radiation (IR) and found 62 new genes that confer resistance. Along with those previously reported (Bennett et al., Nat. Genet. 29:426-434, 2001), these genes bring to 169 the total number of new IR resistance genes identified. Through the use of existing genetic and proteomic databases, many of these genes were found to interact in a damage response network with the transcription factor Ccr4, a core component of the CCR4-NOT and RNA polymerase-associated factor 1 (PAF1)-CDC73 transcription complexes. Deletions of individual members of these two complexes render cells sensitive to the lethal effects of IR as diploids, but not as haploids, indicating that the diploid G1 cell population is radiosensitive. Consistent with a role in G1, diploid ccr4Δ cells irradiated in G1 show enhanced lethality compared to cells exposed as a synchronous G2 population. In addition, a prolonged RAD9-dependent G1 arrest occurred following IR of ccr4Δ cells and CCR4 is a member of the RAD9 epistasis group, thus confirming a role for CCR4 in checkpoint control. Moreover, ccr4Δ cells that transit S phase in the presence of the replication inhibitor hydroxyurea (HU) undergo prolonged cell cycle arrest at G2 followed by cellular lysis. This S-phase replication defect is separate from that seen for rad52 mutants, since rad52Δ ccr4Δ cells show increased sensitivity to HU compared to rad52Δ or ccr4Δ mutants alone. These results indicate that cell cycle transition through G1 and S phases is CCR4 dependent following radiation or replication stress.
Rab9 GTPase Is Required for Replication of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1, Filoviruses, and Measles Virus

ABSTRACT Rab proteins and their effectors facilitate vesicular transport by tethering donor vesicles to their respective target membranes. By using gene trap insertional mutagenesis, we identified Rab9, which mediates late-endosome-to-trans-Golgi-network trafficking, among several candidate host genes whose disruption allowed the survival of Marburg virus-infected cells, suggesting that Rab9 is utilized in Marburg replication. Although Rab9 has not been implicated in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication, previous reports suggested that the late endosome is an initiation site for HIV assembly and that TIP47-dependent trafficking out of the late endosome to the trans-Golgi network facilitates the sorting of HIV Env into virions budding at the plasma membrane. We examined the role of Rab9 in the life cycles of HIV and several unrelated viruses, using small interfering RNA (siRNA) to silence Rab9 expression before viral infection. Silencing Rab9 expression dramatically inhibited HIV replication, as did silencing the host genes encoding TIP47, p40, and PIKfyve, which also facilitate late-endosome-to-trans-Golgi vesicular transport. In addition, silencing studies revealed that HIV replication was dependent on the expression of Rab11A, which mediates trans-Golgi-to-plasma-membrane transport, and that increased HIV Gag was sequestered in a CD63+ endocytic compartment in a cell line stably expressing Rab9 siRNA. Replication of the enveloped Ebola, Marburg, and measles viruses was inhibited with Rab9 siRNA, although the nonenveloped reovirus was insensitive to Rab9 silencing. These results suggest that Rab9 is an important cellular target for inhibiting diverse viruses and help to define a late-endosome-to-plasma-membrane vesicular transport pathway important in viral assembly.
Angelman Syndrome Due to a Novel Splicing Mutation of the UBE3A Gene

Angelman syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by mental retardation, absence of speech, seizures, abnormal electroencephalography (EEG), and happy disposition. The syndrome results from lack of function of the maternal copy of the UBE3A gene on the imprinted Prader-Willi/Angelman syndrome critical region; it is caused by large deletions, paternal uniparental disomy, imprinting center defects or UBE3A deletions, and point mutations. We found a novel splice-site mutation of the UBE3A gene in a child with clinical and EEG features of Angelman syndrome. This case further points out the fact that individuals with Angelman syndrome and mutations of the UBE3A gene have a phenotype that tends to be rather mild, however, undistinguishable, both from the clinical and the electrophysiological points of view, from the Angelman syndrome phenotype due to other known molecular mechanisms.
A randomized double blind placebo controlled trial of probiotics in minimal hepatic encephalopathy.

BACKGROUND AND AIM Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common and serious complication of liver disease. Minimal HE has major impact on all aspects of a patient's life. The aim of this study was to asses the efficacy of probiotics in minimal hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis of the liver. METHODS Stable cirrhotics with minimal hepatic encephalopathy diagnosed by number connection test and evoked responses were recruited for the study. The patients were randomized to two groups and the drugs were administered in a double blind fashion. Improvement in number connection test score, evoked response time and arterial ammonia levels were noted. RESULTS 43 patients were recruited for the study; 21 in the probiotics group and 22 in the placebo group. There was no statistically significant change in the parameters like arterial ammonia, evoked responses and number connection test before and after treatment with probiotics when compared to placebo. CONCLUSION Short term administration of probiotics did not produce any significant improvement in the various parameters assessed in patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy when compared with placebo.
The Evolutional Portfolio Optimization System ( EPOS )

We introduce a new methodology that incorporates advanced higher moments evaluation in a new approach of the Portfolio Selection problem, supported by effective Computational Intelligence models. The Evolutional Portfolio Optimization System (EPOS) extracts hidden patterns out of the numerous accounting data and financial statements filtering misguiding effects such as noise or fraud, offering an optimal portfolio selection method.
Human Rights-Based Approaches to Mental Health

Abstract The incidence of human rights violations in mental health care across nations has been described as a “global emergency” and an “unresolved global crisis. ” The relationship between mental health and human rights is complex and bidirectional. Human rights violations can negatively impact mental health. Conversely, respecting human rights can improve mental health. This article reviews cases where an explicitly human rights-based approach was used in mental health care settings. Although the included studies did not exhibit a high level of methodological rigor, the qualitative information obtained was considered useful and informative for future studies. All studies reviewed suggest that human-rights based approaches can lead to clinical improvements at relatively low costs. Human rights-based approaches should be utilized for legal and moral reasons, since human rights are fundamental pillars of justice and civilization. The fact that such approaches can contribute to positive therapeutic outcomes and, potentially, cost savings, is additional reason for their implementation. However, the small sample size and lack of controlled, quantitative measures limit the strength of conclusions drawn from included studies. More objective, high quality research is needed to ascertain the true extent of benefits to service users and providers.
Synthesis of Amino Acid Derivatives of Kojic Acid and Their Tyrosinase Inhibitory Activity

Six N-carbobenzozy amino acid derivatives of kojic acid were synthesized to improve the tyrosinase inhibitory activity of kojic acid. All derivatives showed stronger activities than kojic acid. Among them, the L-phenylalanine derivative was the strongest inhibitor and its IC50 value was about 1/80 that for kojic acid. The inhibition mechanism of these derivatives is considered to be a noncompetitive one similar to that of kojic acid.
Multi-purpose System-on-Chip platform for rapid prototyping

This paper shows a multi-purpose System-on-Chip (SoC) platform for rapid prototyping of computation and data intensive applications. The platform is composed of an Intellectual property (IP) modules resource library, a 2D mesh Network-on-Chip (NoC) as communication infrastructure which scales to an arbitrary number of resources, avoiding bus-based communication. A general scheme to plug any IP resource into the network and build a full system is described. Hardware and software design is illustrated by means of a case study comprising a heterogeneous implementation with different kinds of resources for different tasks. The case study shows how this approach favors the reuse of components and applications, reduces design time, and yields to a relatively low-cost implementation of heterogeneous systems.
Creating a realistic face image from a cartoon character

We propose a method of creating a realistic face image from a 2D non-realistic character such as a cartoon. Our system allows us to create a high quality face image that is applicable for some application such as 3D character animation. Our system uses two key algorithms; one is an algorithm for synthesizing a novel face image without the warping process, and the other is a searching algorithm, which search each optimal patch from the database based on gradient distribution.
A real time 1080P 30FPS Gaussian Mixture Modeling design for background subtraction and object extraction

The Gaussian Mixture Modeling (GMM) algorithm with connected component labeling as object extraction provide robust background subtraction but suffer from complexity, and large buffer or high bandwidth due to the frame level operations. For real time application needs, this paper proposed a block based GMM design for background subtraction with message passing between blocks to avoid performance drop. The corresponding parallel hardware design can reach real time 1080P@30fps and cost 164.82K gate-counts at 125MHz with 90nm process.
Extremely Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields do not Affect DNA Damage and Gene Expression Profiles of Yeast and Human Lymphocytes

Abstract Luceri, C. , De Filippo, C. , Giovannelli, L. , Blangiardo, M. , Cavalieri, D. , Aglietti, F. , Pampaloni, M. , Andreuccetti, D. , Pieri, L. , Bambi, F. , Biggeri, A. and Dolara, P. Extremely Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields do not Affect DNA Damage and Gene Expression Profiles of Yeast and Human Lymphocytes. Radiat. Res. 164, 277–285 (2005). We studied the effects of extremely low-frequency (50 Hz) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on peripheral human blood lymphocytes and DBY747 Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Graded exposure to 50 Hz magnetic flux density was obtained with a Helmholtz coil system set at 1, 10 or 100 μT for 18 h. The effects of EMFs on DNA damage were studied with the single-cell gel electrophoresis assay (comet assay) in lymphocytes. Gene expression profiles of EMF-exposed human and yeast cells were evaluated with DNA microarrays containing 13,971 and 6,212 oligonucleotides, respectively. After exposure to the EMF, we did not observe an increase in the amount of strand breaks or oxidated DNA bases relative to controls or a variation in gene expression profiles. The results suggest that extremely low-frequency EMFs do not induce DNA damage or affect gene expression in these two different eukaryotic cell systems.
A 50nA quiescent current asynchronous digital-LDO with PLL-modulated fast-DVS power management in 40nm CMOS for 5.6 times MIPS performance

A 50nA quiescent current asynchronous digital-LDO (DLDO) integrated with the PLL-modulated switching regulator (SWR) exhibits the hybrid power management operation. The proposed bidirectional asynchronous wave pipeline (BAWP) in the asynchronous DLDO realizes the Fast-DVS (F-DVS) operation within tens of nano-seconds. The SWR with the leading phase amplifier achieves on-the-fly DVS and 94% peak efficiency, as well as improves 5.6 times MIPS performance through hybrid operation. The fabricated chip occupies 1.04mm2 in 40nm CMOS.
Robust attitude control of a quadrotor helicopter with unknown parameters

This paper presents a practical design approach to achieve the robust attitude control for a quadrotor helicopter with unknown parameters. This control method results in a linear time-invariant robust controller which is independent of the helicopter parameters. It consists of a proportional-derivative (PD) controller and a robust compensator. One can tune the PD controller parameters of each channel separately in the hover condition; then, the parameters of the robust compensator can be tuned online monotonously in trajectory tracking. It is proven that attitude tracking errors can converge to given neighborhoods of the origin. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this control method.
Full‐Genome Sequence of Porcine Circovirus type 3 recovered from serum of sows with stillbirths in Brazil

Two full-genome sequences of porcine circovirus type 3 (PCV3) are reported. The genomes were recovered from pooled serum samples from sows who had just delivered litters with variable numbers of stillbirths. The two circular genomes (PCV3-BR/RS/6 and PCV3-BR/RS/8) are 2,000 nucleotides long and contain two open reading frames (ORFs) oriented in opposite directions that encode the putative capsid (Cap) and replicase (Rep) proteins. The intergenic region contains a stem-loop motif, as reported for other circoviruses. Rolling circle replication motifs and putative helicase domains were identified in the Rep coding region. The degree of overall nucleotide similarity between the genomes reported here and those available at GenBank was higher than 97%. No PCV3 sequence was detected in pooled serum samples from sows which had no stillbirths on the same farms. However, further studies are necessary to confirm the association between PCV3 and the occurrence of stillbirths.
Poverty and household welfare in Trinidad and Tobago : Evidence from the Survey of Living Conditions ( SLC ) 2005 1

Although Trinidad and Tobago was classified recently as a high income country, it has pockets of extreme poverty. We undertake this study to determine the rate of poverty and examine the determinants of poverty and household welfare based on the rich dataset – the Survey of Living Conditions 2005 – which was employed to collect socio-economic information both at individual and household level. The research objectives of this study were undertaken by constructing consumption aggregates to estimate poverty and using a quantile regression model to identify significant correlates that policy could target. Initial findings seem to indicate that the poverty level is higher than existing estimates, and that socio-economic and demographic characteristics play a significant role in household welfare.
Generation and characterization of alpha‐chymase‐Cre transgenic mice

The Cre‐loxP technology allows the introduction of somatic gene alterations in a tissue and/or cell type specific manner. The development of transgenes that target Cre expression to specific cell types is a critical component in this system. Here, we describe the generation and characterization of transgenic mouse lines expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the baboon α‐chymase promoter, designated Chm:Cre, in order to direct Cre expression specifically to mouse mast cells. Chm:Cre expression was detected in mast cells in lung and colon tissue. Cre‐mediated recombination in these mice identified a population of mature tissue resident mast cells using ROSA26R reporter mice. No Cre‐expression and Cre‐mediated recombination was induced in in vitro generated bone marrow derived mast cells or mast cells isolated from the peritoneal cavity indicating that Cre‐expression under the control of the α‐chymase promoter is solely activated in tissue resident mast cells. These Chm:Cre transgenic mice represent a useful tool to specifically inactivate genes of interest in mast cells of these tissues. genesis 46:163–166, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.