Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biological phenotype of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 clones at different stages of infection: progression of disease is associated with a shift from monocytotropic to T-cell-tropic virus population

The composition of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) clonal populations at different stages of infection and in different compartments was analyzed. Biological HIV-1 clones were obtained by primary isolation from patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells under limiting dilution conditions, with either blood donor peripheral blood lymphocytes or monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) as target cells, and the biological phenotype of the clones was analyzed. In asymptomatic individuals, low frequencies of HIV-1 clones were observed. These clones were non-syncytium inducing and preferentially monocytotropic. In individuals progressing to disease, a 100-fold increase in frequencies of productively HIV-1-infected cells was observed as a result of a selective expansion of nonmonocytotropic clones. In a person progressing to AIDS within 19 months after infection, only syncytium-inducing clones were detected, shifting from MDM-tropic to non-MDM-tropic over time. From his virus donor, a patient with wasting syndrome, only syncytium-inducing clones, mostly non-MDM-tropic, were recovered. Parallel clonal analysis of HIV-1 populations in cells present in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and peripheral blood from an AIDS patient revealed a qualitatively and quantitatively more monocytotropic virus population in the lung compartment than in peripheral blood at the same time point. These findings indicate that monocytotropic HIV-1 clones, probably generated in the tissues, are responsible for the persistence of HIV-1 infection and that progression of HIV-1 infection is associated with a selective increase of T-cell-tropic, nonmonocytotropic HIV-1 variants in peripheral blood.
Multi-Layer Support Vector Machine and its Application

Based on statistical learning theory (SLT), support vector machine (SVM), which is a new kind of machine learning method that is used for classification and regression. SVM is considered as two layers learning machine since it maps the original space into a high dimensional feature space, i.e., input layer and high dimensional feature space layer. If the high dimensional feature space layer is considered as a new problem's input layer and the new problem is also solved by SVM, the new problem can be solved by SVMs named multi-layer SVM (MLSVM). MLSVM is composed of input layer and at least one layer high dimensional feature space layer. In this paper, m-th order ordinary differential equations are solved by MLSVM for regression. Experimental results indicate that MLSVM can effectively solve the problem of ordinary differential equations. Thus, MLSVM exhibits its great potential to solve other complex problems
The E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Neuregulin Receptor Degradation Protein 1 (Nrdp1) Promotes M2 Macrophage Polarization by Ubiquitinating and Activating Transcription Factor CCAAT/Enhancer-binding Protein β (C/EBPβ)*

Background: Nrdp1 is involved in TLR-triggered classical (M1) macrophage activation. Results: Nrdp1 up-regulates the characteristic markers of alternatively (M2) activated macrophages and ubiquitinates C/EBPβ to transactivate the Arg1 gene in IL-4-polarized M2 macrophages. Conclusion: Nrdp1 promotes Arg1 expression and M2 macrophage polarization by ubiquitinating and activating C/EBPβ. Significance: E3 ubiquitin ligase Nrdp1 is involved in M2 macrophage polarization via ubiquitination and activation of C/EBPβ. Macrophage activation, including classical (M1) activation and alternative (M2) activation, plays important roles in host immune response and pathogenesis of diseases. Ubiquitination has been shown to be involved in the differentiation of immune cells and in the regulation of immune responses. However, the role of ubiquitination during M1 versus M2 polarization is poorly explored. Here, we showed that arginase 1 (Arg1), a well recognized marker of M2 macrophages, is highly up-regulated in peritoneal macrophages derived from E3 ubiquitin ligase Nrdp1 transgenic (Nrdp1-TG) mice. Furthermore, other M2 feature markers such as MR, Ym1, and Fizz1, as well as Th2 cytokine IL-10, are also up-regulated in Nrdp1-TG macrophages after IL-4 stimulation. Knockdown of Nrdp1 expression effectively inhibits IL-4-induced expression of M2-related genes in macrophages. Moreover, Nrdp1 inhibits LPS-induced production of inducible NOS and pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 in macrophages. Immunoprecipitation assays show that Nrdp1 interacts with and ubiquitinates transcriptional factor C/EBPβ via Lys-63-linked ubiquitination. Nrdp1 enhances C/EBPβ-triggered transcriptional activation of the Arg1 reporter gene in the presence of IL-4 stimulation. Thus, we demonstrate that Nrdp1-mediated ubiquitination and activation of C/EBPβ contributes to a ubiquitin-dependent nonproteolytic pathway that up-regulates Arg1 expression and promotes M2 macrophage polarization.
The Impact of Retail Store Global-Mindedness on Jordanian Consumers' Patronage Intention

This study aims to investigate the impact of Jordanian consumers’ global-mindedness on retail store patronage. We measured consumer global-mindedness, second-order, via cultural openness and cultural adaptability. In order to test our proposed framework, we conducted a survey in three different Jordanian cities. Our results confirm that consumer global-mindedness is a multi-dimensional construct. Further, we found that Jordanian consumers’ global-mindedness has positive impact on shopping enjoyment and cognition. In return shopping enjoyment and cognition have positive effects on store patronage.
Robust deformation capture from temporal range data for surface rendering

Imagine an object such as a paper sheet being waved in front of some sensor. Reconstructing the time-varying 3D shape of the object finds direct applications in computer animation. The goal of this paper is to provide such a deformation capture system for surfaces. It uses temporal range data obtained by sensors such as those based on structured light or stereo. So as to deal with many different kinds of material, we do not make the usual assumption that the object surface has textural information. This rules out those techniques based on detecting and matching keypoints or directly minimizing color discrepancy. The proposed method is based on a planar mesh that is deformed so as to fit each of the range images. We show how to achieve this by minimizing a compound cost function combining several data and regularization terms, needed to make the overall system robust so that it can deal with low quality datasets. Carefully examining the parameter to residual relationship shows that this cost function can be minimized very efficiently by coupling nonlinear least squares methods with sparse matrix operators. Experimental results for challenging datasets coming from different kinds of range sensors are reported. The algorithm is reasonably fast and is shown to be robust to missing and erroneous data points. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Field evaluation of the performance and testing costs of a rapid point-of-care test for syphilis in a red-light district of Manaus, Brazil

Objectives: To assess the performance, usefulness and cost of a rapid treponemal antibody assay (VisiTect Syphilis) to detect syphilis in high risk populations. Methods: People who attended STI clinics in Manaus, Brazil, were screened for syphilis using the fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-Abs) test and a non-treponemal test (Venereal Diseases Research Laboratory (VDRL)), and for HIV. Finger prick blood samples were tested with VisiTect Syphilis. The rapid test was evaluated against the reference FTA-Abs and for its usefulness in detecting active syphilis (FTA-Abs and VDRL positive). Operational performance was assessed through providers’ and patients’ interviews. An economic evaluation was conducted from the provider’s perspective. Results: 510 patients (60% men) were enrolled, of whom 13 (2.5%) were HIV-1 seropositive. Syphilis prevalence (FTA-Abs) was 18% and active syphilis prevalence was 7.5%. 11% (57/506) of samples were positive by VisiTect. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of VisiTect Syphilis were 57% (95% CI 45.8 to 66.7), 99% (95% CI 97.0 to 99.6), 91% (95% CI 80.0 to 96.7) and 91% (95% CI 88.0 to 93.5), respectively. VisiTect Syphilis identified 79% (30/38) of active syphilis cases. The cost per case of syphilis was $16.8 for VDRL, $33.2 for low cost and $56.3 for high cost VisiTect Syphilis; the cost per case of active syphilis was $21.3, $57.5 and $97.6, respectively. Patients identified finger prick pain and preference for venous blood collection as minor barriers to test use. Conclusion: VisiTect Syphilis had low sensitivity in field use and was less cost effective than conventional VDRL. However, rapid and correct identification of a high proportion of active syphilis cases combined with operational characteristics suggest a role in high risk populations.
Using state-level information in the HMM

In HMM-based pattern recognition, the structure of HMM is predetermined according to some prior knowledge. In the recognition process, we usually make our judgment based on the maximum likelihood of the HMM which unfortunately may lead to incorrect results. In this paper, we analyze the roles of individual hidden states of the HMM and their associated posterior probabilities that reflect the nature of the components in the observation sequence, which should be taken into consideration. For this, we propose to make a full use of the state-level information, e.g., making use of the distribution of the intersection number of state posterior probability trajectories in the recognition process. We apply the proposed methods to phoneme classification on TIMIT speech corpus and show indeed that we are able to achieve about 2% percent improvement in recognition rate over that of the classical HMM.
A cross-sectional study of the association between Heberden's nodes, radiographic osteoarthritis of the hands, grip strength, disability and pain.

OBJECTIVE To describe the associations between hand osteoarthritis (OA), pain and disability in males and females and to further validate the Australian/Canadian OA hand index (AUSCAN LK3.0). DESIGN Cross-sectional study of 522 subjects from 101 Tasmanian families (males N=174, females N=348). Hand OA was assessed by two observers using the Altman atlas for joint space narrowing and osteophytes at distal interphalangeal and first carpometacarpal joints as well as a score for Heberden's nodes based on hand photography. Hand pain and function were assessed by the AUSCAN LK3.0 and grip strength by dynamometry in both hands on two occasions. RESULTS The prevalence of hand OA was high in this sample at 44-71% (depending on site). Pain and dysfunction increased with age while grip strength decreased (all P< 0.001). All three measures were markedly worse in women, even after taking the severity of arthritis into account. Hand OA explained 5.7-10% of the variation in function, grip strength and pain scores, even after adjustment for age and sex. Further adjustment suggested that the osteoarthritic associations with function and grip strength were largely mediated by pain. Severity of disease was more strongly associated with these scores than presence or absence. Lastly, the AUSCAN LK3.0 showed a comparable association to grip strength with structural damage providing further evidence of index validity. CONCLUSIONS Hand OA at these two sites makes substantial contributions to hand function, strength and pain. The associations with function and strength measures appear mediated by pain. Gender differences in all three measures persist after adjustment for variation in age and OA severity indicating that factors apart from radiographic disease are responsible.
Folate Receptor as a Potential Delivery Route for Novel Folate Antagonists to Macrophages in the Synovial Tissue of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Objective. To determine the expression of folate receptor (FR ) in synovial biopsy tissues and peripheral blood lymphocytes from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and to identify novel folate antagonists that are more selective in the targeting and internalization of FR than methotrexate (MTX). Methods. Immunohistochemistry and computerassisted digital imaging analyses were used for the detection of FR protein expression on immunocompetent cells in synovial biopsy samples from RA patients with active disease and in noninflammatory control synovial tissues. FR messenger RNA (mRNA) levels were determined by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction analysis. Binding affinities of FR for folate antagonists were assessed by competition experiments for H-folic acid binding on FR -transfected cells. Efficacy of FR -mediated internalization of folate antagonists was evaluated by assessment of antiproliferative effects against FR -transfected cells. Results. Immunohistochemical staining of RA synovial tissue showed high expression of FR on macrophages in the intimal lining layer and synovial sublining, whereas no staining was observed in T cell areas or in control synovial tissue. Consistently, FR mRNA levels were highest in synovial tissue extracts and RA monocyte-derived macrophages, but low in peripheral blood T cells and monocytes. Screening of 10 new-generation folate antagonists revealed 4 compounds for which FR had a high binding affinity (20–77-fold higher than for MTX). One of these, the thymidylate synthase inhibitor BCG 945, displayed selective targeting against FR -transfected cells. Conclusion. Abundant FR expression on activated macrophages in synovial tissue from RA patients deserves further exploration for selective therapeutic interventions with high-affinity–binding folate antagonists, of which BCG 945 may be a prototypical representative.
Organic Matter Mineralization with Reduction of Ferric Iron in Anaerobic Sediments

The potential for ferric iron reduction with fermentable substrates, fermentation products, and complex organic matter as electron donors was investigated with sediments from freshwater and brackish water sites in the Potomac River Estuary. In enrichments with glucose and hematite, iron reduction was a minor pathway for electron flow, and fermentation products accumulated. The substitution of amorphous ferric oxyhydroxide for hematite in glucose enrichments increased iron reduction 50-fold because the fermentation products could also be metabolized with concomitant iron reduction. Acetate, hydrogen, propionate, butyrate, ethanol, methanol, and trimethylamine stimulated the reduction of amorphous ferric oxyhydroxide in enrichments inoculated with sediments but not in uninoculated or heat-killed controls. The addition of ferric iron inhibited methane production in sediments. The degree of inhibition of methane production by various forms of ferric iron was related to the effectiveness of these ferric compounds as electron acceptors for the metabolism of acetate. The addition of acetate or hydrogen relieved the inhibition of methane production by ferric iron. The decrease of electron equivalents proceeding to methane in sediments supplemented with amorphous ferric oxyhydroxides was compensated for by a corresponding increase of electron equivalents in ferrous iron. These results indicate that iron reduction can outcompete methanogenic food chains for sediment organic matter. Thus, when amorphous ferric oxyhydroxides are available in anaerobic sediments, the transfer of electrons from organic matter to ferric iron can be a major pathway for organic matter decomposition.
Series-Connected HV-IGBTs Using Active Voltage Balancing Control With Status Feedback Circuit

Transient voltage unbalance is the major problem that limits the application of series-connected IGBTs in high-voltage and high-power converters. Asynchronous gate delay causes series-connected IGBTs not to turn-on and turn-off at the same time resulting in severely unbalanced voltage sharing. An active voltage balancing control technique is proposed in this paper to solve the asynchronous gate delay problem. By sampling the feedback signal caused by unbalanced voltage sharing, the microcontroller generates a time delay for the gate driver to compensate the asynchronous gate delay. The most vital part of active voltage balancing control, the status feedback circuit, is also discussed in detail in this paper. The function of the status feedback circuit and the effect of active voltage balancing control are verified in a two series-connected HV-IGBTs platform in rated operation (5 kV bus voltage and 600 A load current).
Exploring website log data with coordinated dimension hierarchies and network pivots

Many interfaces exist for exploring multi-dimensional data, but most are not suitable for OLAP as they do not support aggregation and selection via dimension hierarchies. We introduce an interface for exploring OLAP data via coordinated dimension hierarchies and network views. Three dimension coordinations are identified; progressive, global and result only, for filtering and presenting data. We integrate these with a network pivot that supports joins through an arbitrary relation. We demonstrate with an example web log dataset of site visits organised into time, downloads, visitor address and referrer address dimensions and a network of prior and later visits.
Extracting affine deformations from image patches. I. Finding scale and rotation

Image deformations due to relative motion between an observer and an object may be used to infer 3-D structure. Up to the first order, these deformations can be written in terms of an affine transform. A novel approach is adopted to measuring affine transforms which correctly handles the problem of corresponding deformed patches. The patches are filtered using Gaussians and derivatives of Gaussians and the filters deformed according to the affine transform. The problem of finding the affine transform is therefore reduced to that of finding the appropriate deformed filter to use. In the special case where the affine transform can be written as a scale change and an in-plane rotation, the Gaussian and first derivative equations are solved for the scale. The robustness of the method is demonstrated experimentally. <<ETX>>
Reproducibility of the circadian blood pressure fall at night in healthy young volunteers.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility of the circadian blood pressure (BP) change in normal healthy volunteers. The subjects were 32 healthy, young, normotensive volunteers who underwent 24 h ambulatory BP monitoring on two occasions, at least 4 weeks apart. Data were analysed using standard definitions of day and night (i.e. 07.00-22.00 for daytime and 22.00-07.00 for night time), event diaries to identify individual's day and night time and a time independent method (cusum analysis). Intraindividual variations of BP were assessed using the coefficient of variation (CV). The mean 24 h BP was very reproducible with a CV of 4.7%. Using the fixed definition of day and night, mean night time systolic blood pressure (SBP) was significantly reduced on the second visit compared to the first (P < 0.001). Using fixed times for day and night, day-night difference was poorly reproducible, with a CV of 52% for SBP and 59% for diastolic blood pressure (DBP), however this improved using diary based day-night to 40/41% and cusum analysis to 24.6/28.1%. We recommend that circadian BP changes are studied using individual definitions of day and night or time independent methods such as cusum analysis.
OBESITY AND HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE OF 12-HOUR NIGHT SHIFT FEMALE CLEAN-ROOM WORKERS

The 12 h shift schedule is widely used in clean rooms for electronic semiconductor production in Taiwan. This study investigated the associations of obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) components among women working in a semiconductor manufacturing factory in North Taiwan. Workers were divided into four groups according to their work schedules and duties (i.e., office workers, day workers, fixed 12 h day shift, and fixed 12 h night shiftworkers). The subjects comprised 1838 women who voluntarily attended a health examination between August 2006 and November 2006. Their mean (±SD) age was 33.6 (±7.1) yrs and their mean duration of work was 7.4 (±5.2) yrs. Each subject's health-related behaviors, body mass index, and MetS components were measured and analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Obesity and MetS were defined according to World Health Organization criteria for Asian populations and the National Cholesterol Educational Program and Adult Treatment Panel III Guidelines, respectively. The results showed that women working in the clean room on fixed 12 h night shifts had significantly elevated odds ratios for obesity (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.6–4.5), central obesity (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 1.7–5.1), and high blood pressure (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2–4.4) compared to female office workers; these results persisted after adjusting for age, smoking, drinking, education, and duration of work. We did not find any significant differences in triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol among women working different schedules. We conclude that working fixed 12 h night shifts was associated with an increased odds ratio for obesity, central obesity, and high blood pressure among clean-room women workers. Weight reduction and blood pressure control programs should be implemented in the workplace for women working fixed 12 h night shifts. (Author correspondence: m006671@ms.skh.org.tw)
On the distributed management of SCORM-compliant course contents

SCORM's environment and its complex metadata make distributed LMSs difficult to communicate with each other, therefore hindering the content management and sharing. In order to overcome these two shortcomings, we propose a hybrid scheme which is composed of a XML binding model and an LDAP-based directory service. A preliminary experiment shows how it has helped SCORM evolve towards intelligent e-learning.
Release of alpha-tocopherol from antioxidative low-density polyethylene film into fatty food simulant: Influence of complexation in beta-cyclodextrin

The release of alpha-tocopherol from two formulations (with and without complexation with beta-cyclodextrin) of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film was examined. Specific migration studies were performed at 7.0 ± 0.5°C using plastic bags filled with 95% ethanol as a fatty food simulant. The amount of complexed and free (non-complexed) alpha-tocopherol migrating into the food simulant was followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It was concluded that complexation with beta-cyclodextrin had a significant effect on the release rate of the antioxidant. Using a mathematical model for the description of the migration, a decrease in diffusion coefficient (D) of one order of magnitude was calculated in the case of complexed alpha-tocopherol compared with the free form. Total migration of alpha-tocopherol from both films was observed, meaning that the partition coefficient of tocopherol was not influenced by incorporation with cyclodextrin. Thus, complexation might be the key to a long-lasting antioxidative effect of such kind of active packaging.
Note: Molecular cloning of chitinase genes from Vibrio anguillarum and V. parahaemolyticus

Chitinase genes from Vibrio anguillarum KV9001 and V. parahaemolyticus ATCC17802 were cloned into Escherichia coli. Open reading frames of chitinase genes from V. anguillarum (vac) and V. parahaemolyticus (vpc) are 1755 bp and 1890 bp, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequences of these genes have 71·6% identity. There are two consensus sequence regions in the VAC and VPC proteins. The vac gene was highly prevalent in V. anguillarum, and the DNA probe of the vac gene hybridized to V. alginolyticus and Beneckea proteolytica DNA. The DNA probe of the vpc gene hybridized to V. alginolyticus, V. harveyi and V. ordalii DNA.