Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Uridine Metabolism in HIV-1-Infected Patients: Effect of Infection, of Antiretroviral Therapy and of HIV-1/ART-Associated Lipodystrophy Syndrome

Background Uridine has been advocated for the treatment of HIV-1/HAART-associated lipodystrophy (HALS), although its metabolism in HIV-1-infected patients is poorly understood. Methods Plasma uridine concentrations were measured in 35 controls and 221 HIV-1-infected patients and fat uridine in 15 controls and 19 patients. The diagnosis of HALS was performed following the criteria of the Lipodystrophy Severity Grading Scale. Uridine was measured by a binary gradient-elution HPLC method. Analysis of genes encoding uridine metabolizing enzymes in fat was performed with TaqMan RT-PCR. Results Median plasma uridine concentrations for HIV-1-infected patients were 3.80 µmol/l (interquartile range: 1.60), and for controls 4.60 µmol/l (IQR: 1.8) (P = 0.0009). In fat, they were of 6.0 (3.67), and 2.8 (4.65) nmol/mg of protein, respectively (P = 0.0118). Patients with a mixed HALS form had a median plasma uridine level of 4.0 (IC95%: 3.40–4.80) whereas in those with isolated lipoatrophy it was 3.25 (2.55–4.15) µmol/l/l (P = 0.0066). The expression of uridine cytidine kinase and uridine phosphorylase genes was significantly decreased in all groups of patients with respect to controls. A higher expression of the mRNAs for concentrative nucleoside transporters was found in HIV-1-infected patients with respect to healthy controls. Conclusions HIV-1 infection is associated with a decrease in plasma uridine and a shift of uridine to the adipose tissue compartment. Antiretroviral therapy was not associated with plasma uridine concentrations, but pure lipoatrophic HALS was associated with significantly lower plasma uridine concentrations.
Two interacting diffusing particles on low-dimensional discrete structures

In this paper we study the motion of two particles diffusing on low-dimensional discrete structures in presence of a hard-core repulsive interaction. We show that the problem can be mapped in two decoupled problems of single particles diffusing on different graphs by a transformation we call diffusion graph transform. This technique is applied to study two specific cases: the narrow comb and the ladder lattice. We focus on the determination of the long time probabilities for the contact between particles and their reciprocal crossing. We also obtain the mean square dispersion of the particles in the case of the narrow comb lattice. The cases of a sticking potential and of ‘vicious’ particles are discussed.
Spammer detection based on comprehensive features in Sina Microblog

The popularity and accessibility of Sina Microblog have attracted a large number of spammers to conduct spamming behaviors. They can spread advertisements, disseminate pornography, virus and expose phishing. All of these behaviors are extremely harmful to legitimate users. It is necessary to detect spammers from legitimate users in Sina Microblog. In this paper, we defined two kinds of spammers, advertising spammers and following spammers. We extracted six features to distinguish advertising spammers, following spammers and legitimate users. To verify the effectiveness of our method, we use four kind machine learning algorithms, including Bayes Network, Naive Bayes, SVM and Random Forest to evaluate the spammer detection performance on our dataset. The results of these experiments show that most of the classifiers can achieve more than 90% precision rate, recall rate and F-measure rate. Bayes Network classifier was proved to the best on our dataset.
Strategies and tactics in the treatment of chronic depression.

Chronic depressions include major depressive disorder, recurrent, without full interepisode recovery; major depressive disorder, currently in a chronic (i.e., > or = 2 years) episode; double depression; dysthymic disorder; and those depressive disorders--not otherwise specified (NOS)--that are persistent or predictably recurrent with substantial disability. Strategic treatment decisions include (1) whether to treat with medication, psychotherapy, ECT, or other methods; (2) selection among specific agents with long-term efficacy and tolerability (preferably established by randomized controlled trials); (3) selection of the next treatment should the initial treatment fail or be found intolerable; and (4) deciding whether to provide maintenance treatment. Tactical decisions are those needed to optimally implement the strategies selected; for example, (1) how to optimally dose, (2) how long to continue an acute phase treatment trial, (3) how to measure outcome, and (4) how to identify and manage subsequent symptomatic breakthroughs or side effects (which may also require revisions in the initial strategies). Some antidepressant medications evidence efficacy and safety in acute phase treatment of the chronically depressed, but continuation and maintenance phase treatments for these patients are less well investigated and deserve further study. The clinical implications of what is known to date for managing these patients are discussed.
Involvement of the alginate algT gene and integration host factor in the regulation of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa algB gene

Strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa causing pulmonary infection in cystic fibrosis patients are often mucoid because of the synthesis of a capsular polysaccharide called alginate. Regulation of alginate biosynthesis includes the algB gene product (AlgB), which belongs to a class of proteins that control gene transcription in response to environmental stimuli. In this study, a homolog of the DNA-binding-and-bending protein integration host factor (IHF) and the positive regulatory gene algT were shown to be involved in algB expression. An algB-cat gene fusion was constructed on a low-copy-number, broad-host-range plasmid. In alginate-producing (Alg+) P. aeruginosa, levels of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase from algB-cat were twofold higher than in spontaneous Alg- or algT::Tn501 mutant strains, indicating that the mucoid status of the cell influences algB transcription. An algB transcription initiation site was identified 286 nucleotides upstream of translation initiation and revealed an Escherichia coli sigma 70-like promoter. Sequences in the algB promoter region were highly similar to the consensus E. coli IHF binding site. In DNA gel band mobility shift assays, a protein present in extracts from IHF+ E. coli strains and IHF purified from E. coli bound specifically to these algB DNA fragments, while extracts prepared from isogenic IHF- E. coli strains failed to alter the mobility of algB DNA fragments containing the consensus IHF binding site. A protein in cell extracts prepared from P. aeruginosa strains also demonstrated binding to algB fragments containing the IHF binding site, and the position of the complex formed with these extracts was identical to that of the complex formed with purified IHF. Moreover, this binding could be inhibited by anti-IHF antibodies. To test the role of the IHF site in algB regulation, site-specific mutations in the algB IHF site, based on changes which severely affect IHF binding in E. coli, were generated. When either purified E. coli IHF or extracts from P. aeruginosa were used in DNA binding studies, the algB mutant DNAs were severely reduced in IHF binding. Mutations affecting IHF binding at the algB promoter were introduced into the algB-cat plasmid, and all resulted in severely impaired transcriptional activity in Alg- and algT mutant strains of P. aeruginosa. However, these mutations resulted in similar or slightly reduced algB-cat transcription in Alg+ and algB::Tn501 mutant strains. Thus, the algT product plays a positive role in the high-level expression of algB in mucoid cells, whereas as protein present in P.aeruginosa extracts which is likely an IHF homolog plays a positive role in maintaining a basal level of algB expression in nonmucoid strains.
MicroRNA expression profiles distinguish liposarcoma subtypes and implicate miR‐145 and miR‐451 as tumor suppressors

Liposarcomas are rare, heterogeneous and malignant tumors that can be divided into four histological subtypes with different characteristics and clinical behavior. Treatment consists of surgery in combination with systemic chemotherapy, but nevertheless mortality rates are high. More insight into the biology of liposarcoma tumorigenesis is needed to devise novel therapeutic approaches. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been associated with carcinogenesis in many tumors and may function as tumor suppressor or oncogene. In this study we examined miRNA expression in an initial series of 57 human liposarcomas (including all subtypes), lipomas and normal fat by miRNA microarrays. Supervised hierarchical clustering of the most differentially expressed miRNAs (p < 0.0002) distinguished most liposarcoma subtypes and control tissues. The distinction between well differentiated liposarcomas and benign lipomas was blurred, suggesting these tumor types may represent a biological continuum. MiRNA signatures of liposarcoma subtypes were established and validated in an independent series of 58 liposarcomas and control tissues. The expression of the miR‐143/145 and miR‐144/451 cluster members was clearly reduced in liposarcomas compared to normal fat. Overexpression of miR‐145 and miR‐451 in liposarcoma cell lines decreased cellular proliferation rate, impaired cell cycle progression and induced apoptosis. In conclusion, we show that miRNA expression profiling can be used to discriminate liposarcoma subtypes, which can possibly aid in objective diagnostic decision making. In addition, our data indicate that miR‐145 and miR‐451 act as tumor suppressors in adipose tissue and show that re‐expression of these miRNAs could be a promising therapeutic strategy for liposarcomas.
Properties of Nanostructured Hydroxyapatite Prepared by a Spray Drying Technique

In previous studies nano sized hydroxyapatite (HA) particles were prepared by solgel or precipitation methods, in which the products were washed by aqueous or non-aqueous liquids to remove impurities or undesired components. The washing is know to modify the surfaces of the cystalline particles. This study evaluated properties of nano HA materials prepared by a spray drying method in which the HA product was not exposed to any liquid after its formation. The spray drying apparatus consisted of a nozzle that sprayed an acidic calcium phosphate solution in the form of a fine mist into a stream of filtered air flowing through a heated glass column. The water and volatile acid were evaporated by the time the mist reached the end of the column, and the fine particles were collected by an electrostatic precipitator. Powder x ray diffraction patterns suggested the material was amorphous, exhibiting a single broad peak at 30.5° 2θ. However, high resolution transmission electron microscopic analysis showed that the particles, some of which were 5 nm in size, exhibited well ordered HA lattice fringes. Small area diffraction patterns were indicative of HA. Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy showed patterns of typical of HA with small amounts of HPO42−. The thermodynamic solubility product of the nano HA was 3.3 × 10−94 compared to 1 × 10−117 for macro scale crystalline HA. These results showed that a spray drying technique can be used to prepare nanometer sized crystalline HA that have significantly different physicochemical properties than those of its bulk-scale counterpart.
Pediatric clinical features of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection are associated with bacterial P1 genotype

The present study evaluated the association between different Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumonia) genotypes and clinical features of pediatric patients. Subjects were children diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia at the Children's Hospital of Soochow University (Suzhou, China) from January 2012 to December 2013. Clinical and laboratory tests were conducted and clinical samples positive for M. pneumoniae were genotyped by nested-multiplex polymerase chain reaction. Three type I strains and three type II strains were also randomly selected for sequencing. A total of 335 clinical samples positive for M. pneumoniae were obtained. The average age of M. pneumonia-infected pediatric patients was 4.8±3.3 (years). Genotyping results identified 304 positive samples as group I strains and 30 samples as group II strains, in which 1 sample was type II variant 2a. It was also observed that point mutations were more likely to occur in type I strains compared with type II strains. Although clinical pulmonary infection scores between patients with type I and type II strains did not significantly differ, patients with type I strains had a higher risk of developing severe M. pneumoniae pneumonia (SMPP) and extrapulmonary complications, and had significantly higher percentages of peripheral blood neutrophils than patients with type II strains (P<0.05). Collectively, these data indicate that the predominant strains of M. pneumoniae in Suzhou between 2012 and 2013 were type I, and that pediatric pneumonia patients with type I strains of M. pneumoniae were more likely to progress to SMPP.
Detection of IgA Antibodies and Quantification of IgA Antibody‐Producing Cells Specific for Ovalbumin or Trichinella spiralis in the Rat

This report describes procedures to quantify IgA responses in the rat sensitized to ovalbumin or infected with the parasite Trichinella spiralis: an ELISPOT detecting specific IgA antibody producing cells in lymph nodes, and an ELISA demonstrating IgA antibody in scrum and gut mucosal scrapings. For this purpose a mouse monoclonal anti‐rat IgA antibody was produced. This IgG1‐κ1 antibody recognized rat IgA but not rat IgM, IgG, or IgE. It proved very suitable in both assays. Using this reagent we could demonstrate large numbers of IgA anti‐ovalbumin‐producing cells in the mesenteric lymph nodes is 15.days after sensitization to ovalbumin via the Peyer's patches. At 28 days after sensitization the numbers were much lower. IgA antibody titres to ovalbumin in serum were maximal between days 14 and 21 after immunization. Maximal numbers of IgA anti‐T. spiralis‐producing cells were found in the mesenteric lymph nodes 12 days after infection with muscle larvae, followed by a sharp decrease at 15 days. Maximal IgA anti‐T spiralis antibody titres in serum and mucus scrapings of small intestines were found on days 10 and 12 after oral infection with the parasite
Suppression of Hepcidin Expression and Iron Overload Mediate Salmonella Susceptibility in Ankyrin 1 ENU-Induced Mutant

Salmonella, a ubiquitous Gram-negative intracellular bacterium, is a food borne pathogen that infects a broad range of hosts. Infection with Salmonella Typhimurium in mice is a broadly recognized experimental model resembling typhoid fever in humans. Using a N-ethyl-N-nitrosurea (ENU) mutagenesis recessive screen, we report the identification of Ity16 (Immunity to Typhimurium locus 16), a locus responsible for increased susceptibility to infection. The position of Ity16 was refined on chromosome 8 and a nonsense mutation was identified in the ankyrin 1 (Ank1) gene. ANK1 plays an important role in the formation and stabilization of the red cell cytoskeleton. The Ank1Ity16/Ity16 mutation causes severe hemolytic anemia in uninfected mice resulting in splenomegaly, hyperbilirubinemia, jaundice, extramedullary erythropoiesis and iron overload in liver and kidneys. Ank1Ity16/Ity16 mutant mice demonstrated low levels of hepcidin (Hamp) expression and significant increases in the expression of the growth differentiation factor 15 (Gdf15), erythropoietin (Epo) and heme oxygenase 1 (Hmox1) exacerbating extramedullary erythropoiesis, tissue iron deposition and splenomegaly. As the infection progresses in Ank1Ity16/Ity16, the anemia worsens and bacterial load were high in liver and kidneys compared to wild type mice. Heterozygous Ank1+/Ity16 mice were also more susceptible to Salmonella infection although to a lesser extent than Ank1Ity16/Ity16 and they did not inherently present anemia and splenomegaly. During infection, iron accumulated in the kidneys of Ank1+/Ity16 mice where bacterial loads were high compared to littermate controls. The critical role of HAMP in the host response to Salmonella infection was validated by showing increased susceptibility to infection in Hamp-deficient mice and significant survival benefits in Ank1 +/Ity16 heterozygous mice treated with HAMP peptide. This study illustrates that the regulation of Hamp and iron balance are crucial in the host response to Salmonella infection in Ank1 mutants.
Application of NN-PID Control in Linear Elevator

The attraction of neural networks is that they are best suited to solving the problems that are the most difficult to solve by traditional computational methods. BP neural network is widely used in many fields. In this paper, analysed the control requirements of servo control system, combined control characteristics of neural network and PID based on mathematical model of permanent magnet linear synchronous motor, a control system of permanent magnet linear synchronous motor for hoisting system are designed. The results of simulation showed that the control system with external disturbance and Parameter change was effective.
Theoretical Analysis of "Correlations in RC6"

In this paper, we give the theoretical analysis of χ attack proposed by Knudsen and Meier on the RC6 block cipher. To this end, we propose the novel method of security evaluation against χ attack precisely including key dependency by introducing a technique “Transition Matrix Computing. ” On the other hand, the way of security evaluation against χ attack has not been known except the computer experiment. We should note that it is the first results the way of security evaluation against χ attack is shown theoretically. Using this method, we can obtain the “weakest keys” against the attack. Keyword: RC6, χ attack, Transition Matrix,
ERAR: An Event-Driven Approach for Real-Time Activity Recognition

An exciting paradise of data is emerging into our daily life along with the development of relative perceptive technologies in smart home. How to automatically and actively recognize real-time activities from the big data is one key challenge for the future pervasive computing and ambient intelligence. Solving this problem can greatly enhance the development of relative technologies for eldercare, childcare or healthcare. This paper proposes an event-driven approach, namely activity event model, for real-time activity recognition in smart home (ERAR). The ERAR approach segments data flow based on AES Dynamic Segmentation algorithm and recognizes activities based on SVM model. The AES Dynamic Segmentation algorithm uses activity event similarity (AES) to dynamically segment data flow, and can effectively distinguish concurrent activities. Experiments in the context of smart home are presented to show that our ERAR approach performs better than the baseline approaches.
On the Nature of the Intraseasonal Variability of Nighttime Ionospheric Irregularities Over Taiwan

The nature of intraseasonal (within a season) variability of the nighttime ionospheric irregularities has been studied utilizing the observation of the recently installed VHF scintillation receiver from Pingtung, Taiwan. Investigation is based on observations made in 2015 (high‐moderate solar epoch) and 2017 (low solar epoch). Detailed investigation has revealed coexistence of planetary‐scale variability (3–7 days), 10‐ to 16‐day variability, and > 25‐day variability in 2015. Interestingly, the Lomb‐Scargle frequency domain analysis indicated the variability of larger timescales to display somewhat greater amplitudes. The virtual height of the F layer, h'F, over Sanya, also indicated intraseasonal periodicities similar to S4 periodicities observed at Pingtung. Observations have also revealed that, equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) over Pingtung tended to occur on contiguous nights as compared to isolated occurrence, and > 60% of the EPB nights were part of two or more (up to 6) nights of contiguous occurrence. Spectral analysis revealed a quasi‐27‐day variability in the ap and AE geomagnetic indices presumably associated with the solar rotation period. The time period of geomagnetic variability corresponded with the period of dominant S4 variability, indicating that the effect of geomagnetic activity on the low‐latitude ionosphere can be periodic in nature. In 2017 (low solar flux), even with a very low occurrence of ionospheric irregularities, planetary‐scale variability was observed. The dominant period of S4 variability in the autumnal equinox was highly correlated with the periodic geomagnetic activity. Results indicate that a deeper understanding of the periodic intraseasonal variability can be imperative for extended range forecast/prediction of ionospheric irregularities.
A real time surveillance system for metropolitan railways

This paper presents a real time surveillance system that can be deployed within public transport environments. The system is a fully customisable application that can be used to address the requirements for this application domain. The system has been under trial on a number of metropolitan railway systems in the UK and Italy. In this paper we discuss how some of the algorithms employed within the system can be adapted for use with the CREDS datasets.
Snf1 Protein Kinase and the Repressors Nrg1 and Nrg2 Regulate FLO11, Haploid Invasive Growth, and Diploid Pseudohyphal Differentiation

ABSTRACT The Snf1 protein kinase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is important for many cellular responses to glucose limitation, including haploid invasive growth. We show here that Snf1 regulates transcription of FLO11, which encodes a cell surface glycoprotein required for invasive growth. We further show that Nrg1 and Nrg2, two repressor proteins that interact with Snf1, function as negative regulators of invasive growth and as repressors of FLO11. We also examined the role of Snf1, Nrg1, and Nrg2 in two other Flo11-dependent processes. Mutations affected the initiation of biofilm formation, which is glucose sensitive, but also affected diploid pseudohyphal differentiation, thereby unexpectedly implicating Snf1 in a response to nitrogen limitation. Deletion of the NRG1 and NRG2 genes suppressed the defects of a snf1 mutant in all of these processes. These findings suggest a model in which the Snf1 kinase positively regulates Flo11-dependent developmental events by antagonizing Nrg-mediated repression of the FLO11 gene.
Variable bit-rate sinusoidal transform coding using variable order spectral estimation

Sinusoidal transform coding (STC) is known to be capable of producing good communication quality speech coded at bit-rates below 4kb/s. Discrete all-pole modelling (DAP) is an alternative spectral estimation method which can be more accurate than the conventional linear prediction (LP) analysis normally used by STC. In the quest to achieve the highest possible speech quality at lower and lower average bit-rates in variable bit-rate coding schemes, more and more effort must be made to investigate ways of varying the number of parameters according to the characteristics of each speech frame. This paper considers the advantage to be gained by varying the all-pole model order according to the discrete Itakura-Saito (IS) distance measure used in DAP. A significant reduction is achieved in the average number of parameters to be quantised compared to the fixed order model while the speech quality remains the same.